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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.

Philosophy

364 clips, strongest first.

Use the computer, but do not let it run your life · Proposed air date:

Listener Will, a farrier, writes that a new computer finally made the Internet useful for his business. Dr. Dave and Evil Steve admire the balance of using technology as a tool, then warn him not to trade a full working day for another night spent behind the screen.

3:26 · Philosophy

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A smartphone became a nervous habit · Proposed air date:

At Dr. Dave's son Nick's homecoming football game, Dr. Dave realizes he is pulling out his smartphone for no real reason, almost like biting his nails. Evil Steve notices the same reflex among students in the cheering section, turning a small family-night observation into a candid early portrait of habitual phone use.

2:16 · Philosophy

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Data, information, knowledge and wisdom · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave asks whether constant devices and social networking replace real relationships or simply create busyness. He reaches for an old consulting principle: data is not information, information is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, a distinction that captures the show's concern with what technology actually produces in a life.

3:26 · Philosophy

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A popup does not control you · Proposed air date:

Evil Steve's uncertainty about a security prompt leads Dr. Dave to say nothing is an emergency: breathe, read and remember that neither a screen nor a ringing phone controls the choice to respond. Their mistaken show button becomes the perfect comic payoff.

4:32 · Philosophy

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Control technology before it controls you · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave says constant communication can prevent the focused state needed for creative work and describes limiting connectivity during his family vacation. His choice is simple: control technology so it adds something positive to life, or allow the technology to control the person using it.

3:57 · Philosophy

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Focus on friends, family and clients · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave says that attention and energy are finite, so he wants to direct them toward himself, his friends, family and clients rather than every detail of the wider world. He and Evil Steve then consider how social media can encourage oversharing and dissolve the ordinary judgment people use about whom they trust with different parts of their lives.

1:50 · Philosophy

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Money, time and children · Proposed air date:

An anonymous office worker tells Dr. Dave that technology has left her family feeling out of control in three central areas: budget, time and children. He argues that the real issue is no longer only bits and bytes but how tools affect family life, emotions, play, judgment and the ability to handle other people in the real world.

4:44 · Philosophy

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Remembering the value of familiar work · Proposed air date:

A respected friend reminds Dr. Dave that skill can become invisible to the person who has practiced it for years, whether the work is driving a truck, repairing a refrigerator or fixing a computer; Dr. Dave connects that gratitude to an apology for withdrawing during the previous difficult show.

2:17 · Philosophy

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Halo 3 and the entertainment-addicted society · Proposed air date:

The enormous Halo 3 release prompts Dr. Dave to praise the game while worrying about students skipping school and adults abandoning work to play it. Evil Steve remembers losing days to Nintendo with his friend Randy, and the brothers arrive at a simple distinction: children need parents to say stop, while adults must learn to say it to themselves.

3:05 · Philosophy

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Put down the devices and live in reality · Proposed air date:

A commercial about an overconnected father leads Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to urge listeners to set aside phones, beepers and BlackBerrys and spend real time outside with their children. They extend the point into a playful declaration that reality is the ultimate three-dimensional game, complete with genuine feedback and consequences.

1:45 · Philosophy

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Technology cannot substitute for being there · Proposed air date:

A discussion of divided attention grows into one of Dr. Dave’s clearest statements about balancing high tech with high touch. He says checking email constantly is not a vacation and argues that a camera phone, email or any other useful tool cannot replace family time, friendship, social contact or being physically present.

9:14 · Philosophy

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Waking up to reality is uncomfortable · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave says confronting reality is unpleasant even when the result is useful; Evil Steve immediately turns the phrase into a joke about discovering Dr. Dave was his older brother before they agree that change itself is not automatically good.

1:40 · Philosophy

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Back away from the display · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave openly questions why his approach to the show feels more critical than it once did. The first years were spent urging people to stop resisting technology; by 2012, rapid change and his own daily experience sometimes led him to tell himself and listeners to back away from the display.

2:58 · Philosophy

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Help people through the Salvation Army · Proposed air date:

Evil Steve asks listeners to use the long-standing DaveMason.com link to support people who need food, clothing and warmth, and Dr. Dave joins the appeal. It documents why the charity remained prominent on the original site.

1:14 · Philosophy

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A sale is not automatically a bargain · Proposed air date:

Evil Steve watches bidders pay more than a readily available retail price, and the brothers explain how auction excitement and sophisticated liquidation pricing can make a supposed deal more expensive rather than less.

2:14 · Philosophy

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Everything is hard · Proposed air date:

At the end of a frustrating support story, Dr. Dave offers a rule he says he coined years earlier: everything is hard. Expecting difficulty may sound pessimistic, but he and Evil Steve laugh that it can make setbacks easier to bear because at least a person is not surprised.

0:51 · Philosophy

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Make time to do it right the first time · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave describes his mind racing while he reads, researches and handles many things at once until he locks up. Evil Steve compares it to being too busy to stop for gas, and the brothers arrive at a lasting question: if there is no time to do it correctly the first time, where will the time come from to do it again?

1:36 · Philosophy

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Police officers have to eat too · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave remembers being about six years old at an A&W in Tucson and being astonished to see two police officers eating. He and Evil Steve laugh at the childhood logic, then Dr. Dave connects it to the adult habit of treating authority, education or financial success as evidence that someone is somehow beyond ordinary human weakness.

4:53 · Philosophy

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Technology should not run our lives · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave and Evil Steve say society has begun chasing technology until computers, phones and email appear to run people rather than serve them. Their Palm Pilot and political jokes keep the warning light while capturing a concern that remained central to Dr. Dave’s technology philosophy.

0:51 · Philosophy

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The fighter pilot who kept challenging his brain · Proposed air date:

Dr. Dave admires a retired fighter pilot and IBM executive who deliberately switches everyday tasks between hands and occasionally walks backward to keep challenging his brain. The brothers are impressed, amused and a little wary of trying the same exercises themselves.

1:50 · Philosophy

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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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2014 (12 dates)
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2013 (26 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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2003 (1 date)
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2000 (1 date)
March
Date unknown (2)