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!
This series of blog posts is transforming into an email newsletter. In the final instalment in this format, we have the government’s update on supporting responsible AI, and a bunch of other news stories.
Continue reading “Digital developments from Canberra 69 — nice! — is now The Weekly Cybers”
I’m very happy with my week of Monday 16 to Sunday 22 November 2020. I made another good podcast. I wrote an adequate thing. And so much of it was dominated by birds — though not so much the one in the photo.
Continue reading “Weekly Wrap 547: All the birds, some of the blockchain”
My week of Monday 11 to Sunday 17 July 2016 was full of exhaustion.
After finishing an important stage in bringing my tax compliance up to date last week, and after producing a marathon podcast, the stress was reduced a little. I spent a lot of time resting this week.
That said, in between the sleep and the neverending lurgi, I did start to get back into research and writing, and the coming week will see more.
None. But there’s plenty in the coming week.
I believe I’ll be in Sydney all this week, working through some geek stuff, as well as writing for ZDNet. So far I also have three fixed appointments…
On Wednesday evening, I’ll be doing a radio spot on ABC 774 Melbourne, at either 1900 or 1930 AEST. Check my Twitter stream on the day for the time.
On Thursday, I’ve got a couple of briefings. First thing in the morning, it’s a briefing on the current state of ransomware by folks from Trend Micro. Then in the late afternoon it’s a look at “The Changing Landscape of Cybersecurity” from a legal and risk perspective, with law firm Jones Day, and a panel including Alastair MacGibbon, who’s now the prime minister’s special adviser on cyber security.
While the following few weeks are still be be organised, I can say that I’ll be going to theGartner Security & Risk Management Summit in Sydney on 22-23 August, and the AISA National Conference in Sydney on 18-20 October.
[Photo: Sydney in Winter, photographed from Lilyfield in the late afternoon of 13 July 2016.]
“They say, it’s all in content. I say, it’s all in the pitch,” said the PR operative — who shall remain nameless — who sent me the email you may see in the screenshot.
“Hi mate, There will be drinks. Cheers,” was all they needed to add to the generic invitation to grab my attention — though in my defence, the invitation was to an event that was well within my realms of interest, and I probably would’ve gone anyway.
I’m more than happy to attend relevant events even when there aren’t drinks. I also go to events that I’m not necessarily personally interested in, but which I know I’ll be able to turn into saleable media objects.
But it was that little personal touch that caused me to spend that extra moment to read the whole thing and agree, yes, this was something I wanted to go to.
That personal touch wasn’t really about a shared like of alcohol, though the unnamed PR operative and I agree that when we meet for drinks we’re just two people sharing a drink and confidences stay confidential.
It’s more that they knew my work, and knew that I’d get value out of this event — and because they do this sparingly, it stands out from the dozens and dozens of of PR emails I receive every day.
So here’s my week Monday 9 to Sunday 15 September 2013. I may or may not explain why this post is so late tomorrow.
None.
We’re already well into it, obviously. But to catch up quickly, the Tokyo trip was scratched and instead I’m now in Sydney Wednesday through Friday. On Wednesday I’ve got errands, a lunchtime briefing by IBM and then a meeting over at Randwick, and the rest is still being mapped out.
I’ll pick up the Twitter feed tomorrow.
I was scheduled to talk about the year 2011 in technology on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide this morning, but with the news that Malcolm Turnbull’s credit card details were exposed in the Stratfor hack that too was on the agenda.
The original plan was to cover the kinds of issues raised in my 2011 tech wrap for Crikey and the Patch Monday podcast episodes 2011: the year in security and 2011: IT’s year of consolidation.
We also covered computer support for the electoral roll and computerised voting, since Senator Cory Bernardi had raised the subject of people casting multiple votes and how only a handful of alleged cases had been prosecuted.
While I supported the idea of an online electoral roll, I spoke against online voting. I’ve written about that before at ABC’s The Drum, Electronic voting a threat to democracy.
The regular presenters were on holidays, so the host was William Goodings.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.8MB)
The audio is ©2011 dmgRadio Australia, but here it is ‘cos it hasn’t been posted on the radio station’s website. Besides, this is a reasonable plug.
[Update 0910: Link added to article on electronic voting.]
A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This week I’m slowly getting back to the normal level of media work, it seems.
I’ve even completely finished the coming week’s edition of the Patch Monday podcast and sent it to ZDNet Australia. I feel so… productive!
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. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.
[Photo: The view from Wattle Cottage, which is where I’m living this weekend. Of course it’s one of the Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, where I’ve been based since early February. This is the first time I’ve stayed in this particular cottage and the view brings with it a vast number of birds.]