[Masthead] Mostly Cloudy ~ 42°F  
High: 47°F ~ Low: 30°F
Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012
Online calendar keeps families in Cozi harmony (02/08/12)
I use my smartphone, synched up to Google Calendar, to keep up with my appointments and meetings. But I'm just one person, living by myself. In today's world, families have additional challenges as they try to coordinate with each other's schedules...
Permanance within the electronic revolution (02/01/12)
Best-selling author Jonathan Franzen, speaking at a conference in Columbia, was quoted this week by The Telegraph as saying that electronic books are damaging society, by removing the permanence of the printed word. "The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it's pretty good technology. And what's more, it will work great 10 years from now...." said Franzen...
Amazon competes with itself in Kindle apps (01/25/12)
Even if you don't own an Amazon Kindle, you probably own an Amazon Kindle. Let me explain. Amazon.com's Kindle e-reader (for purposes of this discussion, we're talking more about the dedicated e-readers than the multipurpose Kindle Fire tablet) is a product, but it's also a service -- and Amazon has made that service available on a wide variety of devices: desktop and laptop computers, phones, tablets and what have you. ...
Serious Eats whets appetite for more (01/18/12)
I first heard about the web site "Serious Eats" (seriouseats.com) a month ago, when its founder Ed Levine was interviewed on Jesse Thorn's terrific radio show/podcast. (Jesse's long-running show was then known as "The Sound of Young America," but since the first of the year been renamed and slightly reformatted as "Bullseye.")...
Windows Phone deserves a serious look (01/11/12)
So far, Windows Phone 7 and its updated version, Windows Phone 7.5, have been the distant also-rans in the battle between Google's iPhone / iPad operating system, iOS, and the open-source Android operating system backed by Google. Many tech commentators have praised Windows Phone even while expressing skepticism that it can compete with the two much larger and well-established platforms...
SOPA legislation center of heated debate (12/28/11)
You may never have heard of it, but the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, could if passed have a huge impact on the way the Internet operates. The act has a commendable goal -- stopping the trading of illegally-copied music, movies or other copyrighted content, as well as other inappropriate content, such as advertising for counterfeit medications. It's backed by major entertainment industry companies and other key players...
New Kindle Fire needs kid-friendly settings (12/14/11)
Well, the one person to whom I've spoken in person about her new Kindle Fire is delighted with it. However -- and this isn't unexpected for a new product launch of this magnitude -- Amazon's $199 cross between a tablet and an e-reader is drawing some criticism, and the company says it will push out a software update to address some of the problems...
Carrier IQ revelations may be just a tempest in a tea cup (12/07/11)
Last week's big technology story was that of Carrier IQ, a company whose software was revealed to be on many cell phones. That software records a large variety of specific information about how those phones are used, including capturing keystrokes. There are differing reports over whether the software records keystrokes in text messaging mode or only in dialing mode...
AT&T, T-Mobile merger in jeopardy (11/30/11)
There are a variety of reports, analyses and speculations about the decision by AT&T, T-Mobile and T-Mobile's German parent company, Deutsche Telekom, to withdraw their petition to the Federal Communications Commission for AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile...
Google may announce new music download service (11/16/11)
Google has scheduled a press event for today, reportedly to launch a new music download service. By the time you read this, details should be available, but supposedly one hook of the new service is that if you buy a music track from Google, you can post a link to it on your Google+ account which your friends can use to sample the song once. ...
Sunshine law just fine the way it is (10/20/11)
A proposal by the president of Tennessee County Commissioners Association to loosen the Tennessee Open Meetings Act, often called the "Sunshine Law," was first reported on by the Times-Gazette back in September, after a TCCA regional meeting held at Henry Horton State Park...
New iPhone 4S seeks converts (10/12/11)
There's not a whole lot I can add to the discussion of Steve Jobs over the past week, so I'm not going to try. I will say that the intensity of the coverage, and of people's reactions to Jobs, positive and negative, only confirms the important role that technology now plays in all our lives...
