On The Net - Computing News

with Chris Goh

It's all in the journey

When you spend a lot of time reading emails, reports, memos, strategies, statistics, proposals and so on, when you come home reading for leisure may be the last thing you think about, as often is the case with myself. However, there is something about books, something more significant than having paper between my fingers and that something is a sense of journey.

I finally had a chance to visit my local library after nearly a year of absence and I went about selecting a book. I moved from one section after another, and I looked particularly for biographies, but for some reason nothing took my fancy. I then went to the fiction section and as I waded through books that looked like they had been there for over a century and I couldn't decide. I went from one aisle to the next and finally remembered a strategy I used to use in picking a book. I use to go to the fiction area and find an author that had more than three different titled books on the shelf and I would read the earliest published one - a system that has always worked for me.

I finally got one out about the French revolution called the City of Light and Darkness and took it home. I read this book on my journeys home from work and realised what a great book it was. As I finished the last page a week later, my first thought was, how close was I in missing this journey? It is so easy now, in this supply on demand era (which the Internet epitomises for information) to forget that even though we have choices in our life, sometimes its better to be led than to choose from our own limited tastes and reason. A journey in life is as much about making the discovery as making a choice. The best journeys are often the ones that surprise you, that expand your repertoire of tastes, knowledge and understanding and often they are the ones most remembered.

HotNews

The Federal Government is about to extend the Financial Transaction Reports Act, which in a weird and wacky way is reminiscent of the GST. Whilst the GST makes businesses collect the taxes for the government, the new FTRA will make business collect intelligence information on suspicious clients, from jewellers to bookies and accountants. Organisations that encounter suspicious transactions are now obligated to keep a "secret computer file". We must seek monsters everywhere.

Our Lifeguards in Queensland are now high tech, with the new emergency communications centre called SurfCom. Some of the technology has sparked controversy with the anticipated use of digital surveillance cameras that will be rolled out nationwide in the next year. The SurfCom nerve will be able to retrieve emergency SMSs specially located emergency points, and through the use of a sophisticated GPS system, home in on the emergency by sending the appropriate rescue crews.

One of the World's largest prizes dedicated to technology, called the Millennium Technology prize, will be bestowed on Mr Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web. The prize is valued at one million Euro. If Bernes-Lee had decided to patent the technology back in 1989 the world would certainly be a different place today. I'd certainly not have my job, or this column for that matter.

The Australian Stock Exchange is about to make people login and agree to certain agreements before they can access the company announcement section on the ASX website. This is to discourage commercial services from profiting from what is essentially free information provided by the ASX.

Yahoo have this week increased the Email quota for members to 100Mbs' to counter Google's new Beta release Gmail. This includes subscribers of Yahoo Australia.

Its official, the first High Definition DVD (HDDVD) standard has been ratified. Version 1.0 incorporates the Codecs of three different providers. The big thing is the inclusion of Microsoft's CODEC VC-9, giving it a leverage in the home entertainment market like it never had before.

OzEmail, once upon a time the pride of the Australian ISP world, is up for sale for $50 million. Considering that it sold for $520 million back in 1998, it tells you how time has changed.

HotSites

Next week we look at more plant sites.

www.floraforfauna.com.au

The National Heritage Trust and the Nursery and Garden Industry has put together this beautiful site on Australian flora and fauna and assists everyone to create a beautiful native garden no matter where they are in Australia.

www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/databases/apni.html

If you have ever forgotten a name of a plant, this library is the largest online botanical listing of Australian plants, put together by the Australian National Botanical Gardens, Biological Resource Study and National Herbarium. Very comprehensive and extensive.

www.ipni.org/index.html

One of the largest databases of seed plant in the world is this site, which includes a very up-to-date list of hybrids. This one does require a more expert person to use as the taxonomy is more particular, but try it out.