Tag: the wire

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Talking Bitcoin’s blockchain on 2SER’s The Wire

The Wire logoOn Monday I recorded an interview on Bitcoin’s secret sauce, the blockchain, with The Wire, the current affairs program for Australia’s community radio network produced by 2SER in Sydney. It went to air that night as past their story Blockchains to the rescue?

It was only a couple of years ago that Bitcoin was taking the world by storm — the price rocketing by hundreds of percent. Since then, however, it has fallen into obscurity, with less and less companies accepting it as payment. But even if Bitcoin does not make it as a full fledged currency, the technology behind it may find a place elsewhere.

Journalist Josh Nicholas also spoke with Professor David Glance, Director of University of Western Australia’s Centre for Software Practice. The narrative contrasts my enthusiasm, for want of a better work, with Glance’s scepticism. That’s probably down to the questions asked and the editing, because I suspect our views are actually much the same.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.6MB)

The audio is ©2015 2SER-FM 107.3. It’s also available at The Wire program website — that’s exactly the same as what you can hear here, it’s just that the audio file here has my branding — and you can also listen to the entire episode.

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Talking internet security on 2SER’s “The Wire”

The Wire logoLast week I recorded an interview on the state of internet security with The Wire, the current affairs program for Australia’s community radio network produced by 2SER in Sydney. It went to air on Monday night, 5 May.

This year has seen some major internet security breaches — from Heartbleed to iOS. But between these headline grabbing flaws there are numerous smaller bugs that pop up every day. As our devices and services become ever more ubiquitous, and flaws continue to popping to, we take a look at internet security.

I spoke with journalist Josh Nicholas for maybe 15 minutes, so this 4-minute edit is very much a condensed version. However we did manage to cover such subtleties as Apple’s secretive approach to security vulnerabilities, Heartbleed, bug bounties, and calls for better disclosure of vulnerabilities — that last link being to a story I wrote this week.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.7MB)

The audio is ©2014 2SER-FM 107.3. It’s also available at The Wire program website — that’s exactly the same as what you can hear here, it’s just that the audio file here has my branding — and you can also listen to the entire episode.

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Weekly Wrap 204: Libertarian troll beach abortion, yeah?

Fisherman at North Cronulla Beach: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 28 April to Sunday 4 May 2014 was yet another solid performer — which, to be honest, surprises me. But here we are. Praise be.

The entire week was spent at Wentworth Falls, apart from a day trip to Sydney — but despite the rapidly dropping temperatures as winter starts to bite, and despite Mistress Insomnia’s continuing persistent calls for attention, my mood holds up.

Articles

Podcasts

The big chunky piece of joy for me this week was resurrecting The 9pm Edict. The first episode, “The 9pm Shire” should have been appearing tonight — and the photo at the head of this post was taken during the recording expedition — but for reasons already explained that’s been postponed until this coming Tuesday 6 May or thereabouts.

Media Appearances

  • On Tuesday I was interviewed by The Wire, the daily current affairs program of Australia’s community radio stations, about internet security — but that’s being held over to the coming week.

5at5

Four out of five this week. But why don’t you subscribe to 5at5, and then I don’t need to keep telling you about it.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Thursday I had coffee with someone from LivePerson, a company that provides technology for online customer service. Their PR company paid for the coffee.
  • Also on Thursday I went to Good Technology’s Sydney Mobile Summit, all about the state of the art of mobile security — or at least as framed by their products and PR messaging. It was held at the Sheraton on the park, and lunch and afternoon tea was provided.

The Week Ahead

Next week is already completely packed out, and it also sees me heading to the United States yet again.

On Monday I’ll be heading to Sydney to complete my recordings at Cronulla and deal with a few errands.

I’ll be staying in Sydney overnight, because on Tuesday I’m going to a breakfast briefing that starts at 0730 — this is how businesses treat their staff, apparently — as well as doing a couple of interviews. I’ll head back to the Blue Mountains on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, it’s a day trip to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing by AVG Technologies on some research they’ve done into the security of the Internet of Things (IoT). “There isn’t any,” I assume to be the answer, but with additional wine.

Thursday is a writing day. Then on Friday it’s back to Sydney again for a bunch of errands and then the Optus IT Journalism Awards, in which I am a finalist. Then I stay in Sydney overnight before flying to San Francisco on Saturday.

On Sunday I’m visiting some wineries in the Sonoma region, thanks to NetSuite, who are also paying for that US trip. But I’ll write more about that in due course.

[Photo: Fisherman at North Cronulla Beach, photographed shortly before sunset on Saturday 3 May 2014.]

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Talking data retention on ABC Local Radio

The current parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s national security laws has become a mildly hot media topic this week, so I ended up doing a backgrounder on ABC Local Radio last night with Dom Knight.

I should probably write more about this some time. And I will. But for now, here’s that 18-minute conversation. Including our digression into talking about that fine TV drama The Wire.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (10.3MB)

The audio is of course ©2012 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, archived here because it isn’t being archived anywhere else.

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Talking Apple versus Samsung on 2SER’s “The Wire”

I ended up talking about Apple versus Samsung on Radio 2SER’s current affairs program The Wire as well, syndicated via community radio stations around Australia.

The journalist was Tawar Razaghi, and their website introduces the story like this:

Apple wants Samsung to take eight mobile models off the market after it won a landmark patent case against Samsung over the design of its mobile phones. Apple was awarded $1.5 billion in damages and now has the exclusive rights to pinch-and-zoom gestures on their touch-screen technologies.

Patent law is intended to reward innovation but with companies engaged in patent turf wars this case highlights how patents may inhibit innovation instead.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.1MB)

The audio is ©2012 2SER-FM 107.3, and you can download a podcast of the entire episode once that section of their website is back up after the current maintenance work.

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Talking “The Global Mail” on Radio 2SER

I thought I’d be too busy today to pay much attention to the new quality Australian news outlet The Global Mail. But then around 2pm I got a call from Radio 2SER in Sydney asking for a comment.

And so it was that at 2.30pm I was interviewed for the station’s current affairs program The Wire by Calliste Weitenberg, along with The Global Mail’s managing editor Monica Attard.

If you haven’t caught up with this yet, The Global Mail has no advertising and no subscription fees. It’s funded entirely by philanthropy — in this case $15 million over five years from Wotif founder Graeme Wood, a man I previously called an arsehat over another matter.

The radio story includes my approval of the new masthead’s long-form journalism and the experience of the editorial team, and notes that it’s easy to differentiate between Wood’s open philanthropy or the similar position held by Al Jazeera and the more power-hungry approach of Rupert Murdoch or would-be media magnate Gina Rinehart.

What it omits is my observation that despite Attard’s claim that everyone is their audience the staff seem almost entirely white middle-aged middle-class types, that you can’t possibly be everything to all people, and that I’m hanging out for things like database journalism and innovative storytelling techniques.

And don’t get me started on the custom sideways scrolling that simple doesn’t respond to trackpad gestures on my MacBook Pro.

But all that said, it’s only Day One for The Global Mail. I wish them well.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.4MB)

The audio is ©2012 2SER-FM 107.3, and you can download a podcast of the entire episode. But as usual I’m archiving and mirroring the relevant segment here.