In a classic case of ingenuity and adaptability, university students stranded by this week's [[artid:795451093|Optus network failure in Queensland|new]] have taken to Instant Messaging (IM) and Skype to talk interstate.

Rolling fibre out to the bush could cost up to $10 billion, almost as much as laying the cables across every Australian capital, according to Telstra.

Australian broadband ISP Internode claims to have become the first in the country to give national direct access to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) as part of its standard service.

More than a million Optus customers were unable to use mobile and land line telephones, or reach Web sites outside Queensland for more than four hours when Gold Coast City Council workers severed a critical interstate fibre optic cable.

Australian universities were the cream of the crop in Google's inaugural University Online Marketing Challenge, with a student team from the University of Western Australia named global winner, while a team from UNSW took out the APAC regional win.

Katmai, the code name for Microsoft's imminent SQL Server 2008 release, comes from an Alaskan territory know for volcanoes, which may not be the best symbol for a database. So far, however, Katmai hasn't blown up on me. And the lower-profile Katmai seems like a good follow-on to Yukon, the code name for the gigantic SQL Server 2005 release.

It may look like Windows Vista. It shares the same code base as Vista. It even rolls in Vista's first Service Pack. But in terms of customer adoption plans, Windows Server 2008 is no Vista.

Don't say you weren't warned. Your 32-bit Windows applications are going the way of analog television: Unless they're upgraded, in the next few years they'll go dark.

Research in Motion has warned users and corporate administrators of a critical vulnerability in a component of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server that could be used to hack their company's computers.

US Customers looking for an iPhone 3G may have to wait up to a month for Apple to boost its orders with suppliers and refill the pipeline, a Wall Street analyst said Thursday.

Calling all digital nomads -- you may not be wearing a dark suit, a tie and shiny shoes, but you're out there with at least a full day of work to get done. Chances are that, more times than not, your workspace is a table at Starbucks, a hotel lobby couch or a client's lunchroom. In other words, you labor where and when you can, without the kind of resources that a more office-bound employee can call upon.

Open source and cloud computing alternatives can replace Office in some circumstances

My Top Ten Worst Uses for Windows post last week caused somewhat of a firestorm of reaction. It is worth pointing out that for the most part I am not really criticizing Windows just the use of a bloated OS for simple or mission critical tasks.

Microsoft Monday said it would offer free technical support to small businesses that buy new PCs with Windows Vista in the next three months, its latest attempt to convince users that moving to Vista is a good idea.