Author: Stilgherrian

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Weekly Wrap 305: Unproductive anticipation

Australian Landscape: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 4 to Sunday 10 April 2016 was distinctly unproductive. This Weekly Wrap is running late. I’ll stick to the essential points.

I’ll mention one thing though. I returned to Wentworth Falls on Sunday, after more than three weeks in Sydney. Time flies.

Articles and Podcasts

None. Stand by for more details to be announced on the weekend, however.

Media Appearances

  • On Friday, I was interviewed by Steve Molk for his delightful podcast Humans of Twitter. That episode is expected to appear on Friday 22 April. If you don’t already subscribe to this podcast then you should — at least if you’re Australian, because he’s been concentrating on Australians so far.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

Monday has already been a write-off, spent organising things which had become disorganised, and stressing about them. We shall speak of it no more.

On Tuesday — that is, today — I’m catching a morning train to Sydney, and then the 1212 train to Canberra, scheduled to arrive in the nation’s capital at 1629. I thought it might be an interesting change from flying, even though it takes longer.

On Tuesday evening, it’s drinks before spending Wednesday and Thursday covering the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Conference at the rather drab National Convention Centre. This has become one of the must-attend information security conferences in Australia, and I’m looking forward to meeting and hearing from law enforcement and national security people who we usually don’t hear from.

On Friday, I return to Sydney on the 1153 train, arriving back in the nation’s largest city at around 1600. From there until the end of the weekend, things are unplanned.

Further Ahead

I’m going to the Amazon Web Services Summit Sydney on 27-28 April. And on 24-27 May, I’m covering the AusCERT Cyber Security Conference on the Gold Coast.

Update 16 April 2016: Date for Humans of Twitter posting added.

[Photo: Australian Landscape. This photograph was taken while approaching Canberra airport on 7 March 2016, but it could have been taken almost anywhere across south-eastern Australia.]

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Weekly Wrap 304: The ill-managed stumble-crash of progress

1984 in 2016, with Wyatt Roy: click to embiggenMonday 28 March to Sunday 3 April 2016 was another short week, thanks to Easter. But it also seemed to be more productive than the previous week, which was drenched in fatigue.

I’m almost two months into the slow transition to a new medication regime. The fatigue, the “general feeling of tiredness or weakness”, is slowly fading. So too are the headaches, body aches, random muscle tics in my legs, nausea, constipation, and trouble with sleeping.

Also fading are the intense, vivid dreams that woke me towards the end of the night. That’s good, because the confused muddle of reality and dream-thoughts that continued into wakefulness was accompanied by dizziness and loss of coordination. Exiting the bed in an ill-managed stumble-crash into furniture and walls led to slightly more bruises than I’d planned for.

I’m frustrated that things aren’t magically better straight away. I’m embarrassed by having to constantly reschedule things because I’ve fallen asleep after breakfast, or whatever. But I can see gradual progress, or at least the illusion of progress, which is almost as good.

On to the visible achievements…

Articles

Podcasts

None, but I’ll be pondering the future of my podcasts over the next couple of weeks.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday, there was plenty of free food and drink at D61+ LIVE.
  • On Wednesday night, PR princess Shuna Boyd paid for the drinks at her own retirement party.
  • On Thursday, law firm Gilbert+Tobin provided snacks and wine at the seminar by the International Association of Privacy Professionals Australia and New Zealand (iappANZ).

The Week Ahead

It’s going to be a busy one. No fixed appointments, but plenty to do on my current geek-for-hire projects, and on my tax compliance backlog. I’ll also write a column or two for ZDNet. Order of play TBA.

On Saturday, I’ll tidy up the Lilyfield house, before returning to Wentworth Falls on Sunday afternoon.

Further Ahead

On Tuesday 12 April, I’ll take a train from Sydney to Canberra — it should be an interesting change from the airlines — to cover the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Conference. The event runs through to Thursday 14 April, and I’ll return to Sydney on the Friday, writing for ZDNet en route.

I’m going to the Amazon Web Services Summit Sydney on 27-28 April.

And on 24-27 May, I’m covering the AusCERT Cyber Security Conference on the Gold Coast.

