While I’ve been adding content here for a little while, today’s the day that I’ve decided to officially launch Fat Duck Tech. Long may it spread its slightly portly wings! Everybody party!
(Updated7/12/2021, because for some reason this page is getting a lot of traffic.)
Alex 2021 note: Party’s over. For whatever reason, this page is getting a lot of traffic of late. I retired Fat Duck Tech years ago, and while someone else has cybersquatted on the domain now, it’s 100% nothing to do with me any more. Just so you know.
OK, you can stop partying now, unless you happen to be Slurms McKenzie. It’s unseemly for this time on a Monday morning.
So what the quack is Fat Duck Tech, anyway?
I got asked that question (well, a variant of it anyway), by a local media portal, but unless you’re in the trade you won’t be able to see that. Still, I’m going to quote me from that interview in order to explain Fat Duck Tech
“Fat Duck Tech a consumer, broadly-based, slightly geeky, (probably-too-obsessed with Doctor Who) blog that looks at Australian tech issues (but that’s not just Aussie tech content, because the online world is a big place), news, reviews and whatever else piques my interest.
That’s going to be too long to put on a business card, now isn’t it?”
Basically, Fat Duck Tech is where I write up the things that come across my desk as part of my ongoing role as a freelance technology journalist for any number of sites; I may well (and have) linked to other articles I’ve written elsewhere, either as the basis of an article, or to provide context for articles on Fat Duck Tech itself. That also includes articles written by other journalists; I firmly believe that we’re lucky in Australia in that there’s some genuinely top-notch journalists working across a bevy of publications, and that I’m lucky to work with many of them.
Also, before you ask, Fat Duck Tech won’t be the only place you’ll see my writing. I’m still also working as a Freelance Journalist across a variety of outlets.
But who the duck are you anyway?
Fat Duck Tech is run by Alex Kidman (that’d be me)* — an award winning Australian technology journalist with more than a decade and a half’s writing experience under my belt. Looking back, I’ve done a little bit of everything.
Back in the late 1990s, I was the webmaster for Australian Personal Computer magazine — back when magazines simply didn’t have web sites. From there I moved to editing the First Take (new products, essentially) section of APC for a couple of years. Following an editorial shuffle, I left APC, freelanced for a few months and then joined ZDNet Australia, running the reviews channel very successfully for a number of years. I also edited the local version of GameSpot (though the workload nearly drove me mad), and then was the launch editor for CNET Australia. Yes, that CNET Australia. Post-launch, I went freelance again, working for (variously) CNET, ZDNet, PC User, GadgetGuy, NetGuide, APC, CHOICE, Geare, PC World, Macworld Australia, MacTheMag, PC Authority, Talk, BIT and many others. I then worked as the editor of Gizmodo Australia for a year before moving back to freelancing (a tough but necessary personal decision), which is what I do to this day.
Right at the moment, you’ll find my byline regularly in print at APC and Techlife magazines, in Virgin Australia’s inflight magazine Voyeur, in Foxtel’s print magazine, and online at Geekspeak, the ABC’s Technology+Games and The Drum, and a number of stints (so far) this year at Allure media’s tech sites; Gizmodo, Kotaku and Lifehacker.
I’m a lazy mallard. How can I automatically know about new content?
Any number of ways. For a start, there’s the RSS feed; Google may be giving up on reader, but if you’re using an alternate reader, it’s there for you.
Via Facebook, you can (and I’d be very happy if you did) like the official Fat Duck Tech Facebook page, which you can find here:
https://www.facebook.com/FatDuckTech
Via Twitter; the official Twitter account is @fatducktech. Yes, I’ll also be tweeting via @alexkidman, and sometimes even technically retweeting myself, thereby crossing the streams. I ain’t afraid of no Zool.**
Via YouTube: Fat Duck Tech is also the home of 30 Seconds Of Tech, a video series I’ve been doing for the past couple of years. You can subscribe to 30 Seconds Of Tech over on its own YouTube page — although naturally, videos will also appear here on Fat Duck Tech as soon as they’re ready to watch.
As with any site you’d care to name, there’s also social sharing options at the base of each page. By all means, share away at will; I’d like nothing more than to be widely read, even if you don’t agree with me.
Who’s footing the bill?
Ah, a subtle Duck joke. I see what you did there.
Fat Duck Tech is proudly independent, and in no way a part of any other corporation. Except me. Realistically at this point, it’s just ad-driven, so I’d genuinely appreciate it if you didn’t use ad-blockers. No pop-ups/unders/interstitials or the like are on the drawing board, and if you do block ads, you’re not “sticking it to the man”. You’re just “sticking it to me”. While journalism isn’t a high-paying gig, I do like to intermittently chew on a little gruel in-between writing terrible duck puns, and if I can’t eat, I can’t do that.
Down the track, as opportunities arise, I may take on board sponsorships (as do many), but they’ll always be entirely transparent when I do. No sneaky hiding-the-ads-within-the-content here!
Hey, why haven’t you written about…?
You know, that’s a very good question. Maybe I haven’t because I don’t know about it, or because you know the deep dark secret that nobody else does — but should. If you’ve got an idea or tip you’d like to send, drop me a line.
We’ve got this wonderful new product we’d like you to quack about…
Gush enthusiastically and uncritically?
You haven’t met me, have you?
Which isn’t to say that I don’t want to see shiny new gadgets — indeed I do, with the caveat that they need to be available (somehow) to Australian consumers. Equally, if your gadget does something new, interesting, better and/or cheaper, I may well say nice things about it. But I won’t do so just because you smile sweetly. Equally, if you read me saying nice things about a product, it’s because I genuinely think it’s nice (or naughty).
Want to let me know about your product? Contact me.
Hey, can I write for Fat Duck Tech?
Quite possibly. One of the other things I’d like to do with Fat Duck Tech is a quantity of mentoring; when I was coming up as a young writer I was lucky enough to work with some very talented people, first at APC and then later at ZDNet/CNET, and I’m well aware that those kinds of opportunities aren’t always easy to come by these days. Stay tuned…
But why is it called Fat Duck Tech?
Ah, well now. I’ve got to have some mysteries…
*Additionally, there is also a Wumpus.
**I’m showing my age again, aren’t I?