Tag: michael mckinnon

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Weekly Wrap 340: Summer begins, and everyone’s cookin’

Backpackers on Campbell StreetMy week of Monday 28 November to Sunday 4 December 2016 started off being as unproductive as the previous week, but it became solidly productive at the end.

I won’t go into the details, because as you’ll see below there’s a lot happening.

Podcasts

Articles

None published, but I’ve written something for ZDNet that’ll be posted on Monday.

Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

Oh boy is this going to be a busy one!

On Monday and Tuesday I have to do a ton of work on one of my geek-for-hire projects, as well as a SEKRIT editorial project I’ll be telling you about soon.

On Wednesday morning I’m taking the four-hour train journey to Canberra, doing some unknown work along the way and when I get there.

All of Thursday will be spent participating in the “360° Cyber Security Game” being convened by RAND Corporation and the National Security College (NSC) at The Australian National University (ANU). It’s an “analytic desktop exercise” that’ll run through two scenarios. The participants, from a range of backgrounds, will be divided into teams to consider one aspect or each scenario.

RAND has run a few of these before, and a write-up of the first event last year explains the concept.

I’ll be reporting on the event for ZDNet on Friday before catching the train back to Sydney on Friday evening, but as it’s being run under the Chatham House Rule, I won’t be able to reveal the identity nor the affiliation of the speakers, nor that of any other participant.

The second Ruxcon-related episode of Corrupted Nerds might be produced on the weekend, but it’ll probably slide into the following week.

[Photo: Backpackers on Campbell Street, photographed on 1 December 2016. At least I assume they’re backpackers, caught in the late afternoon sunlight on the official first day of summer.]

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Weekly Wrap 127: Singapore, past and future

Monday 5 to Sunday 11 November 2012 was nearly all about Singapore, and the bits that weren’t were about sore throats, diarrhoea and pain.

Since this is being posted late, I’ll spare you the details and cut to the chase. That means I don’t have to talk about the interesting encounter with someone from my past.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 162, “Mobile OS three-way cage fight”. A conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of the three key mobile operating systems, Apple’s iOS 6, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8. The panelists are Kate Carruthers, corporate IT consultant and founder of Social Innovation; Leslie Nassar, technology director at digital agency Amnesia Razorfish and founder of TweeVee TV; and Michael McKinnon, security advisor with AVG Australia and New Zealand.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I attended Verizon Business’ APAC Media Day in Singapore. They covered my flights from Sydney to Singapore and return with Singapore Airlines, airport transfers, three nights accommodation at the Conrad Centennial Hotel, and plenty of food and drink. They also gave me a Verizon-branded pen by Cerruti.
  • On Thursday I visited Verizon’s hospitality suite at the Barclays Singapore Open golf tournament as their guest. There was food and drink and, since it started raining and I had to get back to the hotel, they gave me a rather nice Verizon-branded umbrella.

The Week Ahead

It’s another busy week this week. I arrived in Sydney around lunchtime today, Monday, and will be focusing on logistics for the rest of the day. I think.

On Tuesday I’ll be writing my presentation for the local government IT conference, attending the VMWare lunch to launch their Cloud Index, and later meeting with Martin Roesch from Sourcefire.

On Wednesday I’m flying to Coffs Harbour for said local government IT conference. I’m staying in Coffs until Saturday, covering the conference and going for a walk on Saturday morning. I fly back to Sydney on Saturday afternoon.

I’m not sure what the weekend holds.

[Photo: Approaching storm, Singapore, a view from my room at the Parkroyal on Beach Road. The green tinge is caused by the coating on the window.]

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Weekly Wrap 100: Delay, disease and cold, clear nights

My week from Monday 30 April to Sunday 6 May 2012 also covered the entire continent, because a cancelled flight kept me in Perth through until Monday evening.

I won’t go into the cancelled flight in detail just now. Either you saw it unfold via my Twitter feed or you didn’t. Not everything has to be recorded everywhere forever.

I got back to Wentworth Falls late on Tuesday and went to bed — and didn’t emerge until Friday, thanks to a nasty cold I seem to have picked up along the way.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 136, “Blackhole crimeware as a service here to stay”. A discussion of the evolution of the Blackhole malware toolkit and other trends highlighted in the latest AVG Community Powered Threat Report (PDF) with Michael McKinnon, security advisor for AVG Australia and New Zealand, and Rob Collins, senior sales engineer for Asia-Pacific with WatchGuard.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

The current plan is that I’ll be in Wentworth Falls until Thursday morning, writing a whole bunch of stuff and, with luck, getting rid of this cold. I’ll head to Sydney some time on Thursday, and then present a keynote on security at Friday’s Saasu Cloud Conference.

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 (or they used to before my phone camera got a bit too scratched up). The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags. Yes, I should probably update this stock paragraph to match the current reality.

[Photo: Waratah Cottage via Instagram. Waratah Cottage is one of the Bunjaree Cottages, where I’ve spent maybe three-fifths of my time over the past year. It’s not the building I usually stay in, but it’s likely that I’ll be here until Thursday.]