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PODCAST

The Big Tech Show

Irish Independent

Irish Independent Tech Editor Adrian Weckler hosts this award-winning business podcast which dives deep into the biggest industry advances and tracks the key movers and shakers behind the innovation. From interviewing Big Tech CEOs to investigations into how tech affects our working lives, the show has become Ireland’s most listened-to technology podcast.

technology

All Episodes

27:42

Why Ireland's cyber security is still a joke

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/10/01

This week, Adrian is joined by Senator Gerard Craughwell and IT security expert Paul C Dwyer to look at whether Ireland's cyber security is up to scratch. Both men say that it is not. Senator Craughwell goes further, describing it as "an absolute joke". Both are also criticial of government ministers who dismissed as 'overblown' the Irish Independent's recent revelation that the HSE is still using almost 30,000 computers with Windows 7, an obsolete operating system.See omnystudio.com/listener for

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30:44

The layman’s review guide on which iPhone 13 to get...

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/09/24

This week, Adrian has a plain English review of the iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max.Adrian ranks them in order of which is best and what type of person should or shouldn’t upgrade.He’s joined by tech journalist Mark Kavanagh to talk about the iPhones and the iPad mini, which also also launched this week. Both journalists discuss why the mini is a better choice that Samsung’s Frankensteinish Galaxy Z Fold3.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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21:40

How to build a tech company in the West of Ireland

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/09/17

This week, Adrian talks to Fidelma McGuirk, founder and CEO of Payslip. Ms McGuirk decided to move to Westport from Dublin in 2015, after which she founded her payroll tech company. Despite attracting over €8m in funding earlier this year, attracting talented engineers and staff to a tech company outside a city has its own challenges.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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43:45

Why Simon Coveney’s hacked phone is such a big deal

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/09/10

It has nothing to do with Katherine Zappone. This week, Adrian goes into depth about the problems around Minister Simon Coveney’s hacked phone.Together with freedom-of-information expert Gavin Sheridan and privacy expert Daragh O’Brien, the minutae of what we know, and what the law is, around Simon Coveney’s hacked phone are parsed in detail.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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32:07

Should we ban tech billionaires?

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/09/03

This week, it’s a panel show to discuss some of the big issues of the week: the iPhone 13’s potential satellite capability, Google Ireland’s delayed return-to-the-office mandate, the latest VC figures and whether you should use video on or off during Zoom calls. The topic of whether billionaires serve any purpose is also debated. Adrian is joined by the Irish Independent’s Jon Ihle and Reach’s Mark Kavanagh.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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35:57

Etsy's Fisher king

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/08/27

This week, Adrian talks to Mike Fisher, the CTO of the giant online retailer Etsy, in the wake of that company's €1.3bn acquisition of Depop.Fisher is one of the most experienced CTO's around, having been a previous engineering VP of Paypal, among other roles.The two talk through a number of issues, spending a lot of time on what makes a good or a bad engineering culture and whether or not tech staff are likely to come back to offices any time soon.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy

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35:18

Making a hash of iPhone privacy

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/08/20

This week, Adrian hosts a spirited discussion about whether Apple is right or wrong to scan photos from your iPhone to iCloud for potential child sexual abuse imagery.He is joined by UCD's director of digital policy (and former Irish Council for Civil Liberties representative) Elizabeth Farries and Alex Cooney the CEO of CyberSafeKids Ireland.The whole thing raises some big questions. What is the moral difference between scanning a phone and a private online account for child abuse imagery?Why

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27:18

Ireland’s cable guy

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/08/13

Conal Henry has had an interesting journey through the business and telecom worlds. From being commercial director of Ryanair, he built up Enet’s business around Ireland before joining the National Broadband Plan and then leaving to set up his own company, Fibrus Networks, which raised over €100m.That Belfast-based firm won a €200m contract to roll out part of Northern Ireland’s answer to the National Broadband Plan. Now he’s targeting rural broadband in England.Adrian and Conal discuss a range of

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27:00

Space tourism or tech titan egomania?

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/08/06

Is the new commercial 'space race' between Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and (the relatively poor) Richard Branson anything to celebrate for humanity? Or is it just one big egomaniacal episode?This week, Adrian and TCD professor Louis Brennan chew over some of the deeper questions around this year's commercial space launches.Is there a point to paying between €250,000 and €22m to go a few dozen kilometres up in the sky? What is the endgame for this activity and what use might it be? Are any of the

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23:54

Are we living in a simulation?

