I find it pretty cynical that whilst the rest of the world's media is following the IOC official Medal Table, i.e. ranking countries by Gold, then Silver, then Bronze, which currently puts China at the top, the big US media companies are instead ranking countries by total medals won, which of course … read more

I am pleased to announce that after months of development, our new website - www.ipchitchat.co.uk - is now live! We originally hired a web developer to build this site but it didn't work out too well. His work turned out to be really shoddy. It's our own fault, we should have done better due … read more

First there was the Evolution of Dance. Now there's the Evolution of Wedding Dance. I nearly pissed myself watching this.... [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QujA8YYgTWU&hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=344] read more

There seems to be a load of christmas movies on TV at the moment. Apparently it's quite traditional over here - Christmas in July. It is the middle of Winter but it's still a bit strange watching White Christmas when it's 23 degrees C outside! read more

After 14 months of trying, we've finally been able to get ADSL. Hooray!! I've been applying fairly regularly ever since we arrived in Oz but kept receiving the same reply - "no available ports on the exchange". However, after being told ADSL had been activated for my line (it only took a couple of … read more

Google is facing a tough time when it comes to privacy. Only 2 days ago Google lost a court case with Viacom (the parent company of MTV and Paramount Pictures) where the judge ruled that they must hand over the log files detailing everyone who has ever accessed a YouTube video. This ruling could set … read more

I've finally found the perfect service for the Expat. Jaxtr is a service which makes international calls easier, cheaper and much more convenient. It basically means that I can now make calls to the UK from my Australian mobile phone at a cheaper rate than calling from my home phone - even cheaper … read more

I'm currently sat in the departure lounge at Canberra airport with a 3 hour wait for my flight. Luckily I'm sat at a table that's near a bar, and also has a power socket I can use, so the combination of my laptop and Crown Lager should see me through. It feels weird travelling home on a Saturday … read more

This week I've made my first visit to our nation's capital - Canberra - for a 6-day course in Hacker Techniques, Exploits and Incident Handling. Canberra is a strange little city. It seems to me to be a cross-between Washington and Milton Keynes, in that it's clearly a Government town; the Federal … read more

This week I've been in Sydney on a training course to become a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) for the Payment Cards Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). The PCI-DSS is a standard jointly devised by VISA, Mastercard, American Express, JCB and Discover that details the security controls that … read more

I'm now the proud owner of a new Apple MacBook Pro. It's actually the first computer I've bought in about 8 years as I usually just use the laptop provided by work. But now that I'm doing web development work, both at home and at work, I needed something that I could rely on and a machine that … read more

Who would be a football manager? It seems that coming second in the Premier League and making the final of the Champions League (something Mourinho didn't manage for Chelsea) isn't good enough if you're a manager for a club that's owned by a billionaire. Sadly, it looks like the top clubs in the EPL … read more

Yesterday was the 1st anniversary of our arrival in Australia. I was going to do a big blog post to mark the occasion but I can't be arsed - too busy working on my website. Suffice to say it's been a fantastic first year - everything we hoped for and more. There are lots of positives and very few … read more

As the Champions League Final was on in the middle of the night our time I recorded it on Foxtel IQ (same as Sky+ in the UK) to watch when I got home from work tonight. What a game. The first 20 minutes were cagey but the rest of the game was gripping. When it entered extra time I new this game was … read more

On Wednesday I attended AusCERT 2008. AusCERT is an annual conference for the IT Security industry organised by the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team. Held at the plush surroundings of the Crown Plaza Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, the event is a chance for vendors such as Check … read more

I've just finished reading 'The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation' by New York Times reporter Philip Shenon. This fascinating book gives a behind the scenes insight into the 9/11 commission's investigation, and provides a context for the well-documented omissions and … read more

My parents are on their way home and so ends a fabulous 4 weeks. The time flew by but they definitely made the most of their first visit to Australia. With the exception of Sydney most of their time was spent with us - I certainly haven't got much leave left to take from work for the rest of this … read more

Last Sunday we returned from a fantastic week's holiday in Palm Cove. Palm Cove is a small resort just north of Cairns in Far Northern Queensland, and an ideal base for exploring the World Heritage Sites of the Great Barrier Reef and Rainforests. [googlemaps … read more

I want to work for this company... [www.vimeo.com/173714](http://www.vimeo.com/173714) read more

It was chaos on Monday here in Sydney. For the very first time, the New South Wales State Government had decided to extend daylight savings a week. Unfortunately I don't think they publicised it very well or thought through the impact, as a lot of computer software that was set to automatically … read more