'Vandore' opinion column US farces Simon Vandore wants to put the 'e' in election. Scary Scott goes Bush Simon Vandore meets a political CEO and wonders about putting Bill Gates on ice. On the cards Simon Vandore looks at transaction security and the Peter Reith affair. Hot stock Simon Vandore looks at the sharp end of running a dot com. Always on Simon Vandore ponders dialup Internet, trampoline pits and nature strip techno-furniture. Bastards Incorporated Telstra is often its own worst enemy, according to Simon Vandore. Single cellular lifeform Simon Vandore skips GSM and goes straight to CDMA. Death of a die-hard Simon Vandore finally changes his browser religion. Extending the embrace What if the bubble didn't really burst, asks Simon Vandore. Did we all just f-f-fade away? The Internet has resulted in a new breed of careers, says Simon Vandore. For art's sake Are we getting any closer to the secret of making money from art and music online? Simon Vandore's not too sure. The spoiling of the virtual frontier Whatever happened to the Internet of 1994, ponders Simon Vandore. The game is not the same Online games can have real consequences, says recovering addict Simon Vandore. Get up, stand up! Simon Vandore wishes away his keyboard and mouse. Hail the big giant head Simon Vandore wonders if anyone is learning from silly Web investments. Harry Potter and the Web of clues Simon Vandore takes a broomstick to Australia's image on the Internet. Lars versus Lovetown There's nothing wrong with using MP3s to legitimately promote music, argues Simon Vandore. Nerds on film Hollywood is the last bastion of IT cluelessness, says Simon Vandore. Reading, writing and remedial Brush up your history and literacy, says Simon Vandore. Sidney meets the world Simon Vandore wonders if Australian technology will cope with an Olympic invasion. Sucker fish IT salaries are completely out of whack, says Simon Vandore. The Teknomatrix Simon Vandore has discovered the 'nightclub index' of Internet company fortunes. Thanks Juan, thanks HG Simon Vandore gets lost among the gizmos at Olympic Park. Vive l'overclockeur Heading to rural France reminds Simon Vandore that there is occasionally more to life than technology, but PCs still pop up in unexpected places. Web heroes There's more than money to the Web, says Simon Vandore. Whose time is now? Youthful rebellion today is happening online, says Simon Vandore. Battle of the 'dot orgs' Simon Vandore delves into an online war of words with a 10-day countdown. A word about the third Does anybody still care about virtual reality, wonders Simon Vandore. News stories Y2K guru predicts Olympic disaster A leading millennium bug expert has predicted trouble for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games ... Shark.com is no Lawsie scam Launching his new 'lifestyle' Web site Shark.com yesterday, golfer Greg Norman denied he is selling editorials to the highest bidder ... McNealy: Aussies need a niche Sun CEO Scott McNealy believes Australia lacks a clear identity in the high-tech world ... Millennium Master loses backer The financial backer of Y2K bug-fixing firm MFX Research, investment banker John Mitchell of JMT Mitchell & Co, has resigned from its board and the company has left his Sydney offices ... AMD rejoices as Intel chip shortage continues Intel officials claim a global shortage of its processors will last until March, affecting PC supplies in Australia ... auDA appoints boss The new Internet industry body charged with introducing competition to Australian domain name registration has chosen a CEO ... Followup interview: auDA boss: Public interest before politics [Note: For unspecified reasons, the interview subject left the position shortly afterwards.] Customers question Big Pond cable 'upgrades' Telstra now admits to recent problems with the Big Pond Advance (BPA) cable Internet service, but its customers refute its claims of successful repair ... Freemail launch marred by glitches Technology failed the latest Australian freemail service at its launch in Sydney last week. The hype was faultless, but nothing else went according to plan ... Greiner and Fischer take to the Net Two big names in conservative politics today announced directorships with emerging Internet companies ... Intel hypes ecommerce, wireless networks At its biannual conference this week, Intel has tried to reposition itself as a manufacturer of products for the Internet and electronic commerce, rather than just a processor company ... Olympic fanmail kicks off Australian athletes have welcomed the official Olympic FanMail site, launched today by IBM, which will store messages of support sent to competitors by the public ... Overclockers' favourite in short supply Local supplies of Intel's Celeron 300A processor appear to be drying up, following an apparent global shortage as Intel switches from its Slot 1 to its new Socket 370 form factor ... Thinergy thrives, but Microsoft stays home Microsoft has been conspicuous in its low-key presence at Citrix's inaugural Thinergy 98 conference in Orlando, Florida, this week ... Y2K tool backflip After just a few weeks on Australian shelves, IMSI's Year 2000 Now has been removed from the local market for legal reasons ... News features Dodgy brothers: The IT management dilemma Sex, drugs and scandal -- the IT industry has it all. The resignation in May of Chris Tyler, expatriate American CEO of Australian accounting software company Solution 6, hit the front page of national newspapers. It came after BRW magazine revealed his 1985 conviction in South Dakota for possessing "a couple of garbage bags" of marijuana ... The Dummies trademark spit Ruthless online policing of its well-known For Dummies trademark has earned technology publisher IDG Books (IDGB) notoriety on the Web. Sites containing the two words in sequence have received letters threatening legal action if the offending pages are not removed. Last week, the controversy reached Australia when a nonprofit arts group in Newcastle, NSW, satirised the book series ... Don't brand so close to me When Gordon Sumner, the artist known as Sting, lost his appeal for the rights to the sting.com domain name on July 20, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) made a landmark decision ... Cable Internet users angry again Complaints from users of Telstra's Big Pond Advance (BPA) cable Internet service have been flooding into Newswire, but the company denies there is a problem ... Hacking the bad guys You’ve seen it thousands of times on TV. At the crime scene, the detective carefully places the bloody knife or fragment of hair into a plastic bag for forensics. But what happens if the evidence is digital? Tracking digital fingerprints can be as important to modern police work as dusting for physical ones ... The spectrum auction circus When the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) auctioned off 3.4GHz radio spectrum last month, the government banned Telstra from bidding on most of the bandwidth offered ... Star struck! Open source suite challenges Office A new assault on Microsoft's domination of the productivity software market has begun ... 5 Minute Guides 3G mobile phones Banner ads ADSL Online Auctions Internet Censorship Online share trading Domain names Recordable DVD Encryption Free email services The free software movement File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Hackers and the law What's wrong with my Internet connection? Legacy-free PCs The 'love bug' and other viruses Monitors/screens/displays Outsourcing Software patches Internet payment gateways PDA viruses Portals, vortals, sportals Application rental Scripting Searching the Web Speech recognition Standards Stock market floats Internet telephony The 64-bit chips Virus prevention and removal Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Going wireless