Category: Weekly Wrap

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

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Weekly Wrap 138: Chaos, some for Australia Day, some not

Photo: Sydney Culture (For @ApostrophePong, Australia Day 2013): click to embiggenThe week of Monday 21 to Sunday 27 January 2013 was a bit hectic, and since this is being posted a week later than it should be I’ll gloss over those messy details.

Podcasts

None. And that’s because Patch Monday is no more.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

Still none. I’ve been very slack about cashing in on people’s PR accounts. Something must be wrong with me.

[Photo: Sydney Culture (For @ApostrophePong, Australia Day 2013), a photograph which will make sense to ’Pong and probably few others.]

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Weekly Wrap 137: Excess heat, excess dodgy cocktails

The rain begins...: click to embiggenThe week of Monday 14 to Sunday 20 January 2013 wasn’t quite as productive as I’d hoped, due to a combination of too much drinking and too much heat.

But there was plenty of time for reflection, and I managed to ramo up my blogging as planned, so I’m happy.

On Monday I wrote about the death of Aaron Swartz, and it proved difficult. Not because I was affected by his death — truth be known, I wasn’t a fan — but because I knew that the fans would be upset if I was seen to be too critical too soon. Plus I had to write something new, when eleventy bazillion words had already been written. After filing the story, I was exhausted.

I then made mistake of heading off for a drink or a dozen, and ended up at the The Haymarket Hotel on the promise of a cocktail bar, except “Martinis” isn’t open on Monday nights. So I had the pleasure of choosing cocktails from their dodgy girly cocktail list, and having them made by a waiter who was new to the bar and doesn’t normally make cocktails anyway. He did OK.

When the manager arrived back from dinner, I complained that the cocktails were too girly. “Mate,” he said, “this is George Street. That’s the point.” Oh yeah. Fair enough. It’s a mating signal, or something.

At the other end of the week, Friday was a write-off because it was Sydney’s hottest day on record. Maximum temperatures of 46C across the city. I escaped to Cronulla with the intention of having fish and chips, but I was distracted by a baby xenomorph and local customs, strange rituals and their cosmopolitan cultural experiences.

Anyway, to business…

Podcasts

None. I did say that I was going to write something about that, but yeah. Productivity. Tomorrow.

Articles

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

Still none. I’d thought that Australia would have returned from its summer break this week, but no. It seems far quieter than the same time last year, and several taxi drivers agree.

The Week Ahead

Buggered if I know. Well, on Monday I’ll help Bunjaree Cottages set up their email marketing, and on Tuesday I’m being a guest on someone else’s podcast. But nothing else has been planned out, either for the working week or the Australia Day long weekend. I should probably do something about that.

[Photo: The rain begins… in Cronulla. Well, there were a few drops, just before I took the train back to the city.]

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Weekly Wrap 136: Geekery and hot thoughts

Urban sophistication, or so it is imagined: click for originalThe week of Monday 7 to Sunday 13 January 2013 was supposed to be filled with thoughts about my work in 2013. Instead, there was too much urgent geekery, too much intense thought about certain non-work matters, and too much hot weather for my liking.

Some might also argue that there was too much wine. I couldn’t possibly comment on that point directly, except to note that there was also beer, cider and gin.

Nevertheless, the week did see the delivery of two media objects, which are here listed for your information and enjoyment, and yesterday I went on a long, random exploratory excursion.

Podcasts

  • The 9pm Heat Wave, which should need little explanation. Or a lot, actually. I’ll tell you my thoughts regarding The 9pm Edict and other podcasts within the next three days.

Articles

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

None this week either. Australia is still closed for summer. I daresay this will change in the coming week.

The Week Ahead

I’ll return to work at full intensity. I’m sketching out the details later today, at least for this first week, as well as posting more about my slowly-evolving plans for 2013. Stay tuned for that.

I’m in Sydney all week, it seems, staying at Lilyfield. And my new, erm, “health regime” starts tomorrow. Should I post my plans for that too, or just leave you to make suggestions?

Apart from that, there’s nothing locked in to any particular schedule, so feel free to send through the invitations.

[Photo: Urban sophistication, or so it is imagined, a house photographed yesterday in Maroubra, Sydney.]

