My week of Monday 12 to Sunday 18 October 2015 was a marked return to productivity — despite a severe lack of sleep along the way.
Apart from generating three quite adequate articles, and recording plenty of audio for future projects, I also made some excellent contacts at the Australian Information Security Association (AISA) National Conference and elsewhere, and certain geekery went pretty much to plan.
I was especially pleased that the Pozible campaign Send Stilgherrian To Ruxcon 2015 was fully funded. I’ll have more to say about that on Monday.
Articles
- Wyatt Roy’s Policy Hack is already becoming a joke, ZDNet Australia, 12 October 2015.
- Australia’s Children’s eSafety Commissioner wants a great human firewall, ZDNet Australia, 14 October 2015.
- Welcome to Brandistan, home of wobbly data retention, ZDNet Australia, 16 October 2015. This contains more than a bit of sarcasm, and was a lot of fun to write.
I also recorded an interview with Joe Franzi, Assistant Secretary Cyber Security with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), Australia’s equivalent to the US National Security Agency (NSA). It’s the first recorded interview he’s ever done in that role, and it’ll turn into an article for ZDNet on Monday. The full audio will appear in due course. Stand by.
Podcasts
None, but a new episode of The 9pm Edict will appear on Tuesday.
I’ve also been commissioned to produce an episode of ABC Radio National’s Future Tense, which will appear in late November.
Media Appearances
- On Friday, I was interviewed for a story looking at the future of technology for ABC Online, which will appear some time in the coming week.
5at5
There’s still nothing from 5at5, and that continues to be terrible. Why not subscribe so you’ll get all the future ones when they eventually appear?
Corporate Largesse
- The AISA conference obviously included plenty of free food and drink.
- My travel and accommodation for that Melbourne trip was covered by Tanium.
- Michael McKinnon, social media and security awareness director with AVG Technologies AU Pty Ltd, was generous with the hospitality too.
The Week Ahead
It’s another busy week ahead. On Monday, I’m dealing with administrative loose ends, and at 1600 AEDT being a guest for the recording of Mark Pesce’s podcast TWISTA – This Week in Startups Australia, before finally returning to the Blue Mountains some time on Tuesday.
On Tuesday Wednesday, I’m doing the shopping in Katoomba, and wrapping up starting on another episode of The 9pm Edict. But mostly, it’ll be spent writing for ZDNet.
Wednesday is a day off.
On Thursday, I’m writing for ZDNet, before heading into Sydney for the evening. Once there, I’ll complete the podcast, I’ll waste much of the day tying up idioti lcoose ends.
Friday starts extremely early, waking at 0230 to pack and catch the 0358 train to Sydney in time for my 0715 AEDT flight to Melbourne. The rest of the day will be spent catching up with various people, and doing some location scouting in a stupor of tiredness, before some sort of drinks and dinner thing with a few people.
Saturday and Sunday will be spent covering Ruxcon, another of Australia’s key information security conferences. This will include recording material for Corrupted Nerds as well as Future Tense.
Further Ahead
On Monday and Tuesday 26-27 October, I’ll still be in Melbourne doing various things. That includes a Monday night radio spot on ABC 774 Melbourne at 1930 AEDT.
Update 19 October 2015: Edited to reflect a change of plans. Update 20 October 2015: Edited to reflect further change to the plan. Update 25 October 2015: Edited once more to reflect continuing change.
[Photo: Lumpy Weather, photographed from seat 29A of VA830 on 13 October 2015.]
Australia’s mandatory data retention legislation is back in the news again, in part because ABC journalist Will Ockenden put a year’s worth of his so-called “metadata” online and 