This is Gary McKinnon, and I've been following his strange story for the past three years. Just after September 11, 2001, McKinnon, who was an unemployed computer professional living in London, started hacking into poorly protected US government computer systems. The US government, in its grand jury indictment, alleges McKinnon illegally accessed nearly 100 different computers over a period of more than a year. The indictment also claims that McKinnon's actions caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, and left critical US computer systems vulnerable. All this, of course, just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when security was of the utmost concern. I first covered the McKinnon story in WTP 102, and then again in WTP 204. McKinnon has admitted hacking into US government systems, but he's always maintained that it was not with malicious intent. He claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs and pollution free energy systems, information on which he believes the American government is hiding. McKinnon, his family, and his lawyers have maintained through the years that Gary should be tried in the United Kingdom, as that is where he was when he was doing the hacking. The US government feels differently, arguing that the damage done was to systems and computers in the United States. For three years, US federal prosecutors have been trying to extradite McKinnon. Meanwhile, McKinnon's been fighting that extradition through every legal means as his disposal.
Last year, McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a kind of autism. His lawyers made one last appeal to the High Court, arguing that Gary might become psychotic or suicidal if forced to stand trial in the United States. Today, that court rejected that claim, and Gary moved one step closer to extradition. That's our top story for WTP 252. Right click here to download and take the podcast with you, or click on the player below.
We also take a look at some new technologies the US military is employing in its counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. And we have a two-part look at the rise of Pirate Parties across the globe. We end with a look at how one young Japanese student wants to run an Obama-style Internet campaign in the upcoming elections, but is being thwarted by decades-old campaign laws.
Oh, that cute little cuddly bunny! Surely he or she wouldn't want to control what you're allowed to see online, right? Well, this is a screenshot from a little piece of Windows software called Green Dam Youth Escort. As of July 1, everyWindows PC sold in China will have to have this piece of software installed on it. According to Chinese officials, the software is designed to protect Chinese youth from "pornography and violent content" online. In the past, that's generally been a smokescreen for a major new push to curtail Internet freedom in China. As China web-watcher Rebecca McKinnon notes in this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 246): "[Green Dam Youth Escort] takes censorship down to the level of the individual computer." But already there are reports that the software is vulnerable to hack attacks.
Fighting between the Pakistani Army and Taliban forces in the Swat Valley has created nothing short of a humanitarian disaster. More than two million people have been forced to flee their homes, becoming what the aid business calls Internally Displaced Persons, or IDPs. United Nations groups such as the World Food Program have been on the ground for weeks now, trying to get aid to where it is most needed. Those groups can't get that done without modern, secure communications. And that means two-way radios, laptops, GPS, and satellite data uplinks. And that's where people like Dane Novarlic come in. He's an emergency response coordinator for the World Food Program. He and his team go into areas affected by natural disasters and wars, and help aid groups get connected to each other, and to the rest of the world.
Some weeks it is very hard to pull out one story from the Technology Podcast to feature front and center on the blog. After all, this week we run a wide tech gamut, featuring everything from writer Evgeny Morozov talking about the so-called "Twitter Revolution" in Moldova to Urban Pac-Man on the streets of Lyon, France. But for my money, the worthiest little story this week is about a solar oven, or "cooker" as the Brits would call it. It's called the Kyoto Box, and it recently took first prize for "green ideas" in a competition run by an organization called Forum for the Future. Solar ovens, which use sunlight to cook food or boil water, are not a new idea. But the Kyoto Box may be a game-changer because...well, they've kept the cost down by making it of cardboard. Yep, cardboard. We have an interview with the Kenya-based inventor of the Kyoto Box, Jon Bohmer. He tells us that he feels widespead use of the Kyoto Box would cut down on the burning of wood and other fossil fuels in resource-deprived parts of the world. Advantages: no carcinogenic wood smoke to be inhaled, or to contribute to global warming. Disadvantage: can cardboard really work as a cooker without catching on fire? Ah....listen in to find out.
There are also a couple of interesting, and potentially scary, security-related items in this week's podcast. We hear about the growing cyber-threats to America's electricity grid, and also about how extremist groups are using US servers to host their websites.
At the end, we lighten things up a bit. Jerome Burg is a retired teacher living in northern California. For more than 35 years, he taught high school English and tried to avoid chaperoning dances by also teaching technology to the school's journalism students. Then, a few years back, he was at Google headquarters learning about Google Earth, and it hit him: why not use Google Earth's different tools to help "three-dimensionalize" great works of literature? You know, add pictures, notes, geographical details, etc. Yeah, not bad, is it? And that's how Burg came to create GoogleLitTrips was born. The site recently won the 2008 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education.
