Sponsor's Message

Firstly: Telecom has admitted that the provision of plain old PSTN-based voice services is no longer producing the bulk of its revenues - no surprises there. What is surprising however, is the teaser on today's version of the NBR website. In the "In Print" section they have a headline titled "Telecom takes on TradeMe" - suggesting that perhaps a Telecom auction site is in the wind.

Perhaps someone who actually buys NBR can post a synopsis for us.

Whatever the case, it's clear that Telecom are going to have to focus more heavily on digital services and perhaps even the provision of content over its DSL and other networks if they want to remain king of the telecoms castle.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

Meanwhile, across the ditch in Oz, it would appear that commonsense has prevailed and the courts have ruled that if you buy a piece of hardware then you're entitled to do what you want to it without infringing the manufacturer's copyright.

Yes, it's legal to mod Playstation game consoles -- well at least for the time being.

Watch out for extreme lobbying from Sony and from the US government over this matter. It's pretty clear that Sony and other megacorps that rely on copyright protection have a great deal of control within the US political scene and you can bet your bottom dollar that Australian copyright laws will quickly be amended to fall into line with those of the USA over this matter.

Another *big* story that seems to have flown largely under the radar this week is that of the buddying-up between Sun and Google.

The imminent spawn of such a relationship is likely to be a far more aggressively marketed version of Open Office that, given Google's midas touch so far, has the potential to knock Microsoft around quite significantly in this sector of the market.

The competition between Google and Microsoft is slowly shaping up to be a battle of the titans and I predict we'll see lots of interesting news flowing as a result. Both companies are cash-rich and can afford to invest heavily in trying to usurp the other -- which means that we (consumers) are likely to get some great deals and more than a few free lunches in the coming year or three.

Finally, I received some spam yesterday from someone promoting dance classes here in NZ. Naturally I wondered how and where the sender got my email address, since it was pretty well geographically targeted -- albeit I have *no* interest in dance classes.

I emailed the sender and asked them where they'd obtained my address -- no reply as yet.

Here's a suggestion for those drafting the anti-spam laws: make it compulsory for those sending emails to disclose where they got your address if such a request is made. That might help track down those who breach the privacy act by selling lists of email addresses. If the sender can't provide accurate information about the source of the addresses on their lists then clearly they *are* spamming, since no previous relationship existed with the recipients.

Would this be a good idea?

Okay, so I've been pretty slack in respect to the Friday Funnies we all know as the "Lighten-up" section. I'm not going to take all the blame though because readers haven't sent me as many links as I'd like, so send some now.

Here's one to keep you going though...

Are you a DIY kind of guy (or guyess)?

Well here's a macho bit of first-aid equipment you really ought to have in your medicine cabinet. But hell, if I cut myself I either use a bit of superglue (yeah, it stings) or wrap the wound in real duct tape. Bandaids are for sissies!

Go have your say in The Aardvark Forums

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

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