rosella – Stilgherrian

31 March 201301 April 2013

Weekly Wrap 147: Easter rush with added geekery

The week of Monday 25 to Sunday 31 March 2013 was hectic and varied — lecturing at a university, appearing on TV and being reminded how easily internet technology can fall apart.

The various media things are listed here, of course. What’s not listed is a sudden and unexpected day full of geekery that began at 0100 on (Good) Friday and ran well into the evening. A server software upgrade went pear-shaped. and I had to coordinate work between the server team in India and the data centre team in the US. Given that they had different responsibilities and authorities, I had to sign off on their plans. There’s some lessons in there that’d make an interesting blog post — but not yet.

Articles

Microsoft’s Melbourne tests confirm: counterfeit software a security risk, ZDNet Australia, 27 March 2013.
Summly sale storytelling hides horrible home truths, ZDNet Australia, 28 March 2013.

Media Appearances

On Monday I gave a guest lecture at University of Technology Sydney. That’s not really media, I suppose, but the audience comprised media studies students.
On Tuesday night I spoke about Yahoo!, Summly and more on ABC Local Radio.
On Thursday night I spoke about DDoS attacks and exaggeration on ABC TV’s The Business.
On Saturday morning I spoke about DDoS attacks and exaggeration again, this time on ABC News24’s Weekend Breakfast. I don’t have a recording of that.

Corporate Largesse

On Monday, I paid a visit to Vertel in Alexandria, Sydney, to find out about what they can do with high-speed wireless internet links. They offered me a beer. I accepted. It was a Peroni. It was rather nice.

The Week Ahead

This’ll be an interesting one because tomorrow, which is both the public holiday for Easter Monday and the start of a new quarter, I’m planning to kick off a series of changes in my little world. Or at least try to. I’ll write about that tomorrow ~~morning~~ afternoon.

I’ve also got plenty of writing lined up, including two pieces for Technology Spectator, one for CSO Online, one for Crikey and my usual column for ZDNet. This both pleases and stresses me. I may rearrange this a bit, because that’s rather a lot for a short week.

At this stage it’s looking like I’ll be in Wentworth Falls for the first part of the week, before heading down to Sydney on Friday morning to record Marc Fennell’s Download This Show for ABC Radio National.

[Photo: Shut up, I’m eating this flower, yet another photograph of a crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) at Bunjaree Cottages. I feel like I’ve posted a few too many Bunjaree bird photos lately, but I couldn’t resist the seemingly-cheeky look this guy threw me while he ripped apart and ate the eating a mountain devil (Lambertia formosa) flowers from a nearby plant.]

[Update 1 April 2013, 1145 AEDT: Updated the ETA for the post about my plans to reflect the unfolding reality.]

11 March 201323 March 2013

Weekly Wrap 144: In the forest, trolled by rosellas

In retrospect, and posting one day late, the week of Monday 4 to Sunday 10 March 2013 was remarkably unproductive — mostly thanks to a continuing minor illness.

So the photograph of the crimson rosellas is apt. I spent much of my time hanging around Bunjaree Cottages. The rosellas figured that out very quickly — as they usually do — and were turning up each morning to demand food. I’m a soft touch.

Articles

Both of the articles I wrote this week were representatives of my column The Full Tilt for ZDNet. It’s scheduled to run every Thursday, but since I didn’t write one last week I had one on Monday as well.

Beware! Anonymous has become the Hello Kitty of hacktivism, ZDNet Australia, 4 March 2013. The reaction of some Anonymous fans was interesting, because they couldn’t see beyond “You said something bad about Anonymous” and responded with unfocused personal attacks rather than addressing the issues. I’m hoping to find time to write about that this week.
Will you stop with all your ‘cybering’ already?, ZDNet Australia, 7 March 2013. “When someone starts warning you of ‘cyberthreats’, check your wallet and keys. You’re probably about to be conned,” it begins.

Podcasts

Still none.

Media Appearances

None of these either.

Corporate Largesse

And none of these either. I told you it was an unproductive week.

The Week Ahead

Well this week is going to be somewhat more productive. He says boldly. Today, Monday, will be a gentle start to it all, but I hope to knock off some analysis for Technology Spectator and lock in some planning — because everything keeps damn well changing.

On Tuesday I’m heading to Sydney for a media briefing by Trend Micro, followed by lunch, and probably writing up same. I’ll stay overnight because LG is launching their new smartphone, the Optimus G, on Wednesday morning and I’m curious to see how they’re going to pitch it in the face of such stiff competition from Samsung.

I’m heading to Sydney on Thursday morning too, mostly to get the results of some blood tests taken on the weekend and deal with whatever medical matters may ensue, but I plan to stay in Sydney until Saturday for a variety of work-related reasons. Probably.

[Photo: Yesterday’s visitors, photographed on 4 March 2013. A pair of crimson rosellas at Bunjaree Cottages.]

[Update 23 March 2013: Edited photo description to correct the date.]

