Notes from the Electronic Cottage 1/21/10

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Let’s take a look at some ongoing trends, and at some developments in labs that suggest some of what we’ll be seeing in coming years in realms electronic.
Here are web addresses for sites mentioned in the program:

Let’s take a look at some ongoing trends, and at some developments in labs that suggest some of what we’ll be seeing in coming years in realms electronic.
Here are web addresses for sites mentioned in the program:www.googlesharing.netenigmail.mozdev.org/home/index.php

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 1/14/10

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell
Goggle recently announced that it is now “personalizing” the search results it delivers to users. Is this a good idea? Could it follow in the footsteps of cable and the Internet and simply contribute to the fragmentation of our culture? See what you think.
And, on another note, are the full body scanners about to be deployed in airports incapable of storing the nude images they generate of passengers as former Homeland Security Secretary asserted in a recent op-ed piece?
Apparently not. Ooops.
For more information on Google personalization:
0
-31195
To disable Google personalization:
For more information on full body scanner image storage capabilities:

Goggle recently announced that it is now “personalizing” the search results it delivers to users. Is this a good idea? Could it follow in the footsteps of cable and the Internet and simply contribute to the fragmentation of our culture? See what you think.
And, on another note, are the full body scanners about to be deployed in airports incapable of storing the nude images they generate of passengers as former Homeland Security Secretary asserted in a recent op-ed piece?Apparently not. Ooops.
For more information on Google personalization:
searchengineland.com/googles-personalized-results-the-new-normal-31290http://searchengineland.com/google-now-personalizes-everyones-search-results-31195
To disable Google personalization:www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=54048
For more information on full body scanner image storage capabilities:epic.org/privacy/airtravel/backscatter/

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/10/09

Producer/Host:  Jim Campbell

Shopping for a new TV this holiday season? Before you drop a wad of cash for a spiffy new set, it might be worth giving a quick listen to this little primer on TV tech. Sure, it’s a re-broadcast from 2005,  part of our tenth anniversary retrospective, but TVs still work the same way today as they did then, even though you won’t find too many CRT style TV sets in stores these days. There are plenty of projector and flat screen sets, though, so listen up.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/3/09

Producer/Host:  Jim Campbell

This program was first broadcast less than a week after the  9-11 attacks on the world trade center and the pentagon. Within days of those attacks, sweeping new so-called anti-terrorism laws were proposed and passed that dramatically reduced Americans civil liberties. Several provisions of one, the PATRIOT Act, are up for extension right now. One allows junior FBI officials, with no court order, to demand to see what books you’ve read, who you’ve written checks to, who the customers of your small business are, what ailments you’ve been treated for – and, by the way, no one is allowed to tell you this is going on?   And that is only one of the provisions up for grabs between now and the end of December.   As was the case back in 2001, if you have any thoughts on these PATRIOT Act provisions, now is the time to make them known to your congress people, and to your neighbors.

Although the specific bills mentioned in this re-broadcast did not pass exactly as initially proposed, all of the details mentioned in this broadcast have been implemented since then, and we are still living with them today.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 11/26/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

On this Thanksgiving day, we turn our attention to what we have to be thankful for in our personal and family lives, and certainly electronic technology has created many things that make our lives easier, more comfortable, and allow us to do things that our parents could not even imagine a generation ago. Some of those things are great, some are not so great and today, we recall in this episode of the Electronic Cottage from back in February, 2001 – even before 9-11 – that technology, while it offers us some great new capabilities in our lives, also creates capabilities which aren’t so great if we happen to appreciate and believe in the U.S. Bill of Rights. One of those is biometric surveillance.