Re: Administrivia & Request: Aloha, the moderator is back

[M Taylor <mctylr () privacy nb ca>]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 10:08:34AM -0500, Gary McGraw wrote:
> Crispy opined >>  God DAMN does TechTV suck.
>
> TechTV may suck, but not as much as all the other channels!  Greg
> Hoglund and I recently did an episode of Screensavers (the only techtv
>
> I think that Leo (the host) is a great guy who has real clue.  The fact
> that they gave us 9 minutes to talk about software security was a bonus.
> Basically on live TV if you can't steer the conversation...well, then,
> you shouldn't be on live TV!

I think part of the problem with TechTV is that most (of us) that live
technology as our culture find the issues that are important to TV production, 
clock time and presentation, are not naturally important to tech weenies. 
So what TechTV does is try to appeal to both constraints, interesting 
technology topics like software security, heros and villians of computing
like Douglas Engelbart and John Draper - people you don't see being
interviewed on CNN or PBS while keeping the segments within commercial
breaks and keeping the excitement level and an upbeat pace that non-hardcore 
geeks expect while watching TV.

I think these sort of lessons are important for promoting secure computing 
culture within the larger body of non-specialists, like those who use
computers as tools to get something done. I think effective infosec education
looks more like TechTV than Masterpiece Theatre.

-M Taylor