Tag: Privacy

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Weekly Wrap 233: From privacy around and back to privacy

The Central Points: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 17 to Sunday 23 November 2014 was pleasingly productive, and struck a better balance between work and leisure time than the previous week. This pleases me.

I also suspect that Saturday night’s New Moon heralded the start of a new cycle of something or other, because so far Sunday has felt very different. We shall see.

Articles

5at5

There were editions of the 5at5 email newsletter on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Why not subscribe so you receive them all?

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Monday, I covered the iappANZ conference, so there was food and drink on offer, and so I consumed same. I also had too many drinks with certain ISOC-AU people afterwards.

The Week Ahead

On Monday, I’ll be writing a column for ZDNet Australia, and planning some technical work that’ll unfold in December.

On Tuesday, I’m heading in to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing by AVG Technologies. On the train, I’ll be working on a feature article for ZDNet Australia that’s due at the end of the month. I’ll complete that feature on Wednesday.

On Thursday, I’m writing another column for ZDNet Australia, and heading to Sydney for the annual internet industry boat party on Sydney Harbour, followed by further drinks in the evening. I’ll be staying in Sydney overnight.

On Friday, I’m writing a piece for Crikey, and starting work on another episode of The 9pm Edict podcast. That podcast will be finished on the weekend — although what else that weekend may hold is still to be determined.

[Photo: The Central Points, being part of a set of railway track points — what Americans would call “railroad switches” — photographed on 17 November 2014.]

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Weekly Wrap 231: A purple flower, and the events pile up

Purple flag, a flower of some Patersonia species: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 3 to Sunday 9 November 2014 was remarkably productive, despite the temptations of then grains and the gentle ministrations of Mistress Insomnia.

Articles

5at5

My 5at5 daily email newsletter reappeared, and I managed to produce all five editions on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Why not subscribe so you receive them all?

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Thursday, I went to the launch of the Microsoft Nokia Lumia 830 smartphone at Paramount House in Surry Hills, where I was of course given good canapés and wine. I also got a Lumia-branded tote bag containing a packet of Microsoft-branded jelly babies; a 2GB USB stick containing media information; and a loaner unit of the Lumia 830 itself. I’ll be using it over the next two weeks, and will report back at the end of that time.
  • Also on Thursday, I went to the Indies Party, the annual not-quite-Christmas party held jointly by the PR agencies Bass PR, Shuna Boyd PR, Einsteinz Communications, and Espresso Communications. There was food and drink aplenty.

The Week Ahead

The coming week is both busy and more structure than usual. That said, my schedule is always subject to last-minute changes — whether that’s down to the news cycle, cashflow glitches, or simply not caring any more. As usual, the daily plan tweets my be found on my voluminous Twitter feed.

Monday should see the completion of an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast.

Tuesday is a Sydney day. I plan to attend the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Martin Place, though that will depend on me getting a decent sleep the night before. Then there’s a lunch briefing with the Australian government’s CTO, John Sheridan, then coffee with a PR agency, then two events in the evening. Audible is launching something or other with the hashtag #ListenUp, and Chinese tech giant Huawei is launching their new smart device. That looks like rather a long day, so I plan to stay overnight in Sydney.

Wednesday should see a morning of writing, then a meeting with executives from Slovakian information security company ESET, and some time at AVAR, the 17th annual conference of the Association of Anti-Virus Asia Researchers, which ESET is organising this year.

That conference runs through to Friday, but I’m not sure how much of it I’ll be able to catch. I still have my usual column for ZDNet Australia to write on Thursday, and some administrivia to deal with on Friday, and I hope to get some other bits and pieces of writing done too.

The weekend is yet again unplanned, as seems to be the usual way lately. At least at this stage.

Update 10 November 2014: Edited to add a section for 5at5, which I’d forgotten.

[Photo: Purple, being a flower of some Patersonia species, photographed at Bunjaree Cottages on 5 November 2014. It’s a Patersonia serica, according to Flower Checker.]

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Weekly Wrap 229: Currawongs and climate change

Flustered currawongMy week of Monday 20 to Sunday 26 October 2014 was moderately productive. Not as productive as I’d hoped, but close enough.

Winter is definitely over. Despite the snowfall nearby last week, this week temperatures in the Blue Mountains rose to 28C or more, and the weekend brought a mix of bright blue skies and the occasional thundery rainstorm. We have broken the climate.

Podcasts

  • Corrupted Nerds: Conversations 12, being a discussion of mandatory telecommunications metadata and surveillance with Carly Nyst, legal director of Privacy International.
  • “The 9pm Vision for Australia”, being The 9pm Edict episode 31, 22 October 2014. It includes quite a bit about the passing of Gough Whitlam.

Articles

I’ve also written a second piece for ZDNet Australia, as well as a piece for Crikey, both of which will be published on Monday.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

It’ll be another busy one, structured around a trip to Sydney on Tuesday to go to a lunchtime briefing from NetSuite and then the OpenAustralia Foundation Pub Night. I’ll be staying in Sydney overnight.

Arranged around that will be the writing of a security-related feature plus my regular column for ZDNet Australia, and the production of an episode of The 9pm Edict, probably in that order. The exact details are still to be sorted out.

