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16 February 201401 March 2014

Weekly Wrap 193: Mid-month surge, then rain and planes

My week of Monday 10 to Sunday 16 February 2014 isn’t quite finished, but today is effectively the start of a new working week so… well, here we are. Before breakfast at Sydney Airport. Or right next to it. Call it a wrap of Monday to Saturday.

It seems that I switched from early-month torpor to late-month productivity around mid-week. We’ll see how that pans out over the next few days. But I do think I’m starting to identity a clear pattern here.

Articles

What the Dickens will Brandis do to copyright in the digital realm?, ZDNet Australia, 14 February 2014. I’ve already had plenty of positive feedback about my critique of the Attorney-General’s speech from Friday morning, which makes me happy.
Kim Coindashian? How bitcoin is going the way of the tulip, Crikey, 14 February 2014.

Media Appearances

On Wednesday I hosted a panel discussion on digital privacy for Hitachi Data Systems.

5at5

I suppose I should give better prominence to 5at5, the “email letter” that I started two weeks ago. I’ve actually managed to stick to the daily routine — albeit with some wobbliness in the “around 5pm Sydney time” part of the deal — and it seems like people are liking it. Enjoy.

5at5 number 6, 10 February 2014.
5at5 number 7, 11 February 2014.
5at5 number 8, 12 February 2014.
5at5 number 9, 13 February 2014.
5at5 number 10, 14 February 2014.

Corporate Largesse

Today I’m heading to the Gold Coast for the three-day Tech Leaders Forum 2014, formerly known as Kickstart Forum, an event I’ve attended in previous years. The event organisers cover my airfares and accommodation, and there’s usually plenty of food and drink and various freebies from the vendors who pay for it all. I’ll list all of the largesse next week so it’s all in the one place.

The Week Ahead

I’ll be on the Gold Coast through until Tuesday evening, fully occupied with the aforementioned event. I’ll then return to the Blue Mountains for a solid week of writing. There’s nothing locked in for Sydney at this stage, but of course that may change.

[Photo: Sydney airport before dawn, taken shortly before the post was published.]

08 April 2013

Talking downloading TV on ABC 105.7 Darwin

ABC logo The new series of Game of Thrones was released in the US last week, and even though it was broadcast in Australia on pay TV network Foxtel just two hours later, it was still torrented to buggery. Just how entitled are we?

I ended up discussing this very issue with Kate O’Toole on ABC 105.7 Darwin, and here’s the full audio of our conversation from 4 April 2013. Since I’m way behind schedule, I’ll leave this stand without further comment.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.2MB)

18 February 2013

Weekly Wrap 141: Taiga and the travels, to Queensland!

The week of Monday 11 to Sunday 17 February 2013 was a strange one, beginning in Wentworth Falls and ending in Queensland, with a brief sojourn in Parramatta.

It was in Parramatta that I met my new friend (pictured), whose name is Taiga. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you’ll have seen a lot of him over the weekend. You’ll see more today and tomorrow, I’m sure.

Articles

Geeks doubt motives of Telstra’s ‘shaping’ trial, Crikey, 11 February 2013. This was a follow-up to last Wednesday’s Why Telstra plans to slow you down to fight online piracy.
Influence, vanity metrics and other internet astrology, ZDNet Australia, 14 February 2013. I received a surprisingly large number of compliments for this one, so I do recommend you have a squizz.

Podcasts

None. But wait, I told you! Be patient!

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

Sunday was the first day of Kickstart Forum 2013, the annual get-together of many of Australia’s technology journalists with a bunch of vendors who pay to be there. It runs through to Tuesday, so I’ll do a full listing of the largesse next weekend. But so far it includes a flight from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast, two nights accommodation at the Novotel Twin Waters Resort and rather a lot of food and alcohol.
Not really largesse, since I’ll be interviewing the author, but a copy of Chris Ruen’s book Freeloading: How our insatiable appetite for free content starves creativity arrived from Scribe Publications.

