The Australian Government has terminated the $1 billion contract with the Optus-led OPEL joint venture for the creation of a broadband network for regional Australia.

SingTel, the parent company of Optus, said that the Government terminated the agreement because they believed that they conditions had not been satisfied. However, Optus and Elders Communications have maintained that they have met all conditions.

A spokesperson for the federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that he will make a statement later today.

The agreement was reached in September last year. However, Telstra is currently disputing the agreement and was given access on documents that lead to the agreement.

Optus will write off $9 million in capital in the March quarter due to termination of the contract.

A German hacker group has threatened to publish Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fingerprints in its new campaign to stop the government introducing the use of biometric data in new passports.

The CCC, or the Chaos Computer Club, is one of Germany’s oldest and largest hacker organisations and has published the Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s fingerprints in its magazine. They were taken off a water glass he used at a public debate, according to the CCC.

Spokesperson for the hacker organisation Frank Rieger said that it would be easier to collect samples from other public figures including the Chancellor, who supported the usage of biometric data on the passports.

Former interior minister Otto Schily, president for the federal criminal office Joerg Ziercke and Bavarian premier Guenther Beckstein were also possible targets.

He also added: “We are receiving lots of offers from people right now, saying I can get this person here, this person there.”

The CCC argues that fingerprints are a poor choice for identification documents as they are too easy to collect and also reproduce - with the group releasing a 12 step guide to create a fake set of fingerprints.

Sony BMG, like other media companies, movie studios or record companies, is not a stranger to piracy as they tend to protect their ‘assets’ and punishing those who don’t pay for the products.

But it has been revealed by a French news site [translation], and ZeroPaid and Ars Technica, that Sony BMG may have been a hypocrite.

PointDev, a French software company that makes Windows admin tools, is said that it received a call from a employee for support and found out that the licence code for one of their products, Ideal Migration, was pirated.

The subsequent raid also found that the same software was installed on four of Sony BMG’s servers, with the Business Software Alliance saying that up to 47% of their computers may have the pirated software.

These claims are pretty serious; given that Sony BMG, and other companies, have been trying to stop piracy using drastic tactics.

PointDev is claiming €300,000 in damages (over US$475,000) from its lawsuit against Sony BMG.

Agustoni Paul-Henry, the CEO of PointDev, said - according to a translation by Zeropaid, “I think piracy is linked to the policy of a company. If the employee has the necessary funding to buy the software they need, it will. If this is not the case, he will find alternative ways, as the work must be done in one way or another.”

An additional report from La Province also says that Paul-Henry wants to make this an example.

As well, apparently Sony told La Province [translation] that it should not report on the ongoing investigation.

Sony BMG is 50% owned by Sony Corporation in Japan and 50% owned by Bertelsmann AG in Germany.

Leading technology and broadband discussion forum Whirlpool have announced that they have been acquired by ninemsn.

This, according to the press release on the front page, “demonstrates the strategic importance of user-powered content to ninemsn’s vision of delivering content and services to customers” at any place, time or location. Tony Faure, CEO of ninemsn, said that the site represents the changing face of the media.

“More and more consumers are turning to sites such as Whirlpool for up to date information, research and discussion. Whirlpool will provide us access to a diverse and technologically aware user base, and allow us in turn to provide our clients with an innovative and cutting-edge marketing solution,” he said in the press release.

He also added that there would be ’synergy’ between Whirlpool and Windows Live Spaces, saying that they both allow you to contact friends and discover new people.

The founder of Whirlpool, Simon Wright, said that “Whirlpool has gone further than I ever imagined. It’s been great to see it become what it is today — the premier resource on broadband and technology-based discussion in Australia.”

“Now, as it moves into its next phase, I’m looking forward to seeing ninemsn apply their proven track record to the Whirlpool concept.”

Though users are not impressed with the new acquisition, with many saying its “selling out”. As well, forum postings related to the acquisition have been deleted and pointing to a thread telling them to go to the front page.

However, it is unknown if this is true or not as it was announced on April Fools Day; but we will see for tomorrow. However, if it is true, then Whirlpool could see a backlash of users leaving or even starting a competitor to Whirlpool.

Also unveiled was a brand new design to match the current ninemsn look.

ninemsn is a partnership between PBL Media and Microsoft, and claims that 8.6 million Australians visit the site.

Update [12:36]: It has been announced as an April Fools Joke. Sorry.

Hello there,

If you have been wondering what happened and why have you been redirected to this new site, well this is our new home. TECHGEEEK.com.au should be much better than techgeek.reawaken.info.

If you can bother remembering this address, then it should redirect you to TECHGEEK.com.au. We are still working out the kinks out of this new design as this is a public environment and not in the server where this got designed.

As well, if you may have noticed that TECHGEEK Studios is down; we are fixing up a variation of the theme and bringing it back soon. It will still have all the TECHGEEK Podcast episodes and we will return doing the podcast very soon.

And I should now note that this is NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE!

Ironically, this is actually the first year celebration too. Even though are archives go to March, we actually started in April; though March was my own TECHGEEK before everything happened.

As well, writers will have noticed a new admin interface; well this is from our updated Wordpress version 2.5, where they have radically redesigned it. Stewart hates it, though.

So enjoy and if you do have any problems with the design, like graphics not loading or some things are out of place, please do comment below.

Terence Huynh
Editor in Chief - that’s actually better than Head Editor.