Play audio:
Note: The broadcast version of Spark is pre-empted on Wednesday, November 21, but you can listen to the whole show online right here. Just click on the pink ‘play’ button. The show will air on CBC Radio One on Saturday the 24 at 4:00 pm (4:30 in Newfoundland).
On this episode of Spark:
- Spark listeners watch TV on demand
- Matthew Cashmore on the shared experience of television (full interview)
- Nora mentions Amazon’s Kindle
- Nora and Cathi Bond watch a giant outdoor television
- Another story of email sender regret
- Nora asks, “Do you ever email yourself?”
- Peter Rukavina explains living with a Nabaztag WiFi-enabled rabbit (full interview)
- Techiquette: Tom Howell investigates the ethics of personal outsourcing
- Anand Giridharadas explains outsourcing 2.0
This episode features Creative Commons music and sound effects:
- “Oslodum 2004” by DJ Dolores
- “airtone/sp2-tr4/”>sp2 tr4″ by airtone
- “38486 potroub beatave7” by potroub
- “100707 beatbox 01” by Nurykabe
- “The (New) Call of the Freaks” by Luis Russell & His Orchestra
- “Lavender Hip Mob” by Lee Rosevere
Download the MP3, or subscribe to the podcast.
As always, an amazing show that gets me thinking about so many things.
My in-laws are from India. While my wife was born in Vancouver, my father-in-law and mother-in-law were born near Calcutta (pronounced Kolcutta). I have been to India only twice, and am looking forward to future trips.
I tend to think about the big-picture stuff whenever possible. In India there are many servants, and many people coming from the west are uncomfortable with that the same way some people were uncomfortable with the “outsourcing” segment of your show.
I think of it this way: we “outsource” a lot of our work as well, but in our case to machines. These machines take up a lot of energy to manufacture and operate, making our ecological footprint very large. Many major global issues, such as climate change, are the effects of this long-term outsourcing.
In India you have many different socio-economic situations, with those with more money hiring “outsourcing” some of their work to those with less money.
In order to take on higher-level jobs in high-tech, we need to outsource some of our normal day-to-day work. Given the energy and other global issues, is it really more ethical or long-term sustainable to outsource to machines rather than people?
I listened to the full interview with Anand. I was immediately thinking how Outsourcing 2.0 fit into the whole debate about the form of the knowledge economy.
Key question about the shape of the knowledge economy.
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/4346
If knowledge is to the new economy like machines were to the old, then the sharing of best practices and other knowledge between companies will be seen as a benefit of the new economy. This sharing will be encouraged.
If on the other hand knowledge is seen as being comparable to products in the industrial economy, companies will shut down this sharing and/or try to ‘monetize’ it (which will effectively shut it down anyway).
Great show – lots of thought provoking information.
In this show you were talking about “on-demand”, so I thought I’d mention my somewhat unusual way of listening to Spark and other programs. I download the podcast to my computer, but I have a 45 minute drive to and from work so it makes sense to listen in my car. I don’t like wearing headphones while driving, so I convert the podcast to an AAC file in iTunes, then burn it to a CD-RW, which I then play in my car stereo. Kind of a mix of up to date and almost up to date technologies.
You had also asked about future e-mail. Well, I do that already. I use a Mac computer at home, specifically an iBook with Mac OS X. One of the built in features of OS X is a little program called iCal – basically a calendar and planner utility. It allows me to set appointments and tasks, with reminders. One reminder option is to have the program send me an e-mail at some point in the future. It’s great for remembering birthdays!
I’ve been reading ebooks on my Palm handheld for the past 3 or 4 years. It’s something that I’ve come to love and would be lost without ebooks now.
Real books are great but they’re expensive, and take up huge amounts of space.
Also because of ebooks I’ve been able to get my hands on different literature that isn’t available in the local bookstore or at the public library.
Hello Nora,
I know it’s funny the way etiquette is said on your show. You probably know but I’ll say it anyway. You say it last as “ta quéquette”. In french, the quéquette is the male appendage. Ta means your. So, watch “ta quéquette”… is a good running gag!
I have another comment. I use the automatic emails (in yahoo and hotmail) to remind me of anniversaries of course. And you know you have to connect to these emails at least once a month. So I have these send me an email to remind me to check the other email I don’t check very often. An email to check my email.
