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Today's Topics:
1. Scarce Alan Turing Scientific Papers Discovered in Attic to
Auction (Antony Barry)
2. Is Europe Divorcing Big Tech? (Kim Holburn)
3. Re: Australia must be prepared to, "launch combat operations
from its own soil." (Tom Worthington)
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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 15:01:44 +1000
From: Antony Barry <antonybba...@gmail.com>
To: Link Link <l...@mailman.anu.edu.au>
Subject: [LINK] Scarce Alan Turing Scientific Papers Discovered in
Attic to Auction
Message-ID:
<CAECOtWw4t=7urgdp9n7wrqe9eavbla+odbxn3lcjorp_mrz...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/scarce-alan-turing-scientific-papers-discovered-attic-auction
--
Mob:04 33652400
Email: antonybba...@gmail.com, antonybba...@me.com
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 22:06:37 +1000
From: Kim Holburn <k...@holburn.net>
To: Link mailing list <link@anu.edu.au>
Subject: [LINK] Is Europe Divorcing Big Tech?
Message-ID: <8eff98ae-5d8a-4e64-852c-dd87b190e...@holburn.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/europe-divorce-big-tech-trump-cloud-exit-plan.php
Trump?s alliance with tech titans has Europeans considering alternatives.
June 5, 2025 By Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen
s the bromance between tech titans and Donald Trump has unfolded?X posts about
?disgusting? legislation notwithstanding?Europe has
grown increasingly uneasy about relying on US tech products. In Denmark, the
media industry is actively seeking out non-US
alternatives. Journalisten, a Danish publication roughly equivalent to this
magazine (whose name translates as ?The Journalist?),
asked several news outlets and communications professionals whether they are
exploring other options, and found that all of them
were. ?Like most Danish companies, we are steeped in American technology,? one
editor in chief told the publication. ?If we suddenly
can no longer trust American suppliers, we have a huge problem, and it will be
very difficult and expensive to get out of it.? This
shift is driven by concerns that Trump could one day wake up and decide to
force Big Tech to pull the plug on cloud services to
Europe. It?s a hypothetical risk?and, some say, a small one. But if it were to
materialize, the consequences could be ?a disaster of
biblical dimensions,? per one security expert. As such, Torsten Pedersen, the
minister of national security, recently asked Danish
companies and authorities to prepare for such a scenario, and to have an exit
plan.
Denmark isn?t the only European country concerned about Big Tech: in the
spring, for instance, the Dutch parliament passed eight
motions urging the government to reduce its dependence on US tech companies and
to adopt European alternatives. But in Denmark,
growing tensions over Greenland?an autonomous territory of Denmark that Trump
has made no secret of wanting to acquire?have added an
extra layer of anxiety among officials. Trump has said that he ?doesn?t rule
out? using military force to take control of Greenland,
and a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that the US has ramped up its
intelligence-gathering efforts in the territory.
Indeed, Exoscale, a Swiss-based Web-hosting provider, told Wired that it has
seen an uptick in customers looking to move away from
cloud giants like Amazon?and that Danish clients have been explicit that the
tensions over Greenland were a motivating factor behind
the shift.
At least one US tech giant?Microsoft, which generates about a quarter of its
business in Europe?has pledged to protect its customers
there. In a blog post published in April, the company announced plans to expand
its European data-center capacity by 40 percent over
the next two years, an effort intended to give Europeans more control over
their data (though some have argued that physical
location doesn?t matter since the US has some extraterritorial powers).
Microsoft also said that, while such a scenario is
?exceedingly unlikely,? it would resist any US government order to shut down
cloud operations in Europe.
And yet, last month, the Associated Press reported that Microsoft did ?cancel?
the email address of Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor
of the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court, which was slapped with
US sanctions after it issued arrest warrants for
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister for alleged
war crimes in Gaza. Unable to access his mailbox,
Khan (who is currently under investigation for sexual abuse, which he denies)
reportedly switched to Proton, a Swiss
end-to-end-encrypted email service.
Microsoft denies that it ceased or suspended services to the ICC. Nonetheless,
the cancellation of Khan?s email has spurred some
European cybersecurity experts to further advocate for digital sovereignty.
