Author: Stilgherrian

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Talking digital privacy on ABC 891 Adelaide

ABC logoThis is Privacy Awareness Week in Australia, so most of the media I’ve been involved in making is focused on privacy — although of course that’s a common topic for me in any event.

First cab off the rank — or do these days we day “first Uber off the app”? — was ABC 891 Adelaide, a radio station I worked at 1985-91, and which I still have links to.

This quick interview with drive presenter Michael Smyth took place on Monday 5 May 2014.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.3MB)

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Weekly Wrap 204: Libertarian troll beach abortion, yeah?

Fisherman at North Cronulla Beach: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 28 April to Sunday 4 May 2014 was yet another solid performer — which, to be honest, surprises me. But here we are. Praise be.

The entire week was spent at Wentworth Falls, apart from a day trip to Sydney — but despite the rapidly dropping temperatures as winter starts to bite, and despite Mistress Insomnia’s continuing persistent calls for attention, my mood holds up.

Articles

Podcasts

The big chunky piece of joy for me this week was resurrecting The 9pm Edict. The first episode, “The 9pm Shire” should have been appearing tonight — and the photo at the head of this post was taken during the recording expedition — but for reasons already explained that’s been postponed until this coming Tuesday 6 May or thereabouts.

Media Appearances

  • On Tuesday I was interviewed by The Wire, the daily current affairs program of Australia’s community radio stations, about internet security — but that’s being held over to the coming week.

5at5

Four out of five this week. But why don’t you subscribe to 5at5, and then I don’t need to keep telling you about it.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Thursday I had coffee with someone from LivePerson, a company that provides technology for online customer service. Their PR company paid for the coffee.
  • Also on Thursday I went to Good Technology’s Sydney Mobile Summit, all about the state of the art of mobile security — or at least as framed by their products and PR messaging. It was held at the Sheraton on the park, and lunch and afternoon tea was provided.

The Week Ahead

Next week is already completely packed out, and it also sees me heading to the United States yet again.

On Monday I’ll be heading to Sydney to complete my recordings at Cronulla and deal with a few errands.

I’ll be staying in Sydney overnight, because on Tuesday I’m going to a breakfast briefing that starts at 0730 — this is how businesses treat their staff, apparently — as well as doing a couple of interviews. I’ll head back to the Blue Mountains on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, it’s a day trip to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing by AVG Technologies on some research they’ve done into the security of the Internet of Things (IoT). “There isn’t any,” I assume to be the answer, but with additional wine.

Thursday is a writing day. Then on Friday it’s back to Sydney again for a bunch of errands and then the Optus IT Journalism Awards, in which I am a finalist. Then I stay in Sydney overnight before flying to San Francisco on Saturday.

On Sunday I’m visiting some wineries in the Sonoma region, thanks to NetSuite, who are also paying for that US trip. But I’ll write more about that in due course.

[Photo: Fisherman at North Cronulla Beach, photographed shortly before sunset on Saturday 3 May 2014.]

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Announcing “The 9pm Excuses”

So you know how the other day I told you about the return of The 9pm Edict podcast and how the next episode would be posted on Sunday 4 May? Well it isn’t going to happen quite like that.

I did go to Sydney’s Sutherland Shire as planned yesterday. And I did record stuff. But for reasons explained in this mini-podcast, I didn’t get the material I needed to fulfil the plan. Sorry.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:35 — 2.4MB)

I’m heading back to Cronulla tomorrow. Stay tuned. I’m hoping to post the new episode on Tuesday 6 May or thereabouts.

Meanwhile you can listen to all of the episodes, now and in the future, if you subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe automatically in iTunes, or go to SoundCloud.

If you’d like to comment on this (non-)episode — or suggest people, places or things that I should check out — please add your comment below, or Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.

You can also check out the progress videos I made on the YouTube playlist.

[Credits: The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian, from The Freesound Project. Photograph of Stilgherrian taken 29 March 2009 by misswired, used by permission. The sound of the waves breaking on the beach was recorded at Cronulla yesterday and it’s mine, I tell you, all mine.]

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Announcing the Return of “The 9pm Edict”

Screenshots from The 9 O'Clock Resurrection progress videos: click for YouTube playlistMy crowdfunding project, The 9 O’Clock Resurrection, has been successful. We have resurrected the finest goat-oriented political and social commentary podcast in the galaxy, The 9pm Edict. Haha. What have we done?

What we’ve done is fund two episodes for May.

