Author: Stilgherrian

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Linux.conf.au coverage trimmed: January a writing write-off

So my January was a bit of a failure. I didn’t do much reassessment of the journalism and other writing I do. The cancellation of the Patch Monday podcast and my Linux.conf.au coverage killed off income. And I spent too much money. Sigh.

If you’re not interested in my personal thought processes, skip this post. I know I would.

Linux.conf.au first. While I did think about ways to generate funding for coverage at the same level as last year, the time was too short. If I got to Canberra somehow, I could still pitch stories to editors as usual, but cashflows were tight. Then Pia Waugh invited me to interview Sir Tim Berners-Lee for iiNet as part of their sponsorship of the TBL Down Under Tour. Two nights accommodation were offered. So hey, I went to Canberra for a couple days.

I ended up filing just one story. Instead of a solid income-generating week to counteract the December-January slump, it was a loss-maker.

Want a picture? I’ve added January to my chart of stories written, and I’ve changed the title to “media objects” because I’ve added the Patch Monday podcast to the ZDNet total. I’ve also added a mysterious black line. The recent slump is clear.

Chart of media objects produced 2011-2013

So, the current status of my thinking-about-writing thing since my last update?

Continue reading “Linux.conf.au coverage trimmed: January a writing write-off”

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Weekly Wrap 139: Canberra, Linux, alcohol and the web

Vietnam War Memorial, Canberra: click to embiggenThe week of Monday 28 January to Sunday 3 February 2013 started quietly, was ridiculously chaotic in the middle, and then went back to quiet at the end.

I decided to take advantage of the Australia Day holiday weekend and catch up on sleep rather that stress too much about getting to Linux.conf.au from Monday.

But I did fly to Canberra on Wednesday, eventually. More about that tomorrow. I spent Thursday and Friday at the conference. More about that tomorrow too.

On Saturday I made my first ever visit to the Australian War Memorial, taking a few photos along the way. Impressed.

Podcasts

None.

Articles

Media Appearances

  • On Thursday I recorded a video interview with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the web, along with Australian internet bloke Simon Hackett and British actor, comedian and writer Robert Llewellyn. This was a project for iiNet, and the video will appear on the website some time in the coming week has finally appeared.
  • On Friday I was interviewed by a journalist from Radio 2SER’s program on the media, The Fourth Estate, but it’s for next week’s episode so I’ll link to it then.

Corporate Largesse

Still none. Something must be very wrong in the world.

The Week Ahead

As far as I can tell, it’ll just be a plod-through week of writing, most of it spent at Wentworth Falls. After the chaos of the last two weeks, that’ll be welcome.

I’ll also return to the near-daily blog posting that I had going there for a while. Probably.

[Photo: Vietnam War Memorial, Anzac Parade, Canberra. I was particularly impressed with this memorial, especially the imagery and the wall of quotes, as well as the true colours of Australia nearby.]

[Update 25 February 2013: Added link to Sir Tim Berners-Lee interview.]

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Weekly Wrap 138: Chaos, some for Australia Day, some not

Photo: Sydney Culture (For @ApostrophePong, Australia Day 2013): click to embiggenThe week of Monday 21 to Sunday 27 January 2013 was a bit hectic, and since this is being posted a week later than it should be I’ll gloss over those messy details.

Podcasts

None. And that’s because Patch Monday is no more.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

Still none. I’ve been very slack about cashing in on people’s PR accounts. Something must be wrong with me.

[Photo: Sydney Culture (For @ApostrophePong, Australia Day 2013), a photograph which will make sense to ’Pong and probably few others.]

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Talking geek stuff on Purser Explores the World

Angry Beanie logoA curious article claiming that We are in the final years of our internet — I disagree — led to a conversation on Twitter which led, in turn, to me appearing on a podcast.

The podcast in question was in James Purser’s series Purser Explores the World, and the episode was entitled Tomorrow’s Geek.

I ended up talking about my path into geekery via an interest in the space program, railways, and the Angle Park Computing Centre; old-school programming styles; my thoughts on how the internet is changing power relationships; my opinion of consumer pseudo-geeks; how future geeks will be hacking DNA and drones, and other stuff.

Also appearing in this episode are network engineer Mark Newton and notable geek Liz Quilty.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:12 — 31.7MB)

That audio is precisely as posted by Mr Purser, i.e. I haven’t turned it into my usual Conversations format.

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Talking cybersecurity bollocks on ABC Radio’s “AM”

ABC logoFollowing the announcement of a new Australian Cyber Security Centre, to be built by the end of 2013, I ended up being interviewed by ABC Radio’s AM program on 24 January — but it didn’t turn out so flash.

Journalist Peter Lloyd asked me about cybersecurity threats. I think I mentioned that at one end of the spectrum there’s serious nation-state espionage and sabotage, but at the other there’s all manner of low-end crime that probably doesn’t warrant a national centre — and I used ransomware as an example of that.

But in the finished story, somehow that example became the defining crime. Oops.

PETER LLOYD: So far cyber crime in Australia has largely been a new form of stand-over tactic. The online commentator and writer, Stilgherrian:

STILGHERRIAN: We’ve got the low level cyber crime operatives who are just trying to hack into small businesses, encrypt all their data, hold them to ransom. We’ve seen cases of that with victims in Alice Springs and the Gold Coast and elsewhere in Australia, that a business finds that all the data on their computer is unavailable until they send money of some thousands of dollars to have it unlocked for them.

Anyway, for posterity, here’s the audio of the piece.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.1MB)

The audio is ©2013 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.