I never thought e-readers would take off the way they have. If you’d have asked me just five years ago whether books made from paper and card would ever be replaced in the hearts of many people by electronic versions, I’d have thought you were mad. And yet that is what has happened.

Don’t mistake me: traditional books aren’t about to disappear. In fact, I suspect many of us will hold out on moving to digital book formats longer than we will on moving to digital music and video. Because there’s something special about a book, and it isn’t limited to just the story inside.

Having said that e-readers and the e-book content they display is now big business. Which is why so many tech manufacturers are launching their own e-readers or tablet devices.

Sony is just one of them, but it’s taken the Japanese tech giant rather a long time to release its e-reader wares in Australia.

Sony has unveiled its new line of e-readers, all of which boast the E-Ink Pearl display. And even its cheapest offering, the Reader Pocket Edition, is getting a shiny new touchscreen which uses an infrared sensor to detect input. This eliminates the need for the overlay which caused many of the earlier Sony e-readers to develop annoying faults.

The new Sony e-readers have also been given a makeover, made lighter and more compact, and added support for the open-source ePub format. Pricing still seems to be an issues, however, with prices starting at $179. Amazon has upped its game and entered into a price war, but Sony seems to be resisting even trying to compete at this stage.

Even so, the best news is that the Sony Reader e-readers are going to be available to buy in Australia at all, as Sony has until now completely ignored us.

Politicians have been being caught out by technology for years now. Whether it’s by phone tapping, camera surveillance, or computer, politicians have a nasty habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, only to be trapped by the traces they, as all of us do, leave in their wake as they go about their business.

The latest Australian politician to be caught out by technology is New South Wales Ports and Waterways Minister Paul McLeay. According to ZDNet, he’s been forced to resign after having to admit to accessing porn and gambling websites on a parliamentary computer.

McLeay reportedly gave an uncomfortable press conference outside Parliament House, during which he admitted he had acted in a standard not expected of cabinet ministers. He refused to enter into detailed discussions over the sites he visited but did bravely admit that it wasn’t a one off.

This news comes on the same day that Christian Democrat Reverend Fred Nile, known as a moral crusader, had been found to have accessed more than 200,000 adult websites on parliamentary computers. The Daily Telegraph claims he was caught out when the Department of Parliamentary Services conducted an Internet history audit.

Nile denies it was him that viewed the sites, and that one of his staff had done so in order to “research the activities of the Australian Sex Party and also the proposed Internet filter”. But we’ve all used that excuse once in a while, haven’t we?

It’s not the nature of the sites these guys have visited so much as the fact they’ve done so using parliamentary computers. If they did it at home I’d guess most of us wouldn’t care less. After all, politicians are only human. Most of the time.

The NBN (National Broadband Network) was a big issue during the recent federal elections. It was one of the few policy differences between the two main parties that could be separated by more than a sheet of paper. It’s not an issue that decided the election, but then nothing was able to swing it in favor of one party or the other.

The election result meant the future of the NBN is still to be decided. And this has left room for a lobby group filled with some big-name telco chiefs to sweep in and propose a third option to those being promoted by Labor (which is pushing for the NBN to go ahead) and the Coalition (which is pushing for a cheaper broadband backbone).

According to ZDNet, The Alliance for Affordable Broadband has released a manifesto [PDF Link] which spells out its vision for what it’s calling NBN 3.0. The CEOs of companies such as AAPT, Pipe Networks, Vocus Communications, BigAir, Allegro Networks. EFTel, Polyfone are all on board.

This plan for NBN 3.0 essentially condones a fiber broadband backbone running the length of the country, with a 4G national wireless network filling the spaces in-between.

The fiber network will deliver broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps to schools, hospitals, and businesses, while the 4G network will deliver broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps to 98 percent of households. And all this for just $3 billion, compared to the $43 billion the NBN is estimated to cost and the $6 billion the Coalition’s backbone is estimated to cost.

The third way is often the best in politics, and NBN 3.0 certainly sounds good on paper. Labor clearly isn’t going to shift from its position but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Coalition adopted this plan as their own going forward.

Tech manufacturers and broadcasters the world over seem to be pushing 3D on to us whether we want it or not. Sure, Avatar was better to watch in 3D than in 2D, but it was annoying having to wear the glasses, and while a movie is one thing normal television programming is quite another.

Coupled with the price of the technology at this early stage and you can see why 3DTV isn’t taking off in the way the industry would hope. After all, it’s only been the last couple of years that the mainstream have invested in a new TV capable of showing HD broadcasts.

