My week of Monday 9 August to 15 September 2024 was spent in Sydney, and I’m the better for it. There’s increasing evidence that moving back to a city — which is my medium-term plan — will do me good. I ended up being reasonably productive, though not on things I can show you just yet.
FINAL DAYS: Please consider The 9pm Spring Series 2024 crowdfunder
If you want more special-guest episodes of my inappropriate and often disturbing podcast for grown-ups The 9pm Edict, then this crowdfunder is for you.
It’s The 9pm Spring Series 2024 campaign, and it’s in its final days.
Please click though, read, and consider pledging your support.
You have until 9pm AEST this Thursday 19 September.
At the time of posting we’re 57% of the way to Target One with just four and a bit days to go,, so it’d be great to kick that along a bit.
Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #35. What a week! A burst of legislation from privacy to misinformation to hate speech, an anti-scam “plan”, Meta gets caught out, and much more.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Media Appearances
- On Thursday I did the Big Tech spot on ABC Radio’s RN Drive: New disinformation laws, Meta taking your data for AI. For some background, try the ABC’s story on the misinformation and disinformation legislation and the actual Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024, and how Facebook admits to using every Australian adult user’s public photos and posts to train its AI. Note that I made a very big mistake: The misinformation and disinformation exemption for government and political material has in fact been removed from the legislation, thank goodness, but I thought it was still there and made a thing of it. I am an idiot.
Podcasts, Photos, Videos, Corporate Largess
None of these. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear and when livestreams are scheduled.
Recommendations
Elon. What more needs to be said?
- Elon Musk calls Australian government “fascists” over move to regulate online misinformation, so I guess we’re doing well? I wrote about this in The Weekly Cybers too.
- Elon Musk facing age discrimination class action.
- Vanity Fair has an extract from a new book about Musk’s purchase of Twitter, “Are You Saying No to Elon Musk?”: Scenes from the Slash-and-Burn Buyout of Twitter.
- Elon Musk Threatens Taylor Swift After Harris Endorsement: ‘I Will Give You a Child’.
- From The Conversation, “Tech billionaire Elon Musk is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire. It’s a sign markets aren’t working.”
- It’s not really about the man himself, but Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars. “Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does.”
- Finally, a site which documents Musk’s predictions and how they’re all so wrong.
In other news:
- I haven’t watched it yet, but here’s a 1984 TV documentary about artificial intelligence.
- A solid explanation of why cops and spooks shouldn’t be allowed to have backdoors to encrypted messages, and why asking companies to backdoor themselves isn’t an improvement. It’s from April, but of course it’s timeless.
- This is very amusing: How to monetise a blog.
- Engineers Gave a Mushroom a Robot Body And Let It Run Wild, so this will end well.
- And from Patrick Boyle, some high-quality snark in Tech Bros Inventing Things That Already Exist.
The Week Ahead
The week begins in Sydney, where I’ve been staying for the last week, but I return to the Blue Mountains on Wednesday afternoon.
So, we’re looking at Monday and Tuesday being about client work, kinda, but also a small podcast to help plug the crowdfunder; Wednesday being about errands and returning to the Mountains; Thursday night being about wrapping up the crowdfunder; and Friday being about The Weekly Cybers and whatever else needs doing.
Update 18 September 2024: Friday will also include a trip down to Sydney for back maintenance and a haircut, among other things.
The 9pm Edict is supported by the generosity of its listeners — such as via the crowdfunder just plugged. If you miss that deadline, you can always throw a few coins into the tip jar or subscribe for special benefits. Please consider.
On Sunday it’s our Sydney Metro Chatswood-Central-Sydenham Pub Crawl. This was originally scheduled for its planned opening date of 4 August, but when that was postponed we had to change our own plans.
Further Ahead
- UPDATED: Queensland expedition, 13–21 October 2024, which is shaping up rather well. Sunday 13: Fly to Cairns and visit the Australian Armour & Artillery Museum. Monday 14: A Great Barrier Reef tour. Tuesday 15: Kuranda Scenic Railway wildlife experience. Wednesday 16 and overnight: Spirit of Queensland train to Brisbane. Brisbane itinerary TBA. Sunday 20: Train to Gold Coast and explore there a bit. Monday 21: Relaxing morning then fly back to Sydney. More details to come.
- Sydney Days, 26 October to 18 November 2024 (TBC). The dates have yet to be finalised, but I have another opportunity to base myself in Sydney for a while.
- Australian Internet Governance Forum (auIGF) 2024, formerly known as NetThing, Melbourne and online, 28–29 October 2024 (TBC).
- An expedition to Victoria which includes a friend’s birthday celebrations, 6–9 December 2024. This trip will almost burn off the last of my frequent flyer points from the Beforetimes.
[Photo: Descending into the new Victoria Cross Metro station in North Sydney on 11 September 2024.]