Author: Stilgherrian

My week of Monday 23 to Sunday 29 November 2015 was remarkably productive, a sharp comparison with last week. This pleases me.

Apart from the stuff listed below, I’ve also started a fresh program to tackle my on-again off-again “friendship” with the black dog of depression. I haven’t yet decided whether to write about this highly personal topic or not. Maybe when the timeline takes clearer shape.

I also got quite a bit of planning done for December, including locking in a couple geek-for-money projects that won’t be detailed here.

Podcasts

• ABC Radio National’s Future Tense, Bug bounties and pentesting: the Wild West of online security. Not just a podcast, of course, but a “proper” broadcast radio program. It fits well here as an audio-based media object, however.
• Corrupted Nerds Conversations 14: Joe Franzi, Australian Signals Directorate, in which the head of the ASD’s cyber security outfit gives his first on-record media interview in his five years in that role.

Articles

• We don’t need an amateur small-business infosec army, ZDNet Australia, 27 November 2015. This column met immediate opposition from certain key people in the infosec community, so I’ll probably present their opposing views on Monday.

Media Appearances

• On Friday, I spoke about the security risks of Wi-Fi Hello Barbie on ABC Radio’s PM.

5at5

Should 5at5 eventually reappear, you’ll know about it if you subscribe.

Corporate Largesse

• On Thursday morning, I went to the launch of Deloitte’s Cyber Intelligence Centre in Sydney, and was given a very nice cup of coffee.
• Also on Thursday, I went to AVG Technologies’ media lunch at the Park Hyatt Hotel at Circular Quay. The food and wine was excellent. I had the snow crab and avocado with green apple and finger lime and sumac spice; and the lamb rump, hummus and smoked eggplant with coriander and lemon jus, pomegranate and dukkah. We we also given an AVG Ultimate VIP Gift Card, which includes unlimited licenses to many of AVG’s products; a copy of AVG’s book One Parent to Another: Managing technology and your teen; and AVG-branded stationery, including sticky notes, and a pen.

The Week Ahead

On Monday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet, as well as heading to Parramatta and Petersham to choose a venue for the next Public House Forum. Various loose ends will be sorted out while on the trains.

On Tuesday, I’ll finish the ZDNet column, make some progress on certain geek-for-money projects, and do some shopping and other errands in Katoomba.

I’ll sleep in on Wednesday, and then head to Sydney to record a SEKRIT podcast episode. Then in the evening I’ll go to VMware’s end-of-year drinks, and then speak at the launch of a Sydney chapter of Electronic Frontiers Australia. It looks like I’ll be getting home quite late.

On Thursday, I’ll write for ZDNet, and then the rest of the week is flexible. I do have some geek projects to weave into the schedule, however.

On Tuesday Friday, I’ll be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, tentatively titled “The 9pm Garden of Hate”, in which I’ll finish off all of the sponsored content that I owe my supporters. I plan to stream that recording session live at 2100 AEDT. This episode will now be made on Monday night 7 December.

Further Ahead

I’ll record a “2015 Wrap” episode of the Corrupted Nerds podcast some time in the week beginning Monday 14 December.

The next episode of The 9pm Public House Forum, similar to the first one, will be recorded on the afternoon of Saturday 19 December, somewhere in or near Parramatta. The venue will be confirmed in a few days.

I’ll also produce “2015 Wrap” episode of the Edict some time between Christmas and New Year.

[Update 1 December 2015: Edited to reflect schedule changes. Update 4 December 2015: Edited again to reflect further schedule changes.]

[Photo: Departing Mt Victoria. The #purpletrain (also known as a V-Set) pulls away from Platform 1 of Mt Victoria railway station on a wet Saturday afternoon, 28 November 2015.]