Weekly Wrap – Page 95

02 September 201202 September 2012

Weekly Wrap 116: Porn, planes and presentations

Here’s my week Monday 20 to Sunday 26 August 2012. Once more it’s nothing but the facts, ma’am, because I’m so far behind in these posts.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 151, “Porn industry innovates itself to death”, a conversation with Jeff Sparrow about his new book, Money Shot: a journey into porn and censorship.
In a surprise to me as much as to you, The 9pm Edict episode 21 appeared.

Articles

Anonymous hacks Sony again, except no they didn’t, CSO Online, 20 August 2012.
Samsung’s unremarkable copy shop, Technology Spectator, 24 August 2012. The Samsung Experience Store opened in the same block of Sydney’s George Street as the Apple Store, making comparisons inevitable

Media Appearances

On Monday afternoon I was quoted in Margaret Gee’s post, Twitter and journalism — where does the reporting end? Would anyone like me to expand on these thoughts?
On Tuesday there was my usual spot on Phil Dobbie’s Balls Radio, this time about the potential collapse of Facebook and the entire second dotcom bubble.
On Saturday I spoke at Consilium about the way the internet is changing power relationships. I’ll be posting the audio once I’ve obtained permission from the participants I namechecked, as the event was held under a modified Chatham House Rule.

Corporate Largesse

On Wednesday I attended the launch party for the Samsung Experience Store in Sydney, where of course they provided food and drink.
On Thursday through Saturday I attended Consilium at the Palmer Coolum Resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The Centre for Independent Studies covered by flight from Sydney to Sunshine Coast, accommodation, food and drink, a limousine from the resort to Brisbane airport, and a flight back to Sydney — but I wasn’t paid for my appearance at the event.
On Sunday I flew from Sydney via Los Angeles to San Francisco to attend the VMworld event at VMware’s expense. I’ll list all of the freebies from that event on the next Weekly Wrap.

[Photo: View from Millers Point, taken from my room at The Sebel Pier One Hotel in Sydney. On the left is Pier 2/3, and across Sydney Harbour is Harry Seidler’s controversial Blues Point Tower.]

19 August 2012

Weekly Wrap 115: Four trains and too much food

Today I’m catching up on a fortnight of blog posts, so for now my summary of the week Monday 13 to Sunday 19 August 2012 will consist of nothing but the facts, ma’am.

Personal observations about the last fortnight or so will follow within the next 48 hours or so.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 150, “The future of business is Lego”, was an extended conversation with futurist Mark Pesce about the themes in his blogs-cum-books The Next Billion Seconds and Hyperbusiness. Disinterested third parties tell me it’s well worth a listen.

Articles

I wrote two articles, one for ABC’s The Drum about media coverage of the Natonal Broadband Network, the other for CSO Online about the hoax “hack” on the Sony PlayStation Network, but neither has been published yet. Stand by.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday night I did another regular Balls Radio spot with Phil Dobbie, this time about the NBN misreportage.

Corporate Largesse

On Monday I had lunch at Rengaya in North Sydney on Websense’s tab.
On Tuesday I attended IBM’s Security Symposium 2012 in Sydney. They provided accommodation at Sydney’s Sheraton on the Park hotel the night before so I could make the 0800 start, and plenty of refreshments during the morning.

The Week Ahead

The schedule for the next few days is being shaped by my impending travels, to the Sunshine Coast on Thursday 23 August to present at Consilium, on Sunday 26 August to San Francisco to cover VMworld, and back to Sydney by Wednesday 5 September to present at ACCAN’s national conference.

So between now and Thursday lunchtime I have to write two presentations and finalise two episodes of the Patch Monday podcast, as well as wrap up some other bits and pieces of writing. And get a haircut. And buy some new clothes.

At this stage I plan to be in Wentworth Falls until Wednesday morning, then hit Sydney that afternoon for the opening of the Samsung Experience Store (indeed) and an overnight stay before the real travels begin.

[Photo: The Blue Mountains Hotel, in Lawson, photographed on 13 August 2012 from a passing train.]

19 August 2012

Weekly Wrap 114: Screeching and grinding, mostly

Today I’m catching up on a fortnight of blog posts, so for now my summary of the week Monday 6 to Sunday 12 August 2012 will including nothing but the facts, ma’am.

Personal observations about the last fortnight or so will follow within the next 48 hours or so.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 149, “Does the internet really need new laws?” Why do governments keep wanting to make special new laws for the internet? Surely a crime is a crime, no matter where it’s committed? The answers come from high-profile geek Pia Waugh, with strong interests in free and open-source software and open government; IT lawyer Kay Lam-McLeod, from Brisbane-based practice Idealaw; and Kate Carruthers, founder of Social Innovation.

