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 4/16/09

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.

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.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/26/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Having our electronic gadgets able to bring us location-based information can be a great convenience but it’s important for us to know just how those gadgets manage that trick, and what implications they have for our personal privacy.

This is WERU’s 20th anniversary year so every once in a while, we go back to see how the information in old Electronic Cottage editions has stood the test of time. This edition was first broadcast in 2002, and it’s just as appropriate today – or even more so – as it was back then.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/19/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Just some odds and ends today that might be of interest. Here are the web addresses mentioned in the program:

www.freezeframe.ac.uk – 20,000+ images from the Scott Polar Research Institute, some dating from 1845

www.ipy.org – site of the 2007 International Polar Year

https://ssd.eff.org – the Self-Defense Surveillance site. Info on what you can do to keep your information secure in this age of ubiquitous surveillance

www.freeebase.com – “an open database of the world’s information”

www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps – a great site for determining what kind of digital television reception you are likely to get over the air at your house.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/05/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Airline travel is often not a pleasant experience these days with reduced schedules, fuel surcharges and the like. What may be even more unpleasant is the information airlines and other travel services amass about you, your work, your lifestyle, and even your religion.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/26/09

Producer/Host: JIm Campbell

Think mind reading is the stuff of science fiction? Not any more. Using medical imaging devices and powerful computers, researchers around the world are trying – and succeeding – to read our minds, and, naturally, the spooks at spy agencies are very interested.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/19/09

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Topic: Come summer of 2009, if you want to get into the U.S., you’ll need a passport or a passport card. The passport cards differ in some important ways from regular passports. For one thing they are significantly cheaper.  For another, the information on the chips in them can be read from 30 feet away, and that is making some folks nervous. Here’s why.