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/07/30

You’ve seen and heard it from every science fiction movie or TV programme. You’ve heard it from scientists and philosophers.So are we living in a multiverse? Is there a version of you that’s a billionaire? Or a mass-murderer? Or a talking frog?Or are we, like Elon Musk insists, living in a simulation created by some other intelligent species?To talk about some of these big philosophical, technical and scientific questions, Adrian is joined this week by Dr Mark Mitchison, recently appointed as

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30:50

Nip, tuck, cut, paste

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/07/23

Should Ireland follow Norway in bringing in a law that would make it mandatory for online influencers to disclose that they have digital altered images of their faces or bodies when promoting products? And if so, should it stop there? Should digitally-enhanced derrieres or dermatological features be admitted more widely, to give impressionable teens a truer idea of what is real and what isn’t?Adrian is joined by three experts in their field — Instagram makeup influencer Niamh Martin (‘Nima Brush’),

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20:56

Death and 12.5% taxes

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/07/16

Will tech companies flee Ireland if it abandons its 12.5pc corporate tax rate? Will the pipeline for new ones dry up?Adrian is joined by UCD business lecturer (and former IDA executive) Emmet Oliver and Irish Independent business reporter Sarah Collins to discuss the issue.Is the 12.5pc drive an about global equity, European jealousy or both? What will Ireland have to offer tech companies over other countries if the 12.5pc rate is uniformly introduced? How important is it relative to other

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18:43

How pub passes work with QR codes in Denmark

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/07/09

Can a pub pass work in Ireland? This week, Adrian talks to Irish ex-pat Zoe Healy Jensen, now living in Denmark. She explains how QR codes have been successfully integrated into everyday life in the Scandinavian country, allowing her and other vaccinated people to enter restaurants and pubs with little fuss.Goosed.ie’s Martin Meany also joins the conversation to talk about the background and context of QR codes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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27:45

Is Starlink perfect for Ireland or just Elon hype?

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/07/02

This week’s topic is Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite broadband service that some believe is the future for rural areas that have been deprived of broadband connectivity.But with the National Broadband Plan slowly being rolled out to every rural home here, does Starlink realistically have any role to play? Who would pay two to three times the price of a fibre connection for Starlink’s dish and monthly fees when it only delivers a fraction of fibre’s speed?Adrian is joined in discussion by Rory

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35:04

Should we ban facial recognition?

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/06/25

This week, we debate whether facial recognition should be banned or curtailed. It comes after Europe’s data regulators called for a total ban on facial recognition in public places.But is that practical? What are the pros and cons?Adrian is joined by privacy expert Carey Lening and technologist and retailer, Colin Baker.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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20:39

Are Irish tech valuations out of control?

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/06/18

This month, $150m was raised by Peter Foley’s LetsGetChecked, giving the five year old startup a valuation of over $1bn. Last month, €100m was raised by two Irish startups — Wayfarer (€62m) and Qualio (€41m). The month before that it was a handful of others, such as Payslip.It means that well over €1bn will be raised year, significantly up on last year.What’s going on with these eye-watering sums? Is there any suspicion that we may be in a frothy boom at the moment? Is tech just benefitting from a

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28:40

Dublin trembles as Facebook says workers can now work...

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/06/11

Dublin looked on nervously this week as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that staff at the 6,000-strong Irish office can now work from the UK. From January next, they will also be allowed to move to France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland while working for the Irish office. This is a major policy shift. Until now, ‘remote’ working at tech multinationals meant somewhere else within Ireland.Will other multinationals follow Facebook’s lead? If so, does that mean the end of the

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26:21

Bitcoin: is now the time to buy?

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/06/04

Is it time to take a punt on Bitcoin? Or is it all a big Ponzi scheme waiting to collapse?Bitcoin’s value has slumped by 30pc this month.China, where so much of it is mined, is saying it might crack down. Environmentalists are against it, saying it uses up too much energy. And now even Elon Musk has nixed its use for buying Teslas. So what does this mean for Bitcoin’s value? Is it just a normal month in the ever-turbulent-yet-often-soaring life of crypto currencies? Or is there something different

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29:51

In defence of the gig economy

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/05/28

Is the gig economy a dystopian modern sweatshop or a new flexible way of working that gives people more control over their lives?This week, Adrian discusses the issue with John Ryan, the founder of Gigable. Gigable connects restaurants to freelance delivery drivers — it has over 2,000 drivers on its books.John Ryan says that the gig economy has unfairly earned a bad rap; done right, he says, it can be the answer to what a lot people need. Adrian puts it to him that there is a danger the gig economy

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25:37

Sorting out the HSE ransomware mess

The Big Tech Show ·

2021/05/21

This week, Adrian discusses the origins and the potential fixes of Ireland’s catastrophic HSE ransomware episode with experienced cyber security practitioner, Paul C Dwyer.Dwyer pulls no punches in saying that Ireland’s IT security infrastructure isn’t up to scratch. The two look at factors contributing to this, including an historical and cultural distaste in Ireland for investing significantly in defence-related activities.Dwyer offers some suggestions on what steps we might take to rebuild

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543 results

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