Talking the alleged Apple iCloud hack on Nova 100

Nova logoIt’s starting to look like an alleged hack of Apple’s iCloud service was the source of a series of nude photos of female celebrities that has appeared online. That news led to a series of radio appearances for me today. Starting with this one.

The story itself has already been widely reported, and I won’t go into any detail about the victims of this invasion of privacy. One good place to start is this summary at The Guardian, and there’s more technical details at TUAW. These blog posts will simply present the media spots that I did.

First up was Nova 100 in Melbourne. This was done live with breakfast presenters Meshel and Tommy at 0720, and my coffee hadn’t kicked in yet. That’s why I screwed up my first, embarrassingly-wrong go at the explanation — at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

It seems Meshel was quite taken with my name. That’s so sweet.

The audio is ©2014 dmgRadio Australia.

The 9pm Road to War

Screenshot from WCSC Live 5 News: click for original news story

Prime Minister Tony Abbott points to the enemy, and to the difficult road ahead. What road is that? Foreign Minister Julie Bishop gives a clue.

We also determine the three key differences between Philip Ruddock and a mechanical duck.

We award elephant stamps for people who have been exceptional in the category of thinking to the authorities of Summerville, South Carolina, for arresting a 9th-grader for an alleged dinosaur killing (pictured above), and the 20-year-old man arrested at Riverwood on 26 August.

And we introduce a new segment, Ubergasm, exploring the work of our favourite libertarian disruptors. Today we hear about Uber’s playbook for sabotaging Lyft and a tweet from PR columnist Ed Zitron.

Continue reading “The 9pm Road to War”

Talking robot news on ABC Radio National Drive

ABC logoRobot newsreading and journalism has very much become my thing — as evidenced by the fact that I spoke about it yet again on ABC Radio National Drive on 3 July.

Here’s the news stories that triggered presenter Waleed Aly’s interest:

American news agency Associated Press has joined the ranks of the LA Times and Forbes magazine by adding robots to its workforce.

AP says it will use robots to write its corporate earnings reports, giving finance reporters time to concentrate on more in-depth stories.

The news comes just a week after Japan unveiled its robot newsreader, the ‘Kodomoroid’.

The audio is ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and it’s served here directly from the ABC website.

Talking tech on ABC Local Radio, again

ABC logoEvery Tuesday night after 8pm, Dom Knight talks tech on ABC Local Radio around NSW — and I joined him on 1 July 2014.

Also joining us was Belinda Smith, deputy science and technology editor at The Conversation. We spoke about the notorious Facebook experiment, amongst other things.

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, archived here because it isn’t being archived anywhere else.

Talking Todd Carney’s bubbling on ABC 666 Canberra

ABC logoBack on 30 June I found myself talking about the phenomenon of “bubbling”, thanks to Rugby League player Todd Carney and a certain photograph.

“Bubbling”, you ask? The activity where a chap uses his mouth instead of a urinal, as ABC 666 Canberra presenter Jolene Laverty put it. Apparently it’s popular in some skateboarding subcultures.

This recording starts off with an interview with ABC Radio National’s sports presenter Warwick Hadfield, because I think the context is important to understand my subsequent conversation, which starts around 12 minutes in. I speak more about internet fads such as planking.

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.