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.
439 clips, strongest first.
With Dr. Dave’s voice failing on Christmas Eve, Evil Steve attributes the illness to a day spent painting, trimming hedges, seeing clients, doing data recovery, fixing the car and continuing to work around the house. Dr. Dave insists that this is normal and calls resting on the couch a way to gather the forces of goodness against the germs.
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Dr. Dave jokes about his unofficial title, then tells how clients began calling him the computer doctor. Evil Steve remembers one client shortening the name after a rescue involving a computer, its data and a business.
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A discussion of a World War II miniseries leads Dr. Dave to remember his freshman-age son calling between classes, upset by a teacher’s explanation and ready with historical questions of his own.
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Evil Steve says their friend Paul hesitates to bother Dr. Dave with questions, but the brothers know the conversation will range well beyond computers. Dr. Dave explains that working through carburetor ideas for his Mazda RX 3 with Paul confirmed theories he had held for thirty years and helped turn technical questions into friendship.
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A caller worries after security software catches an infection, and Dr. Dave answers with a startling personal memory. When a Camaro struck his motorcycle and his helmet hit the highway repeatedly, he remembers thinking how glad he was to have paid for protection; danger activating the safeguard was proof that the safeguard was doing its job.
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Dr. Dave describes a demanding schedule and people greeting him with hugs at a meeting, then thanks listeners for understanding the show’s humor. A strong personal reflection entirely outside the retrieval window.
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As Israel and New Breed plays in the studio, Dr. Dave immediately recognizes the song, praises the gospel group and delights in the bass. The brief exchange preserves an unguarded glimpse of the music he and Evil Steve enjoyed together.
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Explaining why online marketplaces help people find unusual things, Dr. Dave reveals that he browses during the show for a 1937 White Dot Sheaffer fountain pen. Evil Steve immediately recognizes that this means another pen for Dr. Dave’s collection.
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After a caller praises Dr. Dave's new program, Dr. Dave describes the other local political talk show modestly as recreational, an hour of venting and having fun.
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While walking through his Linux applications, Dr. Dave reveals that he collects Bible translations, dictionaries, commentary and devotionals. The difficulty of reading a centuries-old Tyndale-era text is exactly what makes comparing versions and direct-language translations enjoyable to him.
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Independence Day leads Dr. Dave to describe himself as an amateur historian. The revealing part is his method: whatever subject captures him, he dives in and learns everything he possibly can before moving to the next one.
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As Dr. Dave prepares to learn DJ John's equipment and fill in at Little Anthony's car show, his excitement is unmistakable. He says that doing something new and different is fun, especially when it brings together cars, music, food and a lively atmosphere.
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Dr. Dave remembers seeing Steve White in Phoenix with Randy, compares performers whose delivery can make an ordinary line funny and explains why he enjoys Dennis Miller’s dense references. For Dr. Dave and Evil Steve, the pleasure is in comedy that invites the audience to pay attention, work out the reference and discover the payoff.
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Dr. Dave describes putting old and modern Bible translations side by side, tracing Greek and Hebrew roots and enjoying the difficulty of early English. The passage connects his faith, curiosity and habit of learning through direct comparison rather than passive reading.
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A motorcycle tuning question becomes a revealing conversation about the brothers' shared instinct to investigate, adjust and understand machinery. Dr. Dave draws on mistakes with an old RX-4 and a later truck to explain why bypassing a system before understanding its purpose can create new problems, while Evil Steve admits the real motive is often simply the need to fiddle.
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Evil Steve asks why Dr. Dave has printed an enormous stack of material since the show began nearly sixteen years earlier when he will use only a fraction of it. Dr. Dave calls it a security blanket but also explains that the choices let him turn instantly when a live conversation suggests a different direction.
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Donovan McNabb joining Washington makes Dr. Dave reflect on an era when players stayed with one team long enough for the roster to feel like family and why free agency changed his emotional investment.
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Dr. Dave says his fountain-pen collection would be nearly impossible without eBay because he would otherwise need to search antique stores, barns and estate sales around the world. The ability to monitor hundreds of sellers brings his larger economic idea down to earth: connect buyer and seller directly at worldwide scale, and the Internet changes both business and ordinary life.
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Dr. Dave explains that he keeps an old IBM Z50 running FreeBSD simply to prove it can be done, stay good at the work and exercise his Linux muscles because the experimentation is fun.
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Dr. Dave explains why years of frustration with the Redskins owner did not stop him from becoming excited when Joe Gibbs returned, and jokes with Evil Steve about a possible Redskins racing car.
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Evil Steve remembers using Google Earth to build a flyover map for the annual Kelly's Ride. The brief example turns a product discussion into a concrete memory of using technology for a recurring community event.
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Dr. Dave names Dr. Dave's son Nick among the extra people overseeing the show, then the brothers explain why their Arizona start time moves when the rest of the country changes clocks. Their interruption jokes preserve the working rhythm of a national broadcast morning.
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Rumors of a Google OS netbook reveal Dr. Dave’s restless learning style: an emulator is not enough, and he wants to install an unfamiliar operating system, handle it directly and discover what it can do.
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Dr. Dave says living through history made him seek a deeper perspective, describes a year of research in more than 700 hard-to-find books and plans to make the reading list available through the website.
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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.
