From: newsletter-bounces@thepcgurus.com on behalf of Kevin-PC Gurus
[microdome@seidata.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 8:22 PM
To: jpdurbin@jpdurbin.net
Cc: PC Gurus Newsletter
Subject: GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 7, 2-21-08
Attachments: ATT00105.txt
Welcome to GuruNews
Brought to you each week by the PC Gurus, a loose collection of volunteers from around the Kentuckiana region.
You can interact with the PC Guru team via our Web site, located at http://www.thepcgurus.com. On our site you can post your computer questions, comments and rants on the forums, e-mail the PC Guru
team members and chat one on one in our nightly IRC chat beginning around 8:00 PM EST. You can also subscribe to our RSS feeds so you can get the latest news and forum updates from the PC Guru Web site directly on your computer.
If you're new to the Newsletter you can read back issues at Team member JP Durbin's website at http://www.jpdurbin.net. There are links to all the old 84 Online issues as well as the new GuruNews missives.
The WHAS Crusade for Children provides year round support for needy children throughout the Kentuckiana region. Visit http://www.whascrusade.org to make donations online.
USS Rover’s list of streaming computer shows is now available for download in Excel, Open Office and Linux ready formats from http://www.vegassellers.com/ussrover/showlist.html.
To subscribe to this newsletter just drop by www.thepcgurus.com and sign up!
Vol. 8, No. 7
2-21-08
1 The digital switch, T –360 days and counting
2 Don’t mess with farmer’s wives
3 DVD Jon, Crackberries, RIP HD-DVD
4 Network changes on the fly
5 USB drive assignments
I’ve received scads of emails of late worried about the changeover of analog to digital TV signals coming next February 17th. On that date the US Government has mandated that all analog transmissions of television content be stopped permanently.
This step frees up a massive amount of broadcast range for use with newer technologies such as text messaging, mobile broadband and GPS. Since the bandwidth used for one analog signal will carry ten digital signals it’s almost a no-brainer to switch over.
Many people fear they’ll have to buy new televisions or risk losing access to television altogether. This is far from the truth.
The fact of the matter is that if the switch happened today only 10.1% of households in the US would be affected. Most of the people in that populace live in either extremely remote areas with no access to cable, digital telephone or even satellite signals, and those who live in dense urban areas with strong TV signals who can get a good signal using only “rabbit ears”.
If you receive your TV service through cable, telephone or satellite you’re already covered and will notice no difference, regardless of whether your set has a digital tuner or not. Even if you don’t use a cable box the signal won’t change, since the digital signal is converted to analog on the lower tier of channels anyway. Basically if you have a “cable-ready” television and don’t use an antenna, you’re good to go.
For those who are affected a simple addition of a digital to analog converter would alleviate the problem. These can be had from nearly any store that carries televisions such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Target etc. Most local mom and pop electronics and appliance shops will also carry the devices, which range in price depending on brand and source.
To help residents with the changeover, the US Government started issuing free $40 coupons for the asking. You can go to www.dtv2009.gov or call 888-388-2009 and request up to two coupons per household.
While the switch makes perfect sense and I support it fully it does pose some troubling issues.
First are the coupons themselves. I understand the reasoning behind them and support the program to a degree since this is an added expense on those affected through no fault of their own other than their location. But there should be some sort of cutoff for getting a coupon. After all, many affluent households will apply for coupons because one of the kids uses rabbit ears in the bedroom. Or maybe they have four digital sets at home but have a small TV in the office in the city for catching the news at noon and they’ll request a coupon for that one.
Also I’ve seen sites suggesting that you should request two coupons whether you think you need them or not, just in case. I’m sorry, that’s just flat out wrong. There are a finite number of coupons and, while the number is large (around 38 million by my calculation), wasting them is pointless and may make them unavailable for people who actually need them.
The coupons also expire shortly after you receive them. For the time being you have 90 days to use them or they lapse, so don’t jump in now if you don’t plan on purchasing a converter until closer to the beginning of next year.
