So, the government awards OpEl (Optus and Elder’s joint-venture) $1-billion of tax-payers moolah? How can this be right? I ask you -how?

OpEl oozes suspicion. I see it as being mostly backed by Optus, hence the heap of cash they are throwing into their 99% coverage WiMAX-inferior-compared-to-NextG network. As far as I can see, it’s necessary to fill that gap between 98.8% (Telstra NextG’s current range) 100% so all Australians are equal. And in saying that, it’s not just the coverage that is important it’s the quality of the service. With the internet becoming the beast it is today people need broadband. WiMAX is still in the dark-ages.

My greatest concern with WiMAX (as much as the M stand for microwave -retro) is where are the suppliers coming from? I hear that WiMAX has 2% market share. Why the hell would Nokia, Ericsson, et al bother changing their production to suit such a small-fish technology. It’s akin to films being released as VHS still -things have progressed… It’s a niche technology -simple.

Pajago

Dear oh dear. I have been lazy.

I will post a few of my findings with commentary attached in the coming days along with some new stuff perhaps. I have been bogged down with work and study.

Pajago

Apple has made a great strategic move. They have made their slick web-browser, Safari available to Windows users. A move like this hasn’t been made since Apple made its iPod media player and iTunes Store compatible with Windows.

The desired outcome behind these moves is simple: to convert Windows users to Apple Mac by introducing them to the slickness and simplicity of this software.

“There are a lot of connections between our products and here’s one more,” Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller said of the Windows-version of Safari in an interview. “And the more people who like our applications, the more it might mean they’ll buy other products from us.”

Check out the source article at Australian IT.

Pajago

Back in “the day” (when ever that was) people met others and met potential partners in social, real life situations. Nowadays, the internet is playing a bigger part. This is especially the case with the introduction of “Web 2.0” -to use that term lightly. The Web 2.0 movement has produced such social-networking facilities as MySpace, Flickr and YouTube. Dating wise, a Google search reveals numerous sites of which you can sign-up to meet your potential life-partner.

To a point, I guess the web can be looked at as a 2nd world -hence Second Life. Thus, we intermingle online much as we do in the real world.

Take a look at Adrian Cooke’s article, A Lesson From the Online Dating Industry.

Pajago

When Steve Jobs takes the stage Monday at Apple’s programmers conference, he’s likely to give the world a glimpse of an upgraded Mac operating system that could herald the biggest changes to the machine’s interface in 30 years.

At the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Jobs will probably show off Leopard, a Mac OS X update due in October that he has promised contains “top secret” features. But perhaps the most important feature is one that has been overlooked by many Apple fans: a new set of tools for building program interfaces called Core Animation.

I won’t continue the whole article here, but read the rest of this article on the interesting new features of Leopard at Wired.

Pajago

Hi Readers,

I haven’t made a post for the past few days and it may be a few more before another juicy, information filled one. I have been head down in the uni text learning about value, satisfaction, demand management and the list of topics goes on.

Keep your eyes peeled for new stuff on here. I might share with you a nifty thing called “customer delivered value” which is, in basic terms, the totality of  cost vs. value. Or something like that…

Anyways, I am rabbiting on -as usual- bye for now.

Pajago

I have another link directory on its way. Directrola is its name. This directory will be a lot different than the ones that are all over the place. As I have found, people respond better to good looking directories. As much as it doesn’t really matter if you’re using it for PR reasons, I still think aesthetics matter. I’ll keep people up-to-date with what’s going on with this site…

Pajago

It’s about time that people realised they must adhere to an acceptable use policy (AUP) with broadband access. I’d say the vast majority of home internet users use some form of file-sharing program to obtain music and movies for free. I agree that if people want this facility they should understand they will need to pay some sort of premium on their internet subscription fee.

Not necessarily a penalty but a higher fee than someone that is using their bandwidth conservatively -lawfully. Myself, I can’t be bothered with P2P in all honesty. As much as it’s illegal and immoral I don’t want to be downloading all sorts of crap to my computer. Personally, I am a fan of BigPond Music -which I can’t use unfortunately as I am an Apple Mac user- and Apple iTunes -which I love dearly.

What annoys me as a Cable user is that my bandwidth is often hogged by those P2P users in my street. I, however, am trying to download legally and pay a nominal fee for each song and I get the short straw. Check out what Internode is going to do:

ADELAIDE-BASED ISP Internode is considering using filtering systems to contain rampant growth in peer-to-peer internet traffic across its network.

Internode product manager Jim Kellett said the company was examining the technology after it announced that it had jacked up the price its high-end broadband internet services by up to 30 per cent. “It’s certainly an area of technology that we’re keeping a close eye on,” Mr Kellett said.

Read on…

Ok, so I’ll probably be hated for writing this wee post. Blog posts on AdSense are never-ending. As are “how to make money on the internet” posts. Nonetheless, I wish to share with you the importance I have found with advert positioning -and formats. I think?

As most people will know, I run a hiking blog called Trampola. Before I redesigned the Wordpress layout I was getting on average 1 click per week. I am now getting 1 per day -on average. Obviously this isn’t a hell of a lot, but it’s a great improvement. I owe this to the new, fresher layout of the page.

If you look at Trampola you’ll see that the only AdSense is at the end of each blog post in the form of a “picture” ad. I chose picture (banner) ads purely for experimental purposes as I have had good experiences in receiving clicks on banner ads hosted by Commission Monster and the like. I also feel that people get curious and just click these ads to see what is on the other side.

Obviously, the standard ad panel that Google AdSense uses (see the panel to the right of this post) is far more relevent and informative. However, maybe it’s a little too specific? It tells people exactly what to expect rather than leaving that level of mystery that many pictorial type ads do. Sure, a picture is worth a thousand words but pictures are also fun.

If you’d like to give AdSense a go on your website, click the banner below to sign-up. It costs you nothing, is painless and is a true form of passive income. You serious have nothing to lose.

Anyways, I think I have rambled on enough and probably haven’t conveyed my point accurately but hey, I hope somebody, somewhere takes something from this post. Hopefully you find the AdSense on this and the Trampola blog relevent and find the need to click. Am I allowed to say that? Anyways… Please don’t let me sway your mind.

Pajago

EDIA company Destra Corporation has done a deal with businessman Lachlan Murdoch to increase its stake in online film subscription outfit, Quickflix to almost one-fifth.

Under the arrangement, Mr Murdoch’s firm, Illyria, will swap 6,260,587 shares in Quickflix in exchange for 4,173,725 new Destra Corporation shares.

The deal means Destra will own 19.9 per cent of Quickflix and Mr Murdoch’s Illyria will own a 2.8 per cent stake in Destra.

Destra has three divisions, dealing in CD and DVD publishing in Australia, online communities including the scene.com.au and online media representation.

The company has a current market capitalisation of about $71 million.

Quickflix is Australia’s largest independent online film subscription company, with a catalogue of 25,000 films.

It has a market capitalisation of about $10 million.

At 10.48am (AEST), Quickflix shares (qfx.ASX:Quote,News) were up one cent to 19.5 cents and Destra (des.ASX:Quote,News) was down 0.5 cents to 32.5 cents.

Source: News.com.au