Watch Out for the Extras

One of my coworkers at CET recently asked me for some advice about what type of cable she should use to connect her new HD TV to the various components. She noted that the salesperson at the store from which she bought the new TV was insistent that she needed to use a very expensive HDMI cable when connecting her television. Wanting to get the most out of her new purchase, she complied and bought the $70 cable, all four feet of it. After talking to some others, I found out that many who are buying new sets are finding a dizzying array of cables and accessories and service plans that can add hundreds of dollars to an already expensive purchase.

Well the bottom line for most of these add-ons is …Don’t do it! It brings to mind the final steps we have all had to endure when buying a new car. The salesperson finishes up the “deal’ and then you are sent to the “finance guy” to “just fill out a few papers.” Once in the office you are confronted with extended warranty plans, undercoating options, glass guard, ultraviolet ray paint coating, fabric protection, cures for acne and several other options. All of these of course cost extra and in most cases are a total waste of money. It seems that some of the electronic retailers have spent a few too many hours shopping for cars, because they are adopting some of these lucrative “up selling” techniques with their customers.

Let’s talk about HDMI cables. Yes, you should get one for each component that uses this interface to connect to your new HD TV. No, you should not spend $70 on a single cable. You can get HDMI cables on line and at discount stores for as little as $10 to $15 and they will work just fine. Sure, the sales person will confront you about impedance mismatches and the benefits of gold plated connectors and any of a host of other “Klingon” jargon. When you are watching your new TV, you will not be able to tell the difference in picture quality from a set connected with a $15 HDMI cable from one that uses a $100 cable. The same holds true for the most part for audio cables. There are slight differences, but they are not worth the steep mark up.

The pitch for purchasing an extended warranty will also be an issue as you walk toward the check out counter. Modern electronic devices will either work out of the box or will fail in a short time, well within the regular manufacturer’s warranty period. Except for a laptop computer, I can think of no other device that should be protected with an extra warranty policy. Three years is an eternity in the world of digital electronics. A DVD player purchased 18 months ago for $200 can now be found on sale for $29.95 and it will come with more features. Purchasing a $75 warranty for a $200 machine just does not make sense. Just say No!

Another rip-off is the HDTV Antenna. If you see a box marked “designed for HDTV,” run out of the store. There is no such thing as an HDTV antenna. The design of an antenna, either for set top or outdoor use, is no different for picking up an HDTV digital signal than it is for analog signals. The fact is that the new digital over-the-air broadcasts use the same channels as we have used since the beginning of TV in the late 40s. Don’t pay extra for an antenna just because it says that it is for Digital or HDTV use. The only difference from the one you bought five years ago is the box.

It is a scary world out there …”caveat emptor”…that’s Latin, not Klingon.

Keeping the Lights On & the House Warm

The recent devastating ice storms in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri brought back memories of our brush with ice during early spring last year. While for the most part most of us in western Hamilton County and eastern Indiana were spared long outages of our electric service, I remember some in Clermont County that were without power for many days.

Today’s modern houses rely heavily on electrical power. Lighting, cooking, heat and air conditioning all depend on our ability to connect to and stay connected to the power company’s grid. Gone are the days when you could light an oil lamp and put a few more lumps of coal in the furnace and hunker down till the lights came on.

One of the most popular features of many new homes is a stand-by power generator. The top of the line models use gasoline, diesel or natural or LP gas and can keep most of the critical systems operating if the power company system fails. They are not cheap. Even a modest 16,000 watt system will cost some $5,000 by the time you get it installed. While 16,000 watts may sound like a lot of power, it really is not if you factor in all the electrical devices in your home. From cell phone chargers to heat pumps, a modern home can take five times that amount of power under normal circumstances. So if you do decide to go the stand-by power route, you will need to ration the power to only the most critical devices like refrigerators, water pumps etc.

I have to emphasize that if you decide to install a system you will need to hire a professional electrician for this project. If you put a system in wrong you not only endanger your home and its electrical system, you can endanger other people. An improperly installed system can actually send power backwards into the electrical grid. A Duke Energy technician working to fix the outage working miles away from your home can be killed because of your mistake. This is not a DIY project!

Another caution; if you decide to purchase a small unit, using it only for lighting and perhaps a few small items, make sure that the unit is kept outside. Every year we read of the deaths of individuals or families killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. A generator running in a garage or even close to the house on the porch can give off lethal fumes that can enter the house.

I have a relatively inexpensive option for those who heat with natural or LP gas or oil. While most of us can survive without air conditioning in the summer, when the temperature drops below freezing, our homes can quickly become unlivable. You can keep your furnace running with very little electricity. A modern gas or oil furnace uses electricity to pump the oil, ignite the flame, control the thermostat and run the motor in the blower. None of these takes a lot of electrical current.

You can ask your furnace technician to wire the furnace so that is can be easily isolated from your home electrical service and plugged directly into a small generator. This should cost a few hundred bucks. You will need to have him tell you how many watts the furnace will need. Remember that the blower motor will require extra power when it starts. Once you have the number of watts required, you can purchase a generator that can handle that load and perhaps a lamp or TV. In most cases this should be in the $500 to $750 range. If the power should go out, at least you will be able to stay warm and keep the pipes from freezing.

Thanks for all the good comments during the first year of this column. My best to all for a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and peaceful New Year.

Cable or Satellite, how to choose

I got a call from my sister-in-law the other day asking for some advice relating to her consideration of switching from a satellite TV provider to cable. It seems that the cable guys were offering some good discounts and my sister-in-law, like many of us, is always open to a good deal.

Is getting TV from a cable provider better than getting it form a satellite service?

Seems like a simple question, but I’m not sure I can say one is better or even cheaper since it will be different depending on what programming you want and how you use TV.

The national programming offered by both cable and satellite providers is about the same. For sure, there are some niche offerings like the Big 10 Network and the NFL Network that have yet to make it to many cable systems. But if you are looking for the programming mainstays like ESPN, The Weather Channel, HGTV, CNN, The History Channel, Discovery and the like, you will find them both on cable and satellite services. The same holds true for the major movie packages from Showtime and HBO.

The big difference that you will find between cable and satellite TV is how they handle the local broadcast channels, i.e. Ch 5, 9,12, 14,19, 48 and 64. For example, Dish Network® does offer the analog over the air broadcasts of the local stations for an extra monthly fee of about $6.00 DirecTv includes these channels in program packages so the extra amount charged is hard to calculate. Neither offer all the new local digital channels, nor do they offer any of the digital multicast channels provided by local broadcasters. For example, WLWT Digital has a companion weather service that you can watch with a digital TV or on digital cable. You will not find that channel on either of the satellite services. My station, CET, has a High Definition service and the PBS World service. You will not get these on the on DirecTv® or Dish Network® satellite services.

Some of the satellite services will provide an antenna so you can receive the digital over-the-air channels over the air. What a concept!

Cable does provide all the local analog channels in the Basic Package and the digital channels in the Digital Cable Tier. The High Definition services require a special set top box, but that is currently provided at no extra cost by Time Warner to their Digital Cable subscribers.

Cable companies are also required to carry other Public, Educational and Government Access channels. Satellite services are not mandated to do so. Many in our community might watch the Harrison City Council Meetings or the Crosby Twp Trustee meetings. You’ll find them on cable but not on satellite.

When you are making your comparison keep in mind the equipment that will be provided. Many of the satellite set top boxes can “feed” two different TVs located in different parts of the house. Each TV can be tuned to a different channel. On the other hand, a cable box is dedicated to a single TV. So if you have multiple TVs and you want cable on all of them, it will require a set top box for each TV. There are exceptions. Some cable operators offer a service that does not use a set top box. The cable is connected directly to a cable-ready TV. In those cases, you can have multiple TVs watching different channels. You will not get ALL the channels on any of the TVs since the full cable service requires a set top box.

Once you decide what it important to you, then you can calculate the best price. Now, where did that remote go?

Some stocking stuffer ideas with plugs and batteries

Last week I gave you some gift giving ideas. Some of the items I suggested were a bit pricey. This week I have a few suggestions that won’t break your budget, but will be used and appreciated all year long by the recipient.

Who doesn’t need a flash light? Who hasn’t reached into the glove compartment or trunk only to find a flashlight with dead or weak batteries or bad light bulb? There are several models of LED flashlights on the market. LEDs are more durable, longer lasting and energy efficient than incandescent light bulbs. LEDs do not have a filament, so if you drop them they are not prone to failure. They have dramatically lower power requirements, so batteries will last 10 to 15 times longer than models with incandescent bulbs. You can get them at Small’s Do It Best Hardware. Prices range from as little as $15.00.

For those “road warriors” who use cell phones a lot, there are several small back up power devices that use standard AAA batteries to recharge a cell phone’s dead battery. They can be purchased locally at Biggs and K-Mart as well as from the big electronics stores. Be sure that you have the model number and make of the phone, since there are several different plugs for connecting the charger to the phone.

For the “green minded” there are similar devices that use solar energy. They are available at several vendors on line. Try http://solarstyle.com or www.amazon.com

For computer enthusiast data storage is always a good bet. The price of flash drives and memory sticks continues to drop. You can get a 1 GB drive for as little as $15.00. Some of the 250 MB models are as inexpensive as $3.00. For the photography buff, you might consider a SD Flash Card. You can never have enough cards for your camera when you are on vacation. Like calculators, these cards and drives are showing up on display at check out counters next to the candy bars.

