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Most popular posts of 2014

Since we’re approaching the end of 2014, here’s my usual list of the most-read posts on this website.

This represents only the material published right here, not things I write for money elsewhere and which have a far higher readership. It doesn’t include traffic to the home page, the about page, or anything else on the site that isn’t an actual blog post.

  1. Updated: Christopher Pyne clearly says the C-word? Nope. Did Christopher Pyne drop the c-bomb in Parliament or not? I first thought yes, then changed my mind. But I’m wondering now whether I want to change it back.
  2. May Reza Berati be the last, Mr Abbott. I was in a mood that night, but I think the writing stands up.
  3. Operation Sovereign Borders, sinister and banal. My reaction to Mick Kinley, acting chief executive officer of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) shrugging off concerns that Australia removes safety equipment from the lifeboats we put asylum seekers on before telling them to go home.
  4. Adventures in Identity: Still struggling with Google+, from January.
  5. Guilty of being a teenager in a public place, in which I kick off about the actions of the police in Mosman.
  6. Algorithms and the Filter Bubble, Take 3, being the recording of my guest lecture at UTS in April. This reminds me that I haven’t posted the updated version from the second half of the year. Oops.
  7. Tone-Deaf Abbott no statesman, never will be, my comment on the Prime Minister’s message on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
  8. Announcing 5at5, my new daily email letter, which explains itself.
  9. The 9pm Shire, one of my favourite episodes of The 9pm Edict podcast.
  10. A loving profile of Tony Abbott, which simply embeds the video of American TV host John Oliver’s roasting of Abbott.

Continue reading “Most popular posts of 2014”

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Weekly Wrap 238: Cyberwar hype for Christmas

Banksia in shadow: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 22 to Sunday 28 December 2014 was a strange beast, what with the Christmas break and certain excesses dumped smack down into the middle of it. And we’re about to do it all over again.

The stress related to having to wrap up everything in the three days before Christmas was compounded by a certain amount of uncertainty as to whether a certain large media company was certain about being able to pay my November invoice before the holidays began. One thing was certain, though: that would have certainly caused a certain amount of pain.

Fortunately that was all sorted out, and I did have enough money to both to celebrate Christmas, in my own small way, and to pay the bills. But the entire process was mentally exhausting.

Articles

5at5

An edition of 5at5 was emailed every working day, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • Kaspersky Lab sent a Christmas present in the form of a bottle of Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz. They’re such terrible people.

The Week Ahead

It will be another busy week punctuated by a public holiday.

Monday’s key tasks are to pitch some column ideas to ZDNet Australia, deal with some administrivia that can’t be done on the weekend, write a couple of standard blog posts, and start work on the chosen ZDNet column.

On Tuesday, I’ll finish that column, and then catch the train to Sydney — not just for the regular spot on ABC 720 Perth, but also to bump in to the Chirgwin residence in Lilyfield, where I’ll be taking up residence through until about 25 January. If you’ve been trying to arrange a meeting in Sydney with me, January represented your chance.

On Wednesday, I’ll be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, which simply must be finished and published that day, because it’s New Year’s Eve. That will in turn be followed by New Year’s Day, an event which is bound to be marked by a gap in the official record.

Friday will be a relaxed-pace day of work, pottering around the various tasks that accompany a new year, and reflecting upon the nature of Sin. Then the weekend should provide further opportunities for same. The reflection, I mean, not the sin.

Now overlaid on top of all this may be the much-delayed server migration. That will depend on some details that I won’t be able to confirm until Monday. Stand by. Or sit down with a gin and tonic, whichever you think is more appropriate for summer.

[Photo: Banksia in shadow, photographed at Bunjaree Cottages near Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, 100km west of Sydney, on 22 December 2014. Everywhere around this banksia flower was cast in shadow by a nearby tree — except for the one shaft of sunlight striking the flower itself. Tom Gwynne-Jones and Martin Miles have identified it as a Banksia serrata. If they’re wrong, I daresay some kind person will help us with the correct species soon enough.]

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Weekly Wrap 237: The week before Christmas, kinda

Wires: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 15 to Sunday 21 December 2014 was more stressful than I thought it might be, for reasons which may be alluded to in a future edition. However I will say that Mistress Insomnia was a persistent guest in my life. I hate her.

But on with the show…

Articles

5at5

Another full week for 5at5, with emails going out on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

The Week Ahead

This is barely even a tentative plan, because it’s based on the assumption that a certain large media organisation will pay their goddam bills. If that doesn’t happen on Monday, then a lot of this will have to change. Nevertheless, we have to start somewhere, right?

Monday sees the Solstice, which happens at 1003 AEDT, followed by the New Moon at 1236. I’ll conduct a small ritual centred around those times. Before that, though, certain urgent organisational tasks need to be dealt with. And after that, I’ll start work on the next episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, which has the working title “The 9pm Christmas Nazis”.

On Tuesday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet Australia in the morning, I think, before heading to Sydney for some errands and the ABC at Ultimo to do the 720 Perth spot. I may stay in Sydney overnight, or I may not.

On Wednesday, I’ll be completing The 9pm Edict, as well as tying up several billion loose ends before the holidays descend.

Thursday is Christmas Day, which will be spent quietly because family is small and distant. I’m not sure whether I’ll be in Wentworth Falls or Sydney or somewhere else at this stage.

While Friday is a public holiday, I’d originally scheduled a server migration to start that day. However that’s now looking like that’ll have to change too. The weekend is unplanned, at least at this stage.

