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 2/04/10

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Every day, we are captured on video cameras in stores or gas stations or toll booths. Let’s reflect a bit on what effect such surveillance has on daily life, and on the recent introduction of automated license plate reading cameras mounted on police cruisers here in Maine.
An interesting book on the difference between digital memory and human memory and what it means for out lives and those of our children is “Delete:
The Value of Forgetting in the Digital Age by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger.
Definitely worth a read if ubiquitous surveillance concerns you.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 1/28/10

Producer/Host:  Jim Campbell

“The State of the News Media 2009” is a sobering report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. We’ll take a look at some of the trends the report observes. and on the impact that the decline of traditional news media is having on our lives, our culture, and, perhaps, on our way of governing ourselves. The full report is available at www.journalism.org.  Take a look for yourself.

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:
www.googlesharing.net
http://enigmail.mozdev.org/home/index.php

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.nethttp://enigmail.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:
http://searchengineland.com/googles-personalized-results-the-new-normal-3129
0
http://searchengineland.com/google-now-personalizes-everyones-search-results
-31195
To disable Google personalization:
http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=54048
For more information on full body scanner image storage capabilities:
http://epic.org/privacy/airtravel/backscatter/

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:
http://searchengineland.com/googles-personalized-results-the-new-normal-31290http://searchengineland.com/google-now-personalizes-everyones-search-results-31195
To disable Google personalization:http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=54048
For more information on full body scanner image storage capabilities:http://epic.org/privacy/airtravel/backscatter/

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/24/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

So what do you think about robots? If you’re like most of us, you probably don’t think much about them at all. That will be  changing before too long as robots become a bigger part of daily life and we have to figure out some of the legal and ethical implications of having robots be an important part of our world.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/17/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

This will be the last of our series of rebroadcast programs as we approach this program’s 10 anniversary, and we hope you have enjoyed them. This final rebroadcast is from spring of 2009, and, perhaps fittingly, is more of an opportunity for philosophical reflection than a how-to episode.

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.