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.
In a brief holiday reflection, Dr. Dave says he does not invite hardship but welcomes the opportunity it creates to become more grounded in what is truly important.
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Dr. Dave moves from offering free help to listeners into a plain defense of human agency: a search tool should return accurate, pertinent information, while the person—not the computer or its marketing department—retains the decision.
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Faced with technology and surveillance that individuals cannot fully control, Dr. Dave says constant fear eventually stops producing more security. People still should object and take reasonable precautions, but mature decisions mean choosing acceptable risk and putting energy where it can actually make a difference.
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Moving among Apple, Android, Palm and Linux, Dr. Dave argues that people choose technology emotionally as well as technically and that fresh competition can improve even the established platform.
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Dr. Dave remembers studying quarterly FAA accident reports because they separated the event that created danger from the human response that ultimately caused the crash. He applies the distinction beyond aviation: difficult situations can become catastrophes when they are handled badly.
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An eBay expansion report leads Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to question why dominating a market can be treated as a negative once the rate of growth slows. The exchange separates a successful operating business from the expectations investors place on continued expansion.
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Dr. Dave explains why Tucson’s first cool mornings invigorate him even though he loves the desert year-round: a person may not appreciate one condition without experiencing the change and comparison that make it noticeable.
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Reading Tim Tebow's book leads Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to reflect on human fallibility and the difficulty of remaining humble in an environment driven by fame, money and ego. Dr. Dave admires the attempt to live by values while recognizing that no matter how good someone becomes, that person is never more than human.
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After hearing sports hosts strain for a manufactured deep voice, Dr. Dave decides he would rather keep his own bad voice. If a voice is going to be imperfect, he says, at least his is genuine and requires no effort, a compact statement of the authenticity that made Computer Talk sound like itself.
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Dr. Dave and Evil Steve explain that the show exists to cut through hype, and that a person who does not need a computer is free to remain analog without that choice reflecting on their intelligence.
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After taking a position that once felt unnatural to him, Dr. Dave says facts and experience require adapting to a changed environment, then expands the OODA acronym as Evil Steve jokes about hula hoops.
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A guest admits that surprisingly little of his day produces something tangible, and Dr. Dave responds with his own experiment in becoming ruthless about email and information. He describes the emotional struggle of abandoning the belief that he must follow hundreds of blogs and choosing a small number of valuable sources instead.
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Dr. Dave distinguishes the technical and political sides of his website, describes being compelled to research economics and politics and says the difficult work is separating material that checks out from internet nonsense. His joke about readers having the right to disagree preserves his voice.
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Dr. Dave and Evil Steve joke that their own squeaky, silly voices never stopped them from going on the radio, then turn the joke into encouragement for anyone afraid to speak: without that individual voice, the world would be a duller place.
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A caller intimidated by an editing program prompts Dr. Dave to say technical ability begins with accepting that learning is hard, allowing imperfect first attempts and finding enjoyment in gradual practice.
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Dr. Dave discovers that Microsoft’s Windows Experience Index appears to require installing Vista before it can report how well the computer will run Vista. Comparing it with buying a car before a test drive, he concludes that even brilliant people still do foolish things because that is part of being human.
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A sensational health headline leads Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to distinguish a communications tool from the human behavior taking place through it, using car brands and Twitter as comic counterexamples.
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After watching Washington play Pittsburgh, Dr. Dave says a preseason result matters less to him than whether the players move with effort and fully commit. He can accept a loss when the team is flying around and selling out, a sports principle that also reflects how he evaluates effort more broadly.
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Dr. Dave says people often swing between panic and the belief that a problem could never happen to them. He and Evil Steve argue that practical reality usually lies between those extremes, before joking that listening to their show is the one exception.
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A caller searching for free Internet service prompts Dr. Dave to defend fair payment. People provide value to employers or customers, receive compensation and use it to care for their families and daily needs; he respects a business changing from free to paid when it honestly follows that exchange.
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Inviting live email, Dr. Dave says criticism is welcome when it is courteous, interesting and readable. He then wonders why otherwise intelligent and polite people sometimes abandon clarity and good manners when they communicate online.
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Drawing on decades as racing fans and pit-crew members, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve challenge a late black flag while repeatedly admitting they may lack information; their deeper objection is that officials publicly cited a rule without clearly showing how it applied.
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Dr. Dave says people have limited attention and should not spend it on relatively minor discomforts while overlooking serious threats. He calls this a hierarchy of worries and directs concern toward identity theft, phishing and organized crime rather than treating every routine software exchange as equally dangerous.
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On Bill Gates's last day as a full-time Microsoft employee, Dr. Dave says he is less interested in interviewing a famous person for a journalistic résumé than in what Microsoft's recent products reveal. He then turns Gates's philanthropy into a wider argument: creating useful products, employing people and keeping a major company strong can itself benefit humanity.
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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.
