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.
A study of a breached social-networking service lets the brothers marvel at hundreds of thousands of people choosing “123456,” then explain why predictable names and dates undermine a password.
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Dr. Dave and Evil Steve question the usefulness of reviews whose scores all occupy the same narrow positive range and whose conclusions praise every competing smartphone platform, arguing that honest criticism is necessary if a review is meant to help anyone choose.
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Dr. Dave and Evil Steve question whether slow 2004 online backup services should control someone’s only copy and emphasize that retrieval matters more than merely sending data away.
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A disciplined company loses a RAID array and discovers that two years of expensive tape backups cannot be read, leading Dr. Dave to the simple failure he wants others to avoid: nobody had periodically tested a restore.
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Dr. Dave tells listeners to assume that every hard drive can eventually fail. Because a single external backup can fail too, he recommends a second copy—a backup of the backup—so one broken drive does not become the loss of irreplaceable work and memories.
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After a frustrating Sony purchase, Dr. Dave rejects the old assumption that choosing a famous name automatically means choosing one of the best products. He compares it with buyers who once relied on an IBM reputation that no longer described the same company and argues that each current product and service must be judged on its own merits.
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Looking at attempted consolidation among major hard-drive makers, Dr. Dave remembers reputations changing and argues that low prices and enormous capacity do not replace evidence about the reliability of current products.
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The TouchPad fire sale becomes a broader warning: a low purchase price can hide the future cost of disappearing support, updates, developers and licensing servers. Dr. Dave allows that the product may still suit a limited use, but only if the buyer understands what is ending.
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Dr. Dave challenges the assumption that an expensive cable must be better: because HDMI carries a digital signal, an inexpensive cable that functions correctly can deliver the same result as a costly one.
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A wireless advertising lawsuit leads Dr. Dave to describe installations where real distance and speed fell far below the box’s claims, leaving the consultant to appear responsible. He argues that users should push back until specifications reflect real conditions instead of laboratory best cases inflated by competitive pressure.
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Running Computer Talk independently brought freedom and responsibility for its broadcast connection. Dr. Dave recounts a billing ordeal that ended with a contract offering a discount without saying what the original price was.
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Dr. Dave walks through an official-looking DNS Services invoice addressed to him even though he had no relationship with the sender. He explains how the document could pass from the mailroom to a worried bookkeeper and be paid before anyone realizes it is a solicitation, turning his own mail into a practical warning for small businesses.
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A restaurant feedback system exposes customer information through an unpublished web address. Dr. Dave explains that obscurity is not protection because a site can be copied or discovered, and says private material should sit behind a password and a database that does not expose the page directly.
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Dr. Dave warns that conscientious users can hurt themselves by downloading every supposed cleanup tool. Criminal sellers understand that impulse, so they pose as protectors, display a frightening fake infection warning, collect payment and install the very problem they claim to remove.
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Dr. Dave argues that legitimate banks make phishing harder to recognize when they routinely email clickable links; he proposes a consistent no-link policy so customers have one simple rule and must navigate independently.
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After weeks inside an exceptionally noisy radio-frequency environment, Dr. Dave describes the shielding, grounding, research and help from RF engineers that finally made the installation work, then explains the satisfaction of beating a problem that had resisted him.
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Rather than declaring one display technology universally best, Dr. Dave compares plasma, conventional LCD and LED-backlit LCD according to lighting, viewing conditions, contrast and cost, making the room and viewer part of the specification.
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Dr. Dave says the office may standardize on Firefox, emphasizing that it is not merely free but better for their needs, and pairs it with the early Thunderbird email client.
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Speaking with a small business owner, Dr. Dave reframes security from an inconvenience to a responsibility. A company that holds names, addresses, payroll, legal or financial records is protecting its clients’ information, not merely its own network.
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Microsoft's Keith Otis describes early remote-collaboration tools and software plus services. Dr. Dave presses on price, small-business access and the danger of giving up autonomy; together they land on a hybrid “dimmer switch” between cloud and local computing.
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Dr. Dave says the final fix is often simpler than reaching it. His skill is narrowing the field quickly: take the client's computers, tablets and network out of the loop, test with a known laptop, connect directly to the modem and determine which explanations can no longer be true.
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Dr. Dave warns that routers sold for a not-yet-finalized high-speed wireless specification may require matching adapters and may not remain compatible with the completed standard. A product can perform well today without making its promise of future standards compatibility dependable.
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Dr. Dave praises Google for studying drive failures and educating the public instead of hoarding a competitive advantage. He contrasts that openness with recovery companies that make an already intricate process seem more mysterious than it is so they can charge clients more, a practice he calls a ripoff.
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Dr. Dave remembers sitting with smart, successful clients who wanted one easy password shared across the company. He tries to remain patient and pleasant while explaining the uncomfortable tradeoff: convenience matters, but a predictable password that is easy for staff can also be easy for an attacker, and the eventual cost can be much greater.
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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.
