Software runs my life

Month: November 2007

Folding Turkeys

We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia, however I still found a new article on the Stanford Folding website quite interesting. It relates to the importance of some turkey proteins in the study of folding. Why are they important? Well according to the article the protein fluoresces when hit with light of a particular frequency. This fluorescence can then be accurately measured and documented to track the folding process.

I have been folding for some time now and have amassed quite a few WU (Work Units). If you are interested in using a spare core or two of your shiny new computers then please come and join Overclockers Australia, we need all the help we can get!

Federal Election 2007

Labor has won the Australian Federal Election for 2007, congratulations. This election was particularly interesting for myself due to the large promises made on the issue of broadband. Both parties had ‘plans’ for the future, however thin their understanding of the real issues was.
The Liberal party adopted more of a laissez-faire attitude, hoping that the private sector will find its way eventually (with some prodding of Telstra and subsidies/grants for enterprises). The Labor party on the other hand proposed a higher level of government investment and control. Whirlpool wrote a better summary on these policies than I ever could.

Is it really possible to wrestle control of the network monopoly back from Telstra? It depends on the three amigos level of aggression, which to date has proven to be considerable. The contract will have to go to Telstra, but can operational seperation then provide a reward from this investment? Will Labor even have the guts to take it that far? Never mind the guts, will have the legal argument to get what they want?

In reality no-one knows. I find it quite funny that the Labor party’s second highest value promise (behind tax cuts) is not even completely understood, let alone debated. I guess we just have to be happy that finally technology is getting some kind of attention at a national level, even if no-one understands anything much beyond that importance.

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