My week of Monday 26 June to Sunday 2 July 2017 was strangely quiet, but also strangely productive. It’s a fine start for the new financial year.
I’m even fixing my broken time-management systems, and that’s just one of the reasons I finally feel like I’m climbing out of a low patch.
Articles
- Australia’s encryption thwart thought is fraught, ZDNet Australia, 28 June 2017.
I wrote a second piece for ZDNet, which will be posted on Monday.
Media Appearances
On Tuesday night Australian time, the ransomware known variously as Petya or NotPetya amongst other things, spread across the planet. Inevitably, I ended up talking about it in the media on Wednesday. I did radio spots on 3AW Melbourne, ABC Brisbane (where I also spoke briefly about the €2.4 billion fine copped by Google), ABC Melbourne, and various ABC News reports. I also appeared on Channel TEN’s The Project.
And on Friday evening, I spoke about Australia’s new cyber warfare unit (briefly) and other matters with Peter Goers on ABC Adelaide.
Podcasts, Corporate Largesse
None.
Doing things to get Getting Things Done done
From now on things will be different. I used to have solid planning and time-management systems, loosely based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology (GTD). That fell apart at the beginning of 2011.
’Pong had just left Australia. One of our cats, Artemis, had just departed this mortal world. Her companion Apollo departed through a window, never to be seen again. And I left my Enmore home with no real plan, just temporary accommodation at Bunjaree Cottages — and I’m still here six years later.
That was a lot of pain to absorb all at once. I won’t go into details, but many of you already know about those and other problems that have plagued me since.
Well this week, finally, and with the start of the new financial year, I spent some time re-starting those processes. You’ll probably see some changes in how I present all this information.
I’m conscious that GTD is a bit of a cult, as is the cult of productivity. You can spend more time maintaining your systems than actually achieving anything. But that said, I’ve started moving to use OmniFocus as the core system.
The Week Ahead
Monday and Tuesday should see a new column for ZDNet, the launch of that SEKRIT editorial project I’ve been on about, and all the administrivia that comes with the start of a new financial year.
On Wednesday, I’ll be down in Sydney to discuss how the tech press works with the journalism students at Macleay College. Recently they were graced with the presence of the great Kate McClymont, one of Australia’s finest investigative journalists. She’s a hard act to follow.
The rest of the day contains medical and other appointments in the city.
On Thursday and Friday I’ll do whatever seems best, but at the very least it’ll include a story for ZDNet.
Further Ahead
The next episode of The 9pm Edict podcast will be recorded on Tuesday 25 July at 2100 AEST, and streamed live via stilgherrian.com/edict/live/. You still have time to support this podcast with a one-off contribution.
I had planned to record the pilot episode of a new podcast on Tuesday 11 July, but that will now happen on Thursday 27 July.
On Wednesday 12 July, I’m covering the Data + Privacy Asia Pacific conference in Sydney.
After that, I’m covering the 5th International Conference on Cybercrime and Computer Forensics (ICCCF) on the Gold Coast from 16 to 18 July, although I’ll be staying on an extra day.
Later in the year, I’m covering the national conference of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA) in Sydney from 10 to 12 October; and Ruxcon in Melbourne on 21 to 22 October.
If there’s anything I should add in there, please let me know.
Update 5 July 2017: Edited to reflect schedule changes. Update 16 July 2017: Edited to reflect further schedule changes.
[Photo: Taking off for new adventures. TThe view from an Airbus A330 flying Singapore AIrlines flight SQ173 climbs out of Ho Chi Minh City Airport (SGN) on 6 March 2017.]