Articles

Business is drunk if it thinks it doesn’t have to police Facebook, Crikey, 7 August 2012.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday night I did another regular Balls Radio spot with Phil Dobbie.
On Thursday night I had the very great pleasure to talk about social media regulation with Waleed Aly on ABC Radio National.

Corporate Largesse

None.

[Photo: Ready in TARDIS 1, a photo taken in one of the TARDIS audio booths at ABC Radio’s Sydney headquarters in Ultimo.]

05 August 201207 August 2012

Weekly Wrap 113: Slow clones and their delays

My week Monday 30 July to Sunday 5 August 2012 was dominated by the insanity involved in cloning hard drives and restoring my backup system to good working order.

Doing all of this over USB 2.0 interfaces was not helpful, but they were the only ports I had available on the loaner MacBook I’ve been using. Remember, I’m nomadic and quite often 100km from Sydney.

And then my backup drive failed…

Creating a new Time Machine backup of around 450GB of data takes 6 to 7 hours. Encrypting a 1TB drive takes nearly 23 hours. Even zeroing out a 750GB drive takes 5 hours.

And whenever you make a mistake, or a drive throws an error, you have to start that process again.

It’s been a wonderful lesson in patience. See, that’s the positive angle. Sigh.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 148, “The politics of data retention”. It’s in the news because it’s one of the ideas being floated as part of the inquiry into potential reforms of national security legislation being conducted by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security. The podcast includes Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan, national manager of high tech crime operations for the Australian Federal Police; Bernard Keane, Canberra corresponded with Crikey; and network engineer Mark Newton.

Articles

An Anonymous attack in search of a purpose, Crikey, 30 July 2012.
Six tips for developing a security culture, CSO Online, 31 July 2012.
A dangerous cyber security disconnect, Technology Spectator, 3 August 2012.

Media Appearances

On Monday I did a spot on ABC 105.7 Darwin with a couple of other people about overly-busy lifestyles, but the internet stream from which I was recording it was dodgy so I haven’t posted the audio.
On Tuesday night I did another regular Balls Radio spot, but I didn’t record it. That’s probably for the best, it was rather disjointed.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

I’m returning to Wentworth Falls on Monday, and have a day trip to Sydney on Thursday. In theory it’s a steady-paced week of writing. We shall see.

[Photo: Blue, being a photo of Wentworth Falls railway station on Thursday afternoon, one of the few bright spots in the week.]

30 July 201204 August 2012

Weekly Wrap 112: Security, hacks, unexpected encounters

I was in Sydney for most of my week Monday 23 to Sunday 29 July 2012, and despite some minor annoyances I’m reasonably pleased with the results.

I also started a new gig on a SEKRIT project. It looks like it’ll be quite fun, but I won’t be able to tell you about it for ages.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 147, “Mid-2012 malware: new flavours, same ice cream”. Has 2012 turned out to be “the year of cyberwar” accompanied by an explosion of Android malware? Hear from Alex Kirk, senior research analyst with the Sourcefire Vulnerability Research Team (VRT); David Hall, Symantec’s consumer spokesperson for Asia Pacific; and Bob Hansmann, senior product marketing manager at Websense.

Articles

If ever there was a week that illustrated my transition to grumpy-old-man writing, this is it.

BYOD: a corporate con job?, Technology Spectator, 26 July 2012.
Man up, AAPT, you lost customers’ personal data, CSO Online, 26 July 2012.
Anonymous’ AAPT plunder, Technology Spectator, 27 July 2012.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday night’s regular Balls Radio spot I spoke about malware and dental floss.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

It looks like it’ll be a relatively easy week, but with most of it spent at Wentworth Falls — both because that’s the schedule and because it’s that end-of-the-month week where I really don’t have any money left.

[Photo: Diary of the Lost Crane being the view from level 12 of the Metro Sydney Central Hotel on a foggy Wednesday morning.]

23 July 2012

Weekly Wrap 111: Banking and the decline of civilisation

The less said about my week Monday 16 to Sunday 22 July 2012 the better. I’ll just list the stuff I did in the media, and be done with it.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 146, “Banking’s future is Facebook? Really?” Commonwealth Bank’s general manager of online banking Drew Unsworth explains the reasoning behind their moves to roll out banking on Facebook, and that’s put into context by Charis Palmer, editor of Online Banking Review.

Articles

None.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday night I spoke about CommBank’s Facebook moves and other things on Balls Radio.
Also on Tuesday night, I spoke about Twitter and trolling on ABC Local Radio across Queensland.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday I had lunch at Wildfire Restaurant, Circular Quay, courtesy of Bass PR and a number of clients at Mobility Press Lunch Forum. At least one article will come out of this little discussion.

The Week Ahead

I dare not say a word. I’ll jinx it.

[Photo: A screenshot of the Patch Monday podcast being mixed in Reaper, which is something that has been working. Mind you, I took the picture well after production was finished, and it’s last Monday’s episode not the one due to be published today. You just can’t be too careful with these things.]