I sort of feel like I'm spamming the comments for this episode, but this comment didn't really relate to my replies above. . . . :D

I just wanted to say that I enjoy how well all the segments in this episode mesh together. In that respect, this episode is very well put together. I'm not saying that I want every episode to integrate interview themes so closely like this one did--sometimes a potpourri is a nice change of pace! But when you do integrate your themes, Spark team, you do it well.

Andrea, it seems to me that the interview with Sahara agreed with your position on spying on one's children: it has a negative result. Why do you dislike the episode for pointing out something with which you agree?

Not really, no.

The "line," as you put it, is bounded above by the magical ages of 18 and 19, which are the ages of majority in the various provinces and territories of Canada. A parent has no legal right to control what his or her child does online after the child reaches the majority.

If you're implying that a child, upon reaching the age of majority, is going to _want_ state surveillance because he or she has grown used to it, I seriously doubt it. As Sahara pointed out, strict surveillance by parents usually caused a child, even one who had a good relationship with his or her parents, to react negatively. And in the highly individualist cultures of the Western world, it's unlikely children are going to grow up comfortable with the idea that there is _no_ personal privacy. The ideology of privacy will continue to change and shift in response to the effect of the Internet, there's no doubt about that. But accepted state surveillance? No, I doubt it.

Back to the idea of entitlement though. I would be surprised if many parents continue surveillance on their children right up until 18! Nevertheless, there is no "magical age" prior to that where one can say a child is going to be mature enough. Some children are mature enough by 12 or 13, others by 15 or 16. It's something each parent and child must decide on a case by case basis.

However, surveillance is only one (and neither the most important nor the most effective) strategy for ensuring a child remains safe online. Hopefully parents are talking to their children and educating them about how to use social technology safely. And this is a dialogue that should continue long into adulthood. It's not a dialogue of static roles either, with the parent as the mentor and the child as the student. Children have plenty to teach their parents about new technology as well.

You ask "will iTunes or Sirius/XM or Last.FM ever be as simple to use as my radio?"

The radio may be simple to operate, but I think it's easier to obtain the programming I want through something like iTunes. With a radio, I have to learn at what time the program is broadcast and then tune to the correct station. On the dinky clock radio I have in my bedroom, the stations are crunched together, so a minute flick of the tuning dial will take from CBC to a staticky folk music station. And heaven forfend if I reposition the radio in any way, because that means another five minutes of fiddling with the tuner!

By listening to my radio shows via podcast, usually through iTunes, this whole process is "simpler" to me. I don't have to worry about scheduling: I can just search for the show I want by title, download it, and it'll play without any fuss. While iTunes has more bells and whistles when it comes to the user interface, the controls for operating podcast playback are as simple as a VCR: play, pause, rewind, fast forward..

In case one can't tell from my position above, I find listening to my radio shows as podcasts enjoyable as well as simple. :D I love that the CBC makes podcasts available, and I'm interested in hearing this interview. No question from me for now, although I like GaryM's point above about how our on-demand technologies give us less exposure to "random learning."

Great interview! However, I would have liked to see more on the issue of accessibility of books and how this relates to piracy.

I've been thinking about this lately because I'm reading Robert J. Sawyer's new book, WWW:Wake. The protagonist is blind. Someone has recommended a book to her, and this is what she has said in a blog post about acquiring it: "There's no legitimate ebook edition, damn it all, but of course _everything_ is on the Web, if you know where to look for it..."

Before online distribution of books became easy, people with a disability that prevented them from reading print books had to find an alternative format (which isn't always available), have someone read to them, or just not read the book. The Web changes all that, making it possible to easily download audio books if they exist or use screenreaders to listen to ebooks.

That's why the controversy over the Kindle's text-to-speech function angered me so much: sure, maybe a corresponding audiobook existed for some of the Kindle books, but certainly not for all of them. Thus, what the publishers are saying is that some of the potential customers aren't worth the effort. I won't argue, like they have, that a text-to-speech function is the equivalent of an audiobook narrator; however, it's still better than not reading a book at all.

The Internet has a great deal of accessibility issues of its own, so sometimes we forget that it's giving new opportunities to people who face accessibility gaps offline. For some people, the choice isn't between the convenience of downloading a pirated copy and purchasing a legitimate one. Instead, it's a choice between downloading a pirated copy or not reading the book. I know which I'd choose.

The answer is: yes, Google is killing general knowledge. However, I don't believe that's a bad thing.

I loved this interview even though I'm tired of this topic--mostly because unlike this interview, when the subject comes up it tends to turn into Google-bashing (or education-bashing). Here, Cathcart's honest about not being able to draw a firm conclusion either way, and I appreciate that. Certainly there are cases where general knowledge is useful or even necessary.

