Agreed. Civ III is pretty lame given the wait for it. Vote with your wallet against a dull game and Infogames's stupidity and just don't buy it, and advise your friends not to as well. It's even got copy protection that means it won't run under VMware, so I had to boot to Windoze to play it:-(
Can anyone else remember the sci-fi story that
Memento's premise is obviously (?) based on.
Some guy captured by "the enemy" and given a
drug that kills his short term memory except
he's been specially trained to "handle it.
Most memorable line was "Look around!" IIRC.
Insufficient investment incentives:
"The fact that business R & D (the so-called BERD) remains at persistently low levels in Australia may be interpreted as a failure to provide sufficient incentives."
Maybe, however even when the R&D tax
concession was 150% there was neglible
R&D done. Australian companies are
EXTREMELY loathe to "spend money to
make money" - they seem to think that
that's the government's job (eg. CSIRO).
Sucks big time.
Inadequate infrastructure and bandwith:
"There has not been sufficient deregulation of Australia's communications industries to induce participants to roll-out broadband technology rapidly at a reasonable price."
Not really true any more - we have good
cable and ADSL availability (now)...
some have argued that we have excess
broadband capability since, for example,
many places have the choice of Optus or
Telstra for cable, and the cost of two
completely separate infrastructures is
ludicrous. Compare this with the USA
where, AFAIK, in many/most places there
is a designated local telco who supplies
your 'phone/cable/whatever and you get no
choice in the matter. I would like to see
Microsoft spend the b/millions required
to roll out broadband infrastructure to
the relatively small market here in Oz!
Boy would they complain then when they
couldn't make a buck!
Insufficient support for information economy R&D:
"The R & D tax concession is not well focused on boosting the future competitiveness of the Australian economy."
Um, how do you "focus" a general tax
concession that is pretty indiscriminate?
AFAIK pretty-well anyone doing anything
deemed to be R&D can get the concession.
Convincing the ATO (Oz for IRS) that it
is R&D remains the hard part:-(
Failure to create local centres of excellence:
"Companies like Microsoft will locate their R&D centres where a large talent pool exists and major research efforts are taking place. Australia could stand to benefit if it were able to increase the competitiveness of its institutions of higher education and encourage the development of centres of specialisation."
We have a few *very* good CoE's, though
not many/any in IT (eg. Melbourne's
photonics group is world class,
apparently). Like some one else said,
all M$ would want these for is to poach
from anyway.
On the other hand, the present government
especially acts as if it is anti-
intellectual. Unis must be businesses
now, which makes it very difficult for
researchers.
Failure to protect against piracy:
"The unique situation in Australia is that the proposal to remove deregulation of parallel importation protection creates opportunities for piracy and counterfeiting."
I'm sure the author believes there is
some logic in there somewhere, but I
fail to see it. Standard M$ crap?
A skills shortage:
"Australia faces many specific hurdles to train and retain skilled people."
And, unfortunately, the dotcom mania in
the US is largely to blame for the IT
shortage. Lack of government or business
investment in other areas is to blame,
since the best-and-brightest will go to
wherever the most interesting/well paid
work is, and that ain't here:-(
Technology security:
"The recent denial of service attacks against web sites, the proliferation of viruses and the criminal activities of hackers remind us how ever of the importance of a strong public-private partnership".
Why is this directed at the OZ gov?
Lack of access to capital:
"By re-evaluating Australia's banking and finance laws, there may be opportunities to stimulate this increased investment."
Ho ho! Australia has one of the most
deregulated banking and financial sectors
in the world (sadly, some would say).
Short of the government mandating that
banks give M$ money, I really don't know
what they want.
What _is_ a problem is one that's similar
in the US.... superannuation funds (ie.
retirment investment funds). These guys
have **HUGE** buckets of money to spend,
but unfortunately they are severely
limited in what they can/will invest it
in, and venture capital things is not
one of them, since the legal and
"investor" backlash if the venture fails
is not worth the risk to them. Some form
of incentive/requirement that these funds
invest in R&D or VC stuff would be good.
AFAIK, it's not as bad in the US coz
everyone was jumping on the dotcom
bandwagon so the funds there had to as
well - it wasn't quite as manic here
(for better or for worse).
