Category: Notes From The Electronic Cottage

A weekly feature on electronic technology as it affects everyday life with Jim Campbell. Broadcast on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, ME every Thursday at 7:30 AM.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/26/12

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Love the convenience of your iPad or iPhone, of your Kindle or Nook? They sure are slick devices but what you can do with them is limited by what Apple or Amazon or Barnes and Noble says you can do with them. That’s where the term “walled garden” comes in when talking about the Internet these days.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/12/12

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

We’ve been following the deployment of so-called smart meters which, as has been pointed out, are not particularly secure, giving rise to privacy concerns for consumers. Now there is a problem for the utilities themselves according to this report about an FBI document: hacking of smart meters to steal electricity.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/04/fbi-smart-meter-hacks-likely-to-spread/

There are lots of free college courses available online. Here are some sites where you can find out more:

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

http://mitx.mit.edu/

http://www.ocwconsortium.org/

http://oyc.yale.edu/courses

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

http://www.open-of-course.org/courses/

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative

http://opencontent.org/ocwfinder/

http://www.ocwsearch.com/

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/5/12

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell
Ever wanted to be a scientist but didn’t travel down that career path? The Internet offers real opportunities for citizen scientists to make real contributions to the progress of science. Here are some of the ways anyone with an Internet connection can help.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/29/12

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The U.S. was founded on John Locke’s principle of “consent of the governed,” a concept which some are trying to extend from physical space into cyberspace. Rebecca MacKinnon is one of them and she has written a book called “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom.” It’s worth a read. If you can’t get around to reading it, you can hear some of the major ideas in a 14 minute talk available here: http://www.ted.com/talks/rebecca_mackinnon_let_s_take_back_the_internet.html

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/22/12

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

If you know anyone who occasionally uses peer to peer networks for sharing music or movies, best let them know that July 12, 2012 is a going be a big day. That’s when a new agreement between recording companies and Internet Service Providers goes into effect. this new “six strikes” policy could affect the Internet connections of real (or perhaps even imagined) “illegal file sharers.” Here’s why and how.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/8/12

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

It seems as if lots of the media as well as lots of politicians are upset over the privacy policies of Google, Facebook, and other commercial web companies, and with good reason. But users have a choice about what company’s services to use. There is no choice about government so it behooves us to keep up on current and future government use of technologies
that affect out personal privacy that most politicians don’t seem to want to talk about. Here are a few.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/1/12

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Walled gardens can be lovely to visit – as long as the only plants you would like to look at are the ones the owner lets in. In cyberspace, walled gardens built by Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others can be quite convenient – but are walled-in nonetheless. Is this good or bad? Sort of depends on your point of view.