For those who don’t want to spend a lot on an iPod™, there are several portable media players from companies like ScanDisk™ for as little as $49.00. They can store MP-3 music files, have a FM radio tuner built in and can be connected to your home computer for file sharing.

Why not get rid of the “gaggle” of remote controls piled high on your coffee table. A single universal remote can control your cable or satellite box, your VCR, DVD, audio system and TV. With the proper equipment it can even control the lights in your family room. They are priced from $20.00 to several hundred dollars. Try Radio Shack® or Mirco Center®

If you need to purchase new Christmas lights this year, why not go green? The new LED lights last forever and use only about 25% of the energy used by traditional lights.

I hope that these suggestions are helpful and make your shopping a less hassled experience.

Some gift ideas for the holiday season.

With the gift giving season fast approaching I thought I would provide some suggestions for gifts for those persons in your life who like all things electronic. With virtually all technologies getting better, and prices falling, you can get some really neat things for that special person.

Let’s start with Mom. Not to be sexists, but many Moms (and Dads, I guess) like to have a TV in the kitchen. There are several flat screen models that occupy very little or no counter space, have new digital tuners (that means they will work fine after February 2009) and provide a clear color picture. For about $250 you can get an 8” LCD Digital TV that can be installed under the kitchen cabinet. The screen folds down for viewing and is folded out of the way when not in use. Some have a built in DVD player that also plays CD Audio discs. They are available at most "big box" stores.

For Dad how about a portable hard drive. There are several models starting at less than $100. These hard drives plug into the USB port of most any computer and allow you to store very large files. Pictures, audio files and video can be stored on these devices. Since they are small and portable, you can take your files with you.

How about a cell phone for the grandparents that they can use and will use. Jitterbug has two models that feature very large keys, a clear bright display, and a simple intuitive key pad. The phone even has a dial tone that indicates that the phone is ready. The phone has a padded earpiece that makes it easier to hear. You must use the Jitterbug service however. The Nokia 6585 also features large keys and a clear bright display. This phone can be used on most all mobile networks. Both of these phones are not packed with cameras, music players or web browsers. They are aimed at people who just want to make phone calls. What a concept!

Know someone with an iPod™? Free them from the ear buds with a speaker system that lets you “dock” your iPod and listen with room-filling full fidelity sound. There are several models available starting at less that $100. You place the iPod™ in the docking station and the system powers the iPod™ without batteries. Some models from Bose® are very expensive but you won’t believe the sound quality. While some of these only work with an iPod™, most will connect to any MP3 player.

Another fun and practical gift is an electronic picture frame. Essentially, this device consists of a LCD screen (like the ones found on lap top computers) and a card reader. You store the pictures that you want to view on a small media card and insert the card into the picture frame. The pictures are displayed on the screen. You can set the device to change the picture each minute, each day or each week. Some even play back video clips. The frames come in various sizes from 5”x 7” up to 10”x 14” and can be placed on a table or on the wall like a traditional picture frame. They do need electrical power so you do need to have a wire connected. They cost between $50 to $200 depending on the size and the clarity of the image.

Next week I will have some other ideas that might help you find a gift for the hard-to-buy-for person in your life.

When Your Computer Info Vanishes Part 2

Last week we began a discussion of the vulnerabilities of the hard drive in your computer and how it is not a matter of if your computer hard drive will fail; it is a matter of when it will fail. The hard drive is a critical component of any computer. It stores information that allows the computer to run programs, surf the web and perhaps most important, it serves as the “file cabinet” for all your pictures, letters, financial information and even recipes for the holiday ham. It remains one of the few parts that is mechanical in nature. That is, it has moving parts. Moving parts break. When they break your information is essentially lost.

Last week we discussed establishing a routine for backing up your information to a CD. This week let’s look at some other options.

I can remember not too many years ago delighting in the fact that hard drive prices had dropped to all time lows. You could buy a new hard drive and pay “only $1 for each megabyte” of storage. Well may of us in the technology field thought we had died and gone to heaven. How things have changed. I got a flyer in the mail the other day featuring $99 price for a 380 gigabyte hard drive that connects to your computer using the standard USB port. Quick math shows that the cost of each megabyte of storage is now at 1 cent. (Would that gas and milk prices followed this trend.) This makes backing up your information to a portable hard drive a great option.

These new portable models are about the size of a small paper back book and need no power other than what it gets from your computer’s USB port. You just plug it in and you can copy valuable data to the drive and put the drive away for safe keeping. Keep in mind that this portable hard drive is a mechanical device prone to failure, but since you will not be using this drive for other tasks, its innards should last a lot longer than the hard drive in you computer.

Another simple and quick back up strategy is to keep one of the inexpensive “memory sticks” dedicated to backing up selected data. This is not a good solution for long term storage as there is a finite number of read/write cycles these little plug in devices can handle. Since they are cheap and hold lots of information, they do provide some level or peace of mind.

So there are many options for “where” to keep your back up information files. The real issue lies in having the discipline to actually do the backing up. As discussed last week, for financial information it is good to back up each session. For other information most of us will just not take the time to weekly or even monthly back up even though we know we should. Well Internet comes to our rescue again. There are on line services that will do all of this for you.

There are several inexpensive on line services that you can subscribe to that will do all your backup up for you. Once you subscribe, you identify what files you want to have backed up. Software downloaded from the back up web page is installed on your computer. Each hour or minute, or day or week, etc., (you decide) your computer sends copies of the selected files to this back up service where they are stored and available for retrieval if you need them. Most services charge by the amount of data you have stored on their system. You will need to have an internet connection and if your files are large, this connection should be a broadband. (e.g. RoadRunner or Cincinnati Bell DSL. Some that are popular are: www.datadepositbox.com , www.carbonite.com and www.mozy.com. ) Since I have not used any of these services I can not recommend any of these but they are all reputable companies.

Whatever way you choose to do it, you do need to back up your valuable information. The amount of time, frustration and money that you will spend to try to recover lost data is significant and in many cases you will not be able to get it back.

When Your Computer Info Vanishes

There is a saying in “geek” circles. “It is not a matter of if your computer hard drive will fail; it is a matter of when it will fail. Few components in today’s desktop computers get more wear and tear than the hard drive and few components are more important. The hard drive in a desk top computer runs whenever the computer is turned on. It adds and deletes information to its “innards” hundreds, even thousands, of times during a single hour of operation. Designers and engineers make them smaller and smaller with their storage capacity larger and larger. The dirty little secret is that this is one of the few components in a computer that is mechanical in nature. That is, it has moving parts. Moving parts break. When they break your information is locked forever in the recesses of this little box with very little probability that it can ever be retrieved, at least for us mere mortals without pocket protectors and with finite pocketbooks.

Not too many years ago when the capacities of hard drives were much less robust, we were forced to remove information stored there in order to have space for new stuff. We may have copied the information on to floppy discs or some other media. Today, when the standard hard drive in the most basic computer can hold enough information to fill a small town library, it is easy to forget about it. You will forget about it at your peril. The drive will fail. Perhaps not today or tomorrow, but it will fail.

There are simple things you can do to protect your information. Here are some examples.

If you use your computer to manage your finances and use software like QuickBooks®, Quicken® or Managing your Money®, you can establish a simple routine. Each time you make changes to your data (i.e. pay bills, write checks, do online banking, etc.) go ahead and save your data to the hard drive, but before you exit the program, back up that data. All these software packages have simple back up commands. Once you get into the routine this adds less than a minute to your work.

I suggest that the best media to back up to is a simple CD data disc. Most new computers have a CD drive that will record data to a CD. You must have a blank CD that is formatted to READ and WRITE data. The blank discs will have printed on the package “CD-R/W.” CD-R discs can only be recorded on one time; CD-R/W discs are just like floppy discs or memory sticks, you can record on them many times

The same should be done each year when you do your taxes on your computer. Rather than keeping all the data on the hard drive, copy it to a CD and put it in a safe place. Hopefully you will never need to use it again. If Uncle Sam calls, you will have it ready.

Many of us now use our computers as family photo albums. Again, to have all your photos stored on the hard drive is very dangerous unless you plan to get into the “witness protection program” and don’t want pictures of you to exits. If you group your photos in file directories by date or subject matter, it is an easy task to make copies of those directories on CDs.

There are services that will do all of this for you if you have internet access. We will look at these services and other back up tips next week.

Ten Things you need to know about Digital TV

There is a lot of misinformation about Digital TV and what the new system means to the average viewer. While I have covered these things in past post here is a summary. Print it and take it with you when you shop.

1. On February 17, 2009, all analog TV broadcast channels (e.g. locally in Cincinnati, CET, WCPO, WLWT, WKRC, WXIX, etc.) in the United States will cease operation. The stations and programs will still exist, but on new digital channels.

2. The US, like the rest of the world, is converting to an all digital system that enhances the quality of the picture and sound and makes a much more efficient use of the scarce electromagnetic spectrum (i. e. available TV channels.)

3. Eventually you will have to buy a new digital TV since analog sets are no longer manufactured, but will be able watch most of your favorite programs on your old analog set.

4. There are ways to use your old set after February 2009. 1. You can get an inexpensive digital converter that will capture the digital signals off-the-air and convert them to signals your old (analog) TV can display. 2. You can pay for a cable or satellite service. The cable and satellite set top boxes already convert digital signals to analog signals.

5. If you keep your old TV and use a converter, cable or satellite you will not enjoy the vastly superior picture and sound of High Definition TV nor will you have a wide movie-like screen.

