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 is unusually impressed by a prerelease Windows version but hesitates to say so after years of counseling caution, openly worrying that a later Microsoft change could make his early enthusiasm look foolish.
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When clients ask for the best computer money can buy, Dr. Dave refuses the empty superlative and asks the useful question first: what do you actually need it to do? Without requirements and a budget there is no meaningful “best,” because one can always add more processors, memory and cost.
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Dr. Dave explains that his first question to anyone buying a computer is not which model they like but what they need the machine to accomplish, followed by any unusual performance needs and the budget available.
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A caller asks where files go after the recycle bin is emptied. Dr. Dave explains that the operating system frees their space without immediately erasing every underlying bit, why later data may overwrite a new or old deletion unpredictably and how defragmentation can reduce the chance of recovery.
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Dr. Dave explains the question behind his advice: beyond a journalist’s story or a company’s preferred message, what does a product do in ordinary life and what happens on its bad days? He applies that same anti-hype standard to Linux, acknowledging both its flexibility and the confusion a new user will face.
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Dr. Dave asks what an operating system is fundamentally designed to help a person accomplish. Looking at Windows 8 and contemporary app lists, he argues that powerful computers were being reframed around entertainment instead of school, business, organization and productive work, and he refuses to call that automatic progress.
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Dr. Dave reduces a long backup discussion to a durable resilience rule: no service, device or technique should be treated as infallible, so important information needs an independent fallback.
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Dr. Dave identifies a practical conflict of interest: protecting a media catalog so aggressively that customers cannot easily use the product—and in his example cannot even move recordings of their own voices—means the company’s priorities no longer coincide with the user’s.
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Remembering early Bluetooth phones, Dr. Dave warns that a feature promoted before purchase may be removed or disabled by delivery. Whatever the manufacturer's explanation, the customer is left with three imperfect choices: return the phone, change service providers or live with less than was sold.
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Dr. Dave says personal finance programs can disable important online functions after a fixed support period and force customers to upgrade. What appears to be a software purchase is therefore only a down payment on a recurring subscription whose renewal interval is hidden in the product life cycle.
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Dr. Dave remembers warning during the dot-com boom that companies eventually had to make money, even while Internet startups were treated as automatic successes. He adds an important check on his own certainty: when the crowd and his judgment sharply diverge, he asks where he may be missing something.
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Discussing duplicate PayPal withdrawals and deposits, Dr. Dave says a financial service cannot hide behind vague explanations or a third party. When a company handles someone’s money, customers deserve direct answers, responsibility and a prompt remedy rather than games, delays or excuses.
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Dr. Dave explains how a legitimate old installation disc or otherwise reliable computer can become difficult to repair when its maker tied software and replacement parts to a proprietary configuration. A power supply that looks standard but uses different connections illustrates the hidden cost that appears years after the purchase.
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Even an MIT trained engineer and former Apple executive hired help to install a home network, giving Dr. Dave a way to challenge advertising that promises computers will always be easy. Technology can be fun but difficult, help may be necessary and his central rule is to step away once frustration takes over because continuing in that state creates new problems.
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Dr. Dave weighs individual responsibility against the role of Internet providers when infected customer machines overwhelm a network. Recalling months of pressing a Sprint executive, he asks when falling sales, outages, support calls and long waits make a supposedly individual problem the provider’s responsibility too.
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The Oracle and HP dispute reminds Dr. Dave of a problem he had seen for decades: hardware and software companies blaming each other while the customer is left without an answer.
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Pat asks how to recover files from a computer locked by a child’s password. Dr. Dave says the problem can be solved but refuses to explain the bypass over the air, preferring a private follow up because he cannot know who else might use the same instructions.
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Dr. Dave says the first wireless networking mistake is choosing equipment before understanding the building and radio environment. Open rooms, adobe or metal framed walls, mirrors, aquariums, appliances, cordless phones and neighboring devices can matter as much as the number printed on the box.
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Dr. Dave says that any product eventually shows problems across enough people and machines, so a practical standard is not perfection but how simple, elegant and disruptive its workarounds are.
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Dr. Dave assesses Linux according to the person who must use it, not ideological loyalty. He acknowledges improvements and separates his own hobbyist testing from advice to ordinary users.
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A report about repeated hard drive failures prompts Dr. Dave to reassure listeners that people commonly believe they are alone in losing important data or struggling with viruses, cost and time. His consulting experience tells him those frustrations are shared widely, even as cheaper hardware changes expectations.
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Dr. Dave uses his own Linux and printer setup to explain that no choice is perfect: a new system replaces familiar weaknesses with unfamiliar ones. He also challenges the casual advice to “just reinstall,” because forgotten applications, settings and dependencies often reappear only when they are urgently needed.
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When people ask how he works on cars or computers, Dr. Dave says he does not dwell on how hard the job is or what it should require. He accepts the task as it is, does what it takes and becomes good at it, a compact statement of the persistence behind his consulting work.
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When a computer maker ends free shipping, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve say buyers must compare the total bargain rather than one advertised feature. A very low price may be balanced by weaker support, a shorter warranty or shipping charges, so the cost has merely moved rather than disappeared.
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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.