[Photo: 1984 in 2016, with Wyatt Roy. A video message from Australia’s Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy is played to attendees of Data61’s D61+ LIVE event at Australian Technology Park in Sydney on 30 March 2016.]

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Talking Apple vs FBI and more on ABC 774 Melbourne

ABC logoI seem to have settled into semi-regular radio spots on ABC 774 Melbourne, talking about technology news roughly once a month. I did one of these on Thursday.

The main item was the legal battle between Apple and the FBI over an iPhone that belonged to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino shootings of December 2015. While there’s plenty of coverage of this case, I will mention that the FBI’s hack may never reach Apple, and the only winners are the shareholders of cybersecurity companies, because more people will see security as important.

The other item was the announcement on Thursday of the IOT Group’s new product, the ROAM-e drone for taking flying selfies. Yes, that’s what I said.

Heres the full 22-minute conversation with presenter Casey Bennetto, who was filling in for Lindy Burns.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:38 — 14.3MB)

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Talking Microsoft Tay on ABC 702 Sydney

ABC logoJust before before Easter, Microsoft let their youth-targeted chatbot named Tay loose on Twitter and other social networks — and it was a disaster.

Tay was meant to hold conversations with Americans aged 18 to 24, which is why it’s named after Taylor Swift. But the project was terminated after just 16 hours, because the bot started tweeting abuse at people, and even went full neo-Nazi, declaring that “Hitler was right I hate the jews.”

Art Technica reported some analysis of what went wrong. Davi Ottenheimer summarised the problem as “weak intelligence weakened by weakness”, and pointed me to more detailed research by Russell Cameron Thomas.

I spoke about this disaster with Robbie Buck on ABC 702 Sydney, debunking some aspects of the mainstream news stories along the way.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:54 — 3.2MB)

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Weekly Wrap 303: A wet and work-filled Easter

Old and New: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 21 to Sunday 28 March 2016 was a mixed bag. I finally got a podcast done, but not some other tasks. C’est la vie.

As we ramp up the medication to deal with the dog of a different colour, my sleep patterns are much disrupted. I’m hit with random waves of fatigue. That means I’m operating at roughly half capacity. In theory, that’ll stop happening after a couple more weeks, but for now I must pace myself.

But enough of that…

Podcasts

  • “The 9pm Let the Fun Begin”, being The 9pm Edict episode 56, was recorded and posted on Sunday night. It’s also on Spreaker.

Articles

None, though I have a few columns for ZDNet in the pipeline.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

The short work week after Easter starts in Lilyfield, in Sydney’s inner west, but ends back in Wentworth Falls. The date of migration back to the Blue Mountains is yet to be confirmed.

Easter Monday has just begun, but apart from this blog post I won’t be doing anything too hectic.

On Wednesday, I’m going to D61+ Live 2016, an event by Data61 (“Data61 = CSIRO Digital Productivity + NICTA = the world’s leading data-focused innovation powerhouse,” they describe themselves) at Australian Technology Park. I’m particularly interested in a panel on cybersecurity. On Wednesday evening, I’ll be having a farewell drink or two with the wonderful Shuna Boyd, who’s retiring from her media relations career.

On Thursday evening, I’m covering a discussion sponsored by the International Association of Privacy Professionals Australia and New Zealand (iappANZ) on Australia’s proposed mandatory data breach notification laws. After that, I’m doing a radio spot on ABC 774 Melbourne at 1900 AEDT.

In between, I’ll be working steadily through three geek-for-hire projects, catching up a big chunk of that bookkeeping for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and writing a ZDNet column or two.

Further Ahead

The following week will be an extension of the plan just described.

After that, I should be in Canberra on 12-14 April for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Conference. A plan is slowly evolving.

I’ll definitely be in Sydney on 27-28 April for the Amazon Web Services Summit Sydney, then on the Gold Coast on 24-27 May for the AusCERT Cyber Security Conference.

[Photo: Old and New. A new Meriton apartment development under construction in Lewisham in Sydney’s inner west, with the old flour mill in the background. Photographed on 22 March 2016.]