'Here's killing you' -- with laughs (10/06/11)
It would be difficult for me to do an objective review of "Here's Killing You, Kid!", the first production from the South of Broadway Players, since I was the lead in a production earlier this year with the same director and several of the same cast members...
Kindle Fire gambles by upping ante for tablet/e-reader market (10/05/11)
Here's what I wrote in this space on August 31: "Tech commentators speculating on Amazon's tablet plans wonder if Amazon might use a variation on the cheap-razor, loss-leader model similar to the one it's tried with Kindle -- selling tablets for a price less than $250, or even $200, but building in advertising or e-commerce features that would drive traffic to the Amazon site, resulting in additional revenue for the company going forward."...
Like it or not, Facebook dominates (09/28/11)
When I was a child, one brand of cigarettes had advertisements featuring smokers with black eyes. "Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!" was the brand's defiantly un-grammatical slogan. Today, computer users would rather complain about Facebook than switch to some other social networking service...
A little DAB'll do ya: Daily Audio Bible (09/21/11)
A few weeks ago, I took a weekend course which was required as part of my status as a United Methodist lay speaker (an un-ordained person who, among other things, can fill in as a preacher when called upon). One of my classmates that weekend works in information technology. ...
'Enough Already' device mutes annoyances (09/14/11)
Brilliant. A report by John D. Sutter on the technology pages of the CNN web site alerted me to the work of Matt Richardson, a do-it-yourselfer in Brooklyn, N.Y., who works as a video producer for Make mazazine. Richardson got tired of hearing saturation news coverage about the celebrity-of-the-moment -- he mentioned Charlie Sheen, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian as his examples; each person may have their own particular annoyances. Richardson, however, did something about it...
Streaming music service offers fun, nostalgia (09/07/11)
Over the weekend, I listened to some music I hadn't heard in probably 20 years or more. The songs in question were quirky contemporary Christian songs I remember from my days at college. I also listened to pop music from my days as a teenage disk jockey in the late 1970s at WHAL-AM...
Amazon tablet plans fuel speculation (08/31/11)
I've written in the past about the difference between full-featured tablets like the iPad and dedicated e-book readers like Amazon's Kindle. Amazon, the leader of the e-reader market, is reportedly planning on entering the tablet market as well at some point in the future. There's now a lot of speculation about whether Amazon might take a lesson from the recent Hewlett-Packard tablet sell-off and price its tablet low, perhaps even at a loss...
Follow the Celebration online (08/24/11)
If you're looking to follow the 73rd Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration and the Tennessee Walking Horse industry online, here are some handy links. You can also find these, in clickable form, at the Celebration page of the Times-Gazette web site, http://www.t-g.com/twhnc...
Cell 'phones' now do many other things (08/17/11)
A new study by the Pew Research Center states that 83 percent of American adults own a cell phone, and reveals some other interesting statistics about cell phone use: Half of all adult cell phone owners (51 percent) have used their phone "to get information they needed right away." About one fourth, 27 percent, "had trouble doing something because they did not have their phone at hand" within the previous month...
Tax holiday is perfect time to purchase new computer (08/03/11)
Last summer, I recognized some occasional signs that my computer was headed for trouble. It was six years old, well behind the times, and even though I performed regular software maintenance -- antivirus scanning, registry cleaning, hard drive scanning and occasional defragmenting -- the computer gave me occasional hiccups that I knew were harbingers of hardware trouble. I knew it was time to look at getting a new computer...
Technology affects the worship experience (07/27/11)
I've had an unusually-busy summer as a United Methodist lay speaker, and it's struck me how much technology has affected even churches. I'm amazed at how many churches, even small-membership, rural churches, now have some sort of screen system -- either a digital projector or flat-screen televisions, depending on how the church is laid out and how large the sanctuary is. ...
