It's a little known fact that an appearance in Computerworld can lead to national fame (Ed - is that an oxymoronic sentence?). But so it proved when our resident -- more commonly known as Randal Jackson -- discovered a 15 year old boy in a business suit.
His name is Luke McIntyre and he's left school to start his own company Omex Communications, helped along by $80,000 in venture capital. Since featuring on the front cover of Computerworld he has been in demand for speaking engagements, newspaper interviews and by the broadcast media.
His latest appearance was on .
McIntyre's idols are, not surprisingly, Sam Morgan and Mark Zuckerberg. The latter's Facebook creation inspired a Hollywood movie, The Social Network, which Fry Up finally got around to seeing last week. The actor Jesse Eisenberg portrays Zuckerburg as a socially awkward, highly intelligent, vaguely sinister geek. What does Zuckerburg think of it all?
No idea. But judging by his appearance alongside he doesn't look like someone set to sue for hurt feelings.
By the way, the movie features Peter Thiel (well an actor playing him) as Facebook's angel investor. Thiel has since gone on to invest in Xero and the Pacific Fibre cable venture. Could it be that tech entrepreneurs are the new rock stars?
But Xero founder Rod Drury says that rather than set up their own companies smart young developers should come and work for him, and companies like his that are already established. Apparently there are six-figure salaries in the offing, although some of Computerworld's readership questioned this in comments posted below the online article .
Before there was Zuckerberg there was Bill Gates. His company Microsoft used to rule the world. And in many places it probably still does. But Dan Bull isn't happy; he's about the awful service he's received. When the customers get grumpy all sorts of bad things can happen. Just ask Telecom.
Hat tip -- Mauricio Freitas
Mention of Telecom, what about that bid it's got with Vodafone for the Rural Broadband Initiative? According to rival bidders OpenGate (Kordia, Woosh and FX Networks) there has been an "impressive amount of public misinformation" about the RBI. Who is to blame for this? The media apparently. It came in for a right old bashing in a press release that OpenGate put out this week, in which it railed against media speculation.
Note to OpenGate - the media aren't evaluating the RBI bids, the Ministry at Economic Development are.
Final decision will of course be made by Minister Steven Joyce. He has to trust the advice he gets is right. Otherwise he'll be the Max Bradford of the telco industry. Remember Bradford? He's the Minister who 'reformed' the electricity industry.
Fry Up debates this year kick off in Christchurch on 1 March. We're sticking with the telco theme and the moot is "South Islanders will be the most innovative when it comes to fast fibre networks."
, speakers to be announced real soon.