My week of Monday 16 to Sunday 22 March 2015 didn’t quite go to plan, but the changes were mostly just irritations.
As mentioned last week, I had planned to stay on in Melbourne for a few days, but a closer look at the budget made it clear that wasn’t possible. And then my return flight on Thursday was delayed, for two reasons. One, Melbourne Airport’s air traffic control tower was evacuated for some reason, putting a spanner in the works. Two, just as my plane was finally about to leave, a passenger fell ill, and we had to wait until an ambulance arrived.
Still, I gathered plenty of information in Melbourne, and bits and pieces of it will turn up in various writings on the coming weeks.
Articles
- Australia’s data-retention debate hits Derpcon Zero, ZDNet Australia, 18 March 2015.
Podcasts
None. The next episode of The 9pm Edict will be on Tuesday 24 March.
5at5
There were only two editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday and Wednesday. The gap in the early part of the week was because I was busy, and in the latter part of the week because I had trouble getting a clean data link to TinyLetter for some reason. You should subscribe, you know.
Media Appearances
None.
Corporate Largesse
- From Tuesday through Thursday, I was at the Cisco Live event in Melbourne, as Cisco’s guest. They covered my flights from Sydney, airport transfers, two nights accommodation at the Crown Metropol, food and drink during the conference, and dinner at Bistro Guillaume. Regarding the last, the food and wine was excellent. I had the charcuterie plate, Berkshire pork belly served with picked cabbage and apple salad, and the cheese platter. Etihad Stadium also provided food and drinks for the attending journalists and analysts after we toured their new technical facilities.
The Week Ahead
It’s going to be another busy one, at least in the first half of the week.
On Monday, I’ll be doing most of the production for an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, as well as the laundry, as well as administrivia.
On Tuesday, I’ll be taking the train to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing by Oracle on the cloud and big data. I’m wondering if anything has actually changed with them things. I’ll also be preparing my entries for the IT Journalism Awards, also known as The Lizzies, and dealing with a few errands.
On Wednesday, I’m heading in to Sydney again for the Rewind/Fast Forward conference. The program seems interesting, and I think I’ll ge getting plenty of usable material there too.
On Thursday and Friday, I’ll be writing a column for ZDNet Australia, writing something else, and working on the much-delayed ebook — though I haven’t locked those activities into specific timeslots yet.
The weekend is unplanned, but Saturday will of course include the NSW state election.
[Photo: VH-VUE touches down in Melbourne. VH-VUE is a Boeing 737 Next Gen, and on 17 March 2015 it was flying Virgin Australia flight VA834 SYD-MEL. While it was a rainy day, most of the vertical streaks in this image are from the crinkled window treatment.]