Still, broadcasters are forging ahead with plans to start showing more programs in 3D, with sporting events being the most logical choice.

Channel Nine had, and still has, plans to broadcast the National Rugby League grand final on October 3 in 3D. David Gyngell, the network’s CEO, said, “Nine is thrilled to once again bring rugby league fans the most technologically advanced way to watch their game.”

Within a couple of hours of this announcement, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) had rained on Nine’s parade, revealing it had “not ”issued a licence to the Nine Network to broadcast the NRL grand final in 3D, contrary to the network’s media advisories”.

The reason for this lack of issuing a licence is that Channel Nine hasn’t yet delivered the report detailing its previous trialling of 3DTV. Between May and August, Nine, along with the SBS, broadcast the State of Origin matches in 3D. Its trial license to do so expired on August 18, and the ACMA hasn’t yet issued it with another one due to the lack of a timely report on the broadcaster’s earlier experience.

With Channel Seven also signaling its intent to broadcast the AFL Grand Final in 3D on September 25, the ACMA clearly needs to pull its finger out and start issuing the appropriate licenses, trial or otherwise. Or there will be many (well, a select few) 3DTV owners with nothing to watch on their brand new television set.

Microsoft’s Tech-Ed conference kicked off early last week at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Center with a welcoming reception meeting and greeting the 2,700 invited guests. Among that welcoming reception were were a couple of Surfers Paradise Meter Maids dressed in their trademark gold outfits. Not bikinis, but tight hotpants and three-quarter length jackets. So far, so good, at least for the majority of the mostly male crowd.

Unfortunately, a number of the attendees complained about the Meter Maids and their attire. The problem seemed to be the idea that the Meter Maids objectify women, and this was hardly suitable at a conference where one of the panels was discussing how to entice more women into joining the IT industry.

Microsoft then issued an apology, with a statement reading:

The Australian Tech.Ed team would like to sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the promotional staff who were manning the remote controlled car exhibit at the Tech.Ed welcome reception. We were unaware of their exact costuming until the day of the event, at which time it was too late to be addressed.

Fair enough. No one wants to upset anyone unduly, and Microsoft quickly moved to calm the whole thing down. Except for one fact: Meter Maids boss Roberta Aitchison claims that Microsoft knew exactly what they had booked, and knew exactly what the girls would be wearing on the day.

She told the Sydney Morning Herald:

The garments were chosen specifically by them over a period of two to three weeks of them looking at photographs of the girls. They came back to me by email stating which garments they would like the girls to be wearing.

So someone is lying to cover their mistake, and I doubt it’s the Meter Maids. Mainly because they have no reason to do so.

Isn’t this all a big eruption over nothing anyway? If the Surfers Paradise Meter Maids‘ outfits were accepted and acceptable in the 1960s, why should it be any different in 2010? I guess it all depends on whether you think a woman wearing a bikini anywhere other than on the beach is offensive to women. Personally, I don’t.

Black Saturday will remain etched into the memories of people across Australia and the world for a long time to come. Around 400 fires burned their way across the Australian state, with 173 people losing their lives and another 414 being injured. In all, 1.1 million acres is thought to have burned, with the authorities and firefighters struggling to prevent a tragedy.

While all the agencies involved did a good job under extremely difficult circumstances, their efforts were somewhat hindered by the technology (or lack of it) at their disposal. With no computerized system in place, pencil, paper, and fax machines were the order of the day. And mistakes were made; mistakes that no one wants to see happen again.

Hopefully the newly-announced bushfire prediction and warning system being put in place should help. According to The Australian, Victorian Premier John Brumby announced that AUS$21.5 million has been set aside over the next four years to improve and upgrade the systems.

From this year, authorities across Victoria will have instant access to the digital fire mapping information, with the public being given access online from next year.

The combined prediction and warning system will forge FireWeb and PhoenixWeb, the latter being newly-developed at the University of Melbourne. Weather, topography, and fuel loads will all be combined to give a constantly-updated prediction as to when bushfires will occur, which direction they are likely to travel, and how fast they will arrive in different locations.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) argument has once again reared its ugly head, with broadband access all-important to get this information out to the public in a timely fashion. So saving lives is another plus point in favor of investing in a broadband network across the country.

As soon as they’re released, games consoles are targeted by hackers attempting to find a way into the system. And they’re usually successful very quickly, being able to find a way around the system in order to allow gamers to do things with the hardware the manufacturer would rather they didn’t. These activities include playing pirated games and saving games to the hard drive that can be played without a backup.

The Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 were both hacked early in their lives, but the Sony Playstation 3 has so far survived almost four years without suffering a similar fate. Until now, probably.

