Fairfax Columns 2004

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 2004. There are brief synposes of each piece - no full text search available, sorry.

Date	File	Synopsis	Download
20 Jan 2004	F040120predict	New predictions for the IT industry for 2004	download
27 Jan 2004	F040127itmedia	Reflections on the changing nature of the IT media	download
3 Feb 2004	F040203mac20	The 20th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh	download
10 Feb 2004	F040210pctech	Changes in PC technology, and how laptops and desktops are converging	download
17 Feb 2004	F040217rsvp	The phenonenon of Internet dating and the success of RSVP.com.au	download
24 Feb 2004	F040224information	The sheer volume of information in the modern world, and how it continues to grow	download
2 Mar 2004	F040302employment	The changing nature of employment in the IT industry, and how the glory days have gone	download
9 Mar 2004		Not published
16 Mar 2004	F040316neopets	The Neopets phenomenon - virtual pets and the world's most popular kid's website	download
23 Mar 2004	F040323itgov	How IT governance has become a big issue, and how it is just another name for effective IT management	download
30 Mar 2004	F040330printers	Advances in printer technology, and what is in store for the future	download
6 April 2004	F040406onshoring	An alternative to offshoring - Australia should promote itself as a destination	download
13 April 2004	F040413s360	The 40th anniversary of the IBM S/360, and why it was such an important event	download
20 April 2004	F040420aria	The Australian Record Industry Association's ridiculous protestations that recorded music is in trouble from downloads	download
27 April 2004	F040427rfid	Trends in radio frequency identification (RFID) and their consequences	download
4 May 2004	F040504aria2	Feedback and further obervations and reflections on copyright, following on from 20 April's column	download
11 May 2004	F040511wiredhome	The coming convergence of digital comunications, consumer electronics, networking and home automation	download
18 May 2004		Not published
25 May 2004	F040525copyleft	More on copyright and IP, with reference to open source and the copyleft initiative	download
1 June 2004	F040601obrien	Review of Tim O'Brien's book "Exploiting the Internet: A Practical Guide for Growing Enter- prises"	download
8 June 2004	F040608mobiles	The wonder of mobile phones - how they have gone from luxury to necessity in a decade	download
15 June 2004	F040615babbageinst	GP's visit to the Charles Babbage Institute in Minneapolis, and the importance of maintaining our computing heritage	download
22 June 2004		not published
29 June 2004		not published
6 July 2004	F040706ingres	The Ingres database and how its release into the open source community shows the changing nature of the game	download
13 July 2004		not published
20 July 2004	F040720batteries	Debate over mobile phone batteries and chargers. Can any Nokia charger be used with any Nokia phone?	download
27 July 2004	F040727firefox	The Firefox web browser and why it is so much better than Internet Explorer	download
3 Aug 2004	F040803tandem	A walk down memory lane, looking at the story of Tandem Computers	download
10 Aug 2004	F040810browser2	Feedback on the Firefox article two weeks ago	download
17 Aug 2004		not published
24 Aug 2004	F040824broadband	ADSL, satellite and wireless broadband, and its introduction in Australia	download
31 Aug 2004		not published
7 Sept 2004	F040907broadband2	The rise of true broadband in Korea, and how Aust- ralia is way,way behind in broadband implementation	download
14 Sept 2004		not published
21 Sept 2004	F040921voiceweb	Voice on the web - not VOIP, but the development of the SSML standard to bring voice into web apps	download
28 Sept 2004	F040928govtpolicy	The coalitions IT policy (or lack of it), in reference to the impending federal election	download
5 Oct 2004	F041005alpit	The ALP's IT policy for the federal election	download
12 Oct 2004	F041012Spam	The scourge of spam and what to do about it, with reference to GP's use of the TotalBlock product	download
19 Oct 2004	F041019unicrc	Interesting work in interrfaces being done at the Smart Internet CRC at teh Australian Technology Park, with reference to the relationship generally between academia and IT	download
26 Oct 2004	F041026corvu	Australian BI company Corvu and its recent history, with mention of the move to BPM (business perf- ormance management)	download
2 Nov 2004	F041102localgovt	A quick overview of IT in local government in Australia	download
9 Nov 2004	F041109search	Why Copernic is better than Google's new desktop search, and a brief look at the market and the technology generally	download
16 Nov 2004	F041116paper	The future of paper and why we'll never see the paperless office	download
23 Nov 2004	F041123analysts	How the IT analysts work, especially Gartner. A look at Dave Noble's Australian analyst relations research	download
30 Nov 2004	F041130mainframes	Why the mainframe will never die	download
7 Dec 2004	F041207witsa	Relative IT expenditures in different countries of the world, and where Australia fits. Based on recent data from WITSA (World IT and Services Alliance)	download
14 Dec 2004	F041214fud	Why Microsoft is the inheritor of IBM's FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) marketing techniques	download