I am not totally sure how useful this is, but WikiPedia is now available as an 800 MByte eBook for your iPod. I dont think there are any pictures in it reducing the usability slightly, but this sounds like a cool toy for when you are on the go. I might have to look at this.

Australian IT is reporting that the ATO is preparing a system rewrite in Cobol which is becoming a dead language. They are planning to write the front end in .NET from microsoft, but the backend systems will be COBOL. Some senitors in parliment are not happy about this and believe there are better languages to be used moving forward, particularly at the $500m cost.

They are also reporting that final testing of the Tcard Smartcards for use in NSW will be started soon, and then they might actually be able to roll the system out. The Smartcard system has been plagued by problems from the outset including lawsuits over the successful tenderer. Given past experience I would not hold my breath.

This morning I have some programming to do… Bug fixes mainly, but it is programming. Now that systems are up and running I can get that work done…