Will It Rain Today in Terra Haute?

For many years those in the commercial TV business knew that the ownership of a local TV station, even in a small market, was a very lucrative endeavor. Even stations at the bottom of the ratings were able to achieve profit margins that were the envy of many other businesses in their communities. Today, while there is still money to be made operating a local commercial TV station, especially if you happen to be located in a “battleground state,” the profit margins have significantly contracted.

The recent protracted negotiations between WLWT and Time Warner Cable are emblematic of these changes. Like it or not, local TV stations and cable and satellite providers are joined at the hip. They need each other. In the Greater Cincinnati area, as is the case in most parts of the country, the vast majority of viewers of local stations do not watch using an antenna but rely on either the cable company or satellite provider to tune in these local stations. Most recent surveys show that in the Cincinnati area more than 86% are connected to either a cable or satellite service.

For sure some households may use an antenna, but the majority of viewing is wired. No local station can survive if less than 15% of their targeted audience can’t see the programs. The cable companies know this and are reticent to pay the local stations’ higher fees for the rights to include the stations on their systems. The cable company’s position is that it is providing a service to the local station. The local TV station’s position is that they provide the programming that is the reason that people subscribe to cable.

In the recent stand off between WLWT and Time Warner Cable, the cable company tried to have their cake and eat it. Betting that the majority of viewers would miss the NBC network programs more than the local programming, the cable company imported the signal from the NBC station in Terra Haute, IN. So local Cincinnati viewers could see their favorite fare from NBC but not any local or syndicated programs from WLWT. Cincinnati viewers could watch the traffic reports for I-70, hear the game stats from the Terra Haute Minor League Rex baseball team or take in highlights of the Vigo County Fair. They would not be sure if Loveland would see rain, but could follow a passing storm in Terra Haute on WTWO Live Doppler.

 While the WLWT / Time Warner tiff will be settled, look for this discussion to continue as the TV landscape continues to change. With on demand and online services proliferating, newspapers producing as much video material as paper and ink, and citizen journalists reporting the news before the TV crews are dispatched, local TV station dominance and profitability might well change.

 Oh yes, 30% chance of rain today in Terra Haute.

A New Kind of Electric Car

When thinking about investing in an electric vehicle, one of the key questions centers around keeping it charged for more than a quick trip to the grocery store. Nevertheless, electric cars are being considered by more of us as there are now models available ranging in price from as low as $20,000.  Some are hybrids that use a combination of batteries and a small internal combustion gas or diesel engine.  The top of the line Tesla models use only batteries.  Common to all of these cars is the relatively short driving distance when using only battery power.  Some can only travel 40 or 50 miles without a charge.  Even the pricey Tesla cars costing over $100,000 offer only between 200 and 300 miles between charging.   So even with the high cost of gasoline, replacing a gas powered vehicle with a totally electric model is not in the cards for most of us middle class commuters.

Up until now the industry model has been to have the electric power source on board the vehicle by using large heavy batteries.  These batteries are charged by plugging into a power source when the car is parked or by a combination of the gasoline motor and making use of the energy given off when the car is breaking or going down hill.  While battery technology has advanced beyond the lead acid type found in your standard car, there is still much progress to be made.

Some Japanese researchers are looking to change the way we power electric cars.  Their idea could address the limited range issue once and for all.  At Toyohashi University a group of engineers and scientists have successfully transmitted electricity through a

4 inch-thick concrete block.  The project is called EVER (Electric Vehicle on Electrified Roadway), and could someday be used to keep cars moving along a highway without any need to pull over for a recharge, thanks to a constant stream of electricity coming from below the road.

In New York or Washington, DC we are used to seeing trains powered by the transmission of electical currrent from the steel rail to the train motors.  This is the same principle but without the need for the steel rail.

The research is still very much a laboratory experiment.  It now requires tremendous amounts of energy to create the wireless transmission of electricity from below the road to the moving car above.   Engineers are confident that these issues can be addressed. 

Perhaps we will have hybrid cars that use internal power when traversing back roads and streets, but once they enter the expressway can run on the power radiating from below the road. Who knows, it may charge your cell phone at the same time.

No Need To Plug In

When thinking about investing in an electric vehicle, one of the key questions centers around keeping it charged for more than a quick trip to the grocery store. Nevertheless, electric cars are being considered by more of us as there are now models available ranging in price from as low as $20,000.  Some are hybrids that use a combination of batteries and a small internal combustion gas or diesel engine.  The top of the line Tesla models use only batteries.  Common to all of these cars is the relatively short driving distance when using only battery power.  Some can only travel 40 or 50 miles without a charge.  Even the pricey Tesla cars costing over $100,000 offer only between 200 and 300 miles between charging.   So even with the high cost of gasoline, replacing a gas powered vehicle with a totally electric model is not in the cards for most of us middle class commuters.

