Past Programs
Computers and Technology - 2006
Internet Telephony
30/12/2006
It's been six years since the technology boom spectacularly imploded.
Billions were gambled and lost, in some cases on little more than an idea, let alone a tangible business.
But the past 12 or so months have seen a resurgence in selected parts of the technology sector, most obviously with Google but also with lesser companies and technologies.
Voice Over Internet Protocol, or in simple terms internet telephone, is one of those ideas that, in this era of 'dotcom-point-2', is beginning to emerge as a viable new form of communication.
VoIP hit the headlines late last year, when online auction house Ebay paid more than billion dollars for internet telephony operator SKYPE – a company that few had heard of a year earlier.
And while it's not about to replace the telephone, VoIP could quickly become a cost effective alternative.
This interview was first broadcast on 25/2/06.
Changing Times
29/07/2006
For the best part of 20 years, Times New Roman has been the font of choice for Microsoft.
Ever since the arrival of Word in the late 1980's, the world's most ubiquitos software has used Times Roman as its default.
If you wanted to type in another font, you have to choose it.
Well, there is change afoot.
As of next year Times New Roman will be relegated to the general list, and a new typeface called Calibri will appear as the default font in Word.
A response to new generations of computer users, or an attempt to fix something that ain't broken?
What price a creative economy?
22/07/2006
The creative economy is a new classification that puts together the arts in all its traditional forms with new forms of creative expression, from bloggers, and creators of games, to software designers and developers of other sorts of interactivity. Looked at this way, Stuart Cunningham says, creativity assumes a much more prominent place, in terms of money and jobs, in any analysis of the economy.
Internet business Read Transcript
27/05/2006
The Net has emerged as an economic force to be dealt with.
Even Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has taken up the internet in a serious way with the acquisition of myspace.com in February last year.
How have businesses tapped into this growth, and are businesses in Australia growing on the internet, as it is doing in other parts of the world?
The Freecycle Network
25/03/2006
Technology and the environment haven't always been the most comfortable of bedfellows.
Indeed the built-in obsolescence of many goods, particularly computers, is proving a huge challenge for how we manage waste and landfill in the 21st century.
But in the case of the Freecycle Network the ubiquitous computer is at the front line of efforts to, not only reduce landfill, but to provide people with a whole host of useful household items – and all for free!
Internet Telephony
25/02/2006
It's been six years since the technology boom spectacularly imploded.
Billions were gambled and lost, in some cases on little more than an idea, let alone a tangible business.
But the past 12 or so months have seen a resurgence in selected parts of the technology sector, most obviously with Google but also with lesser companies and technologies.
Voice Over Internet Protocol, or in simple terms internet telephone, is one of those ideas that, in this era of 'dotcom-point-2', is beginning to emerge as a viable new form of communication.
VoIP hit the headlines late last year, when online auction house Ebay paid more than billion dollars for internet telephony operator SKYPE – a company that few had heard of a year earlier.
And while it's not about to replace the telephone, VoIP could quickly become a cost effective alternative.