Be your own network, online (07/20/11)
Genial technology commentator Leo Laporte used to be an employee of ZDTV, later called TechTV, but when TechTV was merged into the G4 network it dispensed with Laporte's kind of programming and he left the network. He started a podcast, "This Week In Tech," which turned into a whole network of podcasts, the TWIT network. You can download the podcasts at twit.tv, or watch them live at live.twit.tv, including the casual conversation before and after the show, which is often the best part...
Facebook, Google+ square off for faceoff (07/13/11)
There have been various attempts to start a social networking service in competition with the juggernaut that is Facebook; most have fallen by the wayside. That's not to say that Facebook can never be toppled, but Facebook's very success is a self-fulfilling prophecy. ...
Business locations can drive traffic (07/07/11)
I'm frequently amazed when I hear or read comments complaining that a business has located or relocated on North Main Street. "The traffic on North Main is already terrible," they complain. "Why can't they go to Madison Street, to one of the lots or empty buildings out there?"...
Apple, Amazon and the cloud (06/08/11)
The battle for your cloud computing business is heating up. On Monday, Apple announced its new iCloud service, a mostly-free service which will replace the paid functions of Apple's previous cloud service, MobileMe. Apple is offering users of its various products the opportunity to store their various documents and photos remotely, so that they can be accessed by any of the customer's devices -- iPhones, iPads, Mac notebooks and desktops -- anywhere...
Use FB page, not account, for your business (05/25/11)
A number of small businesses and non-profits are seeking a presence on Facebook -- but many of them are going about it the wrong way. I mentioned this in passing in a previous column, but after seeing several more instances lately, I thought I'd mention it again and go into a little more detail...
Microsoft places a call to Skype (05/18/11)
The big technology news last week was Microsoft's $8.5 billion purchase of Skype, the online calling service. According to the technology press, several of Microsoft's other recent acquisitions -- such as its purchase of an online advertising company for $6 billion in 2007 -- haven't worked out well. But Microsoft plans to let Skype operate as a separate unit, hopefully preventing the employee defections that have happened after past acquisitions...
E-readers, tablets heat up the market (05/11/11)
Amazon recently released a version of its wi-fi Kindle e-reader for $114, $25 less than the regular price -- but the tradeoff is that the "Kindle with Special Offers" displays advertising on its home page and as a screensaver when the device is not in use. ...
Do you know who knows your location? (05/04/11)
According to Internet comic Andy Borowitz, Osama bin Laden's last words were "I knew I shouldn't have signed up for Foursquare." Foursquare, for the uninitiated, is a web application with which users check in through their mobile telephone when arriving at various locations, in order to qualify for discounts, meet up with friends, or get bragging rights as the "mayor" of a particular location...
Google mapping, Kindle lending (04/27/11)
I wrote a few weeks ago about the occasional problems with online mapping services and GPS appliances putting things in the wrong place. Well, Google -- for one -- is now doing something about this, by crowdsourcing its maps. The Google Map Maker feature, which had already been active in some other parts of the world, has now been turned on for the U.S. I learned about it from the excellent site lifehacker.com...
Fortunes flip for hand-held video (04/20/11)
Even Oprah couldn't save the Flip Video. The days of the portable, handheld video camera, which we at the Times-Gazette have been using for some time to make videos for our web site, are numbered. I still remember when the newspaper got its first Flip. ...
Social networking, savvy marketing (04/13/11)
It's conventional wisdom now that social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter are an important part of the marketing mix for almost any company, non-profit agency or other large organization. And for some organizations, that can be a problem. A foreign missions group which I serve as a board member wants to become more aggressive in reaching college students as potential volunteers. ...
Color, 3G and hacked e-mail (04/06/11)
Color (color.com) is the name of both a startup company and its signature product, an iPhone application (coming soon to Android) that allows you to view and share photos with people who happen to be physically near you. For example, if you were at Bonnaroo, or the fair, you could view photos from others -- complete strangers -- attending the same event. They, of course, could view your photos of the event as well...
