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.