I haven’t posted here for a fortnight. The next five posts will be the catch-up, and they’ll all appear in the next 24 hours. Enjoy. Or not.
Weekly Wrap 113: Slow clones and their delays
My week Monday 30 July to Sunday 5 August 2012 was dominated by the insanity involved in cloning hard drives and restoring my backup system to good working order.
Doing all of this over USB 2.0 interfaces was not helpful, but they were the only ports I had available on the loaner MacBook I’ve been using. Remember, I’m nomadic and quite often 100km from Sydney.
And then my backup drive failed…
Creating a new Time Machine backup of around 450GB of data takes 6 to 7 hours. Encrypting a 1TB drive takes nearly 23 hours. Even zeroing out a 750GB drive takes 5 hours.
And whenever you make a mistake, or a drive throws an error, you have to start that process again.
It’s been a wonderful lesson in patience. See, that’s the positive angle. Sigh.
Podcasts
- Patch Monday episode 148, “The politics of data retention”. It’s in the news because it’s one of the ideas being floated as part of the inquiry into potential reforms of national security legislation being conducted by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security. The podcast includes Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan, national manager of high tech crime operations for the Australian Federal Police; Bernard Keane, Canberra corresponded with Crikey; and network engineer Mark Newton.
Articles
- An Anonymous attack in search of a purpose, Crikey, 30 July 2012.
- Six tips for developing a security culture, CSO Online, 31 July 2012.
- A dangerous cyber security disconnect, Technology Spectator, 3 August 2012.
Media Appearances
- On Monday I did a spot on ABC 105.7 Darwin with a couple of other people about overly-busy lifestyles, but the internet stream from which I was recording it was dodgy so I haven’t posted the audio.
- On Tuesday night I did another regular Balls Radio spot, but I didn’t record it. That’s probably for the best, it was rather disjointed.
Corporate Largesse
None.
The Week Ahead
I’m returning to Wentworth Falls on Monday, and have a day trip to Sydney on Thursday. In theory it’s a steady-paced week of writing. We shall see.
[Photo: Blue, being a photo of Wentworth Falls railway station on Thursday afternoon, one of the few bright spots in the week.]
Visiting San Francisco for VMworld 2012
I’m heading to San Francisco for VMware’s VMworld 2012 event starting on Sunday 26 August and staying on for the rest of the week.
I see that the logo features the words “Right here right now”. If they play that effing Fat Boy Slim song, I will truly go postal!
This will be my fifth visit to San Francisco in the last two years, and I must admit the place really is growing on me. Apart from the fact that it’s in that collapsing empire called the US. It does depress me to see the disabled veterans begging on the streets.
I mentioned this trip on Twitter about half an hour ago and already I’ve been told to visit a “beer mecca” called Toronado. What else, do you think?
And yes, I’m travelling as VMware Inc’s guest.
Weekly Wrap 112: Security, hacks, unexpected encounters
I was in Sydney for most of my week Monday 23 to Sunday 29 July 2012, and despite some minor annoyances I’m reasonably pleased with the results.
I also started a new gig on a SEKRIT project. It looks like it’ll be quite fun, but I won’t be able to tell you about it for ages.
Podcasts
- Patch Monday episode 147, “Mid-2012 malware: new flavours, same ice cream”. Has 2012 turned out to be “the year of cyberwar” accompanied by an explosion of Android malware? Hear from Alex Kirk, senior research analyst with the Sourcefire Vulnerability Research Team (VRT); David Hall, Symantec’s consumer spokesperson for Asia Pacific; and Bob Hansmann, senior product marketing manager at Websense.
Articles
If ever there was a week that illustrated my transition to grumpy-old-man writing, this is it.
- BYOD: a corporate con job?, Technology Spectator, 26 July 2012.
- Man up, AAPT, you lost customers’ personal data, CSO Online, 26 July 2012.
- Anonymous’ AAPT plunder, Technology Spectator, 27 July 2012.
Media Appearances
- On Tuesday night’s regular Balls Radio spot I spoke about malware and dental floss.
Corporate Largesse
None.
The Week Ahead
It looks like it’ll be a relatively easy week, but with most of it spent at Wentworth Falls — both because that’s the schedule and because it’s that end-of-the-month week where I really don’t have any money left.
[Photo: Diary of the Lost Crane being the view from level 12 of the Metro Sydney Central Hotel on a foggy Wednesday morning.]
And for the trifecta, I’m speaking at ACCAN’s conference
Since I’m blogging about my forthcoming speaking engagements, I should probably also mention that I’m on a panel at ACCAN’s National Conference on 5 to 6 September.
ACCAN is the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, and the panel I’m on is called “Privacy & Security”.
Privacy dilemmas are getting bigger every year as more of our lives and essential information are moving online. This discussion will explore online privacy and security policies. A top tech journalist [that’s me!] will examine whether there is such a thing as privacy in the online world, and a broadband services expert will explain the key privacy and security challenges likely faced in providing medical and other services over broadband.
The other panellists are Nigel Waters from the University of New South Wales’ Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre and Dean Economou from NICTA.
So, privacy and security. That seems to be my gig now…
I’m speaking at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas
The program for the Sydney Opera House’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012 is out, and I’m on it.
In particular, I’m on a panel discussion called I Share Therefore I Am on Saturday 29 September from 1pm to 2pm.
Whether we lead our whole life online or just dip our toes into the ‘digital pool’ for news or shopping, information about everything we do is being collected, and analysed. Should we accept that our digital footprint will follow us to the grave, shaping our life along the way? Or should we try to hold on to our privacy — even (or especially) when online? Hear from two people who live online, but have distinctly different points of view about the age of sharing and radical transparency.
The person other than me is Victoria Doidge, director of marketing, communications & customer services at the Sydney Opera House. She’s of the share-it-all view, ‘cos the worst that can happen is you’ll see more relevant advertisements. Or something.
I plan to kick off my part of the discussion by sketching out some alarming scenarios made possible by data mining all the things.
[Update 14 September 2012: Added link to session page on Sydney Opera House website.]