Weekly Wrap

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets.

Weekly Wrap 247: Attacked by car, leech, and diarrhoea

01 March 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

Attack of the Killer Leech: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 23 February to Sunday 1 March 2015 began with fatigue and ended with drama, and then more fatigue.

The fatigue was inevitable, given that last weekend saw the production of two podcasts, as well as the first day of Tech Leaders Forum, which continued into Monday.

What I wasn’t expecting was being run down by a car on Thursday night. I wasn’t hurt, really, but nevertheless it was annoying — and I’ll tell you about that in The 9pm Edict. I wasn’t expecting to be attacked by a leech on Friday. And I wasn’t expecting Saturday to be wiped out by a gut problem. Sigh.

But enough of that…

Articles

Podcasts

None. The will be an episode The 9pm Edict on Tuesday 3 March, once I’ve gotten a feature written for ZDNet Australia.

5at5

There were three editions of 5at5 this week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all as they’re released.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Monday, we wrapped up this year’s Tech Leaders Forum at the Fairmont Resort in the Blue Mountains. Apart from one night’s accommodation and plenty of food and drink, some vendors gave out various bits and pieces. Bitdefender gave me a branded TSA-approved travel lock and a Gecko dashboard pad thingy. Emerson Network Power, a novelty branded USB stick with their PR material. LogRhythm, a branded pen. Oakton, a USB stick with their PR material.

The Week Ahead

Here’s the plan. Monday, a feature for ZDNet Australia. Tuesday, an episode of The 9pm Edict. Wednesday, probably a day trip to Sydney — and if it happens, it might include a bit of television. Thursday, a column for ZDNet Australia. Friday, updating that ebook, finally, and getting it to people.

The weekend isn’t locked in yet, but one option is heading down to Albion Park, where a Boeing 747 will land at the tiny Albion Park Airport, before it becomes a permanent museum piece at the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS). Or I might not. It depends on many factors.

[Photo: Attack of the Killer Leech, the one which I had to remove from my foot, photographed on 27 February 2015.]

Weekly Wrap 246: Tired, hollow, but oh so productive

22 February 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

Log: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 16 to Sunday 22 February 2015 has been busy, productive and exhausting. And it’s still going. If only my life lately were about more than just trying to be busy and productive. Sigh.

Podcasts

  • “The 9pm Malcolm and the Cnuts”, being The 9pm Edict episode 37. I hadn’t planned to do an episode of the Edict this week, but on Friday I had an encounter with Malcolm Turnbull, and one thing led to another… But I am getting more efficient. This episode only took six hours to produce, although it did omit a couple of regular segments.
  • Corrupted Nerds Extra: Malcolm Turnbull opens NICTA Techfest 2015, being the full audio of Turnbull’s speech and subsequent doorstop press conference.

Articles

5at5

There were four editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and an off-schedule 7at7 on Sunday morning. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all as they’re released. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Friday, I went to NICTA’s Techfest at Australian Technology Park, where I was fed and watered.
  • Sunday is the first day of the Tech Leaders Forum, formerly known as Kickstart, at the Fairmont Resort. The event continues on Monday, so I’ll post the full list of largesse next week.

The Week Ahead

Monday is the second and final day of the Tech Leaders Forum, after which I shall collapse and have an early night.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I’m writing a feature for ZDNet Australia.

On Thursday, I’m heading to Sydney for the next step in my treatment program for sleep apnoea — which I have yet to blog about in any detail — as well as some errands and then, at 1615 AEDT, a television spot on ABC News24.

On Friday, I’ll probably be writing my usual column for ZDNet Australia.

Saturday is unplanned. Place your bids now.

On Sunday, I’ll be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast. Because I am an idiot.

[Photo: Log. Termites had eaten out the core of this tree at Bunjaree Cottages, and it had filled with water — much to the surprise of the chain-saw wielding chap who felled it. A shame I wasn’t there to see it. Photographed on 20 February 2015.]

Weekly Wrap 245: Technology old and new, plus fatigue

16 February 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

The Future is Coal: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 9 to Sunday 15 February 2015 was hectic. I must learn that the long commute to Sydney, two hours each way, doesn’t mix with doing so to be there before 0900 and starting to return after 1700. Not two days in a row, anyway.

Still, I did get quite a bit done, even if all of the outputs haven’t appeared yet.

Podcasts

  • “The 9pm Sleepless Necessary Remedial Action”, being The 9pm Edict episode 36. This one was quicker to produce, at eight and a half hours. It’s also the longest episode of the Edict ever.

Articles

5at5

There were three editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Thursday and Friday. The two missing days where when I had very early starts and very late finishes and, probably more importantly, a conference to pay attention to during the day. Hmmm. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all as they’re released. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the APIdays Sydney at Australian Technology Park, where I was amply fed and watered.

