I’m not convinced that domestic developers offer a higher level of skill and expertise. John Larsen was featured in Slashdot today with his blog “Why I will never feel threatened by programmers in India”. I have interviewed potential domestic programmer employees in the past, and well, I can say the experience was virtually identical to when I posted some job ads in India (bar the Indian vs Australian names). The experience seemed to reaffirm to me that 90% of the IT Industry does not know IT, which is a huge problem when I’m paying some ones wage by the hour. Ultimately I will need to train any employee into the worker I want them to be, and this process will take years. After their training period is over I need to be careful the employee is retained as the trend with the IT industry is to gain experience then relocate.

I am concerned by the Australian governments choices with worker protection, with my position the reverse of most Australians, as an employer I want as much control to fire and pay as little as possible to any employee. Of course other considerations like employee satisfaction come into play, but ultimately with all expenses included, outsourcing to India is only a fraction of the cost.

oDesk, Guru.com and Talents From India all appear to be good sources of career seeking with Indian employees. Average wages seem to range from $6 to $15 USD per hour. Hiring an Australian on the alternative would have a minimum wage of nearly $20 AUD per hour and the employee would receive all sorts of extra rights like paid breaks, sick leave, etc. – which Indian workers do not ask for. Ultimately you could employ 5 Indians for the cost of one Australian.

Its absurd and racist to believe Indians, or anyone else from a foreign nation, has a lower level of skills as John Larsen has suggested. India does have its own local economies, and its own booming IT sector which seeks the attention of big businesses like Dell, HP & Telstra. While India remains a 3rd world country, there surely are Indians who believe in “doing a job right” which can be encouraged with job guarantees, salary bonuses, and interest and concern about the employees comfort of living.

I’ve had a long reputation with an Indian domain registrar and have found them to be absolutely wonderful. At one point when I was purchasing large volumes of domains I signed quite a few ex-GoDaddy customers who found my resold service from the Indian registrar was of a superior quality.

I also have frequent dealings with Exetel who have outsourced their technical support and agent teams to Sri Lanka. While sometimes I find a “useless employee”, this doesn’t seem all that different from when Exetel operated these teams from North Sydney.

So some time over the next month or two I will definitely hire a developer from India to work with me. My immediate concerns are giving the employee “small time work” and convincing them they want to please me with their work for the rewards they will receive from it, before later working on to some bigger more important works (which are crucial to remain totally confidential). I’ve recently signed a programming job which is no trouble for myself to complete, however if I hand it off to an Indian employee, it will likely cost me about 10% of what the customer has agreed to pay.

I’ve felt this for a long time that the Australian Government really needs to make changes to taxation in order to make Australia economically appealing again. Instead our Government only seems interested in adding further taxes that will set our industries backwards for no real advantage other than to make up for the current Governments shortcomings at the voters expense.

I’m now wondering if the local council or the tree hugging hippies can be made liable for any injuries or deaths in the area where people have been unable to call Emergency 000 with their mobile phone.

I’ve voiced my protest in the form of rotten eggs to the front doors of the houses on Woodlands Rd where the tree hugging hippies live. Enjoy.

I reprogrammed my scanner with a lot of these talkgroups.

The only agencies that haven’t moved to P25 so far are Rail Corp and the RTA – both still seem to use the analogue GRN.

Following is a list of Government Radio Network Talkgroups that have been discovered and more frequently than not, which agency owns it and a channel label.

