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.
Carol’s computer reports a missing system file and she may have only a manufacturer recovery partition. Dr. Dave warns that the wrong menu choice could wipe every program and personal file, while a repair path may preserve the existing installation and its data.
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When caller Tom asks whether a PDF can be made viewable but impossible to print, Dr. Dave refuses to pretend certainty. He says plainly that he does not know, explains the limit of his current knowledge and promises to research the question during the break.
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A supposedly sophisticated interception of an FBI and Scotland Yard call turns out to depend on an ordinary conference invitation forwarded to a compromised personal email account. Dr. Dave then applies the same skeptical observer’s eye to a client account reset and reaches his durable conclusion: authorized people and weak procedures often expose information that technology itself protected.
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Robert asks how to get past a Linux password. Dr. Dave explains that even if he knew the exact bypass, he could not responsibly broadcast it without knowing who was asking, and moves the conversation to a private follow-up with specific system details.
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Dr. Dave advises Tony to pause and reconstruct what changed, then openly admits that the caller has already tried every step he would suggest and asks Tony to educate him if an answer turns up. After the break, Dr. Dave says he followed his own advice, relaxed and thought of a possible fix.
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Caller Bill says the antivirus recommendations Dr. Dave just gave are missing from DaveMason.com and that an older product remains listed. Dr. Dave checks the page on air, admits the problem, thanks Bill for pointing it out and promises to update the shared resource that afternoon.
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Dr. Dave says people and consultants can waste time installing tools that yield little real benefit. If old or unused programs remain after new ones are added, the most effective optimization may be removing the pile of optimization packages that has itself become counterproductive.
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Using Windows 8 as the major historical example, Dr. Dave explains that attorneys, dentists, doctors and other professionals could not simply adopt a fashionable new interface when expensive specialized software and ordinary spreadsheet or document work still shaped their day. His answer to an anonymous caller starts with her actual work rather than promising a quick universal fix.
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A week old Mac has already required manual removal of a stuck disc and still has a bad display. Dr. Dave admits he cannot diagnose the display remotely and advises an immediate store exchange so the caller does not lose the simple return option while spending weeks troubleshooting.
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Caller Tom imagines using Walmart’s store and truck network to move purchases between eBay buyers and sellers, cutting the cost of small deliveries while bringing both parties into stores. Dr. Dave is impressed by the caller’s sustained thought and by the scale of the distribution system behind the idea.
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Arthur asks which software might recover a fried hard drive. Dr. Dave first separates a noisy drive from a quiet logical failure: if it makes noise, do nothing and send it out; if it remains readable, a careful tool may help, but uncertainty is itself a warning because the wrong action can make the loss much worse.
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Answering an email about an Internet provider requesting access, Dr. Dave draws a clear line between the provider's modem and the customer's private local network. He compares it to a driveway: the house and garage are yours, while the world becomes public once the driveway crosses the sidewalk.
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Caller Rudy describes a disk check that repeats at every startup. Dr. Dave recognizes the likely cause but chooses to send numbered written instructions because that will make an error by either of them less likely, showing that reliable help matters more to him than improvising a complicated fix on the air.
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After an interview about a malware incident, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve argue that hiding a known problem prevents everyone from learning, creates distance from users and turns a technical failure into dishonesty and irresponsibility.
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Dr. Dave credits tenacity rather than brilliance for difficult repair work, then explains that his own toolkit contains hundreds of programs accumulated through experience. Listeners should assess themselves honestly before using powerful tools; admitting beginner status is not failure but an intelligent safety decision.
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In a period of rapid tablet releases, Dr. Dave rejects buying a new device as a short-lived novelty. Spending hundreds of dollars, he says, should be an intelligent decision about something that will receive real use rather than another incremental upgrade bought for fun.
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While advising a company choosing a new telephone system, Dr. Dave makes the executives slow down and ask the employees who answer the calls what actually works. Otherwise, he warns, users may receive an unsuitable system and then be blamed for failing to use it well.
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Dr. Dave says a technology gift should match the recipient’s ability and interest rather than the giver’s wish list. A complete gift should also include the cable, storage or support needed to use it instead of quietly handing its recipient extra expense and work.
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Dr. Dave explains that before spending hours changing a client's equipment, he first checks whether an outside provider already knows about a problem on its side. He also admits that professional distance helps him stay calmer on a client's behalf than he might be while repairing his own system.
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Dr. Dave says hard times can force businesses to improve, but refuses to center the companies themselves: their purpose is to serve customers, and those that continue to miss that fact may disappear.
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Dr. Dave says rapid technology churn can turn customers into involuntary beta testers: products may be replaced just as they become dependable, while consumers’ own appetite for novelty helps drive the cycle.
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Evil Steve asks listeners to count the search, ordering, setup and cleanup time behind a supposedly cheaper do-it-yourself refill. Dr. Dave deliberately assigns an unrealistically low hourly value to make the comparison conservative, then shows how one failure can erase the entire saving—a concise example of judging total cost instead of sticker price.
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After a guest microphone gives the opening an echo, Dr. Dave asks to start again because he wants the archived show to sound complete and regular. The second introduction begins immediately, preserving his attention to how listeners would hear the program later.
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A concrete support-site frustration becomes a clear statement that websites should serve outsiders and customers rather than the company’s own organization. Discovered outside retrieval hits.
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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.
