Stilgherrian – Page 171

08 March 201508 March 2015

Weekly Wrap 248: Logic, rants, and a pleasing balance

My week of Monday 2 to Sunday 8 March 2015 was productive, although not everything happened in the sequence that I’d intended, and not everything has appeared yet.

Articles

Australian lawmakers can’t use phones, will vote on data retention, ZDNet Australia, 3 March 2015. It’s kind of a rant, but now that the internet has been commercially available in Australia for 20 years, such ignorance is inexcusable.

I also wrote a feature story and another column for ZDNet Australia, but they’re both still working their way through the production pipeline.

Podcasts

“The 9pm Shut Up It’s Called Logic”, being The 9pm Edict episode 38. It’s also available on SoundCloud. This is another hour-long episode, which took about 10 hours to produce, what with all the ancillary tasks.
I also wrote up the results of “The 9pm Summer Scrounge”, the rather half-based subscriber drive for The 9pm Edict.

5at5

There were actually six editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You should subscribe, you know.

Media Appearances

On Monday I was quoted at Telecom Ramblings by Don Sambandaraksa:

Gemalto 3G/4G SIMs must be “…ultra-mega super-magical. With extra cyber unicorns,” ZDNet Australiaâ€™s Stilgherrian said of its ability to be secure even though keys were compromised.
On Tuesday night, I spoke about various tech stories on ABC 702 Sydney, but there’s no recording.
On Thursday, I spoke about Airpnp and sharing economy on ABC 105.7 Darwin.

Corporate Largesse

I received a copy of the second novel in John Birminghamâ€™s new series, Resistance: A Dave Hooper Novel 2, which is rather lovely. I’ll be reading it soon, because I really liked the first book in this series.

The Week Ahead

Monday will be a day of communication and planning, wrapping up with drinks and, I suspect, dinner with friends in Katoomba. Tuesday is not yet allocated to anything specific.

Wednesday will see a day trip to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing by MuleSoft. Thursday will probably see another long commute for a morning briefing by Deloitte, although I may just dial in instead. Somewhere in there, I’ll write a column for ZDNet Australia.

Friday through Saturday are unplanned at this stage. But since I didn’t visit Albion Park today to watch Qantas land their Boeing 747, I may visit the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) for one its open days — which can be any of those three days. I’ll have to figure out which would work best, given the rest of my schedule.

Further Ahead

I’ll be in Melbourne from Tuesday 17 to Sunday 22 March for the Cisco LIVE event and then a couple days of meetings and the like. If you feel the need to catch up, or any other urges, please let me know.

[Photo: Downpour at Katoomba station, photographed on 1 March 2015. Technically that’s outside the timespan covered by this post, but I’m beyond caring any more.]

05 March 201525 January 2019

The 9pm Shut Up It’s Called Logic

Australia has chosen its face for Eurovision 2015, and it needs a shave. Christopher Pyne explains science. And Malcolm Turnbull explains reality.

In this podcast, there’s talk of logic, leadership, public relations, science and Florida. Obviously.

05 March 201510 March 2015

Talking Airpnp and sharing economy on ABC 105.7 Darwin

ABC logo It’s not every day that I end up talking about my experiences in Thai urinals on live radio, but that’s exactly what I did today. It’s all down to Vicki Kerrigan.

Kerrigan is the drive-time presenter on ABC 105.7 Darwin, and a story about Airpnp caught her eye — or that of her producer. No, not the accommodation-related app Airbnb. And no, inner urban gay men, it’s not what you just thought of either.

Airpnp is a service that supposedly lets you “find a clean, comfortable bathroom no matter where you are” — not so much here in Australia, but certainly in the US and some other places as it’s spread out from New Orleans, where it was founded a year ago.

Here’s the full 10-minute conversation we had — including Kerrigan’s introduction, which may leave you with a slight pressure somewhere.

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

01 March 201516 March 2015

Weekly Wrap 247: Attacked by car, leech, and diarrhoea

My week of Monday 23 February to Sunday 1 March 2015 began with fatigue and ended with drama, and then more fatigue.

The fatigue was inevitable, given that last weekend saw the production of two podcasts, as well as the first day of Tech Leaders Forum, which continued into Monday.