10000 – GL 1
10001 – GL 2
10002 – GL 3
10003 – GL 4
10004 – GL 5
10005 – GL 6
10006 – GL 7
10007 – GL 8
10008 – GL 9
10009 – GL 10
10010 – ESO 1
10011 – ESO 2
10012 – ESO 3
10013 – ESO 4
10014 – ESO 5
10015 – ESO 6
10016 – ESO 7
10017 – ESO 8
10018 – ESO 9
10019 – ESO 10
10020 – ESO 11
10021 – ESO 12
10022 – ESO 13
10023 – ESO 14
10024 – ESO 15
10025 – ESO 16
10026 – ESO 17
10027 – ESO 18
10028 – ESO 19
10029 – ESO 20
10030 – RFS GD01 AVIATN1
10031 – RFS GD02 AVIATN2
10032 – RFS GD03 AVIATN3
10033 – RFS GD04 AVIATN4
10034 – RFS GD05 AVIATN5
10035 – RFS GD06 AVIATN6
10036 – RFS GD08 BLKM HL
10037 – RFS GD10 BL MTNS
10038 – RFS GD14 CISS
10039 – RFS GD16 COM ED1
10040 – RFS GD17 COM ED2
10041 – RFS GD18 COM ED3
10042 – RFS GD20 CMBRLND
10043 – RFS GD21 EAST OP
10044 – RFS GD22 EXEC OP
10045 – RFS GD26 FIU 1
10046 – RFS GD27 FIU 2
10047 – RFS GD28 GOSFORD
10048 – RFS GD29 HAWKESB
10049 – RFS GD30 HORNSBY
10050 – RFS GD38 LDS 1
10051 – RFS GD39 LDS 2
10052 – RFS GD42 MCARTHR
10053 – RFS GD44 MEDIA 1
10054 – RFS GD45 MEDIA 2
10055 – RFS GD58 OP COM1
10056 – RFS GD59 OP COM2
10057 – RFS GD60 OP COM3
10058 – RFS GD62 OPS1
10059 – RFS GD63 OPS2
10060 – RFS GD64 OPS3
10061 – RFS GD65 OPS4
10062 – RFS GD66 OPS5
10063 – RFS GD67 OPS6
10064 – RFS GD68 OPS7
10065 – RFS GD69 OPS8
10066 – RFS GD70 OPS9
10067 – RFS GD71 OPS10
10068 – RFS GD72 OPS11
10069 – RFS GD73 OPS12
10070 – RFS GD74 OPS13
10071 – RFS GD75 OPS14
10072 – RFS GD76 OPS15
10073 – RFS GD77 RGN EST
10074 – RFS GD87 STATEOP
10075 – RFS GD88 STHRLND
10076 – RFS GD91 WARINGH
10077 – RFS GD94 WOLONDL
10101 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 1
10102 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 2
10103 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 3
10104 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 4
10105 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 6
10106 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 7
10107 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 8
10108 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 9
10109 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 10
10110 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 11
10111 – Fire Rescue NSW SYD 12
10112 – Fire Rescue NSW New 1
10113 – Fire Rescue NSW New 2
10114 – Fire Rescue NSW Gos 1
10115 – Fire Rescue NSW Gos 2
10117 – Fire Rescue NSW HAST 1
10118 – Fire Rescue NSW SUMLND1
10119 – Fire Rescue NSW PEEL 1
10120 – Fire Rescue NSW WOLL 1
10121 – Fire Rescue NSW WOLL 2
10122 – Fire Rescue NSW S-HIGH1
10123 – Fire Rescue NSW GOULB1
10124 – Fire Rescue NSW MONARO1
10125 – Fire Rescue NSW S-CST 1
10126 – Fire Rescue NSW ACT-NSW
10127 – Fire Rescue NSW GRIFFTH
10128 – Fire Rescue NSW MURRAY1
10129 – Fire Rescue NSW C-WEST1
10130 – Fire Rescue NSW BLU MT1
10131 – Fire Rescue NSW BLU MT2
13132 – Fire Rescue NSW BOGAN 1
10133 – Fire Rescue NSW LACHLN1
10139 – Fire Rescue NSW
10154 – Fire Rescue NSW
10156 – Fire Rescue NSW
10184 – Fire Rescue NSW
10201 – SES 307-SN-TAC1
10202 – SES 308-SN-TAC2
10203 – SES 309-SN-TAC3
10204 – SES 310-SN-TAC4
10205 – SES 311-SN-TAC5
10206 – SES 312-SN-TAC6
10207 – SES 314-SNSTRAT
10208 – SES 316-SS-TAC1
10209 – SES 317-SS-TAC2
10210 – SES 318-SS-TAC3
10211 – SES 319-SS-TAC4
10212 – SES 320-SS-TAC5
10213 – SES 321-SS-TAC6
10214 – SES 323-SSSTRAT
10215 – SES 324-SW-TAC1
10216 – SES 325-SW-TAC2
10217 – SES 326-SW-TAC3
10218 – SES 327-SW-TAC4
10219 – SES 328-SW-TAC5
10220 – SES 329-SW-TAC6
10221 – SES 331-SWSTRAT
10222 – SES 332-SW-RCR
10223 – SES 340-HN-CNT1
10224 – SES 341-HN-CNT2
10225 – SES 342-HN-CNT3
10226 – SES 343-HN-CNT4
10227 – SES 344-HN-CNT5
10228 – SES 347-TRNSPRT
10229 – SES 348-CO-ORD
10230 – SES 349-TSKFCE1
