Shortwave Once a New Technology

I recently began a new job at the National Voice of America Museum.  For many, myself included, the Voice of America is one of those institutions that we had heard about but have a very fuzzy understanding of what it is.  The very beginnings of the organization, which provides unbiased radio programming from the United States to listeners in countries around the world, are rooted in shortwave radio.  Shortwave radio is a technology that never really took off in the United States but in the rest of the world during the last half of the 1900s it was a mainstay of radio.

In the United States it has always been relegated to hobbyists.  I can remember when I was a little kid being fascinated by the old radio in my aunt’s house that had a shortwave band and emblazoned on the dial were names of cities from half way around the world that I could listen to.  When I was able to get a receiver of my own I would spend hours listening to strange broadcasts in languages I could not understand but nevertheless is was so cool. 

Who knew some 50+ years later, when shortwave is at best a footnote in the history of broadcasting, I would get a job that was so closely connected to this technology.

Shortwave broadcasts can travel great distances since they can be easily reflected off the ionosphere back to earth and thus overcome the barrier of the curvature of the Earth. Most broadcast signals, like those of all local TV stations and most radio stations, are effective only when the transmitter and receiver are in line of sight. Anyone driving across the country knows how stations come and go on our car radio as we travel farther from the transmitter.

The Voice of America, transmitting from the West Chester, OH location was an effective tool for the US during WWII and the following cold war years.  Unlike many of the shortwave services supported by other more restrictive and controlled foreign governments, VOA’s guiding principle was “Tell the truth and let the world decide.”  Even in the darkest days of the war VOA did not sugarcoat a lost allied battle or another fallen state to Hitler’s terror.  This credibility served the VOA well then and continues to do so now.  

While shortwave has been replaced with satellites, the internet and mobile phones, the messages and the unbiased programming from the VOA remains.  Radio programming is now only a portion of the offerings expanded to include TV, online streaming of video and audio and social media.

As we look at the technologies of today, I wonder what our kids some 50 years in the future will think of iPads and smartphones.   Will they be seen as old and obsolete as we now view shortwave?

Major Changes Coming for Radio

The digital revolution has had an impact on most every facet of modern media: we read newspapers on tablets and Kindles, watch television on our phones and make video telephone calls with our laptop computer.  Absent from this list is radio.  Sure there are some apps for radio stations but up until now radio stations and our consumption of radio programming today is not all that different from our great grandparents.  In fact, if you found an old radio in the attic dating back to the 1930s and you could get it to turn on, that radio could receive most every local radio station now operating today. 

We are likely to soon witness a change in how and where we receive radio programming and that change might well be more revolutionary than what we all experienced with television.  This revolution could change forever the economic model of radio broadcasting.

Radio stations have operated in such a way as to cover a specific geographic area.  Anyone driving cross country has experienced the frustration of listening to a baseball game or interesting talk program only to lose the signal as you drove further away from the station’s tower.  Radio stations based the cost of their advertising spots on the coverage area and the number of people who listen. 

Most stations have for several years streamed their programming on the internet and those with an internet connection could receive the station no matter where they were.  There are even internet radios that can receive most any streamed station in the world.  The popularity of these devices and services has been modest since most people listen to radio in their automobile and, up until now, internet access while driving down the highway has been elusive.

Close attention to advertisements for new cars will show that this is changing and changing fast.  The dashboard now is becoming a multimedia center for getting email, instant messages, map direction and, yes, internet radio.  A driver on the Santa Freeway will be able to listen to a station in Cincinnati as effortlessly as a commuter on I-75.  Services like iTunes radio, Prodigy, Spotify and iHeart Radio will show up on the dial along with WLW and WKRC.

In essence it makes every radio station a potential global station.  What it will do for the advertisers is uncertain.  Will Mr. Gilkey want to spend money to advertise his windows to thousands of homeowners who can’t buy them?  How about local news and weather? 

Managers of radio stations have a lot to think about as another facet of our media faces extraordinary change.  Stay tuned.

A Few ID Security Tips

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past several months, you know that several major retailers have been the target of hackers with information about millions of customers being stolen and resold to digital miscreants worldwide.  Hardly a day passes without some new report of a bank account emptied or bogus credit card charges.

While most of us can’t address any major flaws in the security systems of retailers and we can’t guarantee 100% personal security unless we choose to go off the proverbial grid, we can do some simple things that can make identity theft more difficult for those looking to get into our cyber wallets and purses.

Let’s start with sending email.  If you have several people, like your club membership, that you need to send email, don’t put all the addresses in the “To” line.  Rather, put all the addresses in the “BCC” line (the Blind Copy Line); that way the individuals getting the email do not get the complete list of all recipients.  Those with less than honorable intentions can harvest email addresses from messages sent using the standard address method.