Oh, and just because you know you secretly just HAVE to see this...video from Urban Pac-Man in Lyon, France:
This week's edition of The World's Technology Podcast (WTP 238) leads with a story on two recent reports concerning China and the Internet. The first, as you can see from graphic, is called Tracking GhostNet. It was researched and written by an outfit called the Information Warfare Monitor. This is a complementary effort to something I've written about before on the blog: the OpenNet Initiative(ONI). The people behind ONI started the Information Warfare Monitor (IWM) to do more extensive looks at what happens when nations, companies, and other entities go on the cyber-offensive. In this case, GhostNet refers to a massive south and south-east Asian cyber-espionage ring discovered by IWM researchers. More than 1,000 computers in more than 100 countries were targeted. And not just any computers. We're talking embassies, diplomatic missions, human rights groups and the like. And while it looks like Chinese computers were involved, you'll hear how hard (and illegal) it is to prove the Chinese government is behind it (something Beijing whole-heartedly denies). We have an extended interview with Ronald Deibert, one of the principal investigators on the project.
The other report is, admittedly, only partly about China and the Internet. The US-based rights group Freedom House has spent the last two years running a pilot project to monitor and gauge to overall level of Internet freedom in some 15 countries, ranging from Cuba to South Africa, from the United Kingdom to Iran. The result is Freedom on the Net. It ties into the story above because, perhaps not surprisingly, China earns a "not free" ranking from Freedom House when it comes to what the Chinese people can and can't access, what they can and can't say, online. I speak with Karin Karlekar, managing editor of the Freedom on the Net project.
As promised, we also have the second half of our interview Andrew Lih, author of The Wikipedia Revolution. You can read more about that from last week's post. At the end of the interview, I have some questions for him about Wikipedia and its history of being blocked, and now unblocked (at least most of it) in China.
And we end with a segment dedicated to all you Do-It-Yourself tech lovers out there. Make Magazine's been running Maker Faire since 2006. The Faires are true celebrations of personal creativity and craftiness: a solar-powered chariot pulled by an Arnold Schwarzenegger robot, anyone? Now, the party has moved across the big pond, to Britain. Listen in to hear how Maker Faire tranlates into Geordie (it was held in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne) and all those other lovely dialects of the Queen's English. Good fun!
Also, big thanks to all you Twitter and Facebook followers who put shame aside and sent in your selections for the "What was the first song/album/band I listened to on a Sony Walkman?" question. The soundtrack to this week's podcast, for better of worse, is yours.
It's an admittedly eclectic line-up for episode 237 of The World's Technology Podcast. But hey, we like eclectic. It gives you interesting things to talk about at boring cocktail parties. Take the humble Sony Walkman, for example. One listener wrote in and told me that his dream was to be the first person to listen to the technology podcast on an old-school cassette player. Now, I was heavy into Walkmans, and I have an attic full of cassettes, most of them featuring hair metal bands from the 80s, like RATT and Twisted Sister. I can't believe I've just admitted that publicly. Anyway, this listener only had 60 minute cassettes, so 30 minutes a side. In respect to the Walkman, I not only provide you an audio montage to start the show, but also keep the length just under 30 minutes, so it will fit on a 60 minute tape. Again, the show is ultimately yours, not mine, and this is just the kind of fan interaction I like.
Moving on to more serious matters, though. WTP 237 also features part one of a podcast exclusive interview with Andrew Lih. He's the author of The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. In part one, Lih, a new media researcher now living in Beijing, talks about what drew him to Wikipedia (he's also an administrator), and gives a nice litle summation of how Wikipedia is edited. I also shot a little video of some of the interview:
And we end this week with an update on a story that mixes technology and politics. We're sorry if that bothers you, but it's an important story, and one that I've been following for more than a year now. In 2005, officials from the Human Rights Prosecutor's office in Guatemala stumbled across a building on a police barracks in the heart of Guatemala City. The building was full of rats, bats, and an estimated 80 million moldering documents. It was the archive of the old Guatemalan National Police. Since its discovery, Guatemalan officials have been working in conjunction with professional archivists and a non-profit from California called Benetech, to clean, sort, digitize and analyze these documents. I did a television piece on the efforts for Frontline/WORLD a while back.
Now, all that effort is starting to pay off. There have been a couple of arrests in a high-profile disappearance case from the 1980s, and the Archive has just released it's initial report into significant findings from the archive.
