Discs jockey for position in battle of standards

Yet another standards war.

Pay rises tipped as hi-tech heats up

"...IT salaries rose by 10 to 15 per cent in 2004, with movement at middle levels in particular ..."

Slicker in the city? It ain't necessarily so

A study conducted by the University of Canberra's National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (Natsem) using census data from 1996 and 2001 reveals that the high cost of accommodation in Sydney and Melbourne in comparison to other cities and country areas pretty much levels out the disposible incomes of all us in Australia.

This is a dangerous conclusion. I don't think it's reasonable to take the 'average' income and 'average' housing cost for Sydney and compare it to other cities and towns in Australia, especially consider the vast number of people that commute from the Central Coast and Wollongong area to Sydney on a daily basis, thereby earning "Sydney" incomes while experiencing "major urban area" housing costs.

Three more years under the Coalition...

...with the balance of power in the Senate possibly held by Church affiliated Family First party.

I'd better hurry up and start a family to take advantage of baby bonuses, first home-owners grants, and all the other family-orientated policies that the government will be churning out.

Three days in the Central West

Taking advantage of the Labour Day public holiday on last weekend, some friends and I ventured over the hills and far away to
Central West NSW, staying in a lovely B&B in Parkes, and visiting the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope (star of The Dish), the Peak Hill Open-cut Gold Mine, an alpaca farm, and the oasis-like Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. With digital camera in tow, I thought I'd let the pictures do the talking for what was, overall, an enjoyable weekend and a chance to soak up some sunshine in preparation for the Sydney summer.

Branson to turn space travel into a six-figure adventure

Richard Branson's Virgin transport, entertainment and communications group has signed an agreement with pioneering aviation designer Burt Rutan to build an aircraft based on Rutan's SpaceShipOne vessel. SpaceShipOne cracked the barrier to manned commercial space flight in June by flying 328,491 feet, or about 62 miles, above Earth -- about 400 feet above the distance scientists widely consider to be the boundary of space. The flight lasted 90 minutes. The new service will be called Virgin Galactic and expects to fly 3,000 new astronauts in its first five years. Fares will start at US$208,000 for a suborbital flight, including three days' training.

New item for the personal To Do list: become an astronaut by 2015. I missed out on flying the concorde, but this one might be within reach.

Qantas plots course with Jetstar Asia

Yet another Qantas subsidiary. Although technically, with a 49% stake, Qantas will only be a minor shareholder in Jetstar Asia.

SMH Hunter Uncorked

Great solution for an emerging wine enthusiast without a car. The Sydney Morning Herald "Hunter Uncorked" event at The Rocks on Oct 16th / 17th will be a wonderful opportunity to try out a few wines, and stock up the cellar.

MBA or MIS?

The AFR BOSS Magazine published its annual survey of Australian MBA courses last week. As expected Melbourne Business School was identified as one of the top two; the other being none other than AGSM. Of course, MBS and AGSM are the only Australian b-schools that require a GMAT, the only Australian b-schools that have an active and well-funded alumni community, and the only Australian b-schools that regularly make it into the top 100 in global MBA surveys.

AFR BOSS have identified a second-tier of MBA programs with a fairly exclusive membership of just three - Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM), Monash University, and University of Western Australia. I've always thought of MGSM as the number three, and a good option if your a Sydneysider closer to 40 than 30. Monash and UWA will be interesting to watch over the next few years. Other than a former accountant of mine in Melbourne, I'm yet to meet an alumnus of the MBA programs at Monash and UWA.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a launch event for the Master of Information Systems degree from another alma mater of mine, the School of Information Systems, Technology, and Management (SISTM) at UNSW. As an alumnus of the Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology degree (commonly referred to as BIT) at SISTM, and with my recent experiences as a member of the active MBS alumni community, I've started getting involved in some SISTM-related alumni opportunities in recent months; including acting as a guest lecturer, and laying some of the groundwork for a major upgrade in functionality and processes surrounding the BIT student/alumni website.

While it's definitely not suited for me (I still have aspirations of being a generalist business person, despite my current role back in the IT industry), the Master of Information Systems degree at SISTM definitely has its merits. The content has a slight overlap with the MBA, especially when it comes to HR management, and team leadership, but it's all structured around the reasonably unique challenges that face senior IT/IS managers and CIOs. It's been accredited by the ACS, and should be starting with a cohort of about 20 - 30 students in 2005. If you're three to five years into your IT/IS career and looking for a bit of an academic sabbatical before you make you next move into management, this could would be ideal for you.

