Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/28/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

According to Hitlist, 98% of web users use just four search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSNLive, and ask.com. What about those other 2% of search engines available on the web? Today, we look at a few that might be just the ticket for some kinds of searches. Take a look at:
ixQuick – www.ixQuick.com – if privacy is important to you Hakia – www.hakia.com – which promises not only accurate but reliable results Indeed – www.indeed.com – focused only on job openings JobsInMaine – www.jobsinme.com – listing Maine job openings

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/07/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

There’s lots of music available for download on the web – but free, legally cleared music is another matter. Today we look at two recent sites that are providing access to free and legal music. The free Music Archive (www.freemusicarchive.org) works directly with contemporary artists to provide music under some rights reserved licenses. Musopen (www.musopen.com), on the other hand, provides access to performances of classical music that are in the public domain, and provides a way fro people to join together to commission new performances of specific classical pieces that will be placed in the public domain forever.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/30/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell
During this last month of WERU’s 20th Anniversary year, we’re digging into old editions from the Electronic Cottage vault that seem to us to be just as relevant today as they were when they were first broadcast, and on this last broadcast on this last day of WERU’s 20th anniversary year, we hope you’ll forgive us for waxing a bit philosophical, with the help of Arthur C. Clarke and J. K. Rowling, in this edition first broadcast back in August of 2007.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/23/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

During this last month of WERU’s 20th Anniversary year, we’re digging into old editions from the Electronic Cottage vault that seem to us to be just as relevant today as they were when they were first broadcast. This edition from June of 2008 may even be more relevant today. It discusses the federal Real ID Act, a law that would essentially establish a national ID card for the first time in American history. Maine was the first state to pass a law saying that the state would not participate in the federal Real ID Act. That law is still on the books but when push came to shove last year, under pressure from the Department of Homeland Security, the governor and a bare majority of legislators passed two laws that bring the Real ID Act to Maine despite the Maine law saying the state would not participate. Now there is a bill in the Maine legislature, LD 1357, that would repeal Maine’s Real ID law. (Note that there is currently no effort underway to collect signatures for a people’s veto as mentioned in this edition from the archives.)

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/16/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

During this last month of WERU’s 20th anniversary year, we’re digging a few old editions from the Electronic Cottage vault that seem to us to be just as relevant today as they were when they were first broadcast. In this edition originally broadcast in May of 2005, we take a look at cryptography, a method for encoding information so that only the intended recipient can understand it. In these days of pervasive hacking and government monitoring of communication, the topic is every bit as relevant now as then – and maybe more so.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/09/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

During this last month of WERU’s 20th Anniversary year, we’re digging a few old editions from the Electronic Cottage vault that seem to us to be just as relevant today as they were when they were first broadcast. In this edition from November 2004, we take a look at spam, the scourge of the Internet.
Everything in this years old edition is still true today, except one point.
The one exception is that spam is no longer just 40% of Internet email traffic. Estimates in April 2009 are that it comprises as much as 94% of Internet traffic. It seems that in some parts of the digital world, just as in the physical world, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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