For Tech's Sake

Do you realise how much of the tech we rely on is maintained by volunteer coders? This isn't just Wikipedia. A plethora of everyday tech would collapse if not for the noble commitment of open source developers. And they are beginning to show their force in the form of protest, sabotaging their own code to send a message to the Big Tech corporations that profit from it. We brought in Dr Colin Keogh to tell us about about open source in both software and hardware, as he helped to build out a team to design and develop open-source ventilators during Covid-19. He is also the co-founder of the consultancy Sapien Innovation and co-founder of the Rapid Foundation, a social enterprise which aims to disperse 3D printing technology to third world locations. You can follow Colin @ColinJ_Keog on Twitter and you can also read more about open source on Silicon Republic. Here are some links to get you started: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/topics/open-source/](https://www.siliconrepublic.com/topics/open-source/ https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/open-source-ventilator-project-coronavirus] https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/nearform-cian-o-maidin-open-source] https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/github-marak-squires-colors-faker-npm-corrupt-open-source] https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/log4shell-flaw-ncsc-advice-cybersecurity] This episode of For Tech’s Sake was hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody, and brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Megan Fox for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com. And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of For Tech’s Sake, we dive into the landfill of digital waste to turn up some nuggets of information we hope you’ll re-use. Tech waste involves more than just devices getting dumped, too. We also lose the precious and finite materials these devices contain. And, though it’s not apparent to us, our digital detritus of messages, selfies and endless streams of data has a physical footprint. To understand more, we spoke to Gerry McGovern, author of World Wide Waste and host of the podcast of the same name. You can follow Gerry on Mastodon at @[email protected] We’ve also included a link his previous interview with Jenny on SiliconRepublic.com, as well as some other links listeners might find useful. https://gerrymcgovern.com/ Silicon Republic interview: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/gerry-mcgovern-digital-pollution-e-waste World Wide Waste podcast episode with Josh Lepawsky: https://www.thisishcd.com/episode/josh-lepawsky-pernicious-myth-of-digital-as-ethereal Dublin’s Tog Hackerspace, which sometimes hosts a Repair Café: https://www.tog.ie/ Ireland’s repair and reuse directory: http://www.repairmystuff.ie/ This episode of For Tech’s Sake was hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody, and brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Megan Fox for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com. And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

‘Dark patterns’ are design techniques used to weaponise user behaviour and manipulate us into delivering on a company’s goals. They have become so common that they are even namechecked in the EU’s new legislation to clamp down on nefarious user design in tech. Even though understanding them won’t make you impervious to their influence, we certainly think it’s best to know when your taking action for your sake, or for tech’s sake. In this episode, we also spoke to Prof Owen Conlan, a research lead at Adapt, the Science Foundation Ireland research centre for AI-driven digital content technology. He told us what he thinks about dark patterns, as well as how they might be amped up with AI. You can follow Owen @oconlan on Twitter and the Adapt centre at @AdaptCentre. You can also read more about Empushy on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/empushy-notifications-productivity All of Silicon Republic’s fascinating AI coverage can be found here: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/topics/ai/ And you can learn a lot more about the EUs Digital Services Act here: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/eu-digital-services-act-illegal-content-moderation This episode of For Tech’s Sake was hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody, and brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Amy O’Dwyer for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social mediasupport, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com. And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have an energy crisis, and it's not the one you think. To move to a more sustainable future we need to figure out how to power mass electrification, and source and store energy responsibly.   Scientists around the world are working on fascinating battery technologies to help, and Ireland is no exception. For example, Dr Valeria Nico is a postdoctoral research fellow in the area of energy harvesting at the Bernal Institute, University of Limerick, and she told us all about her work developing tech that can generate energy for small devices from vibrations in their environment.   It's powerful stuff, so get ready to strap yourself in and feel the Gs!    Read more about Valeria's work, the EU's new battery rules, and Codema's project to heat homes with waste energy from data centres on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/good-vibrations-developing-new-tech-for-energy-harvesting https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/eu-batteries-sustainable-european-green-deal https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/codema-equinix-waste-data-centre-heat-project-dublin   This episode of For Tech’s Sake was hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody, and brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Amy O’Dwyer for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team.   If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadstuffPodcasts.com.   