Who Wouldathunk?

A week or so ago, Frank Batten, a media icon died.. You may not have seen the obituary but for sure you have seen his progeny. The network he launched is seen in most every home in the nation and has become a staple of our everyday lives. No, it isn’t one of the “big four” broadcast networks. Not PBS nor any of the all news channels. HBO or Showtime it is not. Mr. Batten launched The Weather Channel.

The Weather Channel, now taken for granted as a respected and vital source of information, was the source of ridicule and jokes in the early 1980s when it signed on from modest digs in Atlanta. Late night commedians joked that his next channel would be the “Time” channel.
The early years of the operation proved less than profitable and there were several times that cash flow almost made the service go dark. The problem was that the cable systems needed to provide carriage of this and other niche services were just getting off the ground so viewers and sponsors were as scarce as a Typhoon on the Ohio river.

Today The Weather Channel is seen by millions every day and is the second most viewed cable service right behind TBS. In fact, before his death Batten sold the company for more than $1 billion and most recently the channel changed hands again for the tidy sum of $3.5 billion paid by General Electric, owner of NBC. Now you know why they want you to “Wake up with Al.”
Many of us start our day looking at the channel on TV or online. Should I start the grill or is that yellow blip on the radar going to wash out our party? I bet I can get nine holes in, the rain is still near Indianapolis. Either of these sound familiar?

The growth of the Weather Channel is indicative of the sweeping changes in television and other electronic media. It gave rise to a plethora of other targeted services like DIY, The Food Channel, HGTV and any of a dozen “history” channels. It led the way for TV channels to move from targeting general audiences to offering content to an audience with a specific need and interest.

So perhaps Bob Dylan was wrong when he sang, “You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.”

Be Careful Opening Those Cute E-Cards

If you use your computer for email, I am sure that you have received one or more of those cute “E-Cards.” There are several services found on the Web that allow you to design and send greeting cards via email for most any occasion. Some can have music embedded and some even allow you to include short video clips. While most of these electronic missives are harmless, you should exercise some care when opening them. This is especially true if you don’t recognize the sender.

Unfortunately there are all too many people with nothing better to do than to hunker down in their parent’s basement eating potato chips and drinking Mountain Dew™ while figuring out how to make your online life miserable. Their personal challenge is to get into your computer, either to just cause havoc, or in some cases, to actually harvest information. In either case, you don’t want this to happen.
In the case of the E-cards, opening one of these infected cards can release a small program into your computer that can operate undetected by you. These are called “Trojan Horse” programs. Just as in the case of the citizens of ancient Troy, this gift is not to be accepted.

Because most new computers have a ton of memory and copious hard disk space, this infection may not be easy to detect, since at first your computer’s speed and functionality may feel normal.

Another clever tactic of these cyber trouble makers is to offer for free some little program that you can download. For example, you can download from the Weather Channel® web site www.weather.com a small program that will display the local temperature on the bottom of you screen. In the case of the Weather Channel®, this is a perfectly safe thing to do. However, if you get an email offering you a neat screen saver or a short funny movie to download, beware. Opening it can be a disaster.

Once infected, even the most tech savvy person will spend hours and hours cleaning up the mess. In the worst case you may need to wipe the computer’s hard drive clean and start all over again. Not a fun thing to do.

One of the best ways to protect your computer and assure security is to have installed and active a good anti virus and anti “spy-ware” software. There are several good programs from companies like McAfee www.mcaffee.com and Office Trends www.trendmicro.com I have used McAfee at home and Office Trends at work. Both do a good job at sniffing out these nefarious programs. You must keep these programs up to date. In any given week hundreds of new viruses and spy ware programs are released on the internet aimed at causing problems. Both McAfee and Office Trends update themselves automatically making sure that you have the most current protection.

Perhaps sitting down and writing a real note on real paper and placing it in a real envelope is the better course. Nowadays getting something in the mail that is not a bill or a solicitation can be a real joy.