THE PAST WEEK has been a nice week here @ Tech Wired Australia as we achieved a nice influx of traffic on this post about Nick Hac’s mobile phone being confiscated by police.
To this moment over 10,522 unique visitors have viewed the post via 96 referring sites.
Some of the top referring sites included:
Once I informed mainstream media of the event News Ltd’s David Earley reported about the event as well as Fairfax’s Asher Moses.
A big thanks to all the bloggers who spread the word as well!
In regards to what outcomes are developing from the story, it remains unclear, though Nick hopes to raise awareness of what our rights actually are as well as those of the police.
- Ben
WITH the launch of the much talked about Invisible shield by Zagg in Australia, we have given one away in a competition to *drum roll* Jinjirrie.
Watch the video to find out how we did it.
Tech Wired Australia
Host: Ben Grubb
Guest: Nick Hac
UPDATE: LISTEN TO NICK SPEAK WITH TECH WIRED AUSTRALIA
In a world where the watchers can not be watched, can good turn into evil? This is what happened last Friday to Potts Point apartment resident Nick Holmes à Court, who was threatened with arrest under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005 for videotaping Police performing a search in public.
It happened around 10:00 PM AEDST when Nick decided he would go outside his Sydney apartment for a cigarette. Whilst smoking his cigarette a group of Police officers armed with video cameras stormed past him. Nick thought that if they were filming in public, why not film them. He put his Blackberry into video mode, and started to film. As soon as a member of the New South Wales Police force saw him taking footage they stormed over, confiscated his mobile phone, and threatened him with arrest under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act.
“They told me to move along, so I did, but I was already 100 metres away from my own apartment building, so I told them that”, Nick told Tech Wired Australia
“They also interrogated me, and told me that they would be deleting the video I had taken. They also went through all my contacts, photos and emails before returning the Blackberry to me. They even had to ask one of my business partners how to delete files on the Blackberry as they wouldn’t let me do it”
“I told the two Police women repeatedly that I did not consent to them going through my mobile. They embarrassed me, I had two of my business partners with me”
“The world we are living in is becoming too restrictive, I was just being a citizen journalist capturing video in a public place, the public need to know their rights, and so do the Police”
New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties got in contact with Nick soon after the event, and have asked him to help them out with their lobbying.
Not too long ago something similar occurred in London under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, of which UK Police allowed a camera to film them performing a search:
What do you think of Australia’s Anti-Terrorism laws?
At CES in January of next year, Asus will be showing their new touchscreen models of the well known and loved Eee PC range. The new models will include 8.9-inch and 10.2-inch displays that are swivel mounted so they can also be used as a tablet. Asus are also working on some applications that will utilise touchscreen controls, such as drawing, photo editing and multimedia apps.
I can tell you there is a definite market for a device like this. Just check out all of the Eee PC touchscreen mods around the web. It’s almost become a cult of its own. Read more
WITH the launch of the much talked about Invisible shield by Zagg in Australia, we have one to give away!
How do you enter?
Tell us something nice in the comments, and we’ll pick a comment at random.
Simple hey?
Terms: You must be in Australia to enter.
Competition closes 24/12/08 11:59PM
Sidetaker.com lets feuding couples upload their spats to on-line community comment. The idea is that other users comment on who they think is in the right and thus help solve the argument. Read more
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has agreed to the introduction of a short recorded voice announcement (RVA) for the Triple Zero (000) emergency call service.
The short RVA, to be introduced today, will say:
‘You have dialled emergency Triple Zero. Your call is being connected.’
Callers will hear the message before being connected to an operator. Read more
Here we go again. Another serious security flaw has been discovered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser which allows hackers to take control of people’s computers and steal their passwords via websites that contain malicious code. The vulnerability is present in all versions of IE, Microsoft says. Read more
CANBERRA lawyers for lending company MKM Capital have won the right to serve legal binding documents to defendants via their Facebook profiles in a quite worrying case.
Read more