29 May 2012

Video: Crimson Rosellas at Banksia Cottage

Here’s a brief video of this morning’s delegation of Crimson Rosellas (Platycercus elegans) at Banksia Cottage, one of the Bunjaree Cottages, which is where I’ve been living for the last week.

If the embedded video isn’t working for you, you can watch it on YouTube.

11 March 2012

Weekly Wrap 92: Rosella invasion!

My usual weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This post covers the week from Monday 5 to Sunday 11 March 2012.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 128, “Cybercrime and the Russian mob”. Stephen McCombie, lecturer at the Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism at Macquarie University, explains why Eastern Europe is the perfect breeding-ground for online crime. And Chris Gatford, proprietor of Hacklabs, says that organisations’ networks are showing the same vulnerabilities as a decade ago. We’re not learning. And the payment card industry data security standard (PCI DSS) has failed us too.

Articles

Hacking up the facts, Technology Spectator, 7 March 2012, written following lunch with RSA’s Art Coviello.
Zero damage from last year’s RSA breach, CSO Online, 7 March 2012. A more accurate headline would be “Zero damage from last year’s hack, says RSA”, but that’s my fault for doing things in a rush.
Oz ethical hackers to be set professional standards, CSO Online, 9 March 2012. We now have an Australian branch of the Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST), with Alastair MacGibbon as its first CEO.

Media Appearances

On Saturday I was quoted in a Sydney Morning Herald article about the Finkelstein media review, Rising anger over plans to regulate blogosphere. Whoever was angry, it wasn’t me.

Corporate Largesse

On Monday, RSA paid for lunch at The Summit Restaurant. From the rather lovely menu I selected the campechana of ocean trout, school prawns, Pacific oyster and crab in a wet tomato lime ceviche, followed by the dry aged Angus beef cheek and loin noisettes with Jerusalem artichoke, grapes and majoram — along with some of the double cream and butter mashed potato, and the crisp garden leaves and cress salad with chardonnay dressing. I forgot to write down what the wines were, sorry, but I can show you the view in directions one, two and three.
Also on Monday, I had coffee with Brad Arkin from Adobe, and they paid. I didn’t see the need to take a photograph.

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.

[Photo: Rosella in da House. Technically this is being posted in the wrong week because it’s from 4 March, but it accurately summarises the mood of this week I think. Some of the local avian wildlife at Bunjaree Cottages has started to get a little more friendly.]

26 January 201227 January 2012

Weeky Wrap 84: Rosellas, cyberwar and lots of radio

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This post covers the week from Monday 9 to Sunday 15 January 2012, posted way late because I’ve been incredibly busy.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 120, “Anonymous vs. Stratfor: the real issues”, being a nice long interview with Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst with IT-Harvest, a privately-held IT security research firm based in Detroit, Michigan. He also edits and publishes the newsletter Cyber Defence Weekly, and is author of the book Surviving Cyberwar.

Articles

The snake oil that is domain registries’ big fat new revenue stream, Crikey, 11 January 2012.

Media Appearances

On Monday I was on ABC NewsRadio talking about generic cyberthreats as sold by the Australian Federal Police, or something.
On Thursday morning ABC Radio National Breakfast had an expert panel on cybersecurity, and I was one of the experts. I suggest you read the daft troll’s comment on this post. It’s a hoot.
On Saturday afternoon I was talking about various online scams on Sydney radio 2UE. They were so happy with this week’s post that I’m now booked in for this Saturday 28 January at 1530 AEDT to talk about trolling.

Corporate Largesse

None. I thought things might start picking up this week, but apparently not.

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: Rosellas neat Wentworth Falls, photographed near Railway Parade on 17 January 2012.]

26 September 201130 September 2011

Weekly Wrap 68: Bad shoulder, with inquisitive rosellas

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Last week was relatively unproductive thanks to continuing pain from my shoulder and continuing gut irritation from nasty anibiotics, about which I may write something later.

Once more I’m posting this on Monday rather than Sunday. Oops. I don’t suppose the world will end. Well, not because of this anyway.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 106, “Fighting malware at SophosLabs”. A conversation with Mark Harris, the head of SophosLabs globally, and Sean McDonald, who manages the lab in North Sydney.

Articles

Trends on Twitter brief but telling, just like in the real world, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 2011, my first article for Fairfax.
NBN retail pricing neither a bargain nor an extravagance, Crikey, 20 September 2011.
Hey Facebook, we want to share, but this is ridiculous, Crikey, 23 September 2011.

Media Appearances

On Monday I spoke with ABC 666 Canberra about Twitter, covering material from the Sydney Morning Herald piece. I’m not sure whether I recorded, but this time the ABC posted the audio themselves.
On Friday I spoke with ABC 774 Melbourne and ABC 666 Canberra about the Facebook changes.

Corporate Largesse

None.

Elsewhere

[Photo: Rosellas at Rosella Cottage, one of the Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains where I’ve been staying off and on this year.]