Inability of some groups to have Internet access:
"There is still much work to be done and the solution lies in cooperative efforts among industry."
Probably more of a problem in the USA
than here. As pointed out by another
poster, there are public access points
available for the really poor, however
in general Oz has a much smaller
percentage and number of these really
poor than the USA (though the
distribution is flattening out). We don't
have quite the range of extremes in
wealth and poverty here as in the US.
Despite the fact that I disagree with
much of what they said, it must be said
that Australia's current goverment, in
keeping with most of our governments, is
extremely short-sighted when it comes to
anything other than primary producers -
if you can't eat it or it doesn't come
out of the ground, it's not worth
thinking about.
This is not helped by the fact that the
current minister for telecommunications,
Richard Alston, is breathtakingly
incompetent. Some of the decisions this
goverment have made are absolutely
brain-numbingly dumb. Sadly, we are so
used to that here no-one really gets
upset anymore:-(
I am curious why M$ even care. As a
market, Oz is insignificant (pop. of
20 million or so). India's middle-class
is a much bigger and more lucrative
group than all of us put together - why
don't they whinge about them instead:-)
You will not get your current US$ salary in "converted" AU$. You should/might get the same figure, depending on your skills. As another poster said, C++ is more common, though I feel/think that Java is increasing slowly (mebbe that's coz we don't have as many dot.com's crying out for fast code:-).
That said, I have just returned from 2 weeks in Boston MA and my feeling is that the cost of living between MA/USA and Victoria/AUS (where I am) are pretty much the same dollar-for-dollar. So, it will cost say US$100 to feed yourself in Boston and AU$100 to feed yourself in AUS (roughly). If you want the same salary to live the same life[style], no probs, but if you have to pay off US$ debts, worry.
FYI, Sydney pays best but the cost of living, especially rent, is much higher. Melbourne pays second best, and is probably the best compromise, unless you want somewhere _always_ warm [Melbourne is warm in Summer but cool-to-cold in winter].
If you are seriously considering moving over, feel free to e-mail me with any questions.
PS. You need to brush up on your English before you come:-):-):-) ["duel" -> "dual"]
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Agreed. Civ III is pretty lame given the wait for it. Vote with your wallet against a dull game and Infogames's stupidity and just don't buy it, and advise your friends not to as well. It's even got copy protection that means it won't run under VMware, so I had to boot to Windoze to play it :-(
Can anyone else remember the sci-fi story that Memento's premise is obviously (?) based on. Some guy captured by "the enemy" and given a drug that kills his short term memory except he's been specially trained to "handle it. Most memorable line was "Look around!" IIRC.
As an IT worker in Oz ...
...
:-(
:-(
.... superannuation funds (ie.
:-(
:-)
Insufficient investment incentives:
"The fact that business R & D (the so-called BERD) remains at persistently low levels in Australia may be interpreted as a failure to provide sufficient incentives."
Maybe, however even when the R&D tax
concession was 150% there was neglible
R&D done. Australian companies are
EXTREMELY loathe to "spend money to
make money" - they seem to think that
that's the government's job (eg. CSIRO).
Sucks big time.
Inadequate infrastructure and bandwith:
"There has not been sufficient deregulation of Australia's communications industries to induce participants to roll-out broadband technology rapidly at a reasonable price."
Not really true any more - we have good
cable and ADSL availability (now)
some have argued that we have excess
broadband capability since, for example,
many places have the choice of Optus or
Telstra for cable, and the cost of two
completely separate infrastructures is
ludicrous. Compare this with the USA
where, AFAIK, in many/most places there
is a designated local telco who supplies
your 'phone/cable/whatever and you get no
choice in the matter. I would like to see
Microsoft spend the b/millions required
to roll out broadband infrastructure to
the relatively small market here in Oz!
Boy would they complain then when they
couldn't make a buck!
Insufficient support for information economy R&D:
"The R & D tax concession is not well focused on boosting the future competitiveness of the Australian economy."
Um, how do you "focus" a general tax
concession that is pretty indiscriminate?
AFAIK pretty-well anyone doing anything
deemed to be R&D can get the concession.
