My week of Monday 7 to Sunday 13 December 2020 was remarkable productive even though I spent much of it in Sydney being a little unproductive. Three articles! A podcast! Even some planning!
Also, it’s just 12 days until Christmas. How does that make you feel?
Podcasts
- The 9pm Artificial Intelligence Doom Elevator with Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell AO, recorded on Friday. This is a wonderfully wide-ranging conversation. Enjoy! Also, do check the links on that page for a lot of fun material to follow up, including Genevieve’s six-hour 2017 Boyer Lectures.
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Articles
- Cyber attacks on COVID-19 vaccine production are not quite a war crime, ZDNet, 7 December 2020.
- Christchurch terrorist’s radicalisation shows the limits of surveillance and censorship, ZDNet, 9 December 2020.
- Australian spooks seeking to build a top-secret community cloud, ZDNet, 11 December 2020.
I also did two amusing Twitter threads describing groups of people at the pub. The first was a group of PR types. The second one, which was better, was about a couple of drunk blokes and their friends. There’s also another thread about a certain Queensland sovereign citizen.
You can always read some of my previous writing at Authory, or subscribe to get a weekly compilation by email every Sunday morning.
Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None. Again.
Recommendations
- Yes, the TimeGhostTV Pearl Harbor Minute-by-Minute five-hour livestream was well worth watching, though I didn’t watch it live.
- Jonathan Pie: Live! at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 3 March 2017. It’s from three and a half years ago, but still strangely fresh. It starts at a medium pace and ends manic.
- I’ve just been introduced to the True Facts video series by Ze Frank. Very amuse.
- And to wrap up an all-video set of recommendations this week, Cunk on Christmas (2016), from that wonderful Diane Morgan character, Philomena Cunk.
The Week Ahead
It’s week 39 of the Quarantimes at Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls. I hope to get a bunch of writing done, as well as planning out the next few weeks across Christmas and the New Year.
On Wednesday I should be recording the end-of year wrap episode of The 9pm Edict with an amazing panel who have yet to be locked in — so expect a separate announcement soon. Or one to say it’s been slightly delayed.
Update 14 December 2020: I have been tardy in contacting people. The plan now is to record things over the next ten days and produce the end-of-year wrap for posting in that short week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
On Friday it’s another trip down to Sydney for a medical thing and some errands.
I know I said this last week, but at some point I’ll be receiving the reviewers’ comments on my Carnegie Endowment paper and I’ll knock out the second draft. The annoying thing is that a whole bunch of things have changed so it’ll have to be a substantial rewrite.
Further Ahead
- Linux.conf.au 2021, online, 23–25 January 2021 (TBC).
- Mimecast Connect 2021, online, 25 February 2021.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Canberra, 14–16 March 2021 (TBC).
- AusCERT 2021, Gold Coast and online, 11–13 May 2021 (TBC).
[Photo: An Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen tibicen) photographed at Bunjaree Cottages on 13 December 2020.]