Despite his charming smile as wide as a golden wheat field at the end of summer, Malcolm is an idiot. He demanded Labor do some unnecessary costing for what was was (is and should be) a brilliant idea: a fast NBN delivered to every home in Australia, providing the best value for developing businesses, innovation, entertainment and for general communications. Yes, Malcolm had to muddle it for all of us. His "preferred option" was to use 19th century technology, wires that mostly date from pre-world war two (and made in Germany) and a bit of late twentieth century blue optic cable. If you think that this concoction is idiotic, you are correct. Malcolm was, is and will be a smiling idiot as he tries to justify this Frankenstein monster of a network with "business models", "costs of this and that", "speed of delivery" and various explanation that smell of Rupert Murdoch all over. 

He might succeed in fooling you, but that only proves you're a bigger idiot than he is.

Cormann on AFP raidsHere at Parliament House, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has been repeatedly asked if the government was in contact with NBNco regarding the leaked document. 
Senator Cormann referred media to the statement issued by the Australian Federal Police, which he emphasised was “completely independent from political interference”. 

Mark Dreyfus says police "should have thought more and been more cautious about what the appearance of this might have been".
Mr Dreyfus went on to say that "we've got Mr Turnbull going after whistleblowers”.
They are people to be admired for their work.
Earlier, senior Coalition Minister Christopher Pyne told Channel Nine that Labor had politicised the Australian Federal Police.
Mr Pyne said it was extraordinary "that Mark Dreyfus and the Labor Party have chosen to take, rather than simply cooperating with the police and doing the right thing, they have tried to politicise an Australian Federal Police investigation into the leaks".

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So what is the problem here? An NBN document that shows that the Turnbull/Abbott government has fucuped on the NBN? a) the public has the right to know and b) the opposition has the right to know. And c) the government of Turnbull/Abbott via Mr Whine Pyne, has no right to call this a politicisation of the AFP, when a) the document is a political/economic issue for which the AFP seems to have been alerted very quickly, when in regard to the Slipper affair, in which Whine Pyne is probably involved to the eyeballs, it has dragged its feet for nearly four years...

It is unclear exactly what leaks the Australian federal police are investigating in their raids on Labor party offices in Melbourne, but they are likely to be connected with reports of cost blow-outs and significant delays in the roll-out of the National Broadband Network.

As part of his election promises in 2007, Kevin Rudd proposed spending $43bn on a high-speed national broadband network. Once elected, the plan was put in motion.

It involved the installation of a huge network of fibre optic cable (which carries information in the form of light pulses), that would bring super-fast internet directly to 93% of homes and business around the country.

It was expected to deliver initial speeds of up to 1000 megabits per second. But with the potential for upgrades at the exchange and at the home, it was thought the network would be future-proofed, capable of higher speeds as technology improved. The plan was labelled “fibre-to-the-home”.

As communications spokesman in the Abbott-led opposition, Malcolm Turnbull proposed a cut-price, speed-compromised version of the NBN under the three-word slogan: “Fast. Affordable. Sooner.”

Turnbull argued that Labor’s plan was over-the-top and that most applications needed only 12mpbs. To cut costs and deliver the network faster, the then-opposition proposed a “fibre-to-the-node” network.

It would lay fibre-optic cable to nodes on street corners, which would then use the old copper networks, used for landline telephones, to make the final stretch to people’s homes. It would allow for speeds no higher than 50 to 100mbps, with little opportunity for future upgrades.

The Coalition argued it would cost between $7bn and $10bn less than the Labor plan, and would be delivered two years earlier.

After the Coalition won power at the 2013 election, analysis and leaks began to appear, suggesting the plan was not only going to deliver a slower network, but would also take longer and cost more.

One leak revealed by Fairfax Media in February reported important targets were being missed, caused by faults and delays with constructions and approvals, as well as material shortages.

