Crucial Tech

I'm deep into writing a book with Richard Bach, a security guru from the UK, on the ethical development of #AI technology and have found that there are really not a lot of books offering practical guidelines for ethical thought in engineering. There are lots of books about why it's important and about ethical lapses, so maybe it's time for an Ethics for Dummies (Boy, am I qualified). In my researc...

Last week I talked about the importance of tracking apps to help do contact tracing for the #Coronavirus epidemic and after I did that podcast I signed up for a study to get tested myself and I signed up for one of the apps (I chose one from Johns Hopkins University.) You can also see this podcast on Youtube so you can see what I am using and how I set it up. I am a big believer in controlling wha...

In the last episode, we looked at changes in how tech media and businesses are changing during the #COVID19 #pandemic and how @FootwasherMedia has been predicting these changes for decades. We've also had our thoughts about entertainment and #venturecapital are going to change, but we kept that to ourselves because we aren't entertainers nor are we investors. But we do know some people who are and...

Joe Basques and I have been working in the tech world and media for several decades. We have often warned clients of what was to come and that they should be ready for it and almost universally we have been ignored or ridiculed. The funny thing is within 3-5 years things we warned of have come true, like the slow death of tech media and the rise of social media to replace it. Each time companies h...

In this episode, we talk to Steve Hanna from the Trusted Computing Group (@TrustedComputin) to talk about the organization's work in making computing secure. You probably haven't heard of them, but their standards form much of the #security basis for the #IoT. Steve is VERY accomplished and a very nice guy. In fact, it was kinda like talking to Mr. Rogers about technology so it was knowledgeable a...

When searching the web, do you ever get a request to renew or accept a certificate? Yeah, you have but you probably had no idea what it was about. It's kind of important, it should be more widespread and there are a few companies involved in the process. One of them is @Keyfactor. They would like to be more widespread, I can assure you. Listen in and maybe you can push your providers to look into...

I hope that headling caught your attention. It should. We hear a lot about how the US government is watching us, but the information that Edward Snowden said was being collected on us pails in comparison to what Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft are allowing other corporations and foreign governments to collect from us. And those companies are getting paid to allow them that access even if th...

This week I found opt that is it probably less likely that the government is watching you than Amazon is. More importantly, to law enforcement you may not exist at all. Check out how tech firms are helping the good guys catch the bad guys.

The title is a bit melodramatic but history shows us that nothing devised by man lasts forever and, thanks to state, national and international laws as well as new technology, the hegemony of Amazon, Facebook, Ebay and Google over retail may be coming to an end. We talk to the CEO www.maikeinc.com and look at the increasingly hostile environment facing online behemoths.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing faster than the original internet. Cisco Systems predicts that internet-connected devices will represent 75 percent of all the internet traffic in less than 10 years, and Gartner predicts that there will be five times more IoT devices in use than there are people on the planet. But more than 90 percent of all those devices are easily hackable and will remain...

You've probably heard of the data privacy laws in the EU and California but you might not know what they do for you. A lot. We talk to an international expert, Patrick O'Keeffe on the subject of privacy and regulation, You need to meet this guy. He's the real deal.

It has been a bad couple of years for Facebook and it isn't getting easier. This week, we look at social networks that do not have advertising and don't sell your information to anyone. In fact, they don't even collect it. Both ways that all social media platforms have traditionally made their money. We talk to David Glassco, CEO of one of those networks, Neone (nay o nay) and their pay-for -play...

Happy New Year and welcome back after the holiday break. This season on Crucial Tech we will be looking at changes in social media, consumer privacy laws, new security challenges for the common man and more, but today we kick-off the first in a random series on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology with two friends, Joe Basques and Matthew Rosenquist. As always, donations will help us eliminate...

After two months of holiday partying, travel, illness and unavailable interviewees I'm ready to kick off the new year with a big portfolio. We'll be looking at Cryptocurrency, social media, renewable energy, security, threats to the 2020 election, Russia, private social media and a bun ch more. Here's a short preview. And check out my book, The Stupid Side of Renewables now available on Amazon. Y...

I'm starting to to do something I have long dreaded: start talking about cryptocurrency. We introduce the concept and the problem about talking about it in the opening and then we get into something that explains why companies are moving to automation... and it is more than just greed.  I'd like to hear from you about this episode. you can leave a message here.

I had a chance to interview a handful of Finnish tech start-ups at the 2019 TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco and was m,ore then pleasantly surprised by what I heard. There are many reports about how Finnish publlc education is exceptional but exporting all the techniques are difficult for a variety of reasons. The technology I saw changes that. You m ight want to be ready to turn up the sound i...

Josel L:orenzo, VP of product development for Axiado and an AI guru talks about the different levels of autonomous vehicles and whether humans can have any actual presence in controlling them. This is the last of 4 parts

We went to San Jose to talk to Chet Babbla, vice president for automotive technology for Arm Ltd., about a new consortium focused on autonomous vehicles. Cooperation in a multi-faceted and challenging technology like autonomous vehicles is a good idea. But in this case, do we have enough knowledge about the components needed to make a dent?

Besides the difficulty in getting the technology to work, we still have a significant problem in making autonomous vehicle safe from hackers. We talk with Matthew Rosenquist, cybersecurity guru.

We're starting this three part series with Rik turner, principal analyst at Ovum, a british analysis firm, to get a history of how long vehicle automation has been with us, where it is today and how far we have to go before we have what we think is just on the horizon.

Friday, September 27 we will start a three-part series on the state of autonomous vehicles. Tune in and find out the 411

Catfishing is the biggest scam on the internet. It is not easy to get out of it once you fall into the trap and it is very embarrasing, but it can be done with a minimum of effort, some patience and honest self-reflection., But avoiding it is very easy. Thism episode is brought to you without commercial interruption. So chip in at https://anchor.fm/crucialtech.

It’s the biggest problem on the internet and it affects 1 in 7 people. Find out how you can defend yourself

We are starting season two of Crucial Tech with a look at security-conscious culture. A few months ago I met Jarno Limnell (@jarnolim), CEO of Tosibox ( https://www.tosibox.com ) to talk about cyber security . This seemed like a good time to trot out the interview considering the increasing occurrence of cyber attacks around the world. So why is Scandanavia, and Finland in particular so secure. Yo...

This week we talked with Ugan Naidoo who, besides having a pretty neat name, is the CTO of Inetco, a Vancouver, BC company that monitors financial transactions for banks and large retailers worldwide. This is a pretty technical discussion, but once you hear it, you will understand how not paying attention to this ussue is costing you and everyone else, money.