Tech Watch

I feel compelled to keep you all up to date with some of the note-worthy tech-geek things going on in the world today....and I'm not talking about TWITTER, damnit! Why won't that go away? Twitter is like a talentless pop start that won't fade into anonymity. Anyway, real tech issues.

Who needs a wireless router? My house is already wired!

It's called 'powerline communications'. This isn't new, but 'standards' are being approved and published now which would bring this technology to the mainstream. The concept is that you can use the electric wiring in your house to also network your computers (and anything else you want to connect to the internet). You literally buy something roughly the size of a Glade AirWick Plug-in, plug your CAT-5 cable (standard DSL cable) in to one end and the other end into an outlet. Then you can use the same device at any other electric outlet (that is obviously electrically connected. won't be a problem in your house) - and you have a wired connection - TADA! The primary issue is 'speed', but it is already faster than typical internet service so the only speed issue is really longer term speed increases from your service provider. (You probably have 3 or 6 Mb/s and powerline communications can go upwards of 100 Mb/s now.) Unless you are concerned about high speed computer-to-computer connections on your own network, this speed is fine. Here's an example - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GR1CBI

The War for Communication / TV Dominance Continues to Heat Up

One of the main discriminators between cable TV and satellite TV has been that cable could provide shows 'OnDemand' while satellite TV could only broadcast out signal on a pre-determined schedule. It's why you can order a PPV movie on cable and it can start playing immediately, but if you order one on direcTV they will just let you have access to a channel for 24 hours that is playing the movie continuously. You have to time it so you start watching at the beginning. Well, DirecTV has thrown a glitch in that system - they will provide things 'OnDemand' by letting the customer connect the receiver to the internet so that you can download the program / movie and start watching it whenever you want. This isn't as 'OnDemand' as cable, but you can pre-load these downloads. Say you might want to watch a movie that is on PPV. Put it on your list and your receiver will download it. If you don't actually watch it; you aren't charged. This is awesome for DirecTV because it not only gives their customers more flexibility, it KILLS cable companies that are providing that internet service (and thus have to carry the burden of all this extra data moving around.). Time Warner planned a pilot program to start charging internet service based on total downloaded data, which would be a way to curtail this problem for them. But it's so wildly unpopular that consumers won't put up with it. Unless they can get ALL internet providers to make this change they will just lose their customers. They canceled the pilot program.

On a related note, Adobe (the company that makes 'Flash', the plug-in for basically all streaming video on the internet) is working with TV makers to install Flash directly onto the TV. It is becoming more and more popular to stream shows through the internet (look at Comedy Central or Hulu), but you have to watch it on your computer unless you have a way to support streaming it to your TV somehow (most people don't). With this idea you could just plug your internet cable into your TV and watch your shows through the internet....

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Chuck tried to attack me this weekend. I bravely took some fuzzy pictures during the attack via my iPhone. I will load these up soon. What you're about to see may disturb you.