Technology
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Chegg, cheating and Australian Universities
The note on Radio National’s Background Briefing on the morning of July 31 was sombre. A student, who did not divulge his real name (he is professionally pseudonymised as Ramesh), talks about services that aid him in his study. Aid is less accurate than do – given that he is working gruelling night shifts in Continue reading »
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Facial recognition technology down under
The language is far from reassuring. Despite being caught red handed using facial recognition technology unbeknownst to customers, a number of Australia’s large retail companies have given a meek assurance that they will “pause” their use. The naughty will only show contrition in the most qualified of ways. Continue reading »
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How modern technology could bring democracy to a crossroads
Advances in technology have resulted in employment and wage dislocations that are polarising society and undermining trust in political institutions. Continue reading »
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Blacklisting the Israeli spyware company
The US has blacklisted Israeli spyware company NSO, which is associated with the Saudi government’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Continue reading »
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Pegasus-India’s Watergate moment
A journalist hacked by Pegasus says he will survive, but Indian democracy may not. Continue reading »
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“No one is safe”: phone numbers of 14 world leaders on Pegasus List
The Washington Post on Tuesday revealed that three presidents, 10 prime ministers, and a king are among the more than 50,000 individuals whose phone numbers appeared on a leaked list of potential targets of Pegasus, the military-grade spyware licensed by Israeli firm NSO Group, prompting human rights defenders to call for a global crackdown on the surveillance industry’s invasive technologies. Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. How Malcolm Turnbull missed his chance to fix the NBN
Internet access is now the most complained about telco service in Australia according to the Telecommunications Ombudsman’s latest report. While complaints about mobile phones have been on the decline recently, the state of our trouble-plagued NBN continues to see consumers heading to the authorities in the faint hope their broadband problems can be fixed. Alas, Continue reading »
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WILLIAM LANGWIESCHE. What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max?
Malfunctions caused two deadly crashes. But an industry that puts unprepared pilots in the cockpit is just as guilty. The New York Times investigates. Continue reading »
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ANDREW GLIKSON. $trillion space games and false prophecies by billionaires while Rome burns
History testifies to powerful rulers’ aspirations for the position of gods, including the Pharaohs and Roman Emperors such as Caligula or Nero, nowadays mimicked by false messianic prophecies of “intergalactic civilization” made by billionaires and their followers in public and the media, including some scientists. This includes predictions of making life interplanetary by giant proprietors of space Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: The Case for Regulation of Australian Children’s content (Part 3).
In the dynamic media environment we have in Australia, broadcasting regulation has become an exceptionally tricky exercise. If regulations are to work, they require creative application and on-going monitoring as commercial players will always seek to outmanoeuvre them, especially when they affect programming decisions. Bureaucracies move slowly. It takes time to define, then to pass Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: The programs and projects children want to see (Part 2).
Children are now on the move. Their phone is their companion for reaching out to friends, texting, referencing, looking up what they want and need to know, viewing YouTube, playing games, taking photos and videos. They can click through what’s on offer: a cornucopia from which they are learning and having fun. They have led Continue reading »
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PAUL BUDDE. Facebook is set to fail (Paul Budde Consultancy).
With a tumbling share price and increased pressure from governments across the world Facebook will have to make major changes quickly if the company is to survive. Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: Technology is not the enemy. The Need for Positive Media Literacy (Part 1).
The Information-technology Revolution is challenging the assumptions on which the education of children and the provision of their entertainment are based. The doomsayers argue the big companies – Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, et al. – despite their rhetoric of preventing evil and promoting global togetherness – are in fact exacerbating inequality, poverty, unemployment, invasion of Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: Radical revamp needed for Children’s TV content quotas.
Today’s kids are way ahead of our broadcasting regulators and television producers in the way they use both television and digital media. It’s time for a radical rethink of content regulations, quotas, and subsidy for children’s media education and entertainment in their best interest. Continue reading »
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EVAN WILLIAMS. Mobile addiction: the new scourge of our time
“That stupid woman!” my wife exclaimed, looking out through the front window of our house onto the street below. We were listening to the news, and at first I thought my beloved was referring to some blunder by Julie Bishop or Theresa May. But the object of her scorn was a woman wheeling a Continue reading »
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