Warming to WorkChoices?… RBA hits Google-search bigtime… Precious memories backup… Quote of the Day

Workers warm to WorkChoices?

In good news for the Federal Government, and bad news for the unions and the federal Opposition, two out of three Australians believe WorkChoices will have a positive or no effect on them, according to the latest Sensis Consumer Report.

The June survey of 1500 people found that 28% of people believed the Coalition’s IR laws would have a negative impact on them, down from 36% in the March quarter of 2007.

The number of people who believed the changes would have no impact on them increased from 49% in the first survey of 2007 to 55% in the most recent survey.

Unsurprisingly, the survey shows a big divide in the attitudes of those who are members of a union and those who aren’t. Just 24% of people who have not joined a union thought WorkChoices would have a negative impact on them, compared to 47% of union members.

Soccer stars, colourful rockers and dark-suited bankers top Aussie Google rankings

Australian home owners, mortgaged to the hilt and checking on interest rates, sent the Reserve Bank of Australia to number three on Google’s Zeitgeist list of most improved web search targets for May. Economists have never been so popular!

The rest of the list is less surprising. English premier league and new Socceroos captain Lucas Neill came in at number one, followed by touring US rocker Pink. Rounding out the top five are NFL (that’s the US gridiron league) and wireless broadband.

Here are the Top 20 Google gainers for May:

1. Lucas Neill
2. Pink concert
3. RBA
4. NFL
5. Wireless broadband
6. Indiana Evans
7. Tax file number
8. Perez
9. Concept cars
10. Mars
11. Wheat
12. Xavier Rudd
13. Childhood obesity
14. Street Fighter
15. Stacy Keibler
16. Burberry
17. Andy Warhol
18. Essendon Football Club
19. Seaworld
20. School holidays

Are your memories safe?

If your house is burning down and you have time to only grab a couple of things as you flee for your life, what would it be? Most people asked this question say ‘photo albums’. They are recognised as holding the family history and memories. But is this still true? Maybe you should be reaching for your hard drive.

These days this is where people are storing their memories. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during his keynote address at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference that we have things on our computers that used to be in precious shoeboxes. So what happens when you accidentally delete the wrong file, or a malfunction damages it?

Of course, he has an answer. IT Wire reports Time Machine, the backup application coming in Mac OS 10.5, is intended to “solve these problems in such a way that everyone actually uses it”, said Jobs. “You set up backup with just one click” and from then on it automatically backs up everything to a local USB or FireWire-attached hard drive or network server, including a drive attached to an AirPort Express base station.

Time Machine lets you use Spotlight to find backed up but mistakenly erased files, and then Leopard’s Quick Look feature can be used to examine the contents without launching the associated application. A single click then restores the file.

ITWire says Time Machine shouldn’t be regarded as complete protection as external drives appear to be slightly more prone to damage caused by mains fluctuations, possibly due to inferior power supplies. Another problem is that if a computer is stolen, there’s a good chance that the external drive sitting next to it will go at the same time.

It will still be very desirable to copy critical items such as photos to a remote server or on to DVDs, which are then stored with a friend or relative or taken home from work each evening.

SmartCompany Quote of the Day

”Most people online are gorillas. When a gorilla walks into an experiment, what they say is ‘What do I do now? Where’s the banana?’”

– Seth Godin