What I wasn’t expecting was being run down by a car on Thursday night. I wasn’t hurt, really, but nevertheless it was annoying — and I’ll tell you about that in The 9pm Edict. I wasn’t expecting to be attacked by a leech on Friday. And I wasn’t expecting Saturday to be wiped out by a gut problem. Sigh.

But enough of that…

Articles

The second-class internet? You’re soaking in it, ZDNet Australia, 27 February 2015. If you don’t get the reference in the headline, watch this video.

Podcasts

None. The will be an episode The 9pm Edict on Tuesday 3 March, once I’ve gotten a feature written for ZDNet Australia.

5at5

There were three editions of 5at5 this week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all as they’re released.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday, I spoke about the alleged Gemalto SIM card hack on ABC Radio’s The World Today.
Also on Tuesday, I spoke about the alleged Gemalto SIM card hack on Sydney radio 2UE.
On Wednesday, I spoke about the alleged Gemalto SIM card hack on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide.
On Thursday, I spoke about Gemalto’s response to the hack claims on ABC Radio’s AM.
Also on Thursday, I spoke about Gemalto and SIM cards and the like on ABC News24, but I didn’t record that TV spot.

Corporate Largesse

On Monday, we wrapped up this year’s Tech Leaders Forum at the Fairmont Resort in the Blue Mountains. Apart from one night’s accommodation and plenty of food and drink, some vendors gave out various bits and pieces. Bitdefender gave me a branded TSA-approved travel lock and a Gecko dashboard pad thingy. Emerson Network Power, a novelty branded USB stick with their PR material. LogRhythm, a branded pen. Oakton, a USB stick with their PR material. From Simplivity, a branded pen.

The Week Ahead

Here’s the plan. Monday, a feature for ZDNet Australia. Tuesday, an episode of The 9pm Edict. Wednesday, probably a day trip to Sydney — and if it happens, it might include a bit of television. Thursday, a column for ZDNet Australia. Friday, updating that ebook, finally, and getting it to people.

The weekend isn’t locked in yet, but one option is heading down to Albion Park, where a Boeing 747 will land at the tiny Albion Park Airport, before it becomes a permanent museum piece at the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS). Or I might not. It depends on many factors.

Updated 16 March 2015: Added the largesse from Simplivity, which I just found.

[Photo: Attack of the Killer Leech, the one which I had to remove from my foot, photographed on 27 February 2015.]

26 February 2015

Talking Gemalto’s response to ‘hack’ on ABC Radio’s AM

ABC logo So SIM card manufacturer Gemalto has responded to the claims that America’s NSA and Britain’s GCHQ had hacked their network in 2010 and 2011 and stolen SIM card encryption keys. I spoke about that response on ABC Radio’s AM this morning.

You can read Gemalto’s full press statement, but The Wall Street Journal has a good summary, and The Intercept has various infosec experts disputing Gemalto’s analysis.

If nothing else, it seems unlikely that Gemalto could have conducted a thorough forensic investigation in just six days — although they may have just dig out a report they’d prepared earlier.

Here’s how AM introduced the story today:

Overnight the world’s largest SIM card manufacturer has responded to allegations it was hacked by American and British spies. Dutch company Gemalto confirmed it was the target of sophisticated hacks in 2010 and 2011, and most likely the US National Security Agency and their British counterparts were responsible. Last week, documents from Edward Snowden alleged spies stole encryption keys from Gemalto, giving them potential to monitor mobile communications. But Gemalto denies there was mass theft of encryption keys and says their products are secure.

And here’s the full report from journalist Sarah Sedghi.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.8MB)

25 February 2015

Talking SIM cards, spooks and hacks on 1395 FIVEaa

Third time’s the charm, right? My third radio spot on The Great SIM Heist was for 1395 FIVEaa in Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon.

Again, I won’t repeat the background, because it’s all in my first post on the subject. But I will say that this is the most detailed conversation about it so far, because presenter Will Goodings and I spoke for 13 minutes.

That said, there’s not much more information than we had yesterday. Gemalto isn’t due to hold its press conference until late this evening Australian time, so we’ll know more tomorrow.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (18.4MB)