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.
Dr. Dave says the books he values most are old, out-of-print historical and religious works. Reading them gave him perspective on how the present was formed and changed his understanding of ideas he had once belittled, leaving him embarrassed by his earlier certainty and excited to keep learning.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave and Evil Steve candidly describe being pulled among unfinished tasks, recognize that six simultaneous activities can take longer than six completed in sequence and propose estimating a task’s hours so one focused half-day can remove it from their minds.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
After describing an Internet security failure, Dr. Dave rejects both denial and constant fear. His rule is to protect oneself as well as possible, then go out, live and make some noise because that is the only way to move forward, while still keeping important data accessible and under personal control.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
After describing the severe distraction of texting, Dr. Dave admits the instinct to reach for a notification is powerful. When his own phone sounded on the road, he pulled over before checking a thoroughly unimportant “what's up” message.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Guest Bill Moore calls radio a companion and describes the voices between the songs as the medium's defining feature. Dr. Dave answers that every technology depends on people who can use, support and produce it; Evil Steve then explains that listeners come for the people live on the air and that DaveMason.com's stream and archive add to the terrestrial show instead of subtracting from it.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
A report about a violent game leads Dr. Dave to explain that parents should remain involved rather than feeling intimidated by technology or pressured to keep children at a screen.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave worries that constant security warnings can hide the real excitement and usefulness of computers, then gives a personal example of research and book buying that once would have taken days.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
A complaint about nonstop texting and games becomes a broader argument about attention. Dr. Dave invokes an old Star Trek episode in which a game absorbs an entire crew, then rejects the easy claim that technology itself is evil: like many powerful tools, it becomes harmful when people lose perspective and use it without restraint.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
A report about a worm sent to Reuters leads Dr. Dave to call the Internet a dangerous Wild West while insisting that its benefits still far outweigh the risks. He says that cell phones, laptops and the Internet have become indispensable to his own work.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Remembering a radio convention, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve contrast people who perform importance by dismissing others with genuinely accomplished people who are relaxed, engaged and kind because they have nothing left to prove.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Arriving late yet opening cleanly, Dr. Dave explains that a manageable amount of nervousness can focus performance, just as it does in football, but crossing the threshold produces mistakes.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Evil Steve describes a television history of ink moving from early writing and fountain pens to microscopic images of inkjet nozzles. Dr. Dave says people understandably become irritated when technology fails, but seeing how it works reveals the opposite side of the coin and how miraculous an ordinary machine can be.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Excitement over Windows 7 prompts the brothers to examine how even informed people let emotion outrun evidence, convince themselves that this time they finally understand everything and knowingly repeat choices they already recognize as mistakes.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Responding to an argument for Twitter as a local-news source, Dr. Dave tells listeners not to believe him merely because he is on the radio. He asks them to use what he says as motivation to research, compare multiple sources and decide for themselves, applying the same skepticism to Wikipedia, traditional media and social networks.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
While promoting a local fundraiser, Dr. Dave says that people do not need to share the same enthusiasm for firearms to recognize the importance of teaching children how to behave safely around them.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Frustrated by repeated claims that difficult problems cannot be solved, Dr. Dave says the country has accomplished things once considered impossible through work and perseverance. He locates that determination in people who quietly live their lives, build businesses, raise families and employ others without becoming newsmakers.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
A Facebook invitation that unexpectedly drew thousands leads Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to reflect on a pattern from their own work: an off-the-cuff mention can trigger an enormous response while months of planning fall flat. They suspect people respond to spontaneity, but admit that the line between being prepared and sounding contrived constantly moves and cannot simply be copied.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
A MySpace copyright report prompts Dr. Dave to remember rampant software copying in the 1980s and the arguments callers made during the Napster era. He rejects the idea that private use makes taking someone else's work acceptable and applies the Golden Rule: judge the act as though it were being done to your own work.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Looking ahead to a public speech, Dr. Dave says people often romanticize courage in historical crises but are living through their own chance to be strong and involved.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
After rejecting the literal claim that Apple is a religious cult, Dr. Dave says the company's success is not accidental. He credits its presentation, product feel and public image to a deeper understanding of human psychology than many competitors possess, calling that ability brilliant rather than immoral.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Dr. Dave questions the idea that old automatically means wrong. Stories of departing aerospace engineers show what is lost when experienced people leave without passing their knowledge to the next generation.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Working on his motorcycle helps Evil Steve learn to enjoy a project before it is finished. Dr. Dave agrees that the satisfaction can be in doing the work, not simply reaching the end.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
After watching Facing the Giants with Dr. Dave's son Nick the previous night, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve acknowledge the film's uneven acting and relentless formula but explain why its equally relentless positivity feels refreshing. They admire a story willing to have a moral and to present its convictions without embarrassment or apology.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
Election-week uncertainty sends Dr. Dave back to digitized early Plymouth writings. A caller then imagines tracing citations to original texts, and Dr. Dave explains that when he lacks an answer for a blog he searches and corroborates it across proven sources. The enduring story is his excitement at finding primary material and using it to move from anxiety toward perspective.
Listen to the full show’s available recordings · Source recording and timing
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.
