August 12, 2006
Adobe Flash product manager Mike Downey traces Flash from a stylus sketching program through the browser distribution decision that solved its audience problem, a sabbatical experiment that led to web video, YouTube adoption and predictions of rich media on mobile phones. Dr. Dave separately looks back at the Kaypro 2, Radio Shack Model 100 and Apple II and concludes that the good old days of personal computing are now, even though the old machines remain historically fascinating. A stolen government laptop leads him to warn that once personal data is released it cannot be recalled, while a data recovery caller hears his full philosophy of deciding the data’s real value and protecting it from well meaning but damaging experimentation. The episode also shows Dr. Dave’s service principles as he connects knowledgeable retail help with genuine passion, explains why apparently identical computers can behave differently and refuses to broadcast password bypass instructions without knowing who would use them.
Proposed air date. Local archive preview only. Complete-episode verification is still pending.
Listen to the preserved parts
8 parts, 79:00 total. All preserved transcript parts in this selection have been reviewed for content and sequence. The archive includes show breaks; this is not a verified uninterrupted recording. The air date remains proposed.
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Recordings preserved for this date
Regular show: segments
8 recordings · 79:00 total within this version.
Numbered positions are present in sequence. This alone does not prove the show is complete.