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.
From voting to polished presentations that fail to win business, Dr. Dave argues that tools should serve a purpose. Evil Steve links it to effort.
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Dr. Dave describes finally receiving a $519 cellular credit after about three years, including a $300 rebate that never processed despite repeated follow up. He estimates that the pursuit cost more in time than the money recovered and concludes that, all else being equal, he would avoid purchases that depend on rebates.
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Replacing an infected computer may save time, but what keeps the replacement from suffering the same fate? Dr. Dave and Evil Steve discuss fixing the underlying problem rather than just buying another machine.
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Dr. Dave explains why twenty copies beside the same computer can still be one point of failure: a useful second backup must survive the fire, theft or other event that destroys the first location.
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An accidentally overheard chainsaw conversation and a request to disable errors lead to practical step-by-step troubleshooting. The complete interaction shows humor and patience, with an invitation to call again.
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A proposed partnership between Motorola and Oakley prompts Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to imagine increasingly elaborate connected glasses. Dr. Dave then contrasts the “emerging technology” label with Bluetooth’s six years of promotion and argues that a useful idea should be judged by what it actually delivers.
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Cassius says his computer is slow and that at 94 he is on the wrong side of ninety. The brothers immediately call it the good side, tell him they are proud of him, weigh the smallest useful expense and offer to email him a tailored list rather than pushing another paid product.
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Dr. Dave explains that his setup choices are shaped by helping people later: he tries to install what they will need so they are not stranded by a preventable problem months afterward.
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Having watched the Macintosh arrive, Dr. Dave rejects platform tribalism and says his consistent position is opposition to hype, later declining to manufacture excitement for Internet Explorer before a real beta can be tested.
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A client’s laptop appears to have one complicated network problem but actually has both malware and a disturbed cable; Dr. Dave uses the case to show why a good diagnosis keeps checking simple mechanical connections even after finding a plausible first cause.
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Dr. Dave stops at the top of the show to correct a mistake he made repeatedly the week before: Google could not have sold Skype because eBay owned it. No listener forced the correction; he noticed it himself, apologized and said how foolish the error made him feel.
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A new Facebook feature reminds Dr. Dave and Evil Steve of their own mixer: each improvement can introduce a new glitch. Dr. Dave then punctures the era’s marketing language by translating “cloud” back into the simpler word “Internet.”
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Opening amid a major studio upgrade, Dr. Dave says the same rule applies in radio and computing: an upgrade solves one set of problems and introduces new ones. He asks listeners to bear with the clunky result while sharing the crew’s excitement.
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Dr. Dave cautions that moving data can be more complicated than it sounds. A caller says he knows enough to get into trouble and when to ask a technician for help, earning an enthusiastic endorsement.
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Caller Evil Steve reports mysterious chirps and beeps that may be coming from the power equipment beneath his computer. After carefully separating a battery backup from an ordinary power strip, Dr. Dave suggests using a drinking straw like a simple stethoscope to isolate the sound, then jokes about how the caller can explain crawling around on the floor to his wife.
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Dr. Dave says buyers are often led by impressive features while ignoring downsides that are not measured in dollars, then repeats that even a genuinely good decision has a price or limitation worth facing honestly.
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A television profile of Costco leads Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to praise a values based business that pays employees well and promotes from within. Dr. Dave reduces the lesson to a simple human principle: when a company finds good people and treats them right, it can keep them.
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Reviewing a relaunched broadband service, Dr. Dave says good customer service is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them well. He recalls months spent pressing the provider to consider ordinary customers, warns that a company can be technically right all the way into bankruptcy and reserves judgment until tests survive real homes, growing trees and several months of use.
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Dr. Dave says a new Palm product does not yet appear to solve a real problem for him, but that is precisely why he wants the company on the show. He hopes to test the product, hear its case and be able to say publicly that he was wrong if the evidence changes his view.
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Caller Charles says he copies the earlier exchange into every reply, and Dr. Dave calls that courtesy critically important. With a high volume of correspondence, he cannot remember every conversation from a context-free answer, so including the prior message helps both people understand what is being discussed.
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After withdrawing support for a product he had recommended for months, Dr. Dave explains why one bad result is not automatically a trend. He combines his own testing with reports from clients, listeners and user communities before deciding that advice should change.
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Dr. Dave changes his expectations after trying Fedora, with playful vocabulary banter along the way. Preserve his admission of limited testing and the stated noncritical-use context, rather than presenting this as a blanket recommendation.
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Before explaining a browser change, Dr. Dave describes the care required when revising a recommendation: every program has problems, so one failure alone cannot justify abandoning it. The product names provide historical context for an enduring consulting principle.
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Dr. Dave distinguishes maintaining a computer from running complicated procedures merely because the ritual feels productive, then orders his historical advice by the largest practical gains and diminishing returns.
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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.