6. Your VCR and DVD player will still work with your old analog TV as will the tapes and DVDs that you now have. You will be able to connect your current VCR and DVD player to most new digital TV sets, but they will not give you a HD experience.

7. TV stations will continue BROADCASTING through the air, and using an antenna you will still be able to get local stations on a digital TV without cable or satellite.

8. The new digital TVs come in many sizes. The sharpness of the picture is a product of screen size and resolution. TV’s are available in CRT (picture tube), LCD, and plasma and DLP. Shop with your eyes.

9. Digital over-the-air channels may provide more than one program at the same time. For example, CET’s digital channel has both High Definition Programs and a separate CET World Channel.

10. The prices of new digital sets are becoming comparable to the old analog sets. Be sure your new set has an ATSC (digital) tuner!

It’s the DVD Code not the Da Vinci Code

The swiftness that DVDs have taken over the home video marketplace is nothing short of unprecedented. Not only has this format changed the way movies and TV programs are delivered, it has changed the economics of an entire industry. Prices for DVD movies and TV programs continue to drop. The prices of DVD players also continue to plummet. You can find full featured DVD players in discount stores for as little as $19.00. It looks like the prices for these machines are following in the footsteps of hand held calculators. They are commodities.

A few weeks ago someone asked me why they could not get a DVD that they received from a friend to play on his machine. After some discussion I found that the DVD in question was sent to him by a friend who lived in Japan. My friend was aware that there are different TV standards in some parts of the world, but was confused since Japan and the United States share the same VIDEO standard called NTSC.

Well, my friend was half right. It is true that the United States and Japan share the NTSC Video standard unlike the UK and some other parts of Europe that use a format called PAL. There are others video formats used in other parts of the world. That is too much info right now.

What my friend did not know is that DVDs carry with them a Regional Code or LOCK. There are six geographical codes and two specialized codes now in use. What this means is that you must have a DVD player that is set up to play the right code. For example, Region #1 DVDs can only be played in the United States and Canada. If you have a DVD manufactured for use in Mexico, it is Region # 4, and it will not play on your DVD player purchased in the United States.

While there are Region # 0 coded discs that can be played on any player in any part of the world, most distributors of movies and TV programs use the regional code to restrict the free trading of content. The idea was to make it possible to release a movie on DVD in the United States before releasing it in another part of the world or visa versa. As you might have guessed, there is a cottage industry of hackers who can remove the code or alter the software in the DVD machine to accept any code. Most of us mere mortals have to live with the restrictions.

If you look on the DVD package you will find the regional code marked so you will know if it will play on your machine. Likewise the box containing your new DVD player should have its Regional Code marked. In most case this is not a problem since only Region #1 players and DVDs are sold in the US. It is interesting to note that if you have an older model DVD player built into your computer, it may play all DVDs without a problem. The older DVD drives have older software that does not recognize these codes. This may be one of the few times when older technology is actually a good thing.

Some new information on old subjects

This week I am going to give some updates on topics that we’ve covered over the past six months. If there is one thing that is certain about new technologies, it is that they will change, and change often.

The Ford Motor company announced late last month that they will be the first major auto manufacturer to offer HD Radios in the 2008 models of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles. This should be a real shot in the arm for the advancement of HD radio. While there are more than 1500 AM and FM radio stations in the United States broadcasting HD Radio, the number of radios able to receive the signals remains very small. HD Radio, unlike satellite radio (Sirius® and XM Radio® ), is broadcast from towers and serves much smaller local coverage areas. The difference from standard AM/FM broadcasts comes in the clarity of the sound and the capacity to have more than one program simulcast over the same channel. For example, WGUC 90.9 is a classical music station. If you have a HD Radio you can get both classical programming and a jazz service with the flip of a switch.

In August I mentioned that before February 2009 you would be able to buy DTV adapters for your analog TV sets making them able to receive digital programming after the analog transmissions cease. The federal government has authorized the first company to manufacture and sell these adapters. Digital Stream Technology got approval last month. The adapters will retail at about $70 each. Plans call for the federal government to provide each US household up to 2 - $40 coupons good toward the purchase of the adapters. Look for them in stores in mid 2008.

Last May I wrote about the money you can save installing compact fluorescent light bulbs in your home as replacements for the energy hogging incandescent bulbs. Duke Energy sent coupons to customers making the purchase of the new bulbs a real bargain. Not only will you save on the purchase of the new lights but the dollar savings over the year can be as much as 75%. Even without the coupons, switching out the old incandescents will save you money. The only places you may wish to use traditional bulbs are in areas that get high traffic with lights being turned on and off often. Rooms like bathrooms or hallways with the constant on and off cycles will reduce the life of compact fluorescent bulbs.

Are you planning to buy a new HD television? According to a recent survey of about 3500 Road Runner™ subscribers in the Cincinnati area by Time Warner Cable, about ½ of respondents said they either already had an HD set or planned to buy one shortly. With the prices dropping and more programming available in HD, look for the sales of HD sets to really take off during the holidays and peak right before the Super Bowl.

Saving old tapes and films

Earlier this month in his My World of Dreams column in the Harrison Press, Bill Baird posed some questions to me. Most of them center on assuring that his old films and tapes will be usable in this digital environment and for many years to come. These questions may seem simple but Bill actually has touched on one of the biggest conundrums resulting from this new digital age of “continuous technology improvement.”

Simply put, Bill asked about transferring his library of films and tapes to media that will be “playable” in the future. This same question has been the topic of great concern on a national and even international level for years. Here in the United States at the Library of Congress and the National Archives, archivists and librarians are huddling with technicians to decide how to preserve the collection of thousands of hours of films, tapes, discs and other media for the future. Unlike paper, which can be saved and read as long as it exists, the myriad formats of film, tape and digital media do degrade over time and all require the existence of a player.

Audio and Video tapes, which are basically long ribbons of plastic covered with rust, are prone to degrade as the glue breaks down and the “rust” falls off. This can happen over as few as ten years. Film, even when it is kept in a cool dry environment, also degrades. We don’t yet know how long CDs and DVDs will last.

It is not practical to keep a “player” for all the various formats that have been and will be created in the future. For example, if you have been to the store recently, you may have noticed that VHS machines are as scarce as buggy whips. They are no longer manufactured. If you have a collection of VHS tapes, what do you do when your machine dies? This is precisely the crux of Bill’s question and our friends in Washington, DC.

Bill noted that he has a library of films and tapes in a variety of formats, i.e. 8mm, super 8mm film, VHS, 8mm and Hi 8 mm tape. The first thing he should do is get them copied into some sort of digital form. Right now the best and most inexpensive option is to get a DVD recorder. While we don’t know the lifespan of the DVD media, at least it is a digital medium allowing for copying to another digital medium in the future without any quality loss. There are DVD recorders on the market with a VHS deck built in making the VHS to DVD copying easy.

The films pose a different and more complex problem. You can’t just project them on a screen and use a video camera to record them. The quality of the images will be unacceptable since the camera can’t capture the film image well and the 8mm “frame rate”, i.e. the number of frames that are projected on the screen each second, is non-compatible with the frame rate of the DVD or tape. So making copies at home could be a challenge without the investment of some pricy technology. An option is to have the films made into digital files by a professional. This costs an average of 10 cents per foot, so this can get expensive. There are several companies that offer this. Two examples are: www.mymovietransfer.com and www.homemoviedepot.com . I have NOT used either of these services, so I can not recommend them.

Once the files are created, they can be stored on DVD or even kept on a hard drive. The latter requires regular back up however.

Bill also asked about getting parts for his old 8mm and Super 8 mm projectors. This is actually not too hard. There are several companies on the Internet that have stocked up on parts. EBay is also a great place to find used VHS and High 8 video players. If you have a working player for the various tape formats, they can be easily copied on to DVD.

Gone are the days when technology was backward compatible. When color TV came out it did not render your black and white model unusable. In ancient times when vinyl records morphed from mono to stereo, you could still play them on the old machine. Unfortunately, too often our new technology changes faster and faster and does not concern itself with the impact of obsolescence and the archiving of media. This may be a steep price to pay for progress.

DTV over-the-air, an inexpensive option

With more and more people buying Digital TV sets, some are confused about needing a cable or satellite service to receive the local stations’ digital channels In fact over a one week period I had two callers ask me about receiving digital TV channels over-the-air and what antenna they should get. Both wanted to get the new HD digital programs from the local stations in Cincinnati. Both wanted to know if an antenna, either indoor or outdoor, would be required.

Well, there is no easy answer. One caller noted that he lived about 40 miles north of Cincinnati. That distance places him within the potential coverage area but there are many other factors that can impact on his ability to receive DTV from the Cincinnati stations. In fact, the only way to know for sure is to actually install an antenna and see if it works. Another is to hire a technician with a signal strength meter. He or she can measure the quality of the signal and recommend an antenna. There are several models available that can work. There is absolutely no way to know “for sure” without actually installing the antenna.

Let me explain. An often overlooked by-product of the new Digital TV transmission format is the “cliff effect.” Simply put, the digital picture on your new DTV is either perfect or non-existent. With older analog broadcasting, the farther you lived from the TV transmitter the more the picture degraded, i.e. got snowy. Eventually it would be too bad to watch. With digital signals the new DTV tuner locks on to the TV signal and keeps the picture perfect until it no longer has enough “bits and bytes” of information to make a perfect picture. When that happens the picture vanishes. “It falls of the cliff.” From perfect to non-existent in an instant.

