Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
Following my comments about Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday, this video profile of Abbott by American TV host John Oliver on Last Week Tonight seems a suitable counterpoint.
Tony Abbott – Last Week Tonight by Syd07
Besides, I’ve written enough today, namely two pieces related to Apple’s announcements, one for Crikey and one for ZDNet Australia.
[This is one of 30 daily posts I’m writing during Blogjune. See them all under the tag blogjune, or subscribe to the RSS feed.]
There’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.
Just like last time, one segment of this week’s Download This Show was also turned into a video segment, the one where Claire Reilly and I were talking about what we’d like to see Apple’s iOS adopt from Google’s Android, and vice versa.
Yes we spoke about Windows Phone too.
In the great battle between Apple and Android phones — what if they stopped making war and started reproducing? We’re asking what iPhone features you would like in an Android, and what Android features you would like in an iPhone.
The video is over the fold, immediately below.
Continue reading “Talking Apple vs Android on ABC Download This Show”
I made another appearance on ABC Radio National’s Download This Show this week, with CNet Australia news editor Claire Reilly joining presenter Marc Fennell.
“What should Apple and Android steal? Hao Li and more” is the headline for this episode.
Why just watch movies… when you can be the star? This week on Download This Show meet Hao Li. He’s a man who believes the future of 3D animation and character building is you. Also: are Facebook about to start listening in on your phone conversations?
And in the great battle between Apple & Android phones — what if they stopped making war and started reproducing? We’re asking what iPhone features would you like in an Android, and what Android features would you like in an iPhone.
Here’s the full program.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.6MB)
The audio is ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and it’s served here directly from the ABC website.
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 ©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.
[Update 5 April 2015: There is a more recent version of this lecture, presented in September 2014, but it has not been posted yet.]
On Monday 7 April, I delivered an updated version of my guest lecture to media students at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), “Algorithms and the Filter Bubble”. And here it is.
What’s it about? It’s about what we now call — this year at least — “big data” and how that’s changing how the media works, just like it’s changing every other part of society.
I cruise through what all this data is, where it’s coming from, who’s collecting it and where it’s going; what advertisers and media companies and others can do with this data; and some speculation about how this might unfold in the future.
There’s links to all the references over the fold, and you can follow along with the slides (PDF). The recording picks up immediately after I was introduced by the course coordinator, Dr Belinda Middleweek. A transcript may or may not follow at some point in the future.
Some people mentioned that last time it was difficult to follow some of the slides, as the PDF file didn’t show how the builds happened, so I may add a video slideshow version at some point too.
The audience was primarily first and second year students at the beginning of their media studies degrees.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:41 — 29.3MB)
[If a transcript ever becomes available, this is where it will appear.]
I didn’t keep a close enough eye on the time, which is most unprofessional of me, so I had to drop a couple of things at the end of the lecture. So what did we miss?
My planned closing was to speculate a little more about the implications of all this technology — essentially the material covered in references 26 through 30 below.
When advertisers and newsmakers know all about you, including where you are and what you’re interested in, and when robots become so good that they’re able to tailor news and advertising precisely for your interests and current state of mind — what does that mean for political persuasion, and other kinds of persuasion?
Watch the videos of the robots from the US Naval Research Laboratory responding to everyday human speech. Consider Apple founder Steve Job’s comment that the iTunes Store gives you “freedom from pornography”. Consider than in a world of filter bubbles, some news outlets with a political agenda might want to give you “freedom from confusing thoughts”. After all, Apple has already blocked from their App Store an app that provided information on US military drone strikes.
Just where might this go? As I told the media students at the start of the lecture, they are the ones who will be creating this future for themselves and their descendants, not those of us in the second half of our lives.
This work is made available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. This presentation may be re-used for non-commercial purposes within the terms of the Creative Commons license. The non-commercial and share-alike conditions are required to adhere to the licensing of the imagery used. Please contact me if you require an alternative version. As a minimum, attribution should read: “Source: Stilgherrian.” Online versions must link the word Stilgherrian to the website at stilgherrian.com.