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 9/13/07

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Privacy and Facebook

Search engines and other Internet companies are beginning to offer us choices and tools to better protect our personal privacy online. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to be using them. A recent example from Facebook makes the point all too well. If we want to be in control of our cyber-lives, it is ultimately up to us to take the time to protect our personal privacy.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/06/07

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Some listeners have recently indicated that reports on the Electronic Cottage, such as the one about the Department of Homeland Security’s project hostile Intent, can be a bit of a downer. So today, we feature only good tech news: trivia about the birth of the CD, handy web sites to know about, and even a peak at some possible future technologies that will improve our lives. Good news about electronic technology coming right up!

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 8/23/07

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Ever wonder about all the waves that are passing through us every minute of every day, waves that make radio and television possible, among other things? Listen up while we take an audio look at the electronic spectrum -of which radio and television waves are only a small part.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 8/09/07

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

These are the lazy, hazy days of summer but that doesn¹t mean that there isvany vacation in cyberspace. Today we reflect on new NSA powers to intercept your phone and email communications; invisible yellow dots made by color laser printers that allow the government to track what printer printed what documents (http://seeingyellow.com, www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/list.php); electronic voting machine vulnerabilities; TASER stun guns in “designer colors;” a new Microsoft patent application that would scan the contents of your hard drive to enable advertisers to better target your interests; and a very nice youtube video that manages to cram a huge amount of information about our world into six minutes (http://youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI).

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 8/01/07

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

Should civil liberties – in cyberspace or anywhere else – diminish to provide increased security? What does the Constitution say, or is it mute on such a question, in a technologically dangerous world the founders could never have contemplated? Eminent jurist Richard A. Posner takes on those very questions in “Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency.” Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, the questions he raises are ones we all need to answer for ourselves in the post 9-11 world we all live in now.