Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/2/16

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Former Attorney General Eric Holder recently said that he thought Edward Snowden had done a public service for Americans and generated a conversation that we needed to have about privacy and security. A recent vote in the Senate Intelligence Committee that would allow the FBI to gain access to information about our emails without a court order, and a new patent for a police cruiser light bar that would include facial recognition capability might make us wonder where that conversation is ending up.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/19/16

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Over 200 years ago, the philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed a prison model called a Panopticon based on the belief that people change their behavior when they think they may are being watched. Recently, the National Telecommunications Information Administration has confirmed that people are behaving differently online today based on fears about privacy and security. That could be bad news for both our civic and our economic health in the US. To read about the report, go to www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2016/lack-trust-internet-privacy-and-security-may-deter-economic-and-other-online-activities. To listen, click right here.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/12/16

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

In late 2015, Gordon Moore, after whom Moore’s Law is named, said that he thought the amazing doubling of computer power every 18 months or so that has been the case over the past four decades was probably coming to an end since current technology “eventually saturates out.” But there is a new technology in the wings that could make doubling of computer power trivial. It’s called quantum computing, and the first modest quantum computers are here. They could have a huge impact on what computers will be able to do in the not-too-distant future. Here’s why.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/21/16

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The recently introduced “Compliance with Court Orders Act” in the US Senate appears to try to address the question of when and how private technologies companies should be made to aid the government in getting access to encrypted information. Unfortunately, as one encryption expert put it after reviewing the bill, “This is the most braindead piece of legislation I’ve ever seen.” It seems technological expertise does not run high in the US Congress, a real problem in the the highly technological digital age we live in.

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