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.
1414 clips, strongest first.
Dr. Dave distills his consulting philosophy into a refusal to recommend or reject technology for brand identity alone: the right choice is the one that improves a person’s productivity, value and ability to do what matters.
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Dr. Dave introduces a favorite consulting rule: no matter what people say, the issue is often a people problem. Communications and data can be damaged by technology, but the decisive solution may depend on handling the human dynamics around ownership, management and office behavior.
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A report about attackers manipulating employees leads Dr. Dave to an old consulting maxim he once resisted: no matter what the symptoms suggest, technology problems ultimately involve people. People design the hardware, write and implement the software, create passwords and make the decisions, making human judgment both the vulnerability and the defense.
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A favorite consulting book gives Dr. Dave language for what three decades of work taught him: technical tools matter, but failures and attacks ultimately turn on human behavior. He applies the idea to phishing without blaming the people whose credentials may have been stolen.
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Dr. Dave warns that a person can make backups faithfully and still discover that the only backup is unusable. He recommends multiple versions and explains why an ideal plan keeps at least one copy away from the building in case the local system and its backup are lost together.
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A caller’s catch-22 reminds Dr. Dave of modem boxes that advertised round-the-clock online support, even though a broken modem made that support unreachable.
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Microsoft Office’s changing interface leads Dr. Dave to explain why making software powerful and making it easy to use can pull designers in opposite directions.
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During a product interview, Dr. Dave summarizes a standard that outlasts the service being discussed: the technology industry is full of hype, while Computer Talk has spent nearly seventeen years looking for practical tools that make a difference when people are trying to get real work done.
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A third-party program that bypasses iTunes copy protection prompts Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to discuss why high-profile companies attract challenges. Dr. Dave argues that even when the immediate issue will not stop the world, pressure can force Apple, Microsoft and other dominant companies to think and improve.
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Discussing attempts to manipulate search results, Dr. Dave says any human system can be manipulated and warns that reacting to every bad actor can consume all the time needed to keep a useful service running. The observation extends beyond the specific Google example into a durable tradeoff between defense and productive work.
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Dr. Dave distinguishes the show’s approach from sponsor-driven press-release reporting. His advice comes from helping real people on ordinary systems where years of software, data and imperfect conditions make results different from a clean test computer.
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While introducing an unusual security guest, Dr. Dave explains that the show does not chase technical fashion or controversy for its own sake. Its purpose is helping real people use real computers in the real world.
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A specific sale becomes a broader lesson: a small, limited computer works well when it is used for its intended purpose, but disappoints when people gradually demand that it replace a full laptop.
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Dr. Dave recounts a routine drive upgrade that failed without warning, explains why his policy was to absorb the recovery work, reports recovering the data and admits the final solution remained an educated guess.
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Dr. Dave explains why a security company’s willingness to invest in user education impressed him: protective software is important, but the way people act online remains a central part of protecting a computer and personal information.
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The Here You Have worm gives Dr. Dave a familiar consulting lesson: organizations can spend heavily on defenses, but people still need working email and internet access, and a user who volunteers to open the malicious file can bypass those protections.
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Dr. Dave contrasts crowded portals with Google’s ability to manage vast complexity while presenting a clean interface, explaining why Chrome’s underlying design philosophy feels naturally aligned with his own.
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After the Evernote interview, Dr. Dave explains why the software stands out to him: its simplicity disguises its power. He prefers programs that feel easy and do everything needed over products with so many features or rigid design assumptions that users become overwhelmed and stop using them.
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Dr. Dave admits that even he becomes busy and impatient enough to click through a prompt, using that honesty to explain why slowing down before an unexpected download is one of the most important security habits.
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Dr. Dave describes a Google experiment in which two interface boxes look nearly identical, yet the slightly bolder version attracts far more clicks. He and Evil Steve turn the result into a practical design lesson: tiny shifts in emphasis, spacing and visual weight can materially change how people respond.
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Digital cameras and processors become examples of why a bigger number is not automatically better. Dr. Dave explains that comparison requires understanding what a specification measures, while joking that the confusion keeps his Saturday show alive.
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Asked what Dr. Dave’s Data Recovery does with a failed drive, Dr. Dave refuses to predict any individual result from general statistics. He explains that the work begins with the simplest and least expensive logical possibility, escalates to physical repair only when required and may still demand human reconstruction of filenames, folders and raw data.
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Dr. Dave says the user and support professional share responsibility for solving a problem. He explains that calmly admitting uncertainty can disarm tension and invite help, while beginning with anger makes a good human support experience much less likely.
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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.