It said only 29,000 connections had been completed, compared with a target of 94,000, and the cost of each connection had risen by 23%.

Official figures from the NBN now say the roll-out will cost between $46bn and $56bn – more than Labor’s $43bn plan that the Coalition derided as too expensive. And with the target of delivering it two years earlier than Labor looking impossible, the official delivery date is now “as soon as possible”.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/20/nbn-the-trouble-with-coalitions-plan-for-quicker-and-cheaper-broadband

Turnbull is an idiot. 

The leaks were damaging for the company because the documents suggested it was lagging behind expected timeframes for work to be complete.

Today's statement from the company went on to address those reports.

"NBN has a proven track record and has, over the last two years, met or exceeded its key targets as set by the board," it said.

"While risks do exist, the company is confident it can continue to meet or exceed all company targets including the build schedule, activations, and financial budget."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-20/nbn-agrees-to-destroy-photos/7433574

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What the company does not tell you is the NBN targets (speed, delivery, efficiency) are now so low that at one point or another they can be met at about twice the cost which is the "new" financial budget anyway. The NBN boffins, under instruction from their new Liberal (CONservative) masters do not want you to see the real figures of "speed, delivery, efficiency and cost", otherwise they would not pursue the documents. 

We the funding public are entitled to know the raw data before it is sauced up by the politicians with porkies. Mind you, we do not need documentation to know that the project is a total Malcolm Ballsup special, under instruction from Rupert. All we have to do is look around.

It's ludicrous that an innovative "prime Minister" would think that 12 bops is good enough... Turnbull is a smiling idiot.

The answer here is simple: the government of Australia. Who is the government of Australia? Us. We own the government of Australia. Thus we own the NBN, how crappy malcolm made it. Thus we own the documents that comes out of the NBN. Simple. Meanwhile the bullshit flows from Turnbull :

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says it is "inconceivable" the Communications Minister knew about a possible Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation into leaks from the NBN Co and did not tell the Prime Minister.

• Mitch Fifield says NBN Co made the decision to refer leaks to the AFP
• PM stresses the investigation is being conducted independent of the Government
• Labor calls for more fulsome explanation of the Government's knowledge of probe

AFP officers on Thursday night searched the office of Labor frontbencher Stephen Conroy and the homes of two Labor staffers in Melbourne.

Police are investigating what NBN Co says is a probe relating to the "ongoing theft of intellectual property" after the leaking of documents last year that suggested it was lagging behind expected timeframes for work to be complete.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said in a statement NBN Co had told him the matter had been referred to the AFP, but he was not involved in making the decision.

"The referral to the AFP was made by the NBN senior management. I did not instruct nor request them to do so," he said.

"It was quite properly a matter for NBN.

"As an AFP investigation was underway, I did not advise other ministers or the Prime Minister of this matter."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was appropriate Senator Fifield knew of the investigation and did not pass the information on to him.

"That is a matter of judgement for him," he said.

"The important thing to bear in mind, the critical thing, is that the Australian Federal Police investigation, the decision to investigate, and the decision to take the steps yesterday were decisions taken independently by the Australian Federal Police as the commissioner has confirmed."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-21/shorten-questions-whether-fifield-told-pm-of-nbn-leak-probe/7434432

China is super-sizing science.

From building the biggest experiments the world has ever seen to rolling out the latest medical advances on a massive scale and pushing the boundaries of exploration from the deepest ocean to outer space - China’s scientific ambitions are immense.

Just a few decades ago the nation barely featured in the world science rankings. Now, in terms of research spending and the number of scientific papers published, it stands only behind the US.

But despite this rapid progress, China faces a number of challenges.

Here are five key science projects that illustrate its enormous strengths, as well as some of its weaknesses, and may help answer the question whether China can become a global leader in research.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-0192822d-14f1-432b-bd25-92eab6466362

Meanwhile, the new "innovation" financial programme by Turdball is in line with his publicly financing a fraudulent rain-making device before the 2007 elections. It also resonates with his decimation of the CSIRO's climate science in favour of the development of a patentable newfangled toilet brush while of course following his hybrid copper NBN which is not worth the future of communication in Uganda. Actually Uganda could have better internet with less "noise" on its phone network — possibly because less people are using it. 

