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 describes cybercrime becoming professional enough to place insiders inside organizations, using the “human virus” metaphor to explain why perimeter defenses cannot stop a trusted employee who deliberately opens a path from within.
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A server-upgrade client had duplicate backups that had been checked and were functioning, yet the live information the business actually needed resided somewhere else among old versions and was omitted. Dr. Dave turns the incident into a management lesson: know which data is current, document where it lives and verify that the backup protects that material rather than merely producing a successful report.
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Dr. Dave explains that Dr. Dave’s Data Recovery uses a dedicated four pound sledgehammer to destroy a damaged drive when a client does not want it returned. A report about a promised destroyed drive appearing at a flea market shows why he treats the commitment seriously and considers photographic proof, while Evil Steve adds that separated fragments are harder to reconstruct.
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Faced with a period in which Dr. Dave trusts no major hard-drive brand, he asks why manufacturers extend warranties on inexpensive hardware while leaving customers to absorb the much greater cost of lost data. He imagines data-recovery insurance, then returns to the practical answer of smaller redundant drives and rotating replacements without mistaking the device warranty for protection of the files.
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Dr. Dave explains why useful communities became attractive to attackers: a search or forum link can look perfectly tailored to a real question even when its destination has nothing to do with the promised answer.
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Dr. Dave tells how a law firm’s weekend upgrade was blamed when its network failed, until technicians moved beyond that assumption and found a new virus spread through a free screensaver. He uses the reported cost and shutdown to show that human behavior matters as much as technical defenses.
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A cable provider acknowledges a weak signal but will not escalate the problem until Dr. Dave asks the right question. Courtesy and persistence help him reach a supervisor and argue for fixing the known fault before selling anything else.
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Explaining why ransomware can command far more than a replacement computer costs, Dr. Dave says the real value is not the machine or hard drive but the customer lists, financial records and other data needed to keep a business operating.
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Dr. Dave recalls when he could confidently tell nearly any computer buyer to choose Dell, then explains why that easy recommendation ended. A client rebate dispute, failed motherboard capacitors, deteriorating software support and Dell’s delayed move toward AMD show how his advice changed when the evidence and customer experience changed.
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Dr. Dave explains that Google and many other free services make their money from advertising and from the information users volunteer instead of cash. He follows that business model into the permissions granted to small Android applications and his own decision to remove software he no longer uses, asking listeners to recognize that free does not mean there is no price.
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First-time listener Jean calls herself computer illiterate and explains that she has been carrying files from her decade-old Windows 95 machine on square floppy disks until some no longer fit. Dr. Dave patiently walks through possible USB and network routes, asks her to inspect the back of the machine and stays honest that the thumb drive may not be recognized.
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Dr. Dave explains the likely cause, respects the caller’s concern about touching the CPU fan, and changes course when he learns the computer may still be under warranty. Preserve the conversation rather than turn it into a component-sales recommendation.
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Discussing whether Palm will survive long enough to support the Pre, Dr. Dave says plainly that being a fan of the company and phone cannot be allowed to get in the way of the facts.
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Dr. Dave is struck that the easily addressed Netsky P worm still leads the threat chart two years later even as overall infected email falls. He calls protection computer Internet hygiene and argues that ignoring a threat does not stop a machine from affecting other people.
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After warning that counterfeit and unreliable technology demands increasing sophistication, Dr. Dave states the purpose of the show plainly. Better information can help a consumer keep more money and avoid the troublesome potholes on the road to what he jokingly calls high tech utopia.
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A Comcast botnet alert trial leads Dr. Dave to argue that technology providers can use their position to help customers instead of treating every consequence as someone else’s problem.
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A worm targeting MySpace leads Dr. Dave to a lasting security observation: attackers concentrate on the platforms people actually use. He says popularity does not automatically make a service or product bad, but it does make the audience a valuable target.
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When a caller adds another problem to an already long repair list, Dr. Dave refuses to overload him. The first goal is to get the computer usable; perfect optimization can wait for another day. Evil Steve distills the approach as baby steps, because too much at once can make a person overwhelmed enough to quit.
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After answering Rodney's foundational security questions, Dr. Dave says it is helpful when a call makes him stop assuming a certain level of knowledge and step back into the details. Evil Steve adds that revisiting fundamentals refreshes longtime listeners while introducing information to new users.
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Dr. Dave says he cares about better products rather than which company produces them, then credits competition and faster release cycles with pushing software teams to deliver improvements and security fixes sooner while still requiring mature judgment.
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Faced with an intermittent black screen that could come from either the video card or motherboard, Dr. Dave recommends borrowing a known-good card for a longer test instead of buying on a guess.
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Using BlackBerry’s tightly controlled network as a 2011 example, Dr. Dave explains a systems tradeoff: centralization can support reliability and security, but when a central mistake occurs, its effects can become widespread rather than remaining isolated.
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Seeing Microsoft at what he considers a weak point, Dr. Dave urges Linux and other competitors to become genuinely usable alternatives. He argues that strong competition would force every company to improve, giving ordinary users better products while rejecting the idea that Microsoft's dominance came only from misconduct.
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In the week of the iPhone 5 and Apple Maps launch, Dr. Dave says the phone may be ready while its new mapping software is not. He sees the flawed release as a sign of an industry in which customers increasingly become the beta testers because successful products can be repaired after they are already selling.
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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.
