A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — which was a relatively quiet week after three significantly more busy ones. Thank the gods.

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 112, “Security: PGP to Android, NFC and beyond”. A conversation with Jon Callas. He’s now chief technical officer with Entrust, but he’s been at the centre of computer security since the olden days. Thoroughly enjoyable, this was.

Articles

• Ultrabooks have Intel Anti-Theft tech, yawn, CSO, 31 October 2011. Yes, I know how to make friends, but I just can’t help but think this hasn’t been thought through properly.
• Bleeply lets you rethink that Tweet, ZDNet Australia, 31 October 2011. An interesting Australian startup, this, providing a service that’ll help corporations and government overcome their fear of Twitter.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

None.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: A Harts Pub sign, The Rocks, Sydney, photographed this afternoon.]

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — finally posted on Sunday like it’s meant to be.

On a personal note, it was great to finally get the dental work done so that my jaw is no longer infected. Now, to wait for my shoulder to heal…

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 111, “Cybercrime 2016: a view of the future”. Recorded in Las Vegas, it’s mainly Michael Fey’s view of 2016. He’s McAfee’s worldwide senior vice president of advanced technologies and field engineering. Also, an explanation of how advanced persistent threats are a three-stage attack, and a chat with the bloke who taught me how to create malware and construct botnets in just one hour.

Articles

• Hybrid clouds the eventual reality for risk management, CSO, 26 October 2011. And according to the Gartner Hype Cycle, mainstream businesses will start to achieve the benefits of cloud computing in two to five years.
• DSD wins US Cybersecurity Innovation Award, CSO, 26 October 2011. DSD provided real-world evidence on how best to defeat the bad guys — and it’s cheap and simple.
• Patching the price of security, Technology Spectator, 28 October 2011. While DSD provides simple, effective countermeasures, the big infosec vendors try to sell us ever-more-complex software.

I wrote another two stories apart from these, one for CSO and one for ZDNet Australia, but they won’t be published until Monday.

Media Appearances

• On Tuesday morning I spoke about the iPod’s tenth birthday on Adelaide radio 1395 FIVEaa.

Corporate Largesse

• On Tuesday I covered the ISACA conference in Sydney, so of course I got free food and drink.
• On Friday I went to the launch of Intel’s Ultrabook standard for laptops at BAR100, The Rocks in Sydney, so naturally there was more free food and drink. They also gave me an Air-Tech Turbo Blimp radio-controlled indoor airship, which I gave away — to someone who then discovered that the blimp itself wasn’t in the box.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: A mysterious oval-shaped object in the desert somewhere between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. This might be in Death Valley, but more likely somewhere else. I wasn't paying much attention until I saw this. Any idea what it is? You can click to embiggen. Oh, and yes this photo was taken last week, not this week, but I'm sure you can live with that.]

Yes, Marrickville Council decided to boycott Israel over that whole Palestine thing. So what? What business is that of yours as NSW Premier? None.

As an individual, I have the right to hold whatever political views I like. Freedom of thought and freedom of political expression are amongst the very few human rights we’ve properly protected here in Australia. Should I decide that some individual, group, business, organisation or nation holds views so repugnant that I’d rather not support them, then it’s my right not to do business with them.

As a proper, legally-constituted, legitimately-elected local government body — as a legal “person” — the Marrickville Council also has that basic legal right to choose who it does business with.

Now as it happens, I reckon Marrickville’s decision wasn’t terribly well thought through. As my colleague Josh Taylor over at ZDNet Australia points out, boycotting everything that comes out of Israel denies you access to the latest computing technology from Intel, amongst other things. The very fact that Marrickville Council didn’t respond to his questions but instead waved him off to a prepared statement at their website proves, in my opinion, that they don’t have the intellectual integrity or moral backbone to discuss and stand by their decision. By all means criticise them for that.

But until very recently I’d spent most of a decade as a citizen of Marrickville. Yes, there’s a certain idealistic leftism suffusing the place, if I may resort to that tediously tired old left-right classification. But from a resident’s perspective they got on with the job of delivering services with far fewer allegations of dodgy behaviour than certain Labor-dominated local councils I could name. Or Liberal-dominated councils, for that matter. Why isn’t your attention focussed on them?

So, Mr O’Farrell, unless you’ve got some prima facie evidence of corruption or misconduct on the part of Marrickville Council, piss off out of it. It’s up to the citizens of Marrickville to decide whether they do or don’t support their Council’s actions, no-one else’s.

