Author: Stilgherrian

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Weekly Wrap 298: Loving* the fatigue, and an observation

Federation Reflections: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 15 to Sunday 21 February 2016 was full of fatigue as I began the multi-month process of changing management plans to deal with a different dog.

A certain new medication is great fun (not). It even comes with such a lovely (not) list of potential side effects, some of which cause what might accurately be called occasional death, that the transition process lasts two or three months.

The fatigue and disrupted sleep patterns that made this week almost completely non-productive were within the expected range of problems, however. The coming week is likely to be much the same, which is one reason why the plan listed below is just an unscheduled list.

One brief observation from recent weeks: I’ve had so much experience in the broadcast media, and I’m so comfortable with it, that doing radio and TV spots don’t feel like work. Neither do podcasts, of course. I should perhaps shift my focus to doing more of that. Assuming people would pay for it occasionally.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

I’m keeping the coming week flexible, not just for the medical reasons listed above, but also because I’ll only be able to make some of the finer-grained arrangements on Monday.

However the week is likely to include writing for ZDNet, work on several geek-for-hire projects, more bookkeeping related to my outstanding income tax returns, and the production of an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast.

There will also be a trip down to Sydney at some point, because I have to collect a package, but I’ll schedule that around any work appointments which might arise.

Further Ahead

Subsequent weeks will have more structure.

I’ll be returning to Melbourne on Monday 29 February to cover the APIdays conference on 1-2 March, returning to Sydney on Thursday 3 March.

I’ll be in Canberra on Tuesday 8 March for the Australian Internet Industry Association (AIIA) Navigating Privacy and Security Summit. Then if all goes to plan, the rest of the week will be spent in Melbourne at Cisco LIVE!. Then on Sunday I’ll be back in the Blue Mountains for Tech Leaders.

[Photo: Federation Reflections. The eastern side of Deakin Edge at Melbourne’s Federation Square, photographed on 11 February 2016. Which was last week.]

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Talking smartphone data and battery life on ABC Kimberley

ABC logoLast Sunday, Telstra gave free data to all its mobile customers in an attempt to make up for a major screw-up in the previous week. That triggered a conversation…

As a variety of news outlets reported, one guy managed to download more than 420GB of stuff. Telstra’s mobile network was reported to be pretty slow as many other selfish pigs pigged out.

On Wednesday, I told Vanessa Mills on ABC Kimberley in Western Australia how people could reduce their mobile data usage and increase their battery like. This is the resulting nine-minute conversation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.5MB)

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The ABC also turned this into a news story, Simple tricks to double your phone’s battery life and halve your data usage, posted Thursday morning.

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Weekly Wrap 297: Melbourne, with yabby and fatigue

Yabby House: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 8 to Sunday 14 February 2016 is well gone now. It mostly went to plan, except for me being somewhat more tired than I’d hoped — which let me to skip most of the social events.

I’ll tell you more in the next Weekly Wrap. For now, just the facts…

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • Pause Fest paid for my flights to Melbourne and one night of hotel accommodation, as well as some food and drink. This doesn’t really count as largesse, though, because I was speaking at their event, and I wasn’t paid for that.

[Photo: Yabby House. I’d never expected to find an eating house named after Australia’s freshwater crustacean, but I found one in Melbourne on 10 February 2016.]

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Talking surveillance and privacy on ABC 774 Melbourne

ABC logoEarlier this month I was in Melbourne to speak at Pause Fest, as well as talk to the media about some of the issues surrounding digital surveillance and privacy.

Here’s the 19-minute conversation I had with Lindy Burns on ABC 774 Melbourne on Wednesday 10 February. As usual, we rambled all over the landscape of the topic, but I think you’ll find it interesting.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (11.2MB)

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

[Note: Yes, I’m catching up on my blog posts, I should have them all caught up within the next 24 hours.]

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Weekly Wrap 296: And now everything changes, again…

Sunrise at Bronte Beach: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 1 to Sunday 7 February 2016 has been very different. Not merely different from a typical Australian’s experience, like last week, but different from even my own smorgasbord of experiences.