The Week Ahead

On Monday, I’ve been catching up on all manner of loose ends, including blog posts. Tuesday through Wednesday are writing and production days, though I’ll work out the exact sequence of events as I go along.

On Tuesday, I’ll be re-planning the rest of February, as well as doing shopping and other errands, as well as doing some research and organising some story pitches for those people we call “editors”.

On Wednesday I’m doing a day trip to Sydney to run some errands in Parramatta and the CBD, meet some people, and finally see the sleep physician to get this treatment program started. I may blog about that last point, because some people have expressed interest.

On Thursday I’ll be writing for ZDNet Australia, and perhaps someone else.

On Friday, I’m heading into Sydney on another day trip — for errands and a meeting and then, in the afternoon, NICTA’s Techfest at Australian Technology Park, and then an appointment to rearrange my back and neck.

Saturday is unplanned. Place your bids now.

Sunday is the start of the Tech Leaders Forum, formerly known as Kickstart. This year it isn’t being held on the Gold Coast, but in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, at the Fairmont Resort. The event continues on Monday.

Update 17 February 2015: Edited to include changes to the schedule.

[Photo: The Future is Coal, a standard 45-car coal train passing through Wentworth Falls, photographed on 15 February 2015.]

Weekly Wrap 244: Cloudy sky, cloudy mind, kinda

09 February 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | No comments

Sydney skyline from Camperdown: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 2 to Sunday 8 February 2015 was exhausting — but as you can see, the productivity levels started returning to something approaching normality. Slowly.

Podcasts

  • “The 9pm Sleepless in Canberra”, being The 9pm Edict episode 35. Yes, a new podcast appeared just one week after the previous one. Amazing. It still took 11 hours to produce, though. I must fix that.

Articles

5at5

There were three editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all as they’re released. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

The Week Ahead

Monday will have pretty much ended by the time this gets published. It’s likely to have been a day of pottering around after very little sleep, and planning for the rest of the week.

Tuesday and Wednesday both see day trips to Sydney to cover the APIdays conference at Australian Technology Park. “Liberate then Innovate”? I feel sick already. Late Wednesday afternoon I’m also covering a seminar on “Risk-based approach to Privacy” being run by iappANZ, the International Association of Privacy Professionals ANZ. These will be long, exhausting days — in part because I’ll have to do the long commute both days rather than staying in Sydney, thanks to cashflow constraints. Wish me luck.

Thursday and Friday are writing days, I’m guessing, turning those two hectic days into words for money.

The weekend is unplanned.

[Photo: Sydney skyline from Camperdown, photographed from level 6 of Rydges Camperdown Hotel on 5 February 2015.]

Weekly Wrap 243: Wattle, delays and fatigue

01 February 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | Permalink

Random wattle: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 26 January to Sunday 1 February 2015 didn’t quite go to plan. Everything was still slower and more liquid than I’d wished. But such is life.

I won’t go into too many details. Some of it is on my Twitter stream, and if you really want to investigate then you can drill down into my tweets for January.

Podcasts

  • “The 9pm I can’t believe it’s not January”, being The 9pm Edict episode 34. The first seven minutes or so were an interesting psychological journey to produce. I have deleted the original audio file of that music loop so that I never have to listen to it again.

Articles

None. But that feature for ZDNet Australia was filed on Thursday as planned, and should appear on Monday or Tuesday.

5at5

There was only one edition of 5at5 again this week, on Friday once more. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all in the future. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

None, although I did get a few requests, which I turned down.

Corporate Largesse

None, because I cancelled my planned trip into Sydney.

The Week Ahead

Let’s have another go at returning productivity to some semblance of normality, shall we?

Monday is mostly about catching up on blogging, administrivia and the endless communications backlog — although I’m getting better at just deleting things.

On Tuesday, I will be updating a certain ebook and, if the cashflows work, getting it online so people can buy it. On Wednesday, I’ll be writing a column for ZDNet Australia, I think.

Tuesday will be a day of more administrivia and planning. On Wednesday, I’ll be heading to Sydney for a mid-morning media briefing by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, as well as a haircut. I’ll report on same for ZDNet Australia. The briefing, not the haircut.

On Thursday, I’ll be heading to Sydney again for a lunchtime briefing by VMWare, as well as several errands. Somewhen in there I’ll knock out a column for ZDNet Australia.

Friday through Sunday is unplanned, but since there’s quite a bit to catch up on, I suspect it’ll end up being quite busy.

[Update 3 February 2015: Edited to add a second trip to Sydney, and other minor schedule changes.]

[Photo: Random wattle, photographed at Bunjaree Cottages on Australia Day, 26 January 2015.]

Weekly Wrap 242: Insomnia revelations, and more

25 January 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | Permalink

Section of data collected during a sleep studyMy week of Monday 19 to Sunday 25 January 2015 continued the unproductive period, as my intestinal troubles went through their final stages, and then after that I really couldn’t be bothered putting in the effort.

