Tag: lilyfield

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Weekly Wrap 302: Rain, rest, and the equinox

Old Target: click to embiggen My week of Monday 14 to Sunday 20 March 2016 was pretty much as planned, though slightly more tiring than I’d hoped.

Right now I’m more in the mood to listen to the rain outside than write, so I’ll leave it there.

Articles

Podcasts

None. But scroll down for details of a new episode of The 9pm Edict in just a few days.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Monday morning, I dropped into Tech Leaders Forum, and had a coffee on their tab. Nothing newsworthy was said, however.

The Week Ahead

I’m spending the short work week before Easter in Lilyfield, in Sydney’s inner west, as well as Easter itself. I’ll be working steadily through three geek-for-hire projects, catching up a big chunk of that bookkeeping for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and writing a ZDNet column.

On Wednesday night, I’m finally recording and streaming that episode of The 9pm Edict podcast. That’s at 2100 AEDT on this website. Details will be posted on Monday.

That much-delayed episode of The 9pm Edict podcast will be produced and posted over the weekend. The recording won’t be streamed live, for a number of reasons, though I might stream the finished podcast at a specific time so you can enjoy it together.

Further Ahead

The short week after Easter will be an extension of the plan just described. So will the following week, at least at this stage.

After that, I should be in Canberra on 12-14 April for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Conference. A plan is slowly evolving.

I’ll definitely be on the Gold Coast on 24-27 May for the AusCERT Cyber Security Conference.

Update 23 March 2016: Edited to reflect changed plans.

[Photo: Old Target. Today I found one of the National Rifle Association regulation practice targets that I used when I went to American Shooters, a firearms range in Las Vegas, in 2011. I think I need some more practice.]

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Weekly Wrap 291: Ready for a year of change

Sydney Sunrise from Lilyfield: click to embiggenMonday 28 December 2015 to Sunday 3 January 2016 was spent in the Sydney suburbs of Ashfield and Lilyfield, where the quiet week following Christmas heralded a new year that should see many, many changes.

I hope so, anyway, because I’ve got plenty of things to sort out. I’ll tell you more in due course.

Podcasts

  • “The 9pm Topsy Turnbull Land”, being the rather brief The 9pm Edict episode 55, was recorded and posted on New Year’s Eve. It’s also on SoundCloud and Spreaker.

Articles

None.

Media Appearances

None.

5at5

Should 5at5 eventually reappear, you’ll know about it if you subscribe.

Corporate Largesse

  • I arrived back at Bunjaree Cottages tonight to find a Christmas gift from Kaspersky Lab: a bottle of Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz 2013.

The Week Ahead

I’ve got plenty to do in the coming week, but I won’t be able to schedule everything until I make some calls on Monday. I do know that most of it will be spent at Wentworth Falls, however.

That said, the week’s tasks include designing a website and a matching email template for a client; booking some medical appointments in Sydney; writing for ZDNet; scriptwriting for the next episode of The 9pm Edict; planning my coverage of Linux.conf.au; updating some of the stuff I use to explain what it is that I actually do; starting to tie up the loose ends from my crowdfunding projects; thinking about my future accommodation needs; and starting to bring my bookkeeping up to date so I can file five years of outstanding tax returns.

Further Ahead

The next episode of The 9pm Edict will be recorded on Thursday 14 January 2015, streamed live starting at 2100 AEDT.

The next episode of The 9pm Edict’s Public House Forum is likely to be recorded on the afternoon of Saturday 23 January. I’m thinking this should be a monthly thing.

In theory, in the first week of February I’ll be in Geelong to cover Linux.conf.au. And then on 10 to 12 February, I’ll be in Melbourne to speak at the Pause Fest.

Update 2000 AEDT: Edited to add the wine. Update 6 January 2015: Edited to reflect dropping plans to go to Linux.conf.au.

[Photo: Sydney Sunrise from Lilyfield, photographed on 2 January 2016.]

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Weekly Wrap 266: The chasm of change yawns wide

Wi-Fi: No hardware detectedMy week of Monday 6 to Sunday 12 July 2015 was the first of two weeks I’ll be spending in Sydney — but it wasn’t just the geography that made it unusual.

I had intended to get a Pozible crowdfunding campaign under way for The 9pm Urgent Hardware Refresh, but I ended up doing quite a bit of work on the SEKRIT television project instead.