I'm sorry, but you have to love a robotic fish, especially one that is being deployed to combat pollution. This little guy's been swimming around the London aquarium for a while, but Tech Podcast 236 brings word that schools of the little beauties will be equipped with sensors, and then deployed to monitor pollution at ports around Europe. Bottom feeders, indeed. We'll hear from Rory Doyle, a researcher who is involved in the project.
We also hear about Omidreza Mirsayafi, an Iranian blogger who recently died in the country's notorious Evin Prison. Mirsayafi had been arrested once before, but released. Then, in February, he was summoned again for questioning, and detained. It is unclear exactly how Mirsayafi died, although as you'll hear in the podcast, he had been extremely depressed since being detained. Most of the articles on Mirsayafi' blog were about Persian music and culture, not politics. Human rights groups are calling for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. This post will give you a feel for Mirsayafi's writing.
There was a lot of feedback, both on the blog and via email, to our segment last week on closed-circuit television in the United Kingdom. One great email came from Doktor Jon, a 30 year industry veteran who took some of our coverage to task. Listen in to our follow-up and have some CCTV myths and statistics questioned and debunked.
And we end with homage to Battlestar Galactica (BSG), the Sci-Fi network's immense "reimaging" of the original series. We know it's not strictly tech, or even science, but we couldn't resist including it this week, considering the United Nations thinks that the way BSG tackled hot topics like terrorism, torture and refugees makes it worthy of (a panel) discussion. Frak me.
A bit of theme runs through this week's Technology Podcast from PRI's The World. That theme is surveillance. In fact, we take a hard look at all manner of technologies and entities that are, in fact, looking at you. The most interesting of the bunch is this man, Canadian Rob Spence. Spence lost one eye to a shotgun accident when we was a kid. Now, he's a one-eyed filmmaker who is about to implant a special camera in his prosthetic eye. You can probably already see where this is going. He's going to use the camera to make a film. And yes, it raises all kinds of interesting questions about technology and privacy. And that's why for WTP 235 we get Rob on the line to answer those questions. He's calling his project EYEborg...
But along the way to Spence, we make some interesting stops. First, we head to Great Britain, where closed-circuit television cameras are, well, everywhere. It seems like you can't make a move in the UK without your image being captured. It's made for intense debate, as you might imagine. Some feel it is a clear intrusion on privacy. Others say it is necessary to deter crime and terrorism. Recently, Britain's House of Lords released a report questioning whether Britain was turning into a "surveillance state." You'll be shocked to learn the word "Orwellian" is being thrown around. Did anyone else hear the clocks strike 13? Anyway, we have a report from the streets of London, and then a discussion between Gus Hosein of Privacy International and the London School of Economics, and John Dwyer, a former constable and now Managing Director of Zeon Business Protection Services.
We also make a stop in Germany, where the government is mulling over "anti-snooping" legislation after some major German businesses, including the rail operator Deutsche Bahn, were caught spying on their employees electronically. We have a report from Berlin on the scandals, and the legislation.
And is spying potentially all that bad? Well, not if you're the parent of one of those reckless teen drivers. Actually, road accidents account for a huge percentage of teen deaths in the United States. And so, we have a report from Maryland on the trial of something called DriveCam. Yep, it's a little camera attached to one of the rearview mirrors. It allows parents to keep an eye on their teenagers driving habits. The idea, of course, is to encourage better teenage driving. If the camera detects an "infraction," the footage is reviewed, and an email is sent to the parents. Dude, that sucks.
A reminder that you can always peek in on what WTP is up to. We're on Twitter and Facebook. You can always check out any of our other 234 episodes via the archive.
In last week's podcast (WTP 229), we featured an in-depth look at Google. We asked, where could the "do no evil" crowd be headed to next? This week, Technology Podcast 230 gives you a couple of answers. First underwater, courtesy of Google Ocean, which is part of the latest release of Google Earth. Finally, there seems to be some realization that the vast majority of the Earth's surface is covered with water. We'll get an assessment Google Ocean from Carl Safina, of the Blue Ocean Institute. And, just because it's still the middle of winter here in Boston, why not take a tour of the Mediterranean?
Most of the reaction to Google Ocean has been positive. But another Google product that just came out recently has some privacy advocates in a tizzy. It's called Google Latitude. You can put it on your computer or your mobile phone, and it allows you to share your location, with anyone, anywhere in the world. Now Google claims that the user has complete control over what location information is or isn't shared, and with whom. But Simon Davies of Privacy International doesn't buy it, and he tells us his reasons why on the podcast.