The Week Ahead

Kickstart Forum on Monday and Tuesday, returning to Sydney on Tuesday night. On Wednesday VMWare is launching the new end-user computing platform in Sydney at Altitude Restaurant in The Rocks. I haven’t locked in my plans beyond that. Please place your bids.

[Photo: Modern economics explained, being a photograph of Taiga looking eastwards from the Parkroyal Parramatta.]

13 February 2013

Weekly Wrap 140: China hacks, Telstra slows, and more

The week of Monday 4 to Sunday 10 February 2013 was… in the past. Shit, it’s already Wednesday night! I’ll just post this here now, with little commentary.

Well, one comment. We do seem to be getting back into the writing thing for 2013.

Articles

China not the only ones taking part in cyber spookery, Crikey, 4 February 2013.
Chinese attacks show up useless infosec, again, CSO Online, 4 February 2013.
Why Telstra plans to slow you down to fight online piracy, Crikey, 6 February 2013.
Berners-Lee, Silicon Valley, and Australia’s cultural cringe, ZDNet Australia, 7 February 2013.

Podcasts

None. But wait.

Media Appearances

On Thursday I spoke about Twitter and TV on ABC Radio National’s Media Report.
Also on Thursday, I spoke about various internet things with Dom Knight on ABC 702 Sydney. I may or may not post the audio. Although I recorded it, there’s a chunk missing because mobile internet.
On Friday, I spoke about The Global Mail on Radio 2SER’s Fourth Estate.

Corporate Largesse

Still none. Was it something I said?

The Week Ahead

It’s half gone, and I’m making it up as I go along. But Sunday morning I fly to Maroochydore for Kickstart Forum 2013, so I’ll probably be in Sydney on the weekend.

[Photo: Welcome to the People's Democratic Republic of Burwood, being a picture of a building in Sydney’s suburbs that disturbs me, photographed from a moving train.]

06 February 201306 February 2013

Mark Newton on Telstra’s P2P DPI plans

My Crikey story today on Telstra’s plan to trial the “shaping” of peer-to-peer internet traffic includes quotes from network engineer Mark Newton — but he said so many interesting things I though you should see his entire email.

Mark Newton writes:

From Telstra’s point of view, it’s a good thing: ISPs are a bit like electrical networks, in that they need to provision capacity for peak even though peak is only ever used for an hour or two per day (or, under adversity, a day or two per year: consider capacity planning for the ABC’s ISPs during flood events, or CNN on Sep 11 2001).

P2P users push the peak up, so in electrical network terms that’s like servicing a bunch of customers who leave their air conditioners on all the time.

Anything a telco can do to “squash” the peak is going to have an immediate impact on their bottom line.

If, by side effect, it inspires a bunch of the heaviest-using customers to migrate to other ISPs, that’ll reduce the profitability of those other ISPs and improve Telstra’s margins, so that’s a net positive. Why “fire” your worst customers when you can convince them to resign?

From a user’s point of view it’s more dismal, and the impact will depend on how Telstra uses their systems.

Continue reading “Mark Newton on Telstra’s P2P DPI plans”

14 January 201326 August 2020

Death of a Freedom Fighter, a writing challenge

This photograph by Buzz Andersen has been haunting me for the last hour. It’s Aaron Swartz, seen at the first Creative Commons Salon in 2006. And over the weekend we heard news that Swartz is now dead, aged just 26, from an apparent suicide.

My challenge for today is writing something about the meaning of this bold and bright young man’s life and death. Something new to add to the whirlpool of words that has been devouring the internet from its geekier nether regions all the way to the mainstream press.

This is why, despite my expressed intention to write more last night about my slowly-evolving plans for 2013, I wrote no such thing. Having slept on it, though, I have an answer to both problems.

Continue reading “Death of a Freedom Fighter, a writing challenge”