10231 – SES 350-TSKFCE2
10232 – SES 351-TSKFCE3
10233 – SES 352-TSKFCE4
10234 – SES 353-S/OPS1
10235 – SES 354-S/OPS2
10236 – SES 355-S/OPS3
10237 – SES 356-S/OPS4
10238 – SES 357-S/OPS5
10239 – SES 358-S/OPS6
10240 – SES 359-S/OPS7
10241 – SES 360-S/OPS8
10242 – SES 361-S/OPS9
10243 – SES 362-S/OPS10
10244 – SES 363-S/OPS11
10245 – SES 364-S/OPS12
10246 – SES 367-COMMS1
10247 – SES 345-DOCS-LO
10248 – SES 346-DOCS-ST
10301 – ASNSW Administration 1 – State Operations / MRU
10302 – ASNSW Administration 2
10303 – ASNSW Administration 3
10304 – ASNSW Administration 4
10305 – ASNSW Administration 5
10306 – ASNSW Administration 6 – NETS
10309 – ASNSW
10317 – ASNSW
10319 – ASNSW Patient Transport (PTO Ops 1)
10320 – ASNSW
10321 – ASNSW
10322 – ASNSW
10323 – ASNSW
10325 – ASNSW Syd North
10326 – ASNSW Syd South
10327 – ASNSW Syd East
10328 – ASNSW Syd West
10329 – ASNSW Syd S/W
10330 – ASNSW Sydney Outer SW
10331 – ASNSW Sydney Rural West (Outer west/blue mts)
10333 – ASNSW
10334 – ASNSW
10335 – ASNSW
10336 – ASNSW
10339 – ASNSW
10341
10342 – ASNSW
10343 – ASNSW
10344 – ASNSW South Hospitals
10345
10346 – ASNSW West Hospitals
10381 – Hatzolah Net 1
10382 – Hatzolah Net 2
10383 – Hatzolah Net 3
10384 – Hatzolah Net 4
10385 – Hatzolah Net 5
10386 – Hatzolah Net 6
10387 – Hatzolah Net 7
10388 – Hatzolah Net 8
10389 – Hatzolah Net 9
10390 – Hatzolah Net 10
10402 – Corrective Services transports
10403 – Corrective Services VG visits
10404 – Corrective Services VK visits
10405 – Corrective Services NC visits
10406 – Corrective Services WG visits
10407 – Corrective Services
10408 – Corrective Services
10409 – Corrective Service external escorts
10411
10413 – Corrective Services
10414 – Corrective Services Secure Unit
10415 – Corrective Services
10419 – Corrective Services
10421 – Corrective Services projects
10422 – Corrective Services
10423 – Corrective Services
10427
10428
10429
10430
10451
10481
10501 –
10502
10510
10519
10527
10529
10561
10562
10563 –
10565
10566 –
10601 – Integral Energy – Control
10602 – Integral Energy – Control
10603 – Integral Energy – Control
10604 – Integral Energy – Control
10605 – Integral Energy – Control
10606 – Integral Energy – Control
10607 – Integral Energy – Control
10608 – Integral Energy – Control
10609 – Integral Energy – Control
10610 – Integral Energy – Consion Control
10611 – Integral Energy
10612 – Integral Energy
10613 – Integral Energy
10614 – Integral Energy
10615 – Integral Energy
10616 – Integral Energy
10617 – Integral Energy
10618 – Integral Energy
10619 – Integral Energy
10620 – Integral Energy
10621 – Integral Energy
10622 – Integral Energy – Katoomba
10623 – Integral Energy
10624 – Integral Energy – Penrith 1
10625 – Integral Energy – Penrith 2
10626 – Integral Energy – Windsor
10627 – Integral Energy – Kings Park 1
10628 – Integral Energy – Kings Park 2
10629 – Integral Energy – Parramatta 1
10630 – Integral Energy – Parramatta 2
10631 – Integral Energy – Hoxton 1
10632 – Integral Energy – Hoxton 2
10633 – Integral Energy – Narellan 1
10634 – Integral Energy – Narellan 2
10635 – Integral Energy
10636 – Integral Energy
10637 – Integral Energy
10638 – Integral Energy
10639 – Integral Energy
10640 – Integral Energy
10641 – Integral Energy
10642 – Integral Energy
10643 – Integral Energy
10644 – Integral Energy
10645 – Integral Energy – Radio techs and workshop
10649 – Integral Energy – ?
10701 – RTA Traffic Management Centre – State Operations
10702
10703
10704
10709
10718
10722
10725
10728
10821
10901 – Sydney Ferries
10905 – Sydney Ferries
10906 – Sydney Ferries
10907 – Sydney Ferries
10909 – Sydney Ferries
10910 – Sydney Ferries
10911 – Sydney Ferries
10914 – Sydney Ferries
10951 – NSW Maritime Sydney Region