Kids Cancer Corporate Quiz

I meant to blog about this on the weekend, but I left my laptop (and my mobile phone charger ;-) at work...

On Friday night, I had the honour of attending the Kids Cancer Corporate Quiz at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre here in Sydney. This was a huge fundraising event the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children, emceed by none other than Enough Rope star Andrew Denton.

71 teams of 10, paying, I believe, $2000 per table, plus auctions for scores of donated prizes (I put in a bid for some Polo sunglasses, but was soon outbid by someone with more spare cash in their pocket). All up, the event would have easily raised over $200,000 for charity.

Our team, Hind Sight, finished a respectable 8th. The winners: a bunch of lawyers from Clayton Utz.

The Sopranos picks up Best Drama at the Emmys

The Emmys were announced today. Apologies to mad keen Aussies planning to watch the delayed broadcast on Channel 10 tonight, but as a keen Sopranos and West Wing fan, I'm pleased to annouce that The Sopranos has finally picked up Best Drama Series for Season Five, Allison Janney (C.J. Cregg in The West Wing) pipped Edie Falco (Carmela Soprano) at the post for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and surprisingly, Drea de Matteo picked up Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as ill-fated Adriana La Cerva in The Sopranos. James Gandolfini (none other than Tony Soprano) has finally been beaten for Best Actor in a Drama Series; the trophy now goes to James Spader for his role as sleazebag lawyer Alan Shore in the new season of The Practice (currently showing on Channel 7).

Abolish the states

I didn't expect this one to become a campaign issue, but the idea definitely has some merit... One result would be that our hospitals would get the federal attention they deserve, and the Greens definitely have a point about the multiple governments involved in managing the Murray-Darling catchment.

How Telstra holds up the TV revolution

"The world is rushing towards using the internet to deliver TV channels to viewers in their lounge rooms - all except, that is, for Australia.

That's because Australia does not actually have broadband. We call it broadband, and a million people have bought it, but it's a bit like calling a bicycle a Harley-Davidson."

Our broadband shame

"There are 30 million internet users among South Korea's 49 million people, and 23 broadband connections per 100 people (the US has eight and Australia just four)."

Voice avoiders

Interesting exercise. Have you ever added up all the Voicemail diversion and retrieval charges on your mobile phone bill? I've decided to switch over to Optus SurePage (85c/message) instead of VoiceMail for a while. It'll be interesting to see how it affects my answer/ignore behaviour and the overall cost of my monthly phone bill.

Major bomb blast at Australian Embassy in Jakarta

Family members present and accounted for. My stepfather was just up the street when it happened, about to return to the Embassy from a meeting.


Apparently none of the Australian staff were killed, but several of the Embassy's security and gardening staff were. Embassy operations will probably downgrade to critical staff only for a while. No idea at this stage whether it's linked to the upcoming Federal Election. Will post more inside news as it comes to hand.

New look, old name

I've decided to reinvoke the name startup.blog for the weblog.


Two reasons: (1) it's much sexier than just using the URL name javaboy.blogspot.com, and (2) the work that I'm involved with at the moment has a definitely Microsoft .Net slant to it, so I'm going to downplay the whole java thing a bit. That being said, the URL http://javaboy.blogspot.com stays. Javaboy was the nickname I was given when working on my first Intranet project in 1996 and it's going to stay.


I've also switched to a standard blogger template. This should increase the usability of the site, and also make it significantly easier for me to maintain.

Hail and snow on the streets of Sydney!

No need to regret not making it to the snowfields anymore this year. This afternoon Sydney was hit with enough hail, that people were snowboarding on the hills next to Bondi Beach!

Class crimes writ large in a prison of privilege

As a proud Scotch College alumnus (I went to Scotch for six months on scholarship in 1989 before moving to the Northern Territory with my family), I bring you crime writer Shane Maloney's take on the purpose and achievements of my alma mater, a "machine for the transmission of inherited privilege."

Cheapskate's guide to Sydney

"Sure, real estate is a cruel dream for many, but there are plenty of ways of keeping yourself entertained out of the house for next to nothing.

Sydney is supposed to be one of the most expensive cities in the world, up there with the likes of London, Paris and New York, but here you can catch a movie for less than $10 any day of the week, see Hollywood stars onstage for a little more than $20 and listen to top-class music, on the world's most beautiful harbour, free."

[ADH editorial will return soon]

John Seybolt announced as Dean of Melbourne Business School

A replacement for Rizzo has finally been found. MBS announced on Monday that the new Dean will be Professor John Seybolt, who is currently Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Alliances and a distinguished professor of management for Thunderbird, the The Garvin School of International Management. John Seybolt has an undegraduate degree from Yale, MBA from Utah, and PhD from Cornell.