Speaking of email, what benefit is it to you to say yes when the clerk asks if you would like your receipt emailed to you? I can think of none.  Announcing your email to the others in line at the checkout, at the same time the clerk may have asked you for your phone number while clearing a check, is just too much information.

So many of us use smart phones and tablets and are delighted when we sit down at Bob Evans or McDonalds and find free wifi.  I use it myself to read the online New York Times, check the weather or sport scores.  This is not a place to do anything online that you wish to keep confidential. 

For example, don’t check your VISA balance and don’t access your online bank account.  Public wifi access can be easily hacked and you never know if you are actually on the Bob Evans wifi.  It could be that the nice looking young man at the next booth has a small wifi hotspot posing as the real Bob Evans wifi and everything you type is being recorded on his laptop.

We shouldn’t be paranoid, but a little common sense can go a long way to protect your identity. 

If you would like more information on online security just email me your name, address, social security number and mother’s maiden name and…..

Open Office…a great alternative to MS Office

The prices of desktop and laptop computers continue to be very affordable.  There are laptops and net books available for about $250 and desktops loaded with features for not too much more.  Once you make the purchase you are often in for a big surprise.  The cost of the necessary software can be as much or more than the hardware.  While operating systems like Windows 7 come bundled with even the most inexpensive computers, the software required to actually do something productive with your machine costs extra.

Even a basic suite of programs like Microsoft  Office (Student Version) which contains MS Word, a word processor, Excel, a spreadsheet program, and Power Point, a presentation program, costs about $150.  If you want the deluxe edition for business use the price can go well over $400.  While Microsoft does offer Office 365 with an annual fee beginning at about $100, you have to renew every year.

You do have a free option and unlike many “free” offers, this one is free and it does work.  No, they are not pirated versions of Microsoft programs.  If you download them you need not worry about seeing a black SUV coming up your driveway complete with a contingent of FBI agents.

One of the leading free packages is Open Office, a suite of programs that has been developed by some very smart volunteer programmers spread throughout the world.  In fact, the code for these programs, rather than being a guarded corporate secret, is available to anyone who wants to make improvements to the programs.  As of this writing there have been more than 150 million downloads of the Open Office software.

The basic package available at the Open Office website contains a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation program, database program and a neat drawing program.  All of them are compatible with MS Office. You can read and write files in Open Office and use those files in MS Office and visa versa.  Open Office looks and feels much like Microsoft Office.  You will find many of the same conventions, icons and tools.  If you have used MS Word or Excel, you will need little or no training on Open Office.

Getting Open Office is a snap.  Just set your browser to www.openoffice.org and follow the downloading directions.  It will take about 20 minutes to download the programs and set them up on your computer.  They do ask that you consider a donation but that is totally optional.

Open Office has been around since the late 1990s and is used by people all over the world.  Since the development is ongoing there are new features and improvements offered through the Open Office website all the time.

Open Office is great for home or small business applications.  Larger companies or power users may wish to go with a traditional package like MS Office since it does offer support and several cloud based features not available with Open Office.  Before you order that new version of MS Office, you may wish to give Open Office a try.  What have you got to lose?  You can’t beat the price. 

Browsing for Browsers

One of the common denominators in our technology-based world is change.  Just when you begin to be comfortable with a computer program, online service, computer, smart phone or other digital gizmo, they change it.  One of my favorite quotes attributed to Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian philosopher and communications theorist, summarizes what many of us feel.  “If it works, it must be obsolete.”

Online browsers seem to be high on the list of computer software that seems to change more often than some of us change socks.  A browser is a program that allows us to connect and interact with the internet, finding information, reading newspapers, listening to music and watching videos.  Some of the most popular are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. Since it is hard to keep up with all of the changes that are prevalent in all of them you might want to use just one. But which is the best?

All will work most of the time and all have certain features that set them apart from the others. So as to the question which is best… it depends on how you use the internet.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been around for a long time and once was the browser used by most of the world.  Since it was bundled with the Windows Operating System many people never even thought to use another.  Explorer is a good bread and butter way to navigate the internet for most general users. July 2013 statistics show that it is used by about ¼ of all internet surfers worldwide.

Another once very popular browser is Firefox.  This free program from the non profit Mozilla is based on all open source software.  This means that developers all over the world contribute updates and improvements.  Like Internet Explorer, Firefox is a very good choice for those who are general users of the internet.  Less than 20% of internet users regularly use Firefox.

