My week of Monday 31 May to Sunday 6 June 2021 took an unusual turn. It saw the first substantial geek-for-hire work I’ve done in quite a while when I coordinated the eviction of hackers from a client’s website. And now it’s winter. Is there a connection? You decide.
Continue reading “Weekly Wrap 575: Some geekery to begin winter, and an inevitable bird photo”Weekly Wrap 552: A Christmas gift, rain, and a pointless video
Monday 21 to Sunday 27 December 2020 was a suitably lazy Christmas week, even quieter than usual thanks to the ’rona fears. But I did record plenty of stuff for next week’s end-of-year podcast, and I made a video.
Continue reading “Weekly Wrap 552: A Christmas gift, rain, and a pointless video”Weekly Wrap 516: Even the cockatoos are suffering during the COVID-19 lockdown
My week of Monday 13 to Sunday 19 April 2020 saw me write the first proper article in nearly a month. It’s an amazing change. And the weekly podcasts continue. Is this a new pattern?
Continue reading “Weekly Wrap 516: Even the cockatoos are suffering during the COVID-19 lockdown”Talking coronavirus work-from-home NBN overload and cybersecurity stuff on ABC Canberra


Australians are being urged to work from home, thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, but that raises some technological challenges. Will Australia’s NBN be overloaded? What are the cybersecurity risks?
Continue reading “Talking coronavirus work-from-home NBN overload and cybersecurity stuff on ABC Canberra”Talking yet more cybers on ABC 774 Melbourne
In this month’s now semi-regular spot on ABC 774 Melbourne, it was only natural to talk about the Australian government’s new Cyber Security Strategy, as I did on four spots elsewhere last week.
But as you’ll hear, this 20-minute conversation with Lindy Burns on Tuesday night covered quite a bit of territory — even, briefly, the National Broadband Network.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.4MB)
For further background material, see the first post in this series.
This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
[Photo: The view in ABC Radio’s Sydney TARDIS 1 just before I did this radio spot on 26 April 2016.]
Weekly Wrap 281: Melbourne again, with added chaos
My week of Monday 19 to Sunday 25 October 2015 didn’t unfold as planned, except for the fact that it concluded with me heading to Melbourne to cover Ruxcon. That bit did happen.
The photograph is misleading, therefore. Those relaxing moments at St Kilda, Melbourne, were a tiny minority of those seven days — and they only happened on Saturday night because I’d started suffering microsleeps during the afternoon, and I went back to the hotel for a nap.
Still, I wrote two articles that have been very well received — thank you — and most of the targets were eventually achieved.
Articles
- Take a lead from Turnbull’s ‘forward-leaning’ infosec posture: senior ASD officer, ZDNet Australia, 19 October 2015.
- Yes of course the NBN is buying copper, but so what?, ZDNet Australia, 21 October 2015. Notable for the phrase “claque of cud-munching cretins”.
Podcasts
None, again, but a new episode of The 9pm Edict will appear… eventually. No, it will. Truly.
Media Appearances
- On Tuesday, I spoke about the Optus network’s latest time failure on ABC 891 Adelaide.
- On Wednesday, I was quoted in a story about the future for ABC Online.
- Also on Wednesday, I was a guest on Mark Pesce’s TWISTA podcast, talking about startups and Malcolm Turnbull.
- On Thursday, I spoke about CIA director John Brennan’s email breach on ABC Radio’s PM.
5at5
Should 5at5 eventually reappear, you’ll know about it if you subscribe.
Corporate Largesse
- While covering Ruxcon, there was a quantity of free food and drink. The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) supplied lunch both days, and the after-party drinks were provided by Hacklabs and Assurance.
- Michael McKinnon, social media and security awareness director with AVG Technologies AU Pty Ltd, has once more been generous with his hospitality and logistic support.
The Week Ahead
On Monday (today), I’m sorting out all my audio recordings from Ruxcon, organising a few more recordings, and probably writing for ZDNet, before a live radio spot at 1930 AEDT on ABC 774 Melbourne.
On Tuesday, I’ll be doing a few more media things in Melbourne before catching VA865 MEL-SYD at 1645 AEDT. Whether I return directly to Wentworth Falls after that, or pause a while in Sydney, is yet to be decided.
The remainder of the week will see me writing a column for ZDNet, producing an episode of The 9pm Edict, finally finishing the video of my UTS lecture, and doing some pre-production for my Future Tense documentary — but the exact order has yet to be arranged.
I am determined that the coming weekend will contain no work.
[Photo: St Kilda Dusk, photographed on Saturday 24 October 2015.]