10952 – NSW Maritime
10953 – NSW Maritime
10954 – NSW Maritime Harbour Cleaning
10955 – NSW Maritime Special talkgroup Alpha
10956 – NSW Maritime Special talkgroup Bravo
10957 – NSW Maritime
10958 – NSW Maritime
10959 – NSW Maritime
10960 – NSW Maritime
10961 – NSW Maritime
11001 – Juvenile Justice
11021 – Sheriff City
11022 – Sheriff West
11023 – Sheriff North
11024 – Sheriff Nth Region Back Ch 1
11025 – Sheriff South
11026 – Sheriff Sth Region Back Ch 1
11027 – Sheriff Tactical 1 (ch17)
11028 – Sheriff Tactical 2
11029 – Sheriff Tactical 3
11030 – Sheriff Joint Task Fed Sec Channel
11034
11071 – Sutherland Council
11072 – Sutherland Council
11073 – Sutherland Council
11074 – Sutherland Council depot / workshop
11075 – Sutherland Council
11076 – Sutherland Council Rangers
11077 – Sutherland Council Rangers back channel
11078 – Sutherland Council work crews
11079 – Sutherland Council
11080 – Sutherland Council
11081 – Sutherland Council
11082 – Sutherland Council
11101 – Rail
11136 – Rail CHAN 01
11144 – Rail channel 9
11145 – Rail Hunter Operations
11146 – Rail Hunter Incidents
11147 – Rail CHAN 12
11151 – Rail ‘all channels"
11158 – Rail
11168 – Rail SW Rail 1
11184 – Rail
11200 – Rail
11240 – Rail W’Gong 1
11316 – Rail
11317 – Rail
11320 – Rail
11321 – Rail
11322 – Rail
11323 – Rail
11324 – Rail
11325 – Rail
11421
11422
11441
11471 – ABC News
11472 – ABC News
11473 – ABC News
11474 – ABC News
11475 – ABC News
11931
19801 – short term rental
19802 – short term rental
19803 – short term rental
19804 – short term rental
19805 – short term rental
19811
19901 – Test talkgroup 1
19902 – Test talkgroup 2
19903 – Test talkgroup 3
19904 – Test talkgroup 4
19905 – Test talkgroup 5
19906 – Test talkgroup 6
19907
19931
11932
19933
19952
19954
19960
19999 – POP – 25
20000 – RFS GD07 BAR DRL
20001 – RFS GD11 CANBOLS
20002 – RFS GD12 CSTLRGH
20003 – RFS GD13 CHIFLEY
20004 – RFS GD15 CLARNCE
20005 – RFS GD19 CDGEGNG
20006 – RFS GD23 FARNHCO
20007 – RFS GD25 FAR WST
20008 – RFS GD32 HUNTER
20009 – RFS GD33 HUNTVAL
20010 – RFS GD36 LITHGOW
20011 – RFS GD37 LVPL RG
20012 – RFS GD40 LOWNHCO
20013 – RFS GD43 MANNING
20014 – RFS GD47 MD LACH
20015 – RFS GD49 MIDNHCO
20016 – RFS GD52 NMGWYDR
20017 – RFS GD53 NWENGLD
20018 – RFS GD54 NTH OPS
20019 – RFS GD55 NTHWEST
20020 – RFS GD56 NTHN RIV
20021 – RFS GD57 NTH TAB
20022 – RFS GD61 ORANA
20023 – RFS GD78 RGN NTH
20024 – RFS GD80 RGN WST
20025 – RFS GD89 TAMWRTH
20026 – RFS GD90 THE LKS
20027 – RFS GD92 WST OPS
20201 – SES 107-CN-TAC1
20202 – SES 108-CN-TAC2
20203 – SES 109-CN-TAC3
20204 – SES 110-CN-TAC4
20205 – SES 111-CN-TAC5
20206 – SES 112-CN-TAC6
20207 – SES 113-CN-TAC7
20208 – SES 114-CN-TAC8
20209 – SES 116-CNSTRAT
20210 – SES 127-CW-TAC1
20211 – SES 128-CW-TAC2
20212 – SES 129-CW-TAC3
20213 – SES 130-CW-TAC4
20214 – SES 131-CW-TAC5
20215 – SES 133-CWSTRAT
20216 – SES 135-FW-TAC1
20217 – SES 136-FW-TAC2
20218 – SES 137-FW-TAC3
20219 – SES 138-FW-TAC4
20220 – SES 139-FW-TAC5
20221 – SES 140-FW-TAC6
20222 – SES 142-FWSTRAT
20223 – SES 155-HU-TAC1
20224 – SES 156-HU-TAC2
20225 – SES 157-HU-TAC3
20226 – SES 158-HU-TAC4
20227 – SES 159-HU-TAC5
20228 – SES 160-HU-TAC6
20229 – SES 162-HUSTRAT
20230 – SES 173-LA-TAC1
20231 – SES 174-LA-TAC2
20232 – SES 175-LA-TAC3
20233 – SES 176-LA-TAC4
20234 – SES 177-LA-TAC5
20235 – SES 178-LA-TAC6
20236 – SES 180-LASTRAT
20237 – SES 1129-NM-TAC1
20238 – SES 1130-NM-TAC2
20239 – SES 1131-NM-TAC3
20240 – SES 1132-NM-TAC4
20241 – SES 1133-NM-TAC5
20242 – SES 1134-NM-TAC6
20243 – SES 1136-NMSTRAT
20244 – SES 1144-NW-TAC1
20245 – SES 1145-NW-TAC2
20246 – SES 1146-NW-TAC3
20247 – SES 1147-NW-TAC4
20248 – SES 1148-NW-TAC5
20249 – SES 1149-NW-TAC6
20250 – SES 1150-NW-TAC7
