What is Bureau 121? North Korea’s cyberwarriors, a shadow organisation unknown by most individuals even in information technology only came to light after the defection of a North Korean dissident to the south.

North Korea, led by a young man of the internet age is particularly ambivalent to criticism, none more so when Sony Entertainment prepares to release a satirical movie of Kim Jong Un. A cyberattacker hacks into an administrator’s account undetected, downloads a large volume of information then proceeds to release damaging emails embarrassing the corporation including pay rates and remuneration. Is this the North Korean version of Wikileaks? Then Sony folds and the release of the movie is cancelled – NK 1/Sony 0.

Terrorists are cowards, this isn’t anything new, this is sadly and unfortunately a documented fact. Terrorist targeting school kids is about as low as you can go, pathetic losers, they are the scum of the earth.

However, the Pakistani school massacre is a new low for the most cowardly elements of the human race. I am loathe to use the term humanity, they show none of that. But what do you expect from a bunch of pedophiles, taking pre-puberty girls for wives, sex slaves or sold into human trafficking? Australia and Pakistan share a common interest in sport, we both share a love of cricket and play test series nation against nation. We come from different cultures – granted. However, our common interest in cricket ties the nations together in a bond that may transcend sport.

There was an explosion of Internet cafe businesses in the late 90s right through to the mid 2000s, now you are stretched to find one but they are still around. Well, that is developed countries, developing countries still had a need for internet cafes, there is a genuine requirement.

With everyone carrying either a smartphone, tablet or phablet in their pocket or briefcase, they already have sufficient computing power to browse the web, purchase goods online, create documents, spreadsheets, a database or presentation, they just need to hook onto a WiFi connection. With 3G and 4G technology, you carry a mobile connection around with you. You might even see a laptop computer being used. With restaurants, shopping malls and just about every business now offering free WiFi, one has to ask, why would anyone pay to use a computer?

Indeed you might ask, why would a business invest in expensive computer hardware when nearly every consumer supplies their own computing equipment? One of the great rubs was an Internet cafe never actually sold coffee. After all, what business owner would want to risk a user knocking over a full mug of coffee over a keyboard, game controller or printer? Geez, you might head into an actual cafe like Dome Cafe, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Gloria Jeans, Seattle’s Best Coffee or Starbucks and actually order a pretty decent espresso coffee and surf the web for the price of a coffee.

I am currently diving with a Suunto D6 dive computer as a back-up to my old but reliable VR3 computer. Now, one can imagine a significant size and weight difference occurs between the two units, that doesn’t concern me.

What really gets my blood pressure running on repetitive dives is the D6 is way too conservative for repetitive diving. Now firstly, you ask, why are you using a VR3 for standard recreational diving, why not I say, not every dive needs to be a mixed gas decompression stop dive with multiple gas switches. You have the computer for such dives but you complete plenty of standard dives too. If you are diving deep wrecks then that is what is required, if you are diving reefs on your holiday, why switch to another computer?

However, with the D6 as a back-up computer, you seem to have a hell of a lot of hang time while your specifically designed decompression computer is deco free. On one recent repetitive dive, it was the fourth dive of the day, the VR3 indicated 27 mins of no-decompression time remaining, your D6 is just going into deco but you keep going, you check your SPG and have ample gas remaining, hell, you are not even at your turn pressure yet.

The dive is well under 30 minutes duration, yet you are forced to ascend to a shallower depth, you are not seeing what you want on this expensive overseas dive trip and you are less than impressed. The D6 is hammering you, already you have 12 minutes of hang time and three quarters of a cylinder of gas remaining. Not that 12 minutes is an issue because you are really deco free and could ascend directly to the surface – not that you would. No one else on the dive has a pseudo decompression ceiling despite diving the exact same profiles, they are not diving Suunto.

You did two dives in the morning with an hour surface interval, back for lunch and a three hour surface interval with a one hour surface interval between dives three and four. That\’s a fair bit of bottom time in a day with multi-level dives, relatively conservative profiles and extended shallow water stops for added safety. It is not over doing it to any great degree. The gas is air, unfortunately in 2014, not every facility offers nitrox although with a Suunto dive computer, nitrox or not, you are still penalised.

