Stilgherrian – Page 221

21 April 2013

Weekly Wrap 150: Hiatus with hip flask

My week Monday 15 to Sunday 21 April 2013 was demolished by illness, one involving plenty of trips to the bathroom and the need to keep up my fluid intake. I will not be providing photographs.

So a solid week of writing was turned into a week not noted for solidity (sorry), and just one article emerged. I’m told it’s not all that good.

Articles

WordPress attack highlights 30 million targets, ZDNet Australia, 19 April 2013.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

On Monday I had lunch at Wildfire Restaurant at Circular Quay, Sydney, which was a media briefing by Adaptive Planning. So I assume they paid. I know I didn’t. I can’t afford to eat at places like that. I took a photograph of the menu.
Later on Monday I had coffee with some folks from Bitdefender. They also gave me a gift pack containing a t-shirt, a novelty USB stick and a hip flask containing something that I suspect has alcohol in it. Very practical. I approve.

The Week Ahead

I’ll figure it out on Monday morning. I know I have lots of writing to catch up on, and there’s a bunch of email asking me to do things I’m sure. But it’s also a public holiday on Thursday for Anzac Day, and I feel quite strongly that public holidays are there for a reason — especially given that Easter failed to be a long weekend for me.

[Photo: Danger, at Sydney’s Central railway station, photographed on 15 April 2013. I asked the workers, and there wasn’t really any danger.]

15 April 2013

Weekly Wrap 149: Multiple dominations, with spiders

During the week Monday 8 to Sunday 14 April 2013, I submitted to the cloud and was dominated by broadband. I did some dominating myself, in relation to two SEKRIT matters that I won’t be telling you about.

Reactions to the Coalition’s broadband policy, launched by Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday, made it clear that the National Broadband Network (NBN) will be a key issue for Australia’s federal election on 14 September. I’ll be writing up my reflections on reactions and media coverage, including reactions to my own work, tomorrow. We’ll be seeing plenty more about the NBN in the coming weeks.

Articles

Ninety billion maybes: 13 questions about Turnbull’s NBN, Crikey, 8 April 2013.
Broadband battlelines drawn: Turnbull’s plan for fast internet, Crikey, 9 April 2013.
Like it or not, Turnbull’s NBN vision strikes a chord, ABC The Drum, 10 April 2013.
Broadband battle: hard numbers, ideology and gut feel, Crikey, 10 April 2013.
Will speed kill the next tech revolution?, ZDNet Australia, 11 April 2013.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday I spoke about the NBN with Dom Knight and his guests on ABC 702 Sydney, but I didn’t record it.
On Saturday I spoke about the NBN on FBi Radio’s politics show Backchat.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday I had a few beers at Alcatel-Lucent’s expense. Three Peronis, if I recall correctly.
On Wednesday I attended a press briefing about trends in unified communications by Dimension Data, held at the wonderful Flying Fish Restaurant in Pyrmont, Sydney. Check out the full menu and the pre-lunch canapes. There was also wine, but I forgot to grab the wine list.

The Week Ahead

It turns out that I won’t be in Sydney continuously for the next two weeks after all. In the two years that I’ve been mostly based at Bunjaree Cottages near Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, I’ve usually migrated to the proprietors’ family home in Lilyfield during school holidays. The holidays are a busy time for Bunjaree, so it was handy for them to be on-site. But this time they’ve made other arrangements, so Wentworth Falls will continue to be my base.

That said…

It’s already Monday. I had an 0600 conference call — whose idea was that again oh yes that’s right it was mine shut up — and right now I’m on a train headed to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing, an afternoon meeting and dinner with a friend. I’ll be staying overnight for more meetings on Tuesday.

The shape of the rest of the week is unclear, but there’s a bunch of writing in the pipeline, and a bunch of planning. Stay tuned.

[Photo: Spider guest, Nicodamus species, a change from my usual bird photos from Bunjaree Cottages.]

14 April 2013

Talking NBN on FBi Radio’s Backchat

The Coalition’s national broadband policy dominated the media this week. As part of that, I was interviewed for Backchat, a politics program on Sydney community station FBi Radio.

You can listen to the entire episode at the Backchat website, but I’ve extracted the interview here. I’m not sure about you, but I think I sound a bit tired. Which is fair enough, because I was tired.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.9MB)

08 April 201323 April 2013

Weekly Wrap 148: Libertarian overload, with heraldry

The week of Monday 1 to Sunday 7 April 2013 was days ago, so once more I’ll just present the basic facts with a random photo.

