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 visits a store advanced enough to sell individual electronic components, then watches the clerk total his purchase on a calculator and write a duplicate receipt by hand. He delights in the irony and finally decides that the old system deserves credit for working.
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After finally spending time with a family iPad over Christmas, Dr. Dave praises Apple’s tactile experience and sees its real travel advantages, yet keeps returning to the individual question of whether another device fits better than the phone and laptop a person already owns.
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Dr. Dave remembers a client whose computer contained thousands of advertising and spyware objects and hundreds of gambling icons immediately after the college basketball final. He explains that he needed to tell the client how the infection happened so it would not happen again, only to learn that it did.
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At the comic height of his modem ordeal, Dr. Dave has to insist that the provider reactivate a six-year-old modem because the supposedly preferable new device has shut down both the phones and Internet; the old one, quite simply, works.
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An echo suddenly appears in Dr. Dave's headphones and the brothers diagnose it live: the studio monitors were left on after an upgrade. Dr. Dave turns the mistake into a quick reminder not to get sloppy and to add the automatic microphone switch used by professional stations.
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A listener’s failed attempt to install a powerful repair utility prompts Dr. Dave to explain why good software can still be the wrong recommendation when its risks exceed a person’s experience.
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Friends are ready to replace a slow but capable laptop until Dr. Dave learns that more than sixty browser tabs are open. Closing and organizing the tabs makes the machine feel better than new, and Dr. Dave identifies the larger pattern: people often misread a behavior problem as a technology problem, so replacement hardware simply recreates the frustration.
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Dr. Dave explains how he responds to mixed listener reports: ask the company whether it knows the failures are happening, why they occur, what is being fixed and what will change, then give credit when its representatives answer candidly without pretending the technology is perfect.
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Evil Steve describes the show as entertaining because listeners hear the brothers banter and bother each other, but insists the telephone line is also a real resource. Dr. Dave has repeatedly wrestled with the same kinds of problems callers face, giving him experience he can use while the show and that opportunity last.
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After worrying that he sounds too negative, Dr. Dave uses an Intuit outage to explain why even a service he likes must never become the only home for important data, ending with a joke about “open technology marriages.”
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While introducing a free file-recovery utility, Dr. Dave insists that usefulness must come before price. Evil Steve reduces the principle to a memorable line: free junk is still junk.
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Evil Steve tells listeners that online security has become daunting for ordinary people and says they can call or email Dr. Dave or the show for help. The exchange reflects the program’s practical promise to remain reachable when technology felt overwhelming.
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Caller Neville realizes that an earlier listener may have been reopening an installer instead of the installed program. Dr. Dave immediately recognizes the explanation, calls it brilliant and thanks Neville enthusiastically for solving what had left him baffled.
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Another stolen government laptop leads Dr. Dave away from sensationalism and toward a simple permanence principle: once personal data is released, it cannot be recalled. A friend’s story about a lost memory stick reinforces that the real loss is not the hardware but the private information stored on it.
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After another attempt at a paperless show, Dr. Dave explains why paper still fits the way people spread, shuffle and physically manipulate information, imagining the screen or spatial interface that would have to match a desk before replacing it for him.
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Regular caller DJ Fresh offers the compatibility troubleshooter as a possible answer to an earlier caller, and Dr. Dave immediately credits him for a useful idea that had not occurred to him.
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A Cisco vulnerability leads Dr. Dave beyond the patch itself to a durable consulting observation: technology problems and misuse often grow out of damaged relationships among employees, partners or family members.
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Dr. Dave explains why people gradually simplify passwords they cannot remember and states the lesson he has repeatedly seen: human behavior is often the largest security risk.
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Partway through a technical diagnosis, caller Tom decides that an inexpensive powered hub will make the problem disappear and says he wants the path of least resistance. Dr. Dave admires his efficiency, then tells Evil Steve that their mother does the same thing: she asks a question, lets him get three quarters through the answer and announces that it is too much.
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A caller gives Dr. Dave an on-air follow-up after a repair, saying the computer now runs dramatically faster. Dr. Dave explains that added memory and replaced cooling fans revived a system the owner had expected to replace, then recalls the client’s understandable doubt before seeing the result.
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Frank asks for an easier way to maintain an external backup. After joking about the poor phone connection, Dr. Dave identifies the central human problem: overcomplicated backup routines discourage people from doing them consistently.
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A caller directly challenges Dr. Dave over a security-software giveaway. Dr. Dave distinguishes it from the product he previously criticized and candidly explains which parts he likes, which he does not and why receiving it free matters.
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Dr. Dave describes a company ready to replace a former employee’s erratic computer until he found a few simple settings, saving the machine and the underestimated effort of rebuilding everything.
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Dr. Dave says he often thinks of a repair while waiting for support—not because the other technician supplies it, but because responsibility briefly shifts and his mind becomes quiet enough to approach the problem from another level.
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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.