Up until now the industry model has been to have the electric power source on board the vehicle by using large heavy batteries.  These batteries are charged by plugging into a power source when the car is parked or by a combination of the gasoline motor and making use of the energy given off when the car is breaking or going down hill.  While battery technology has advanced beyond the lead acid type found in your standard car, there is still much progress to be made.

Some Japanese researchers are looking to change the way we power electric cars.  Their idea could address the limited range issue once and for all.  At Toyohashi University a group of engineers and scientists have successfully transmited electricity through a

4 inch-thick concrete block.  The project is called EVER (Electric Vehicle on Electrified Roadway), and could someday be used to keep cars moving along a highway without any need to pull over for a recharge, thanks to a constant stream of electricity coming from below the road.

In New York or Washington, DC we are used to seeing trains powered by the transmission of electical currrent from the steel rail to the train motors.  This is the same principle but without the need for the steel rail.

The research is still very much a laboratory experiment.  It now requires tremendous amounts of energy to create the wireless transmission of electricity from below the road to the moving car above.   Engineers are confident that these issues can be addressed. 

Perhaps we will have hybrid cars that use internal power when traversing back roads and streets, but once they enter the expressway can run on the power radiating from below the road. Who knows, it may charge your cell phone at the same time.

Looking Back Helps Envision the Future

Last week marked the end of an era for a little known technology that in several ways set the stage for many services and tasks we now do on the Internet.  First developed in France in the late 1970s and installed in most every home in Francebeginning in the 1980s, the Minitel terminal was a technical marvel developed in a country not known for high tech advances.   State owned France Telecom has announced that it will cease operating the service at the end of June.

At the outset, millions of small Minitel terminals were distributed free to businesses and households throughout Franceand connected to the wired phone network.  The devices resembled small laptop computers with keyboards and mini TV screens instead of the standard flat screens that we now have.  At first the main function was to replace the printed phone directory with an electronic version but the service was soon expanded to include news reports.   The screens had no graphics or color but displayed only text.

While this system might seem crude by today’s standards, in the 1980s it was cutting edge.  Services soon came online to purchase airline and hotel tickets, check movies schedules and even order items from stores.  All of this before the development of the Internet and all of this traffic was being carried on the existing telephone network.

Of course since this was a closed system, the connections were restricted to other Minitel devices and only very recently were some of the services made available to Internet connected devices. 

There is great debate in Franceweather the Minitel network helped advance Internet penetration or held back its development.  For sure France Telecom had a lot invested in this closed system and as such was in no hurry to abandon it.  In the end, however, the limited nature of the Minitel network was its own undoing.

They say that hind sight is 20/20 but it can also help us envision the future.  If the Minitel service morphed into the Internet and all of the extraordinary things it offers us today, most likely looking ahead 30 years we will have devices and services that will make our iPhones and Adroids, our Macbooks, Kindles and iPads seem as obsolete and quaint as the Minitel.

Tablet or Lap Top?

The announcement two weeks ago from Microsoft of new Surface tablet devices coming soon to a store near you has renewed the already heavy interest in a tablet as a   replacement for the traditional lap top computer.  One of my sisters-in-law, who is changing jobs and re-entering academia, asked if she should purchase a tablet instead of replacing her well aged PC. 

Like so many of these “either /or” questions, the answer is not the same for everyone and depends heavily on what you do with a computer on a day-to-day basis.  One thing is for sure, they are two different devices and each does well things the other does not do well.

Tablets, especially the gold standard Apple iPads, are outstanding devices. The iPad screen is bright and has better picture resolution than most of us have on our flat screen digital TV. The iPad excels in surfing the web, reading magazines and watching videos from YouTube and other online video services.  The personal calendar is also great and can be synched with smart phones and desktop computers.  Sending and receiving email are also very easy.  Of course you will need either access to wifi hotspots or purchase a data plan from your wireless phone provider to accomplish most of these tasks.

One of the tasks that the iPad does not do well is word processing.  I don’t mean taking a few notes at a meeting or sending short emails.  I mean writing long documents that require formatting, pagination and perhaps even footnotes.  Here the iPad falls short.  Even with a “real” keyboard (sold separately) instead of the touch screen that is built in, writing even a standard business letter and sending it to a printer is much easier on a laptop.

Getting files into and out of the device is still easier with a lap top computer since it has not only wifi but a standard USBport.  Also the lap top can run most all standard business software not just the “App” versions found on iPads.

Since I have only read about the features on the new Microsoft Surface devices I don’t know if some of these shortcomings will be addressed.  From what I have read, it looks like they will run a version of Windows 8 and, as such, may be able to handle the traditional software used by businesses and academia.  They also have a keyboard but from reports it is still not a full featured keyboard.   I’ll have to get back to you on this when I get a chance to see one up close.

For now I still see tablets and lap tops as two distinct devices each with strong features the other does not have.  This most likely will change in the future.  I’ll keep you informed.