Since I don’t know if there are hills or buildings that might block or reflect the signal for the Dayton caller, there is no way of telling what, if any antenna, will work. We have two CET staff members who live in the Fairfield area of Butler County. While they live only a few blocks apart, one gets perfect reception from all Cincinnati DTV stations and the other gets none, no matter what antenna he tries.

As discussed in past posts, most people in the Cincinnati area do not receive local channels off the air. They subscribe to cable or satellite services and as such reception of local channels is part of the package. These individuals can also receive hundreds of other channels. As we get closer to the analog cut off date in 2009, more and more channels will be delivered in HD. Time will tell how many will choose to continue over-the-air only reception with the plethora of other options.

I may be old but I still have a brain.

I don’t know about you but I am getting sick of reading stuff in the newspaper or catching stories on radio and TV about how old people can’t figure out all this new technology. First of all, I guess you need to define old. As the years pass, my definition of “old” seems to be getting a bit more liberal. You know, yesterday’s forties are today’s sixties.

Just recently there have been several articles about how analog TV is ending in 2009 and how “senior citizens,” brain addled as they all are, will be left staring at blank screens on the morning of February 18, 2009. Why some feel that age automatically renders people clueless to new ideas and new ways of doing things is beyond my comprehension. In fact, my experience seems to point in the other direction.

With baby boomers retiring from jobs that have been using a host of technologies in the workplace, it is ludicrous to imagine that when they leave those jobs they will go home and revert back to listening to AM radio and watching the “Price is Right” all day. Quite the contrary, having had access to high speed internet at work has accelerated the demand for broadband at home.

With families moving often and taking up residences far from the homestead, sharing photographs and even videos of Mary’s soccer game or Johnny’s band concert are common place. In many an empty nester’s home, sending email or chatting on-line are common place. More seniors are taking up the hobby of geocaching and have embraced GPS technology as an integral part of this new fad. Little white ear buds sprout from ageing ears and HD TVs are finding their way into living rooms, many of which really don’t have blinking VCRs displaying 12:00.

It is my opinion that an individual’s lack of knowledge of technology has little to do with age. When I get older, I for one don’t plan to hunker down in my living room and play my 33 1/3 versions of “Mantovani plays Def Leppard.” I’ll have an MP3 player.

Whose face is on a one dollar cell phone?

There is a major credit card company running a series of ads on TV that depicts a crowded fast food line coming to a screeching halt because a single customer has the audacity to use cash to pay for the “Biggie Burger and drink.” Is cash a thing of the past? Well for many of us it may be.

Been to the local Biggs store recently? As part of an upgrade to the computerized check out lanes they have added fingerprint recognition to the credit card terminal. While at this writing they have not activated the system, it is only one of several technologies that are being used to speed up transactions and tighten security. A quick swipe of your finger on the reader and you are identified, your purchase is authorized and the money is transferred from your bank account to the store’s. Since your finger print is unique to you, security is enhanced. This technology, once the province of a James Bond movie, is becoming common place in daily life. There are other similar technologies that scan your retina to accomplish secure identification.

Some of you may already have a “speed pass” that can be used at several major gas retailers. This plastic card can be waived in front of the pump instead of using a credit card or cash. While we don’t have many toll roads or bridges in the area, many in other parts of the country use a system that scans cars and trucks as they move through the toll gate without stopping.

The lowly cell phone is another example. Today’s phone has already morphed in to a camera, MP3 player, GPS receiver, web browser and email terminal. Tests in the US and abroad make your personal cell phone a sort of “magic wand” of purchasing activity large and small. Rather than putting coins in a parking meter or soft drink machine, you just wave your cell phone in front of the coin slot, enter a personal code and voila, the drink appears or the minutes are added to the
meter and your banking account is debited for the amount. There no coins, bills, credit or debit cards.

The same cell phone may give you access to the ATM, the gas pump, the highway toll both and of course the local supermarket.

It seems to me ironic that our Federal government is concentrating on making our paper money more difficult to forge at a time when fewer and fewer of us even use the stuff. But what do I know?

AvantGo™ turns wasted time into productive time

If you are like me you hate to waste time, but try as we might there seems to be too many occasions when we find ourselves waiting. Perhaps it is in the doctor’s office or the “Quickie Lube” joint. I sure can remember sitting for hours on gym bleachers waiting for my son’s 3 minutes of wrestling fame. One option of course is to always have reading material with you. I have an idea for those of you who use a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or other mobile device. You can download all sorts of information in the form of electronic newspapers, magazines, short stories and other information form the Internet using a service called AvantGo™ (www.avantgo.com)

Each morning when I get to the office I connect my PDA to my office computer to update any appointments I may have made since I last “synched” the two. At that same time my computer connects with AvantGo™ and downloads sections of the New York Times, articles from Wired Magazine and selected other publications. So when I have a few minutes I can pull out my PDA and do some reading. I would not recommend reading Gone With the Wind in this 2” x 2” screen, but for short articles it is great

AvantGo™ bills itself as the world’s largest mobile internet service delivering content to some 7 million people using PDAs, wireless PDAs, and smart phones like the Blackberry™. The service does carry advertising but this allows for the basic subscription to be free. I don’t find the ads intrusive and you will find that they will be customized to relate to the content you are requesting. So if you subscribe to GolfLine, an AvantGo™ offering in cooperation with Golf Magazine, don’t be surprised if you see lots of ads for golf clubs.

Another neat feature of AvantGo™ is a MapQuest™ option. You can have your MapQuest™ results sent to your PDA so you don’t need to print them. It saves trees and time and you can just erase the information after your trip.

If you have a PDA and you are only using it for an address book and Calendar, I think you will find AvantGo™ a way to make it more useful.

How to keep from drowning in information

The amount of information available today about almost any topic is virtually endless. Trying to keep up with developments within your occupation or avocation can be a full time job in itself. I remember one of my first jobs in a Marketing / Public Relations office was to track how our organization was being portrayed in the media. At that time there were services that you hired to read newspapers and magazines and clip all the stories and references to you organization. Called “Clipping Services,” they did the staff intensive work of wading through the reams of newsprint and pages trade journals.

Since most of today’s “print media” are available on line, the Clipping Services are quickly disappearing since sifting though the piles of information is now better done by microprocessors than human beings.

For example, our friends at Google have a free service (www.google.com/alerts)that you can use to track most any topic, company, organization or even proper name. All you need to do is go to the Google Alerts web page and fill in the information. Periodically, Google searches the Internet and reports back to you via email when it finds a reference to your search term. For example, if the editor of this newspaper, Ollie, wants to know whenever the Harrison Press was mentioned on a blog, on a web site, or in another newspaper or magazine, he could use this free Google service.

It is amazing what you will find in these searches. You can be selective and only look for mentions in blogs or newspapers. You can broaden the search to include any reference in any page on the web. You have the results of these searches sent to your via email. Canceling the search is also easy and can be done with a few clicks of the mouse.

Google has a number of free services that you might find useful. A few weeks ago we discussed Google Earth. My wife has found Google’s Picasa to be a very useful and simple-to-use tool for sharing and managing digital photographs. In most cases you will find that for the general computer user, tools like Picasa are great. For the more advanced user requiring high end editing capability or vast amounts of storage capacity, you are better to go with the commercial products. But some of these, like PhotoShop, can be pricey.

A New Way to Connect to the Internet

There may be some good news on the horizon for those who want less costly high speed broadband Internet connections at home. Joining the two dominant suppliers in our area, Cincinnati Bell and Time Warner Cable, is Duke Energy. That’s right, the same folks that bring you electric and gas service are now marketing high speed access to the Internet with a new product dubbed Current™. This new service uses a technology first developed in Europe.

Essentially the Internet connection piggybacks on the electric wires strung on the poles on your street and into your house. There is no need for any new wiring in your house. Each electric outlet in your house becomes a high speed Internet connection. A special modem the size of a cell phone plugs into an electric outlet and a cable from the modem to your computer completes the connection. The Current™ Internet access is capable of speeds comparable to popular Internet plans from cable and phone companies. There is a tremendous amount of technology that allows this to happen, but for the consumer, connecting is as simple as plugging in.

Duke Energy, and before them Cinergy, working with The CURRENT Group, LLC, a privately held company based in Germantown, Maryland, began testing this technology in the Cincinnati area a few years ago with a limited roll out in selected neighborhoods. According to company reports, the roll out is limited to an area of about 50,000 homes. As of this writing it is still not available in the Harrison area. I have not been able to get information when we might see the service offered in our area but will keep checking and mention it in future columns.

There are a number of other uses of this technology besides providing Internet access to consumers at home. Duke Energy and other utilities can use the system to electronically read your electric meter or selectively turn on or off electrical devices in your home in the event of high energy demands.

One byproduct of Duke expanding a presence in the local broadband market and that is good old competition. Right now Time Warner’s Road Runner® and Cincinnati Bell’s ZoomTown® are the only games in town. While they periodically offer special rates and packages with TV, Internet and phone service, the average cost of high speed internet service is still on the high side for either service. A third player in the region should add some pressure for lower rates and better service. We will just have to wait.

A clarification – A few weeks ago in my column about the iPhone® I said that Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue from the New York Times each got an iPhone®. David emailed me to clarify that he only has use of the devices he reviews for a short period and then they go back. If Steve Jobs sends me an iPhone®, I guess I will have to do the same thing.

Me thinks I hit a nerve!

