IT Conversations

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.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Stanford Professor Paul Ehrlich about his latest book, The Dominant Animal, which looks at human evolution and the environment.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with AgResearch s Dr. Ian Boddy, about the contribution of livestock to global warming and what their biotech research center is doing about it.

In this special green automotive edition of IEEE Spectrum radio, join John Voelcker at the LA Auto Show, the Electric Vehicle conference, and ride an electric motorcycle. At the LA Auto Show, all of the major car companies showed electric or fuel cell models. At the Electric Vehicle conference, there was tension between electric vehicle enthusiasts and car companies over the suitability of current battery technology. Finally, the Brammo Enertia is a new electric motorcycle, available for purchase today.

Relating anecdotes from the past, Kent Beck, the father of Extreme Programming and JUnit, reflects back on the impact his ideas have had in the last 20 years, especially with respect to the history of Test Driven Development (TDD), Design Patterns, and Extreme Programming (XP). According to him, good ideas take about that much time to mature and come to fruition.

Second Life is not a game - it is a social, interactive, 3D version of the Internet. In this talk from the O Reilly Open Source Convention, Philip Rosedale, CEO and Founder of Linden Lab, discusses the implications of the virtual world Second Life, his company s move towards open source, and the value of open source as a business strategy in a network-effects market.

On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell speaks with W. David Stephenson, who reflects on how Web 2.0 technologies -- and mindsets -- are transforming the relationship between citizens and governments.

In this special developer edition podcast, Jeff and the Stack Overflow development team discuss the development processes and decisions that go into building a public community web site for programmers.

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.

What is the impact of the world going on line? By any measure, it s huge. In order to thrive, argues MySQL s Marten Mickos, we must preserve two key types of freedom: the freedom to do things, and the freedoms that protect us. Highlighting key attributes of Ubuntu and MySQL that reflect these ideas, he illuminates the potential for opens source developers to further transform software, and the world, in positive ways.

Maurice Franklin, a Microsoft software engineer who is passionate about the space elevator, recently organized and hosted a conference on that topic at Microsoft s Redmond conference center. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, Franklin discusses the reasons to build a space elevator, and describes how the concept, first proposed by Arthur C. Clarke, is evolving toward a practical implementation.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Alan Lewis, CEO of Novocell, about yet another innovative new approach to treating diabetes: delivering insulin producing cells using a fine nano particle mesh.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Ori and Rom Brafman, authors of Sway, in which they discuss when and why people make irrational decisions.

In this talk from the Emerging Communications Conference, Tim Panton of PhoneFromHere.com describes how social networks can be improved by appropriate integration of telephone services. His company makes it easy for users to embed phone services in web pages without any additional setup, and he shares some of his experiences on how to best do that.

Dale Dougherty, General Manager of the Maker Media Division of O Reilly Media tells why he looked past the web and chose a printed format as the most compelling one through which to communicate to tech-savvy builders. His ventures, Make and Craft magazines, then formed a springboard for blogs, the Make website, and annual Maker Faires. In this talk he sings the praises of print , reminding us not to make the mistake of focusing on the new while ignoring old technology, which often gives us a far more compelling and immediate experience.

As our lives increasingly straddle the physical and the virtual worlds, the management of identity becomes increasingly crucial from both a business and a social standpoint. John Clippinger, Kaliya Hamlin, and Reid Hoffman examine how online identity can foster relationships and deepen value creation. They discuss OpenID, including how America Online has chosen to adopt it, and answer questions related to such issues as anonymity and restricting information.

More than 1000 used computers will gain new life at Installfest at LinuxWorld, where volunteers will install new Linux and open source software over four days. The refurbished computers are donated to needy schools. Andrew Fife explains how it works, and how you can help this effort.

Lee and Sachi are CommonCraft, the husband-and-wife company that produces short online videos which explain concepts like RSS, and applications like Twitter. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell asks LeFever about the elements of CommonCraft s distinctive style, the art of editing, and the origin of explanation problems .

Dr. Moira Gunn checks in with Dr. Joshua Boger, from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, who has made progress with rational drug design: how Vertex re-engineered their HIV/AIDS drug into one for Hepatitis C.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Paul Swain, the inventor of the capsule you swallow; with a tiny little camera inside.

Joel and Jeff discuss the perils of programmer design, the purpose of a private beta, the importance of quality chairs for programmers, and the mysterious cone of uncertainty on software projects.

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.

Mark Rolston of Frog Design describes how technology is changing products from a single idea to a platform for other ideas. The most prominent example of this is the telephone, which has changed from being only about talking, into a multimedia tool and element of personal identity. From the O Reilly Media Emerging Communications Conference,

Despite misconceptions to the contrary, early state AI systems are working in the real world and creating a lot of value for the companies that use them. Neil Jacobstein discusses practical uses of AI in many diverse industries and tasks. He compares the technology around early AI systems with the modern ones being developed today, and tells what has and hasn t worked based on 50 years of perspective.

Joshua Tauberer is the creator and operator of govtrack.us, a website that helps people track the activities of the U.S. Congress. In this conversation with host Jon Udell he discusses his ongoing efforts to acquire official information from various sources, provide useful tracking and analytical services, and encourage citizen participation.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Colin Garner, CEO at Xceleron, about new technologies which would reduce the need for animal testing.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Stanford Law School s Lillick Professor Paul Goldstein, about his latest legal thriller: A Patent Lie.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with UCLA s Dr. Marco Iacoboni about mirror neurons: the cells in our brains which enable us to comprehend how others are feeling.

It s the special listener question show! Joel and Jeff answer questions from the audience on making the transition from developer to manager, how to Get Things Done, the hidden value of in-person code reviews, and more.

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.