Monday 4 to Sunday 10 April 2022 was another productive week. A good podcast. A good written article. And, despite a long day out in Sydney on Saturday, some new projects are in the offing. Even La Niña couldn’t bring down my mood. And then the election campaign kicked off.
Yes, there’s a six-week election campaign, and the election itself will be on Saturday 21 May 2022. May God have mercy on our souls.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Hacker History and Looming Election Doomscape with Greg Muller, the journalist who produced the excellent podcast series Motherlode. This was recorded on Wednesday and posted on Friday.
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Articles
- Fighting crime doesn’t justify mandatory data retention: European Court of Justice, ZDNet, 7 April 2022. This is a fascinating decision with obvious implications for Australia — if we can be bothered paying attention.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Photos
- The photos in the Waratah sequence 2021 now span 222 days. Progress continues to be very slow.
Media Appearance, Videos, Corporate Largesse
None. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
There may be more videos in the near future. I’ve obtained a pair of cheap wildlife cameras, which are triggered by movement and can shoot at night. I’ve started a Twitter thread to record my first week of experiments.
Recommendations
- Mushrooms communicate with each other using up to 50 ‘words’, scientist claims, although to be fair some people have claimed to hear the mushrooms talking for years.
- The Conversation has kicked off a federal election podcast series, Below the Line.
- Fear and Loathing of the English Passive with Prof Geoffrey K Pullum is a lovely little six-video series from a great linguist. Watch it. You might learn something.
- Computing scientists and mathematicians might also enjoy Pullum’s Scooping the Loop Snooper: A proof that the Halting Problem is undecidable, written in the style of Dr Seuss.
- Being Chinese in Australia: Public Opinion in Chinese Communities, some new research from the Lowy Institute.
- The latest video from TwoSet Violin is titled Smash or Pass: Classical Composer Edition and contains a lot to think about.
The Week Ahead
It’s the short week before Easter, but the current main themes continue: the SEKRIT geek-work, editorial consulting, and possibly some writing for ZDNet.
On Monday I”ll try to catch Artificial Intelligence — Your questions answered from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
On Thursday I’ll record the first of my brief election special episodes of The 9pm Edict podcast. I’m not sure exactly what will be in the format. That’s one of my tasks for this week. But if you have any suggestions for segments then please let me know.
The current working title is The 9pm Election Hingeometer, and I’m thinking of producing an episode each Thursday. But I haven’t made any decisions yet. Stay tuned.
Update 12 April 2022: Friday kicks off the four-day long weekend for Easter, and the following weekend is the long weekend for Anzac Day. Three four-day weeks in a row, though I haven’t planned anything at all for the holidays. I don’t know what I’ll do yet.
Further Ahead
- Akamai’s Security Summit 2022, Sydney and online, 20 April 2022 (TBC). I’ll be taking the online option. I’m still edgy about conferences.
- The 9pm Edict recording with John Birmingham, 22 April 2022. If you’re a podcast supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC to insert into the episode then please let me know by 8pm AEST on Thursday 21 April.
- Aaron Chen at the Enmore Theatre, 5 May 2022.
- AusCERT 2022, Gold Coast, 10–13 May 2022 (TBC).
- Australian Cyber Conference 2022 Canberra, Canberra, 31 May to 2 June 2022 (TBC).
- Nigel Ng’s The Haiyaa World Tour, Enmore Theatre, 9 June 2022.
- NetThing: Australia’s Internet Community Forum, online, 27–28 October 2022 (TBC).
[Photo: The election has been called. Cheers! That’s a fresh glass of The Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz, photographed on 10 April 2022 as Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the 2022 federal election.]