Notes From The Electronic Cottage

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The pace of tech development moves in apace, even in our present Covid affected world. Here are a few items from the just a past few weeks that might have escaped wide notice.

Here is a link to Brian Krebs comments about cryptocurrency mining mentioned in today’s program.

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.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Welcome to the New Year with hopes for a better 2022 than was 2021. No “Year’s 10 Best” or “Year’s 10 Worst” list on today’s program. Instead, let’s take a look at a few things in the tech January 1 was Public Domain Day for 2022. Here’s what that means and why it is worth celebrating.

Here’s the link mentioned on today’s program.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Welcome to the New Year with hopes for a better 2022 than was 2021. No “Year’s 10 Best” or “Year’s 10 Worst” list on today’s program. Instead, let’s take a look at a few things in the tech world that may have escaped our notice in the tsunami of Covid, Climate Change, and other news that dominated the headlines in 2021 but deserve some of our attention nonetheless.

Here is the Verizon mobile link mentioned on today’s program:

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.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

In a factsheet entitled “Surveillance Advertising: What Is It?” the Consumer Federation of America defines the term, and then lists a number of problems with Surveillance Advertising. It’s sobering reading. It also asserts that there is not a lot that individual online users can do about it on their own. In the absence of a national privacy law in the US, other suggestions for dealing with Surveillance Advertising have been offered. We’ll begin to take a look at some of them today.

Here are links to the documents mentioned in today’s program:

Surveillance Advertising Factsheet

Value of the Choice Requirement Remedy

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.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Perhaps you didn’t notice but there was a recent announcement about a proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit against Zoom, the videoconferencing company that a whole lot of people have been using in Covid times. What!?! Who sued Zoom – and why? Here’s the story plus how, if you used Zoom, you might be part of the lawsuit settlement.

Here are the links mentioned today:

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. Privacy Litigation

Jitsi

5 open source alternatives to Zoom

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.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The Future of Privacy Forum, in conjunction with IBM, released a report in November 2021 entitled: “Privacy and the Connected Mind: Understanding the Data Flows and Privacy Risks of Brain-Computer Interfaces.” Although the most extreme cases – for example, reading a person’s thoughts from outside the person’s mind or body – may be a few decades away, it may be worth our while to start thinking about the issues such tech will bring up before it actually arrives. After all, the future has a way of becoming the present, often before we expect it. We’d be wise to be ready for this future whenever it arrives.

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.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

There are lots of reason for those of us who live in Maine to be grateful. Who would have thought that one of them is Maine law regarding facial recognition technology? It’s true! Here’s why.

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.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

It’s getting to be the holiday gift-giving season so odds are pretty good that some swell new digital devices will be showing up in houses all over town. But, snazzy as they are, it is a good idea to set them up to serve our interests rather the interests of the manufacturers or app developers before we start using them. Here’s what and a start on how.

This is the link mentioned on today’s program

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download