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Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about keeping your email secure. Nothing in email can be truly secure because its sent as plaintext across the Net, but there are steps you can take to make it harder for others to read your mail, and to make mail more usable if you travel.

Read on for my speaking notes or listen to the podcast.
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I’ve just spent a rapt couple of hours in one of my favourite places – Musée Rodin in Paris. I love Rodin’s work because he can evoke such intense emotions using lumps of stone and metal. Here is one of my favourites:

This is the Cariatide à la pierre. A caryatid is an architectural column in the shape of a human figure, and this caryatid has partly collapsed beneath the weight she is carrying. But she’s still struggling to get to her feet, even though she knows it’s hopeless.

The sign by the exhibit says that she represents humankind being crushed by the weight of destiny. It’s part of a larger Rodin work called The Gates of Hell, loosely based on Dante’s Inferno, which explores the extremes of suffering and pleasure.

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about catching people who abuse children and put photos of it on the Internet. In New Zealand, dozens of people are brought before the courts and charged with child porn offences every year. Often, they go to jail.

Read on for my speaking notes, or listen to the podcast. (more…)

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about the technology of biometrics – that’s teaching computers to recognise people by aspects of our bodies such as face geometry. This all seems a little spooky until you realise that fingerprinting has been doing this for years.

There are a lot of different ways that biometrics can be made to work, and I talk about some of them on air. Well-implemented biometrics can be beneficial, but there are some real risks as well. Read on for my notes and links, or pull the podcast.
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It seems that a new cable is to be built between New Zealand and Australia and on to Guam, by Pipe Networks and Kordia. This is excellent news because it provides competition on international cables. Kordia is the State Owned Enterprise formerly known as BCL, and it now owns the retail ISP Orcon, so this move makes sense for them. It also makes sense for New Zealand Internet users.

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I first met John Belgrave at the start of my second career, the one as a public servant. John was at the time the Secretary of Commerce, CE of the then Ministry of Commerce. John was helpful and tolerant of this wild-eyed former private-sector IT developer as I came into government and blundered about, scoring wins and own goals it seemed in equal measure. He was measured, funny, and above all wise.

More recently I have run into John repeatedly in his role as Chief Ombudsman. “Good on you”, he kept telling me, as I was advocating the regulation of Telecom. “Stand up for the right thing.”

And that’s what John always did. He stood up for the right thing. He fearlessly forced the government to release embarrassing figures in the last week of an election campaign. He has been a check on government departments and a voice for the little person, the disenfranchised. He was there for the family of Liam Ashley who were so badly let down by the justice system.

John was a public servant in the true sense of the term. He well deserved the honour he received in New Year’s honours this year. New Zealand will miss him.

I will miss him.