The story about the taxi driver is entertaining, but I question whether it falls under the category of "missing general knowledge." For a taxi driver, local geography is knowledge specific to his or her job. The fact that the taxi driver relied solely on GPS directions reflects worse on the driver (and his or her employer) than it does on the state of general knowledge.

On a related note, London taxi drivers are required to demonstrate that they have "the Knowledge" of London's geography before they're certified to drive in the London area:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/taxisan...

It appears we've been going about this whole "flying car" concept backward. The Terrafugia Transition is an airplane that doubles as a car--a "roadable aircraft". While not practical for everyday consumers yet, it's proof-of-concept and definitely has some applications:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/654495

Also, just wanted to point out that the link to the full interview with Wasik and Niedzviecki is ... non-existent.

Excellent season premiere!

Mr. Suarez makes a compelling argument for preferring social networking to email. While he has many valid points, email still comes out ahead in one respect: your email knows everything. Distribution comes with the price of potentially forgetting where you put stuff.

For me, the most useful tool my email provides is search. I've got messages I received back in 2005 that I occasionally consult because they have important information. Now, I suppose I could save that information to a special folder on my computer so I know exactly where to look--but why bother when my email remembers and organizes everything better than I ever can?

I often communicate with friends and coworkers through social networking sites (usually Facebook). But then it becomes a problem of remembering where I sent someone a certain message if I later need to look up the message itself.

My first resource for textbooks are friends who are a year or two ahead of me in my program (math); they're usually willing to lend or sell me their old textbooks. If that doesn't work, I hit the Internet for some comparison shopping.

I prefer to buy my textbooks rather than rent them. I have no qualms about buying used: I've bought from eBay, Abebooks, and Chapters. BigWords.com is a great source for comparing textbook deals.

Probably the largest single hurdle to buying textbooks online for Canadians is the fact that many of the bargain textbook stories (like eBay's Half.com) don't ship to Canada (or if they do, shipping can cost an arm and a leg). It's disheartening to turn up a wonderfully low price on BigWords only to find that the dealer won't ship to Canada. Still, I can usually manage to find my textbooks cheaper online than through the university bookstore.

Digital textbooks come in two flavours, and it's important to distinguish between them. The digital textbooks published to replace or complement existing "closed source" textbooks aren't going to be remarkably cheaper than their hard copy brethren. This may sound like student angst, but I do believe it's true that it's about the money, not the cost of production--as long as students are required to obtain these books for their courses, the publisher will charge as much as it can in order to earn a larger profit. Regardless of motivation, one thing is clear though: many of these closed-source textbooks come with digital locks. While locks can be circumvented, the legality of this is questionable (at least for now), which raises questions about accessibility, among other things. Until we get better copyright laws that address these issues, adoption of digital textbooks will remain slow.

The open source textbooks and courses you mentioned are a horse of a different colour. They're great in theory. In practice it's important to keep an eye on the quality of the material, of course, but in general the academic world has benefited through the use of open source and creative commons-style collaboration. The problem is that most universities aren't using or promoting them yet, either because there are bureaucratic obstacles to clear or the professor would prefer to sell the textbook he or she has written.... I suspect that open source courseware will become more popular as the next generation of professors and administrators hits the campus, since they'll be more familiar with the technology at their disposal.

On the subject of illegally acquire textbooks: never. I fully support the fight for fair copyright, which is why I won't undermine that by obtaining my textbooks (or other material) illegally.

You forgot to include a link to the full interview with Hugh McGuire.

Nice twaiku spot! I love hearing about innovative uses of Twitter (and I don't mean porn bots).

The tobacco passport idea is bizarre--maybe it's a culture shock thing. The idea that it will prevent underage users from buying cigarettes seems flawed from the beginning. Unless there's some sort of biometric component, what's the stop an underage smoker from using a friend's passport, or just having a friend buy the cigarettes for him or her? It's just another type of fake ID to get.

I'm actually far more interested in the usefulness of RFID in general, which you briefly cover with its additional applications to the supermarket. RFID's fascinating--I just don't want it in my wallet, and if I must have it, I want it better protected than the plans some provinces are making for Enhanced Driver's Licences.

AWS Import/Export reminds me of something I read once about how the US Postal Service attempted to deal with what they saw as a competitor when email first came on the scene. I don't have a source for this, so I could be wrong. Apparently they launched some sort of "epostal" service where people could email the post office, which would then print out the messages and deliver them to the recipient. In that case, their business model was ... questionable. AWS Import/Export, on the other hand, seems like a much better use of the postal service for the purpose of transferring data.