The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has called for mandatory adoption of software quality assurance methodologies such as CMMI and compulsory membership of a professional association for software developers who wish to win Government business.

As I was wandering through the aisles of the Intelligent Home Show (IHS) in Melbourne last week, I found myself becoming overwhelmed by a strange, depressing feeling.

High availability applications hosting specialist Hostworks (ASX:HWG), has once again made the BRW top 100 fastest-growing companies in Australia after recording double digit revenue growth and solid earnings.

Telco ICT job advertisement numbers have spiked dramatically in the week since the federal elections finished, according to a weekly jobs survey.

Multiemedia (ASX:MUL) has taken the highly unusual step of making financial forecasts for the two years to June 2005 and June 2006, making heady predictions of abundant profits. According to Multiemedia's CEO, Adrian Ballintine, the company's broadband satellite division, NewSat, is now living up to initial expectations, with a growing number of contracts in Australia, the Middle East and North Africa.

That never ending fountain of search engine innovation just continues to flow out of the orifice of Google. What Google has done for web searching, it is now doing for the desktop with Google Desktop.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has commissioned a digital mapping tool to get better intelligence on its customers based on where they live. A geocoding engine called QuickLocate, developed by Sydney based MapData Sciences Pty Ltd, automatically assigns geographic and census data to customer addresses for inclusion in the bank's data warehouse.

IT staff salaries will increase by as much as 10%-15% in the US over the next three years, according to IT industry researcher META Group. Meanwhile, Australian IT salaries are tipped to rise 7-10% over the next two years by the president of peak IT recruitment body ITCRA (IT Contractors & Recruitment Association).

Well we finally made it here to the Intelligent Home Show (IHS) in Melbourne. It took us a while to find a free wireless hot spot but we're up and running now. The first thing we noticed is that IHS is disappointingly small. No great banners outside Jeff's Shed - IHS only takes up about 15% of the centre and is wedged between a pet industry exhibition and a home builder's expo.

Today, The Beer Files will file stories direct to your desktop from The Intelligent Home Show in Melbourne. One of the great things about the online world is that we can bring things to you as they happen. So, if there's anything important that we think is worth telling you, you'll find that being on The Beer Files site is the next best thing to being there. Finally, don't forget to register, so that we can keep you informed.