From the number and intensity of the comments generated by the HD Radio discussion, it seems that there are some strong feelings. The fact that HD radio has been slow to take off is no doubt the result of several market and technical issues. Unlike DTV, of which I have more than a passing knowledge, HD radio was never mandated by the FCC. And unlike the DTV conversion, the analog stations will not cease to exist at a time certain. So it stands to reason that the adoption curve will be less steep than the DTV curve which is quite steep right now, a full 18 months away from analog shutdown.

For what it is worth, I am a firm believer that the “content” will drive the adoption or lack of adoption of HD Radio as it has with most other new technologies. (Remember VisiCcalc™ and the first PCs or “Bonanza” and the first color TVs?) As for the need to continually upgrade, that is just a byproduct of the digital age. It happens with new TVs, new mobile phones, and most anything digital.

No problem giving your comments here as long as we all stay with sharing ideas and opinions.

WOXY back on the air … for some of us in Cincinnati

As good old Yogi once said, “It is like déjà vu all over again.” WOXY has returned to the airwaves in southwest Ohio. Beginning last month, that station the bills itself as the “Future of Rock and Roll” can now be heard on HD Radio, WVXU HD2.

In an earlier column a few months ago we discussed how the new digital radio technology allows for more than one program to be broadcast simultaneously over a single radio frequency. At that time I mentioned how WGUC, Cincinnati’s Classical station, had great jazz programming on the second channel of digital 90.9. Well the same people that run WGUC also operate WVXU and they have made an agreement with the folks at WOXY to use the second channel of WVXU’s digital signal to carry the WOXY programs.

WOXY has a very uneven history. The station began an Alternative Rock Format station on the regular analog FM band (97X) on Labor Day weekend in 1983, from studios in Oxford, Ohio. Over the years, the station has garnered praise from the popular music press including Rolling Stone, Spin, Alternative Press, Esquire, USA Today, Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati CityBeat, as well as from many radio industry publications. In the process they attracted a somewhat small but very loyal audience. I remember how excited my three teenage sons were when one of their garage band CDs was featured on 96X.

In September of 2004, with dwindling revenues, the owners sold the license to the FM frequency and took WOXY to the Internet. It can still be heard on the Internet at www.woxy.com and the station reports hearing from loyal listeners from as far away as Nepal and Brazil.

Now that it is also being broadcast in the tri-sate area the station will actually be able to reach wider geographic coverage than it did when it was broadcasting from Oxford. However, in order to listen, you will need a HD Radio. They can be purchased from most electronic stores. There are several models for both car and home use. They are still a bit pricey, with the least expense models around $100.

HD radio continues to have a hard time getting a main stream consumer foothold even though most stations, public and commercial, are broadcasting with both analog and digital signals. The competition is coming from the satellite radio services Sirius® and XM Radio®. Since the automakers are concentrating on offering satellite radio rather then HD radio, it may be a while before HD radios are common place.

A look at the WOXY blog shows that many local listeners are buying HD radios so they can once again listen to “Future of Rock and Roll.” At the same time they may play a part in the future of HD Radio.

Don’t worry; we will fix it in Version 2.1

There is no lack of hype surrounding various new digital products helping to make our lives “easier.” The manufacturers ply us with promises of faster connections, easier communication, clearer pictures and the ability to carry in our pocket every song ever written. For sure the digital age has spawned a panoply of truly awesome products. Amid these developments, it is a shame that the same amount of energy used to develop, manufacture and market these products does not go into thoughtful customer support.
A few weeks ago my wife asked me to look at her computer since she was getting a strange error message informing her that the anti virus program was not working properly. With the myriad of bad things floating around the Internet waiting to find a home on an unprotected computer, such a warning gets serious attention.
Like millions of people, my wife uses a set of software tools from a company called McAfee®. It is a leading provider of software aimed at keeping viruses at bay and spam and other irritating email junk to a minimum. It was that software that was not working properly, or that is what we thought. After spending some time trying to fix the problem she gave up and asked me to see if I could help.
I won’t bore you with the ugly details but after trying to fix the problem according to the on line help provided by McAfee®, I gave up and reinstalled the software from scratch. This too was of course at the suggestion of the McAfee® online help messages. That did not help.
OK, let’s skip to the bottom line. It seems that McAfee® had automatically updated my wife’s software (something that is done all the time on line) but this time there was a bug in the update that generated the false error message regarding the vulnerability of her computer. As it turns out millions of customers in North America were getting that same error. But how were they to know that they didn’t have a ‘real” problem?
Well, buried in the McAfee® web site there was a message that reported that the error message could be ignored. I had gone to that web site several times in my attempt to fix the problem and did not see the message. Perhaps my addled brain function clouded my observation. Nevertheless, I have one question. Why didn’t McAfee® immediately send out an email informing customers of the problem? McAfee® and other hardware and software companies often use email to hype new products or service improvements. They did send out an email a few days later explaining that they had fixed the problem.
My wife, a most intelligent and practical person who has little patience for the pocket-protector set, suggests that all software and hardware developers after they release any new product, spend a week on the other side of the screen. Not a bad idea.

Why the iPhone™ is not myPhone

OK, I admit it; I am upset with Steve Jobs. Before the iPhone™ was released last month he sent complementary phones to Walt Mosberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times so they could write reviews. Perhaps Ollie forgot to give me the package that came from Apple but I don’t think so. I guess Steve thought that a column in the Harrison Press was just not that important! Well there is always the next model, Steve.
You have to give Apple credit. When they introduce a new product they do it right or at least loudly! There was more reporting about the iPhone™ than there was about Paris Hilton’s revolving jail door. So what is all the buzz?
Well, I have to tell you I have only had about 15 minutes of “quality time” playing with an iPhone™ but that time and a review of the documentation and other reports have given me some reactions to share with you.
First, the “Cool Factor” rating is off the charts. The sleek, compact, shiny case is enough to impress both techie and artist. The touch screen and a display that senses the orientation of the phone, changing from horizontal to vertical depending how you hold the phone, is just plain cool.
The “Swiss Army Knife” concept of adding iPod, PDA and Internet browser capacity thus making the phone do much more than make calls seems to be somewhat successful. There are some shortcomings, at least in version #1. The connection to the Internet using AT&T is very slow, the battery is sealed and can not be replaced by the user, the phone will not play Flash® videos and you must use AT&T as your carrier. In some parts of the country AT&T is reported to have spotty coverage.
There is one other factor that will keep me from contributing to the value of Apple stock in the near future and that is the price. With the introductory price of the phone set at a hefty 500 bucks and a service contract with AT&T required, you will spend the better part of $3000 for the first two years.
As much as I would like to be “cool,” I think I will just save the cool cash and stay with my three-year-old Verizon phone.
Oh yes, Steve, feel free to send the complimentary updated model of the iPhone™ to the Harrison Press office and I will pick it up.

Google Earth a Real Eye Opener

Ever since I was a little kid I have been fascinated with maps. The arrival of the National Geographic Magazine was always a favorite time of the month because the magazine almost always had inserted within its shiny pages a new map of some exotic part of the globe. I vividly remember (because it is now mounted and framed in our family room) the LandSat® rendering of the United States published by National Geographic in the mid 1970s. Wow, an actual picture of our planet from space.
Before setting out on a vacation, I would spend hours pouring over maps of the intended destinations, studying the names of towns and other points of interest. When I began hiking in Red River Gorge in Kentucky, I quickly learned that topographic maps would help me select the easiest trails.
Google Earth takes mapping to a whole new level. This free service seamlessly integrates satellite imagery, high altitude aircraft photography and computer animation with a high powered database to provide a detailed aerial look at the world from as far away as outer space or as close as a few hundred feet above the ground.
Most likely you have already seen some of the Google maps on the TV news as most local and national news organizations use a commercial version of this software to help identify specific locations mentioned on air in the newscasts.
Using the Google Earth software on your home computer you can superimpose highways and roads on the screen. You can show locations of schools and municipal buildings. You can even “fly over” tourist locations like the Eifel Tower in Paris or the Great Wall in China. You can use it for directions like MapQuest® or locate specific locations based on latitude and longitude coordinates.
Some of the areas of the globe are rendered with very fine detail so that you can see your neighbor’s roof, car in the driveway and back yard pool. Other areas appear with less detailed. Some of the more sensitive areas, e.g. Washington , DC, are purposely kept less detailed in order to foil any unseemly use of the information.
To use Google Earth you must have a computer and high speed Internet connection. While there is no charge for the software, you must download it from Google. The process is easy and only needs to be done once. c.f. ( http://earth.google.com/ )
Some new GPS systems allow you to download information from a car or bike trip to Google Earth and the computer will retrace your route on the maps displayed. That has got to be a “cool factor” of 10.
I do have one warning …GOOGLE EARTH IS ADDICTIVE! You can spend hours looking at your old neighborhood or the route of last year’s vacation. It is also very educational as it can introduce kids to the concepts of longitude and latitude, topography and basic geography.