You’ve got enough on your plate to be getting on with as it is, Mr O’Farrell. Get on with it.

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. It’s a bit thin this week, thanks to the Australia Day holiday, clearing junk out of the house before moving, and the ridiculous heat Sydney is experiencing at the moment.

Articles

• Microsoft’s record revenue, but for how long? for Crikey, covering the third big company to release its quarterly figures. I am not particularly complimentary about Steve Ballmer’s stage antics.

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 73, “Inside Intel’s second-generation core”. My guest is systems architect Benno Rice.

Media Appearances

• On Sunday I was a guest on the Parity Bit video podcast. At least the recording was on Sunday afternoon. It’s likely to be the early hours of Monday before the episode appears online. I will update this post to link directly to the podcast once it’s online. And here it is.

Geekery

• I’ve been amazed to see that people are willing to pay good money for some of my ancient old technology on eBay. For example, my 6-year-old Apple PowerBook G4 is attracting bids well over $100, and a 2005-model iPod Photo classic is currently over $50. And there’s still nearly a day left in the auction!

Corporate Largesse

• As previously mentioned, Microsoft has invited me to San Francisco to attend the RSA Conference 2011 next month. It’s all about information security.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: Assange's Truth is Out There, a paste-up on the old post office on Enmore Road, Enmore in Sydney, featuring WikiLeaks' Julian Assange and the old X-Files slogan, photographed 28 January 2011.]

[Updated 8.40pm to link to the Parity Bit podcast.]

[Updated 31 January 2011 to link to the Parity Bit podcast on the program website rather than YouTube.]

Articles

• Reading Steve Jobs’ entrails, is it time for Apple to come clean?, for Crikey, written following the announcement that Apple’s CEO was on indefinite medical leave.
• Forget Steve Jobs, Apple’s rolling in cash, for Crikey, written the next day, when Apple announced record revenue and profits. Again.
• Google kids have grown up, but where will they take the firm?, for Crikey, being an overview of Google’s place in the world following the announcement that co-founder Larry Page will be replacing hired-help “designated adult” Eric Schmidt as CEO in April.

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 72, “Flood-proofing your business IT”. My guests are Tom Worthington, who works at both ANU and the CSIRO and has a particular interested in emergency IT and disaster planning, and Lewis Benge, founder of Qld IT Relief.

Media Appearances

• On Thursday I spoke with Liz Ellis, the former Australian netball captain and now radio presenter on ABC Radio 702 Sydney about the great work the Queensland Police did using their official Twitter and Facebook accounts during the recent floods.

Corporate Largesse

• On Tuesday, Acronis paid for lunch at the Italian Village restaurant in The Rocks as they announced the Acronis Global Disaster Recovery Index.
• Also on Tuesday, Intel Australia provided quite adequate catering for the Australian launch of their 2nd Generation Intel Core processors in the laughably-named Crystal Ballroom at Luna Park. They also shouted a water taxi to take us across Sydney Harbour to the Opera Bar at Sydney Opera House.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

If the embedded video doesn’t work, try over here.

Panellists were anthropologist Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow at Intel Labs; Alistair Rennie, general manager of Lotus Software and WebSphere Portal at IBM’s Software Group; futurist Mark Pesce; and Adele Beachley, who is RIM’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand i.e. from BlackBerry Land. It was hosted by the ABC’s James O’Loghlin.

I was in the audience, invited specifically so I could ask a question. Indeed, I get one in at the end. You’ll see me in the front row with a silver MacBook Pro in my lap.

I found the whole thing fascinating. O’Loghin worked well as a host too, I reckon. But I was wondering why for a webcast we needed the full six-camera broadcast production style. Freemantle Media did a good job, don’t get me wrong. But it’s an expensive way of doing things. Oh well, it wasn’t my money…

Anyway, have a squizz and let me know what you think.

Amongst the goodies at the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Intel announced new processor chips that scale down to 32 nanometres — and that’s the topic for this week’s Patch Monday.

The chips are faster and use less power, sure. But what else does it mean? My guest is Benno Rice, a freelance systems architect based in Melbourne who’s particularly interested in embedded systems — so he knows about processor chips.

You can listen below. But it’s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

Please, let me know what you think. Feedback very, very welcome. And do let me know if there’s any topics I should cover, or guests we should interview.