The end of last week saw news break that a PS3 modding tool was now available to order on the website of Australia-based OzModChips. The PS3 hack, called PS Jailbreak, comes in the form of a USB dongle containing software which will open up the PS3 system considerably.

The asking price, however, is a not-inconsiderable AUS$170. PS Jailbreak works by essentially turning any PS3 into a dev unit usually only used by games developers.

OzModChips has since released a video of the PS3 hack in operation, and it certainly looks like it works.

The big problem for the companies selling this, and the hopeful PS3 owners who buy it, is that Sony will likely be able to close the loophole PS Jailbreak takes advantage off.

The PS3 receives regular firmware updates and once Sony is able to pinpoint exactly what is going on with the PS Jailbreak it’ll be made null and voided. Which is why the distributors are charging the extortionate rates they are; knowing the window of opportunity is likely to be a short-lived one.

It should be noted that although the PS Jailbreak is being sold by Australian companies, the PS3 hacking tool is more likely to have originated in Asia. testJP

Broadband, and its availability across the country, may not have decided the election as predicted. However, with the result leaving neither main party able to form a government, the NBN (National Broadband Network) could now be the key to allowing Labor or the Liberal coalition to find the necessary support to do so.

The story so far: Labor has committed to building the National Broadband Network, a $43 billion project that will bring broadband Internet access to 90 percent of all homes in the country. The Liberal-National coalition is against the plan, arguing that the NBN is too expensive and unnecessary when a $6 broadband backbone could serve the country just as well.

This difference in policy was one of the few clear divisions between the two sides in the election campaign, but even this wasn’t enough to separate the two sides by enough to prevent a hung parliament. With labor now running the country in a caretaker capacity, it comes down to the four independents and one Green to choose which side they want to support in power for the longterm.

The NBN project has been put on hold until negotiations have ended. NBN Co, the government-owned firm handling the project has frozen its tender process and employment drive.

Three of the independent members of the house - Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter - are strongly in favor of the NBN, which suggests Labor will prove victorious in negotiations with the trio. But broadband is obviously only one of the policies that will be discussed before the deciding politicians nail their colors to the mast of either side.

Did broadband sweep one of the two main parties to victory? No. But could it still have a major effect on the eventual outcome? Very much so.

It’s pretty hard to spot the differences between the two main political forces contesting the 2010 election. Both are committed to reducing the national debt, combating illegal and unwanted immigration, and tackling environmental issues. So, with the big issues being agreed upon, it’s going to come down to the more obscure policies. And personality, of course, but that’s another matter.

One thing the two main contenders differ on is how to bring better Internet coverage to the majority of the population. With just 0.1 percent of the population currently having access to fiber-optics, something clearly needs to be done. But what that is, and how much it will cost, is a serious bone of contention.

Julia Gillard and the Labor party want to see a super-fast network of fiber-optics rolled out across the country. The National Broadband Network would, on completion, bring 90 percent of all Australian homes into reach of a Broadband connection. But doing so won’t be cheap, with an estimated budget of US$39 billion needed to bring the project to fruition.

Tony Abbott and the Liberal party consider this to be an unnecessary waste of money at a time when the country, and wider world, is still facing the tail-end of a serious recession. So they want to scrap the NBN and pursue a cheaper alternative which would less than US$6 billion spent on providing the country with a Broadband backbone which can then be used by telecoms firms to offer wireless Broadband options to most of the country.

Fortunately, it seems whoever wins the election will be tackling the issue head-on. It’s just the approach which is going to differ. This choice may not be enough to decide the outcome of the election, but it may well end up having a say. Which just shows how much Australians, like the rest of the world, want the best possible Internet service they can get.

The new advanced search interface allows you to filter images in five different ways

1. not filtered by license
2. free to use or share
3. free to use or share even commercially
4. free to use share or modify
5. free to use, share or modify, even commercially

What that means is as a content creator you can now easily find images that you can use, as well as images that you can legally use in advertising for your business or modify to better meet your own personal needs. As a blogger I obviously tend to need quite a few images over the course of a day, so this is an amazing new tool. For people like resturant and small business owners this will make it easier to find images that they can use in menus, posters, billboards and other commercial work.

Hopefully another effect of the advanced search will be that people will start to cut back on using images that are not for commercial purposes. I’ve encoutered quite a few blogs and websites that appear to just do a Google search for iamges they’re looking for and take what they want.  Now that there’s an easy option for doing it legally hopefully more people will take advantage and do things the legal way.

Do any of you use Google Image Search for your business? What do you think about the new options? Can you see yourself using them?