The Sky Is Falling…DTV is coming, DTV is Coming…

Last February I wrote about the upcoming end to analog TV broadcasting in the United States. At 12:01 AM, Tuesday, February 17, 2009, analog TV broadcasting will be no more as the United States joins many other countries of the world in adopting an all digital broadcasting system.
As discussed in the previous column, many of us will not be affected even if we still are then using our existing analog TVs. The reason is that according to Nielsen Research, only about 20% of the households in the Cincinnati market require broadcast over-the air signals to watch TV; the other 80% use either cable, satellite or a combination of both. Since the cable and satellite set top boxes already convert digital signals so they can be viewed on analog TV sets, the fact that stations like CET will no longer be broadcasting in analog is irrelevant.
For those who want to stick to receiving signals over the air, Congress has developed a voucher program that will award two $40 vouchers to each household requesting them. The vouchers can be used to offset the cost of purchasing small digital converters that will receive digital over-the-air signals and convert them to analog signals that even your trusty old RCA with aluminum foil on the rabbit ears can handle. They are still working out the details for distributing these vouchers. I’ll be sure to let you know when an announcement is made.
Congress also has mandated that retailers make sure that anyone buying a new TV, no matter the size, has information about what kind of tuner is installed. If it has only an analog tuner, the set must have a label stating that it will no longer be able to receive over-the-air signals after February 17, 2009.
Recently I took a field trip to see how various retailers were handling this disclosure requirement. I browsed through some major “big box” stores. I was surprised by what I found, or I should say, what I didn’t find. Today, analog TV sets are as scarce as VHS machines. For example, a stroll through “Best Buy” found no analog TVs at all. Even the small inexpensive counter top sets had ATSC tuners built in. That means that they have digital tuners capable of receiving the digital broadcasts. They are not High Definition sets nor do they have wide screens, but they can receive all the broadcasted digital signals. The good news is that the price seems about the same as the analog-only sets of last year.
Seems like the “sky is falling” predictions that warned of millions of TV viewers would be looking at blank screens when they wake up on February 17, 2009 may be a bit over blown. I’ll keep you updated.

Broadband Adoption on the Rise 2007

Just as the development of the Interstate Highway system transcended its goal of providing efficient and rapid deployment of military resources throughout our vast country during the era of the “Great Red Menace,” the accelerated construction and use of high speed internet connections are also having a major impact on our society apart from merely providing some new technology. Today, the geographic and demographic development of our cities and suburbs can be directly attributed to the construction of super highways. So too, the availability of high speed internet access has changed the way we work, play and communicate. It took the better part of 50 years to complete the Interstate Highway System, the information super highway has take much less time.
Recently a major study by the Pew Foundation Internet & American Life Project, found that nearly half (47%) of all adult Americans now have a high-speed internet connection at home. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 42% in early 2006 and 30% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the internet at home, 70% have a high-speed connection while 23% use dialup.
I found it interesting that the study showed strong growth in home broadband adoption from 2006 to 2007, namely:
• African Americans: 40% of now have broadband at home.
• Rural Americans: 31% of those living in rural areas have broadband at home.
• Low income households, that is, adults who report living in households with annual household incomes under $30,000 annually: 30% of those in this group report having broadband at home.
There are several reasons that broadband has taken off. Since colleges and universities where pioneers in establishing high speed networks on campus reaching not only into classrooms and laboratories but into residence halls and dorms, graduating students had little patience with slow dial up connections when they moved off campus. In many cases they were more interested in obtaining broadband than they were in subscribing to cable or satellite TV.
Another growing segment was made up of retired office workers who had robust connections to the internet at work. When they retired they were already very much wedded to using the internet to keep track of family and friends, do banking and investment tracking and other tasks that require high speed access.
In the recent past, hotels and motels hyped their swimming pool or cable TV. They now brag about the free high speed internet connections and WiFi.

Data Storage Getting Cheaper

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” This quote is attributed to Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder, when quizzed many years ago about the amount of memory that should be sufficient for computer users. The prediction by Gates, apocryphal or not, proved false as even the most inexpensive computers now come with several gigabytes (billions of bytes) of memory. Heck, the temperature control on your modern refrigerator has more memory than 640K.

Even more phenomenal is the plunging cost of data storage. Last year when my wife was heading on a trip, I picked up a few extra memory cards for her digital camera. When I looked for new 128 megabyte (128,000.000 byte) cards I could find none available. I was delighted to find 1 Gigabyte cards ( i.e. about 9X more capacity) for a fraction of the price we paid for the 128 Meg cards a year or so ago.

A recent advertising supplement from a local computer retailer has several memory cards and USB memory sticks for sale with 2 and 4 Gigabyte capacities for less then $20 each. Putting this in perspective, a 1 Gig card can hold the equivalent of more than 200 copies of the King James Version of the Bible. Remember the old 5 ½ inch floppy disks? It would take 14 disks to store the text of just one copy of the Bible.

So what does this mean? Well for certain, keeping photos and documents in digital form has never been cheaper or easier. That is both the good news and the bad news. Since it is no longer costly to keep stuff, we can easily begin to drown in too much stuff. Gone is the incentive to erase those out-of-focus pictures or that letter you sent to Shillito’s complaining about the malfunctioning Philco Transistor Radio you bought. Why keep that stuff? Because we can!

Seriously, this is a great time to consider using memory cards and USB memory sticks for long term storage. They are compact, rugged and they continue to be offered with more and more capacity.

Manufacturers claim that these memory devices will retain data for as long as 100 years. Few of us using them now will know if that proves to be the case. Since we are storing information in digital form on these devices, it will be relatively easy to move the data to another form of digital storage (when it is invented) without losing data integrity or quality.

High Tech Reaches the Two-wheel Set

I recently returned from a bicycle trip through Virginia and was surprised to see how electronic technology has permeated this seemingly low-tech industry. For sure, bikes have embraced space-age mechanical technology with frames built of high strength composites making them light and strong. That being the case, for years about the only electronic technology one would see among fellow riders was a speedometer. Things have changed big time.

Over the five days of my 300 plus mile trip, I saw several bikes equipped with GPS systems. These devices, about the size of a small cell phone have some powerful features. Instead of gathering speed information from your spinning wheel, it computes your speed using satellites. Why one needs to have that level of accuracy while peddling through Colonial Williamsburg is beyond me, but it is cool.

Using the GPS you can load in your planned daily route and the display will show you exactly where you are and how far it is to the next rest stop. Call me old fashioned, but when the heat index is hovering around 100 degrees, sometimes you just don’t want to know how far you have to go.

One other feature provided by the GPS is readout of your altitude. Again, my legs tell me that I am going up hill. Do I really need to quantify how much climbing I am doing?

Of course there were several riders carrying on phone conversations using
Bluetooth™ ear buds. It is somewhat disconcerting to ride up behind a solo cyclist who is babbling away with no one else in sight. Talking while riding a bike is as dangerous as driving a car under the influence of “Ma Bell.”

One of the great new beneficial technologies comes in lighting. Using LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) instead of regular incandescent light bulbs, bicycle lights are now brighter and battery life is extended almost exponentially. I have a tail light on my bike that has used the same single AAA battery for more than a year and I am sure it has been on for more than 200 hours. Likewise I have an LED headlight that can be set to strobe. The bright white blinking light grabs the attention of drivers who might otherwise fail to see my bike coming.

I leave at the end of the month for another bicycle trip in Iowa. Who knows what I might see?

Watching TV without a TV v 2.2

Last week we looked at some of the videos that are available on-demand from CETconnect.org, the service of Cincinnati Public Television. This week let’s take a look as other websites that provide local video programming that you watch on your computer.

Most of the local commercial TV stations provide some video via the Internet. One of the first to get into the field was Channel 9, WCPO. (www.wcpo.com) Channel 9 offers all of their regular newscasts on line so if you missed the 11 PM news you can watch it the next morning on your computer. The videos are available for one week from the time they are first broadcast. If you grew up in Cincinnati you will enjoy watching some of the historical videos that have been placed on the site. There are some vintage “Uncle Al” shows and some newscasts from the 50s and 60s. “It’s eleven o’clock in the tri-state…”

WLWT, Channel 5 offers video on their web site. (www.channelcincinnati.com) While they do provide a brief on-line only video newscast, the offerings are a bit meager compared to other stations. They do have a display of the most popular videos making it easy to find an individual story or feature for that day.

WKRC, Channel 12 ( www.local12.com ) has several videos available coving local news stories as well as some historical materials. One of their experiments is “The Cooler” a fast paced daily quasi-news segment done in a hip format It is aimed at the young professional audience that is so elusive for local TV news programmers.

Over at Fox 19, (www.wxix.com) the station has a full complement of news stories similar to the other commercial stations. Fox 19 is also providing video content to a new online video service provided by Cincinnati Bell called Z-Street.

Z-Street is part of the phone company’s ZoomTown service ( www.zoomtown.com ) service. It is only a few months old and unlike the other sites discussed above, it solicits video from the users. Patterned on YouTube.com or Google Video, the videos are available for free viewing are quite divers. Some are entertaining, while others are just plain stupid. Essentially Z-Street is similar to YouTube ( www.YouTube.com ) with mostly local content.

Not only do the TV and Radio stations provide local video content, the Cincinnati Enquirer has equipped some of their reporters with small video cameras. The results have been interesting if a bit uneven in quality. ( www.enquirer.com )

Even the Cincinnati Opera ( www.cincinnatiopera.org ) is getting in on the act with video interviews with the featured singers of this season’s offerings.

Certainly watching TV on your computer has not yet replaced your traditional viewing. With advances in video quality and the availability of devices that will allow you to watch video from all sources (broadcast, cable, satellite and the Internet) on your regular TV set in the family room, the same blurring of the lines between broadcast and cable will happen between regular TV and the Internet TV.

Watching TV without a TV

A whole new way of distributing video programming has really taken off. While internet video has been around for almost ten years, it has only been in the last year or so that it has really garnered the attention of a wide audience. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. For sure, the popularity of high speed internet connections to the home via the phone company or cable is a major factor. Also, computers themselves have been becoming more powerful and cheaper. The technology behind playing video on the internet has developed quickly making the jerky postage stamp size video displays on a web page a thing of the past.