20251 – SES 1151-NW-TAC8
20252 – SES 1153-NWSTRAT
20253 – SES 1165-OX-TAC1
20254 – SES 1166-OX-TAC2
20255 – SES 1167-OX-TAC3
20256 – SES 1168-OX-TAC4
20257 – SES 1169-OX-TAC5
20258 – SES 1170-OX-TAC6
20259 – SES 1171-OX-TAC7
20260 – SES 1172-OX-TAC8
20261 – SES 1174-OXSTRAT
20262 – SES 1185-RT-TAC1
20263 – SES 1186-RT-TAC2
20264 – SES 1187-RT-TAC3
20265 – SES 1188-RT-TAC4
20266 – SES 1189-RT-TAC5
20267 – SES 1190-RT-TAC6
20268 – SES 1191-RT-TAC7
20269 – SES 1192-RT-TAC8
20270 – SES 1194-RTSTRAT
20301 – ASNSW Newcastle Operations
20302 – ASNSW Outer Hunter Operations
20303 – ASNSW Gosford Operations
20304 – ASNSW North Incident 1
20305 – ASNSW North Incident 2
20306 – ASNSW Hunter Hospitals
20307 – ASNSW Mid-West Operations 1
20308 – ASNSW Mid-West Operations 2
20309 – ASNSW Macquarie Operations 1
20310 – ASNSW Macquarie Operations 2
20311 – ASNSW New England Operations 1
20312 – ASNSW New England Operations 2
20313 – ASNSW West Incident 1
20314 – ASNSW West Incident 2
20320
20401
20402 – Corrective Services Tomago PDC
20403 – Corrective Services
20404
20406
20502 – Ausgrid
20505 – Ausgrid
20510 – Ausgrid
20513
20516
20519 – Ausgrid
20521
20522 – Ausgrid
20523
20524
20525 – Ausgrid Singleton Depot
21001 – Hunter Water East
21002 – Hunter Water
21003 – Hunter Water North
21004 – Hunter Water
21005 – Hunter Water
21006 – Hunter Water
21120
30000 – RFS GD09 BLD TEM
30001 – RFS GD24 FARSHCO
30002 – RFS GD31 HUME SB
30003 – RFS GD34 ILLWARA
30004 – RFS GD35 L GEORG
30005 – RFS GD41 LOWWSTN
30006 – RFS GD46 MIA
30007 – RFS GD48 MID MUR
30008 – RFS GD50 MID WST
30009 – RFS GD51 MONARO
30010 – RFS GD79 RGN STH
30011 – RFS GD81 RV HIGH
30012 – RFS GD82 RIVERNA
30013 – RFS GD83 SHOALHN
30014 – RFS GD84 STH OPS
30015 – RFS GD85 SWSZ
30016 – RFS GD86 STHN TD
30017 – RFS GD93 WNGCARI
30201 – SES 163-IS-TAC1
30202 – SES 164-IS-TAC2
30203 – SES 165-IS-TAC3
30204 – SES 166-IS-TAC4
30205 – SES 167-IS-TAC5
30206 – SES 168-IS-TAC6
30207 – SES 169-IS-TAC7
30208 – SES 170-IS-TAC8
30209 – SES 172-ISSTRAT
30210 – SES 181-ME-TAC1
30211 – SES 182-ME-TAC2
30212 – SES 183-ME-TAC3
30213 – SES 184-ME-TAC4
30214 – SES 185-ME-TAC5
30215 – SES 186-ME-TAC6
30216 – SES 187-ME-TAC7
30217 – SES 188-ME-TAC8
30218 – SES 190-MESTRAT
30219 – SES 1101-MQ-TAC1
30220 – SES 1102-MQ-TAC2
30221 – SES 1103-MQ-TAC3
30222 – SES 1104-MQ-TAC4
30223 – SES 1105-MQ-TAC5
30224 – SES 1106-MQ-TAC6
30225 – SES 1108-MQSTRAT
30226 – SES 1109-MY-TAC1
30227 – SES 1110-MY-TAC2
30228 – SES 1111-MY-TAC3
30229 – SES 1112-MY-TAC4
30230 – SES 1113-MY-TAC5
30231 – SES 1114-MY-TAC6
30232 – SES 1116-MYSTRAT
30233 – SES 1209-SH-TAC1
30234 – SES 1210-SH-TAC2
30235 – SES 1211-SH-TAC3
30236 – SES 1212-SH-TAC4
30237 – SES 1213-SH-TAC5
30238 – SES 1214-SH-TAC6
30239 – SES 1215-SH-TAC7
30240 – SES 1216-SH-TAC8
30241 – SES 1218-SHSTRAT
30302
30306
30401
30402
40013 – ACT Ambulance Ops 1
40032 – ACT
40038 – ACT
40050 – ACT (Encrypted – probably either ACTFB or ACTAS)
40051 – ACT (Encrypted – probably either ACTFB or ACTAS)
40052 – ACT (Encrypted – probably either ACTFB or ACTAS)
40055 – ACT Fire Brigade Ops 6
40068 – ACT RFS Ops 1
40069 – ACT RFS Ops 2
40070 – ACT RFS Ops 3
40071 – ACT RFS Ops 4
40072 – ACT RFS Ops 5
40073 – ACT RFS Ops 6
40074 – ACT RFS Ops 7
40075 – ACT RFS Ops 8
40076 – ACT RFS Ops 9
40077 – ACT RFS Ops 10
40078 – ACT SES Ops 1
40079 – ACT SES Ops 2
40080 – ACT SES Ops 3
40081 – ACT SES Ops 4
40082 – ACT SES Ops 5 (referred to as a "Vehicle to vehicle talkgroup")
40083 – ACT SES Ops 6
40084 – ACT SES Ops 7
40085 – ACT SES Ops 8
40086 – ACT SES Ops 9
40087 – ACT SES Ops 10
40088 – ACT SES Ops 11
40090 – ACT
40093 – ACT Parks and Conservation Service (replaced the old "PARKS 2" TG)
42000
42003
42005

