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Wilmington Ready to Throw Switch on Digital TV
Tweet Share on Facebook September 3, 2008 Comment (2)The feds are taking no chances on their first test of the switch to digital TV. The city of Wilmington, N.C., has volunteered to make the jump next week, several months before the rest of the country in February.
Betsy Schiffman at the Epicenter blog says it sounds like Wilmington has been "infested with FCC staffers." This from a Broadcast Newsroom interview with Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo:
The FCC has bent over backwards and has spent a lot of time and resources getting the word out. They contacted all the emergency management people, they contacted city and county officials. They have contacted every public information officer. They have gone to senior citizen centers, churches...
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Google Chrome Alone Can't Defeat Microsoft's Browser
Tweet Share on Facebook September 2, 2008 Comment (9)Not even the search giant Google and its new Google Chrome can steal the browser market from Microsoft.
Lesser competitors have struggled to get people to download software to replace Internet Explorer, which has been the laggard in browser performance for years. Most people don't want the hassle or fear the unknown. Internet Explorer is already on all Windows computers and works well enough. It's a safe choice. It's secure enough, easy enough to use, and most sites work with it.
Mozilla's Firefox, a browser called Opera, and Apple's Safari have kept ahead of Internet Explorer with features and/or speed. But we're creatures of habit, and the competitors haven't had the name recognition and marketing savvy to sell their alternatives.
Google has the dollars, a well-known name, and marketing wits. It might make headway. But judging from a new version of Internet Explorer that was released for testing, Microsoft can keep pace. The default choice for Windows users will be good enough.
The only thing that will unseat Internet Explorer is an unseating of Windows. And despite Vista's problems, that's not happening anytime soon.
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New Picasa Service Recognizes Faces in Photos
Tweet Share on Facebook September 2, 2008 Comment (1)Google, meanwhile, is also releasing an update to Picasa Web Albums, its photo storage and sharing site. The biggest news is that the software tries to recognize faces in photos to help you tag them.
Stephen Shankland at his Underexposed blog tried the service. He reports that it missed on a number of faces but is useful:
I do tag my own photos—for example the 700 I took on a weeklong backpacking trip earlier this month—and something like Google's facial recognition assisting would have dramatically sped the process. It wouldn't help with other tags such as "swimming," "waterfall," or "Sierra tiger lily," but let's face it—people are the central feature in most people's photos.
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Gustav Evacuees Wrestle With Communications
Tweet Share on Facebook September 2, 2008 Comment (24)We've had Hurricane Gustav evacuees at our house this weekend, so I've watched up close the marvel and mess of modern communications amid a disaster.
My brother is staying in touch with colleagues scattered by the storm. He's mostly using E-mail—cellphone service in the New Orleans area is spotty at best. Even E-mail was difficult for a time. He couldn't get to his Outlook in box from afar, so it filled and was useless for a while. Personal Web mail addresses helped in the meantime. He eventually reached his IT department and is back on Outlook.
My sister-in-law is trying to figure out when they can head back to their New Orleans suburb. The national news is pretty worthless, but the Internet is bringing her local radio broadcasts. And the New Orleans Times-Picayune published much of its paper online as PDFs ("...looking exactly as it would on your front doorstep").
Marvels, yes, but nobody is telling them yet when they can go home.
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