There is a lot of talk about how Australians are overcharged for hardware and software items compared to other countries. The Federal Parliament has convened a Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications to investigate "price gouging" in the IT industry, particularly from the likes of Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, and other tech giants.

The United States is a particularly common source of ire, and many people point at US prices compared to Australia as evidence for gouging. There's a number ...

While Utah is justly famous for its skiing, it is also full of many interesting sites besides mountains. That being said, there are some very, very pretty mountains (particularly for someone who has grown up on the driest continent on earth).

Salt Lake City was the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics (a fact made famous by 2012 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's leadership), and many of the facilities constructed for the Games remain present in the city. The large ...

The goal of seeing at least 10 states in the US leaves plenty of room to see interesting places that wouldn't normally be on the tourist list for an overseas visitor. Today I'm writing about state #3, Utah, and its capital, Salt Lake City. I visited with my friend Tara over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanksgiving is the most important holiday in the US. Celebrated ...

America is a country of sports fans. The three biggest sports are gridiron football, basketball, and baseball. Having experienced the insanity of college football, I set my eyes on the NBA, attending the December 1st game between the Golden State Warriors and Indiana Pacers at Oracle Arena in Oakland. For those unfamiliar with the nomenclature, California is sometimes called "the Golden State", and the Warriors are the local Bay Area team.

NBA teams play several times a week, adding up ...

I have set a goal of visiting at least 10 different states during my US trip. So far, I've made it to three, with plans for six more tentatively in the pipeline. Today I'm going to write about state # 2: Washington State, and its capital Seattle.

The home of Boeing, Amazon, and Microsoft, Seattle is nestled between the Olympia mountains to the west, and the Cascade mountains to the east. A seaport city, the Pugent Sound winds north ...

One of the most exciting things about being a computer scientist and visiting the Bay Area is the proliferation of amazing technology companies. Berkeley and Stanford have exceptional computer science programs that supply and are supplied by the companies of the Bay.

Nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, Stanford University is one of the top academic institutions in the world. With just 15,000 students on an enormous campus, the university feels incredibly spacious and well ...

I consider it a privilege to have been in California during the 2012 US Presidential Election.

California is strongly Democratic (as in the political party), and Berkeley is a liberal bastion in the Golden State. Add a strongly left-leaning student body and a convenient time zone, and you have the ingredients for a euphoric night.

The tension began around 5pm, as polls on the East Coast closed and the counting began. Naturally, Romney took an early lead due to the ...

Last weekend, I went on a trip to the Contra Costa county, to the east of the Bay Area. Run by the Rotary club, the trip was designed to give international students a taste of country life in California, and how Americans who didn't dwell in the more urban areas made their lives. The day included visits to a nursery, a farm, a ranch, an olive oil plantation, and a historic preserved ranch.

The country areas of northern California ...

A few weekends ago, I went with a group of fellow international students to hire bikes and pedal around San Francisco. This was the first time I really explored the city and its western and northern most areas.

We spent around seven hours all up pedaling around the city, and saw many amazing things. We also experienced the fickleness of San Francisco weather: the conditions varied from brilliant sunshine to chilly overcast to icy winds as we ventured through the ...

A couple of weeks ago I went camping at Big Sur, south of Monterey and Carmel on the California State Route 1. It was a lovely spot, and we spent time on a very windy beach, eating S'mores around a campfire, and enjoying being away from civilisation. A very American camping experience!

Once we packed up and headed for home, we detoured south to the lovely McWay Falls near the Julia Pfeiffer Burns National Park. The whole area is ...