abc – Page 33 – Stilgherrian

04 September 201204 September 2012

Talking about names on ABC Radio’s “Life Matters”

I had the very great pleasure last week of joining ABC Radio National’s Life Matters for a talkback about names, nicknames and pseudonyms — live via Skype from my hotel room in San Francisco.

“What’s in a name?” We have heard these famous words of Shakespeare’s many times, but have you ever considered just how much of our identities are wrapped up in our names?

It’s often the first thing we’re asked. It’s how we identify ourselves to others. But do you like the name you’ve been given? Are your parents to blame, do you think?

You have the ability to change it — would you? Have you? Have you taken your partner’s surname? Is your name hard to pronounce? Do you constantly correct people on how to say or spell it?

Maybe you have a nickname which has basically become your ‘real’ name? How did you get it? Do you use it to go online to chat or date anonymously? Or on social media?

I smile at the title of the session, because that was also used as the headline for my story for ABC’s The Drum last year.

Here’s the full hour of the program, embedded from the ABC website.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (25.4MB)

[Photo: Live from San Francisco: me at my desk at the Omni San Francisco Hotel connecting to ABC Radio National in Australia via Skype.]

20 August 201227 January 2019

The 9pm Edict #21

The Australian government continues to use the world’s most vulnerable people as political footballs. We discover the ultimate Ayn Rand porn. And Stephen Fry is a patronising racist who should be thrown off television. Not really news, but it’s time people understood.

In this episode of the Edict, you’ll also hear why political strategist Mark Textor pisses me off. And I mention this cartoon by First Dog on the Moon.

19 August 2012

Talking regulating social media on ABC Radio National

On Thursday 9 August I had the very great pleasure of discussing the regulation of social media with the ABC’s Waleed Aly.

As I’ve been writing these catch-up posts today, I’ve become aware that there’s been quite a bit of media commentary on this topic lately. People are seeing Bad Things happening online and want to Make It Stop.

Even my own small media involvement has seen this topic come up, since the beginning of July, at Crikey, ABC Local Radio, Balls Radio and probably elsewhere. It almost makes me want to use Gerry Anderson’s special machine.

Actually it’s all been fun. But what makes this conversation stand out is that Mr Aly is a bloody intelligent bloke, witty and incisive all at once. As just one example, here’s the observation with which he ended the interview.

Anyone who wanted to have the power to read people’s minds, I think, has the internet and now realises that power might be something more of a curse.

While the conversation took as its starting-point the outrage over the discovery of a Facebook page full of offensive jokes about Aboriginal people, we also talk about Facebook’s inconsistency in enforcing their own rules, and I call for Stephen Fry’s program QI to be taken off television.

ABC Radio has posted their version of the audio at Regulating social media, where for some reason they fail to mention my involvement. Here’s mine.

Both versions start off with a brief interview with Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner, Helen Szoke. My interview starts at around 6 minutes 40 seconds.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.1MB)

22 July 2012

Talking Twitter trolling on ABC Local Radio

Tuesday was the night for radio. I also spoke with ABC Brisbane’s Rebecca Levingston about people’s terrible behaviour on Twitter and Facebook.

Oh, that makes it sound all a bit twee. Terrible manners these days, and all that. It was actually a great conversation during which I managed to mention theory of mind as well as allude to my Crikey piece, Twitter is humanity, warts and all. Where’s the story in that?

ABC Radio has posted their version of the audio at Why are we so nasty to each other on the internet? Here’s mine.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.8MB)

16 July 2012

Weekly Wrap 110: Loss, damage and dead animals

Not to put too fine a point on it, for me Monday 9 to Sunday 15 July 2012 was a cunt of a week. I use the strongest of all taboo words deliberately to indicate the level of upfuckness involved.

Monday night, as I was returning to my SEKRIT hideaway from doing a spot on ABC Local Radio, the key broke in the door lock, necessitating a $155 call-out by a locksmith. The next day I realised I’d lost my notebook somewhere. Then on Wednesday I spilt a beer onto my MacBook Pro, with dire consequences.

I shall leave it there for now. That’s enough misery for you to digest at once. I, however, had no such luxury.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 145, “Twitter mimics Facebook, kills own ecosystem”. A panel discussion with Henare Degan, co-founder of Bleeply, who make Twitter tools for business; Leslie Nassar, technology director at digital agency Amnesia Razorfish and founder of TweeVee TV, which provides tools for integrating Twitter with live television; and Kate Carruthers, business strategist and founder of Social Innovation.

Articles

Twitter is humanity, warts and all. Where’s the story in that?, Crikey, 11 July 2012.

Media Appearances

On Monday night I spoke about DNSChanger with Dom Knight on ABC 702 Sydney and ABC Local Radio around NSW.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday morning Symantec held their Next@Norton media briefing, and provided a lovely “high tea” brunch. There were chocolates in the take-home bag of goodies

The Week Ahead

Well, it’s already started, but at least Monday has gone largely to plan. On Tuesday morning I’m attending Commonwealth Bank’s event “The Future of Business is Coming”, but they won’t tell me what it is. Then at lunchtime I’m covering a forum on mobility and bring your own device (BYOD) policies — what, another one? — for Technology Spectator.

On Wednesday I’ll return to Wentworth Falls, where I’ll probably be staying until Tuesday 24 July, doing a bunch of writing and stuff while I’m up there. To be honest, it’s all fairly flexible at that point.

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: Elegance of Dance Part 37: The Dying Swan, taken on Market Street in the Sydney CBD on 13 July 2012.]

16 July 201222 July 2012

Talking DNSChanger on ABC Local Radio

I was surprised at all the media attention given to the DNSChanger thing last week. I even did a radio spot about it — even though the DNS turnoff affected just 0.015% of computers on the internet.

Just in case you missed it, read the Wikipedia article and Paul Vixie’s first-hand account of swapping in the good DNS servers to replace the criminals’.

The radio spot was last Monday night on ABC Local Radio across NSW with host Dom Knight.

Here’s almost all of the audio recording. There’s an annoying gap around 50 seconds in, and what’s missing is my explanation of the internet’s domain name system (DNS). So if you don’t know what that is, read this first.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.0MB)