Notes from the Electronic Cottage 11/3/22: No Tech

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Looking for tech info? Today’s episode has none but we hope you will like it anyway.

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 10/20/22: Election Voting Security

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

It’s election season and we’re hearing a lot of stuff that is pretty unbelievable. But we aren’t hearing much about voting machine companies doctoring votes at this point in time. Why is that? Hmmm. But even if we aren’t hearing a lot of about alleged voting machine fraud now, it’s still important to think about how we might guarantee that vote counting is accurate. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) thinks so and in October of 2022 released a TechBrief entitled “Election Security: Risk Limiting Audits.” It’s brief and offers Risk Limiting Audits (RLA) as a tool to ensure that electronic vote counting is accurate and transparent. Only four pages and definitely worth reading, here

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 10/13/22: Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Artificial Intelligence is used widely in our digital world affecting our everyday lives. Although it can affect everything from making credit decisions to reading x-rays, it is also completely unregulated in the US. That is why this White Paper, “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” is worth a very good look.

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 10/6/22: October ’22 Update

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Technology marches on. Here are two recent developments, one of which is pretty amazing amazing but both of which are also disturbing for different reasons. See what you think.

Links referred to in the program:
Holly Herndon: What if you could sing in your favorite musician’s voice? | TED Talk
Chrome’s New Ad Blocker Limiting Extension Platform Will Launch in 2023, Arstechnica
Google delays execution of doomed Chrome extensions, The Register
Chrome Users Beware: Manifest V3 is Deceitful and Threatening | Electronic Frontier Foundation

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/29/22: AI Online Processing 1

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just for big corporations any more. AI is emerging as a way for regular folks to more quickly and simply get their work done, create new things, and change how they look or sound online. Let’s take a look at some of those emerging, and sometimes quite remarkable possibilities, and even try out a couple of very impressive ones.

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/22/22: September ’22 Headlines

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Have you heard the Amazon’s Ring Doorbell division is teaming up with Amazon’s MGM division to create a new TV series called “Ring Nation” hosted by comedian Wanda Sykes? What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/15/22: September ’22 Headlines

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

There is a lot going on in the digital world these days. We can’t cover all of it in these short programs but we can at least summarize the stories behind a a selection of very recent headlines that some folks may have missed in the switch from summer time to school time. Here are a few.

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/8/22: Believing What We See Online

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Can we believe what we see online? Maybe not so much anymore.

Here are the links mentioned in today’s program:
DALL·E 2 – a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.
How to Create Synthetic AI Art With Midjourney, Joe Fedewa, 8/9/22, How-to-Geek
Github CompVis Stable Diffusion

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.