Also, the kind folks over at the BBC's Digital Planet program rang me up to ask me about a blogger who has recently taken up residence in Washington. You may have heard of him -- Barack Obama? Yes, the White House website features a "blog" of sorts now, although fans of Mr. Obama's more personal tone during the campaign may be a bit disappointed. It's part and parcel of what happens when the desire to reach out digitally meets the reality of governing in a place like Washington. Or at least that seems to be what I told Digital Planet. We'll have an excerpt on WTP 230.
And we check-in with freelancer and author Cyrus Farivar, who tells us about Estonia's bid to use some of its homegrown high-tech (Skype, anyone?) to help keep costs low at local hotels in the face of a growing global recession. Cyrus' forthcoming book, The Internet of Elsewhere, includes a chapter on Estonia, or E-stonia as the budding tech hub of the Baltic has branded itself. So, will free Skype calls from hotel rooms in Tallinn be enough to lure back the British bachelor party crowd? Listen in.
Estonia also figures into one other story on this week's podcast. You may remember that back in 2007, some fairly nasty cyberattacks took place in Estonia. The Estonians blamed the Russians, and the Russian government denied it. To date, only one ethnic Russian hacker in Estonia has been arrested in connection with the attacks. But the attacks so crippled Estonia's computer systems that NATO took note. The organization has made cyberdefense a priority, and has even opened a special unit at its headquarters outside of Brussels to deal with it. We get a behind-the-scenes look at ops there, courtesy of BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner.
And we end with a super-secret hidden track...an update on a story we've covered before. Yep, it's the Skycar, and it's making its way over the Sahara desert en route to Timbuktu in Mali. We check in with expedition leader Neil Laughton.
As always, we like to remind you that you can subscibe to The World's Technology Podcast via RSS, and via iTunes. You can also find us via internet radio aggregator services such as radiotime. Of course, if you'd like to sample before you subscribe, you can simply play episdode 230 below.
If you've ever wanted to be a sheriff's deputy, but not leave the comfort of your own home, then Rick Parry, the Governor of Texas, has just the thing for you. It's called BlueServo, and it's a series of webcams set up along the Texas/Mexico border. Ordinary citizens sign up, and can watch any number of the cams, which are set up at areas known for illegal drug trafficking, or spots known for illegal border crossings (see right). It's a two million dollar effort, which some are calling a successful deterrent to border crime, and others are calling a political boondoggle. On this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 229), we check in with El Paso Times reporter Brandi Grissom, who has been covering the technology and the politics behind the BlueServo project.
But wait, there's more. We also have a lengthy report on Google. We'll examine the company's past, its present, and its future. Even if you think you've heard it all before, you'll want to listen in to this report, just to get a sense of the size, scope and scale of the company's operations. Needless to say, it's a lot more than just a search engine.
And speaking of engines, or rather motors. Our next item takes a look at Better Place, a company founded by entrepreneur Shai Agassi. Better Place isn't just about making all-electric vehicles. It's about creating the infrastructure necessary to support those vehicles, including building charging stations, battery swap stations, and the software necessary to make this all as easy as possible for the user/driver. We'll have a check-in with Agassi, to find out more about his bold plan, which is not without its critics.
And from a project that relies on a steady supply of electricity, to a country where electricity is a precious commodity right now -- Nepal. Only 40 percent of the country's population has ever, ever, been connected to the electricity grid. Why do I sometimes run things like this on the technology podcast? Because too often we get caught up in the latest gadget, or gizmo, and give no thought to the fact that millions around the world go without any regular access to the juice that makes even the most basic technologies go.
You can listen to WTP 229 by clicking below, but we invite you to subscribe to the podcast, either via RSS or via iTunes. You can also get a behind the scenes look by following us on Twitter, or joining us on Facebook.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7e396ced-b383-4a9b-a0e6-7cc2e66b2f94)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=0d3e1178-6fd9-47d8-b05d-d33a7e7dd4a5)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=afd125ca-42d0-4d2d-80e2-789450853013)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=dec3e792-dd9b-4f31-acd9-335cb93fbcd2)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=e884dc15-16f6-4252-ab0c-58ff246e89a6)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=16b66a4e-a7ee-4fab-8acb-3e56b88e1b46)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a01a2cf9-6b0e-442b-9d27-6838e9a174cf)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=bc7e1296-dd18-446e-aaf2-35facdbd4be2)
Recent Comments