wentworth falls – Page 8

14 July 2013

Weekly Wrap 162: A dog, a pause, and an invisible cat

My week Monday 8 to Sunday 14 July 2013 was a continuation of my distinct slow-down, for reasons explained previously.

I still haven’t decided whether I’ll write about that any further. For now, I’ll just say that there’s been suitable initial progress on that front. Many thanks to the people — friends, colleagues and strangers alike — who’ve been in touch.

Meanwhile, as usual, here’s the media-related things I’ve done this week. Not that there were many.

Podcasts

None.

Articles

Microsoft sucked into ever-growing NSA vortex: who’s next?, ZDNet Australia, 13 July 2013.

Media Appearances

On Monday, I spoke about NSA and spying on Channel TEN’s The Project.

Corporate Largesse

None. Well, there was some on offer, but I declined. I have heard rumour which suggest that I made the wrong decision.

The Week Ahead

The theme for the coming week is “assessment”. I’ll be be running through the various areas of my life to see where I’m up to, what issues I should perhaps address, and what the possibilities for the future might be. Personal stuff, including my health. Work, both media-related and otherwise. All sorts of stuff. I haven’t done that for a while. I’ve just been cruising along.

In between, I’ll be writing for Technology Spectator and ZDNet Australia, and perhaps some others. I’ll also post another episode of the Corrupted Nerds podcast, fix some problems with the website, and sketch out my ideas for making that a sustainable project.

On Thursday I’ll be down in Sydney for a medical appointment and lunch with a friend. Whether I’ll be staying in Sydney longer than that remains to be decided.

[Photo: Sunday night in the village, being the near-deserted Station Street, Wentworth Falls, earlier this evening.]

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.]

29 November 2011

Weekly Wrap 77: Canberra, infosec, Chinese and bees

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Given that this is being posted so late, suffice it to say that I went to Canberra again and I was too tired for much of anything by the end of the week.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 115, “SOPA: war on the internet continues”. CNET chief political correspondent Declan McCullagh outlines the controversy surrounding the US Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), and Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane from Crikey positions SOPA as yet another example of what amounts to a war on the internet.

Articles

Only two articles this week — well, that were published. There’s more to come, articles that were written but not published. Both of these, though, are from the Trend Micro Canberra Cloud Security Conference.

Today’s cloud winners: the cybercriminals, CSO, 24 November 2011.
Want government cloud? Rethink security!, CSO, 24 November 2011.

Media Appearances

This kinda counts as media. I was on the panel for the media140+ Digital Anonymity event, the audio recordings of which I linked to earlier.

Corporate Largesse

On Wednesday, breakfast was provided at the Trend Micro Canberra Cloud Security Conference. That was the historic Hyatt Hotel Canberra, though not their full and rather wonderful buffet.
Also on Wednesday, I had lunch at The Chairman and Yip, Canberra, courtesy of Datacom.

Elsewhere

[Photo: As I walked from Bunjaree Cottages to Wentworth Falls today, most of Railway Parade was lined with yellow flowers. The bees seemed quite interested. I’m also very impressed with the detail on the bee, given this was shot on a sub-$300 camera.]

28 November 2011

At night, quiet bushland not so quiet

It’s a relatively warm night at the end of spring here at the Bunjaree Cottages in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Quiet? Tell that to the critters down by the dam!

Here’s a brief sound snippet recorded a few minutes ago. I’ll post something longer in due course, because I think it’s worth recording the ambient sound.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:55 — 1.1MB)

Can anyone identify any of the creatures here?

03 October 2011

Weekly Wrap 69: Teeth and little productivity

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — and a remarkably unproductive week it was. I’m even posting this summary late!

In part that’s because the Tooth and Shoulder Situation lingered, but also because I reacted poorly to some negative comments on some of my writing. I’ll write more about that soon.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 107, “Cyberwar: back to basics”. A conversation with Nigel Phair, a director of the Centre for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra.

Articles

Google+: What’s in a name?, ABC Drum Opinion, 27 September 2011.

Media Appearances

On Monday I spoke with ABC Mid North Coast NSW about Facebook and Twitter and spending “too much” time connected. As far as I know there is no recording.
Also on Monday, I spoke with ABC Gold Coast about Facebook changes.
On Tuesday I spoke with ABC 105.7 Darwin about Facebook changes.
On Friday I spoke with ABC Gold Coast about smartphones and daylight saving.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday I had lunch at Wildfire Restaurant, Circular Quay, courtesy of Bass PR. The event was a security roundtable presented by some of their clients, including Websense, WatchGuard and VMinformer, and analysts Frost & Sullivan. I’ll write something about this in due course.

Elsewhere

[Photo: My first beer after nearly three weeks of illness and heavy-duty antibiotics. Much deserved. It’s a Coopers Pale Ale at The Grand View Hotel, Wentworth Falls. This event actually happened the previous week, but I’m slow.]

24 July 201124 July 2011

Weekly Wrap 59: Making paragraphs while the rain pours

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. While Sydney dealt with its wettest July since 1950, I was at the Bunjaree Cottages in Wentworth Falls, writing and writing and writing and writing. And talking on the radio.

“Make hay while the sun shines,” goes the old saying. But for a writer, it’s about making paragraphs while the rain pours. Being stuck indoors with a magnificent view really helps.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 97, “Amazon’s Vogels: cloud, start-ups, treadmills” My guest is Amazon’s chief technology officer, Dr Werner Vogels. A fascinating conversation, I found.

Articles

LulzSec hacks UK’s “The Sun”, News International, CSO, 19 July 2011.
LulzSec 1, Murdoch 0: News Int, the hacker, becomes the hacked, Crikey, 19 July 2011.
NEXTDC leases secure Canberra data centre, CSO, 19 July 2011.
Child exploitation material filters… same policy, different activities, Crikey, 20 July 2011. It’s perhaps not obvious from the headline, but this is about the “voluntary” blocking of child abuse material by Australian internet service providers.
Four lessons from LulzSec vs Murdoch, CSO, 20 July 2011. I argue that despite the hacking of The Sun having such a high profile, nothing will actually change.
Australia to consider right-to-privacy law, CSO, 21 July 2011.
Watchdogs welcome Australia’s right-to-privacy move , CSO, 21 July 2011.
Hackers target Tasmanian government website, CSO, 21 July 2011.
Guardian tech editor leaking information, claims LulzSec, CSO, 22 July 2011.
In IT’s dance of the inflating elephants, Microsoft is stumbling, Crikey, 22 July 2011.
DSD: Four mitigation strategies prevent 85% of intrusions, CSO, 23 July 2011.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday I spoke about LulzSec vs Murdoch on ABC 774 Melbourne.
On Wednesday I spoke with ABC Radio’s national lunchtime current affairs program The World Today about the FBI’s arrest allegedly Anonymous-connected hackers.
On Thursday I spoke with Louise Saunders on ABC 936 Hobart about the hack of a Tasmanian government web server.

Corporate Largesse

None. But there’ll be plenty next week. I’ll tell you more about that later this morning.

Elsewhere

[Photo: Potholes on Frenchmans Road, Wentworth Falls, photographed on 20 July 2011. This is a slightly modified version, here’s the original.]