Category: Media

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Talking The Code and smart cars on ABC 774 Melbourne

Screenshot from The Code series 2ABC logoI haven’t made a big deal of being technology consultant for the new series of the ABC TV drama The Code — at least not here — but we decided to talk about that on ABC 774 Melbourne on Thursday night.

The conversation with Casey Bennetto also included some of the recent news about self-driving and smart cars — and, for some reason, the Twitter account Florida Man. Amongst other things.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:33 — 12.1MB)

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

[Photo: Jan Roth (Anthony LaPaglia) and Jesse Banks (Ashley Zukerman) in The Code series 2. Photo courtesy ABC TV.]

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Talking Facebook’s Project Aquila on ABC Radio National

Facebook's Project Aquila

ABC logoOn Wednesday I spoke with ABC Radio National about Facebook’s Project Aquila. I’ll let their introduction explain it.

Facebook’s ‘Aquila’ drone has the wingspan of a 737 airliner. But it’s powered by the equivalent of three blow-dryers, and it will stay aloft for months at a time.

It’s a technological feat, built with the idea of extending internet connectivity to more of the developing world.

But the net commentator Stilgherrian explains that Facebook’s offering comes with certain limits.

Here’s the full conversation with presenter Michael Mackenzie, which also included a few words about Google’s Project Loon and net neutrality.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:35 — 12.5MB)

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is being served directly from the ABC website.

[Photo: Facebook’s ‘Aquila’ aerial internet platform has the same wingspan as a Boeing 737 airliner. (supplied)]

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Talking Pokémon Go and e-voting on ABC 774 Melbourne

ABC Sydney TARDIS 1ABC logoThe massive global phenomenon that is the Pokémon Go augmented reality game naturally caught the interest of media producers all over — including at ABC 774 Melbourne.

Here’s my chat with Wendy Touhy from the evening of 20 July. I’m hoping I didn’t screw up some detail of the game, although I’m pretty sure I did.

We also spoke about one of my pet topics, the risks of electronic voting.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:04 — 9.5MB)

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

[Photo: Ready to go live on ABC 774 Melbourne from ABC Sydney TARDIS 1, 20 July 2016.]

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Analysing The 9pm Edict’s Hidden Costs

Hero Image of distorted chartI’ve been analysing the time it takes to produce each episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, and the results are disturbing.

Well, they disturbed me.

The Short Version

Audio recording is a relatively small part of the process. My workflows are inefficient, because I’m always playing with the format rather than settling into a routine, let alone automating things.

On a personal note, lack of confidence sometimes slows the creative process. Thanks, brain. I also spend more time fussing over the audio mix than is probably warranted.

The time taken to produce each episode is usually 10x or even 20x longer than the finished podcast. The crowdfunded budget falls way short of proper compensation. And that doesn’t even take into account the time taken to do that crowdfunding.

The Long Version

What I just said, but with charts, and much more background information.
Continue reading “Analysing The 9pm Edict’s Hidden Costs”

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My wisdom was recognised as Tweet of the Day

Last week Malcolm Turnbull claimed that Labor was declaring war on business, and that the first casualties were jobs.

Tweet of the Day, 3 June 2016It’s a symptom of the government’s supposed need to look strong and tough on difficult issues. Hence the war on drugs, the war on terror, the war on poverty and so on.

How unimaginative, I thought.

I expressed this opinion on Twitter, as is the fashion.

“Imagine being so bereft of ideas that the only metaphor you can come up with is war,” I tweeted.

That tweet was retweeted 38 times, and scored 36 likes. That’s far fewer than tweets tweeted by major celebrities and the like, but for me it’s at the high end of the scale.

The next morning, 3 June, @aksana tweeted to tell me that my tweet was chosen as the Sydney Morning Herald Tweet of the Day.

She include a photo of the printed newspaper, because Tweet of the Day doesn’t seem to be published on the SMH website.

All this should have been included in last week’s Weekly Wrap, but I forgot. I’ve fixed that now, though.