And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A robot might steal your job, but it might also make it better. And some platforms make it easier to communicate remotely, while others enable micromanagers to keep tabs on you. As we enter a new era of working, Silicon Republic’s Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody want to examine how technology is used in work and how it can affect us, but also the ways in which it can help transform the way we work for the better, if only we’d allow it to do so. To find out more, we also spoke to James Milligan, global head of technology solutions at recruitment company, Hays. Read more about what the future of work looks like on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/series/future-of-work-week/ This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Amy O’Dwyer for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadstuffPodcasts.com. Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Claims of sentient AI have been largely debunked by experts, but there are still plenty of unsettling aspects of this technology that raise ethical questions. In this episode of For Tech’s Sake, Abeba Birhane, an expert in AI and cognitive science, helps us to better understand this fast-spreading technology and its limitations. We find out how AI can be at best unhelpful and annoying, and at worst prejudiced, powerful and completely opaque, particularly when the building blocks it's based on contain toxic materials. Read more about Abeba Birhane, the Gender Shades project, Blake Lemoine, and why sentient AI claims can be damaging on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/mit-database-racist-misogynist-discovery-abeba-birhane https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/abeba-birhane-ucd-digital-colonialism https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/microsoft-facial-recognition https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/timnit-gebru-google-ai-scientist-fired-for-highlighting-bias https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/google-engineer-ai-sentient-lamda-chatbot https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/sentient-ai-google-lamda-research-development-ireland-insight This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The Headstuff Podcast Network. If you want to support The Headstuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadstuffPodcasts.com. Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Medical technologists are racing to fix all of our ills – even our inevitable death! But in the rush to embed technology into healthcare, are we thinking about all of the unintended consequences that may come with it? Is our health data really safe for example? Can medical devices be hacked? And how accessible will this health-tech be in the future? Listen as Silicon Republic’s Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody explore all of these questions and differentiate the needless from the necessary when it comes to technology in healthcare. To find out more, we also spoke to Ita Richardson, a co-principal investigator at the software engineering research centre, Lero and a professor at University of Limerick. Read more about what the future holds for health-tech on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/series/future-health-week/ This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Gearóid Farrelly and Amy O’Dwyer for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadstuffPodcasts.com. Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While plenty of technology has been designed to make the world a safer place, it can also introduce a whole new way to abuse and exploit others. From stalker apps to location trackers, tech has given many abusers the opportunity to track, monitor and control others. While other seemingly innocuous devices such as smart doorbells and virtual assistants can have their settings manipulated for nefarious actions. Listen as Silicon Republic’s Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody discuss how these devices work, and how they can be misused. We also spoke to Louise O’Hagan, co-founder of Cyber Awareness Ireland, about the growing trend of tech-facilitated abuse and how easily our everyday devices can be used against us. For more information on this topic, check out: CyberAwarenessIreland.com SafeIreland.ie https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/safe-ireland-digital-domestic-abuse-technology-guide Online safety booklet: https://www.safeireland.ie/lets-talk-tech-online-safety-tips/ This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Gearóid Farrelly and Amy O’Dwyer for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadstuffPodcasts.com. Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digital transformation is a buzzword in all business right now, and some businesses are deciding to push ahead with new tech adoption without consideration for the people it will impact. While some elements of digital transformation can lead to better operations, some of it is truly tech for tech's sake, and lead to job displacement and bad service. Listen as Silicon Republic’s Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody dissect what digital transformation actually means beyond the buzzword. To find out more, we also spoke to Joan Mulvihill, the digitalisation and sustainability lead at Siemens. Read more about Joan Mulvihill and her thoughts on digital transformation on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/digital-transformation-joan-mulvihill-siemens You can also check out Silicon Republic’s Digital Transformation Week, which covers this topic in more detail: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/series/digital-transformation-week/ This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. Thank you to Gearóid Farrelly and Amy O’Dwyer for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com. Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been 60 years since John F Kennedy famously said, “We choose to go to the moon.” But why? Space exploration comes at the cost of billions and on the back of some stellar innovation spanning decades in development. Is it all really worth it? Listen as Silicon Republic’s Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody peer into space-tech and marvel at our fascination with whatever truths are out there. To find out more, we also spoke to Prof Tom Ray and Dr Patrick Kavanagh, two Irish scientists who worked on the James Webb Space Telescope.   Read more about their work at DIAS and the JWST on SiliconRepublic.com: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/james-webb-telescope-irish-scientists-dias-nasa  This episode of For Tech’s Sake was brought to you by Silicon Republic and The Headstuff Podcast Network. If you want to support The Headstuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit http://HeadstuffPodcasts.com Follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices