Category: Internet

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Patch Monday: Google’s real names a real disaster

Google’s disaster of a “real names” policy was the subject of today’s Patch Monday podcast. How could it not be, after my own experiences and the attention that scored globally?

Australian developer Kirrily “Skud” Robert, a former Google employee currently resident in San Francisco, has been compiling Google’s name failures, so she was a natural guest for the podcast.

You can listen below. But it’s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

Please let me know what you think. Comments below. We accept audio comments too. Either Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.

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Weekly Wrap 64: Unexpected schedule changes

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. The balance of the week felt right, but Mistress Insomnia certainly made her presence felt.

My schedule also changed a lot this week, and I ended up spending the entire time in Sydney. I return to Wentworth Falls tomorrow.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 102, “Political, economic hacking needs attention”. An interview with Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee, and author of Revealed: Operation Shady RAT (PDF), which exposed a hacking operation that had compromised 72 organisations.

Articles

Media Appearances

  • On Wednesday I spoke with Keith Conlon and John Kenneally on Adelaide radio 1395 FIVEaa about the 20th anniversary of the web and what the future might hold.
  • On Thursday I spoke with Bernadette Young on ABC Gold Coast about the resignation of Steve Jobs. The recording failed part-way through, so I haven’t posted it here. But I will if you want me to.
  • Also on Thursday I spoke with Tom Elliott on Melbourne radio 3AW, also about Steve Jobs. I’ve already posted a recording.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I attended the Security 2011 Expo & Conference at Darling Harbour. As is usual for when one has a media pass to such events, I was given free food and drink.
  • Also on Wednesday I went to Text 100’s Christmas in August Event. Text 100 is a PR firm, and Christmas in August is where their clients show off their new consumer gadgetry that’ll be on sale for Christmas. The food and drink was free. And copious. Too copious. Way too copious.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: Leichhardt Town Hall, Sydney. I wasn’t in Leichhardt at all this week. This photo was taken on 17 July 2011. I didn’t have any photos from this week that were suitable.]

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Talking 20 years of the Web on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide

August 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the first web page going online. My former ABC Radio colleagues Keith Conlon and John Kenneally, now with FIVEaa Adelaide, wanted to have a chat.

I hadn’t been awake very long when I did this live radio piece. At the time I thought it was a bit all over the place, because I simply talked about whatever came into me head. But listening back today, I think it’s actually OK. What do you think?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:20 — 2.8MB)

The audio is ©2011 dmgRadio Australia, but since they don’t post many of their live interviews I’m doing their job for them. Besides, it’s not as if I get paid, and it’s not as if this ain’t a decent plug for them.

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Talking Steve Jobs’ resignation on 3AW

As soon as I heard the news on Thursday of Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO of Apple Inc, I knew it would re-shape my day.

Sure enough, it did. While I was already scheduled to write two stories for CSO Online, Crikey soon commissioned a Jobs piece. And in the afternoon I did two radio spots. This is one of them.

Tom Elliott was filling in for 3AW’s drive presenter Derryn Hinch, and did a perfectly competent job.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:31 — 2.6MB)

The audio is ©2011 Radio 3AW Melbourne Pty Ltd, of course, but it hasn’t been posted online by 3AW and this does act as a nice plug for them.

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Covering the 2nd National Cyber Warfare Conference

As soon as I arrive back from my trip to Kuala Lumpur on 13 September, I’m off to Canberra for the 2nd National Cyber Warfare Conference on 14 and 15 September. No I won’t be. See the comments.

I’m covering it for CSO Online, and for the moment I’m assuming that’ll be in the form of written material. I’d also like to cover it for the Patch Monday podcast, but I don’t think that’ll be possible due to the contractual arrangements.

The event itself runs for a day and a half. An afternoon of presentations followed by a day of roundtable discussions. I’m looking forward to it.

If there’s anything else happening in Canberra either side of this event, please let me know so I can plan to attend,

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Visiting Kuala Lumpur for Kaspersky Lab

Just 10 days from now I’m flying to Kuala Lumpur as the guest of Kaspersky Lab, the information security company. It’ll be my first time to Malaysia.

The event is a briefing for Kaspersky’s partners and the media in the Asia-Pacific region about their new Endpoint Security 8 for Windows product, due for release in October.

The event itself is Thursday 8 and Friday 9 September, but I arrive early on Wednesday 7 and fly out late on Monday 12, so I’ll have three or four days to explore the city.

Any suggestions for what I should do and see?

As an aside, I’ve actually met the founder, Eugene Kaspersky. We were seated together on the panel discussion Is cloud secure enough for business? at the AusCERT Conference on information security. He’s everything you’d expect a Russian billionaire to be. However I’m fairly sure he won’t be at the KL event.

[Photo: Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, by Amber de Bruin, used under a Creative Commons BY license.]