Category Archives: Gadgets and technology

What the media companies giveth, they can taketh away

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In just two days, I’ve seen a pair of reminders of the power media providers have when it comes to providing access to content. These providers are Amazon and Comcast.

On a national scale, some people have been crying foul about Amazon reaching out and deleting copies of books on their Kindle e-book reader. Many have noted the irony that the books being deleted in this Orwellian fashion are those by George Orwell, he of “Animal Farm” and “1984” fame.

As Ars Technica notes, it appears that a third-party publisher may have not had the rights to sell Orwell’s books. I can appreciate Amazon’s desire to try to correct a situation a third party has put the company into, but I also hope that Amazon sticks to its word and doesn’t automatically delete purchased books in the future.

On the personal level, I received a letter from Comcast regarding their On Demand service. In its letter, Comcast wanted to tell me that my wide access to use On Demand to watch shows and movies from most channels at any time was a mistake. Comcast stated they were limiting most of my access unless, of course, I chose to upgrade to a more-expensive package.

I downgraded to local channels to save money. While On Demand is a nice perk for a handful of shows I don’t have access to anymore, it’s simply not worth the additional $40 per month to return to Standard Cable with Digital.

I don’t quite understand it — Comcast should be encouraging use of On Demand because it offers a lot of the advantages of watching shows on the Internet, but from the comfort and convenience of your living-room television. Instead Comcast is helping me opt for the cheaper solution with more available programming on the Internet.

At least Comcast is giving me a heads up about the change. It’s pretty easy for media companies to simply flip a switch and take away stuff that we take for granted.

Winners and losers in the digital TV conversion

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Digital TV converter boxI want to check out some winners and losers with the recent switch to digital TV over-the-air signals. Depending on where you live or what you like to watch, the switch had some pretty interesting outcomes.

Here’s a quick look at the scorecard:

Winner — The National Football League. The original conversion date was set in mid-February. Lawmakers took pains to avoid making the switch around the Super Bowl. Even the summer switch doesn’t affect the NFL.
Losers — The National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. It’s pretty clear that Congress _didn’t_ consider these two when setting the new date of June 12. Both the NBA and NHL were the midst of their league finals. For the NHL, a pivotal Game 7 took place on the day itself.

Winners — Big cities. When I visited Salt Lake City in March, I checked the DTV set-up at several relatives’ houses. Not only was the set-up fairly easy with indoor antennas and strong local signals, the number of channels available was amazing — upwards of 20+. Of course, SLC has 3 public TV stations so it’s not a huge surprise (those three stations are responsible for about 12 channels alone).
Losers — Small cities. It’s more of a crapshoot pulling in DTV signals from more distant locations (such as trying to view Redding stations from Chico). My neighbor has been on the roof at least four times adjusting an antenna to pull in Redding’s PBS station, KIXE 9.

When you do manage to pull in a signal, the station offerings aren’t as robust, although there are some additional channels. In many areas, some viewers may give up over-the-air viewing and opt for satellite. This isn’t necessarily an option in the smallest of markets which currently don’t have local channels on satellite.

Winners — People with good converter boxes. Having a good converter box can greatly add to a viewer’s DTV experience. Look out for the ability to change the viewing options (such as zooming in on the image) and having a reliable on-screen program guide.
Losers — People with bad converter boxes. I tested a couple of boxes that stunk out loud. It was next-to-impossible to change some of the viewing options. Some of the boxes had a clunky interface, requiring scrolling through several on-screen menus.

Draw — People watching TV over-the-air. Assuming you can pull in DTV signals on your antenna, the viewing
experience is much better than before — clearer pictures, more
offerings, etc. It’s free, but you don’t necessarily get all the channels that other systems offer.
Draw — People watching over cable/satellite. Clearer pictures and tons of channels are something that cable/satellite viewers have enjoyed for years … at a cost. Also, the new DTV subchannels are just now being added to cable systems, but they’re often require a digital cable box (at additional cost) to view.

Undecided — The people who didn’t make the switch. In the lead-up to the switchover, there were concerns that some groups of people, including the elderly, indigent and non-English speakers, wouldn’t make the switch. The number of people who weren’t prepared for DTV was shrinking, but I don’t know if it shrunk enough.

