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.
364 clips, strongest first.
A listener asks whether computers might become so reliable that Dr. Dave would no longer have repair work. Dr. Dave answers that technology changes but argues that people often stop treating computers as tools for an outcome and turn them into status symbols, diversions or ends in themselves, ensuring that new problems and new kinds of work continue to appear.
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Dr. Dave says the bass he received for Christmas is a perfect example of balancing high technology with something physical and interactive. He and Evil Steve joke about musical skill while emphasizing the difference between passively hearing music and making sound with an instrument in one’s hands.
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Dr. Dave explains that expecting technology to require effort can be freeing: when a difficult process goes well, the result becomes a pleasant surprise instead of a source of disappointment and irritation.
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Dr. Dave identifies the basic conflict between users wanting control and Facebook benefiting from wider sharing, while Evil Steve punctures a quit-Facebook campaign by noting that participants announced it on Facebook.
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When too many financial, family, political and world problems threaten to shut a person down, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve say to narrow the field, choose the important place where one can have an effect and then follow through.
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A caller thanks the show for helping people navigate an invaded Internet. Dr. Dave contrasts his childhood memory of Walter Cronkite as the single authoritative voice with the modern abundance of information and alternative media: some poor, much of it valuable and previously inaccessible. The opportunity, he says, also requires vigilance.
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After acknowledging a difficult loss, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve focus on Dr. Dave's son LT's improving tackling, blocking and intensity rather than the score. Evil Steve summarizes the family approach in one line: keep working and improve every day, a little bit every day.
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Dr. Dave and Evil Steve reflect on anger, self-control and how backing off in traffic can lower tension, then invite listeners to smile, relax and enjoy the trip through a deliberately silly exercise.
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Dr. Dave says visitors to his website will know exactly where he stands even though publishing those views brings angry and threatening messages. He can only be himself and say what matters to him, but he also believes disagreement can remain civil and that people who oppose him retain the same right to speak.
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A mysterious plumbing leak seems to disappear after Dr. Dave performs an unrelated repair, reminding him of equally baffling computer problems. He broadens the story into a generous reflection that every kind of work contains weird, unexplained events and that this messiness helps make life's journey wonderful.
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Talking about the Redskins and Arizona Wildcats, Dr. Dave says effort and intensity matter enough that he can accept a loss when his teams truly show up and play.
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Watching extreme football fans leads Dr. Dave and Evil Steve back to moderation. Dr. Dave says people should enjoy and support their teams without letting a loss overwhelm their families or treating a changing professional roster as life and death.
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A holiday video-game package prompts Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to argue that technology has a proper place, but throwing a real football with the kids offers better graphics, feedback and memories.
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Preparing for an Ancestry.com guest, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve describe how family research changed from something that seemed geeky into a source of genuine wonder. Dr. Dave says it reveals how close the human family is, while the brothers joke about discovering relatives on both sides of the O.K. Corral story.
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A ridiculous testimonial for hiding a license plate prompts Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to point out that stopping at red lights and respecting the speed limit is cheaper, safer and surprisingly effective.
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Dr. Dave openly admits that he is often wrong, especially in political predictions. Feeling powerless pushes him to focus on his own business—family, health, finances and home—to distinguish what he can change from what he cannot, and to ask what he is doing today to become better where he actually stands.
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An uncued reflection on Wi-Fi leading Dr. Dave to work in bed instead of winding down. The point is work and life, not router shopping.
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Faced with the Adobe breach and systems an individual cannot secure personally, Dr. Dave compares technological exposure with the ordinary risks people accept in order to live. His answer is neither panic nor surrender: take reasonable precautions, control what can be controlled and let the remaining uncertainty fall where it may.
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Asked how to learn a new computer, Dr. Dave says he is an independent learner who first seeks a broad understanding and then studies the specific questions that arise. He recommends books for structure but calls knowledgeable peers the largest support resource available.
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Evil Steve catches Dr. Dave making little Twitter motions during every break, and the joke turns into an early social-media observation: the service can be useful, but only if a person learns to get through its enormous noise.
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Reflecting on Dr. Dave's son Nick's rebuilding football team, Dr. Dave says the score is not the real measure of success. Conduct, effort and the way a person responds when circumstances are going poorly reveal more, because life and team sports both require people to work within things they cannot control.
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Dr. Dave remembers an important call carrying on as a bank teller invited him forward. Because he disliked seeing other people conduct business while on the phone, he apologized directly, said he did not intend to be rude and concluded that he should have stepped back outside to finish the call.
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Comparing the moment with the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of radio and television, Dr. Dave says transitions are messy and old industries die. If a person focuses only on that disorder it is all they will see, while the same disruption also creates great opportunity.
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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.
