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Today on Radio New Zealand National I’m gonig to talk about several things, including ACTA, copyright and, of course, Pompeii. My main topic will be about what it means to be a geek. You can read my speaker notes below.

I’ll be on air after the 11am news. After the broadcast you’ll be able to download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

Today on Radio New Zealand National after the 11am news I talk about ACTA, the secret treaty being negotiated by your government that has the potential to take away your rights. It’s worth getting angry about. You can see my speaking notes below the fold, read my blog post about it at Public Address, or after the broadcast you’ll be able to download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

Today on Radio New Zealand National I’ll talk about how computers are programmed. Getting started may be easier than you think! There’s a conference for may favourite language, Python, in Christchurch next month. And, as usual, I’ll have a few other nuggets from the world of technology.

You can listen in live after the 11am news, or after the broadcast you can download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

Today on Radio New Zealand National at 11:05 I talk about the Internet and the death of newspapers – is this real or is it just another request for corporate welfare?

You can read on for my speaking notes, or after about 11:30 today you can download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

Today on Radio New Zealand National at 11:05 I talk about a lot of things, but my main topic is the Rapture of the Nerds – or, rather the technological singularity (as more sober commentators describe it). Who knew that it, like so much of modern computing, came out of Bletchley Park?

You can read on for my speaking notes, or after the broadcast you can download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talk about the mobile wars – the new Telecom XT Network, the new “Two Degrees” mobile company, and the existing Vodafone network. What are we to make of all the hype, the court cases and the bluster?

Read on for my speaking notes or download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

Today on Radio New Zealand National I’m going to talk about several different things. One of them is how technology changes our language. Read on for my speaker notes or download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

This week on Radio New Zealand National I talk about the Colossus computers built by the British during the second world war. They were the first computer that we would recognise today as a general data-processing machine, and to compare one with a modern server room you wouldn’t think that computers had changed that much. Apart from the rows of glowing valves and the streams of high-speed paper tape, that is.

Read on for my speaking notes or download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

I’m overseas on business this week and the next, so I won’t be doing my regular Radio New Zealand slot. The good news is that Nathan Torkington has agreed to do it. Nathan’s a great guy – you’ll like him.

A few weeks ago I blogged about writing a little program to make my life easier. (The entries are here and here.) In summary, this program automates the messy but easy administrative task of editing links to the sound files of my radio programs into their respective blog entries.
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