Barramundis Take 5th Place

My cousin, Jeremy, has been representing Australia this week in the World Ultimate Frisbee Championships in Finland. His team, the Barramundis, finished 5th in the Mixed division. Well done!

Read about all the details of life on the road in a champion ultimate frisbee team on their blog over at blogspot.

Domain name sells for US$2.75 million

Jeez. The sale of the domain name creditcards.com for US$2.75million has just been announced. Could this spark another round of domain name speculation? I think not. But I am inpressed that the sale wasn't announced until the new web site was up and running. Readers of news sites and blogs around the world will be signing on to creditcards.com over the next few days just to check out what all the fuss is all about. PR - it's all about getting other people to pay for your advertising.

Atom Newsfeed for javaboy.blogspot.com is now active

Domestic Airline Price Wars - Part 2

== July update - 2 months until the AFL Grand Final =

The challenge: flying Sydney to Melbourne and return for the AFL Grand Final on Sat Sept 25th (first flight out, last flight home), two months in advance, no major sales/promotions in progress

Qantas: Outbound $98 @ 8:05am, Inbound $79 @ 8:30pm

Cost to book in March: $178

Cost to book in July: $177

Jetstar: Outbound $75 @ 6:00am (+$2 credit card surchage), Inbound $65 @ 9:05pm (+$2 credit card surcharge)

Cost to book in March: $122

Cost to book in July: $144

Virgin Blue: Outbound $85 @ 7:00am (+$2 credit card surchage), Inbound $65 @ 9:15pm (+$2 credit card surchage)

Cost to book in March: $188

Cost to book in July: $165

The verdict:

Jetstar to Avalon still the cheapest overall. I haven't flown JetStar yet, but from what I've heard, it's nothing special. Interesting for Qantas and Virgin Blue - even though they've both introduced credit card surcharges since March (Qantas' credit card surcharge is built into the Internet fare), the fares on offer for AFL Grand Final day are actually cheaper if booked two months out than if booked six months out. So much for the concept of saving money by planning things in advance.

Tour #2 arrived in Sydney yesterday

(I'm no longer involved, but I wish them well ;-)

Paying for Graduate School without Going Broke

Wish I'd bought this before I underwent the whole MBA experience ;-)

Ten hours in make-up

While in Singapore over the weekend, I was lucky enough to catch the Lord of the Rings Exhibition at the Singapore Science Centre. With a fairly steep entry fee of S$20 (roughly A$16), I had high expectations, but in typical LOTR style, the event delivered.

Besides the myriad of short videos to watch (most of which are probably on the extended editions of the DVDs for each movie), there was also a wide variety of costumes and weapons from the three movies. Every major character had its own individual display, and a great detail of attention was paid to explaining the background of each character and how that influenced their costume and interaction with other characters.

There was also a range of displays that provided a detailed description of the make-up, digital effects and models in the movies. Some interesting/amusing little facts that I picked up . . . did you know that? ...

• the actor that played the Uruk-Hai Lurtz had to spend over ten hours in make-up before each day of shooting. The make-up and prosthetic artists would start on him at 10:00pm and work on him overnight while he tried to sleep in the make-up chair.


• in the scene where the Fellowship run across the bridge in the Mines of Moria while being chased by the Balrog, all of the characters were completely digital. The filmmakers created digital versions of each character, complete with individual movement behaviour.


• the four main hobbit character wore a new pair of prosthetic feet every days during filiming. Two thousand sets of hobbit feet were created, and each set was shredded after filming, so as to prevent a black market for hobbit feet.

Anyway, if you do get a chance, go and check it our for yourself.

LOTR - The Exhibition is in Singapore until June 4th.

Dr MBA - Time to get a move on!

In a parallel universe, I was a dentist. I grew up in Melbourne, and then moved to London in my mid-twenties to escape the life of the AFL-crazed city I call home. The expat thing was fine, but I realised I had a greater calling. And so, I planned to return home at start my MBA at Melbourne Business School.

Actually, the life I'm describing is the real life of Dr MBA, an Aussie dentist who's in the early stages of the MBA application process. The GMAT. The full-time v's part-time decision. The 'What Should I Do With My Life?' decisions. Check it out in his new blog at drmba.blogspot.com.

Improv

Well here's some surprising news. Tomorrow I'm off to Singapore for an extended weekend, and then on to Indonesia (Jakarta and Bali) for some time out with the folks, and some (remote) job hunting. Spur of the moment decision - only booked my ticket yesterday!