Internet sites like YouTube.com or Google Video serve millions of viewers each day. While these sites get lots of attention in the media, in this week’s column and continuing next week, we’ll look at some local video sites that might be of interest to you. We will begin with some shameless promotion for one of my favorite sites, CETconnect.com. Operated by my employer, CET, Cincinnati’s Public Television, CETconnect.org has more than 800 videos available on-demand. Most of the content is local in nature.

While you can link to some popular PBS programs like the News Hour, the majority of titles are local in nature. For example, if you are interested in local business you can watch interviews with executives and pundits discussing what’s happening at corporations and small businesses throughout the tri-state.

If the arts are your thing you can find a variety of videos spotlighting the major arts organizations like the CSO, Opera and Ballet or some of the lesser known arts organizations. For example, right now you can get previews of the new Cincinnati Opera season. In the fall the CSO and Pops programs will be featured.

Several local organizations and institutions from the Art Museum to the Zoo regularly provide programming for CETconnect.org. Since it is updated daily you can find something new almost every time you visit. All programming that is not time sensitive is archived, so you can watch today programming that was first released last year.

Next week we will look at several other local video sites. For CETconnect.org and most others, all you need is a computer and high speed internet connection.

What’s a Keyboard?

One of my favorite Star Trek movie moments came when Kirk,Bones,Spock and Scotty found themselves back on earth saving some whales in San Francisco. Scotty was in need of some computer data and found an old Apple Mac in a lab. He picked up the mouse and began to speak commands into it. Of course Spock was quick to point out to Scotty the error of his ways and suggested that he may need to use the keyboard to enter his commands. At this Scotty mumbles, “How Quaint!”

Well, since Bill Gates was knee high to a microprocessor, computers and keyboards have been synonymous. We no longer teach “typing” or even “word processing”, we teach “keyboarding.” While the old QWERTY pad is not going away soon, several other ways of interacting with computers are quickly developing.

Most of us have been caught in “Voice Mail Hell” trying to communicate via phone with our bank or other large company. No longer must we “Press 2 to speak with a customer service associate” we can just say “2”. Voice recognition has come a long way. I can “tell” my cell phone to call home. Many high-end cars allow you to change radio stations and make other adjustments by voice.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft demonstrated a new concept in interacting with a computer. The device has no keyboard and looks like a high tech coffee table with the screen serving as the table top. The touch sensitive screen allows the user to manipulate virtual items. For example, the screen might display a pile of photographs just retrieved from a digital camera. Using your hands you can move them into piles or make each photo larger or smaller. Even the process of downloading the photos from the camera to the computer is simplified. You just place the camera on the “table” and the photos appear on the screen. Place them on the icon of the printer and they get printed.

One demonstration showed how one would order from Amazon.com. You select your books and place them in a virtual pile. The you place your credit card on the table top screen and using your hands push the pile on top of the credit card. The books are billed to the card and sent to a predetermined mailing address.

At one time many of these non-traditional ways of interacting with computers or other machines were thought to be only of interest to the physically challenged. For sure, text recognition and speech synthesis for a blind person is awesome. For a person with limited use of arms or legs, the ability to instruct, via voice commands, the TV to go on or the air conditioner to change temperature, provides tremendous benefit. But these technologies will continue to be part of everyday life and promise to make the venerable keyboard as archaic as IBM punch cards.

Setting up home wireless network is easy and inexpensive

The lazy days of summer are here. It is a time when many of us move outside for the next three months. Grilling on our decks or sitting out and enjoying the evening breezes. Just as you have been able to take your telephone conversations with you to the back yard or deck using a cordless phone, you can also take your laptop as well. Setting up a home wireless computer network is really quite easy and inexpensive. Even if you don’t venture outside, having access to the internet in any room of the house and having multiple family members share the single connection is a real plus.

A home wireless network consists of a small device that connects directly to your cable or DSL modem. It is called a Wireless Network Router. Instead of maintaining the connection to all the computers in the house over wires, it actually “broadcasts” to these computers within about 100 feet of the device using high frequency radio waves. Each computer must be equipped with a wireless network card. So for most of us mortals who live in standard size houses, the 100 ft. radius encompasses all the rooms in the house and the back yard.

Each computer using this wireless network signal must have the appropriate add-on hardware. Often laptops come with a built in card. There are also adapters that plug into the USB port of your desktop computer.

You can set up a home network that includes the wireless router and three cards or add-on devices for three computers for a total of about $125.00. All computer stores and the major appliance retailers have the equipment for sale. Two of the most popular brands are Lynksys and D-Link.

The cost of the equipment is a function of the speed that it can send and receive data and the distance it can broadcast. For most homes look for a label on the device that reads “802.11g.” This should work fine, unless you are a power user sending high definition video around your home on this network.

Be sure that you follow the directions to “secure” your network. A person driving down your street with the proper equipment could eavesdrop on your connection and capture data that might have your banking or other private information. If you live in the city where apartments or homes are close together, a non secure network could provide free internet access to several of your neighbors. The only way you would know is that your connection might get very slow.

Oh yes, both Cincinnati Bell ZoomTown™ and Time Warner Road Runner™ will provide and set up a wireless network for you for an extra monthly fee. When I last looked, the cost of doing it yourself would be recouped in about 24 months.

So break out the brews, the hotdogs and the laptop and go wireless this summer.

What's in the Palm of my hand?

As promised last week, we are going to take a little “tour” of my Palm™. No, we aren’t looking at my lifeline or checking my fingerprints with the folks at the witness protection program. We are going to examine the software I carry with me almost everywhere I go on my three-year-old Palm Tungsten /e ™.

For sure the main functions I use most often are my address book and calendar, but I do have several other applications available. Since most PDAs have a small slot into which you can insert a SD memory card (the same used in many digital cameras) they can hold lots of information.

For example, my Palm™ has an electronic photograph album. The photos look good and clear but they are displayed on a small 2” x 2” screen. The number of photos you can store depends on the size of the memory card. You can expect hundreds on a single 1 gigabit SD card.

Since I am seriously “spelling impaired “ one of the most often used feature on my Palm™ is the complete Merriam Webster Dictionary and Franklin Thesaurus. A quick tap of the screen and I can look up spellings and definitions.

Another favorite feature is my AvantGo® software. Each morning when I synch my Palm™ with my desktop computer the front page of the current New York Times is loaded. I also get stories from Wired Magazine. During the day, if I have a few minutes while waiting for an appointment, or the barber, or the doctor, or a plane, I can read the latest news. The AvantGo® subscription is free.

I have a small QWERTY keyboard that folds up into a case the size of the Palm™ itself. With that and my Palm™ I can use mini versions of MS Word and Excel. The documents created on the Palm™ can be loaded and edited on to my desktop PC and visa versa. I would not suggest writing “Gone with the Wind” but for taking notes in a meeting it is great.

I have some specialized things as well. Since I am a frustrated musician, I carry a program called Tuning Fork. The program plays out perfect musical pitches. I have another one that displays chord charts for almost every stringed instrument from guitar to violin.

While I don’t have it, many PDAs can receive and send Email. This feature requires a subscription to a wireless Internet provider. Many high end cell phones have PDA features built in. Just last week, Palm’s co-founder, Jeff Hawkins, announced a new Palm™ product called the Foleo®. Larger than the hand-helds but smaller then a lap top, the Foleo® adds still another option. No matter what PDA device you choose, you will find hundreds of applications that can run on it. Some are frivolous. Others are tremendous time savers.

One common denominator for those who start using a PDA for the fist time is that you will hate it for the first week, tolerate it for the second week and not know how you lived without it by the third week.

Don't Leave Home Without It!

As much of a geek as I am and given to acquiring most anything that is electronic, I was slow to adopt using a PDA or Personal Digital Assistant. A PDA is a very small special purpose computer designed to make your life more organized and efficient. Frankly I was very happy with my little paper Day Planner™ and over the years amassed quite a pile of them in the top drawer of my desk, some of them going back into the 1970s. Today, I truly can not operate without my Palm™ PDA.

A PDA can perform several functions. This week we will discuss the basic features like the calendar and address book. Next week we will look at some neat expanded features like on line newspapers, picture albums and specialized software.

There are two main types of PDAs. The Palm™ operating software-based models and those that use scaled down Windows™ operating system. I use the Palm™ but most of the features are very similar across platforms.

My PDA is a Palm™ Tungsten Model /e and is about three years old and cost about $125.00. It is about the size of a pack of cigarettes but only about ½ the thickness. Don’t let the size fool you, it is a very powerful tool. Right now I have all my contacts in the address book. There are over 1000 different names with telephone and fax numbers, email addresses, home and business mailing addresses. Some entries even have birthdays, kid’s and spouse’s names and other personal information. Of course all is searchable with the touch of a button. All entries can be edited and updated.

The calendar can be displayed in day, week, month or even year format. After entering an appointment in the calendar you can ask the PDA to remind you with an audible alarm a few minutes or a few hours before the event. It can remind you of birthdays or other special events from data in your address book and remind you a few days in advance to send a card. For example my Palm™ reminds me of my wife’s and kid’s birthdays five days in advance.

The small video screen can display full color images and text. The size of the text can be adjusted so even my aging eyes can read it easily. The device is battery powered and is charged up each day when I “synch” it with the computer. All the information `contained in my Palm™ is also available on my desk top PC. Each morning I connect, or “synch,” my Palm™ to my PC and the two devices exchange information. So if I added an appointment into my Palm™ it now shows up on the calendar on my PC and visa versa. If there is a conflict it alerts me. If I added or modified an entry in the address book on my Palm™, say a new telephone number, that number is now also updated on my PC.

