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Weekly Wrap 86: Linux, paranoia and a few rants

29 January 2012 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | 1 comment

My usual weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This post covers the week from Monday 23 to Sunday 29 January 2012.

This week included the last of my output from Linux.conf.au. I’ve just gathered all of my Linux.conf.au coverage plus selected other people’s in one place for your convenience.

Add this week’s media output to last week’s and you can see why I’ve been kind of exhausted. Thank the gods, we’re having a pseudo-long weekend.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 122, “War on the internet: it’s all about power”. The podcast covers the previous weekend’s War on the Internet forum Electronic Frontiers Australia and The Greens, and featured Suelette Dreyfus, co-author with Assange of Underground; Greens’ Senator Scott Ludlam; Crikey’s Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane; and headline speaker Jacob Appelbaum, internet security researcher, software hacker and activist.

Articles

Collateral damage in the copyright wars, ABC Drum Opinion, 23 January 2012.
Beware the piracy clones, Technology Spectator, 23 January 2012.
Untested buggy UEFI heads for prime-time, ZDNet Australia, 23 January 2012. Also published at TechRepublic.
Ah, the tech-soap that is Apple will run and run, Crikey, 25 January 2012. Warning: This article offends pompous Randroids. Apparently. Fuck ‘em.
Linux.conf.au 2012 photos, ZDNet Australia, 25 January 2012. Also published at TechRepublic.
Hacked or not, Ludlam’s a target of spies, ZDNet Australia, 25 January 2012.

Media Appearances

On Saturday I spoke with Sydney radio 2UE about cyberbullying and Rose Smith’s suggestion that children should be made to surrender their mobile phones at night.

Corporate Largesse

D-Link gave me a DCS-930L Wireless N Network Camera, which they sometimes describe as a “cloud camera”, the arsehats. I’ll be writing about that separately.
On Wednesday Chris Wood, regional director for Australia and New Zealand at security vendor Sourcefire, bought me a coffee.

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: Three sprigs at Threefold. Three sprigs of mint in three brown bottles grace the windowsill in the toilet at Melbourne's Threefold Foodstore and Eatery. I think that's just a wanked-up word for "cafe". I had the spatchcock, thank you very much.]

Weekly Wrap 83: Ryde, radio and fraudulent moons

10 January 2012 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets, kicking off with a fraud. Weekly Wrap posts are meant to cover what I did in the Monday-to-Sunday week, but the Full Moon photograph was only taken last night.

Well, the weekend and the start of the new week was a bit more hectic than I expected, and this was the only new photo I’d taken that could be used here. Did you really want to see my photos of taxi receipts?

I’d also intended to write a more reflective introduction, cover what it was like living in the wilds of Ryde for the week. But this post is late enough as it is, so you’ll have to live without it.

Podcasts

None. However the Patch Monday podcast returned yesterday, and I think there might well be an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast some time this week too.

Articles

I know I listed my piece for ABC The Drum on the Anonymous hack of Stratfor in last week’s Weekly Wrap, but it was published in the week covered by this post, so here it is again.

Anonymous imposters: hiding behind the AntiSec identity, ABC Drum Opinion, 2 January 2012.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday I spoke about Rupert Murdoch joining Twitter on ABC Local Radio around the country.
On Wednesday I spoke about the Fidel Castro death hoax spam and related information security issues on ABC 774 Melbourne.
On Sunday evening I spoke about Rupert Murdoch joining Twitter and other social media matters on ABC Local Radio around the country.

Corporate Largesse

None. Again. When will these PR companies actually start work for 2012?

Elsewhere

[Photo: Full Moon over Erskineville, photographed last night from Erskineville Road, Sydney. This is the picture as-is using the "night landscape" program setting on the Nikon Coolpix S8100.]

Weekly Wrap 82: Anonymous, Stratfor and little else

02 January 2012 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This was expected to be a short, easy week between Christmas and New Year, but when news of the Anonymous hack on Stratfor broke, well, that was it. It dominated everything except my personal podcast.

There’s still some end-of-year start-of-year posts to come, but I’ll deal with them over the next few days. I actually took the holiday weekend as a holiday.

