If Telstra, and for that matter, other large telcos, ever wonder why they get a bad rap, they should read the results of the recent Australian Broadband Survey. The survey, with 10,335 responses in a 4 week period late in 2003, comprehensively displays the inverse relationship between telco scale and customer satisfaction. Almost exclusively the small niche providers won handsdown in the service stakes, and the large telcos performed worst.

Telstra as launched a “unique new online music download site, offering an extensive range of tracks for just $1.49 each for BigPond customers and $1.89 for the general public. “

What exactly is ‘unique’ about an online music download site is not exactly clear, perhaps the ability to charge downloads to a Telstra bill.

More bizarre – it’s not compatible with the most popular music player, Apple’s iPod. Apparently Telstra has decided that Microsoft rules the roost in music playback. BigPond managing director Justin Milne says “iPods don’t (work with BigPond Music) – that’s Apple’s device and it’s an Apple ambush, I guess the question is would you be prepared to bet against Microsoft? I wouldn’t”.

Perhaps that’s the ‘unique’ bit – it doesn’t work with iPods?

Oh lord, never let a bureaucrat anywhere near the real world. In the UK the Office of the Information Commissioner (you know, the guy who’s supposed to be the expert), has been telling the recipients of spam to reply and opt out.

As any sane person knows this is probably the most stupid thing you can do. All it does is tell the spammer that there is a real live person at the other end, and invites a flood of yet more junk.

silicon.com is carrying a great article in response to the British music industry story below:

“In the US, the Recording Industry Association of America has made more enemies than it has records in the past 18 months and, worryingly, its UK equivalent, the British Phonographic Industry, seems to think that this is an approach it would be wise to follow. “

“Now behind the times and in a strop, the labels are picking on ‘the smallest bloke in the pub’ by turning on individual consumers unlucky enough to be singled out from the millions using download services. “

It’s the turn of British teenagers to be afraid, very afraid. The British Phonographic Industry, the trade body that represents record labels including EMI, Sony and Warner Music, says:

“Nobody should be in any doubt that such uses of file-sharing networks are illegal and are harming the health of British music. We will take legal action if we are forced to”

Don’t you just love the sweeping, unsubstantiated claim that it’s hurting British music. Says who?

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has called a snap state election for February. And has a web site which other politicians should see – http://www.teambeattie.com.

There was a minor hiccup this week when an enterprising activist registered peterbeattie.com and directed it to the rival Liberal web site, but this seems to have been altered and it now goes to the teambeattie, so someone has had a word to someone. Fascinating how the media blew it up as a hack attack. Nothing of the sort of course, just a piece of online activism, and serves Beattie for not spending the few extra bucks to register the domain in the first place.

Speaking of hiding technology, here’s an issue I’ve only just started to get my head around – radio-frequency identification chips (RFIDS). I know retailers are looking at embedding them in clothes, ostensibly to help with stocktaking and the like (akin to a bar code on each item I suppose), but privacy advocates are very worried.

And in a move which could get some people very worried, organisers of an internet and technology conference in Switzerland in December embedded RFIDS in the delegate badges:

“The badges were handed out to more than 50 prime ministers, presidents and other high-level officials from 174 countries, including the United States. “

One of the big conference agenda issues was, wait for it, privacy!

“The three-day WSIS forum focused on Internet governance and access, security, intellectual-property rights and privacy. The United States and other countries defeated an attempt to place the Internet under supervision of the United Nations. “

One of the key campaigners against RFIDS in the USA has a web site which explains these little critters, and what they could be used for: http://www.spychips.com/. According to reports today, she’s experiencing something of a possible smear campaign, after a company inadvertently sent her a copy of an email she wasn’t supposed to see.

Speaking of hiding technology, here’s an issue I’ve only just started to get my head around – radio-frequency identification chips (RFIDS). I know retailers are looking at embedding them in clothes, ostensibly to help with stocktaking and the like (akin to a bar code on each item I suppose), but privacy advocates are very worried.

And in a move which could get some people very worried, organisers of an internet and technology conference in Switzerland in December embedded RFIDS in the delegate badges:

“The badges were handed out to more than 50 prime ministers, presidents and other high-level officials from 174 countries, including the United States. “

One of the big conference agenda issues was, wait for it, privacy!

“The three-day WSIS forum focused on Internet governance and access, security, intellectual-property rights and privacy. The United States and other countries defeated an attempt to place the Internet under supervision of the United Nations. “

One of the key campaigners against RFIDS in the USA has a web site which explains these little critters, and what they could be used for: http://www.spychips.com/. According to reports today, she’s experiencing something of a possible smear campaign, after a company inadvertently sent her a copy of an email she wasn’t supposed to see.

Adobe, makers of the hugely popular Photoshop graphics software, in use by the majority of serious commercial grapic artists as well as amateurs, has come clean and admitted it has conspired with an international consortium of banks and governments to hide code in Photoshop to prevent copying of images of bank notes.

“Adobe, the world’s leading vendor for graphics software, said the secretive technology “would have minimal impact on honest customers”. It generates a warning message when someone tries to make digital copies of some currencies. “

This is an interesting one. On the one hand, it seems a reasonable move, given that in today’s computerised age, programs such as Photoshop are likely to be the tool of choice by naughty people wanting to produce their own currency without the inconvenience of earning the real folding stuff.

On the other hand, what Adobe has done is allow a bunch of interested parties to include code in a proprietory program. Adobe didn’t develop the code which stops the counterfeiting, it simply included it within the Adobe Photoshop code (as has at least a couple of other graphic software companies according to media reports).

So although the initial concept seems logical, it opens a tough can of worms to digest – the idea that self-interest parties, with sufficient clout, can strong arm commercial, independent companies to modify software – without those companies having access to the original code.

Adobe claims it only adds a fraction of a second to the execution time of the program, they are playing the whole thing down, saying it will not affect ‘honest’ users.

US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell says it’s:

“the most dramatic and meaningful stimulation to our economic productivity and growth.”

Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if we head that type of talk from the Australian government – or even Telstra?

Powell went on:

“Everybody talks about it like we’re talking about phone service. Wake up! This is not about phone service,” he said. “It’s about our lives and our prosperity and the role of the U.S. in the 21st century, and will we be a nation of tech leadership.”