Does your GPS know the way to San Jose? (03/30/11)
A year or so ago, passing through Sevierville on the way home from a family trip to Pigeon Forge, I saw a flashing message sign, the type which usually warns you of lane closures, construction, temporary reduced speed limits or other traffic hazards...
Metro worthy of study, but may not be a cure-all (03/27/11)
The city's garbage crisis appears to have passed, for now, but while it was making news, several commenters at the Times-Gazette web site expressed the opinion that metropolitan city-county government would be a good answer to the city's financial woes...
Phones for kids lead to passionate debate (03/23/11)
Some out-of-town Facebook friends of mine had a conversation recently about the appropriate age for a child to have a mobile phone. So I posted a blog entry at the T-G web site asking for local views on the issue -- and I got plenty of passionate responses...
Brush with greatness ... on Twitter (03/16/11)
One of the fun things about Twitter is that, every now and then, it gives you a chance to interact with personalities or authors you admire. When I read my copy of "The Sheriff of Yrnameer," a satirical science fiction novel by Michael Rubens, I tweeted my appreciation, and Rubens acknowledged it. ...
Mobile phone etiquette prompts lively discussion (03/09/11)
A survey sponsored by Intel and quoted by Computerworld magazine found that 75 percent of U.S. adults surveyed believe that mobile telephone manners have gotten worse since 2009, and 95 percent of adults say they've witnessed poor mobile behavior first-hand, whether it's texting while driving or using a mobile phone in a public restroom...
Back up your e-mail (03/02/11)
According to news reports, as many as 150,000 users of Google's free e-mail service GMail discovered on Sunday that their accounts had been wiped clean. One of the benefits that made GMail so attractive to begin with was that its generous storage capacity -- later matched by competitors such as Yahoo! and Hotmail -- allowed you to keep all of your mail, hiding it using an "archive" button, and then search through it any time you wanted...
When your worlds collide on Facebook (02/23/11)
The TV special "Saturday Night Live: Just Commercials," which ran Sunday in prime time, included a parody commercial which aired on SNL earlier this season in which a young man (Andy Samberg) is horrified to discover that his mother (guest host Jane Lynch) has joined Facebook...
A Valentine's week romance: Microsoft loves Nokia (02/16/11)
Microsoft launched its Windows Phone 7 smartphone operating system last fall. It was an all-new system, not compatible with the previous Microsoft system, Windows Mobile (unfortunately for me -- I'm a Windows Mobile user). Windows Phone 7 is intended to compete with the iPhone (iOS), Android and Blackberry operating systems...
The most-blocked web sites (02/09/11)
What types of web sites would you most like to block from appearing on your home or office computer? OpenDNS, about which I've written here before, is a service that you can use as an alternative to your own Internet service provider's domain name server (DNS)...
Photos on the Fridge, cookies on the iPhone (02/02/11)
The changes that the Internet has made, and is continuing to make, in the ways we communicate with each other continue to amaze me. There was a video making the rounds last week of a Today show clip from 1994 of Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel totally clueless about what the Internet was. Today, it's hard to remember life without it. The same could be said of mobile phones...
Know when to unplug (01/26/11)
Parents ... can you imagine unplugging your teenager for six months? In an Associated Press story by Beth J. Harpaz, I learned the tale of Susan Maushart, a single mother who did just that. She took away her teenagers' Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones and video games for six months. Maushart has recorded the tale in a new book called "The Winter of Our Disconnect."...
Baby apps, iPhone buyers, search and seizure (01/19/11)
Having a baby? There's an app for that. Vanderbilt University Medical Center has introduced "Baby Time," an iPhone application for expectant parents. It includes a function to track the time between contractions; a quick-dial feature for the hospital and other important people the expectant couple might want to notify; directions to Vanderbilt, via Google Maps; and frequently-asked questions about labor, delivery and VUMC's policies and procedures...
Disagree, but shake hands afterward (01/13/11)
Last weekend, an elderly gentleman from West Tennessee whom I love and normally respect -- with whom I've served at numerous short-term mission camps over the years -- posted a couple of political jokes to his Facebook account. I found the jokes mean-spirited, a little racist, and a little sexist. ...