First up, “The 9pm Shire”, by which I mean Sutherland Shire in Sydney’s southern suburbs. Our Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison, said last month:

“I get so much encouragement when I walk through Cronulla mall, go down the beach, or up to Miranda Fair… On Australia Day we were at the fireworks at Cronulla and I was walking through the crowd and people were coming up to me to say ‘g’day’ and encourage me and congratulate me on what we had done so far, and basically saying ‘keep giving it to ’em and don’t back down’.”

He said residents weren’t against immigration or asylum-seekers but wanted a process that was done “the right way”.

That episode is being recorded this Saturday 3 May, and should be posted on Sunday 4 May.

And because I’m in San Francisco and San Jose later this month, the following episode will be “The 9pm Caltrain” — the Caltrain being the train that runs through that part of the world. That episode should be posted on Tuesday 20 May.

I’ve recorded an announcement, which you can listen to below. But if you want all of the episodes, now and in the future, subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe automatically in iTunes, or on SoundCloud.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:02 — 5.1MB)

If you’d like to comment on this (non-)episode — or suggest people, places or things that I should check out — please add your comment below, or Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.

You can also check out the progress videos I made on the YouTube playlist.

[Credits: The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian, from The Freesound Project. Photograph of Stilgherrian taken 29 March 2009 by misswired, used by permission.]

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Finalist in the Optus IT Journalism Awards

Lizzies logoI am somewhat pleased to be a finalist in two categories of the Optus IT Journalism Awards, often called “The Lizzies” because the awards take the form of a lizard — or at least they used to.

Mind you, I’m not all that hopeful of winning.

In the category “Best Columnist”, I’m up against the redoubtable David Braue, who’s won before — as well as Adam Turner, Alex Kidman, Angus Kidman, Ashton Mills, Brett Winterford, John Davidson, Josh Taylor and Luke Hopewell.

My entry had to include four written pieces, so I chose these, all from my ZDNet Australia column, The Full Tilt:

And in the category “Best Audio Program”, my podcast Corrupted Nerds is up against Marc Fennell’s Download This Show, which won last year, and Patrick Gray’s Risky Business, which has won several times before that — as well as ABC Radio National’s Future Tense, Gadget Grill, Naked Geeks, Tech Daily with Andy Wells, and Technology Tuesday with Angus Kidman (which I’ve had to link to with a Google search because there doesn’t seem to be a separate feed for it).

My entry had to include one episode, so I chose Conversations 4: Will the cloud run out of steam?

Click through for the full list of finalists. The winners will be announced at a booze-addled event next Friday night, 9 May 2014.

[Update 11 May 2014: I didn’t win either of these categories. As expected, Marc Fennell’s Download This Show won Best Audio Program, and ZDNet Australia senior journalist Josh Taylor won best columnist. I’ll post the full list of winners once the official version becomes available, but until then here’s Angus Kidman’s unofficial list.]

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Weekly Wrap 203: A short, productive week in autumn

The train approaches Wentworth Falls: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 21 to Sunday 27 April 2014 was another solid performer, despite it supposedly being a short three-day working week between Easter and Anzac Day, and despite having to rebuild my computer.

There’s not a lot to say without me getting into a whinge about software generally, so let’s just get on with it.

Articles

Video

I produced seven short movies, which were supposed to be progress reports for my Pozible campaign, but which were really just me arseing around. You can find all seven in a YouTube playlist, The 9 O’Clock Resurrection.

Media Appearances

None.

5at5

There was one for every working day, plus an extra for Anzac Day. But why don’t you subscribe to 5at5, and then I don’t need to keep telling you about it.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

Oh dear. We’re halfway through it already. However it’s already been quite productive. I’ve wrapped the Pozible project, written a piece for ZDNet Australia (to be published today), recorded a radio interview (to go to air next week), and recorded an interview which will turn into some media in due course.

Today, Wednesday, is a day of planning and writing — in particular sketching out what will happen in May. Thursday is a day trip to Sydney, for a meeting and then Good Technology’s Sydney Mobility Summit, a briefing about strategies for mobile device security. Friday is a day of writing and production planning.

On Saturday I’ll be recording “The 9pm Shire”, the first full episode of a new series of The 9pm Edict. That involves a trip to Cronulla and other places in the Sutherland Shire for the location recording. And Sunday will see the post-production of that podcast and its publication.

[Photo: The train approaches Wentworth Falls , photographed on Sunday 27 April 2014.]