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About Blog Central
Blog Central is a space for RMIT academics and senior staff to blog about their areas of expertise and interests.
The views and opinions expressed by the authors on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of RMIT University.
All are welcome to contribute. If you're interested in blogging, please contact Zoë Kleeborn from University Communications.
Category Archives: Technology
Four years of falling electricity demand: can this continue?
In 2012, National Electricity Market electricity consumption continued its four-year decline. Everyone seems surprised that electricity demand continues to decline despite population and the economy growing. This highlights the limits of economic forecasting and the lack of “bottom-up” modelling based on real activity. Changes in technology mean the energy implications of new appliances have changed. [...]
Also posted in Sustainability Tagged cooling energy, electricity demand, energy consumption, energy demand, energy usage, fixed energy overheads, heating energy Comments closed
Divert power to shields – the solar maximum is coming
Over the past few months our planet has been impacted by an increasing number of solar explosions that have erupted from the sun’s surface. Even though next year’s predicted solar maximum – the period of greatest activity in the sun’s 11-year cycle – is expected to be smaller than its predecessor a decade ago, the [...]
Posted in Technology Tagged electricity grid, radio communication, satellite communications, satellite-based services, solar explosion, space weather, sun Comments closed
Vigilante hackers are contraindicated
First, an admission. As a research postgraduate I was involved in hacking. A few of us wrote a program called “perve”. Without going into details, perve was able to reconstruct edit buffers in real time so that we were able to see what another user was typing into, say, their word-processor. Why did we do [...]
Also posted in Media & Communications, Uncategorized Tagged Anonymous, Australian radio hosts, Guy Fawkes, hacktivist, King James Hospital, radio Comments closed
Unlimited government and police control of the internet? There’s no filter for that
Good news. A decision made earlier this month by Australia’s Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy may have inadvertently opened the door for unlimited government and police control of the internet. On November 9, Senator Stephen Conroy said: Australia’s largest ISPs [internet service providers] have been issued with notices [by [...]
Also posted in Law Tagged AFP, Australian Federal Police, child pornography, cybercrime, Section 313, Stephen Conroy Comments closed
Who will hold the balance of power on electricity?
The Senate Select Committee on Electricity Pricing tabled its report in Parliament on November 1. The inquiry found substantial evidence of failures in the rules and operation of the electricity market, even though the electricity sector says it is taking adequate action to deal with a range of issues. The report commented (para 3.101) that [...]
Also posted in Economics & Finance, Politics, Sustainability Tagged Australia, electricity generation, Victoria Comments closed
Anonymous’ Operation Australia – can the federal police stop them?
About 10am this morning, Anonymous used Twitter to announce an attack on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) website. Anonymous claimed the ASIO website would be unavailable for the rest of the day. The ASIO website was down for about 30 minutes after the attack and is now operating slowly or not at all. It [...]
Also posted in Law, Media & Communications, Social Media Tagged AFP, Anonymous' Operation Australia, ASIO, Australian Federal Police, DDoS attack, hacker, Hacking Comments closed
Why the carbon-tax ‘python’ won’t squeeze the economy
Some critics of carbon pricing have pointed out that, over time, the carbon price will increase to a much higher level and devastate the economy. Indeed, the image of a python squeezing the life out of the economy has been painted to describe this. However, this view is based on a misunderstanding of how carbon [...]
Also posted in Economics & Finance, Sustainability Tagged Australia, carbon pricing, carbon tax, energy, greenhouse emissions, unit of carbon Comments closed
Bring on the badminton
For the last five years, Anthony and a team of RMIT University researchers have been analysing video to develop statistical models for training and tactics used with Australian badminton Olympians. RMIT researchers are also developing Olympic ratings and rankings to help in the evaluation of opponents, and likelihood of Olympic qualification. After 1000s of hours [...]
Also posted in Health Science, Sport Tagged badminton, London 2012 Olympics, Olympic Games, research, statistics Comments closed
SYN celebrates 10 years of young people on air