Having all of this information at my fingertips is a great time saver. Gone are the days of pencil scratched paper address books with old telephone numbers crossed out and illegible addresses and zip codes.

In the next entry I will take you on a tour of my personal model and tell what software I carry in the palm of my hand (or at perhaps in my pocket.)

Hidden Electricity "Vampires"

In the last installment we looked at how simply changing out some of your incandescent light bulbs with new energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs can save hundreds of dollars annually. It can also result in less overall power demand and a significant reduction in the need to burn fossil fuel at generating plants. Less use of scarce resources and less pollution in our air are both very important.

This week we will look at some less obvious devices that may seem at first to be very insignificant but actually consume substantial amounts of electricity over time. We call them Electricity “Vampires.”

One of the negative byproducts of our digital age is the proliferation of devices that require small power supplies that draw current 24/7. Most electric devices of years past consumed current only when they were actually being used. This is no longer the case. For example, even when your TV is turned off, it most likely is consuming between 5 and 15 watts of electricity per hour. This keeps the clock set; the favorite channel selection updated, and allows for an almost instant picture when you do turn it “on.”

Look around your house. I bet you can find a dozen or more small power supplies plugged into outlets. The cell phone or iPod charger, the telephone answering machine, the wireless telephone hand set, the electric screw drive charger and stove timer, all consume small amounts of electricity. When you add them up and figure that most other houses on your street, in your town and in your state all have many of the same appliances, the amount of electricity being used is significant.

It is not practical to turn off some of these devices since doing so will often cause memory loss and the need to re-program them. For those of you without teenagers this can take hours. In other cases, just unplugging chargers when not in use is a good start.

Here are a few other tips:
- If you are going away for three or more days, turn off your hot water heater
- Put motion sensors on lights in hallways, garages etc.
- Use only the amount of light you need for the task at hand.
- Open those windows and use a fan instead of A/C

The bottom line is that energy conservation is a cumulative thing. If everyone does a few things, the impact can be significant.

Save Big and Be Green with Compact Fluorescents

Much attention has been given lately to global warming and the need for all of us, especially those of us in the United State and other industrialized countries, to conserve resources and reduce our contribution to global pollution. If you’re like me, when I hear the reports or read the accounts in newspapers or magazines, it still seems like something that needs to be addressed by someone else. Many of us have the tendency to think that what we do individually makes little difference. That of course is not true. Over the next two weeks I will give you some suggestions for saving electricity thus reducing pollution from our local coal fired generators. At the same time I’ll give you an added incentive, since you will not only be saving energy but be able to put a few bucks back in your pocket.

In any house there are visible and invisible consumers of electricity. Some will surprise you and you will be amazed at the amount of energy (and cash) you can save with just a few changes.

Among the most visible consumers of energy is lighting. Let’s look at household lighting and how to accomplish some significant savings.

I checked with my friends at Duke Energy to arrive at an average residential cost per kilowatt hour. In other words, how much does it cost to use 1000 watts of electricity for one hour? The answer, in the Greater Cincinnati Area including Indiana, but not Kentucky, is 10 cents. I will use that number to compute the cost savings throughout this article. If you don’t live here you will need to find out from your electric provider your KW/H cost.

With that in mind I did a little auditing of my own habits to see what impact I could have on reducing my own energy consumption and what that might mean for my utility bill. I have already changed out the bulbs in several lighting fixtures with highly efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. These new bulbs come in a variety of sizes with varying light outputs. Some can be used with dimmer switches. (Be sure to look on the package since not all will work with dimmers.)

Currently you can purchase compact fluorescent light bulbs that provide the same amount of light (or lumens) as a standard incandescent bulbs but use a fraction of electricity. Those bulbs will last 10 times longer. Let’s do the math. If you use a 100 watt bulb in a lamp in the family room and it is turned on an average of five hours per day (more in the winter, less in the summer) that will work out to 1,825 hours per year. If you use the regular incandescent bulb, it will consume 182,500 watts in one year ( 182 kwhrs) costing you $18.00. If you replace that incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb using only 23 watts per hour, you will pay $4.00 for the same amount of light for an annual savings on that single lamp of $14.00

If you look around your home, I bet you can find a dozen or more lighting fixtures that can be changed out with little effort and a modest expense. Even figuring in the higher cost to purchase each compact fluorescent light bulb, you will have a net cash savings at the end of the year. Each year thereafter will save you more than $150 if you change out 10 or 12 bulbs. The reduction in electric demand of course will lessen the need for Duke to burn coal to make electricity in the first place.

In the next post we will look at some less visible electricity “vampires.”

Getting together with old friends

Last winter I finally got around to a project that I had been promising myself for several years that I would complete. Over the past 45 years, like many persons of my age, I had collected a fairly robust collection of records. Not CDs, tapes, cassettes or even mp3 files, but real grooved platters fashioned of black vinyl. Some even had a large hole in the center. If you don’t know what that means, ask someone over the age of 45.

In my case, some of the records had been re-released in CD format, but most were not available and I am a cheapskate at heart. For example, my favorite Christmas album of all time was one done by Stan Kenton and no longer available except for some astronomical amount on eBay. Some other classical piano albums actually recorded by Arthur Rubinstein were also not available on CD. Even though we still do have a turntable connected to our stereo, playing one record at a time was just too much of a hassle. So the records were stacked in a corner of the basement gathering dust and some other crud associated with benign neglect storage.

If you find this scenario ringing true for you, I may have a solution. You can easily make CDs or MP3 copies of your records with little effort and some inexpensive software. All you need is a working turntable, a computer that has a CD burner installed and some software.

I used software from DAK www.dak.com. Don’t let the garish web site discourage you. The software really was easy to use and made very good copies of the records. It even had settings to get rid of scratches and other imperfections on the records. There is one setting that allows you to identify each blemish and clean it up one by one. This was a real hassle and I soon opted for the automatic version. The latter does cut down a bit on the audio fidelity, but it provided a clean, clear copy of the vinyl record. For about $70 you get a pre-amplifier/mixer that you can plug into your computer and the software needed to make your copies. If you need a turntable, there is one available at extra cost. I can’t recommend the turntable since I did not purchase one from DAK.

There are other companies like Hammacher Schlemmer www.hammacher.com that have stand-alone copying machines. They are pricey, i.e. $400, but they do a good job. Since you most likely will do this task only once, unless you are a collector of vintage records, I question why someone would spend so much on a single purpose machine.

If you don’t want to do it yourself or you only have a few records to copy there are services that will do this for you. Locally, DLFmusic will provide this service for prices starting at $14.00 for each copy. www.dlfmusic.com. I have not used this company and from looking at the web site I would think it is most likely based in some basement. So I don’t have an opinion on the quality of their work. You might ask for references or just try one record first.

One of the by-products of doing it yourself comes in the fact that you have to play each album as you make the copy. It was really fun to listen to some music that I had not heard in many years. For example, I have one of the early Simon & Garrfunkel albums when they were performing under the moniker Tom & Jerry. Last January and February, each evening I would choose an album to copy and in about one hour, I had a CD version and some good memories.

So next fall, why not get reacquainted with old musical friends and invite them into the digital age?

How to be smarter than a teenager

One of my favorite comic strips is Zits. The collaboration of Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott chronicles the Duncan Family and their teenage son Jeremy. A recent strip featured Jeremy explaining to his father how to use the various remote controls for the family’s complement of electronic devices. As always, the cartoon captured the essence of the issue; if you want to know how to work high tech stuff find a kid.

Our living room is not unlike most others. We have a TV, a VCR, a cable set top box, a DVD player, a stereo with cassette deck, CD player, radio tuner and even a turntable for any vinyl that may still have life. The problem of course is that each of these components has a different and often non-compatible remote control. Since I installed most of the equipment I don’t have any trouble deciding which remote I need to accomplish the task at hand. My wife, Judy, on the other hand, a very intelligent articulate woman, is sometimes rendered clueless as to how to turn on the TV.

For example, our normal set up includes watching TV from cable. To do this one needs only to turn on the cable box and the TV and you’re home free. That is unless our wonderful friends at Duke Energy have not interrupted our power, even for a short time period. If we lose power, our TV set defaults to Channel 2. For the cable box to work the TV must be tuned to Channel 3 or 4 and the cable remote can’t change the channel on the TV set. Who knew?

To watch a DVD requires one to choose VIDEO #1 on the TV and use the remote for the DVD player. My wife doesn’t even try to watch a DVD. The same plays out for the VHS, the radio the CD player. Heaven forbid if you want the sound from the TV to be played out over the stereo speakers. What are we to do?

One solution, since all three of our sons are living out of town, is to rent a teenage kid. We ruled that out since we can’t afford the food bill. So that brings us to the UNIVERSAL REMOTE. There are several on the market that one can program to handle all the devices from one simple-to-use hand held device. Some actually have a small video screen like a cell phone. Commands are as simple as “Watch Cable” or “Watch DVD” or “Record a Program.” The remote knows what devices are required to accomplish the request and sends signals to all the appropriate devices moving them to the right settings. You can put away all the old remotes and use this single device. Some of Universal Remote Controls require you to have a home computer to program all the settings.

I priced a few models recently. They run from $50 to $300 depending on the features. Seems to me a small price to pay for marital accord, and we can’t afford to feed a teenager.