Weekly Wrap 300: Melbourne, mayhem, and the blockchain

Approaching Melbourne: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 29 February to Sunday 6 March 2016 was a significant improvement on the previous week — mostly because I was in Melbourne, but also due to the bad influence of that hacker and an evil cyberpixie.

As I write this, it’s still very early on Sunday morning, so technically the week hasn’t ended yet — but details. You’ll cope.

Articles

Podcasts

None, but I do want to wrap up that episode of The 9pm Edict podcast very soon. See below.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

The Week Ahead

It’s another rather structured week for me. Monday kicks off with the 1024 train down to Sydney, and at 1335 I’m catching VA648 SYD-CBR. I’m organising a meeting or two for the afternoon and evening.

On Tuesday, I’m covering the Australian Internet Industry Association (AIIA) Navigating Privacy and Security Summit for ZDNet. On Wednesday, I’ll be writing about that before another meeting or two. Then at 1905 it’s VA669 CBR-SYD.

Thursday through Saturday is unplanned as yet, but I’ll be back in Wentworth Falls, and I hope to get that damn podcast done somewhere in there.

On Sunday, I’m heading a few kilometres up the Great Western Highway to Leura for day one of Tech Leaders.

Further Ahead

I’ll be in Canberra again 12-14 April for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Conference. And I’ll be on the Gold Coast on 24-27 May for the AusCERT Cyber Security Conference.

[Photo: Approaching Melbourne. A Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 banks as it turns for its final approach to Melbourne Airport on 29 February 2016.]

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

The Wire logoOn 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.

The audio is ©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.