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 1/17/08

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Here’s an update on several topics we’ve looked at in the past – some good and some not so good recent developments. Good news about search privacy options, restoration of EPA libraries, and non-DRM controlled music download purchases. Alas, the news about the FISA law renewal the Senate is taking up is not so good – in fact, from a civil liberties perspective, it’s downright bad.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 1/10/08

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Got an analog cell phone? Won’t do you much good after February, 2008 -that’s when the analog cell phone sunset kicks in. And if you do have one, what will you do with it once it is no longer useful Hopefully, not chuck it in the trash because electronic waste is a big problem these days. And just so you don’t think the Electronic Cottage is all gloom and
doom, here’s a tip on how to get free guitar lessons over the Internet from Rolly Brown, a long time guitar wizard.

Links mentioned in this episode:

  • Analog-to-Digital Transition for Wireless Telephone Service – http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/analogcellphone.html
  • The Story Of Stuff – http://storyofstuff.com/
  • Rolly Brown on Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rolly+brown&search=Search

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 1/03/08

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Tired of hearing about all those “best of, worst of” lists for 2007? A lot of us are. But there is one list that is worth taking a look at if you are one of those people who values personal autonomy. Privacy International has published their list of Surveillance Societies, and it contains a few big surprises, none of them pleasant. Here’s a summary.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/27/07

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Topic: In the dark of winter, we often focus our attention on getting ready for holidays, and let our attention drift from matters digital. Understandable but not always a good idea since other things are going on in the dark that we might not find to our liking when they hit the light. Take, for example, the FBI’s new billion dollar Next Generation Identification system…

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/13/07

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Ever wonder how social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace that don’t charge for membership manage to make money. Lately, these sites have decided that the currency of the information universe is information, and they have
plenty of that. Unfortunately, the information they have is information about the interests and tastes and purchases of their members, and hawking that brings up some real privacy problems for those members, and a lot of members don’t like it.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 11/29/07

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Topic: Getting ready to go out and buy one of those spiffy new high definition DVD players for your living room? You may want to hold up a minute since there are two competing – and incompatible – standards out there these days: Blu-ray and HDD. If you buy one and the other standard wins out, you could be stuck with a pretty expensive dinosaur. Shades of the Betamax vs. VHS wars of 20 years ago! Listen up before you decide if it’s truly time to partwith a good piece of change for one or the other of these machines.