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Fairfax Columns 2003

Since early 1999 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 columns for 2003. There are brief synposes of each piece - no full text search available, sorry.

Date

File

Synopsis

Download

4 Feb 2003

F030204predict

  • What some of the analyst groups are predicting for 2003

download

11 Feb 2003 F030211bizplan
  • How modern off-the-shelf IT products make it cheap and easy to start a new business, with reference to GP's biotech venture


download

18 Feb 2003 F030218prefixes
  • Problems with decimal (x1000) and binary (x1024) usages of prefixes like kilo, mega, giga etc.
download
25 Feb 2003 F030225chips
  • The state of the microchip market, with reference to the evolution of the Intel line and the "chip wars".
download
4 Mar 2003 F030303acsalston
  • Lies and stupidity from Senator Richard Alston and others in the Australian government.
download
11 Mar 2003 F030311prefixes2
  • More on decimal and binary usage,
    including feedback from readers.
download
18 Mar 2003 F030318offshore
  • The inevitability of increased off-
    shoring, with more and more IT jobs moving to India and China.
download
25 Mar 2003 F030325sun
  • The difficulties facing Sun Microsystems in a commoditised world.
download
1 April 2003 F030401scounix
  • SCO's "deeply stupid" attempt to sue IBM for stealing bits of Unix to put in Linux.
download
8 April 2003 F030408hypecycle
  • Gartner's hype cycle, how it works, and why it is universally applicable.
download
15 April 2003 F030415bankrupt
  • Why Larry Ellison is right when he says that most software companies will be out of business in a few years.
download
22 April 2003 F030422germany
  • GP visits Germany and has a brief look at the German computer industry.
download
29 April 2003
  • Not published.
6 May 2003 F030506supermodeller
  • Australian company Econsult and its Supermodeller financial modelling software.
download
13 May 2003 F030513history
  • The usefulness of a knowledge of history in helping understand IT trends.
download
20 May 2003 F030520tedcodd
  • The death of Ted Codd, father of the relational database.
download
27 May 2003 F030527browser
  • The 10th anniversary of the invention of the web browser, and its importance.
download
3 June 2003 F030603health
  • IT in the health industry, and the many problems it faces.
download
10 June 2003 F030610intology
  • Canberra company Intology and its
    clever knowledge management
    technology.
download
17 June 2003 F030617jdepsoft
  • Peoplesoft's acquisition of JD Edwards, and the rationalisation of the software industry.
download
24 June 2003 F030624scounix2
  • Further analysis and comment of the SCO vs IBM battle, and SCO's ridiculous attitude.
download
1 July 2003
  • Not published
8 July 2003 F030708nc
  • Why the NC (network computer) never really took off.
download
15 July 2003 F030729mssysman
  • How Microsoft is doing similar things in systems management that the mainframe vendors once did.
download
22 July 2003 F030722paysnap
  • Canberra company PaybySnap and its snappy Internet payment system.
download
29 July 2003
  • Not published
5 Aug 2003 F030805bimergers
  • More rationalisation - the spate of M&A activity in the business intelligence market.
download
12 Aug 2003 F030812outsource
  • Outsourcing is back - except it is called "sourcing". Gartner's conference on the subject.
download
19 Aug 2003 F030819architect
  • The evolution of and rationalisation of computer architectures.
download
26 Aug 2003 F030826rte
  • The "real-time enterprise" and the
    increased pace of change in the world.
download
2 Sept 2003 F030902thinclient
  • The revival and rationale of thin client computing.
download
9 Sept 2003 F030909pearcey
  • The Pearcey Foundation day in Melbourne, tracking the early history of the Australian IT industry.
download
16 Sept 2003 F030916utility
  • The move to utility computing, and a look at related terms - grid compting, on demand computing, etc.
download
23 Sept 2003 F030923copyright
  • How technology is making the concepts of copyright and intellectual property irrelevant.
download
30 Sept 2003 F030930boring
  • How many people are saying that the IT industry is boring, and how it is really just they who are bored.
download
7 Oct 2003 F031001williams
  • An open letter to new communications minister Darryl Wiliams, and one last shot at the unlamented Richard Alston.
download
14 Oct 2003
  • Not published.
21 Oct 2003 F031021skype
  • Free phone calls over the Net -
    How Skype has raised the VoIP bar.
download
28 Oct 2003 F031028subvert
  • How open source software is a threat to The American Way, and why some people even think it's communist.
download
4 Nov 2003 F031104strassman
  • IT management guru Paul Strassman and his concept of Knowledge Capital.

download

11 Nov 2003

F031111biotech

  • GP's move into biotech, and the differences and similarities between biotech and IT.
download
18 Nov 2003 F031118noble
  • Analysts and those who watch them, with reference to Australian ex-analyst and analyst watcher Dave Noble.

download

25 Nov 2003 F031125wireless
  • The coming wireless world, and an interview with Intel CTO Chris Thomas.

download

2 Dec 2003 F031202vendors
  • The relative revenue figures of the major vendors, how they have changed over time and what this means.

download

9 Dec 2003 F031209poetry
  • Computer-generated poetry, and why it will never be better than the real thing.

download

16 Dec 2003 F031216compiere
  • How open source software has even found its way into ERP- and what this means.

download



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