Coupons aren’t the only problem, however. If you go to a big box store looking for a converter be on your guard. You have to remember; the salespeople there are just that. The more you spend, the more they make, so they may try to steer you away from that low cost converter into a new television that you really don’t need.
Also be on the lookout for email scams involving the switch. There will undoubtedly be a huge increase in phishing emails claiming to be from the FCC or other agencies urging you to sign up for the $40 coupons by “clicking here” and quickly get personal information needed to steal your identity. Remember, NO official federal agency ever sends unsolicited email for ANY reason. Period.
Basically it boils down to this. If you use an aerial to get your TV signal you’ll need a converter for each set. If you get TV through cable, satellite or phone lines you won’t. If you want to double check, call your provider and ask. I’m sure all of them have prepped their call center employees with the facts needed to educate their customers.
Now go watch some basketball or something and don’t worry about it…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
A notorious Norwegian hacker
known as DVD Jon is preparing for another run-in with the music industry after
he released software that lets iPod owners copy music and videos bought from
iTunes and play them on other devices:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3403705.ece
A growing number of people are becoming addicted
to their mobile phones, Blackberries and other digital devices, researchers are
warning:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7253493.stm
Tuesday's announcement from Toshiba that it is
pulling its support of the HD DVD format and ceasing production of the video
players effectively stamps Sony as the new standard bearer of high-definition
video:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9874808-7.html?tag=nefd.pulse
Copy us on the good stuff
Matthew Dattilo
www.mattstodayinhistory.com
Download of the Week
If you carry a laptop between
multiple locations and need to change your network configuration at each
location, here's a program that will save you a great deal of time. You won't
need to drill down through multiple menus to get to your TCP/IP Properties
dialog box and manually change it time and time again. Instead, use this
program--and with a click, you're done.
NetSetMan is exceptionally
easy to use. You can create up to six different network configurations. For
each, you specify the IP address, Subnet mask, default gateway, DNS server and
other information. Then, when you're at that location, with a few mouse clicks
you'll configure your laptop properly Go to another location and with a few
clicks, you're configured properly for there as well. NetSetMan is free* for
personal use here:
*This program is free for
non-commercial use, such as at home, at schools, and so on. But if you use it
for your business, you're expected to pay for the Pro version. (Installing it
on a company provided laptop is business usage).
Art Maley
Email Question of the Week
Q: I have a HP computer with Vista Home Premium as the OS. I have two USBports on the front of the unit. I put a flash drive in one port and it came upas drive "L". I put a label on the port. I did the same with theother port.("N"). The next day I put a different flash drive in theport and it came up a different letter ("O"). Is this something thathappens with multiple USB ports or is there a problem?
A: There is no problem. Windows assigns a drive letter to the device, not to the USB port.
Depending on how you removed
the device from the machine could affect how Windows assigns a drive letter the
next device to use the same port.
Good luck,
Art Maley
Contact
info and legal stuff
If you have tech support questions or ideas and/or
submissions for our newsletter please submit them by visiting www.thepcgurus.com and click on the “Email the Team” icon.
Copyright 2001-2007 The PC Gurus, all rights
reserved. Publication, rebroadcast or
storage is prohibited without prior consent, however you may freely forward
this publication to friends as long as A) it is forwarded in its entirety and
B) no fee is charged.
Information provided in this publication is provided
"as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or
implied. Although the information
provided is known to work on most systems, it may not work on ALL systems. Make use of any information supplied at your
own risk.
The PC Gurus are a group of volunteers who provide
support for the PC, Mac and Linux users in the Kentuckiana region.
To unsubscribe from this newsletter visit http://thepcgurus.com/mailman/listinfo/newsletter_thepcgurus.com or send an email to microdome@seidata.com with the words “unsubscribe newsletter” (without the quotes) at the top of the body of the message.