The Radio Show

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.

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ComputerTalk with Dave Mason show archive

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.

Technology History

562 clips, strongest first.

Raspberry Pi at two · Proposed air date:

On the Raspberry Pi's second anniversary, Dr. Dave and Evil Steve marvel at a credit-card-size computer inexpensive enough to invite experimentation. A father's NASA-style control-panel desk, built with his sons using a Raspberry Pi and Arduino, shows the imagination and practical skill the small machine could unlock.

3:31 · Technology History

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Technology that brings history to life · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave and Evil Steve praise computer-generated recreations of air and naval battles for making veterans' experiences understandable instead of offering empty eye candy. Their curiosity turns to the production process and the testimony behind each angle, and they remember cheering together on the couch as though the historical account were a football game.

2:28 · Technology History

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What made personal computers revolutionary was autonomy · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave remembers the personal-computer revolution as a transfer of authority from the mainframe room to the person doing the work. He then returns to a skill from his own career, building integrated Lotus and Excel systems for million-dollar and international businesses, to explore whether modern convenience can coexist with locally controlled data and the ability to keep working independently.

6:54 · Technology History

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A business run from a Land Cruiser · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave and Evil Steve remember a three-month Central American expedition that tested whether satellite phones, laptops, Wi-Fi and Skype could support an international business from a moving Land Cruiser, then joke that the road setup worked more reliably than the office.

0:57 · Technology History

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Active Desktop was ahead of its connection · Proposed air date:

A retrospective on Windows 95 Active Desktop prompts Dr. Dave to remember clients asking him to install a dynamic Internet desktop over slow connections. The idea was promising, but the available connection could not deliver it, leaving him to explain that neither Windows nor his installation was broken: the feature had simply arrived ahead of its supporting infrastructure.

3:39 · Technology History

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Gateway was the big gorilla · Proposed air date:

News of Gateway co-founder Ted Waitt leaving the chairmanship prompts Evil Steve to remember a period when nearly everyone he knew seemed to have a cow-spotted Gateway computer. The brothers place that memory beside the company’s later struggle in a commoditized personal-computer market.

1:19 · Technology History

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Dave’s five-hundred-dollar 300-baud modem · Proposed air date:

A discussion of the film WarGames leads Dr. Dave to remember owning a 300-baud acoustic-coupler modem in 1983 and paying roughly five hundred dollars for it. The story captures how strikingly slow and expensive early personal communications technology once was.

1:27 · Technology History

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Pizza delivered by drone in 2013 · Proposed air date:

In 2013, the idea that Domino's might test pizza delivery by a small four-propeller drone sounds almost unbelievable to Dr. Dave and Evil Steve. They work out how it might text the customer, lower a pizza and eventually carry laundry or dry cleaning, remembering that a friend had already imagined a network of tiny delivery helicopters.

1:42 · Technology History

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Cautious growth after Webvan · Proposed air date:

The brothers remember Webvan’s rapid rise and collapse while considering FreshDirect’s more cautious approach to online groceries. Dr. Dave emphasizes that free capital can encourage waste and that measured growth may matter as much as a good Internet idea.

2:54 · Technology History

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The busboy became a millionaire, became a busboy · Proposed air date:

Looking past Twitter’s publicity, Dr. Dave remembers a friend in the late 1990s who felt foolish for doubting Internet companies that were making founders rich despite having little beneath their business models. The crash produced what Dr. Dave calls the “busboy became a millionaire, became a busboy” phenomenon, a caution to examine fundamentals beneath a technology fad.

1:45 · Technology History

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Convergence before it is ready · Proposed air date:

Caller Doug asks when television, radio, wireless networking and computing will converge on a phone. Dr. Dave predicts gradual integration, warns that hype turns buyers into involuntary beta testers and explains that his own work is about making technology useful today.

4:23 · Technology History

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Good design does not always win · Proposed air date:

A caller’s frustration with incompatible camera storage leads Dr. Dave to predict greater device convergence while warning that markets do not always settle on the technically best solution. Licensing, copyright, profit, marketing and the resources of the company can determine which good ideas survive.

2:29 · Technology History

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Satellite radio and finite attention · Proposed air date:

Joe directly challenges Dr. Dave's skepticism about Sirius-XM. Dr. Dave argues that new financing does not repair a business model by itself, connects the problem to finite time and entertainment saturation, then acknowledges the service's reach and variety and says he hopes it survives.

3:18 · Technology History

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The difference between a breakthrough and fluff · Proposed air date:

A caller asks about the memristor, giving Dr. Dave a chance to revisit an earlier interview about a theoretical fourth circuit element finally demonstrated in hardware. His excitement comes from a distinction central to the show: companies need to sell things, but much of what reaches consumers is fad and fluff, while a real breakthrough can change the physical limits of everyday technology.

3:37 · Technology History

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My kids can surf space at ten · Proposed air date:

Microsoft's new Worldwide Telescope leads Dr. Dave to compare what his children could know with what he knew at their age. He credits the Internet, educational television and parents, warns that poor information exists too and remains astonished that a ten-year-old can explore space from a computer.

2:50 · Technology History

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Susan Boyle and the reach of the internet · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave and Evil Steve react to Susan Boyle's sudden audience, warn that appearances can overturn expectations and recognize that YouTube let an American audience encounter a British performance that probably would not have reached them a decade earlier.

2:42 · Technology History

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Full episode archive

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.

2015 (15 dates)
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April
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January
2014 (12 dates)
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2013 (26 dates)
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2012 (35 dates)
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2011 (29 dates)
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2010 (33 dates)
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2009 (42 dates)
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2008 (52 dates)
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2007 (52 dates)
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2006 (52 dates)
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2005 (52 dates)
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2004 (40 dates)
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January
2003 (1 date)
April
2000 (1 date)
March
Date unknown (2)