Podcasts

The 9pm Edict episode 16, which had rather a lot about Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Christmas Message, and a fair amount about Twitter. It thought this episode was a bit weaker than others recently, because I didn’t seem to channel the rage. But I’ve been told it’s OK. I shrug my shoulders.
The 9pm Edict episode 17, which was put together in a pub on New Year’s Eve, interrupted by the pub closing early, and filled with more than the usual number of expletives. The bits of the script that had to be left out will appear in a special bonus episode soon.

Articles

The one written piece I did about the Stratfor hack shouldn’t be listed in this Weekly Wrap, technically, because it wasn’t published until 2 January. But I’ll list it here anyway for compeleteness.

Anonymous imposters: hiding behind the AntiSec identity, ABC Drum Opinion, 2 January 2012.

Media Appearances

On Thursday I was interviewed on Adelaide radio 1395 FIVEaa about the Anonymous hack on Stratfor and electronic voting, as well as the broader IT issues of 2011.
Also on Thursday, I was interviewed by ABC TV’s 7.30 about Anonymous and the Stratfor hack. Notice the theme developing?
On Friday night I was interviewed by Perth radio 6PR, again about Anonymous and the Stratfor hack.

Corporate Largesse

None. I have been abandoned. It’s not like PR companies are real families.

Elsewhere

[Photo: The Meaning of Life, Part 1. This uniform was worn by nearly every woman under 25 partying in Sydney on New Year's Eve. Photograph taken near the corner of George and Goulburn Streets, Sydney.]

Weekly Wrap 70: Jobs, hipster love, pain and transformation

10 October 2011 in Internet, Media, Politics, Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — leaving out all of the most important bits.

I can’t tell you about the highly personal things that happened last week, except to say that something which had been gnawing at the very core of my being has… changed. And my mind is still adjusting. As is my shoulder, which continues to misbehave. But codeine is dealing with that. Again.

The tooth situation is being resolved, though. Stage one of the root canal work has been performed.

I can also tell you about the nauseatingly young-and-in-love hipsters, pictured above, with their matching skateboards and matching sneakers. Well, that’s all I want to tell you about them, or I’ll get cranky.

So with the linkage…

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 108, “Adobe’s long battle with security flaws”. A conversation with Brad Arkin, Adobe’s head of product security and privacy.

Articles

Flash Player 11: Adobe’s great security hope, CSO, 4 October 2011.
iPhone release: no bunch of fives to the fore, but it’s OK, Crikey, 5 October 2011.
Steve Jobs deserved his cult — you don’t even know how he influenced you, Crikey, 6 October 2011.
Gillard and others honour Jobs’ memory (contributor only), ZDNet Australia, 6 October 2011.
Global time zone database closed following legal threat, CSO, 7 October 2011.

Media Appearances

Every single media spot I did this week related to Apple and/or the death of Steve Jobs.

On Wednesday I spoke with Adelaide radio 1395 FIVEaa about the iPhone 4S. But interest in the iPhone subsided when…
… on Thursday the media spots about the death of Steve Jobs began. The first was with ABC Gold Coast.
The second spot was with Triple J’s Hack.
The third spot on Thursday was with ABC News24′s discussion program The Drum.
And on Friday evening I spoke about the death of Steve Jobs on ABC 666 Canberra.
On the weekend, I also provided some comments on Steve Jobs to the TECHGEEK Weekly podcast.

Corporate Largesse

On Thursday lunch, snacks and coffee were provided to me as an attendee at the Digital Culture Public Sphere event in Sydney.

Elsewhere

[Photo: Matching skateboards and sneakers, a rather nauseating expression of young love spotted on King Street, Newtown, on Saturday night.]

Talking Steve Jobs on ABC News24′s “The Drum”

08 October 2011 in Conversations, Internet, Media by Stilgherrian | No comments

If all those radio spots I just posted weren’t enough, I was also asked to talk about Steve Jobs on ABC News24′s program The Drum.

It was my first time on the program. I think I did OK.

If you can’t see the embedded video, try watching it directly on YouTube.

