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 7/24/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Today, a few items from the ever growing digital pile at the Electronic Cottage: a look at the “anomaly” of unauthorized access to people’s passport records which emerged during the presidential primaries and which turns out to be not such an anomaly at all; how a GPS tracking device installed by his parents in his car saved a teenager from a big speeding ticket; and a look at the Save Christian Radio web site which is outraged at the FCC’s proposals to increase localism in radio that might require stations to have a community advisory board, and even require that there be a live human being at a radio station when it is on the air!

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 7/17/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Here are some “best of” sites on the Internet, as well as a couple that are just very handy to know about.

http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/skip-the-tuition:-100-free-podcasts-from-the-best

-colleges-in-the-world. (It’s URL says it all).

http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/200-free-online-classes-to
-learn-anything. (Same with this one – the address says it all.)

www.collegeathome.com/blog/2008/06/19/100-useful-niche-search-engines-youve-
never-heard-of. (Another one where the name tells the story. Remember –
Google isn’t the only game in town!)

http://whyfiles.org. This site, operated by the University of Wisconsin,
looks at the scientific facts that underlie some of the stories we see in
the daily news, and you don¹t need to have a college degree to be able to
read and understand the science involved.

www.governmentattic.org. This site is dedicated to providing access to
government documents that your tax dollars paid for but which the government
chooses not to publish.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 7/10/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Today we follow-up on some topics we’ve looked at recently because in both the digital world and the physical world with which it interacts, things can change fast.   Let’s look at some updates on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008,  ISP tracking of user click streams, and Maine’s “no it isn’t, but yes it is” dance around the Real ID Act.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 7/03/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Well, the Australians seem to have decided that a national ID card isn’t for them.   In the U.S., not only are we moving toward a de facto national ID card, we’re also spending a billion dollars of taxpayer money so the FBI can amass the largest biometric database in the world on U.S. Citizens – not just convicted felons or other criminals but hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of regular folks who need to apply for a job, whose parents think it’s a swell idea to register their fingerprints or iris scans when they are children, or people who are arrested by federal authorities – even park rangers – even if they are never even charged with a crime. Feel safer? Feel like you live in the land of the free?

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/26/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Think your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a utility like your electric company or phone company? Think again. These days many ISPs are looking to “monetize their assets” and guess what their assets are? That’s right, you
and me and where we go and what we do on the Internet. To monetize us, they need to track us and what we do on the Internet, and that’s what at least some ISPs are doing right now.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/12/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Topic: These days, we hear that the Internet is killing libraries. That would be a surprise to the hundreds of thousands of Mainers who find that today’s libraries are both “brick” and “click,” both physical spaces and gateways to the cyber world of information, including information we would have to pay for if we tried to access it ourselves.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/05/08

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Law affects technology. And technology affects law. A good example of the latter is the Real ID act which, despite opposition from over half of the states, is still being put into effect by Homeland Security. Maine offers a good example of what happens when push comes to shove in the effort to create a de facto national ID card and national database of all driving age citizens.