Signals are much clearer and I’ll have to program up my scanner as I discover new talkgroups.

There now seems no point monitoring the analogue GRN.

I myself was once assaulted by a Police officer. I had an verbal altercation that was initiated by a neighbour at my work. There was a previous complaint of assault with this man. I was parked in the driveway for a matter of minutes and this blocked access to this neighbour. This prompted him to swear his head off at me and make threats of violence. I saw a Police officer and requested his assistance. He showed no interest in the altercation and proceeded to give me a parking fine. While disputing this parking fine with the officer this police man assaulted me. I was standing a metre away from him and was quite loud in my complaints. He shoved me. When questioned on why he assaulted me, he said I was invading his personal space. I complained to the Police area commander who showed no interest in the incident. I learnt then that if you have a complaint against NSW Police, you’re to complain to Police, which seems quite unfair and unjust, considering there was video surveillance footage of the entire incident.

Operating a business I also have from time to time been taken to the Consumer Trade and Tenancy Tribunal (also known as Dept. of Fair Trading). Every case I’ve won but its still a day or more of my time gone with no right for compensation for my time. I have a new case coming where I’ve offered a customer to collect their ordered product or a refund. The customer is not satisfied that I won’t provide numerous copies of the receipt or sign the receipt. I have no legal obligation to do this. So another wasted day in court.

