2ser – Stilgherrian

02 April 2015

Talking Bitcoin’s blockchain on 2SER’s The Wire

The Wire logo On Monday I recorded an interview on Bitcoin’s secret sauce, the blockchain, with The Wire, the current affairs program for Australia’s community radio network produced by 2SER in Sydney. It went to air that night as past their story Blockchains to the rescue?

It was only a couple of years ago that Bitcoin was taking the world by storm — the price rocketing by hundreds of percent. Since then, however, it has fallen into obscurity, with less and less companies accepting it as payment. But even if Bitcoin does not make it as a full fledged currency, the technology behind it may find a place elsewhere.

Journalist Josh Nicholas also spoke with Professor David Glance, Director of University of Western Australia’s Centre for Software Practice. The narrative contrasts my enthusiasm, for want of a better work, with Glance’s scepticism. That’s probably down to the questions asked and the editing, because I suspect our views are actually much the same.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.6MB)

The audio is Â©2015 2SER-FM 107.3. It’s also available at The Wire program website — that’s exactly the same as what you can hear here, it’s just that the audio file here has my branding — and you can also listen to the entire episode.

10 May 2014

Talking internet security on 2SER’s “The Wire”

The Wire logo Last week I recorded an interview on the state of internet security with The Wire, the current affairs program for Australia’s community radio network produced by 2SER in Sydney. It went to air on Monday night, 5 May.

This year has seen some major internet security breaches — from Heartbleed to iOS. But between these headline grabbing flaws there are numerous smaller bugs that pop up every day. As our devices and services become ever more ubiquitous, and flaws continue to popping to, we take a look at internet security.

I spoke with journalist Josh Nicholas for maybe 15 minutes, so this 4-minute edit is very much a condensed version. However we did manage to cover such subtleties as Apple’s secretive approach to security vulnerabilities, Heartbleed, bug bounties, and calls for better disclosure of vulnerabilities — that last link being to a story I wrote this week.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.7MB)

The audio is Â©2014 2SER-FM 107.3. It’s also available at The Wire program website — that’s exactly the same as what you can hear here, it’s just that the audio file here has my branding — and you can also listen to the entire episode.

10 February 201310 February 2013

Talking The Global Mail on 2SER’s Fourth Estate

The ructions at new media outlet The Global Mail have been in the media a bit, from Matthew Knott’s damning piece at Crikey to my own whinge, Sydney Harbour “giant gambling den” bullshit reportage.

I wasn’t surprised, therefore, when I was contacted by journalist Charmaine Wong from the Radio 2SER media program, Fourth Estate. After all, the outlet has just celebrated its first birthday.

Here’s the full audio of her final story, which also includes comments from Dr Matthew Ricketson from the University of Canberra, publisher Graeme Wood, and a student who didn’t seem to be aware that The Global Mail does actually have a Twitter account.

Ricketson reckons we shouldn’t be too harsh on The Global Mail in its “early days”, but it’s been an entire year now. Some of these problems should have been sorted long ago, in my opinion. What do you think?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.2MB)

13 January 2013

Weekly Wrap 136: Geekery and hot thoughts

The 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

Nasty Ruby on Rails vulnerabilities highlight small websites’ risk to us all, CSO Online, 11 January 2013.

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.]

04 September 201204 September 2012

Talking Apple versus Samsung on 2SER’s “The Wire”

I ended up talking about Apple versus Samsung on Radio 2SER’s current affairs program The Wire as well, syndicated via community radio stations around Australia.

The journalist was Tawar Razaghi, and their website introduces the story like this:

Apple wants Samsung to take eight mobile models off the market after it won a landmark patent case against Samsung over the design of its mobile phones. Apple was awarded $1.5 billion in damages and now has the exclusive rights to pinch-and-zoom gestures on their touch-screen technologies.

Patent law is intended to reward innovation but with companies engaged in patent turf wars this case highlights how patents may inhibit innovation instead.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.1MB)

21 May 201203 June 2012

Weekly Wrap 102: Infosec and interference

My week from Monday 14 to Sunday 20 May 2012 was mostly about the AusCERT information security conference and a blur of returning pain thanks to my dodgy shoulder.

As I finish compiling this post, I’ve still got lots of AusCERT material to produce and Monday looks like being intense. So let’s just list everything and see what happens.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 138, “Anonymous ‘crippled’: where to for hacktivism?”. Following last week’s conversation with Israeli information security researcher Tal Be’ery about hacktivists’ tactics, I spoke with former journalist and commentator Barrett Brown, who has worked with Anonymous for about a year and a half. He discusses Anonymous’ position in the wake of revelations that Sabu, a core member and informal leader of the offshoot hacking group LulzSec, had become an FBI informant.

Articles

These are just the first two articles from my AusCERT coverage. More will follow.

AusCERT 2012: Russian crims evade transaction profiling, ZDNet Australia, 17 May 2012.
AusCERT 2012: DNS poisoning the ‘thin end of a wedge’, ZDNet Australia, 17 May 2012.

Videos

5 Conference Tips for PR Professionals, an impromptu video message from Gold Coast airport.

Media Appearances

On Monday I spoke about Facebook charging for highlighted posts and the company’s stock market float on ABC 702 Sydney.
On Tuesday I spoke with journalism student Tom Davey about various attempts to regulate the internet. Here’s his resulting radio report.
On Friday night I spoke about AusCERT, cybercrime, cyberwar and claims that Apple is behind the pace on ABC Local Radio.
On Sunday afteroon I spoke about the surveillance society at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Here’s the audio recording.
On Sunday night I spoke about using Twitter to generate ideas with James O’Loughlin on ABC Local Radio. Here’s the audio recording.

Corporate Largesse

AusCERT 2012 conference organisers and sponsors paid for various meals and drinks, but I didn’t keep track of that. While that means I can’t disclose who paid, it also means I can’t be influenced because I can’t remember who’s meant to be doing the influencing. Complete market failure, that.

The Week Ahead

There’s a couple of days of intense writing and production ahead. At the very least there’s two or three articles about AusCERT 2012 and the Patch Monday podcast. Then there’s a piece to do for CSO Online, and one for Technology Spectator.

I should be returning to Wentworth Falls this evening, but I plan to be back on Wednesday night to go to a paintball session with Eugene Kaspersky and other journalists. That could be weird. And I’ll probably be in Sydney again at the end of the week, but that hasn’t been planned out yet.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream (or they used to before my phone camera got a bit too scratched up) and via Instagram. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags. Yes, I should probably update this stock paragraph to match the current reality.

[Photo: Airbus A320-232 VH-VGY at Gold Coast airport, the aircraft I traveled in on Saturday. Check out the complete history of VH-VGY at FlightAware.]

[Update 26 May 2012: Links added to last weekend’s audio recordings, added earlier today as separate blog posts. Update 3 June 2012: Link added to Tom Davey’s radio report.]