Technometria with Phil Windley
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In the 17th century, William Ames wrote a book called
Technometria. Technometry meant literally "the measure of a skill or
art." As Ames used it, he meant the study of the theory of the
interrelation of the arts and sciences. (See Why
Technometria for more detail.)
This is the Technometria podcast. I'm Phil Windley and I'm usually joined
by Scott Lemon and Ben Galbraith, good friends and
great technologists in their own right. Matt Asay has been a co-host in the past. We may talk him into coming back someday.
Technometria is our attempt to make sense of the technology that
surrounds us through exploration, analysis, and, hopefully,
reason. In these podcasts you'll find discussions of Web 2.0,
programming and software development, open source, identity, new
media, enterprise computing, and many other topics.
If you enjoy these podcasts, let us know by giving them a rating or sending us a note. You might also
enjoy Phil Windley's
Technometria blog.
Google's new browser Chrome is one of the topics of discussion with Phil, Scott, and Ben. In addition to its terms of service, that talk about its background, including Google's comic that introduced the new software. They also discuss Perl, Apache modules, and Ajax programming.
Attorney Daniel Solove discusses his book Understanding Privacy. He gives an overview of the difficulties involved in discussions of privacy, one of the most important concepts of our time. He talks about how scholars, activists, and policymakers have struggled to define privacy, with many conceding that the task is virtually impossible.
Identi.ca is an open microblogging service. Users can post short messages about themselves to Identi.ca, which are then broadcast to friends in their social network using instant messages (IM), RSS feeds, and the Web.
The product's developer, Evan Prodromou, joins Phil and Scott to discuss the project, including its open source license.
Sxipper is a free Firefox add-on that saves you time by keeping track of an unlimited number of usernames and passwords as well as the personal data you share every day over the web. Dick Hardt, founder of Sxip, joins Phil, Scott, and Ben, to discuss the product, as well as the entire issue of privacy and identity on the web, as well as how to market plug-ins as products.
Independence Year is the year between the next two Independence Days. The fireworks began on July 4th, 2008 at iYear.US. Independence Year (iYear) is a new way to interact with your government at every level. It's where you can gather or join a crowd around your concerns. Britt Blaser, Doc Searls, and Jon Udell, join Phil and Scott to discuss the project.
Eucalyptus (Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems) is an open-source software infrastructure for implementing "cloud computing" on clusters. Rich Wolski, the director of the project, joins Phil to discuss it. He talks about how Eucalyptus is compatible with Amazon's EC2 interface, as well as the difference between grid and cloud computing and the steps involved in installing and using it.
A year ago, Apple released the iPhone to both critical and consumer acclaim. On July 11, 2008, the company came out with an upgraded version that promised faster speeds as well as third party applications. Tech geek and blogger Robert Scoble joins Phil and Scott to discuss both the device itself, as well as the social phenomenon that has people lining up for a second year in a row.
Scott Lemon is not happy with Firefox 3.0 and he, Ben, and Phil use his dissatisfaction to begin a discussion of browsers and other tech topics. Phil gives some statistics of browser usage on his blog Technometria, and they talk about Canvas (the HTML element, not the material), as well as a number of other related subjects.
Puppet is an automated administrative engine for systems, performs administrative tasks (such as adding users, installing packages, and updating server configurations) based on a centralized specification. Luke Kanies, who founded Reductive Labs, has been doing server automation for years, and Puppet is the result of his frustration with existing tools. He joins Phil, Scott, and Ben to discuss it.
In a recent Business Week article, writer Olga Kharif discussed the changes to the mobile phone industry that will take place because of the iPhone. Brian Fling of Fling Media clearly agrees with Kharif's premise. In a discussion with Phil and Scott, he talks about his recent Web 2.0 Expo presentation and how he believes the everyday mobile phone user will be impacted by the iPhone.
