CommenTerry

Another Great Use for Search Engines

Search engines are great tools for checking the spellings of proper names. Let's say I wanted to post something about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. I would have difficulty guessing the spelling of her first name, so I would type her name into a search engine the way I thought it might be spelled: "Condoleza Rice." The search engine would then prompt me by asking, "Did you mean: Condoleezza Rice?"

Most People Don't Need to Worry About the Digital Transition

Don't feel pressured to go out and buy a digital television set just because the broadcast switchover from analog to digital might be imminent. If you have cable or satellite service and don't care about high definition TV (HDTV), you can keep your analog TV set, as is, as long as you would like. Cable and satellite providers will automatically convert (non HDTV) digital signals into a format that your analog TV set can process.

Now, if you receive your TV signals over-the-air, then you'll have to get a digital TV or a converter for your analog set when the switchover occurs. Also, even if you have cable or satellite, you need a digital HD television or a converter for your analog TV to receive HDTV programming. Try tuning to an HDTV channel with an analog TV and all you'll see is a lot of jumbled pixilation.

We Could All Learn a Lesson from JVC

Remember the VCR format battle between Beta and VHS during the early 1980's? VHS ultimately won even though Beta was introduced first and was the technologically superior product. That happened because JVC allowed other companies free of use of its VHS technology for their VCRs. Sony, only the other hand, charged a licensing fee for the use of its Beta format. I think there's a lesson in there somewhere.

Let's Fix Those Keyboards

Something needs to be done about the placement of the "Caps Lock" keys on computer keyboards. They are too close to the "Shift" keys. When typing mixed case, case sensitive passwords, I'm constantly hitting the "Caps Lock" key by mistake, resulting in an incorrect entry. My suggested solution is to flip-flop the positions of the "Caps Lock" keys and the "Alt" keys. That would move the "Caps Locks" keys further away from "Shift" keys. Hitting the "Alt" keys by mistake would not produce a problem.

The Email Tips Keep Coming

Yet another email tip from yours truly. After you've typed the body of an email (the actual message), highlight it and then click "edit" and then "copy." That way, if there's some kind of failure when you try to send it and everything is lost, you don't have to retype it all. All you would have to do then is paste (click "edit" and then "paste") the message into a new email. Server failures and other problems occur quite often, especially when using web mail.

How to Avoid Sending Incomplete Emails

Have you ever accidentally sent an email while you were still in the middle of typing it? I used to do that all the time and it's quite embarrassing, to say the least. To prevent that from happening anymore, I now wait until I've finished typing an email before I type the addressee's email address. That way, if I accidentally hit the send button before I'm ready, the email won't go anywhere.

Who Has to Worry about the Digital Conversion?

There is so much misinformation circulating on the Internet today regarding the U.S. conversion from analog to digital TV broadcasts. On February 17, 2009, all analog TV broadcasts in the U.S. are scheduled to cease. By that date, all over-the-air TV broadcasting will be done via digital signals. Analog TV sets, what most people have now, will no longer receive any over-the-air TV signals, unless an analog-to-digital converter is used.

However, there is no reason for most people to panic or run out and buy new TV sets or converters. Most of us can just relax because we will not be affected at all. That's because the biggest majority of us do not get our TV signals with over-the-air antennas -- we use cable or satellite. We do not have to worry because our cable or satellite operator will automatically convert the signal for us into a format compatible with our analog TV sets -- and that's even if we don't use a cable converter. Of course, if you want access to high definition television (HDTV) broadcasts, you will have to get an HDTV set, as you currently would need to do. But if all you want is access to non-HD digital broadcasts, you don't have to do anything. It will all be done for you.

Now, if you get your TV programming via an over-the-air antenna, it's a different story. You'll have to buy a digital converter or a new digital TV set between now and the completion of the digital conversion.

I hope this clears up a few things. Don't be fooled by otherwise-intelligent people who don't know any better or by HDTV advocates trying to artificially manipulate a spike in the sales of digital TVs.

Netflix Should Take the Next Logical Step

Earlier this year, Netflix began offering streaming movies on its website to its online DVD rental customers at no extra charge. Right now, it is offering about 1000 streaming titles, but plans to offer as many as 5000 by the end of this year. Each subscriber gets six hours of streaming video per month for each DVD they can have out at a time. For example, those with the three-out-at-a-time plan get 18 hours of streaming video per month.

Unfortunately, these movies can only be watched on a PC. People enjoy watching short video clips, like those that can be found at YouTube, on their computers. However, surveys have shown time and again that most people aren't interested in watching full-length movies and TV shows on a PC.

Netflix needs to take the next logical step and find a way to get those online movies from a PC to some type of set-top box so viewers can watch them on their TVs. And it shouldn't be some kind of standalone box -- it needs to be integrated into something that people are already using, like a cable, satellite, or telco TV converter or a DVR like TiVo. That's the holy grail of Internet video. TV viewers had grown tired of constantly adding new boxes to the top of their sets.

Until Netflix takes this step, its new streaming video library will not make much of a splash with its subscribers.

How the Phone Company Changes Area Codes

There are two ways that phone companies implement new area codes. The first is by splitting a region into two or more regions, with one region retaining the old area code and the new region(s) getting the new area code(s). Nothing will change for customers in the region retaining the old area code, but each customer in the newly cut out region(s) will receive a new area code, although they might retain their old seven-digit phone number.

The second method is by using an overlay. Under this method, one or more new area codes are added in a given region in addition to the area code(s) it already has. At that point, all customers in that region will retain their existing phone numbers (including their old area code) but they all must begin dialing ten digits for local phone calls.

Spoiled by Email

I've been spoiled by email. I now refuse to write a snail mail letter unless I absolutely have to, i.e., in situations when email is not possible or not accepted. For me, the trouble with writing a snail mail letter is that, when I finally get a response, I've lost interest in the subject about which I wrote the original letter and therefore the response is no more interesting to me than junk mail!