Surviving 'evil' Facebook with your life intact (01/12/11)
I was at church early Sunday morning, helping to cook men's club breakfast, when one of my fellow members expressed the opinion that Facebook is evil. He's one of those people who's never signed up for a Facebook account, has no interest in doing so, and considers the thing a gigantic waste of time...
Podcasts offer a variety of content (01/05/11)
Some of the best radio programs going today aren't on the radio. It's an interesting aspect to the tech world that sometimes a trend is like a wave moving through the ocean, hitting different places at different times. I'd been noticing more and more podcasts lately, and listening to them more often, but when I mentioned podcasting to my editor, he said he thought it was passé -- last year's trend. ...
Cooking Channel is a winner (01/02/11)
In June 2009, I wrote a column for the T-G complaining about how Food Network had de-emphasized cooking shows, especially smart cooking shows, in favor of competition shows and personality-driven shows featuring Guy Fieri shouting catch phrases. I knew that Food Network, which was getting good ratings, was unlikely to change its approach. ...
Podcasting, blogging, and bad gifts (12/29/10)
Do you have a bad gift-giver in your life? A Washington Post story which I found through the web site Tech.Blorge (tech.blorge.com) reports that Amazon.com has developed a system that would allow you to flag individual friends or family members, and if a person on your watch list tried to send you a gift, Amazon would notify you and you would have the option of exchanging it for something else before it even shipped. ...
I've looked at clouds from both sides now (12/22/10)
The term "cloud computing" refers to situations where your data and programs are stored at some Internet-accessible location rather than on your local computer. In a traditional situation, you might use a program like Microsoft Word to edit a document on your computer. It would be kept on your computer unless you decided to e-mail it to someone, burn it onto a disk, or what have you...
NORAD tracks Santa again (12/15/10)
Each year, I like to call attention to the NORAD Tracks Santa web site (noradsanta.org), and this year is certainly no exception. In 1955, the Sears, Roebuck & Co. store in Colorado Springs, Colo., set up a telephone line that kids could call to get a message from Santa. ...
Net neutrality and you (12/08/10)
You may have heard references to "net neutrality" on the news recently without knowing much about the issue -- but, as the Internet becomes more important to our daily lives, the issue of net neutrality may turn out to be something that greatly affects you as a consumer in the long run...
Is Facebook unbeatable? (12/01/10)
Yogi Berra, famous for his colorful but logically-tangled turns of phrase, once described a restaurant this way: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." Anyone starting a new social networking site has the opposite problem: it's not crowded enough...
Saving and sharing the holidays (11/25/10)
With the arrival of the holiday season comes prime time for photos and videos. When far-flung family members converge, everyone wants to save the moment for posterity. I lost my mother a few months ago, and I can tell you how much it means to have photos and videos of our family together, to help keep those memories alive...
RockMelt puts social networking right into the browser (11/17/10)
In general, I don't like gimmicky offshoot web browsers, but RockMelt -- which has the backing of Netscape co-creator Marc Andreesen -- has been getting so much attention that I wanted to at least try it out. I went to the web site and signed up for the invitation-only beta, and within a few hours, an online friend saw my request and sent me one of her invites. Soon after that, I was up and running...
Creative content should never be stolen (11/10/10)
The little-known magazine Cooks Source became an Internet pariah last week when it plagiarized a blogger. The plagiarism was bad enough, but then the magazine's editor defended herself with the claim that anything on the Internet is public domain and can be freely copied. The editor even had the gall to tell the writer she should be grateful for the improvements the magazine had made to her article!...
Negative campaigning demeans all of us (11/04/10)
When a public figure sues someone for libel, they must prove not only that what was published was wrong but that the person who wrote it had "actual malice" -- they either meant to lie or were so reckless that they might as well have meant to lie. Last weekend, I noted a Twitter update making an accusation against a public official...
