[06’13”] Duck’s “breathtaking” hairstyle. [08’26”] Apple patches a raft of serious security holes. [18’36”] Police arrest eight suspects in an online scamming ring. [31’36”] We explain how WhatsApp messages from hacked accounts are helping cybercrooks bypass 2FA. [37’36”] Oh! No! of the week.
With Kimberly Truong, Doug Aamoth and Paul Ducklin.
Intro and outro music by Edith Mudge.
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If you have any questions that you’d like us to answer on the podcast, you can contact us at tips@sophos.com, or simply leave us a comment below.
Andy Newton
I REALLY wish the content of the podcast was published in text form! Text is so much more accessible
Paul Ducklin
The thing is that the podcast is made for people who like to listen because they find listening more accessible, or because they like to mix reading and listening, or because they find the podcasts more relaxing than reading (indeed, many people tell us they do both, using our articles for the technical details and the podcasts for what you might call the human interest side of things.)
Almost all of the stories we discuss in the podcast have already been covered in written articles, thus ensuring something for everyone.
The real problem with podcast transcripts is that podcasts *make very poor written articles* because written and spoken English are pretty much two different languages, and we plan the podcasts for how they will work in spoken form.
Interestingly, every time we have bitten the bullet and experimented with transcripts (and for “we”, read “me”, because I get stuck with the job of transcribing them :-) they have never received more than about 20 page views each, even when we have promoted them as being prepared “by special demand”.
HtH
Bart
It would be useful for you to give the point in the podcast where each of the topics begins.
Paul Ducklin
06’13”: Duck’s breathtaking hairstyle [duration 0’15”]
08’26”: Apple bugfixes [duration 10’00”]
18’36”: Eight “home delivery scammers” arrested [duration 10’30”]
31’36”: WhatsApp scammers harvest 2FA codes [duration 6’30”]
We used to put timecodes in but almost every listener I’ve ever met has said that they treat podcasts in a “hands off” way – they just click and listen to each one on their playlist in turn. So I got out of the habit of adding them in.
FWIW, a good rule of thumb is simply to imagine the podcast split up 1/8 + (1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4) + 1/8, namely (intro) + (3 articles) + (ending), and to click in the online audio player at about the right visual point. We almost always do three stories in each episode. You can scrub back and forward if you don’t hit the mark.
Having said that, I’ll try to remember to put the timecodes in from now on. It’s only a couple of minutes’ extra work, if that. (Not like creating a transcript, which takes hours!)
Paul Ducklin
OK, I have now added them into the article itself. I quite like the way it looks! Will try to do that each week now… thanks for the idea.
Bart
Thanks, Paul!
Anonymous
h8 podcasts
like notes
Paul Ducklin
Like I said, podcasts don’t really make good written articles, so if you don’t like listening to podcasts you ought not to like reading them, because it still *reads* like a podcast. It still effectively *is* a podcast, just with the words typed in rather than said aloud.
I read much faster than I can listen, but I solve that problem by [a] listening when I simply don’t feel like concentrating on reading (the slower pace means you can relax, you don’t need to look at a screen, and with Bluetooth I can go outside and fettle my bicycle or lie indoors on the sofa in the sun [b] using the 1.5x or 2x option in my podcast app.
Eddie Carrington
What a lot of silly, time wasting “jokes”. You were out of the office last week. Who cares? You were enjoyng Korean food ?? If I want to hear about Korean food, I’ll look at a site about Korean food. Your advice – If you don’t like chop sticks, ask for a fork. Need I say more ? It’s childish.
Paul Ducklin
Interestingly, for every email we get from from people who say they would prefer us to talk *only* about technical stuff, we probably get a dozen saying that they enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, while also complimenting us on the fact that we always give advice that they can actually use when we get down to the technical info. (FWIW, I have even had messages praising my recommendations for coding music, to the point that we have been asked to compile a Naked Security playlist, so some people *really* like the intro part!)
So I hear your complaint, although I don’t accept the word “childish”, I think that’s a needless put-down… but you can always just click on the sound waves at about the 1/8 mark and you will skip the intro instantly. As explained in an earlier comment, I’m going to start putting the timecodes in each week to make that easier.
I guess we could shorten the intro, but it sounds as though you don’t want any of it, so we would need to remove it altogether for you to be happy. Of course, if we remove it altogether, then those who don’t mind it will write to us to ask why we removed it when it is, after all, mostly harmless and easily skipped . (And, to be fair, you can jump over the intro if it is there, while they can’t hear any part of it if it isn’t.)
Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I guess you have shown, yet again, that one can please some of the people some of the time, and even please many of the people most of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.
Raul
I agree with Andy Newton. I would have very much enjoyed reading a short brief on the topics or a summary with the pertinent details on the subject matter. I do understand Paul Ducklin’s perspective on content with podcasts as well, however I believe our society has become multimedia ingestors, if not actually expectors. By that I just mean as we take in media or entertainment like news we want both formats of the same materials. Some days we have more time than others. A five minute read versus a 43 minute listen. Content providers even have shifted in some cases to provide both for their audience. Ultimate the producer could still get “credit” by posting the a link to the transcript or brief on a separate page. That’s one more hit for their website. One more view. Also one would hope that there were notes involved by those speaking in the podcasts either in hardcopy or word format the producers would be using during the podcast for structure to the podcast, so copying and pasting the material over to another doc doesn’t really seem like it would require too much additional effort. In addition maybe those who return for the 5 minute reads might come back for listens to the podcast or vice-versa. The longer listeners may not have the time on a given day but want to cat up on the material quickly. Just thoughts.
Paul Ducklin
The thing is that we always include links to the original articles on which the podcast is based. So if you would prefer to see “the written version”, you can just read the real deal articles anyway.
Remember that 30 to 45 minutes of speech, when transcribed, comes out at about 4000 to 6000 words, perhaps more, which is ironically longer than the original written articles that you could just read instead of as well as the podcast.
Perhaps that’s why, when we have done podcast transcripts in the past where we have discussed articles than tens or hundreds of thousands of people have read…
…the transcripts typically max out at 20 page views!
Simply put, if you haven’t got time or don’t want to listen to the podcast, then *even if we had a transcript every week* I would strongly recommend that you spent your time reading the original articles instead. They’re shorter and they were written specifically to be read, *and to be readable*. Transcripts just don’t make good reading.
Carol CHISHOLM
I’d agree that I am really not interested in chat and what you had for dinner, just information and links to more information. Not that I don’t like you but we are never going to meet – I limit my travel for environmental reasons. Every time I listen I get annoyed.