Weekly Wrap 69: Teeth and little productivity

03 October 2011 in Internet, Politics, Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — and a remarkably unproductive week it was. I’m even posting this summary late!

In part that’s because the Tooth and Shoulder Situation lingered, but also because I reacted poorly to some negative comments on some of my writing. I’ll write more about that soon.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 107, “Cyberwar: back to basics”. A conversation with Nigel Phair, a director of the Centre for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra.

Articles

Google+: What’s in a name?, ABC Drum Opinion, 27 September 2011.

Media Appearances

On Monday I spoke with ABC Mid North Coast NSW about Facebook and Twitter and spending “too much” time connected. As far as I know there is no recording.
Also on Monday, I spoke with ABC Gold Coast about Facebook changes.
On Tuesday I spoke with ABC 105.7 Darwin about Facebook changes.
On Friday I spoke with ABC Gold Coast about smartphones and daylight saving.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday I had lunch at Wildfire Restaurant, Circular Quay, courtesy of Bass PR. The event was a security roundtable presented by some of their clients, including Websense, WatchGuard and VMinformer, and analysts Frost & Sullivan. I’ll write something about this in due course.

Elsewhere

[Photo: My first beer after nearly three weeks of illness and heavy-duty antibiotics. Much deserved. It's a Coopers Pale Ale at The Grand View Hotel, Wentworth Falls. This event actually happened the previous week, but I'm slow.]

Weekly Wrap 62: LinkedIn and Hacking edition

15 August 2011 in Internet, Politics, Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets, one day late and without a picture. I find it hard to get excited about creating these posts, but I suppose they’re useful.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 100, “Cybersecurity: past, present and future”. A conversation with Dr Paul Nielsen director and CEO of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, parent of CERT.

Articles

Siemens commits “basic security errors”: Byres, CSO, 8 August 2011.
The real cyber criminals are no lolling matter, ABC Drum Opinion, 8 August 2011.
LulzSec, WikiLeaks, Murdoch: hacking’s fourth wave, CSO, 8 August 2011. A somewhat longer article based on the interview with Dr Paul Nielsen.
Polymorphic threats cause pain for traditional anti-virus: Symantec, CSO, 9 August 2011.
LinkedIn pulls a Facebook-like swifty on ‘social advertising’, Crikey, 11 August 2011.
Sorry too hard a word for LinkedIn over privacy faux pas, Crikey, 12 August 2011.
Five lessons from LinkedIn’s opt-out stupidity , CSO, 12 August 2011.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

None. Again.

Elsewhere

Weekly Wrap 60: Media whoredom continues

31 July 2011 in Internet, Media, Politics, Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. It was another massive week of writing this week, including a trip to Melbourne.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 98, “Games, crime, porn and Facebook (laws)” A long chat with Peter Black, lecturer in media and internet law at Queensland University of Technology about R10+ computer games, a legislated right to privacy, the spread of “voluntary” internet filtering against the Interpol blacklist, laws relating to cybercrime, and calls to bring Facebook under control. It was recorded at the Hotel Gearin in Katoomba.

Articles

Politics of NBN pricing: comparing potatoes and pomegranates, Crikey, 25 July 2011.
Poll-driven knee-jerk reactions: the latest political craze, ABC Drum Opinion, 25 July 2011.
Cyber Storm III security exercise key findings released, CSO, 25 July 2011.
The keyboard is dead, Technology Spectator, 26 July 2011.
Skills shortage risks NBN benefits: NetApp, ZDNet Australia, 27 July 2011.
Media’s internet cluelessness is unacceptable and they will die, Crikey, 28 July 2011.
‘Impossible’ new wireless tech an NBN-killer? Not quite, not yet, Crikey, 29 July 2011.

These next few articles are all from the IBM Pulse 11 event in Melbourne. As the disclosure below points out, I travelled to this event as IBM’s guest.

IBM pushes Tivoli for cows and guns, ZDNet Australia, 27 July 2011. I’m particularly pleased with this headline, which is a reference to the Dana Lyons song, Cows with Guns.
IBM tech intercepts packets to control apps, ZDNet Australia, 28 July 2011.
Telstra GOC saves $1.5m with single sign-on, ZDNet Australia, 28 July 2011.
IBM halves Woolworths maintenance calls, ZDNet Australia, 28 July 2011.

