Learning to Crawl

Call this my recommendations post.

Since it's original airing earlier this year, I've been recommending Frontline's show "Digital Nation" to everyone and anyone (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid) - There's probably an easier way to imbed this link, but, alas. It 's the next chapter in Frontline's exploration of the brave new world we are all, to varying degrees, inhabiting; the predecessor is "Growing up Online" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/). I recommend both programs. I also recommend Frontline's "The Merchants of Cool" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/) - not exactly the same subject, but this program shows how adeptly these new tools are being employed, not always towards laudable ends. The stuff in these shows may be very familiar to many, but it was novel and fascinating to me.

I also heard an absolutely chilling interview with Richard Clarke on Terry Gross' Fresh Air show last week (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126097038). Most of what he writes about in his new book, Cyberwar, is the role that - what even to call it? - computer technology (I feel like a geriatric) will play in future warfare, but he also claimed that countries that manufacture computers have, without most anybody's knowledge, installed gear that essentially can turn any PC into a drone for nefarious and illegal activity without the user having any clue that it's being used in that way. Man, do I ever sound like a loony. Listen to the interview. I'm sure there are those out there that have their reasons to dismiss Clarke, but his credentials have always struck me as sound and impressive.

Hot on the heels of Clarke's interview, a family friend sent me this story out of the Philadelphia Enquirer detailing a school district's use of school-issued laptops - the district has gone "one to one" - to essentially spy on the students:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100419_Lower_Merion_details_Web_cam_scope.html