Blekko tilts at the Google windmill (11/03/10)
I found out about the new and unfortunately-named search engine Blekko (blekko.com) from the San Francisco Chronicle web site. The web site has dueling blog entries: Nick Saint admits that starting a new search engine is a ridiculous uphill proposition given the prominence of Google (and, to a lesser extent, Bing). Still, he titles his post "One Reason To Take New Search Engine Blekko Seriously."...
Keeping your web site promises (10/27/10)
My co-worker Mary Reeves was working on a story about "trunk or treat" events the other day, and -- in an effort to be helpful -- I went to the web site of a large local church that I thought I remembered having such an event in the past. I noticed a link on their web site to the bulletin for March 15...
Is your phone smart enough? (10/20/10)
There are some people devoted to their smartphones, using them to check e-mail, look things up on the web, keep track of their appointments and track social networking sites. The church I attend sometimes has a message in the bulletin discouraging people from texting, but I have actually used my smartphone in Sunday School class to look up some piece of information we were discussing (we have some great discussions)...
LibreOffice is free (and free of Oracle) (10/06/10)
For several years now, I've been a happy user of OpenOffice.org, a free, open-source office suite. Here in the T-G newsroom, several of us use NeoOffice, a Mac suite based on the OpenOffice code. OpenOffice.org also offers its own Mac version, but NeoOffice is tweaked a little to better use some of the built-in features of the Apple operating system...
FourSquare -- fun, or privacy risk? (09/29/10)
I have to say, I don't "get" FourSquare. I originally said the same thing about some other Internet services which I now enjoy, so perhaps I'll change my mind over time. But I'm not sure I will. In any case, I'm trying it out for a few days for the benefit of you, the reader, to try to see what the fuss is about. If I don't like it, I'll delete my account...
Bookmarking tools are handy way to save a website for later (09/22/10)
Sometimes, you run across something on the web that you want to save for later. It's the nature of the beast -- maybe you're in the middle of something, or maybe you're at work and someone tells you about something silly that you want to watch at home on your own time,...
BarCamp offers a shot of technology (09/15/10)
Oct. 16 is circled on my calendar; that's when I'm going to BarCamp. Whenever I mention BarCamp to someone who's not familiar with it, I get funny looks, but it's not exactly what it sounds like. It is, in this case, being held at a bar, but it's actually a technology conference. ...
No broadband available? Let Connected Tennessee know (09/08/10)
Connected Tennessee, which tracks (and sometimes publishes maps of) broadband access, wants citizens to go to bit.ly/TNBBStat to help correct their list of where broadband is and isn't available. That site will show you a list of providers which Connected Tennessee has serving your location. If the list is wrong, you will go to bit.ly/TNBBInquiry to provide correct information...
Mom's halo shines in our memories (09/05/10)
Over the past three weeks, more times than I can count, I have spoken to people who walked with my mother on the trail at H.V. Griffin Park or the upstairs track at Shelbyville Recreation Center. Actually, it's inaccurate to say they walked "with" her. What they all recall is being passed by her...
GMail offers free calls within U.S., Canada (09/01/10)
I missed a phone call from my brother on Sunday -- I didn't get to the phone on time, but I saw who had called from the caller ID. So I called him back. "John," he asked, staring at his own caller ID, "why are you calling me from Escondido, California?"...
The soul of a new machine (08/25/10)
When the Times-Gazette got word that AT&T would hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday to celebrate a new service announcement for Shelbyville, I knew it had to be one of two things: either the company was preparing to upgrade cell phone data service here to 3G, or it was going to roll out its U-verse television service in Shelbyville...
Comparison shopping using your smartphone (08/11/10)
Here's an interesting idea -- Canon, in the U.K., is introducing a wireless mouse, the X Mark I, that doubles as a calculator and a numeric keypad. It's compatible with either Mac or PC and uses a Bluetooth connection. It has its own LCD display, so you can do quick calculations without getting the computer involved at all, or you can use it as a keypad to enter numbers on your computer -- say, for a spreadsheet. ...
