Notes From The Electronic Cottage

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The Internet, as we all know now, is a rich source of information. Some of that information is great, some questionable, some downright wrong, and some– well, let’s just say it’s a bit funky. That’s the case with this piece from December of 2002, one of the early pieces we’re re-playing as a lead up to the Electronic Cottage’s 10th anniversary in January, 2010. You can tell this episode is seven years old because there is a reference to floppy disks which, of course, are now pretty much historical artifacts. Otherwise, it’s all as true today as it was in those days of yore.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Back in July of 2004, in response to some listener requests, we took a look at a couple of books that are both good reads and very helpful in leading to a better understanding of the electronic world we live in. Those books are just as relevant today as the Electronic Cottage approaches it’s tenth anniversary as they were back in the summer of 2004.

“Linked” by Albert Lazlo-Barabasi
“Code” by Larry Lessig (an updated version, “Code 2.0” is available in bookstores or as a free download at codev2.cc)

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Another rebroadcast from the first ten years of the Electronic Cottage.

If you fly from time to time, you are by now familiar with the security drill – take of your coat, take off your shoes, everything metal out of your pockets, and so forth. Some of these particular procedures are new but they are a continuation of additional screening initiatives that began in the wake of 9-11. This “sky is falling” rhetoric and new regulations and erosion of traditional privacy rights began very soon after September 2001 as this rebroadcast from February of 2002 indicates, and they’re still with us today.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

GPS is a wonderful thing but like all technology, it can have many different uses. Today, let’s recall an issue that GPS makes possible. It isn’t on the front pages at the moment but that you can bet you will be hearing about again. As people drive less and use more fuel efficient cars, the proceeds from gas taxes shrink and legislators all over the country, including here in Maine, are now floating trial balloons on the very same new kind of tax we first discussed back in 2003 when this edition was first broadcast, a tax that could enable the state to track where you go and when.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Another episode from our tenth anniversary series, this one focused on the alphabet soup of Internet terms we use every day, often without being conscious of what they mean.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Today, as we move toward the Electronic Cottage’s 10th anniversary, we re-listen to an edition from 2000, this one on how to tune a color TV- with a brief digression on the difference between additive and subtractive color.
Back then, all television sets used analog technology so that is what this old program describes. But even though today’s flat screen TVs no longer have color guns, and even though, if you have a flat screen TV, you probably adjust color using an on-screen menu, the principles of how color works on a television, and the types of controls you have to deal with are still the same.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell
The Electronic Cottage will be marking ten years on the WERU airwaves in January, 2010. Between now and then, we’ll be re-broadcasting a program from each of those ten years to see how much technology and its impact on our lives have changed – and, in some cases, how much they’ve remained the same.
Today, we go back to the year 2000 for a discussion of just what the terms “bits” and “bytes” refer to.

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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell
Today, a few catch up items. Google wants you to vote on which “big ideas” will most help the most people in the world. Check out www.project10tothe100.com.

Meanwhile, phishing attacks have hit a new high in 2009, and people still seem to be biting, to their everlasting regret. We all know not to click on sites in emails that are supposedly from your bank or credit card company – they’re not – but some folks do it anyway. And spam continues to take up about 90% of the email bandwidth on the Internet. Why? Because it works.

Some folks seem to think they’ll get rich on cock-eyed schemes and as long they continue to bite, we’ll all continue to have spam-filled mailboxes.

Here’s the story.

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