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Weekly Wrap 438: Digging into the legislation, mostly

Waratah at Bunjaree CottagesAfter two weeks of travel, my week of Monday 15 to Sunday 21 October 2018 was less hectic. My main focus for writing was legislation making its way through the Australian parliament.

Oh, and finally getting to the podcast production. That’s a good thing, right?

Podcasts

  • “The 9pm Arch Window into the Soul”, being The 9pm Edict episode 79. It’s also on Spreaker and SoundCloud. This one’s a bit different, with Nicholas Fryer asking the questions. Let me know what you think.

Articles

Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

I’m spending the week in Sydney covering SWIFT’s Sibos global financial services conference on Monday to Thursday, then doing some writing and dealing with a medical appointment on Friday.

On the weekend I’ll post another podcast, based on the long interview I recorded with the remarkable Mike Godwin in Washington DC. And then I’ll collapse.

Further Ahead

The following week I’m covering the McAfee MPOWER Cyber Security Summit in Sydney on Tuesday, as well as a little more podcast production.

There’s nothing specific pencilled in right through to the end of the year, so I should probably do something about that. Suggestions are more than welcome.

[Photo: Waratah at Bunjaree Cottages. Despite the heavy rain, this Waratah at Bunjaree Cottages is flowering again this year. I am pleased. Photographed on 21 October 2018.]

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Weekly Wrap 415: Invisible tasks, and some cold weather

Waratah in the SnowMy week of Monday 7 Sunday 13 May 2018 was one of those odd weeks when almost nothing productive emerged into the public gaze. I was in fact reasonably productive, but it was all behind the scenes.

This Weekly Wrap is therefore rather brief.

To pad it out, I’ll mention that Thursday was unreasonably cold, with snow at Orange in the west of NSW, and a few flakes were even seen at Wentworth Falls. This gives me an excuse — albeit a poor one — to run my photo of a waratah (the flower) in snow at Bunjaree Cottages on 12 October 2012.

REMINDER: The 9pm Brisbane Forum Pozible campaign is still running. There’s just five days left, and it’s only 19% of the way to its target. Please consider.

Articles, Podcasts, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

This week continues to see me based in Ashfield, Sydney, working through the Crikey project, and writing for ZDNet much as usual.

On Thursday, the next episode of The 9pm Edict, will be recorded and streamed live at 2100 AEST.

Further Ahead

Things I’ve pencilled in:

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Weekly Wrap 278: Reducing the pain, increasing the pace

Waratah in bloom at Bunjaree Cottages: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 28 September to Sunday 4 October 2015 was another pain-ridden ocean of chaos, but nevertheless there were a few solid achievements.

I launched Send Stilgherrian to Ruxcon 2015, a Pozible crowdfunding campaign with an obvious aim. As I write this, it’s already reached 29% of its initial target, which is promising.

On the health front, the broken tooth was repaired again. As for my shoulder, the X-rays and ultrasound imagery taken last week showed no permanent damage or signs of specific problems. It’s “just” strained muscles and tendons, and all that’s needed is rest. It does seem to be getting better, albeit very slowly.

Articles

Podcasts

I got most of an episode of The 9pm Edict recorded, but was too tired to complete it on Sunday night. Stand by.

Media Appearances

  • On Wednesday, I spoke about Facebook hoaxes on ABC 105.7 Darwin, but I didn’t record it.
  • Also on Wednesday, I spoke about Bitcoin and tractor square dancing on ABC 774 Melbourne and stations around Victoria, but I didn’t record that either.
  • On Thursday, I spoke about my crowdfunding efforts on ABC Radio National’s Media Report.

5at5

There were no editions of 5at5 at all, and that’s terrible. Why not subscribe so you’ll get all the future ones?

Geekery

Having migrated the final batch of a long-standing client’s websites to new virtualised infrastructure, I finally shut down my remaining hard-iron Linux server, a leased machine somewhere in a rack in San Francisco. Typing halt for the last time also ended my business relationship with ServePath, which later became GoGrid, and which was recently acquired by and absorbed into Datapipe. I’ll miss the excellent support their engineers have provided over the years.