Media Appearances

On Wednesday I was on ABC Triple’s national current affairs program Hack talking about LulzSec and Anonymous calling for a boycott of PayPal.
Also on Wednesday, I was interviewed by ABC Radio’s PM program on the hack of a wholesale internet service provider that was widely reported as a hack of the National Broadband Network.
On Friday I was interviewed by SBS TV’s World News about the the UK High Court decision to order the country’s largest internet service provider BT to block access to a website that provides links to pirated movies.

Geekery

Over at my business Prussia.Net we launched the new Australian website for Guild Guitars. It’s built in WordPress.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday I attended a briefing for media and analysts at Bilson’s Restaurant in Sydney where NetApp paid for the food and drink.
On Wednesday and Thursday I attended IBM’s Pulse 2011 event in Melbourne as IBM’s guest. They paid for airfares, taxis, accommodation and various meals.

Elsewhere

[Photo: Skyscrapers ay Circular Quay, Sydney, photographed from the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 29 July 2011.]

Weekly Wrap 58

17 July 2011 in Internet, Politics, Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Most of it seemed to be about Google+.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 96, “Can Google+ kill Facebook? Twitter?” My guests were social computing and business futures consultant Kate Carruthers, Digital Citizens founder James Fridley, and freelance journalist and blogger Neerav Bhatt.

Articles

There’s no way I’m handing over data to Google+, for Crikey.
Online crime under-reported, under-researched, for CSO.
Amazon AWS algorithms watch for cloud-based hacks, for CSO, which includes material from my interview with Amazon’s chief technology officer Dr Werner Vogels.
Why rush? Let others find the Google+ privacy landmines, for ABC Drum Opinion.
Quintet nations agree on cybercrime action plan, for CSO. It seems the same five Anglosphere nations that have been sharing intelligence since WWII still consider themselves a unit.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday I was interviewed by ABC TV’s 7.30 for their story on voicemail hacking at News of the World. I wrote about that already.
On Friday I was interviewed on the same topic by Adelaide radio 1395 FIVEaa.

Corporate Largesse

While attending the AWS Cloud Tour 2011 on Thursday, I received ample food and drink at Amazon’s expense.
On Friday I met with analyst Arun Chandrasekaran from Frost & Sullivan. He paid for the coffee and juice.
On Friday I had another extremely long lunch with those unnamed people about that unnamed media project, but this time I managed to find my way back to where I was meant to be spending the night.

Elsewhere

[Photo: Kent Street, Sydney, photographed on Friday 15 July 2011.]

[Update 7pm: I didn't think that last article for CSO would be posted today, but it was, so I've added it to the "Articles" list.]

Google+ gives me grief, generally

17 July 2011 in Internet, Politics, Privacy by Stilgherrian | 6 comments

It seems to have been my annointed role this week to press back against the rush to join Google+, the new social networking service (SNS) from Google.

It all began when I posted the Patch Monday podcast on, erm, Monday. “Can Google+ kill Facebook? Twitter?” I asked. But as I discussed the potential success of Google+ and its strengths and weaknesses compared with Facebook, I couldn’t help but think…

I don’t want to do this.

Join Google+, that is.

I’d first written about Google+ for Crikey a week and a bit earlier. It was a cranky piece. I speculated that Google would have to come up with something pretty persuasive to get people to migrate from Facebook.

That of course soon triggered one of the usual, predictable comments.

sorry im not on facebook, i dont need to be, i dont have a mobile phone, i really dont need one, i dont have a GPS, i have a brain and know how to get around, hell, i dont even have a watch, i do have a job , im thankfull of that and i do manufacture and retail a product that everyone wants.

… said William Magnusson, who also seems to live without capital letters, apostrophes or the ability to decide when it’s time to end his sentence and start a new one.

I’d expected that. But what I hadn’t expected was much of the reaction to my follow-up Crikey piece, There’s no way I’m handing over data to Google+, and to a lesser extent my ABC The Drum piece, Why rush? Let others find the Google+ privacy landmines.

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