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For many technophiles around the world, the dulcet tones of fifty-something Andy McCaskey, delivering his daily Slashdot Review podcast, are manna from silicon heaven. GI considers him the Johnny Cash of tech, a statesman for the industry who spreads the word from Digg, Slashdot and Reddit in an elegant baritone that you know wouldn't lie to you. We swung by his headquarters to learn more about the man behind the mic. GI: What's been the greatest challenge over the years producing SDR? AM: The greatest challenge has been working around the demands of a day job, and trying to add value by choosing stories carefully. Since the show is produced each night, pushing to different time zones can make it an interesting experience. It is hard to do your best work when your body and mind are suggesting it is say, 4am. In over three years, I have not missed a show – although some of them have been pretty rotten. The listeners get the flu and colds too – and suffer through with me. GI: Most rewarding moment in that same time? AM: Some times you can get into the flow, with good content of stories that are genuinely interesting or surprising on a personal level. It only takes an email from a listener to make the day. GI: Tell us what you get up to offline' self - your favourite way to unwind, where you get your best ideas? AM: Offline, two pursuits – ultralight aircraft – I was just able to transition into the new US Sport Pilot program and upgrade the Powered Parachute to meet the US Light Sport Aircraft Certification program. Plus, getting re-acquainted with the road with a 1980 Honda CX-500, the somewhat infamous "geezerbike". Best ideas occur when not thinking about it – but when they come they seem to arrive in a flood. If you are cruising along at 400 feet you have a lot a time to think since powered parachutes fly at a fixed speed of 28mph, determined by the design of the wing. Maybe I should say ideas arrive in a flood. Figuring out the best ones is another problem. GI: What is your first memory of experiencing technology? The Internet? AM: The first technology was at about age six – my father worked as an announcer and writer at a radio station, and he was able to borrow a WWII vintage short wave receiver that had a previous life in a B17 bomber. That introduced me to the BBC and Radio Moscow – so by the time Sputnik was launched, it was old hat. Remember also that in our small rural town, we still had ring-down crank phones – the dial phones did not arrive until some years later. In 1975 I wrote a Master's Thesis on packet switching precursors to email and the protocols of the first ARPANET. A career move to military comms, computer line printer sales, diagnostic imaging and television derailed me until the early 90's . Then an assignment at Kennedy Space Center put me in the early FTP / telnet days. GI: What do you think is the greatest misconception folks have about the web? AM: I think a lot of people have some respect for the media – "you can't print it if it isn't true" and that to a certain extent, that most of the material on web pages basks in that glow. The other misconception is that the web is inherently evil (scams, pornography, extremism) or inherently good (nothing but intelligent, cooperative people helping without ulterior motive). GI: Is knowledge power in your world, and why? AM: Absolutely. From a professional standpoint in Electronic Design Automation, you are always being pulled back to the real world in what we call "measured versus modeled". No matter how rosy the predictions in theory, the knowledge of actual physical world confirmed by accurate measurements will hold the true power. Knowledge of what you don't know is just as important, and a realization that almost everything has a distribution associated with it. In general knowledge is power, and a lot of advantage results in the selective metering of the release of that knowledge or control of the channel through which it travels. One of the reasons that digital consumer generated media is so disruptive is that it challenges the channel control that has existed for hundreds of years.
Also written by Annie Geek-o-vitz
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