Another problem at work is people parking in the driveway. If you call the Police about this issue they usually tell you that nothing can be done despite this document that states quite the opposite. If we lock the gate and happen to lock in a vehicle that was parked illegally, we’re in trouble, yet there is no issue of trespass? Apparently the entrance of every private property that does not contain fences in Australia must have a sign that says “Tow Away Area” – but convincing our estate agent to even maintain the building let alone install such a sign is something that cannot be done.

Another business owner I know last year was dragged over the counter by a customer. He called the Police about the assault. The Police refused to press charges on the basis that the customer intended to grab and steal a product rather than assault the retailer.

I have a very close friend who has a problem with alcohol and is on a road to recovery. They’ve had a couple run ins with the law in the past and yet no real help is given. On one incident she was sexually assaulted by several Police officers – however I’d already learnt there is no point complaining as the Police are self policing. It also seems very interesting that any call about her will see at least 6 Police officers turn up, yet for anyone else you’ll get 2.

Another incident she was very incoherent and suicidal yet despite the requests of her family and friends to be forcibly admitted to hospital for detox & suicide watch, this treatment was refused as they claimed she wasn’t drunk enough. She stated to Police she wanted to return home, and the Police had a duty of care to ensure she got there. So they dropped her off at the nearest Pub.

And the last incident she was so drunk she walked into an A-frame sign, fell on it, and was unable to stand up. The Police charged her with malicious damage despite the wishes of the owner of the sign. A witness who saw the incident was unable to be located so she plead guilty in court and in the end over a $250 sign that she paid to repair before going to court, she spent another $2,000 on legal fees and court fines.

There are quite some legal injustices in this country. When people tell me about problems overseas I laugh and tell them to focus on our own country.

NBN Co bought radio spectrum licenses from Austar the other day for $120 million to enable NBN Co to provide satellite internet to those who won’t be connected to the NBN or wireless. And then there is the other $43 billion.

Telstra the other day announced its planning to roll out LTE wireless technology soon and has conducted lab and field trials with Huawei. The lab trials achieved real world speeds of 150mbit on 20MHz of bandwidth while the field trials on 10MHz of bandwidth achieved nearly 70mbit. Telstra have also previously confirmed their 3G HSDPA network will be upgraded to 84mbit theoretical speeds this year.

Telstra’s announcement prompted Optus & Vodafone to also confirm they’re conducting trials with Huawei and will likely serve to rush the market into adopting faster 3G and LTE.

I also wonder about the public safety aspect of the NBN. Mobile phones have batteries these days that last days to weeks on standby, or hours when used in calls. The NBN requires battery backup systems to be employed in every home to ensure phone services will operate during a power outage. It will become a huge issue in the future with people unable to call emergency services in a power outage because their battery backup simply didn’t last long enough or the battery has not been replaced and does not hold charge.

