Weekly Wrap – Page 88

13 April 2015

Weekly Wrap 253: Easter and too many things

My week of Monday 6 to Sunday 12 April 2015 was a little busier than it should have been, given that the Easter long weekend was in there. Mind you, I did plenty of work-related things in there.

I won’t list them all, because some of them were background things that you’re not allowed to know about yet. And some of them were thoughtful, long-term things that will be discussed soon enough. So it’s just the list for now.

Podcasts

“The 9pm Government by Fools”, being The 9pm Edict episode 39. It contains a brief rant about pies, amongst other things.

Articles

Downloaders be warned: Dallas Buyers Club wants your name and address, Crikey, 8 April 2015.

5at5

Three editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. To save me having to tell you this, you could just subscribe.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

On Thursday, I went to the Australian media launch of VMware’s vCloudAir service at L’Aqua Restaurant at Cockle Bay, where a very lovely brunch was served.

The Week Ahead

I’m in Sydney all this week, and have a bunch of things to do, but in no particular order. I’ve got to plan the next month, produce an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast by Tuesday night, plan out a subscription drive for that podcast, review six TV scripts, write a column for ZDNet Australia, produce and post the recording of last week’s UTS lecture, coordinate some medical treatment, and finally assemble that ebook that’s been lurking in the back of the to-do list for far, far too long.

[Photo: En route to Sydney, being the view from a Blue Mountains line train as it travelled down to Sydney in the early morning light on Thursday 9 April 2015. It was a very different mood from last week’s view.]

05 April 2015

Weekly Wrap 252: Rain, debates, squid and thinking

My week of Monday 30 March to Sunday 5 April 2015 was and action-packed week of extremes. Kinda.

Well, I made it up as I went along. I was in both Sydney and the Blue Mountains. The weather was variable. Does that count as extreme? How about standing right next to David Marr while he was paying attention to other people and I felt ignored and sulky?

Coming soon to a games store near you, Extreme David Marr.

Articles

Immigration’s G20 email bungle was only the first fail, ZDNet Australia, 31 March 2015.
Australia’s foreign aid goes agile, making many assumptions, ZDNet Australia, 2 April 2015.

Podcasts

I’m not sure whether this counts, but I did a brief announcement regarding The 9pm Edict. There’ll be a real episode on 7 April, finally.

5at5

Four editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. You should subscribe, you know. If you subscribe, Jesus will love you. Promise.

Media Appearances

On Monday, I spoke about Bitcoin’s blockchain on 2SER’s The Wire.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

On Monday, despite it being a public holiday, I’ll be producing the bulk of an episode of The 9pm Edict. On Tuesday, I’ll be doing some errands and shopping in Leura and Katoomba in the morning. In the afternoon, I’ll be planning out some writing for April. And in the evening, I’ll publish the completed podcast.

On Wednesday, I’ll be updating my regular lecture for journalism students at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

On Thursday, I’ll be making the long commute to Sydney to deliver that lecture at UTS at 0900. Then at 1030 I’m going to the Australian launch of VMware’s vCloudAir. And then I’ll be writing for ZDNet Australia probably.

Friday through Sunday are currently unplanned. It will include, however, the turning of the UTS lecture into a podcast, some writing for someone else, and a variety of revenue-generating activities.

Caveat

The squid is none of your business.

[Photo: Forest, rain and train, being the view from a Blue Mountains line train as it travelled between Katoomba and Leura on a rainy day Friday 3 April 2015.]

22 March 2015

Weekly Wrap 250: Melbourne abbreviated, and derp

My week of Monday 16 to Sunday 22 March 2015 didn’t quite go to plan, but the changes were mostly just irritations.

As mentioned last week, I had planned to stay on in Melbourne for a few days, but a closer look at the budget made it clear that wasn’t possible. And then my return flight on Thursday was delayed, for two reasons. One, Melbourne Airport’s air traffic control tower was evacuated for some reason, putting a spanner in the works. Two, just as my plane was finally about to leave, a passenger fell ill, and we had to wait until an ambulance arrived.

