Podcast Review Assignment
Introduction
A podcast refers to a type of digital media that consists of and episodic series of audio, video, ePub files, of PDF subscribed to and downloaded via web syndication or streamed online through a computer or mobile device. PRI’s The World: Technology Podcast is a weekly audio offering that offers the latest and greatest global technology news. The World is a US-based internal news and audio analysis program that is co-produced by the BBC World Serve, Public Radio International (PRI), and WGBH Radio Boston. The podcast gathers information pertaining to how technologies are shaped, as well as being shaped by, interesting people around the globe. The collection of the best global technology stories around does not focus on gadgets and gizmos, rather the people or individuals behind the gadgets and gizmos. Form its mission statement, the podcast aims “to put a different kind of technology coverage in the ear buds each week.”
Podcast Title: “Greek IT Upgrade, Bullet-Proof Cars in Mexico, Hajj Facial Recognition Tech, Keeping Vaccines Cold, and Rebuilding Tatooine”
Podcast summary: This podcast discusses Greece’s effort to upgrade its accounting systems, bullet-proof cars in Mexico City and facial recognition technology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In addition the podcast features a new way of keeping vaccines cold in places that lack power supply. This podcast was published on June 22 2012.
Item 1: Greece’s effort to upgrade its accounting systems
The main issue is that Greece has significantly lagged behind in terms of computerizing its accounting system. Though computerization of Greece’s tax system collection system in begun back in the mid 1990’s, it is yet to be finalized (PRI’s The World: Technology, 2012). There is still a large number of local tax offices that are yet to be computerized at all, a couple of decades later since the effort was started. In these offices, therefore, the database is maintained in huge chunks of paper that makes it rather difficult to maintain and retrieve quickly when needed. There are a number of factors or reasons that have contributed to this sorry state of affairs in Greece’s tax collection offices. One of the main reasons is the widespread resistance to the new computerized system. In fact, until recently there was an arrangement, though not a law, within the Greece public service that those who had been employed before the introduction of computers were not obliged to take up computer skills and use them at their workplace. This was on the argument that the job description of such public officials did not include use of computer in executing tasks at job. As result, it is common to find computer illiterate employees with nothing to do at all in tax collection offices that have integrated computer systems. This underscores the popular perception of complacency in the Greek public system, where majority of people effectively do not work with a smaller percentage have to work twice as much to compensate the gaps in output. As such, the problems of tax collection in Greece are, to a larger extent, as a result of lack of sufficient computerization in the system.
The Greek state is also accused of being incredibly bad at implementing laws adopted for any problem facing the country. As a matter of fact, there is a consensus among a range of commentators that Greece has all the necessary laws in place but lacks laws demanding for implementation of the laws themselves. Lack of computerization allowed evasion of tax payment among a majority of people and organizations.
It recommended that countries with good tax collection systems using computerization such as Britain, France, and Germany should help the newly-elected Greek coalition government in matters of Information Technology (IT). In addition to the computerization of the tax collection system, the external technical help for Greece is suggested for design of development programs, implementation of laws, among other things.
Item 2: “Bullet-proof Cars in Mexico City”
There is a roaring trade in bullet-proof cars in the outskirts of Mexico City. The business is booming owing to the high insecurity levels in the city occasioned by the intensified drug wars. The company running the business is known as Global Armour, which has been successful in supplying armored cars to top people in the political and business circles of the country (PRI’s The World: Technology, 2012). The industry has become flooded in the recent days, reaching a current total of 48 companies dealing in bullet-proof vehicles.
After transformation of a vehicle, the company offers a customer a personal demonstration of the high quality product by conducting ballistic tests on new windscreens which remain intact. This gives assurance of their capability to save lives in the violent-stricken city of Mexico and elsewhere. The main clientele is drawn from the Mexican government given that its officials are largely at the receiving end from the drug cartels being fought. A significant percentage of clientele is also drawn from high-end families that can afford to pay for greater protection due to their fear of being caught in the crossfire between government law enforcement officials on the one hand, and drug gangs on the other. The vehicles are armor-plated using Israel technology, same as the military transport currently used in conflict zones such as Afghanistan. Global Armor Company has also acquired license to supply military hardware directly to the Mexican Federal Police together with some of the hotspots in Mexico’s drug war. There growing number of bullet-proof hardware in Mexico’s boarder states and mountainous terrains, has been as a result of millions of dollars in military aid from the United States.
Item 3: “Facial Recognition Technology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”
Getting lost during the annual Hajj Pilgrimage in the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is a common phenomenon. As a result, scientists have been working on facial recognition technology so as to help reunite people with their families should they get lost in the rather busy city (PRI’s The World: Technology, 2012).
When a person visits Mecca, a face recognition is done on them and the image uploaded to the server which automatically provides the name, nationality, destination of the individual. The technology is said to have about 95 per cent accuracy, which translates that it is possible to recognize an individual from a population of 300 million Hajj pilgrimages. In addition, the facial recognition in Saudi Arabia generates six different images of each person so that the system would still be able to recognize the person should their facial features such as the beard undergo transformation (grow long or shaved) during the period they are on Hajj pilgrimage. The facial recognition system will also go a long way in helping police officers identify persons who lose their lives through stampedes in Mecca, besides enhancing the entire security of the holy Muslim fete.
Item 4: New way of keeping vaccines cold in places with no power supply
An academic from the University of Pennsylvania has devised a way of keeping vaccines cold in places with no electric power supply. Harry Reuben. The idea is to use mobile cell power to power up vaccine-refrigerated systems. This is facilitated by the good public-private partnership, where the public domain is the health system while the private system is the mobile phone companies that generate the power. The mobile phone companies are the national grid, but have thermal generators, solar panels and wind generators that instantly switch on when to run the vaccine generators when the main power is cut off. The advantage of the new idea is that it is sustainable, scalable and owned by the local people in the remote areas. Ownership of the local people is in the sense that health service and the cell power in the areas have absolute control over the distribution as well as the stocking of the refrigerators. As such, there is no need for outside intervention to service the solar panels and the refrigerators which can go down at any time. Furthermore, there is good news in the fact that newer refrigerators are coming with the ability to hold their temperatures for a few days after power supply is disconnected (PRI’s The World: Technology, 2012). The project is currently being implemented in Zimbabwe and it has been a major success so far. There are plans to take the idea to other countries such as Kenya, India, Nigeria as well as South and Central America.
Conclusion
All the three items are applicable to my computer science career. They presented great opportunities to improve the individual technologies through further research, and in so doing improve the lives of people affected.
Reference:
PRI’s The World: Technology. (2012). Greek IT Upgrade, Bullet-Proof Cars in Mexico, Hajj Facial Recognition Tech, Keeping Vaccines Cold, and Rebuilding Tatooine. Retrieved from: http://www.theworld.org/rss/tech.xml.