So when ADSL2+ can deliver a maximum of 24mbit, and significantly faster wireless is coming in the next 2 years – there seems little point adopting the NBN (at least at 100mbit speeds). Its simply too little too late. I’m predicting that most will migrate to wireless services as their primary connection before the NBN is fully operational as it will simply be better than ADSL.

There is a lot of research that backs up the claim that talking on mobile phones impairs concentration which results in bad driving but I was only able to find 3 studies that compared mobile phone conversations with passenger conversations.

I’d really like to know how talking on a mobile phone is different to talking to a passenger. 2 of these 3 studies claim its because traffic and driving conditions become part of the conversation… but from my driving experience this mostly is not the case. To highlight this point even more – do children ever talk about driving with the driver or consider the drivers focus on the road?

So far I’ve only seen an ALP ad on TV which I found quite humorous.

The ALP is alleging that the Liberal Leader Barry O’Farrell intends to privatise electricity, water and ferries. They base this allegation on something that happened in 2008 – when Barry O’Farrell essentially refused to comment on their questions. Barry O’Farrell said “The one guarantee the public have is that before the next election, they’ll have our detailed energy policy.” Oh my! It certainly does sound like Liberal will privatise everything!

In addition this is the same ALP government that refused to build new electricity & water assets despite large shortages, and instead opted to build a water desalination plant at Kurnell which is the most expensive method to produce clean drinking water.

They’ve also stated they will provide households with $250 per year for electricity bills. Thats nice, but why don’t you do something about the price of electricity, such as commit to building new power plants.

The ALP also have attacked the Liberals for taking funding from tobacco companies and outlined their own actions against smoking. I’m not sure I agree that any of it has helped reduce the number of people who smoke, or serviced the state in any way, and therefore is money flushed down the toilet. Why does it matter where funding comes from? The ALP doesn’t seem to have any problem fraudulently declaring funding from property developers.

Senator Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, appears to be out of touch with the Internet industry. The only ISP to accept the ‘live-trial’ of a censorship system was iiNet, who claimed they’re participating to point out how errorant the governments proposal is. Not even Telstra accepted.

The ‘live-trial’ was quite interesting indeed. The government proposes we filter child pornography, and other ‘illegal content’ not yet defined. They’re proposing a filter with an absolute maximum of 10,000 entries. I fail to see how this will be useful in blocking any content. Additionally, the ‘live-trial’ will not be conducted on real-world ISP networks – infact, a much smaller network which completely nulls out any scalability testing. South Cross Cables claims to hold 480Gbps to the USA and new International carriers are soon to enter the market – any realistic ‘live-trial’ would be of a larger list, for significantly larger quantities of bandwidth.

The mention of Southern Cross Cables brings up another issue… if content within Australia can be successfully ‘taken down’ by law enforcement, why is the proposed censorship at the ISP level? Clearly the issue is with International bandwidth which places any censorship with International carriers like Southern Cross Cables, and not ISPs which are often small businesses who will likely find it difficult to finance any censorship systems.

The Unitied Kingdom is the Governments number 1 case example of Internet Censorship that works… its now hitting the headlines that the UK is filtering certain Wikipedia pages. I’m really surprised they don’t mention China as another location where Internet Censorship has worked.

I’m not the only one who holds the views that censorship isn’t the answer, and know a number of persons in the Internet industry who carry similar views to my own.

Instead of censorship – IP addressing should be ‘static’ by law. This will mean unique users can easily be identified on the Internet, and provided they don’t divulge the information, their address and name will remain private – obtainable only by a court order. Static addressing for all will also mean voluntary blocklists like anti-spam DNSBLs will be more effective, it should be much harder for a spammer to obtain a new address (relocation of ISP perhaps?). Telstra happens to be the largest offender of dynamic addressing in Australia. But don’t be fooled, it isn’t a national problem – its a global problem.

Greater regulation also needs to be created to deal with questionable online activities, ISPs divluging information to courts, and what justifies as undeniable evidence in the computer world.

Clearly Internet censorship is nothing to worry about. It may pass into law, but it’ll come and go. Just a few more billion dollars wasted by Krudd

Yesterday, there were protests across the country against the governments proposal to censor the Internet. As you can see from the above photo, it was a huge success in Sydney

UPDATE: APC Mag did a nice writeup on how much these protests sucked. Except they thought the opposite. Hundreds? What, across the whole country? These are the only people with Internet?