Cherchez la Femme (produced by Shack West) has been named in the top ten Melbourne podcasts by Time Out Melbourne.
How lovely!
Cherchez la Femme is a monthly digest of current affairs and popular culture from a feminist perspective, recorded live at The Gasometer in Collingwood.
Find out more, and participate in Cherchez la Femme.
In today’s Slate and republished by The Age Digital Life,
Matthew J.X. Malady asks if it’s time to kill the email sign-off?
We remain, sir/madam, your obedient servants.
Friend of Shack West Geoff Dudley is terrified for the future of the National Broadband Network – also known as the NBN.
Here is his recent email to The Age in response to an article published on 3rd March which suggests “the Coalition’s Malcolm Turnbull wants to save money by running fibre to cabinets that will sit on footpaths”.
The 20th century copper network was never designed for high speed data
Imagine you’re sitting in a state-of-the-art passenger jet, an Airbus A380. The plane has wooden wings because the manufacturer decided to save money on making metal ones on the urging of the Liberal Party. It’s not going to fly far or fast nor carry a full load because wooden planes are examples of ancient early 20th century technology.
Australia’s telephone copper network is also ancient 20th century technology. Yet the Coalition, if it gains office, wants to keep using that last few metres of ancient technology connected to your house or business, to save money. (The Age 3/3/13)
What part of “The copper network is not designed for high speed data” does the Opposition not understand? By keeping the copper, the end result is the same as that of a modern jet with wooden wings.
We must continue connecting the NBN by fibre to all our homes and businesses.
Geoff Dudley is a technology enthusiast and was a regular contributor to informative technology talk show Tech Talk Radio.
Shack West’s own “Dr Ron” attended the Australian International Airshow yesterday at Avalon, Melbourne.
He blogs about it here.
Websites which offer “reverse phone number” lookups have come and gone over the years.
Reverse Australia has been around for at least two years and offers a free, consistently useful service to its members.
If you’ve missed a call from a mystery number, simply enter the details and click Search. If the number is listed in the Reverse Australia database, the search results will include:
..a bit like this:
If you log into Facebook, more details become available. The creators of Reverse Australia use Facebook authentication to discourage people from abusing the service, running bots and so on. Your search results and other activity is not published on Facebook.
Sometimes a number isn’t listed. Sometimes silent numbers are listed. The data is sourced from publicly available databases like this one and may or may not be up-to-date.
With that in mind, Reverse Australia is a useful tool and a handy site to keep bookmarked.
Did you know Telstra has museums in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland?
The museums are run by a dedicated group of volunteers, committed to preserving Australia’s telecommunications history. From 19th century telegraphy sets used to send telegrams via Morse Code, to the not-so-long-ago ’007′ car phones and Telecom pagers, an enormous amount of equipment has been lovingly restored and made available for the general public.
Much of the equipment in these facilities is in working condition thanks to the commitment and expertise of the museums’ members.
Visits are highly recommended for school groups, nostalgic telephone engineers and radio and telecommunications enthusiasts. Inspection is by appointment only. If you’re interested, visit the Victorian Telecommunications Museum; the Telstra Museum Brisbane; or the Australasian Telephone Collectors’ Society in Sydney.
For more information about our telecommunications heritage, visit the Australian Historic Telephone Society website. There’s also a good video of the Hawthorn museum here.
Ron Killeen blogs about the state of Australian free-to-air television.
In case you hadn’t guessed, it’s in a bad way.
Thankyou everyone for your support in 2012. It’s been an exciting and productive year for Shack West.
We’ll be closed over the Christmas / New Year period, from Monday 24th December, returning Monday 7th January.
We hope you have a very merry Christmas, and a safe and prosperous New Year. We looking forward to working closely with everyone again in 2013. Assuming the world doesn’t end.
Shack West has been affiliated with the community radio show Tech Talk Radio for a long time.
Executive Producer Andrew McColm recently announced that after eight years, the show would be finishing up in December. Here’s what he had to say at the start of the most recent podcast, episode 411:
Tech Talk Radio will come to an end, as you know it, on Monday December the 3rd, 2012. The website, Twitter feeds and newsletters will continue, and there will be the occasional radio special from time-to-time on 3WBC in Melbourne and on this podcast feed.
For the show to continue in its current form we need sponsorship and advertising to fund it. If your organisation is in a position to help, now is the time to do this. Just contact us via the website.
Be sure to stay in touch with the crew. Here’s how:
Click here to subscribe to the email newsletter
Copy/paste this RSS link to subscribe to the podcast feed
(originally posted on
The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia is the national body which supports the development of community radio stations across the country.
One of the CBAA’s services is the Community Radio Network, a real-time satellite distribution system providing content to hundreds of metropolitan, regional and rural stations. Contributors upload their programs via a web interface to the Digital Delivery Network (DDN).
Two weeks ago, the CBAA reported its 10,000th program upload to the Community Radio Network via the DDN. This is no mean feat, and the CBAA has every right to be proud of this achievement. With cheaper access to faster internet, contributors have clearly embraced the DDN in place of old-fashioned delivery systems, like mailing audio CDs and memory sticks.
Much of the hard work in developing the DDN has been by CBAA Technical Consultant David Sice. Mr Sice has worked on the design and development of the DDN project since its early days as a capture system for live-to-air satellite delivery, as well as the DDN upload site and its online delivery add-ons.
The Satellite Operations Coordinator at the CBAA, Mr Martin Walters, said there are still some improvements to be made, but in the meantime, contributors should allow themselves a pat on the back.
At Shack West, we think the CBAA deserves a pat on the back too. There are so many regional and rural communities better-off for access to local, well produced Australian content on their community radio stations.
For information about contributing to the Community Radio Network, or accessing its content for your community station, contact the CBAA.