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.
Using the Sony breach as a period example, Dr. Dave rejects the comforting belief that a favored platform is spiritually superior or immune to attack and returns security to careful, continuing attention to details.
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When Bill says he is a real novice, Dr. Dave answers that without people like him there would be no show. He then slows down, explains copying files between two visible drives in plain language and gives Bill a software package for making the effort.
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A Twitter phishing wave leads Dr. Dave to ask why social platforms planned for users and investors without planning equally seriously for misuse.
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Even while using Microsoft software, Dr. Dave explains why he prefers Google's visual simplicity: presenting the complexity of the internet in a spare interface has a visceral appeal beyond raw search quality.
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Dr. Dave explains pretexting as impersonation that can bypass expensive computer, network and building defenses by persuading a person to reveal access information. His example demonstrates the human side of security and why technical controls alone cannot protect an organization.
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Caller Rick asks whether a two-year Palm Pre commitment still makes sense after HP’s acquisition. Dr. Dave draws on his daily use, compares Android, explains corporate uncertainty and refuses to pretend anyone knows exactly where the platforms will be when the contract ends.
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Dr. Dave argues that even highly sophisticated technology leaders can take years to confront basic security realities, then uses Facebook’s incomplete HTTPS rollout to show why security must be built into the whole experience.
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An Apple campaign criticizing Microsoft's advertising prompts Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to compare the companies' reported sales, advertising and research spending and argue that a brilliant ad can still create an implication the underlying numbers do not support.
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A rogue advertisement on a major newspaper site becomes Dr. Dave’s example of social engineering and why a familiar institution cannot substitute for judgment.
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Dr. Dave and Evil Steve advise keeping the most faithful original digital image before making compressed or altered copies. Their comparison to preserving a photographic negative expresses a durable archival principle in plain language.
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Dr. Dave praises Google because its services work exceptionally well while warning that every human-run company can misuse power or make mistakes. Concentrating documents, email, phone numbers and relationships with one provider can leave a person vulnerable even when there is no immediate reason to distrust it.
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Even while predicting trouble for Palm, Dr. Dave tells Kevin not to abandon a useful phone just to follow market anxiety. Their longstanding relationship surfaces in a story about a Palm surviving a month after being dropped into a toilet and flushed.
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An Apple Tiger widget that could install automatically leads Dr. Dave to a lasting security lesson: features designed to make computers easier can also be misused by bad actors. He separates the intended feature from the human decision to exploit it.
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Asked what an ordinary XP user should consider next, Dr. Dave distinguishes experimentation from the need to get work done, then surprises both caller and Evil Steve by recommending Apple. His punch line is historically revealing: the best Windows XP laptop on the market, he says, is a MacBook Pro, because it offers both Windows flexibility and OS X.
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After offering a caller alternatives to reinstalling Windows, Dr. Dave explains why the right choice is not always visible at the beginning. A consultant can move only as far as the evidence allows, learn at that point and make the next intelligent decision, while remembering that a supposedly clean reinstall can recreate years of forgotten work.
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Dr. Dave explains why one constantly overwritten copy may fail during a ransomware attack: the backup can faithfully preserve files after they have already been encrypted. Multiple versions let the owner return to a point before the damage, while an always-connected network or USB drive may be altered along with the computer.
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Consumer Reports’ Verizon iPhone 4 antenna test leads Dr. Dave to a simple design principle: however impressive a smartphone’s extra abilities may be, a device bought as a phone must first place and hold calls reliably.
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Dr. Dave puts Linux Mint through an everyday test: can it run his life and business without Windows? Easy setup impresses him, but a small time-zone problem reveals an obstacle an ordinary user might find baffling.
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Google’s closing of Labs and several services leads Dr. Dave to a durable business lesson: a product may be innovative or even revolutionary, yet still disappear when maintenance costs, changing markets or a stronger replacement redirect the company’s resources.
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After openly admitting that he and Evil Steve are speculating about an aviation story, Dr. Dave extracts the principle he values: failures teach a troubleshooter how to think, observe and notice an apparently obvious warning that others may have missed.
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After discussing the recall in press interviews, Dr. Dave explains why video of a burning laptop forced a large response. He says Dell took time to understand the scope but then acted, accepted ultimate responsibility and identified Sony as the battery producer so consumers understood the supply chain.
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A software-company founder says small businesses consistently asked not to have technology thrown in their faces: explain it in English, present it simply and make it understandable. The resulting design principle was to make the software attractive, enjoyable and able to do work for the user.
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A customer cannot locate a recommended ThinkPad shipment and every support menu ends at a disconnected line. Dr. Dave hates seeing a problem follow his recommendation but refuses to reverse years of judgment from one incident alone, choosing instead to investigate while openly telling listeners why his confidence has weakened.
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Hewlett-Packard's effort to let people reach photos and movies without fighting Vista gives Dr. Dave a user-centered design example: people want technology simple enough that the task stays visible and the operating system disappears. He separates that real project from a rumor that HP is replacing Windows entirely and explains why a full operating system is not a trivial undertaking.
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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.
