Stories by: Matthew JC. Powell

In a traditional business, it's easy to tell whether things are going well or not: you count up the money.

Internet telephony is very much the holy grail of networking. Running voice and data communications over a single network offers self-evident savings in telephone bills, administration costs and equipment costs. In addition, such a converged network is "future-proofed" for such emerging technologies as streaming video and e-commerce. Yet, despite these obvious advantages, it has remained an elusive goal.

Call centre technology is developing at an alarming rate, but it is merely a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Despite the gains made by electronic communication over the past few years, there is little doubt that we are still a paper-based society. If anything, the printing needs of most organisations have increased, even as our dependence on the Internet has grown.

6:00am - Drag myself out of bed. Make myself a nice hot cup of Earl Grey to start the day. Switch the computer on. Got to write column for ARN today.

I found myself in Melbourne recently. No, this is not indicative of some pseudo-spiritual, existentialist revelation. Rather, it is merely a statement of fact. Like many tech journalists, I lead an exciting, go-gettem jet-setter lifestyle, and from one day to the next, I literally do not know which of this nation's magnificent cities I will wake up in.

Quickly checking his calendar, Matthew JC. Powell has a strange tingly feeling . . .

"I think it's all over. They didn't get the damaging evidence, the actual smoking gun." Robert Black, law professor, Edinburgh University

Continuing to purchase CRT monitors because they're cheap is like holding onto your old LPs. The new world of computer displays is flat, digital - and cheaper than you think... In an ideal world, you wouldn't be reading this. Because, in an ideal world, I wouldn't have to write it. Feature articles weighing up the relative merits of cathode-ray tube and flat panel displays should have stopped appearing last year, when the inherent superiority of flat-panels became most clearly apparent. Big, hot, bulky, glaring, flickering CRT monitors should have left your organisation roundabout the same time as your old SyQuests.

A friend of mine (whose word I trust implicitly) was one of the army of selfless volunteers giving of their time during the Games of the XXVII Olympiad to keep things moving smoothly. Early in the Games, she was approached by one of our valued overseas' guests who was confused and becoming increasingly agitated. It seems this welcome visitor could not locate the venue for her sporting event on any of the maps provided around Sydney. She had tickets to a soccer match that very day, and needed urgently to know where this "MCG" thing is and how to get there.

With the big three past, Matthew JC. Powell wonders, quid nunc?