According to DR, the Danish public broadcaster, in their
search for alternatives to Microsoft, the Danes are looking south across the
border to Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state in
Germany, where sixty thousand public sector employees have been instructed by
German authorities to replace Big Tech software with
open-source alternatives. The initiative has been underway for five years, but
by September, employees are expected to have
uninstalled Microsoft Office and switched to LibreOffice, an open-source office
suite. The shift is being driven by a desire to
achieve digital independence. But there?s also a financial incentive. Licensing
agreements with tech giants are expensive, and
transitioning to local solutions could save the state millions of euros.
In the long term, at any rate; in the short term, transitioning to EU-based
tech alternatives might be painful. The shift requires
uprooting the digital habits of thousands of employees who currently rely on
tools like Gmail or Microsoft Office, in exchange for
alternatives that may not yet match them in quality. According to the Wall
Street Journal, Europe is producing far fewer
?unicorns??privately held startups valued at over one billion dollars?than the
US and China; the US currently has six hundred and
ninety such companies, whereas Europe has just a hundred and seven. There?s a
sea of theories explaining why Europe?s tech industry
continues to lag behind. One major factor is the lack of consistency in laws,
languages, and cultures across European countries,
which makes it harder for potential unicorns to scale. The Journal also
suggested that Europe?s commitment to work-life balance may
limit its competitiveness: Europeans tend to work fewer hours, and are thought
to be less productive during those hours. Fueled by
rising transatlantic tensions, that pace may soon begin to accelerate.
--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
+61 404072753
mailto:k...@holburn.net aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2025 09:17:06 +1000
From: Tom Worthington <tom.worthing...@tomw.net.au>
To: link@anu.edu.au
Subject: Re: [LINK] Australia must be prepared to, "launch combat
operations from its own soil."
Message-ID: <32a24831-1839-4ba1-8dfb-1141b6894...@tomw.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
On 6/6/25 01:38, Stephen Loosley wrote:
> ADF chief warns Australia must be ready to launch combat operations
> from home By political reporter Olivia Caisley and foreign affairs
> reporter Stephen Dziedzic https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-04/
> defence-chief-warns-australia-must-be-ready-for-combat/105374804 ...
One of the first things I did when joining HQ ADF was take part in a
tour of northern bases. These do exist. Billions have been spent on air,
naval and army facilities. This includes an over the horizon radar
system which Canada is going to copy (close up it looks like a very long
clothes line).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-13/canada-urgently-wants-australias-jorn-defence-radar/105185284
Bases could be upgraded to deal with new threats. For example, putting
doors on the front of aircraft shelters and chicken wire on the back, so
drones can't fly in. Also Australian made drone guns could be purchased
for base guards.
> Admiral Johnston also pointed to the rapid evolution of modern
> warfare, highlighting that military technology could become obsolete
> in as little as 12 weeks, as seen in the Ukraine conflict. ...
Technology rarely becomes obsolete in 12 weeks. What happens is
technology was already obsolete, but this only becomes apparent when
tested in combat. As an example, large vehicles, ships & aircraft are
more vulnerable to attack by missiles and drones. This is known, but
most military leaders chose to ignore it.
Australia could spend better, rather than more on defence. For example,
cancel nuclear powered submarines and order tens of thousands more smart
sea mines, hundreds of conventionally powered robot submarines and
perhaps a few crewed ones.
Australia could also recruit media and computer professionals as
reservists. They would do a minimum of military training and be ready to
conduct information and cyber operations.
https://blog.tomw.net.au/2013/08/australian-cyberwarfare-battalion.html
Australia has projects for drone submarines and aircraft. What is
lacking is an equivalent program for robot mini-tanks.
Ghost Shark Submarine:
https://www.twz.com/sea/our-first-look-at-the-ghost-shark-uncrewed-submarine-underwater
Ghost Bat Aircraft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_MQ-28_Ghost_Bat
Ghost Gecko Vehicle?:
https://blog.tomw.net.au/2023/07/ghost-gecko-uncrewed-ground-vehicle.html
ps: When I moved into a new office at ANU there was work being done out
the window. It was a tank for testing robot submarines being installed.
The tank is still there, now unused.
--
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
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