Stories by Julian Bajkowski

Alleged spammer faces court over 56 million e-mails

The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) is going for its first public collar under the Spam Act putting a Perth man before the Federal Court on July 20 for allegedly distributing 56 million unsolicited e-mails and harvesting people's e-mail addresses.

Oracle to overhaul pricing

Database and applications software vendor Oracle will redefine the licensing models for its customers in an effort to consolidate and simplify the grab-bag of charging regimes it has inherited through recent acquisitions.

Verdict in on e-government

Australia's use of online government services has nearly doubled over the last two years, with taxpayers swapping standing in queues for Web transactions, according to the most comprehensive study of the subject to date.

Heads rotate at Red Hat

Enterprise Linux vendor Red Hat's Australian office has a new managing director, with Max McLaren taking over from Gus Robertson, who has been promoted to as Asia Pacific vice president for channels and alliances.

Oracle Australia MD quits

The managing director of Oracle Corporation's Australian arm, Leigh Warren, has quit the company less than a week before the vendor's US-based president Charles Phillips visits Australia.

Unisys recruits outsourcing aficionado

Multinational IT services heavyweight Unisys has adopted a war footing on the lobbying front, appointing a former NSW premier, Howard government finance minister and 1990s whole-of-government outsourcing enforcer, John Fahey to the advisory board of its Australian arm.

Intel, Apple and the great DRM land grab

It's been a very weird two weeks in the land of motherboards and CPUs. Weird enough to keep normally vociferous vendors near silent on issues they would normally bury with a D5 bulldozer.

Further spyware controls under consideration

The federal government may consider a range of further curbs to regulate the use of so-called spyware, but will look for pragmatic solutions from the corporate sector, public interest groups and IT vendors rather than take a legal stick to the problem.

Mincom digs deep into Chinese market

Australia's ballooning $19 billion ICT trade deficit has been dealt a pin-prick with veteran Queensland ERP stalwart Mincom making a strategic foray into the booming Chinese resources sector.

E-crime course sinks with university closure

A high-profile computer crime degree certificate course at Melbourne University Private (MUP) has closed its doors to new enrolments as a result of the tertiary institution falling on hard times.

Biometric nation

With Federal government hitching its border security to the biometrics bandwagon, two knowledgeable ex-feds give their frank and differing views on where the taxpayer-funded romance with the technology is heading. Julian Bajkowski reports.

Abetz backs privacy overhaul

The man in charge of enforcing whole-of-government IT cohesion, Special Minister of State Senator Eric Abetz, has publicly backed calls from Federal Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis for a wider review of Australia's privacy laws.

Home-grown CRM tastes better for car club

IT managers pondering vendor promises of what the so-called second wave of customer relationship management (CRM) applications can deliver could do worse than have a hot cup of tea, and a long hard look at their information architecture.

[]