Currently the most widely used browser is Google Chrome. First released in 2008, Chrome now accounts for almost 50% of all browser usage today.  The rapid rise in acceptance comes from the domination of Google in most every facet of internet and computer use.  Once just a way to find things online, Google now provides panoply of services like Gmail, video calling, personal calendars, translation service, Google Earth and Maps to mention only a handful.  If you use any of the suite of Google services, Chrome is your best bet since it “plays well” with all them.

Finally, a distant fourth, is Safari from Apple.  Now garnering less that 10% of internet users, it works well on Apple products but brings little to the non-Apple user.

Of course you can load any or all of these browsers on your computer and use the one best suited to what you are doing.  I find that choosing one and staying with it is the best choice since all have features and commands that are not common to all.

You Can Hear Me Now!

One of my favorite Star Trek movies is The Voyage Home.  The crew of the Enterprise had travelled back in time to save the earth’s whales and I remember the scene in which Scotty, the starship’s engineer, is attempting to use a vintage Macintosh computer by speaking into the mouse.  Of course his commands fell on the proverbial deaf digital ears as this technology had not yet arrived on earth in 1986.   Nevertheless, I always thought it was so cool that on the bridge of the starship Capt. Kirk could carry on conversations with the computer: making commands, setting the course and asking for answers to complex questions.  While it has been a long time coming, there are now some very practical and easy to use voice commands available on a number of new digital devices.

Perhaps the most well known right now is Siri, the personal assistant application available on the Apple iPhone and iPad. At first you might think that speaking commands is something that is cool but has limited real world uses.  You would be wrong.  There are several tasks that Siri can help with that are very practical and helpful.  For example, tax season is upon us and instead of using a calculator or computer spread sheet to add up a series of numbers, just speak them to Siri. Siri will give you the sum and show each number in the series so you can make sure you have all the entries.  Want to take a brief cat nap?  Just tell Siri to set an alarm.  Forget when you are to meet with a client?  Siri can check your calendar and tell you all the meetings you have with this person.  You can send emails and other messages using only voice commands.

On a road trip and need a cup of coffee?  Ask Siri the location of the closest Starbucks.  On a more serious note, Siri can find the closest gas station, bank or hospital.

For people with Windows devices, there are also applications that can make use of voice commands.  Using Windows 7 or 8 and the Google Chrome browser opens up a whole suite of applications.  By clicking on the microphone icon in the Google search box you can just speak your question.  Google can also do math functions.  Not only can you ask for the sum of a series of numbers, Google will do advanced math functions like square roots and cosines.

While you may not be able to control your starship you can ask Google to display a map.  Give it a try.  Ask for a map of Harrison, Ohio.  Then ask for a map of your street using your address including zip code.

Voice commands have come a long way and will continue to make the keyboard and mouse as Scotty would say, “Oh how quaint!”

Google Can Connect No Matter the Device

Many of us think of Google as a quick and easy way to find information about anything.  Since it was first launched in spring of 1996, since that time the iconic on line search company has expanded into most every facet of our daily lives.  There are now Google controlled cars, Google Glass, Google foreign language translation, Google email, even a Google image library.  Seems like every day Google is announcing some new service or product.  One of the most recent is called Google Hangouts.

Hangouts is a free service that joins the ranks of other video calling applications like Skype, FaceTime and ooVoo.  While it offers more that just video calling and can allow you to create a virtual TV station, I will concentrate on the former in this column.

To get started you must have a Google account.  This is free and many already may have a gMail account or use Google Calendar or another Google app.  If you don’t have an account, just point your browser to www.google.com and click on “Sign In” in the top right of the screen; it will guide you through the process.  You will also want to download the Google Chrome browser if you don’t already have it on your computer. 

Of course, you need a device connected to the internet either using home wifi or mobile 4G.  As discussed above, most any computer, tablet or phone with a camera will work. There is no cost for the service other than the cost of your internet connection. 

Once you load Hangouts you can communicate via audio and video with anyone else using the Hangouts app.  It is great for families since it allows up to ten devices to simultaneously join in the call.  Once connected, the person speaking is seen by all.  Embedded in the software is the ability to share pictures, documents, even YouTube videos in real time with everyone on the call.

One of the great features of Hangouts is that it is “device neutral.”  This means that, unlike many similar services that run only on one specific device or operating system, Hangouts is at home on a PC or Mac, on an iPhone or Android, on an iPad or Windows tablet. This makes it ideal for families and companies that want/need to communicate with people who do not all have the same device or operating platform.

There are several other features that space does not allow me to cover here.  It is a powerful easy-to-use service that is worth a look.  While ease of use and the quality of the video is not as good as Apple’s FaceTime, the fact that you can communicate with most anyone without requiring them to have an iPhone, Mac or iPad more than compensates.