Fairfax Columns 2001
Since early 1999 GP I have written a weekly opinion column for the Tuesday IT section in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, published by John Fairfax. This supplement is now called 'Next'. I also write occasional feature and news pieces.
You can download any of these articles from this website. Note:
- All files are MS Word documents
- They are as I originally wrote them, not as subsequently edited by Fairfax
- There are no headlines - these are added by Fairfax subeditors
| Here are the two features I wrote in 2001. They are undated, unfortunately. | |||
| File | Synopsis | Download | |
| F01clevercountry | How Australia rates very well on many indices of international IT usage | download | |
| F01govtit | The Australian government's confused IT policies | download | |
| Here are the columns for 2001. There are brief synposes of each piece - no full text search available, sorry. | |||
| Date | File | Synopsis | Download |
| 16 Jan 2001 | F010116hal | Musings on the speed at which technology changes, with reference to Arthur C Clarke | download |
| 23 Jan 2001 | F010123mobiles | The ubiquity of mobile phones, and the move to 3G | download |
| 30 Jan 2001 | F010130pcsales | The decline in the PC market — we are at saturation point. | download |
| 6 Feb 2001 | F010206govtit | The Australian government’s pathetic record in IT policy | download |
| 13 Feb 2001 | F010213neweconomy | The death (or non-birth) of the “new economy” | download |
| 20 Feb 2001 | F010220integ | The story of Steve Killelea and Integrated Research | download |
| 27 Feb 2001 | F010227govtit2 | Responses to 6 Feb’s column on the ineptitude of the government’s IT policies | download |
| 6 Mar 2001 | F010306bloatware | How a lot of software, particularly that from Microsoft, is inefficient and over-functioned | download |
| 13 Mar 2001 | F010313harmer | A look at Rob Harmer and www.pcprofile.com, a small Aussie PC security company | download |
| 20 Mar 2001 | F010320ideas | The history of Ideas International (www.ideasinternational.com) and their IPO | download |
| 27 Mar 2001 | F010327plowman | Christopher Plowman and Secure Interactive (www.secureinteractive.com), a good little Aussie web design company | download |
| 3 April 2001 | F010403merced | The release (finally) of the Merced IA64 chip | download |
| 10 April 2001 | F010410china | How the Chinese IT industry is growing and why Aussie companies should go there | download |
| 17 April 2001 | F010417atoms | The growth of 3G and wireless, and why we should stop turning digits into atoms and back again | download |
| 24 April 2001 | F010424access | Why MS Access is the work of the devil | download |
| 1 May 2001 | F010501jedi | How the Internet “can help a lie go round the world while truth is still putting on its boots”, with reference to the campaign to put “Jedi Knight as one’s religion on census forms | download |
| 8 May 2001 | F010508informix | IBM’s purchase of DBMS company Informix | download |
| 15 May 2001 | F010515filemaker | Why Filemaker is so much better the MS Access | download |
| 22 May 2001 | F010522backup | The recent theft of GP’s laptop and the importance of backing up data | download |
| 29 May 2001 | F010529sropsys | Strategic Research’s analysis of relative strengths of various operating systems | download |
| 5 Jun 2001 | F010605backup2 | Responses to 22 May column on backups | download |
| 12 Jun 2001 | F010612indbodies | How vendors set up supposedly independent IT industry forums | download |
| 19 Jun 2001 | F010619linuxbigots | How the Linux bigots came out in force to flame GP for reporting it’s not as strong as many think | download |
| 26 Jun 2001 | F010626univac | The 50th anniversary of UNIVAC and the birth of commercial computing | download |
| 3 July 2001 | F010703openpm | An open letter to Australian PM John Howard berating him for selectively quoting GP in parliament | download |
| 10 July 2001 | F010710alpha | The demise of the Alpha chip and a comment on the chip wars | download |
| 17 July 2001 | F010717westpac | GP’s attempts to set up Internet banking through Westpac | download |
| 24 July 2001 | F010724sitesuite | An examination of the business model of Aussie website develop SiteSuite (www.sitesuite.com.au) | download |
| 31 July 2001 | F010731aiia | An examination of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) | download |
| 7 Aug 2001 | F010807ibmpc | The 20th anniversary of the IBM PC | download |
| 14 Aug 2001 | F010814downturn2001 | The downturn in the IT industry, and in IT publications | download |
| 21 Aug 2001 | F010821shannon | Analyst Terry Shannon’s views on the future of Compaq | download |
| 28 Aug 2001 | F010828bell | An interview with Internet pioneer and IT guru Gordon Bell | download |
| 4 Sep 2001 | F010904acs | Australian Computer Society president John Ridge on how the ACS has changed | download |
| 11 Sep 2001 | F010911webdesign | Tim O’Brien and the fundamentals of good web design | download |
| 18 Sep 2001 | F010918snailbrain | How researchers in Germany have connected living tissue with silicon chips, and what this means for the future of the human race | download |
| 25 Sep 2001 | F010925hpcompaq | Comments on the proposed HP takeover of Compaq | download |
| 2 Oct 2001 | F011002expenditure | The changing nature of IT expenditure, away from hardware and towards services | download |
| 9 Oct 2001 | F011009bifail | How a lack of good business intelligence causes many companies to fail | download |
| 16 Oct 2001 | F011016newlaws | Kevin Kelly’s Rules for the New Economy revisited | download |
| 23 Oct 2001 | F011023demant | A review of David Demant’s book “The First Computer Mouse” | download |
| 30 Oct 2001 | F011030msxp | Microsoft’s Windows XP and the history of its OS strategy | download |
| 6 Nov 2001 | F011106powerpoint | How GP gave a presentation without Powerpoint, and why that product is often misused | download |
| 13 Nov 2001 | F011113bookplug | GP shamelessly reviews and plugs the CCH book he edited (Australian Guide to eBusiness) | download |
| 20 Nov 2001 | F011120anal | Gartner, Forrester, Meta and IDC on how the IT world changed after 11 September, and their forecasts for the next year | download |
| 27 Nov 2001 | F011127oswar2 | Windows vs Linux vs Unix — why operating systems don’t matter so much any more | download |
| 4 Dec 2001 | F011204winebase | A reviews of the Winebase cellar management software (www.winebase.com.au) | download |
| 11 Dec 2001 | F011211yearend | A look at the year in IT, and ten predictions for 2002 | download |