Minister for government services, Stuart Robert, insisted on Monday that the MyGov website was still working despite it having appeared to crash following a mass exodus online of Australians scrambling for a welfare lifeline offered in response to Covid-19.
The music industry has done a lot for the development of business models and strategies for online sales, loyalty programs and methods for cross promotion. In Australia there are a number of companies braving the dot-com doldrums and forging ahead using the Internet to expand existing music-oriented businesses and develop new ones. Some may even become profitable. But as the hardline bean counters and sceptical investors continue to impose the strict adages of traditional business practice, the thing most likely to ensure the success of these vulnerable companies is, believe it or not, "free stuff" - the cornerstones of building customer loyalty.
I 've made a decision. I'm going to get myself one of those handheld-cum-mobile phone gadgets that let me roam around the world on any network; tells me about merchant specials as I wander by shops; and connects me to my phone, fax, fridge and eventually my pacemaker while I blast around the Internet or send Web pages or videos to my friends - without any wires. Oh, and all at a minimum speed of 2Mbit/sec. Somehow I'm also going to link all this with the wireless LAN which, if I had a business, I would be a fool not to have.
From the dizzying heights of the late 1980s to the sudden slump two years ago, the database industry seems to have finally stabilised. Hype and necessity are converging in the corporate struggle to manage information in an online world.
Cynicism aside, the push to establish handheld technology as the new platform for enterprise computing will affect a dramatic shift in the way organisations view their IT infrastructures. Evidence of handheld technology's emergence is growing.
Several IT companies now claim it is easy enough to establish a connection linking an organisation's data centre to an infinite number of remote nodes, be they remote servers, PCs, laptops or handheld devices.
Handheld devices have copped a lot of criticism over the last few years from critics that maintain they are really little more than cute gadgets unlikely to win the affections of hard-nosed IT managers before crucial barriers to their uptake are resolved.
Rapid developments in technology, coupled with falling costs for both colour and in-house production, have dramatically changed the Australian printing landscape. David Binning reports on the implications this has for the channel, particularly at the high end of the printer market
Hewlett-Packard, Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh, Oki, Fuji Xerox
Growth in PCs and Net access is spurring an active low-end market for the once high-end focussed power protection industry. The positive side of this has been increased awareness of basic power issues amongst the growing mass of technology-dependent small businesses and home office workers. But the question many in the industry are now asking is whether some major UPS vendors can actually deliver to the low end without compromising the features and education necessary for proper power protection. David Binning investigates
The increased reliance on electronic processes amongst smaller and smaller businesses, coupled with burgeoning infrastructures supporting electronic commerce have created an unexpectedly vibrant market supporting that standard old commodity - power. David Binning reports
The evolving worldwide telecommunications landscape promises to deliver new and potentially very lucrative opportunities for Australian resellers occupying the modem market. But as David Binning reports, complacency on the part of resellers in terms of helping their customers traverse the new landscape may see the playing field tilted dramatically in favour of those with the strongest commitment to service
Intrusion detection has emerged as a key concern for network administrators charged with protecting their organisations' data and gen-eral business continuity from the current wave of industrial espionage sweeping the world and expected to escalate during the Sydney Olympics
DVD-ROM technology, despite teething problems in superceding CD-ROMs, unquestionably represents a fabulous opportunity for the Australian reseller community
Confusion and paranoia are set to reign as the new millennium approaches, and the last thing on executives' minds is unnecessary technology expenditure. But as David Binning writes, there is one thing of which they will spare no expense in the critical weeks ahead: uninterruptible power supply