Convincing the ATO (Oz for IRS) that it
is R&D remains the hard part
Failure to create local centres of excellence:
"Companies like Microsoft will locate their R&D centres where a large talent pool exists and major research efforts are taking place. Australia could stand to benefit if it were able to increase the competitiveness of its institutions of higher education and encourage the development of centres of specialisation."
We have a few *very* good CoE's, though
not many/any in IT (eg. Melbourne's
photonics group is world class,
apparently). Like some one else said,
all M$ would want these for is to poach
from anyway.
On the other hand, the present government
especially acts as if it is anti-
intellectual. Unis must be businesses
now, which makes it very difficult for
researchers.
Failure to protect against piracy:
"The unique situation in Australia is that the proposal to remove deregulation of parallel importation protection creates opportunities for piracy and counterfeiting."
I'm sure the author believes there is
some logic in there somewhere, but I
fail to see it. Standard M$ crap?
A skills shortage:
"Australia faces many specific hurdles to train and retain skilled people."
And, unfortunately, the dotcom mania in
the US is largely to blame for the IT
shortage. Lack of government or business
investment in other areas is to blame,
since the best-and-brightest will go to
wherever the most interesting/well paid
work is, and that ain't here
Technology security:
"The recent denial of service attacks against web sites, the proliferation of viruses and the criminal activities of hackers remind us how ever of the importance of a strong public-private partnership".
Why is this directed at the OZ gov?
Lack of access to capital:
"By re-evaluating Australia's banking and finance laws, there may be opportunities to stimulate this increased investment."
Ho ho! Australia has one of the most
deregulated banking and financial sectors
in the world (sadly, some would say).
Short of the government mandating that
banks give M$ money, I really don't know
what they want.
What _is_ a problem is one that's similar
in the US
retirment investment funds). These guys
have **HUGE** buckets of money to spend,
but unfortunately they are severely
limited in what they can/will invest it
in, and venture capital things is not
one of them, since the legal and
"investor" backlash if the venture fails
is not worth the risk to them. Some form
of incentive/requirement that these funds
invest in R&D or VC stuff would be good.
AFAIK, it's not as bad in the US coz
everyone was jumping on the dotcom
bandwagon so the funds there had to as
well - it wasn't quite as manic here
(for better or for worse).
Inability of some groups to have Internet access:
"There is still much work to be done and the solution lies in cooperative efforts among industry."
Probably more of a problem in the USA
than here. As pointed out by another
poster, there are public access points
available for the really poor, however
in general Oz has a much smaller
percentage and number of these really
poor than the USA (though the
distribution is flattening out). We don't
have quite the range of extremes in
wealth and poverty here as in the US.
Despite the fact that I disagree with
much of what they said, it must be said
that Australia's current goverment, in
keeping with most of our governments, is
extremely short-sighted when it comes to
anything other than primary producers -
if you can't eat it or it doesn't come
out of the ground, it's not worth
thinking about.
This is not helped by the fact that the
current minister for telecommunications,
Richard Alston, is breathtakingly
incompetent. Some of the decisions this
goverment have made are absolutely
brain-numbingly dumb. Sadly, we are so
used to that here no-one really gets
upset anymore
I am curious why M$ even care. As a
market, Oz is insignificant (pop. of
20 million or so). India's middle-class
is a much bigger and more lucrative
group than all of us put together - why
don't they whinge about them instead
That said, I have just returned from 2 weeks in Boston MA and my feeling is that the cost of living between MA/USA and Victoria/AUS (where I am) are pretty much the same dollar-for-dollar. So, it will cost say US$100 to feed yourself in Boston and AU$100 to feed yourself in AUS (roughly). If you want the same salary to live the same life[style], no probs, but if you have to pay off US$ debts, worry.
FYI, Sydney pays best but the cost of living, especially rent, is much higher. Melbourne pays second best, and is probably the best compromise, unless you want somewhere _always_ warm [Melbourne is warm in Summer but cool-to-cold in winter].
If you are seriously considering moving over, feel free to e-mail me with any questions.
PS. You need to brush up on your English before you come :-) :-) :-) ["duel" -> "dual"]