Monday 29 October to Sunday 4 November 2012 was a busy week, made slightly less busy by the need to recover from the throat infection identified last week and then, because I was run down, fatigue that was probably a mix of a cold and hay fever.

Hence the photograph of the wattle I’ve posted here. It is to blame.

Dear Plant Kingdom, if I spread my genetic material all over you the way you do over me, I’d be arrested! Please behave yourself.

[Update 1545 AEDT: I am reliably informed that the hay fever is unlikely to be caused by wattle pollen.]

Podcasts

• Patch Monday episode 161, “Cybergeddon now? Industrial control systems targeted”. A conversation with industrial control system (ICS) security specialists James Arlen (@myrcurial) and Dave Lewis (@gattaca), who blog and podcast at liquidmatrix.org.

Articles

• Keeping ‘Cybergeddon’ at bay, Technology Spectator, 31 October 2012.
• Google defames us all, but should we sue?, Crikey, 1 November 2012.
• Cyber crime wave: tsunami or ripple?, CSO Online, 2 November 2012.

Media Appearances

• On Thursday afternoon I spoke about the Google defamation decision with Richard Glover on ABC 702 Sydney.
• On Friday morning I spoke about data mining with Gerard Callinan on ABC Gippsland.
• On Friday the new Balls Radio podcast was posted, wherein I spoke about the Google defamation decision.

Also, the Sydney Opera House has posted the video of my Festival of Dangerous Ideas panel, I Share Therefore I Am. I’ll write more about that in due course.

Corporate Largesse

• On Monday evening I had a few beers with Michael McKinnon from AVG Australia and New Zealand, which they paid for.
• On Tuesday morning I attended the breakfast launch of Windows Phone 8 at the Blue Bar,level 36 of the Shangri-La Hotel, overlooking Sydney Harbour. Microsoft paid for that, obviously.

The Week Ahead

Next week is pretty much all about Singapore. On Monday I’ll head down to Sydney and get some writing out of the way. Then on Tuesday it’s Singapore Airlines flight SQ212 departing Sydney at 0905 AEDT and arriving in Singapore mid-afternoon local time.

Wednesday is Verizon Business’ APAC Media Day, a five-hour meeting followed by cocktails. On Thursday I’m visiting the hospitality tent at the Barclays Singapore Open golf tournament as Verizon’s guest. Friday through Sunday has yet to be finalised, but there’ll be at least two articles to write and a podcast to produce.

Oh, and a social life.

My flight back to Sydney SQ231 leaves Singapore at 45 minutes past midnight Sunday night — so technically that’s Monday morning.

[Photo: Wattle near Railway Parade, near Wentworth Falls, one of the causes of my hay fever this week.]