Given that the early part of January was so exhausting, Monday through Wednesday ended up being mental health days. This lack of productivity will now haunt me for the next two months. Such is life.

On Thursday I discovered something interesting: that the cause of my endless insomnia is actually severe sleep apnoea. It’s probably also responsible for a large chunk of my depression. A sleep study showed that I was experiencing a disturbance to my respiratory functions every 90 seconds through the night, roughly, and doing rather a lot of loud snoring. So that’s something to take on board. There’ll be more to come on this soon, because I’ll be starting a treatment program next week soon.

Articles

None. But I did start work on a feature for ZDNet Australia that’ll appear next week.

5at5

There was only one edition of 5at5 this week, on Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all in the future. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

None. But the PR industry will be returning to its usual levels of largesse in the coming week, I suspect.

The Week Ahead

The main theme will be returning my productivity levels to some semblance of normality, and wrapping up all the things that need to be completed this month. This week also sees me based back at Bunjaree Cottages in Wentworth Falls, after my sojourn in Lilyfield since late December.

It’s Australia Day on Monday, but despite the public holiday I’ll be working on the ZDNet feature. That work continues into Tuesday. On Wednesday I’ll file that feature, and then head into Sydney for a lunchtime media briefing by Check Point Software, Dimension Data and L.E.K Consulting, followed by an appointment with a sleep physician to start the treatment program.

On Thursday, I’ll be writing my usual column for ZDNet Australia, and on Friday and/or Saturday I’ll be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, finally.

The weekend is unplanned, mostly, but I’m hoping it’ll be a quiet one.

Update 27 January 2015: Updated to reflect the cancellation of Wednesday’s trip to Sydney.

[Photo: A section of the data produced during the sleep study, showing disruptions to airflow and snoring. Yes, I was the patient.]

Weekly Wrap 241: Extended gut symptomatics, apparently

24 January 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | Permalink

My week of Monday 12 to Sunday 18 January 2015 was another unproductive one, thanks to the intestinal problems continuing. Or maybe it was a new one arriving. Either way, it was terrible.

I don’t think I’ll even bother putting a photograph on this post. It’s late enough as it is.

That said, this seems to have been the week that the Australian media returned to work, because I did four spots in total.

Articles

5at5

There were only two editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday and Tuesday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all in the future. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

Weekly Wrap 240: Technology, little sleep, a belated possum

11 January 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | Permalink

"Come at me, bro!": click to embiggenMy week of Monday 4 to Sunday 11 January 2015 was very, very, very annoying. Not only did the server migration take up far too much of my time and ruined my sleep patterns, I ended up with a nasty intestinal problem for a few days. Not happy, Jan.

As I mentioned last week, I may or may not write up the server migration problems. I’m not sure that any real lessons were learned. I’m just thankful that it’s something that only has to be done every few years, because it took about 47 hours all up.

But it did screw up my productivity. No articles written. No podcasts produced. Sigh.

5at5

There was only one 5at5 this week, on Tuesday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all in the future. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

It’s going to be a busy one. Monday through Wednesday I’ll be sorting out my work for the new year — including getting the subscription for The 9pm Edict podcast back on track, reviewing some interview recordings, preparing an ebook, and sending story pitches to editors.

On Thursday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet Australia, and then at 1615 AEDT doing a spot on ABC News24. On Friday, there’s a “webinar” [ugh!] at 0600 AEDT, and then I’ll be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast.

I daresay I’ll have a social life in there somewhere too, perhaps on the weekend, which is as yet unplanned.

[Photo: “Come at me, bro!”. A brush-tailed possum invades the Chirgwin residence at Lilyfield on 3 January 2015. Rather than being persuaded to leave, he decided to take me on. Technically this image belongs to last week’s Weekly Wrap, but I’m not too worried about consistency.]

Weekly Wrap 239: The new year starts with some chaos

11 January 2015 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | Permalink

Sydney skyline, 30 December 2014: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 29 December 2014 to Sunday 3 January 2015 was a strange mix of relaxation and stress. Relaxation during the New Year break, and stress because the server migration I was doing started to become a complete pain.

Since this is being posted a week late, I won’t bother expanding on all that for now. I may or may not issue a series of whinges in relation to the server migration.

But I will mention that on 30 December I migrated from Bunjaree Cottages near Wentworth Falls to Lilyfield in Sydney’s inner west, there to spend most of January. If you need to catch up with me in Sydney for some reason, this is the month for you.

Articles

5at5

There were three editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

[Photo: Sydney skyline, photographed on 30 December 2014. I seem to recall that it was a very hot day that day.]

Weekly Wrap 238: Cyberwar hype for Christmas

28 December 2014 in Weekly Wrap by Stilgherrian | Permalink

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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