Now is when we need people like Mandelbrot (he sorted out the telephone line-noise problem for IBM in the 1970s — noise which still plagues about 100 per cent of the Australian landline phone network), as well as Franklin and Einstein to explain REAL sciences to the savage mongrels of Australian politics, namely Turnbull, Abbott and the other idiots in the Liberal (CONservative) Party — or even lead the republican revolution like Benjamin Franklin did in America. 

See oil on water...

As well see also the bright minds of the Chinese population battling out in memory contests that would defeat Rain Man in a jiffy...

Australians do not need the super-fast internet speeds promised when Labor wanted to roll out the National Broadband Network, Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne says.

• Christopher Pyne defends Coalition's roll out of NBN
• Anthony Albanese says network is about economy, not watching movies
• Pyne accuses media of beating up on Immigration Minister over refugee comments

Labor headed into the 2013 election promising its NBN would deliver download speeds of 1Gbps through a network mainly consisting of fibre to the home.

The Coalition's version aims to have significantly slower download speeds of 25Mbps, but was pitched as having a smaller price tag and earlier completion date.

In the wake of AFP raids over the leaking of documents showing cost blow-outs with the network, Mr Pyne was asked on Q&A if the Government regretted its policy.

"Absolutely not," Mr Pyne said, "And there has not been a delay of the NBN".

Mr Pyne, the Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry, said the Coalition's NBN would cost "$30 billion less" and "it will all be finished by 2020, not 2024 as Labor was promising".

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-24/pyne-defends-coalitions-nbn-plans-after-afp-raids/7438732

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As it stands, the coalition NBN never will be properly "finished" and by 2020, MOST AUSTRALIANS will need internet speed of at least 500 bops. by 2023, MOST AUSTRALIANS  will need 1Gbs (1000 bops).

By 2020, with Pyne/Turdball's erzatz of a bad mixed connections, you will be lucky to get 12 bops. 

Get rid of these idiots. They want you to drive old model T Fords while they will enjoy the luxury of a Ferrari — not that they would know how to use it as most of these mongrels are internet illiterates...

There are far too many news on this front, but here is a selection:

Telstra has once again won work with nbn, the entity building Australia's national broadband network (NBN), announcing it's secured a contract worth AU$1.6 billion to work on the hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) cable broadband network to sold to nbn.

The biggest beneficiary of NBN policy of successive governments, the incumbent announced the new deal here.

The contract covers planning, design, construction, and construction management services in the Telstra HFC footprint, and follows a contract last December to redesign the network to support DOCSIS 3.1.

DOCSIS 3.1 is a key plank of the government's strategy, since it runs so fast it can't be reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Read more: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/10/telstra_being_paid_to_fix_telstras_network_for_nbn_again/

As you know, I know a lot about about the deteriorating Telstra copper network for having talked to a lot of technicians trying to fix the impossible. If it works still is not due to the network being in a good shape but by the grace of god (I am an atheist). We have been lucky about El Nino. It has not notably rained for the last six months. As soon as the first deluge of La Nana comes in, we're good for more outage of the network, though it can still get arse up without rain:

Australia's dominant carrier, Telstra, is enduring more customer fury after extended outages stretched across its ADSL, NBN, and mobile networks.

The carrier has blamed network hardware for the TITSUP (Total Inability To Support Usual Performance), issuing a statement saying a Friday outage resulted from “a fault with the device that manages the interaction between our network and all the different types of customer modems”.

The problems began last Thursday night, and Telstra thought it was time to breathe a sigh of relief on Saturday when it announced the issue had been resolved.

