Talking Bitcoin and digital currency on ABC 774 Melbourne

Bitcoin hit the news this week when it was alleged that an ABC employee had been using their computers to generate the digital currency.

On Thursday I gave this backgrounder to the ABC’s Lindy Burns. And yes, she did pronounce my name incorrectly. Her producer has had words.

The audio is ©2011 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, but it hasn’t been posted on their website so here it is. In return, I reckon you might choose to listen to Lindy Burns’ drive program next week.

Talking information security on ABC Radio’s “Life Matters”

I seem to be becoming a go-to person for commentary on hacking and information security stories. On Thursday I did a spot on ABC Radio National’s Life Matters program, covering the basics of just how bad things are getting.

I think I got the balance right between paranoia and reassurance, but what do you think?

There’s a podcast over at the ABC website, along with a few listener comments. But I figured I’d embed the audio here for your convenience, and so it’ll appear in my podcast feed.

I daresay I’ll be doing quite a few of these little pieces over the coming weeks, so if you have any comments I’d love to hear them.

Obviously the audio is ©2011 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Talking NBN on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide

Willunga, just south of Adelaide, is one of the first mainland locations to be getting the National Broadband Network’s optical fibre. On Thursday I spoke with radio 1395 FIVEaa’s Mark Aiston and Jane Reilly about the NBN and what it’ll mean for consumers.

I must admit, I was a little surprised when they didn’t follow up the obvious feed I gave them to cover the criticisms of the NBN. But then again, whenever I talk about the NBN to anyone outside inner city Sydney and Melbourne the response is the same, “Bring it on!”

This 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.

Busy week, much media, and some changes

What a week! I’ve written five articles. Another two are due for Monday. I’ve done my usual Patch Monday podcast. I’ve done five radio appearances on five different topics. I’ve been interviewed for Phil Dobbie’s BTalk podcast, and that’ll appear next week.

I’ve even been interviewed by an anthropologist for his PhD project. I’m talking to a new editor about more writing. And even — this is weird — to a television production company about a TV project.

That all comes after a month or, really, six weeks or more of travel, intense work, intense and deeply personal events and the tightly-tangled ball of stress, depression and anxiety that can trigger. Which it did.

I’m knackered.

And there’s still plenty of work to do and decisions to make over the next couple of weeks.

I mention all this for a variety of reasons…

  • While I do have Weekly Wrap posts, I’ll also do individual posts linking to things like major articles and radio spots. This should make it easier for people to find things they’re interested in, and quite frankly it’s better Google juice. It also gives me more of an opportunity to reflect on each item — like adding a quick personal view to supplement a story that was a straight-news piece.
  • There’s about to be a flurry of small posts as I process the week’s radio spots. Consider that a warning.
  • I wanted to post at least part of the background before more reflective posts started appearing. I haven’t written much from a deeply personal perspective lately — certainly not like the essays that I was doing a couple years back. This is part of the head-clearing process before I return to that.

I write in so many places these days — ZDNet Australia, Crikey, Technology Spectator, ABC’s The Drum, even occasionally at places like CRN Australia. And, as I mentioned, there’s probably more to come. That’s all writing for other people.

This here is my place, and it’ll be about writing for me.

No, I’m not sure what form that’ll take.

I’m not sure what it even means.

Do those bullet points flow from the intro? No, not really. But that’s where my head is this morning. I’m sure things will become clearer as the day unfolds.

[Photo: That’s me (embiggen) photographed with my webcam just now at Rosella Cottage, the somewhat bigger house that’s the “family home” of the owners of Bunjaree Cottages. It isn’t normally rented out to punters. I’ve been here at the cottages alone for a week, and I haven’t bothered shaving. I’m staring to look like I did before ’Pong and I shot that short film The Shave back in 2008. It’s not a good look.]

Weekly Wrap 54

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. It was a short week, thanks to the Queen’s Birthday public holiday and a severe toothache. Those events are unrelated. Mostly.

Podcasts

Articles

None. Not a single one. I know it was a short week thanks to the public holiday, and I know I had a toothache, but this will come back to haunt me.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

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: Tea Tree Cottage, one of the Bunjaree Cottages in the Blue Mountains where I’ve been living of late. I took this photo only this afternoon, when I discovered that the fire was still going from the punters last night.]

Weekly Wrap 53

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. We’re late this week, posted on Monday rather than Sunday, because I forgot. That and, well, it’s a holiday anyway so the new week doesn’t start until Tuesday.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 91, “Tackling cybersecurity: it’s a start”, being a continuation of my thoughts emerging from National Cyber Security Awareness Week last week.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Tuesday I attended the Mumbrella360 conference on media and marketing, which involved the usual level of food and drink for such things — first at the Hilton Hotel and then at the Arthouse Hotel.
  • On Thursday I went to the welcome reception for X|Media|Lab’s current Sydney event, which again involved food and drink, this time at Customs House. I didn’t actually go to the conference itself, for various reasons.
  • On Monday and Thursday I was taken to lunch by two different people who are interested in having me work on forthcoming projects. I can’t talk about either of them yet — they may not even happen — but this was really just the usual introductions over lunch thing.

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: A random photograph of Broadway, Sydney, taken on Saturday.]