Deadbeat @ Echo Club in Bern, Switzerland

(background photography courtesy of yours truly)





Power to the Blogging culture!

An extended collection of my Montreal photographs recently served as backdrop when techno act Deadbeat appeared at Echo Club, a club night organised by the Institute for Contemporary Urban Encounters (CUE) in Bern, Switzerland.

"Echo Club is a clubconcept, in which the visual appearance is as important as the music. This reflects in the flyers and posters aswell as in the visuals at the nights as such. The visuals reflect the mood of the music and vice-versa the music to a certain extent is a spontanious score composition to the projected images. "

Thanks to Kev for setting this up, and for sending me some photos of the event.

2004 Gambling Update

07/03/04: Bet $20 @ $1.50 on Melb F1 GP Winner - Michael Schumacher; returned $30

07/03/04: Bet $5 @ $7 on Melb F1 GP Top 3 - Mark Webber; returned $0

07/03/04: Bet $5 @ $5 on Melb F1 GP Fastest Lap - Rubens Barrichello; returned $0

Net position for 2004: up $6 (it's been an all red weekend)

Segway

Good lord! I just saw someone riding a Segway HT on a back street in Bondi Junction. I didn't think they were available in Australia yet.

League of MBA Bloggers

Amusing to see that I'm listed in the League of MBA Bloggers under the North America category rather than the Asia category. Seems that my time at Columbia Business School provided much more valuable content for the world than my time at Melbourne Business School.

Domestic Airline Price Wars

The challenge: flying Sydney to Melbourne and return for the AFL Grand Final on Sat Sept 25th (first flight out, last flight home), six months in advance, no major sales/promotions in progress

Qantas: Outbound $86 @ 8:30am, Inbound $92 @ 8:30pm

Jetstar: Outbound $59 @ 6:00am (+$2 credit card surchage), Inbound $59 @ 9:05pm (+$2 credit card surcharge)

Virgin Blue: Outbound $89 @ 6:15am, Inbound $89 @ 9:15pm

The verdict: Jetstar to Avalon cheapest by approx $60 overall. Qantas and Virgin Blue flights to Tullamarine basically equivalent in price if booked directly. Similar pricing when booked indirectly via Webjet.

Of course, while it is true that I'm planning on going to the AFL Grand Final this year (enjoying the benefits of full MCC membership), I don't know what my plans for work in September at this stage, so there's no way I can actually book these low price airfares so far in advance. I love the economics of airline pricing ... maybe I should look into pursuing it as a career...

2004 Gambling Update

06/03/04: Bet $20 @ $1.55 on Melb F1 GP Pole Position - Michael Schumacher; returned $31

06/03/04: Bet $5 @ $15 on Melb F1 GP Pole Position - Kimi Räikkönen; returned $0

Net position for 2004: up $6 (one step closer to paying off my MBA)

btw - Congrats Mark Webber on qualifying in sixth place for the big race in Melbourne tomorrow

Confidentiality Agreement

Okay, so one of the reasons that I haven't been posting for the past few months is that I've been subject to a confidentiality agreement with the venture that I've been involved in. As such, I haven't really been able to talk about the nature of the business or the entrepreneurial process in much detail. Suffice to say that I'm no longer involved in the management or ownership of the venture, and I'm now ready to pursue something new. I'm based in Sydney these days, and I'm looking for something that's entrepreneurial, but slightly 'safer' than my previous venture (i.e. I'm willing to give up a bit of upside for the certainty of a semi-stable income, at least for the time being).

Secondary Airports and the launch of JetStar

This week we've seen the launch of Australia's third major domestic airline, JetStar, an offshoot of long-term stable house Qantas. JetStar is claiming to have a lower cost structure than Richard Branson's Virgin Blue, and will initially be targetting the domestic tourism market with destinations such as the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

Interestingly, JetStar is hoping to achieve the lower cost structure by operating out of secondary airports in major cities. In much the same way as JetBlue in the USA flies to Long Beach rather than LAX and Oakland rather than SFO, Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon has announced that JetStar is intending to operate some flights out of Avalon Airport in Melbourne, and has been "looking at" Richmond Air Base in Sydney as an alternative to Mascot. Could it be possible? Could we finally have a choice of airports in Sydney? If Richmond is commercialised, what will this mean for other airlines? Will we see Virgin Blue switching over to Richmond as well?

Groan, I guess we're now one step further away from my long-term goal of being able to take a fast train from Sydney to Melbourne... At least the Alice Springs to Darwin railroad has finally been completed (again).