The weekend is unplanned.

[Photo: “Flustered currawong”, taken when a pied currawong (Strepera graculina) managed to find its way into Bunjaree Cottages on 26 October 2014.]

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Weekly Wrap 228: Snow, at least nearby, and privacy

A narrow-leafed drumstick (Isopogon anethifolius): click to embiggenMy week of Monday 13 to Sunday 19 October 2014 must have been influenced by the photo I posted last week, because it did end up snowing in the Blue Mountains — but no closer than 8km from me.

So, in the interests of triggering pleasant spring conditions for the week ahead, I’ve kicked off with another pleasant photo from my archives.

Articles

I’ve also written a second piece for ZDNet Australia, but it won’t appear until Monday.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

It’ll be a busy one. While I haven’t mapped out exactly what will happen each day — I can’t do so until a certain tardy clients pays me and I can lock in certain commitments — there’s plenty of media objects to make.

A new ZDNet Australia column and a new Corrupted Nerds podcast will appear on Monday, as I said. After that, I’ve got two ZDNet Australia pieces to write, and an episode of The 9pm Edict to produce. I also want to resurrect the 5at5 newsletter, but that has a lower priority.

The weekend is unplanned.

[Photo: Yellow, being a narrow-leafed drumstick (Isopogon anethifolius) photographed at Bunjaree Cottages on 1 November 2012.]

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Weekly Wrap 216: The return, the throat, the stress

The Tower at Dusk: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 21 to Sunday 27 July 2014 is just about to end, after a month of virtual silence on this website. I’ve been active elsewhere, just not here. So what’s the story?

I’ve been exhausted. A few weeks ago I made the mistake of spending a Friday evening in a Sydney mass-market bar with ordinary people, and I seem to have picked up some sort of disease. An infection. A lurgy. Whatever. As far as I can tell, it’s something that’s currently doing the rounds in Sydney. A sore throat with fatigue that’s difficult to shake. So I’m not too worried, just annoyed.

I also went for nearly a week without a computer, when my MacBook Pro had to go in for repairs. That was more disruptive to my work patterns than I’d hoped. Maybe I’ll write about that soon. Maybe not. The short version is that an iPad is just not the same.

And as a third disruption, there was a technical crisis that affected the clients of my other little business, and which took over my attention for two long days. I don’t think I’ll write about that at all, because it’s annoying.

The combined result, however, is that I’ve only had energy to focus on those things, plus the things that I’d committed to do and which generated immediate revenue. Well, some of them anyway. And everything else has been burned.

I plan to back-fill the missing posts of media appearances and the like, but they’ll have to wait for about a week. Meanwhile, this Weekly Wrap contains the links to the stuff that is available now, and a plan for the week ahead. And a photo.

Oh, and I should also mention that on Thursday and Friday I had the distinct pleasure of presenting a two-day “Writing for the Web” course at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). It made a lovely change from my usual solitary work.

Articles

Here’s everything I’ve written since Weekly Wrap 211.

Media Appearances

Quite a few since the last Weekly Wrap, but none this week. Watch out for blog posts as I publish the backlog.

5at5

Is listing them here pointless? Just head over to the 5at5 site, and either subscribe or browse back through the recent editions.

Corporate Largesse

None this week. I’ll report the rest in the next Weekly Wrap.

The Week Ahead

Monday is about finishing a column for ZDNet Australia and producing an episode of The 9pm Edict, as well as wrapping up some geekery for a client.

Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be in Sydney covering the ADMA Global Forum for Crikey and Technology Spectator. I’m particularly looking forward to meeting Bob Garfield, co-presenter of WNYC’s On the Media.

Also on Tuesday evening I’m heading to the OpenAustralia Foundation pub night.

On Thursday there’s a media briefing on various information security matters by Cisco and, in the evening, drinks with executives from Oracle.

Friday will see me wrapping up whatever media objects need completing, and then the weekend is unplanned.

And at various points through the week I’ll be trialling a Microsoft Nokia Lumia 930 smartphone, their latest flagship model, with particular attention being given to the camera.

[Photo: The Tower at Dusk, being a shot of a mobile phone tower at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains earlier this evening.]

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Weekly Wrap 213

[This post was actually written on 17 August 2014, but I’ve dated it 6 July 2014 so it appears in the archives in the correct sequence. This post is part of an attempt to clear the backlog of routine posts, hence the lack of photo, detail and finesse. — Stilgherrian.]

My week of Monday 30 June to Sunday 6 July 2014 was, finally, an extremely busy one, as you can see from this basic listing.

Articles

Media Appearances

5at5

Why don’t you subscribe to 5at5?

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I went to Sophos’ World of Warbiking Breakfast, during which we were fed a lovely meal at Aqua Dining at Milsons Point in Sydney. We also received Sophos-branded cycling smartphone holder, water bottle, notebook and pen.
  • Also on Wednesday, I went to Amazon Web Services’ media briefing, “Exporting Australian IP to the World”, which took place over an excellent lunch at Gowings Bar and Grill and Sydney’s QT Hotel.
  • And again on Wednesday, I had a long meeting over coffee with someone from the Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA), and of course they paid for the coffees.