This is a Good Thing, because it’s fun and interesting work, and the pay is quite reasonable. But as the photo at the top of the post shows, my computer is dying fast. The Wi-Fi hardware fails regularly, and you can also make out the screen cracks. So that crowdfunding effort will have to happen quite soon. Like in the coming week.

Articles

Podcasts

None.

5at5

5at5 is on hiatus this week and next.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Tuesday evening, I went to Tanium’s open-house demo and drinks evening in Sydney, where of course there was free food and drink.

The Week Ahead

On Monday, I’ll be working on that crowdfunding campaign, as well as getting a haircut, and in the evening meeting with Leslie Nassar about yet another, different SEKRIT project.

On Tuesday, I’ll be doing further work on the crowdfunding project and, ideally, launching it. I’ll also be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, which may extend into Wednesday. Otherwise, Wednesday is likely to be a day of research and writing, before I wander to Oracle’s drinks evening in Surry Hills. Thursday is also a day of writing, ideally culminating in a column for ZDNet.

Friday and the weekend are as yet unplanned. However there are many, many things that need organising, so I daresay they’ll be quite full days. Stand by. Also, and and all of this schedule may be disrupted by urgent work on the SEKRIT television project.

Update 13 July 2015: Edited to add The Saturday Paper reference, and indicate the flexibility of the schedule.

[Photo: “Wi-Fi: No hardware detected”, being an increasingly common sight on my rapidly-disintegrating MacBook Pro.]

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Weekly Wrap 240: Technology, little sleep, a belated possum

"Come at me, bro!": click to embiggenMy week of Monday 4 to Sunday 11 January 2015 was very, very, very annoying. Not only did the server migration take up far too much of my time and ruined my sleep patterns, I ended up with a nasty intestinal problem for a few days. Not happy, Jan.

As I mentioned last week, I may or may not write up the server migration problems. I’m not sure that any real lessons were learned. I’m just thankful that it’s something that only has to be done every few years, because it took about 47 hours all up.

But it did screw up my productivity. No articles written. No podcasts produced. Sigh.

5at5

There was only one 5at5 this week, on Tuesday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all in the future. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

It’s going to be a busy one. Monday through Wednesday I’ll be sorting out my work for the new year — including getting the subscription for The 9pm Edict podcast back on track, reviewing some interview recordings, preparing an ebook, and sending story pitches to editors.

On Thursday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet Australia, and then at 1615 AEDT doing a spot on ABC News24. On Friday, there’s a “webinar” [ugh!] at 0600 AEDT, and then I’ll be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast.

I daresay I’ll have a social life in there somewhere too, perhaps on the weekend, which is as yet unplanned.

[Photo: “Come at me, bro!”. A brush-tailed possum invades the Chirgwin residence at Lilyfield on 3 January 2015. Rather than being persuaded to leave, he decided to take me on. Technically this image belongs to last week’s Weekly Wrap, but I’m not too worried about consistency.]

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Weekly Wrap 239: The new year starts with some chaos

Sydney skyline, 30 December 2014: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 29 December 2014 to Sunday 3 January 2015 was a strange mix of relaxation and stress. Relaxation during the New Year break, and stress because the server migration I was doing started to become a complete pain.

Since this is being posted a week late, I won’t bother expanding on all that for now. I may or may not issue a series of whinges in relation to the server migration.

But I will mention that on 30 December I migrated from Bunjaree Cottages near Wentworth Falls to Lilyfield in Sydney’s inner west, there to spend most of January. If you need to catch up with me in Sydney for some reason, this is the month for you.

Articles

5at5

There were three editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

[Photo: Sydney skyline, photographed on 30 December 2014. I seem to recall that it was a very hot day that day.]

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Weekly Wrap 57

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Last week I said something’s gotta give. This week it gave.

Stress and exhaustion and a much lower productivity level than the previous two weeks has led to this post being two days late.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 95, “Malware? It’s just business!” Malware, these days, is so good that it simply has to be produced by professional development teams. As Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of AVG, explains, malware is distributed automatically, and runs on millions of target computers without causing any visible signs that something bad is happening.

Articles

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Monday 4 July I had an extremely long lunch with people who are continuing their interest in having me work with them on a forthcoming media project. I still can’t say much, except I will drop in one word: Television.

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. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: The Wilds of Lilyfield, the view eastwards towards the Sydney CBD from the corner of Lilyfield and Balmain Roads.]