June 25, 2011
This June 25, 2011 show captures Dr. Dave and Evil Steve near Computer Talk’s twentieth anniversary, joking that the old commercials remain because listeners enjoy the nostalgia. Dr. Dave’s Ubuntu experiment becomes a historical measure of how close desktop Linux had come to ordinary use, but his most revealing point is methodological: he has to filter his own experience through the knowledge that he is not the average user. That same human-centered standard shapes his advice about security warnings—software that overwhelms people until they approve everything may be less protective in practice than a theoretically weaker tool they can understand. The program also preserves Dr. Dave’s concern about technological mob action, his belief that questioning authority still needs moral limits and his recurring insistence that technical excellence alone cannot make a product succeed.
Proposed air date. The available recordings may not contain the entire broadcast.
More than one recording version is preserved for this date. They are kept separate to avoid playing the same material twice.
Listen to the preserved parts
8 parts, 95:09 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: hour recordings
2 recordings · 106:13 total within this version.
Numbered positions are present in sequence. This alone does not prove the show is complete.
Regular show: segments
8 recordings · 95:09 total within this version.
Numbered positions are present in sequence. This alone does not prove the show is complete.