So you had to ascend to 8 metres to complete your dive whilst everyone else stays at depth, you are above the 2:1 pressure gradient threshold and off-gassing whilst monitoring the VR3 on your left wrist. I don’t mount the two computers side by side anymore as the bulky aluminum bodied VR3 was scratching the bezel of the nice shiny D6, so that computer is mounted on the right wrist instead.

At 50 minutes, you glance to your right wrist to check how much you have reduced the deco time, it won’t be too much as a 3 metre stop is required and you are too deep to off-load too much time, maybe a minute or two. You can imagine my surprise when I realised that not only have I not reduced any deco, the time has now blown out to over twenty minutes.

Ascending to 3.5 metres, you know you have to maintain the shallowest depth for the greatest pressure gradient and to maintain that depth, that means no looking around and enjoying the shallow sections of the reef, there is to be no depth changes. Any one who has deco to do on a Suunto knows 20 minutes is not really 20 minutes; time remaining is drawn out and even though you are monitoring time with your other computer, in the Suunto world, time stands still.

Exiting the water at the 80 minute mark, I had performed a 30 minute stop at 3 metres, about 25 minutes at 8 metres and the rest at 20 metres depth. The next day, my D6 remained my back-up, it was however tucked away in my bag on the boat but no where near the water, it was now no longer an in-water redundancy. I was also careful not to wear it in the shower that evening just in case I ended back in deco from the water pressure of the shower head and having to stand in a trickling shower for another 30 minutes to reduce the water pressure while my computer cleared.

This was not a clever strategy by Australian Prime Minister Abbott claiming his Chief of Staff Peta Credlin is a victim of sexism. Firstly, the issues seem to be internal, not the opposition making any claims, secondly and most importantly, if she has an issue, she needs to come out and make a statement – she hasn’t. I certainly wouldn’t take Peta Credlin on, she knows how to look after herself, she doesn’t take a backward step.

What he is effectively doing is telling the electorate he is leading his government in a similar vein to Julia Gillard. Broken promises, gender issues, all he needs is leadership speculation and we head back to a time warp. He needs to differentiate his government – he is not doing that in an effective manner. This is an internal issue that has been catapulted into the public domain – get it sorted and do it quick.

I’m really liking this show of solidarity and support for Sydney’s Muslim population, this act of a lone and known instigator of trouble has the potential to cause a community backlash that may harm the Muslim community causing increased tensions in the future.

The show of support in the wider community has been outstanding, however, serious questions need to be asked in regards to Man Haron Monis, originally known to police for writing letters to the families of dead servicemen seven years ago. There is absolutely no criticism of the police, they investigate and prosecute crimes whilst the judiciary interprets and implements the law.

The tipping point apparently was Friday’s high court ruling that failed to overturn his conviction, he was required to perform community service and placed on a two year good behaviour bond. He is also implicated as an accessory to the murder of his wife who was stabbed and set alight. He has been charged with in excess of fifty counts of indecent and sexual assault and was currently on bail awaiting trial. Serious questions need to be raised regarding the judicial system in Australia, why is this guy running around the streets? What do you have to actually do to actually to be remanded in custody?

The terrorist siege in Sydney has certainly woken up the nation, the police were fantastic – on the scene within minutes of receiving the call. While authorities may have originally thought it was an armed hold-up; the gunman forcing hostages to hold up an Islamic flag certainly dispelled that theory – terrorism had arrived in the centre of Sydney.

Surrounded by the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans to the west, south and east plus the Arafura Sea to the north; we thought we were immune to terrorism due to our isolation – that myth was dispelled forever. When the Islamic State sought to behead an Australian on Australian soil earlier this year, planned to be uploaded to social media – that act of barbarism was thwarted by authorities. Australia has been on high alert since September this year with an attack deemed likely although no specific threat was identified at the time.

The human face of the hostage siege, hostages were rotated through duty to be displayed on the shop window. I have been somewhat disappointed by some commentary on social media, while no doubt has been raised as to the origin of the siege, I hope Muslims living in Australia are not targeted in a manner that could be linked to intolerance, bigotry and racism even though this act could be considered an attack on our values, ideals and lifestyle. We need to be strong and rise against the challenge as we have done before.

I have an intense interest in business case studies, the discussion of first movers, early adapters and followers frequently comes up in such discussions. The first credit charge card was Diners Club International; despite their early success as a first mover, they are now pretty much obsolete in Australia.

