DaveMason.com
ComputerTalk with Dave Mason
The official archive of all available ComputerTalk with Dave Mason radio shows. Spend some time with Dave. Listen to a full show or explore clips by topic.
3,475 unique clips. Each clip appears in one section. Historical conversations, not current advice. Full episodes remain available separately by date.
562 clips, strongest first.
Before iPhone OS 4, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve explain why third-party multitasking was a conspicuous omission despite capable hardware, while an “annoy a teen” joke captures the era’s app culture.
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A reported Swedish online bank theft leads Dr. Dave to explain that internet threats were no longer merely pranks and increasingly involved organized crime. He balances the warning with the view that informed people can still use the Internet safely.
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Dr. Dave agrees with a prediction that the Internet will transform television, reflects on how online media had already pressured newspapers and says Computer Talk intends to put its own show online. The passage captures the program thinking aloud about the media transition it would become part of.
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Hulu’s possible move to paid access prompts Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to consider how low pricing, tiers and user choice might make subscriptions acceptable to an audience accustomed to free content.
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Before the Nintendo Wii reached American stores, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve describe moving the controller itself and say the interaction feels surprisingly natural because it fits the way people think and move. The exchange captures their early reaction to a major change in mainstream game design.
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Vivaldi founder Jon von Tetzchner tells Dr. Dave that returning to browser development required a large personal financial risk, but mainstream products had moved too far toward minimal functionality. His new project would serve users who required more and had opinions about how their tools should work, supported by carefully chosen search and content partnerships.
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A report about a television station disabled by missed Windows updates reminds Dr. Dave of moving his own station from an old cart-based facility into a gorgeous computerized building. Despite having the latest equipment, he says, it took roughly a year and a half to iron out the problems.
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Dr. Dave and Evil Steve identify both the appeal and the business challenge of early Twitter: its brevity keeps communication fast but also shortens visits and attention. That experience conflicts with advertisers’ need for people to linger, participate and notice what is being promoted.
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Dr. Dave reacts to Amazon remotely removing previously purchased electronic copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, comparing it to a bookstore entering a customer's home, taking back a book and leaving a refund.
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Dr. Dave calls Amazon’s push for easier retail packaging trivial-sounding but important, connecting shoplifting-resistant plastic to the scissors, snips and even saws legitimate buyers needed just to reach a product.
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At the close of the show, Dr. Dave reports AMD’s agreement to acquire ATI and considers how combining processor, chipset and graphics expertise might lead to more integrated designs. The segment captures the announcement before its longer term effect was known.
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While explaining that online attacks had become organized crime, Dr. Dave describes a peer's recovery case in which someone encrypted a hard drive and demanded money for the key. The 2007 account is an early snapshot of the ransomware problem reaching data-recovery professionals.
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During news of AOL layoffs and the closure of its Tucson call center, Dr. Dave explains that former subscribers could finally keep their AOL email addresses without continuing to pay. He treats the policy change as evidence that people had learned AOL was not the Internet and that competing ways to connect were available.
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Dr. Dave and Evil Steve mark thirty years since Apple began as a tiny startup and trace the company from blue boxes and the costly Lisa to the iPod. Dr. Dave says the audacity to risk an expensive graphical computer and the combination of strong products, marketing, engineering and design made Apple both profitable and culturally important.
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With Apple newly valued above half a trillion dollars and another iPad announcement approaching, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve capture the company at a striking 2012 turning point. Dr. Dave wonders whether the expected iPad 3 might instead become an incremental release, comparing the uncertainty with the iPhone 4S launch.
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Dr. Dave reports Apple placing a broad MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup in Best Buy, a departure from relying mainly on its own stores, online sales and specialists. He sees the move as a sign of inventory confidence and a way to reach shoppers who would never enter an Apple store during the back to school season.
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Days after Apple reported extraordinary iPhone-era results and just before Facebook filed for its public offering, Dr. Dave captures both companies at a historical turning point. He admires Apple’s design, products, marketing and reputation, compares Facebook’s expected valuation with Gateway’s earlier rise and ends by asking what economic value and production really mean.
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As Windows XP sales approach their announced end, Kyle asks whether he should buy a spare copy. Dr. Dave distinguishes Kyle from the average user, explains why his own repair work justifies keeping copies and then evaluates the early Windows 7 discussion as Microsoft's attempt to move beyond Vista, even questioning whether the stated 2009 schedule will hold.
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As reports describe Bill Gates leaving Microsoft, Dr. Dave insists that the important distinction is between leaving and reducing daily involvement. He predicts that Gates will remain Mr. Microsoft and continue shaping the company even after changing his formal role.
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RadioTime founder Bill Moore remembers starting in the difficult aftermath of September 11 and learning through a long early struggle that organizing live radio could be more valuable than treating the service only as a recorder.
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As Microsoft previews the Xbox successor, Dr. Dave focuses on the need to win developers and deliver games people want rather than merely impressive hardware. He connects that strategy to Microsoft’s persistence and ability to improve until it catches competitors.
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Website recommendation becomes an enthusiastic discussion of a major private-spaceflight milestone and why the brothers think it deserves more attention.
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As major video game budgets rise, Dr. Dave describes John Carmack’s idea of testing concepts first as smaller and less expensive cell phone games. A successful mobile version could reveal audience demand before a studio risked the money required for a full scale release, anticipating later relationships between mobile experimentation and larger game development.
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Dr. Dave examines eBay’s multibillion dollar purchase of Skype only a few years after Skype began and before it had posted a profit. He understands the value of communication in an online transaction but sees the price relative to revenue as an echo of the Internet bubble.
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Browse by year, then month, to find the episodes from that month.
442 proposed broadcast dates, plus 2 undated entries. Dates are based on archive filenames and may be approximate. Some broadcasts survive as separate parts or incomplete recordings.