Still, I gathered plenty of information in Melbourne, and bits and pieces of it will turn up in various writings on the coming weeks.

Articles

Australia’s data-retention debate hits Derpcon Zero, ZDNet Australia, 18 March 2015.

Podcasts

None. The next episode of The 9pm Edict will be on Tuesday 24 March.

5at5

There were only two editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday and Wednesday. The gap in the early part of the week was because I was busy, and in the latter part of the week because I had trouble getting a clean data link to TinyLetter for some reason. You should subscribe, you know.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

From Tuesday through Thursday, I was at the Cisco Live event in Melbourne, as Cisco’s guest. They covered my flights from Sydney, airport transfers, two nights accommodation at the Crown Metropol, food and drink during the conference, and dinner at Bistro Guillaume. Regarding the last, the food and wine was excellent. I had the charcuterie plate, Berkshire pork belly served with picked cabbage and apple salad, and the cheese platter. Etihad Stadium also provided food and drinks for the attending journalists and analysts after we toured their new technical facilities.

The Week Ahead

It’s going to be another busy one, at least in the first half of the week.

On Monday, I’ll be doing most of the production for an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, as well as the laundry, as well as administrivia.

On Tuesday, I’ll be taking the train to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing by Oracle on the cloud and big data. I’m wondering if anything has actually changed with them things. I’ll also be preparing my entries for the IT Journalism Awards, also known as The Lizzies, and dealing with a few errands.

On Wednesday, I’m heading in to Sydney again for the Rewind/Fast Forward conference. The program seems interesting, and I think I’ll ge getting plenty of usable material there too.

On Thursday and Friday, I’ll be writing a column for ZDNet Australia, writing something else, and working on the much-delayed ebook — though I haven’t locked those activities into specific timeslots yet.

The weekend is unplanned, but Saturday will of course include the NSW state election.

[Photo: VH-VUE touches down in Melbourne. VH-VUE is a Boeing 737 Next Gen, and on 17 March 2015 it was flying Virgin Australia flight VA834 SYD-MEL. While it was a rainy day, most of the vertical streaks in this image are from the crinkled window treatment.]

15 March 201517 March 2015

Weekly Wrap 249: A snake, a seal and some aeroplanes

My week of Monday 9 to Sunday 15 March 2015 wasn’t quite as hectic as last week, but that was deliberate.

I even managed to fit in my planned visit to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) on Saturday — a journey that necessitated four hours of train travel there, and another four hours back. I’ve uploaded a rough cut of the photos I took. The full-resolution images will be uploaded in due course.

I also encountered animals. On Wednesday, I met the Sydney Harbour Seal. That’s it pictured above. And last weekend — on Sunday, but after I’d already posted the Weekly Wrap — I met a young Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis) on the pathway near Wentworth Falls railway station. Here’s a picture.

Articles

It’s time to disrupt the disruptor pop culture, Australia, ZDNet Australia, 10 March 2015.

There’s also a feature story still working its way through the production pipeline at ZDNet Australia.

Podcasts

None. The next episode of The 9pm Edict will be on Tuesday 24 March.

5at5

There were five editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You should subscribe, you know.

Media Appearances

None. They seem to come in bursts.

Corporate Largesse

On Wednesday, I went to MuleSoft’s press lunch in the Trawler Room at Wolfies Restaurant, Circular Quay. The food was excellent, as always. I had the creamy fish, mussel, leek and potato chowder finished with prawn oil followed by the twice-cooked pork belly, braised lentils, buttered savoy cabbage and cider apple relish.

The Week Ahead

It’s going to be a busy one, and Monday will be the calm before the storm — a day of communication, planning, and doing the laundry, with a break at 1130 to interview someone via the telephone.