Update 1750 AEDT: Edited to add the New Moon time and to clarify some of the exposition.

[Photo: Wires, a view from Katoomba railway station in the Blue Mountains, photographed on 15 December 2014.]

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Weekly Wrap 236: Summer and swirling water

The ferry departs: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 8 to Sunday 14 December 2014 was decent enough, though everything in the latter part of the week was rearranged as it went along. Planning. Why bother?

Since this post is already rather late getting online, I’ll stick to the facts, ma’am. Well, I’ll make one observation: Summer seems to have arrived.

Podcasts

  • “The 9pm Personal Brand Enhancement Journey”, being The 9pm Edict episode 33. It’s nearly an hour long and contains, um, special sounds. I’ve also launched The 9pm Summer Scrounge subscriber drive, but there’ll be more about that tomorrow.

Articles

5at5

It was a full week for 5at5, more or less, at least in the sense that five editions went out. Tuesday morning (being the one that was meant to go out on Friday), Tuesday evening, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all. Eventually.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

The Week Ahead

By the time you see this, most of Monday will have already happened — despite the date on the post. Monday is mostly about catching up on many, many loose ends.

On Tuesday, I’ll be writing for Crikey, and then catching the train to Sydney to run a few errands and then drop in to the ABC at Ultimo to do spot for ABC 720 Perth. That’s at 1730 AEDT / 1430 AWST, and this will be regular thing every Tuesday afternoon across summer. I’m toying with the idea of staying in Sydney overnight. Make me an offer.

On Wednesday, I’ll be starting work on a server migration. On Thursday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet Australia. Friday is as yet unplanned. Much of the weekend is unplanned too, although I’ll be doing the bulk of the server migration at some unpleasant hour in that period.

[Photo: The ferry departs, a rather heavily processed photo of the wake left by a ferry departing Circular Quay in Sydney on 8 December 2014.]

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Weekly Wrap 235: More scallops, less disruption

Wentworth Falls awaits tonight's storm: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 1 to Sunday 7 December 2014 was reasonably pleasant. Not much output, but I absorbed three “webinars” (ugh!) and one very fine lunch, and tried to de-stress as much as possible.

Articles

5at5

It was a full week for 5at5, with emails being sent on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — although it appears that Friday’s didn’t get delivered properly. I’ll be chasing up that little problem tomorrow. Either way, you should subscribe so you receive them all.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

The Week Ahead

On Monday, it’s a morning of administrivia and mapping out my work between now and Christmas — well, at least as much as it can ever be planned. In the afternoon and evening I’m producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, including setting up a subscription drive.

On Tuesday, I’m heading down to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing by Symantec, as well as running some errands. While I’m in transit, I’ll be doing research and writing some story pitches. I’ll also finish the podcast and post it on Tuesday evening, to coincide with the subscription drive kicking off.

Wednesday has been set aside for writing, but don’t know what yet, nor for whom. I’m assuming that one of the story pitches will be successful.

On Thursday, I’m writing my column for ZDNet Australia, then heading down to Sydney for VMWare’s end-of-year drinks — and I daresay some further social life after that. Whether I stay in Sydney overnight will depend on whether certain people have decided to pay me or not.

Friday is scheduled to be a day off, because at some point on the weekend I’ll be doing a big chunk of systems administration, and I’m trying to have at least one day a week without work-related thoughts. I’m rarely successful in that, but that’s another story. But when that work will be done, and what personal and social activities will also happen on the weekend, is still to be determined.

Update 1840 AEDT: Edited to reflect a slight change of plans, finishing the podcast on Tuesday rather than Monday.

[Photo: Wentworth Falls awaits tonight’s storm, photographed at Wentworth Falls railway station on 4 December 2014. There have been thunderstorms every day this week. Sydney is becoming a sub-maritime tropical climate.]

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Weekly Wrap 234: Scallops and disruption

Scallops and eel, est restaurant: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 24 to Sunday 30 November 2014 was, quite frankly, irritating — for reasons that I won’t detail here. The end result was that I didn’t get to take part in some of the social and semi-social events that I’d planned to. I am grumpy.

Articles

5at5

The only edition of the 5at5 email newsletter that I got out the door was Monday. There will be more this week, so why not subscribe so you receive them all?

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

The Week Ahead

This is the week where freelancers switch from the always-busy November to the stressful process of solving a specific, annual problem: How can I ensure that there’s enough cashflow to survive Christmas, New Year and through to the end of January, when all the usual sources of income are dry? Wish me luck.

(It’s actually quite depressing to see people starting to add Christmas motifs to their Twitter avatars and otherwise talking about “the festive season” when one’s own time is anything but festive. Sigh.)

With that in mind, Monday is a day of administrivia and planning, and Tuesday will be dedicated to production for The 9pm Edict podcast. I think a pre-Christmas subscriber drive will come out of that. That work will continue on the days after that, along with online briefings at 0830 and 1400 on Wednesday, and at 0600 on Thursday. Somewhere in there I’ll also write a column for ZDNet Australia.

On Friday I’ll be heading in to Sydney for a briefing by BAE Systems, and then the (in)famous Watterson PR Christmas lunch Cisco’s end-of-year lunch at Gastro Park. The weekend thereafter is unplanned.

[Update 2 December: Edited to reflect change to Friday’s commitments.]

[Photo: Scallops and smoked eel — or, more completely, grilled scallops, smoked eel, baby leeks, wakame, shiso, yuzu — all being an entrée at est restaurant, Sydney, photographed on 25 November 2014.]