Thanks,
Serge.
@ Serge !
@ Christopher: I’m curious. How do you find the legibility of it? Can you read for a long time? It would definitely be a great thing to have for travel. I usually like to have a couple of guide books, plus a couple of novels when I travel, but that gets to be awfully heavy.
There will come a day when schools,librarys,ect.will use the ebook concept exculusivly.Think about it, schools will simply have
down load current subjects complete with homework, into ebook concept.No more heavy books to lug around. What a relief this will be to our struggling forests and ozone.
Nora,
The legibility is great. Even on my tiny 320×320 pixel screen. (roughly two and a quarter inches length and width)
I use a GPL program called PalmFiction. Which I’ve customized with a font that I find very easy to read “Kartika”.
When I read I always make a point to do so with good lighting. Even though the LCD screen is backlit it will end up hurting your eyes if you read in the dark. And I’m totally comfortable reading for about an hour at a time.
It’s really handy when I travel (as rare as that is) I can carry 2-3 novels in my jean pocket rather than taking up room in my bag.
While I find your show very interesting, I think you must address the fact that all of this new technology and gadgetry is using an increasing amount of energy.
For example, a new laptop I just bought with dual processors is using about 50% more energy than the one I bought 2 years ago. These devices to read books, which now require power are another example. My ipod although drawing minimal energy now requires charging every few hours of use, my old discman would run on 2 double A batteries for a month.
I work from home in and in my small office I count 10 plugs for modems, routers, printers, monitors etc, etc. I shudder to think of the power it is all drawing.
I have yet to hear about someone on a show like this address the fact that our increasing use of computers and electronics is using up an increasing amount of energy.
Relating the technology all back to energy use would surely make people think about the appropriate use of these technologies as apposed to using them just for the coolness factor. In my opinion a cool new device would be one that is using less power than last year’s model. Unfortunately, the opposite is true.
Hi Nora,
you were debating the ethics of personal outsourcing to countries with lower incomes; is it taking unfair advantage? If you think about it, we really do this any time we go to a big store and buy something that's made in China (or India, Philippines, etc.).
ps. Techiquette is really hard to say! (and after reading Serge's posting, you may never be able to say it again with a straight face). What about Etitech? Or, if you've read that e-mail floating around, you could spell it Etitteque, because evidently our brains can decipher words as long as the first and last letters are right.
To add onto Craig’s point. Currently high end computer power supplies are getting close to the maximum power they can draw from a wall outlet. With the way they have advanced in the last few years. It’s likely that PSUs for computers will max out at 1500 watts in a year or two.
Great idea to do a piece on power usage and electronics! I've talked a little bit about it in my column (for afternoon shows), but it would make a great story for Spark. Also something to be observant of in general when we talk about gadget-itis.
I'd love it if anyone can suggest resources for a story on this.
Does anyone say “Techiquette” correctly in that bumper? I know I get more confused every time I hear it.
OK, we’re going to do the power use story on our show that airs right before the Christmas holidays. If anyone would like to share their thoughts about the topic, please do! Do you think about power usage when you upgrade?
Nora,
The Rocky Mountain Institute website is a good place to start. Their library has a primer on household electronics. <a href="http://http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid107.php“target=”_blank”><a href="http://<a href="http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid107.php“” target=”_blank”>www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid107.php“target=”_blank”>http://<a href="http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid1…” target=”_blank”>www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid107.php
The kill-a-watt meter is something that’s been on my list of things to get that lets you measure actual power usage of anything that plugs in.
And Jevon's Paradox is an interesting idea relating to the fact that increased energy efficiency actually leads to more energy being consumed.
I have been wanting to run my office off of solar panels for a while and so I always look into the power usage of computer equipment I buy. It is sometime hard to find values in company literature on such things though. For example a search on the Apple’s website for the new 160 GB IPod there is no information available on their tech specs for me to determine or estimate its power usage , despite a link to “environment” touting their green-ness. Phantom loads are a real menace to all of us in which devices that are “off” are actually drawing load in their standby modes.
I look forward to hearing this show!
Oh, I’d never heard of Jevon’s Paradox before. Interesting. I will check it out, along with the Rocky Mountain Institute. Thanks!
Namaste!
Is Lavendar Hip Mob from the same Lee Rosevere I hear on B.C. This Week?!