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 says his work is strongest when times are tough: sometimes the best purchase is no purchase, and free software is worth recommending only when it genuinely works rather than merely because it costs nothing.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave says extended warranties are usually poor value but makes a reasoned exception for an expensive computer whose included phone support ends after ninety days. He compares the multi year support price with only one or two hours of technician time and considers the likely cost of a single hardware failure.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave remembers trying to bring Steve Jobs onto Computer Talk. Jobs would agree only if the conversation stayed entirely on NeXT and threatened to hang up if Apple or his earlier work came up; Dr. Dave refused because listeners deserved the full historical story, then reflects on Jobs’s unusual habit of severing himself from the past.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Using Dell as his example, Dr. Dave explains how repeated small cost reductions can appear harmless until their combined effect crosses a threshold and changes product quality. His recommendation then depends less on naming a permanent best manufacturer than on judging which choice will cost the user least in time and frustration.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
During a discussion of the NeXT computer, Dr. Dave recalls trying to book Steve Jobs and refusing a condition that would have limited the interview to that product, a concise example of Dr. Dave guarding his independence as a host.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave links sharply falling computer prices to the disappearance of genuinely useful technical support, then describes calling Linksys only to be told that its networking support did not support networking. He uses the absurd exchange to explain why even an experienced consultant often solves a problem while waiting rather than through the representative.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
A fake announcement for colorful gaming-computer cases convinces Dr. Dave that the company has accidentally found a real unmet market, leading him and Evil Steve to see April Fools announcements as low-risk trial balloons for ideas people may actually want.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
While a critical firewall update is causing failures, Dr. Dave says a company does not need to pretend that it has an immediate solution. It does need to respond, acknowledge the problem, explain that people are working on it and avoid leaving customers to assume the worst in silence.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave and Evil Steve connect the quality of technical support to incentives. When the customer pays for a long distance support call instead of the manufacturer paying a toll free charge, they argue that the company has less reason to answer promptly.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave withholds a recommendation until he knows how the manufacturer will support ordinary customers. A concrete example of judging a computer by more than its specifications and price.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave deliberately installs the Windows 7 beta on an old, modest laptop and reports the surprising result while separating genuine early promise from permission to trust unfinished software on an essential machine.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave explains that shared specifications do not make two products identical and states the professional response to a substitution: contact the purchaser, explain the circumstances and give that person a real opportunity to say yes or no.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
A caller asks whether the suggested tools work on a trial version of Windows Vista. Dr. Dave stresses that unfinished software is labeled beta for a reason, jokes about Vista’s long download and heavy graphics, and advises against relying on it when the goal is a usable everyday computer.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Before a caller replaces a new computer's operating system, Dr. Dave insists on creating the restoration discs and gathering every hardware driver. The lasting principle is explicit: before a consequential change, preserve a safe route back in case the need ever arises.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Discussing online safety, Dr. Dave says protective hardware and software matter but behavior matters just as much. His driving analogy makes the principle concrete: even the safest car and every available airbag cannot overcome deliberately reckless driving.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
After strong quarterly Apple results, Dr. Dave objects to charging MacBook owners a small fee merely to enable wireless capability already built into their computers. He stresses that the amount is not the point; the principle and the feeling it creates for customers are what matter.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Chrome leaving beta prompts Dr. Dave to explain why technically sophisticated products often serve people best through a simple interface, even while he declines to recommend this first release.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave pushes back on fashionable brand loyalties and explains why market share, attacker incentives and undiscovered vulnerabilities make simplistic claims that one operating system cannot be attacked unreliable.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
After a television host publishes his bank details to dismiss privacy fears and someone uses them to create a direct debit, Dr. Dave draws a broader security lesson. Holding an opinion is one thing, but publicly declaring that an attack can never happen gives a determined person a reason to focus solely on proving the claim wrong.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Caller Annette jokes that a Windows 8 system restore took fourteen years, then reveals that despite working around electronics she had to search the web to learn how to turn the machine off. Dr. Dave uses the experience to ask how an interface advertised as easier could hide basic actions from knowledgeable people.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Caller Tom asks whether the hype around Windows Longhorn reaches the ankles, knees or chin and whether buyers should wait. Dr. Dave says people should buy a computer when they need one rather than struggle for an operating system that was still far away and had already lost its once central WinFS feature.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Jim returns with the full address of the unfamiliar download membership he discussed the previous week. Dr. Dave checks the site during the break, explains exactly what he can and cannot verify, reviews the hidden ownership information, reinforces the charge dispute and patiently walks the new user through separating the software from the questionable service.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Longtime listener Julie tells Dr. Dave that his show has helped her greatly and asks where to find written instructions for Microsoft Word. Dr. Dave explains that software makers removed large manuals because they could intimidate users, while recognizing that some people learn best from a book and recommending a beginner guide without talking down to her.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Jay’s question gets a nuanced answer about simplicity, flexibility and friends as a support resource. More meaningful than a blanket brand endorsement.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
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.
