Stilgherrian – Page 207

07 October 201308 October 2013

Weekly Wrap 174: Newcastle, new events, new venues

My week Monday 30 September to Sunday 6 October 2013 was dominated by my trip to Newcastle for the inaugural DiG Festival and Conference. Both the city and the event were well worth it.

I’ll be writing about the DiG Festival for Crikey today, so watch out for that, but I’m sure I’ll have more to say later.[Update 2000 AEDT: And here it is.] I’ll also be writing about Newcastle, because I have many thoughts.

Articles

The digital revolution’s lingering literacy problem, ZDNet Australia, 30 September 2013.
Upping the pace to face the infosec ‘Cold War’, CSO Online, 30 September 2013.
The global clash to capture your cash, ZDNet Australia, 3 October 2013. The thoughts in this op-ed were triggered by the comments from the Commonwealth Bank guy at the DiG Festival, as well as the news that day about the takedown of Silk Road. And they in turn fed into…
Silk Road battleground: individualism v authority, ABC The Drum, 4 October 2013.
Will it float? Twitter’s prospectus shows signs of growth, Crikey, 4 October 2013.

I also wrote a 1000-word piece that’ll appear in a printed magazine that CSO will be handing out at some events between now and the end of the year.

Podcasts

None, but there’ll be a new Corrupted Nerds in the coming few days.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

On Friday night I had beers and pizza at The Grain Store Bar in Newcastle, thanks to the organisers of the DiG Festival and Conference.

The Week Ahead

Monday is a public holiday in NSW, but not in Victoria, so I’ll be writing my story on the DiG Festival and Conference for Crikey and, perhaps, a piece that I’ve kept on the back burner for Technology Spectator.

I’m keeping Tuesday empty for some personal reasons.

On Wednesday I’ll head to Sydney for a lunchtime media briefing by Unisys, and I may stay overnight because on Thursday there’s the annual conference of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA). [Update 8 October 2013: Confirmed, I’ll be attending the AISA Conference and staying in Sydney until Friday.]

Friday and the weekend are currently unplanned.

[Photo: Newcastle City Hall, photographed at around 0730 AEST on 3 October 2013.]

29 September 201329 September 2013

Weekly Wrap 173: The early spring continues regardless

So here’s my week Monday 23 to Sunday 29 September 2013, posted without further comment because quite frankly I couldn’t be bothered.

It was looking like the only media items I’d publish this week would be on Monday, my article and subsequent radio spot about the National Broadband Network — both of which are now distinctly out of date because the story has moved on — but today I managed to knock out another podcast episode.

Podcasts

Corrupted Nerds: Conversations 5, being a chat with Dick Bussiere, principal architect for Tenable Network Security in the Asia Pacific region.

Articles

NBN Co board refuses to drink the poisoned chalice, Crikey, 23 September 2013.

I’ve also half-written two articles that will be published in due course. So I am catching up.

Media Appearances

On Monday I spoke about the NBN board being sacked on ABC Gold Coast.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

Monday will see me doing an end-of-month writing burst, so that’ll keep me out of trouble. Tuesday, being the start of a new quarter, is an administration day for me — though I may head to Sydney in the afternoon to get a head start on the rest of the week’s adventures.

On Wednesday I’m heading to Newcastle for the DiG Festival and Conference, which will keep me busy through to Saturday.

[Photo: Sunday evening in the village, being a photograph of Wentworth Falls village taken this evening, Sunday 29 September 2013. Not exactly a brilliant photo, but I was determined to post an image produced this week.]

29 September 2013

Fifth “Corrupted Nerds” podcast posted

After a gap that was altogether far too long, a new episode of the Corrupted Nerds podcast has just been posted.

“Networks are living and breathing things. They don’t sit still. Your vulnerabilities will change on a daily basis, for sure, and you need to be on top of that,” says Dick Bussiere, principal architect for Tenable Network Security in the Asia Pacific region.

That’s why Tenable is advocating what they see as a revolution in maintaining a data network’s security posture.

“We’re kind of advocating that people perform vulnerability assessment, and remediation of vulnerabilities, as a constant and continuous process, rather than something that you do on a periodic basis,” Bussiere says.

So that worldview, plus a few comments about advanced persistent threats (APTs), the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) and the revelations of Edward Snowden, are all part of Corrupted Nerds: Conversations episode 5. Enjoy.

28 September 201328 September 2013

Visiting Newcastle for DiG Festival

This coming Wednesday I’m catching the Shitkansen north from Sydney to Newcastle for the inaugural DiG Festival and Conference: digital plus interactive plus green technology.

I won’t repeat the event’s own website. You can read that for yourself. The key days are this coming Thursday 3 and Friday 4 October 2013.

But I will say that apart from the conference program itself, I’m interested in catching a few glimpses of the city. It’s been three years since I visited Newcastle to speak at the National Young Writers Festival, and four years since I looked around properly and wrote my Letter from Newcastle. So of nothing else, there’ll be an observational essay about that.

There’s a strong-looking conference thread about the future of online payments — could the fact that Commonwealth Bank is a major sponsor have something to do with that? — and I’ll be writing about that for Technology Spectator. It’ll be a nice follow-up to my recent piece about Westpac’s $2 billion invisible bank. And I’m sure I’ll be writing about other things for other outlets.

If you’re in Newcastle at the time, don’t forget to say hi. I plan to stick around until Saturday afternoon.

28 September 2013

Talking NBN board sacking on ABC Gold Coast

ABC logo Monday morning brought the news that the board of NBN Co had tendered its resignation — although it later transpired that they’d been asked to resign, and one member had chosen not to tender their resignation. But whatever the fine details, it was certainly the day’s big news.

And so I found myself talking about the National Broadband Network on ABC Gold Coast on Monday afternoon with Matt Webber.

Here’s the full audio. I was surprised to find myself outlining the key differences between the Coalition and Labor broadband policies. I’d have thought these would have been discussed to death during the election campaign that had ended only two weeks earlier. But then I don’t follow the daily news bicycle these days, so perhaps I over-estimate how well our media serves the citizenry.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.8MB)

28 September 201328 September 2013

Weekly Wrap 172: Spring, with the Cows of Disruption

So here’s my week Monday 16 to Sunday 22 September 2013, with just the media stuff listed because this is being posted so late.

Articles

Is Twitter worth $16b? Perhaps in a multi-screen game, Crikey, 17 September 2013.
Pay heed to the internet’s Third Wave Cows of Disruption, ZDNet Australia, 19 September 2013. This article really struck a chord with people, for some reason. If you read just one thing that I’ve written this month, this is probably the one to choose.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

On Wednesday I went to a media briefing by Intel about their new range of enterprise technology. It was held at Arras Restaurant in Sydney, and once again the food was excellent.

[Photo: Spring, Wednesday edition, being the start of a glorious spring day photographed at Potts Point, Sydney, on Wednesday 18 September 2013.]