So, how do you think the DTV switchover game played out?

Photo: A Digital Stream converter box used during a May 2008 E-R test.

Steam train ride available … for $500 to $1,000

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I enjoy the Barenaked Ladies song “If I Had a Million Dollars.” This week, I’m singing about having a $1,000 to take a train ride. Not just any train ride — for a special excursion aboard a train pulled by a 65-year-old steam engine.
According to the Mercury-Register article, the engine is steam locomotive No. 844 — the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific. The excursion was organized by the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola for the 100th anniversary of the Western Pacific Railroad (since acquired by Union Pacific).
To ride the train this week, it will cost $1,000 to go from Oroville to Portola or $500 to go from Portola to Winnemucca, Nev. The money goes to a good cause — it’s a fundraiser for the Feather River Rail Society.
For people who don’t have a hole burning in their wallets, the train will be arriving in Oroville Thursday, spend the day there Friday for viewing near Mitchell Avenue and depart on Saturday morning.
It would be fun to go on the excursion, but it will be exciting to see a piece of history this week. It’s not just the train, the Feather River Canyon route was one of the scenic highlights for passenger rail travel for years.

My Earth Day editorial cartoon

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My third editorial cartoon was published in today’s Enterprise-Record and Mercury-Register. I call them “cartoons,” but they’re really more like photo-montages and computer illustrations to illustrate my thoughts.
In this case, I used Photoshop to modify an image from NASA’s Visible Earth site. That image was then imported into Freehand, where I added the ribbon of text.
These cartoons are unusual for me because I don’t divulge my opinion in such a permanent way very often. I don’t feel my opinions have any part of the reporting I do. I strive to make sure I cover people and issues as fairly and accurately as possible given deadlines and other constraints.
As further separation, I don’t report or cover the subjects of my cartoons (disc golf and the Earth, I suppose).
I’m curious about what you think when you saw this cartoon. I think it can be viewed in several different ways given our perspectives on the environment and the economy.
I think this is a modern version of an exercise I took part in growing up. I recall teachers in English classes asking me and others about what the author was “thinking” when he or she wrote the story we just read. The exercises were interesting and probably helped with critical thinking. On the other hand, I always thought part of it was silly — how do we _really_ know what the author thought especially when we’re looking back over decades of time and space?
Anyway, I’ve got a gallery of my other cartoons. The Enterprise-Record also keeps a small gallery of recent cartoons it has run on its ChicoER.com opinion section.
I’m curious about what you think about the cartoon. If you wish, please leave me a comment.

The sounds of the Chico streets

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Sometimes when I’m walking on the streets of Chico, the little things will catch my attention. They can be grotesque — like physical evidence of over-partying, but once in a while, the little things can be magical.
I was walking on East Third Street in March when I noticed an unusual clanging sound coming from the ground. I traced it to a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. grate between Main and Wall streets.
The sound was definitely mechanical, but the repetitive clanging and wheezing of the subterranean machine had an oddly musical quality to it. The sound was loud, but it diminished quickly as one moved away from the grate.
I don’t know what caused the sound. It was gone the next time I walked past it a week later. It was a nice addition to the normal sights and sounds that one might see on the street.
I recorded a snippet of the sound on my cell phone. Give it a listen and tell me what you think.

Tax time: Introducing my new credit card

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20090227_wallet_card.jpgWith the deadline to file taxes thankfully past (and hopefully buried), I wanted to introduce my new credit card. As you can see, I think it’s a design that fits well for the state of the new economy.
Using Well Fargo’s new credit card lab, I created a new design. I hope that whenever I pull out my card to buy something, the empty wallet will make me think twice about whether this purchase is something that I really need.
I was a little worried that Wells Fargo wouldn’t approve the design, but it was OK’d with no problems.
This card has been in use for a couple of weeks. While it’s an amusing novelty, it hasn’t stopped any of my purchases.