Diners Club is a pretty good example of a first mover, an innovator that has been left behind in a marketplace dominated by American Express; a competing charge card plus Visa and Mastercard, the leading consumer credit cards. Being first to market doesn’t necessarily ensure success; indeed, later adaption does hold a number of distinct advantages.

Then there is the rapidly expanding credit card business model with Visa, Mastercard and American Express issuing credit cards via retail department stores like Myer and David Jones, airlines like Qantas and Singapore Airlines, department stores like Coles and Woolworths and car manufacturers like Holden and Ford. These cards are linked to reward programs allowing consumers to redeem points at department stores, airlines and specialty stores among other things.

Some history, as the story goes, Frank McNamara was out to dinner with his wife, much to his embarrassment, he left his wallet in a different suit pocket and his wife had to pay the bill on his behalf. The next day he discussed his credit idea with the restaurant owner, between them, they came up with a charge card and account; within months, he had nearly 30 restaurants on the books.

The company was appropriately named The Diners Club; later, this name would alienate potential clients. The business indeed went international with vendors in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and Africa adapting the Diners Club business model. I recall my father having a Diners Club charge card throughout the 1970s and into the 80s, these days his card of choice is Visa.

So, Diners Club International was a charge card; that is, credit may be accrued over the course of a month, however, the account total must be settled at the end of each month. A pretty fair deal, if you don’t live beyond your means. Changes in attitude to personal debt saw rapid growth in consumer credit. Paying off a credit card bill every month suddenly seemed uncool, accumulating short-term debt long-term at unsecured rates of interest was suddenly very much in vogue.

The major competitor of Diners Club in the United States was American Express, running a similar charge card business model. A number of factors contributed to the dominance of American Express; these are, a concentrated marketing campaign explaining to consumers to “don’t leave home without one” with the American name on the card with the green representing American greenback banknote colour.

The rise of consumer credit has left the Diners Club International business somewhat exposed, the charge card model does not allow the continued accumulation of debt. Consumers don’t seem concerned with ballooning credit card debt, minimum monthly repayments, increasing debt limits and decreased abilities to make repayments in this consumer orientated economy. The name confuses consumers believing the card can only be used in restaurants and not as a general charge card, after all, a Visa or Mastercard is now accepted in all restaurants almost without exception.

Acceptance of Diners Club International at retailers is low due to misconceptions over the name with finally the fee structure on similar levels to rival Amex but higher than competitors Mastercard and Visa. Amex has sought to reinvent itself with a strong rewards program, credit cards and finally a debit card. Diners Club International might still have a decal on the glass at selected vendors alongside the Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover and Amex decals. Despite being the architect of the charge card, their span of control and market share, Diners Club International is pretty much limited to a decal on shop windows these days.

Many business sectors have a lifespan influenced by technological advancement or economies of scale. We once had a corner shop, a butcher, a baker or delicatessen in most streets selling basic groceries, nowadays supermarkets offer economies of scale, convenience and prices small business are unable to compete with.

So too with technology, are there any photo processing businesses left? The local video rental library morphed into a DVD and Blu ray rental business and is soon heading to obsolescence. Online video streaming brought about by fast Internet connections with media companies distributing movies on demand, pay television through telephone cables. There is no need to drive down the DVD rental shop, select a couple of movies to watch in a certain time-frame and race back to return them before late fees are applied.

You can now watch a movie or TV show at your leisure, how many times did you return a movie unwatched so as to not incur late fees? The media companies are not only technologically advanced as compared to the DVD shop, they incorporate economies of scale. DVD retail shops still exist, one suspects their cost structures remain high with suburb by suburb coverage with real estate and associated costs forming a significant and increasing burden. During the 80s and 90s, many small video rental entrepreneurs were forced out of business by the large chains; we are now seeing the large multi-media consortium doing exactly the same to them.

I have starting to play around with Pintrest, it is an unusual social media concept very much like an electronic scrapbook. The advantage is now any interesting articles, pictures or graphics may be pinned to a board and now saved in bookmarks as I had previously done.

I often wonder how firstly someone comes up with this idea initially and then proceeds to build an electronic platform, organise finance, entice investors and then get people on-board as users. What I have found out is this social media platform is very engaging attracting plenty of fans around the world.