My week of Monday 13 to Sunday 19 February 2023 began with me fighting a cold or some other lurgi, but ended with a burst of productivity and the delivery of a client’s big fat document, the one that we’ve been working on for months. I don’t know when you’ll get to see a version of that, but I’m very happy with it.
Crowdfunding update
For a variety of reasons I haven’t placed the order yet, but I’ve decided that the camera I’ll be getting — thanks to all you generous supporters — will be the Sony ZV-E10 with its 16-50mm kit lens and the GP-VPT2BT shooting grip.
This would normally be a more expensive option than allowed for in my budget, but I’ve managed to score discounted prices.
The big advantage of the ZV-E10 over the ZV-1F is that it uses interchangeable lenses, and that means future flexibility. That’ll become important for some projects I’m hoping to tackle next year.
Everything else that was funded via The 9pm Hardware Refresh 2023 has now been delivered. Once I tidy the desk I’ll post some photos.
The dates for the Public House Forum recordings are likely to be Saturday 18 March and Saturday 15 April, but I still need to talk to potential guests so just pencil them in for now.
Update 22 February 2023: The date for the first Public House Forum recording and livestream is now confirmed: Saturday 1 April, a week after the NSW state election, at a pub in the Sydney CBD or near Sydney Central station. Guests will include satirist Mark Humphries and Sydney Morning Herald cartoonist Cathy Wilcox. The second Public House Forum is now likely to be on Saturday 29 April. Stay tuned.
Articles
- Digital developments from Canberra 25, 19 February 2023. This week there’s major progress on privacy law reform, no progress on the online services’ esafety codes, a big tax change, and more. Oh, and some Chinese-made cameras were removed from government offices, while Woolworths installed more cameras in their supermarkets.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning. I’ve just realised that the compilation went out before the post was posted, so I’ll have to fix that.
Podcasts, Videos, Photos, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None of any of these things. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
Recommendations
The main news angles in the Musk-Twitter saga this week were Elon Musk making changes so his tweets get priority, and some drama about SMS-based two-factor authentication.
- Elon Musk reportedly forced Twitter algorithm to boost his tweets after Super Bowl flop, or as Platformer put it, Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first.
- Tim Graham reckons the data supports this claim. There’s more at The Brag and at the Guardian and probably elsewhere.
- Twitter is restricting the use of SMS-based 2FA to paid accounts. Wired reports that it doesn’t make sense from a security standpoint, but I’ve been told it’s because Twitter has been losing $60 million a year to dodgy telcos abusing the SMS process.
And in other news:
- There’s been quite a lot about ChatGPT this week, including A Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled, and ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web.
- There’s also been a lot about balloon shoot-downs, including the reports that Object downed by US missile may have been amateur hobbyists’ $12 balloon.
- I’m pretty sure I’ve told you before about Perun’s videos on defence economics. His latest is Small Drones & Loitering Munitions in Ukraine — The terrifying rise of cheap precision, and it’s very good.
- Dark arts of politics: how ‘Team Jorge’ and Cambridge Analytica meddled in Nigerian election.
- Have a look inside a Soviet-era electro-mechanical space computer, or just appreciate the way it moves. And here’s the blog post they reference, Inside the Globus INK: a mechanical navigation computer for Soviet spaceflight.
- And finally, the first in what looks like a fascinating series from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, The women who made Australian TV Part 1.
The Week Ahead
Monday will feature a day trip to Sydney for the usual variety of tasks. Other than that, the main focus continues to be client work that’s still invisible to you. There’s a chance I might throw in a solo podcast, but we’ll see how we go.
Update 22 February 2023: On Thursday I’ll be in Penrith to get a COVID-19 booster vaccination, bringing my total to five. Hey, my GP recommended it, but I mention it mostly because my Friday will probably be a bit blergh.
Further Ahead
- APRICOT 2023 / APNIC 55, Manila, Philippines and online, 27 February–2 March 2023. I hope to be catching some of this conference online.
- The 9pm Edict recording with Dr Trent Yarwood, 28 February 2023. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please get them to me by 7pm AEDT on Monday 27 February.
- Melbourne visit, 2–7 March 2023. This will include my first flight on any kind of aircraft in just over three years, thanks to the… circumstances. It’ll be interesting. Do let me know if there’s anything happening that I might enjoy.
- Australian International Airshow, Avalon Airport, 5 March 2023. The public event runs 3–5 March but I’m only going on the Sunday.
- Australian Cyber Conference 2023, Canberra, 20–22 March 2023 (TBA).
- NSW state election, 25 March 2023. I’ll definitely do something special for this one.
- NEW DATE: The 9pm Public House Forum 7 livestream and recording, Sydney CBD, 1 April 2023 (TBA).
- The Sydney Dialogue, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, online, 4–5 April 2023.
- NEW DATE: The 9pm Public House Forum 8 livestream and recording, 15 April 2023 (TBA).
- Coronation of Charles III, 6 May 2023, although I have no idea what I’ll actually do about it.
- Truth, Trust and Hope, “a global dialogue on disinformation and the erosion of public understanding and trust in science”, Nobel Prize Outreach, Washington DC and online, 24–26 May 2023.
[Photo: A rose in bloom at the Alexandra Hotel in Leura, photographed on 16 February 2023. I’m not particularly interested in photographing flowers, but this was the only even mildly striking photo I took this week.]