Taking errors to new heights

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We rely on computers for a lot in public — scoreboards, timetables, ATMs, etc. For the most part, it’s seamless. When it fails in a harmless way, it’s funny.
DSC00085.JPGDuring a vacation last summer, I saw two displays “crash” with Windows error messages in the space of a few hours in Salt Lake City.
One was a huge storefront display on Main Street across from the Gallivan Center TRAX station. It seemed like an elegant way to reuse a vacant storefront. However, that morning, there was a giant error window instead of pithy notes about upcoming events.
It appeared that the program driving the whole storefront display had crashed and needed attention. It probably got a decent amount of attention during that morning’s commute.
A little while later, I headed to the Clark Planetarium in the Gateway Center. While I’m learning about “our” sun, I notice _another_ error message — the screen saver apparently wouldn’t engage.
This error was probably less noticeable — it was a smaller monitor placed way above people’s heads. Nonetheless, I let the museum staff know in case they can fix the problem.
As someone who is a little oriented towards technology, I have the desire to try and fix the problem even if it’s none of my business — like at the Dave & Buster’s in San Jose.

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Another angle on the Facebook privacy row

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Ryan Olson's Facebook profileThe social-networking Web site Facebook decided to roll back its terms of use after its users protested.
As I understand it, Facebook removed a clause stating that users could remove their content at any time. Many users want to ensure that if they decide to leave the site, Facebook would delete all the information pertaining to the user.
That sounds fair enough, but I’m concerned about losing comments from friends who at some point decide to leave the Web site. If they opt to delete their profiles, does that include the comments that they left for their friends?
According to BBC News, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the terms were changed to recognize that a deleted user’s comments and messages to others would remain.

“We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.” — Mark Zuckerberg

I look at Facebook as a chronicle for the lives of my friends and myself. I wouldn’t want the loss of people’s thoughts that they left for me and others. I guess it’s a good reminder to save early and save often if there are memories you want to keep.
UPDATE: There’s some more details and commentary from the BBC’s dot.life blog.

Sacrificing online friends for a burger?

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Burger King is definitely on top of the fast-food heap when it comes to viral marketing. Even if people would never wear the restaurant’s meat-scented cologne, they would sure talk about it.
Their latest campaign was called “Whopper Sacrifice” where people would get a hamburger if they axed 10 of their friends from their Facebook lists. The promotion appeared popular — more than 230,000 friends were dumped before BK pulled the plug. According to the Chicago Tribune, Burger King opted to end the promotion after Facebook raised privacy concerns.
I was curious about who would do this for free eats. Some people pointed out that it would be easy for a Facebook user to ax 10 easily re-addable friends who would get a laugh at Burger King’s silly de-friending notification
It just seems like a lot of trouble for a burger. I also wouldn’t like to dump 10 of my Facebook friends. I haven’t gone out and added hundreds of friends — I value nearly all of the few friends I have. I don’t know if you could put a price on my friends, but it’s definitely worth more than a free burger.

Getting burned by the cheapest products

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Even before the economy decided to shop for toilets at Home Depot, I’ve tried to be a frugal consumer. I’ve been known to splurge once or twice, but I usually try to find the deal. It’s sad, but I’ve ended up getting burned twice in recent months.
Bluetooth headset — I’ve been on top of the law requiring drivers to use hand-free devices whilst talking on the phone. I don’t talk on the phone a lot, but I quickly realized that I needed a new headset.
Not looking to spend a lot of money, I dropped a $20 on a cheap Plantronics headset. Everything started out great. It lasted a long time and people could understand what I was saying … and then the battery died. The battery was replaceable so all I needed to do is find a replacement — a AAAA battery.
Do you know what I found out? After searching through several fine retailers, I don’t think AAAA batteries exist in the real world. Places had AAAs and tiny batteries for hearing aids and other uses, but no AAAAs.
I ended up buying a newer, slightly more expensive headset with a rechargeable battery.
Digital TV converter box — After testing a perfectly fine DigitalStream box, I decide to use my $40 DTV coupon for a cheaper APEX box that has analog pass-through. The results were disappointing — while getting only one channel could be chalked up to reception, the lack of options was frustrating. While the DigitalStream box could easily resize the screen, the APEX stubbornly refused.
I quickly put the APEX box away and hoped that I wouldn’t have a need to use it soon.
Can you think of deals that were more sour than sweet?