Read more: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/23/telstras_horror_run_continues_with_titsups_on_three_networks/

"All material seized during this warrant will be handled in accordance with the provisions and guidelines relating to Parliamentary Privilege," it stated.

"The AFP is satisfied that it is acting lawfully in accordance with relevant legislation and guidelines."

The search warrant reveals the wide net the AFP is casting in its investigation.

Police want access computers, hard drives, tablets and storage devices to source email account details, emails and email logs, scanning logs, government records, correspondence and diary records.

They are looking for specific documents that relate to the progress of the national broadband networks, and correspondence between staff who had worked for Senator Conroy and media organisations including the ABC.

At the time of the May raids, AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the matter was referred to his agency in December 2015 by NBN Co, not the Federal Government.

According to AFP guidelines, documents claimed under parliamentary privilege are not taken by the police but instead sealed in a bag to be considered by the Senate as to whether privilege does indeed apply.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-24/afp-to-raid-parliament-house-over-nbn-document-leak/7779394

Who owns NBN Co? 

ANSWER: THE GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA.

Who owns the government of Australia?

ANSWER: US, THE PEOPLE

Are we entitled to know what the NBN Co is doing?

ANSWER: CERTAINLY. THERE IS NO commercial in confidence secrets to be maintained here. Deals that the NBN Co makes with private enterprise s HAVE TO BE ON THE TABLE. 

Is this a witch hunt?

ANSWER: YES. 

Malcolm should be ashamed of his crappy NBN...

The Turnbull government will seek to introduce a new levy on telecommunications companies to help pay for the roll-out of the NBN in regional areas, a change it admits will lead to higher prices for internet consumers.

The move goes against the advice of the government's own hand-picked expert panel, which warned such a levy "causes greater distortions than it is intended to remedy".

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/this-could-cripple...

The simple plan would have been to let the original Labor plan go as it should have... Malcolm has been fiddling with cables and we'll be poorer for it.

see also:

The company running the National Broadband Network has stripped information from its website that allowed Australians to see which type of broadband technology is expected to be delivered to their street.

The website, updated in the days before Christmas, now provides information about when the NBN is expected to be available in various suburbs but not which technology they are scheduled to receive under the Coalition's "multi-technology mix" model.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/nbn-strips-informa...

Malcolm Turnbull has said he is “keenly aware” of the pain some customers are experiencing with the national broadband network NBN, but he is “absolutely on top” of the issue.

The prime minister was forced to defend the NBN this week after a parliamentary committee handed down a scathing report into the project following a year-long investigation, calling for more transparency and accountability for those with complaints.

Turnbull, who had control over the project while he was communications minister, said it was “in hand”, and many of the complaints were the responsibility of the telcos who use the network.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/06/turnbull-keenly-aware...

Don't believe a word of Malcolm's shit. This is disgraceful. Imagine that, according to Turshotbillshat,  the "telcos are not buying enough space on NBN so they can make their customers miserable..." How ludicrous is this? Hello? Malcolm is a bullshit politician who bent to the instructions of Abbott an Uncle Rupe, and now he blames NBN retailers (the NBN being advertised with a WestCONnex-style trickstery delivery) for making sure their customers are totally unhappy... Oh... Naughty retailers.... Bugger off Malcolm, you're a disgrace to honesty.

Whenever a policy fails to deliver, a good place to see why this happened is to look at the government’s objectives. This week, we received a very good explanation of the government’s objectives for the national broadband network and why it will continue to disappoint so many of us.

The poor regard in which Australia’s internet is held was displayed cuttingly this week by American journalist Ben Rothenberg, who is in Melbourne covering the Australian Open. He tweeted about a match in Auckland where it was suggested American Jack Sock had displayed a lack of effort. He then casually used our internet as a punch line: “(I’m working on uploading a video of Sock’s match but on this Australian wifi it’s going to take about an hour, bear with me y’all).”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2018/jan/21/the-main-pr...