Articles

Trend Micro’s new paradigm: old (but good) advice in a new bottle, CSO Online, 1 April 2013.
The Spamhaus attack’s real lessons, Technology Spectator, 2 April 2013.
Bitcoin: More ideology than trustworthy currency, ZDNet Australia, 4 April 2013. The comments posted on this story are… remarkable.

Media Appearances

On Thursday I spoke about downloading TV programs, with specific reference to Game of Thrones, on ABC 105.7 Darwin.
I was also a guest on this week’s Download This Show for ABC Radio National. There was mention of teledildonics. It was a great episode. You should listen.

Corporate Largesse

None. But there’ll be plenty this week.

The Week Ahead

Well, Monday’s been done. I wrote a thing for Crikey previewing the Coalition’s broadband policy announcement. We’ll get the actual announcement tomorrow (Tuesday) or the day after (Wednesday, in case you need help working that out), so I’ll write more about it then.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’m also taking the train to Sydney for a 1500 meeting in the CBD and subsequent drinks, and then staying overnight for a lunchtime briefing on Wednesday.

The rest of the week will be a mix of writing and geekery, as I choose to take it.

However at some time on the weekend I should be returning to Sydney, to stay there for two weeks while Bunjaree Cottages turns into school holiday mode. In theory. Nothing has been confirmed. And I am actually quite relaxed with this knowledge.

[Photo: Heraldry Overload, an architectural detail on the Union Theatre, Lithgow.]

08 April 2013

Talking downloading TV on ABC 105.7 Darwin

ABC logo The new series of Game of Thrones was released in the US last week, and even though it was broadcast in Australia on pay TV network Foxtel just two hours later, it was still torrented to buggery. Just how entitled are we?

I ended up discussing this very issue with Kate O’Toole on ABC 105.7 Darwin, and here’s the full audio of our conversation from 4 April 2013. Since I’m way behind schedule, I’ll leave this stand without further comment.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.2MB)

31 March 201301 April 2013

Weekly Wrap 147: Easter rush with added geekery

The week of Monday 25 to Sunday 31 March 2013 was hectic and varied — lecturing at a university, appearing on TV and being reminded how easily internet technology can fall apart.

The various media things are listed here, of course. What’s not listed is a sudden and unexpected day full of geekery that began at 0100 on (Good) Friday and ran well into the evening. A server software upgrade went pear-shaped. and I had to coordinate work between the server team in India and the data centre team in the US. Given that they had different responsibilities and authorities, I had to sign off on their plans. There’s some lessons in there that’d make an interesting blog post — but not yet.

Articles

Microsoft’s Melbourne tests confirm: counterfeit software a security risk, ZDNet Australia, 27 March 2013.
Summly sale storytelling hides horrible home truths, ZDNet Australia, 28 March 2013.

Media Appearances

On Monday I gave a guest lecture at University of Technology Sydney. That’s not really media, I suppose, but the audience comprised media studies students.
On Tuesday night I spoke about Yahoo!, Summly and more on ABC Local Radio.
On Thursday night I spoke about DDoS attacks and exaggeration on ABC TV’s The Business.
On Saturday morning I spoke about DDoS attacks and exaggeration again, this time on ABC News24’s Weekend Breakfast. I don’t have a recording of that.

Corporate Largesse

On Monday, I paid a visit to Vertel in Alexandria, Sydney, to find out about what they can do with high-speed wireless internet links. They offered me a beer. I accepted. It was a Peroni. It was rather nice.

The Week Ahead

This’ll be an interesting one because tomorrow, which is both the public holiday for Easter Monday and the start of a new quarter, I’m planning to kick off a series of changes in my little world. Or at least try to. I’ll write about that tomorrow ~~morning~~ afternoon.

I’ve also got plenty of writing lined up, including two pieces for Technology Spectator, one for CSO Online, one for Crikey and my usual column for ZDNet. This both pleases and stresses me. I may rearrange this a bit, because that’s rather a lot for a short week.

At this stage it’s looking like I’ll be in Wentworth Falls for the first part of the week, before heading down to Sydney on Friday morning to record Marc Fennell’s Download This Show for ABC Radio National.

[Photo: Shut up, I’m eating this flower, yet another photograph of a crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) at Bunjaree Cottages. I feel like I’ve posted a few too many Bunjaree bird photos lately, but I couldn’t resist the seemingly-cheeky look this guy threw me while he ripped apart and ate the eating a mountain devil (Lambertia formosa) flowers from a nearby plant.]

[Update 1 April 2013, 1145 AEDT: Updated the ETA for the post about my plans to reflect the unfolding reality.]