Tag: abc

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Talking robot news on ABC Radio National Drive

ABC logoRobot newsreading and journalism has very much become my thing — as evidenced by the fact that I spoke about it yet again on ABC Radio National Drive on 3 July.

Here’s the news stories that triggered presenter Waleed Aly’s interest:

American news agency Associated Press has joined the ranks of the LA Times and Forbes magazine by adding robots to its workforce.

AP says it will use robots to write its corporate earnings reports, giving finance reporters time to concentrate on more in-depth stories.

The news comes just a week after Japan unveiled its robot newsreader, the ‘Kodomoroid’.

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

The audio is ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and it’s served here directly from the ABC website.

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Talking tech on ABC Local Radio, again

ABC logoEvery Tuesday night after 8pm, Dom Knight talks tech on ABC Local Radio around NSW — and I joined him on 1 July 2014.

Also joining us was Belinda Smith, deputy science and technology editor at The Conversation. We spoke about the notorious Facebook experiment, amongst other things.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (27.3MB)

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, archived here because it isn’t being archived anywhere else.

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Talking Todd Carney’s bubbling on ABC 666 Canberra

ABC logoBack on 30 June I found myself talking about the phenomenon of “bubbling”, thanks to Rugby League player Todd Carney and a certain photograph.

“Bubbling”, you ask? The activity where a chap uses his mouth instead of a urinal, as ABC 666 Canberra presenter Jolene Laverty put it. Apparently it’s popular in some skateboarding subcultures.

This recording starts off with an interview with ABC Radio National’s sports presenter Warwick Hadfield, because I think the context is important to understand my subsequent conversation, which starts around 12 minutes in. I speak more about internet fads such as planking.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (11.2MB)

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Talking data retention on ABC Radio’s “Life Matters”

ABC logoOne of the reasons there hasn’t been so many posts here lately is that I’ve been doing quite a few media spots. I’m about to start catching up — starting with yesterday’s appearance on ABC Radio National’s Life Matters to talk about the Australian government’s plans for mandatory data retention of so-called “metadata”.

To protect against home-grown terrorism and other criminal threats, the government wants telecommunications companies to retain details of your phone and internet use for two years. So should we trade off privacy for security or is this surveillance by the state a threat to civil liberties?

Joining me is Dr Suelette Dreyfus, research fellow in the Department of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. The presenter is Natasha Mitchell.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.7MB)

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and it’s served here directly from the ABC website.

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Talking Google and forgetting on ABC 666 Canberra

ABC logoFollowing a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Google has instituted a system to enable “the right to be forgotten” — and they’ve been flooded with requests.

More than 12,000 requests for certain pages to be removed from Google’s search results were received in the first 24 hours — that’s an average of seven per second — and it’s still unclear how they’ll all be dealt with.

In any event, it won’t work.

I discussed some of the issues with Genevieve Jacobs on ABC 666 Canberra this morning, including the case of Michael Trkulja, the Melbourne man who successfully sued both Google and Yahoo! for a total of around $500,000 — but who has yet to pay his lawyer — and the wonders of the Streisand Effect.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.4MB)

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Talking internet security on ABC Radio Overnights

ABC logoThere’s a reason I’m firing off all these blog posts so early. I’ve been up since 0300 this morning, because at 0400 I was doing a radio spot on ABC Radio Overnights.

Presenter Sally Knight and I spoke about all manner of security and safety issues, including questions that came in from the listeners — which is always interesting on this program, because it goes to air across Australia on every ABC Local Radio transmitter, city and country. You get to hear the real concerns.

This is the full 47-minute block of conversation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (34.7MB)

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.