Monday 19 to Sunday 25 April 2021 has been strange for me. Introspective, but not just in a nostalgic way. It’s hard to explain. Maybe it’s lingering mood changes from the recent brain meds adjustment. Maybe it’s the weather. Oh well. I still got some things done.
Before I get down to business, let me plug “the other business”. My dumb podcasts and livestreams are possible because you, dear audience, contribute to my upkeep. The revenue from my other work has been a bit thin in the last three months, so if you’ve never chucked a few dollars into one of my crowdfunding streams then this one of the best times to consider it. Please do so.
My Pozible campaign The 9pm More Autumn Series 2021 is running until 9pm AEST on Tuesday night 27 April.
Videos
- The 8pm Quiz S02 E03, finally livestreamed on Tuesday night. The technical problems that plagued the original attempt were solved, but for some reason the video of me is really poor. I think that’s because I was streaming over a less than adequate 4G link. I really need to be living in a proper city, perhaps a proper country, but that’s a project for the future.
Podcasts, Articles, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None of any of these things. You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to get a compilation of new stories by email each Sunday morning, when there are some.
Recommendations
If you find these links useful please let me know. They don’t take long to compile, but I’m always looking for ways to save time.
- I helped build ByteDance’s censorship machine. “I wasn’t proud of it, and neither were my coworkers. But that’s life in today’s China,” says a pseudonymous former employee.
- The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed. It’s from 2014, but this remains one of the best stories on the soul-crushing world of content moderation, where low-wage laborers [sic] soak up the worst of humanity”.
- Welcome to Popping Tins. “This is a newsletter about tinned seafood; in its inaugural issue, Bela-Olhão Lightly Smoked Sardines in Olive Oil are reviewed.”
- Meet the Teen Who Hates 432 Park More Than Anyone, which is a nice story about a focused annoyance with one specific building.
- Slow Burn is a podcast I’ve probably plugged before, especially for its initial series on the Watergate crisis. The premise is that historical events aren’t moments in time but slowly-evolving crises, and eight episodes on Watergate proved just that in 2018. I loved their series on Bill Clinton’s impeachment too. I’ve just come back to it for the 2019 series on the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. and it’s a lot deeper than I’d realised, exploring the ongoing political war against rap music. I’m looking forward to the following two series on KKK leader David Duke and America’s road to the Iraq War.
- It’s finally here after years of work: a WORLD map of night trains!, which is what it says it is.
The Week Ahead
The week will start in Sydney and end back in the Blue Mountains. Writing on Monday plus a medical thing; errands and back up the Hill on Tuesday to wrap up The 9pm More Autumn Series 2021; and more writing on Wednesday. No, I really will get some writing done.
On Wednesday I’ll also try to catch a FireEye webcast, UNC2682 and SonicWall Email Security Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Exploited.
On Thursday I’ll try to catch The global challenge: Building resilient citizens in an age of disinformation from the United States Study Centre, but we’ll see.
This is also the week when I lock in everything that needs to happen in May and June. Yes, not long until the end of the financial year and there’ll be a’reckoning.
Further Ahead
- AusCERT 2021, Gold Coast and online, 11–13 May 2021. I’ll be attending online.
- The 8pm Quiz S02 E04, 20 May 2021, so yes it’s back to the plan of it being on the third Thursday of the month.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne, 15–17 November 2021 (TBC).
- The 8pm Quiz S02 E05, 17 June 2021.
[Photo: The clocktower at Sydney Central station, photographed on 22 April 2021. In autumn the setting sun gives the sandstone such a beautiful orange glow.]