[This article was first published in Crikey on Wednesday, based on Senator Conroy's keynote speech to the Digital Economy Forum. See below for updates.]

“The Rudd Government is focused on creating a platform for economic growth and is committed to leading and growing our digital economy,” generalised Senator Stephen Conroy as he opened the Digital Economy Forum in Melbourne [on Wednesday morning].

His keynote speech regurgitated budget promises, generously sprinkled with doubleplusgood words about “encouraging” figures and “driving innovation”.

Uh oh. A “Digital Economy Forum”? Already I’m seeing blokes in suits jostling for room at the trough of government largesse. So who’s at this all-day talkfest? Aha! The CEO of Fairfax Digital; reps from Cisco, Google and Intel; a past president of the Australian Computer Society, the CEO of the Australian Internet Industry Association (which overwhelmingly represents big players); the Research Director for Ovum (presumably representing their big clients)… all the usual suspects.

But if the government is truly committed to supporting innovation and economic growth, where’s the involvement from small business?

As the latest ABS figures remind us, “Most business entries (93%) continued to occur in the micro business population, which comprises non-employing businesses and businesses employing between 1-4 employees.” Despite news stories about “business” being illustrated with images of office towers, factories and coal mines, the median business is actually a sole trader, often working from home, perhaps with a part-time bookkeeper.

The Forum is a follow-up to workshops held in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne.

“A valuable opportunity for Government to hear from a range of stakeholders on the future directions of the digital economy,” Conroy said.

Stakeholders. I see blokes in suits again.

Let’s decode the Senator’s speech…

“Most stakeholders agreed about the importance of Government investments in the digital economy — in particular the National Broadband Network and the Digital Education Revolution.”

Translation: Yes, gifts of $4.7B and $1.2B would be nice.

“Participants also agreed that there is a key role to be played by the private sector by collaborating within industry and with the Government.”

Translation: Please give the money to us.

“Many participants argued that ‘industry development issues’ are critical.”

Translation: It’s critical that you give the money to us.

“The shortage of professional ICT skills was also a recurrent theme in all three workshops.”

Translation: We’d also like you to pay to train our staff.

“Ladies and gentlemen — and this is something I’ve been emphasising a lot of late — the Rudd Government hears the industry loud and clear on these issues.”

Translation: Yes, the taxpayers will bend over and you may rifle their pockets.

As we go to press, the forum’s still got half a day to run. But once the big end of town has finished gorging itself, I don’t think there’ll be much left for the 1,171,832 (58%) non-employing businesses, or the 755,758 who employ less than 20 employees but who make up 90% of employers.

Post-Crikey Update

As it turns out, there was some representation from small business.

Crikey commenter George Fong wrote:

A pity you were not there for the workshops. A pity you did not stay for the full event. A pity you did not stay for the discourse and robust exchanges between Dr Geneveive Bell, Greg Stone, Paul Twomey and others and The Minister himself on a one to one debate. And a pity you did not note the number of consumer advocacy organisations represented and contributing in the forum, including ATUG and ISOC-AU.

As a representative from Ballarat in regional/rural Victoria and as a person involved with small regional businesses (most of whom have less than 20 people and a turnover of less than $200,000pa), communities and individuals on both the supply and advocacy sides, I have not in a long time felt so optimistic that we finally have an opportunity to speak, to advocate and to participate meaningfully in the formulation Federal policy in relation to a way forward for the people and organisations we represent.

I agree, it’s a pity I wasn’t at the Forum at all, let alone “all day”. Crikey‘s deadlines for a lunchtime email are such that articles need to be written before noon. I was writing in response to the Minister’s keynote and the promoted list of participants. It’s good to hear that there was discussion related to small business once things got going — and disappointing that only (mostly) big players get mentioned when such forums are promoted. I’d love to hear what the tangible results were.

Ian Birks, CEO of the AIIA, also took exception to my characterisation of his organisation.

Currently more than 300 of our 500 member companies have revenues under $5million — we advocate for the whole ICT industry and not just the big end of town.

I stand corrected, at least with regard to the claimed representation.

Still, a turnover of $5M is still a pretty decent business. My point is that the vast majority of new businesses are in the micro category. They’d be lucky to have a turnover of half a million, let alone ten times that. The AIIA’s members are also folks who are in the internet industry. What I’m interested in how businesses can be supported who are in the myriad other industries.