On Tuesday, I’ll be taking the train to Sydney and then flying to Melbourne for the Cisco LIVE event. Tuesday’s agenda includes a tour of Etihad Stadium, which presumably uses plenty of Cisco technology in its operations, followed by cocktails, followed by dinner. Wednesday is a day full of press conferences and keynote presentations and panel discussions, followed by cocktails, followed by dinner. Thursday sees more keynote presentations and panel discussions, plus interviews, but mercifully no more cocktails. ~~I’m not sure what I’m doing on Thursday night, so feel free to offer suggestions.~~ I’ll be flying back on Thursday evening.

~~I’m staying on in Melbourne for the rest of the week.~~

On Friday, I’ll be having a few work-related meetings, and will be “available for drinks” in the late afternoon and evening. Details TBA. On Saturday, I’m having lunch and drinks with some old friends. From Saturday evening through to late Sunday afternoon, well, I’m open to suggestions. I’ll be flying back to Sydney on Sunday night, and presumably then returning to Wentworth Falls to collapse.

Update 17 March 2015: It turns out that staying on in Melbourne is beyond this month’s budget. Friday through Sunday is currently unplanned.

[Photo: The Sydney Harbour Seal, photographed on 11 March 2015. I don’t know why this one seal, which has taken to sunning itself on the steps near the Sydney Opera House, has captured so much attention.]

08 March 201508 March 2015

Weekly Wrap 248: Logic, rants, and a pleasing balance

My week of Monday 2 to Sunday 8 March 2015 was productive, although not everything happened in the sequence that I’d intended, and not everything has appeared yet.

Articles

Australian lawmakers can’t use phones, will vote on data retention, ZDNet Australia, 3 March 2015. It’s kind of a rant, but now that the internet has been commercially available in Australia for 20 years, such ignorance is inexcusable.

I also wrote a feature story and another column for ZDNet Australia, but they’re both still working their way through the production pipeline.

Podcasts

“The 9pm Shut Up It’s Called Logic”, being The 9pm Edict episode 38. It’s also available on SoundCloud. This is another hour-long episode, which took about 10 hours to produce, what with all the ancillary tasks.
I also wrote up the results of “The 9pm Summer Scrounge”, the rather half-based subscriber drive for The 9pm Edict.

5at5

There were actually six editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You should subscribe, you know.

Media Appearances

On Monday I was quoted at Telecom Ramblings by Don Sambandaraksa:

Gemalto 3G/4G SIMs must be “…ultra-mega super-magical. With extra cyber unicorns,” ZDNet Australia’s Stilgherrian said of its ability to be secure even though keys were compromised.
On Tuesday night, I spoke about various tech stories on ABC 702 Sydney, but there’s no recording.
On Thursday, I spoke about Airpnp and sharing economy on ABC 105.7 Darwin.

Corporate Largesse

I received a copy of the second novel in John Birmingham’s new series, Resistance: A Dave Hooper Novel 2, which is rather lovely. I’ll be reading it soon, because I really liked the first book in this series.

The Week Ahead

Monday will be a day of communication and planning, wrapping up with drinks and, I suspect, dinner with friends in Katoomba. Tuesday is not yet allocated to anything specific.

Wednesday will see a day trip to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing by MuleSoft. Thursday will probably see another long commute for a morning briefing by Deloitte, although I may just dial in instead. Somewhere in there, I’ll write a column for ZDNet Australia.

Friday through Saturday are unplanned at this stage. But since I didn’t visit Albion Park today to watch Qantas land their Boeing 747, I may visit the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) for one its open days — which can be any of those three days. I’ll have to figure out which would work best, given the rest of my schedule.

Further Ahead

I’ll be in Melbourne from Tuesday 17 to Sunday 22 March for the Cisco LIVE event and then a couple days of meetings and the like. If you feel the need to catch up, or any other urges, please let me know.

[Photo: Downpour at Katoomba station, photographed on 1 March 2015. Technically that’s outside the timespan covered by this post, but I’m beyond caring any more.]