Meanwhile, I’ve picked up a quick little job: building what is in essence a paywall for the website of the literary magazine Meanjin, so they can start selling digital subscriptions.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

Once more, most of this week is over. It’s already the end of Thursday! But there’s still plenty of things to do…

On Friday, it’s the long train commute to Sydney for a lunchtime briefing on smart cities and the Internet of Things with Alcatel-Lucent’s expert on such things, Marc Jadoul. I’ll knock off some errands while I’m down there, and certain SEKRIT planning on the train.

On the weekend — note that I’m not predicting a specific day for each item — I’ll finish that episode of The 9pm Edict, finish the video of my UTS lecture, do some audio equipment tests, and do the preparatory work for Meanjin.

Further Ahead

The week beginning Monday 12 October will be a hectic one. Monday is the calm before the storm, when I’ll collect my thoughts and prepare myself.

On Tuesday, I fly to Melbourne, sneaking in a quick work session at Meanjin in the afternoon, before a reception kicks off the Australian Information Security Association (AISA) National Conference. I’m covering that for ZDNet, as well as recording material for my own Corrupted Nerds podcast. My thanks got to security vendor Tanium for covering my costs.

On Friday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet before flying back to Sydney. Some time on the weekend, I’ll produce another episode of The 9pm Edict.

The week starting… no, I’ll tell you about that next time.

[Photo: Waratah in bloom at Bunjaree Cottages, photographed on 8 October 2015. This waratah flower is slightly past its peak, but the intensity of its colour still manages to dominate the camera’s sensors.]

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Weekly Wrap 123: Food, drink, virtualisation and snow

My week Monday 8 to Sunday 14 October 2012 was yet another exercise in chaos, but this time with added snow.

Virtually nothing in the schedule actually happened when it was originally planned. There was too much moving around, and then Friday’s snowfalls almost derailed the week’s close.

Still, it was my first-ever encounter with actual snow at close range, so there were a few childlike moment of joy. And then I decided to spend the weekend in a SEKRIT hideaway.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 158, “Partitioning porn from PowerPoint: VMware’s virtualisation vision”. VMware’s vision of a virtualised future extends far beyond their existing desktop and server virtualisation products, to include virtualised mobile devices, and even software-defined data centres (SDD).

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Tuesday I was a guest of NetSuite at Sydney’s Aria Restaurant, where of course they paid for the food and wine. We also received gift vouchers from some of NetSuite’s customers: Avago ($100); SkincareStore ($75); and WineMarket.com.au ($75).
  • On Wednesday I was a guest of Alcatel-Lucent at the Australian Internet Industry Association’s NSW branch forum Customer Centric Services, held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney.
  • On Friday afternoon I was a guest at MooresCloud’s press event, held at the City Hotel, Sydney. There was food. And drink. And mysteriously flashing lights.

The Week Ahead

On Monday I’ll be producing the Patch Monday podcast and having lunch with someone from Trustwave SpiderLabs before returning to Wentworth Falls. I’ll spend the week up in the mountains catching up on many, many loose ends of both media work and general geekery.

[Photo: Waratah in the snow, not the same specimen of Telopea speciosissima as seen last week, but another one at Bunjaree Cottages.]

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Weekly Wrap 122: Fatigue and a helpful waratah

My week Monday 1 to Sunday 7 October 2012 was a reminder that travel and on-stage performances can be more exhausting than it feels at the time. Especially when you’re working while everyone else has a public holiday.

Out of curiosity, I just scrolled back through my calendar to find the last week when I hadn’t been working in some way or other. I scrolled back more than four years without finding such a week. I decided to stop before it all become too depressing.

That said, I know the answer. It was nearly five years, when I spent some time in Bangkok.

Podcasts

Articles

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

So far I know that Monday will be spent producing the Patch Monday podcast, and on Tuesday I’ll head into Sydney for a media lunch with NetSuite boss Zach Nelson.

I’ll stay in Sydney overnight so that on Wednesday I can meet Allison Cerra, author of Identity Shift: Where Identity Meets Technology in the Networked-Community Age. I’m sure you can guess why.

The rest is a bit disorganised. There’s an Internet Governance Forum in Canberra on Thursday and Friday, though no-one’s asked me to go yet. Yes, that’s a hint. But I also seem to have less commissioned writing locked in for this month than I thought I did a week ago. I should probably do something about that.

[Photo: Waratah near Bunjaree, which I believe is a specimen of Telopea speciosissima, photographed near Bunjaree Cottages earlier today. Despite living in New South Wales for something approaching two decades, this is the first time I’ve seen the state flower in its native habitat.]