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Weekly Wrap 134: Christmas contrasts and introspection

The perfect user interface: click to embiggenThe week of Monday 24 to Sunday 30 December 2012 was an exercise in contrasts. There were plenty of reminders that, as has been the case for many years, my pattern of work and not-work periods is out of whack with the bulk of society.

Monday was Christmas Eve. Most people in regular jobs had an easy day, if they hadn’t already clocked off the previous Friday afternoon. I, however, was awake and working ridiculously early to complete the three media item you see listed below.

I finished by lunchtime, though, so I made my way from my Hurstville apartment-sitting to the Sydney CBD for lunch and drinks with a friend.

I didn’t work on Christmas Day. I’m not a complete idiot. But with family distant both physically and emotionally, there was no Christmas party. Instead, I spent some quality time with someone who has yet to be formally introduced to this narrative.

The rest of the week was a random montage of catch-up bookkeeping, long overdue errands, intermittent bursts of sleep and the occasional meal or two, some of which may have involved wine, all set against a background of quiet introspection. None of it involved any traditional Australian summer holiday activities, for which I am deeply grateful.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 169, “Uncovering the smartphone: a year 10 perspective”. A rather different podcast to end the year, namely a look at what happened when the Year 10 students at North Sydney Girls High School spent six weeks away from normal classes to work on projects of their choice that were somehow related to the smartphone.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None. Australia is currently closed.

The Week Ahead

I expect that Monday and Tuesday, being New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day respectively, will be taken up with the traditional activities of those days. Or at least my variations thereupon. No. Mind your own business.

Wednesday through Friday I’ll continue my planning for 2013. You saw the first instalment of that earlier today, Doing the business on Stilgherrian’s journalism, but it’s not just about my work. There’s also questions about what the magazines call “work-life balance” before flogging the book for $24.95, questions of diet and exercise and how I structure my day. Even the question of where I live.

I’ll post more about that as it happens. For now, I’ll just say that I’ve recognised so many things that could be changed that it’ll be daunting.

[Photo: The perfect user interface, photographed on near Town Hall station, Sydney, on 28 December 2012. It’s always important to focus on your core message.]

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Weekly Wrap 133: Instagram, infosec and random nativity

Suburban Nativity: click to embiggenMonday 17 to Sunday 23 December 2012 was a week filled with plenty of work, plenty of stress and a small amount of exhaustion.

The media outputs are listed below, as usual. Towards the end of the week the long series of 5am and earlier starts was beginning to catch up with me, and on Thursday I accidentally slept in until lunchtime — and that was truly wonderful.

I decided to continue that level of sloth on the weekend. Well, apart from today, obviously. As mentioned below, there’s still quite a bit left to do before I can finally break for Christmas.

Also this week I dropped and broke my Samsung Galaxy S III, necessitating an urgent replacement. While doing that I discovered some gotchas with migrating data to a new phone, and I’ll write about that after Christmas.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 168, “2012 infosec review: Focus on crime, not cyberwar”. The second of our two year-end conversations. The panelists are Paul Ducklin, Sophos’ head of technology for Asia Pacific; Chris Gatford, director of penetration testing firm HackLabs; Jon Callas, chief technology officer at Entrust, and now also of secure messaging provider Silent Circle; and Stephen Wilson, managing director of Lockstep Group, which provides advice and analysis on digital identity and privacy technologies.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I had a very pleasant lunch indeed at Bistrode at the Hotel CBD in Sydney with a couple of chaps from Trend Micro. Needless to say, it was on their tab.

The Week Ahead

There’s tonight and one working day left before Christmas. In that time I have to produce a Patch Monday podcast, my end-of-year story for Crikey, and a follow-up to Friday’s story for CSO Online. I’ll be busy for the next 24 hours, though for all those things I’ve already got a plan in mind so they should be straightforward.

But then Tuesday is Christmas Day, and from then through to the end of the week I have precisely nothing planned. Sure, there’s a few little work-related things that’ll need to be polished off, but there are no pressing commitments. This pleases me immensely.

[Photo: Suburban Nativity, photographed on Stony Creek Road in Beverly Hills, Sydney, on 15 December 2012. The householders must do this every year, because the same nativity scene is visible in Google Street View imagery from December 2009.]