It began on Monday with the stress of negotiating certain timelines with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). That was successful, and I was much relieved — although I still have to meet those deadlines in the coming months.

Then Wednesday provided another emotional journey, I’ll call it, with my visit to the Black Dog Institute and the resulting diagnosis.

After all that, I was exhausted.

So even though I achieved two significant milestones right there, when it came to producing the kinds of things I usually list here…

Articles / Podcasts / Media Appearances / 5at5

… there were none.

I did kick off another new geek-for-hire project on Thursday, however, so there’s that. I’ll tell you more about that, and the other projects, in due course.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Friday, I received a package of American snack food — Chex Mix, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Caramel Corn, and the like — from networking vendor Brocade to consume during this weekend’s Super Bowl. Why? Because Brocade did the data networks in Levi’s Stadium.

It’s still only Saturday as I post this, but Sunday 7 February will be a lazy day, so let’s get straight into…

The Week Ahead

It’s going to be a busy one, boys and girls. No, this time it really will be.

On Monday, I’ll be doing the long commute to Sydney for a medical appointment, and to get a haircut. I’ll be dealing with tax documentation and project management en route.

Tuesday will be a quiet one, pottering around the house, and dealing with all manner of loose ends.

The rest of the week is shaped around the Pause Fest in Melbourne.

On Wednesday, I’m catching the 0543 train down to Sydney and then Sydney Airport. At 0900, it’s flight VA824 to Melbourne. Once I’ve checked in to my hotel, I’ll be having lunch with someone. The afternoon is as yet unplanned. The Pause Fest opening party is in the evening, but I need to have an early night. So instead, I’ meeting a friend for drinks, with a break to do a radio spot on ABC 774 Melbourne at 1930 AEDT.

On Thursday, I’m up early to do a spot on ABC TV’s News Breakfast. I think it’s at 0810 AEDT. I’m then spending the rest of the day at Pause Fest’s Tech Day, presumably covering it for ZDNet. I’m on the panel at 1730 AEDT, titled “The security paradox: individual privacy vs digital driftnets”, after which I’m having drinks with some people, and then dinner with someone else.

On Friday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet, then at 1300 it’s lunch in the Melbourne CBD or thereabouts with Andy Nicholson and anyone else who wants in. The afternoon is as yet unplanned. At 2000 it’s Pause Fest’s Speakers Dinner, for speakers only, so you can’t come.

On Saturday, well, I’m open to suggestions for how to spend the morning, and where to have lunch. I’ll then leave for the airport at 1430, and catch my 1600 flight VA859 to Sydney. I’ll probably then catch the train to Wentworth Falls that night, but we’ll see.

Either way, Sunday will be a day of sloth. A very big sloth.

Further Ahead

I suspect that the much-delayed episode of The 9pm Edict podcast will eventually be recorded on Tuesday 16 February, or the day after.

Plans are being hatched for me to return to Melbourne two weeks after that, to cover the APIdays conference on 1-2 March. We shall see. Either way, it’s more than likely that I’ll be in Melbourne 8-11 March for Cisco LIVE!, assuming they’ll have me again.

[Photo: Sunrise at Bronte Beach. For several years, it was my habit to photograph the first sunrise of each new year. Here, the sun rises out of the Pacific Ocean at Bronte Beach, Sydney, on 1 January 2005.]

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A dog of a rather different colour

[This is one of my more personal posts. If they’re not your thing, and you’d rather wait until there’s a podcast or a whinge about the Attorney-General or something, then skip this one, and come back on Monday.]

Black Dog Trot“Arriving at @blackdoginst. I hope mine is a kelpie,” I tweeted as I arrived at the Black Dog Institute on Wednesday morning. Well, I didn’t get a kelpie. But I didn’t get what I’d expected either.

Australia’s Black Dog Institute is a “world leader in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mood disorders,” and they’ve developed their own model of depression. So science, yes, but no dog for me at all, kelpie or otherwise.

Continue reading “A dog of a rather different colour”