Use of cell phones to pay bills not big here, at least not yet (08/04/10)
Would you use your cell phone to pay your bills, or send money to your daughter in college, or to tip your favorite waiter? Whenever I am in Kenya on a mission trip, I am always amazed at the penetration of cell phones. Even in the most out-of-the-way villages, you'll find a little kiosk selling pre-paid cell phone cards. ...
Restaurant scores will return to web soon (07/07/10)
For years, the state has offered restaurant inspection scores in a searchable online database on the web. Over the weekend, they disappeared, and were replaced by a message which some took to mean they would no longer be offered online. That's not true, according to Amanda Morris of Tennessee Department of Health, who said the scores should be restored to the web soon, and in the meantime citizens are welcome to contact the state health department with any questions...
A new YouTube app allows you to do very basic video editing (06/23/10)
YouTube has now introduced an online editing site, for people who want to do very simple video editing. To use the site, at youtube.com/editor, you must first upload all of the individual video clips to YouTube. You may want to upload the individual clips under the "private" setting, since you don't necessarily want to make your raw footage public. ...
AT&T data caps don't mean much in Shelbyville (06/16/10)
AT&T's recent announcement that it will stop offering new customers its $30 per month unlimited data plan for smartphones and iPads, in favor of limited-bandwidth $15 and $25 plans, doesn't represent much of a cap here in Bedford County -- since we don't have access to AT&T's 3G data service, it would be hard for any Bedford County user to get anywhere close to the 2-gigabyte cap...
Mankind has only one Planet Earth (06/13/10)
Protecting the environment is, no doubt, a complicated issue. I have no doubt that there are political solutions that go too far or that are motivated by selfish concerns. My purpose here isn't to express any opinion whatsoever on the latest treaty or law or what have you. You're free to debate the relative merits of those in some other forum...
Tools for scheduling, organizing, reading (06/09/10)
This week, we look at some Internet-based productivity tools. I found out about two of these from the excellent "Netted By The Webbys" e-mail newsletter (netted.net), published by the group which gives out the annual Webby Awards. n Doodle (doodle.com) seems like one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that ideas, simple and useful. ...
Out-of-date info crowds out the truth (05/26/10)
If there's one topic about which I've written the most opinion columns in my 25 years at the T-G, it's pass-along e-mails (and, before that, faxes and chain letters). I know I've beaten the topic to death, and I feel like Don Quixote tilting at windmills. But if you'll indulge me one more time, I'd like to approach the topic from one specific angle, and hopefully in a new way...
3G device not available here yet (05/19/10)
Last week, I summarized (with attribution) an Associated Press story about the AT&T 3G Microcell, a device which functions as sort of a home cell tower, giving you 3G service inside your home, routing calls and data through your high-speed internet connection...
Own your own cell phone tower? (05/12/10)
Here are some random notes from the tech world: Do you use your cell phone at home? Would you use it more if the reception were better? A recent story by Associated Press writer Rachel Metz reviews a new AT&T product called the 3G Microcell. It's basically a cell phone antenna for your home. The box, which looks like an oversized wireless router, uses your high-speed Internet connection to provide voice and high-speed 3G data service to your AT&T cell phone within a 40-foot radius...
To talk, or not to talk? (05/05/10)
There are times when you want to talk to a real person, and find yourself slogging through various levels of voice mail torture ("Press 1 for sales ... Press 2 for service ... Press 3 for billing questions ....") until you find yourself wanting to throw the phone at something...
The net can help you shop for bargains (03/24/10)
My mobile phone contract was nearly up, and I had gotten to the point where I could, if I wanted to, sign a new contract with my existing carrier and get a new phone. Cleverly, some carriers give you a little window before your contract is up in which you can go ahead and get a free phone early by renewing with them. That's their exclusive chance to try to keep you; once your contract is officially up, they know you have the choice of taking your business elsewhere...
