Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
The second of my two radio spots about the 2016 Census was with Adam Shirley on ABC 666 Canberra. I think it’s the better of the two, probably because it was my second go at some intelligent-sounding sound bites.
For the background on this Census issue, see the previous post.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.5MB)
This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Australia’s 2016 Census is turning out to be the most controversial in history, mostly because the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has decided to keep people’s names and addresses associated with their raw Census data for four years, and perhaps longer.
This has of course triggered privacy concerns.
Personally, I think the ABS has only itself to blame, because they didn’t include us citizens in the journey this decision, and they’ve been hopeless at explaining themselves.
I wrote about this for ZDNet on Monday, Census privacy risks are not what they seem, and that triggered a couple of radio spots.
This conversation with Nicole Dyer on ABC Gold Coast was the first. It begins with some comments from the ABS Census Director, Caroline Deans.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.3MB)
This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
My week of Monday 25 to Sunday 31 July 2016 was much the same as last week, so I won’t repeat all that. Let’s look to the future.
That said, I did get a bunch of stuff done on those much-delayed geek projects. I’ll tell you more about them as they emerge into the light over the coming weeks.
None.
I believe I’ll be in Sydney for the next four weeks, perhaps even longer. It was always part of The Plan to slowly wind down the arrangement which had me based in the Blue Mountains, but things are still flexible.
On Monday, I’m writing a column for ZDNet about the emerging privacy controversy over Australia’s national Census, as well as fleshing out the structure of a client website. The latter work continues on Tuesday. And Wednesday.
Tuesday Wednesdayis Some later day will be dedicated to producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast. At this stage I plan to livestream the recording session at 2100 AEST. But if I do pre-record some segments, or even the entire podcast, I’ll still livestream it when it’s ready to create that live audience vibe on the Twitter.
The rest of the week will continue to be a mix of geek work and writing for ZDNet, depending on my mood. The weekend is unplanned.
I’ll be going to the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit in Sydney on 22-23 August, the AISA National Conference in Sydney on 18-20 October, and Ruxcon Security Conference in Melbourne on 22-23 October.
Update 2 August 2016: Edited to reflect schedule changes. Update 3 August 2016: Edited again to reflect schedule changes.
[Photo: Theme and variations in Kuhne Major. Sydney’s Darling Park towers, designed by American-born British architect architect Eric Kuhne, photographed from Pyrmont Bridge on a gorgeous winter day, 29 July 2016.]
My week of Monday 18 to Sunday 24 July 2016 was the second of three quite annoying weeks, full of stress and fatigue but little productivity.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that there’s been a few, well, difficult times in my life in recent years. This week falls in a period when my stress levels have been particularly high. “Very severe”, according to one measure. So I’ve been trying to take it easy.
If you’ve got a few stresses in your life, or you’re feeling down, or anxious, you might want to spend the next three minutes doing a DASS-21 assessment. It measures the three related states of depression, anxiety and stress. While it doesn’t provide a diagnosis on its own, it’s a good starting point for a conversation with your GP.
To add injury to insult, as it were, on Saturday evening I tripped and fell into the street, causing some “excellent” grazed elbow, as well as hands and knees.
None.
[Photo: Sydney’s Circular Quay, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House of course, photographed in the late morning of 21 July 2016.]
The massive global phenomenon that is the Pokémon Go augmented reality game naturally caught the interest of media producers all over — including at ABC 774 Melbourne.
Here’s my chat with Wendy Touhy from the evening of 20 July. I’m hoping I didn’t screw up some detail of the game, although I’m pretty sure I did.
We also spoke about one of my pet topics, the risks of electronic voting.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (9.5MB)
This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
[Photo: Ready to go live on ABC 774 Melbourne from ABC Sydney TARDIS 1, 20 July 2016.]
My week of Monday 11 to Sunday 17 July 2016 was full of exhaustion.
After finishing an important stage in bringing my tax compliance up to date last week, and after producing a marathon podcast, the stress was reduced a little. I spent a lot of time resting this week.
That said, in between the sleep and the neverending lurgi, I did start to get back into research and writing, and the coming week will see more.
None. But there’s plenty in the coming week.
I believe I’ll be in Sydney all this week, working through some geek stuff, as well as writing for ZDNet. So far I also have three fixed appointments…
On Wednesday evening, I’ll be doing a radio spot on ABC 774 Melbourne, at either 1900 or 1930 AEST. Check my Twitter stream on the day for the time.
On Thursday, I’ve got a couple of briefings. First thing in the morning, it’s a briefing on the current state of ransomware by folks from Trend Micro. Then in the late afternoon it’s a look at “The Changing Landscape of Cybersecurity” from a legal and risk perspective, with law firm Jones Day, and a panel including Alastair MacGibbon, who’s now the prime minister’s special adviser on cyber security.
While the following few weeks are still be be organised, I can say that I’ll be going to theGartner Security & Risk Management Summit in Sydney on 22-23 August, and the AISA National Conference in Sydney on 18-20 October.
[Photo: Sydney in Winter, photographed from Lilyfield in the late afternoon of 13 July 2016.]