Conroy touts 50 percent uptake for NBN pilot

Almost half of all Tasmanian premises in NBN's stage one zones have signed up to fibre services that will launch in "a few short weeks", according to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

Addressing the Senate this afternoon, Conroy described a "huge amount of enthusiasm" in the community for stage one NBN services.

"The rollout in Tasmania is now well underway," Conroy told Parliament. "We are on track to deliver the first of these [NBN] services in a few short weeks."

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Conroy cries foul over 'Dishonest' filter foes

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has lashed out at opposition to the Federal Government's bid to filter the internet, and labelled those promoting the dissent as "dishonest".


He described claims the internet speeds would be slowed by as much as 87 per cent were "wild" and said the government's intentions were misrepresented by opponents.

"This has been a campaign quite dishonest in the way that it has talked about how speeds will be impacted," Mr Conroy said.

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Pakistan lifts Facebook ban after 'blasphemous' competition

A Pakistani court on Monday lifted a ban on social networking website Facebook which had carried a competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad, but access to any "blasphemous" material will remain blocked, officials said.

Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims, which constitute the overwhelming majority in Pakistan, and Facebook was blocked two weeks ago because of the online caricature contest.

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JooJoo Creator Lashes Out At iPad, Makes A Few Decent Points

According to a new report, Chandra Rathakrishna (creator of the JooJoo), recently had a few choice words about the iPad, and while sales would obviously say otherwise, there's nothing like a little bitterness to chuckle over on a holiday.

Here's his quotes on Apple's first tablet:

"JooJoo delivers the entire Internet - including Flash-based websites. That means you can play full versions of games, watch full-screen HD video and not have to be constrained within the 'walled garden' of the iPad environment. [The iPad is just] another storage device with web capabilities."

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iiNet, Primus split on filter

ISP iiNet issued a press release late yesterday to reassure customers and the industry that it does not support Senator Conroy's plans to filter the internet, refuting comments the Senator made in a Sydney Morning Herald article.

Senator Conroy had claimed his policy has been "approved by 85 per cent of Australian internet service providers, who have said they would welcome the filter, including Telstra, Optus, iPrimus and iiNet."

Michael Malone, CEO of iiNet, was outraged.

"Any claim that our participation in that consultation process is support for the Government's policy is an outright lie," he said in a statement.

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Rash of Suicides Prompt Foxconn to Raise Worker Wages

Foxconn thinks they have a solution to the mounting suicides that have rocked the company's China operations: pay the workers more money. According to reports, Foxconn plans to raise wages by 30 percent, which still isn't all that much, but it's a start. One report has the basic salary at Foxconn's China plants at about 900 yuan a month, or just over $130

Foxconn is the biggest supplier of OEM products in the world and builds a number of high-end products, including Apple's iPhones and iPads. But the company has come under heavy fire lately for frequent suicide attempts, most of which were 'successful.'

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Google Reportedly Phasing Out Windows In Favour Of OS X/Linux

As with most major corporations, Google's employees used Windows-based machines almost exclusively. It's sort of a given when major companies select Windows machines for their staff, so no one really paid it any mind.

But now, Google is reportedly "phasing out internal use of rival Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system because of security concerns following a Chinese hacking incident."

You're all well aware of the Chinese hacking incident from earlier in the year, which led to Google taking a stand and refusing to filter search results in mainland China. Now, Google is looking to Apple and Linux-based machines to replace their workstations.

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