Showing off your photos in the digital age (03/17/10)
Now that digital photography is the norm, how do you go about sharing your snapshots with friends and family? You can e-mail the photos, of course, or post them to photo-sharing sites like Flickr or Picasa. But those aren't the only options, and they don't necessarily cover chance encounters -- those let-me-show-you-my-grandchildren moments that happen on the spur of the moment...
Protect your children online (03/10/10)
This is National Consumer Protection Week, and Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs has issued a news release reminding parents of the importance of protecting children's privacy online. "Whether they are studying, socializing, playing games or learning, kids are spending a lot of time online," states the news release. "Parents must ensure kids make smart and safe choices when they are online. Your child's personal information and privacy are valuable -- to you, to them and to marketers."...
What's the Buzz about Google's latest product? (02/17/10)
I was really excited about getting an invitation to Google Wave a few months back -- and I was sure that Wave was going to take off and become an Internet phenomenon. So much for my prognostication skills. It's too early to pronounce Wave dead, but it hasn't taken off the way I thought it would. It may yet do so; there could still be some particular use of the product, as yet undefined, that will turn it from a novelty into a necessity...
It pays to manage Facebook account to suit your needs (02/10/10)
In the past few days, I've been reminded of just how prevalent Facebook has become, for good or bad: n The popular social networking site gradually rolled out yet another redesign of its home page, and as my friends noted it (some of them complained about it) I kept checking back to see if it had gotten to me yet...
Apple's iPad expected to challenge Amazon's Kindle (02/03/10)
Apple's announcement last week of its new tablet computer, the iPad, included the announcement of a new online book store. In addition, the iPad will also run iPhone applications, presumably including an existing app that allowed iPhone users to purchase books from Amazon's Kindle store...
Celebrating a friend 9 years after passing (01/28/10)
My co-worker David Melson called my attention to an Associated Press story about the ninth anniversary, on Wednesday, of the Oklahoma State University plane crash. Kendall Durfey, my best friend in college and my roommate for a year after college, was killed in that crash, along with nine others...
Rumors abound about Apple tablet (01/27/10)
By the time you read this column, Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs will have made a big announcement, widely expected to be a tablet computer. It's acknowledged that Apple's iPod, in large part, changed how Americans listen to music, and the iPhone ushered in a new age of smart cell phones which are the equivalent of pocket computers. ...
Online word processors offer portability, collaboration (01/20/10)
Imagine this situation: you chair a committee for your employer or church or civic club. You're supposed to update a document -- the club bylaws, or a personnel policy, or what have you. But each committee member is busy and it looks like a meeting is out of the question. The project must be completed in a week and a half...
Check all the details when selecting TV services (01/13/10)
It was a year ago next month when I made the switch from cable to satellite television. In my case, I think it was the right decision. After a few false starts -- they had to switch out my receiver box twice before I got one that was trouble-free -- I have been very happy with my service. ...
CMS is the key to maintaining active Web sites (01/06/10)
Recently, the group with which I take my foreign mission trips, and for which I'm a board member, wanted to make some changes to its Web site. It's not that the old site wasn't attractive and professional looking -- it was. But the executive director of the group was too dependent on others to make changes to the site. The site's designer had done a good job, as a favor to the ministry, but understandably couldn't drop his paid business every time the ministry needed to make some minor change...
Share your holiday photos (12/17/09)
What would the holidays be without photos? And what fun are photos unless you can share them with friends and family? Depending on how many photos you take, it's probably impractical (and inconsiderate) to e-mail all of your photos in full resolution to all of your friends and family. ...
Be willing to listen to differing views (12/13/09)
I was amused at the online comments on one of our recent letters to the editor from someone who said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "[political party #1] always resorts to hysteria whenever [political party #2] confronts them with the cold hard facts."...
NORAD again tracks Santa online (12/09/09)
It's Christmas time again, and once again that means time to bookmark the web site noradsanta.org. In 1955, a Sears store in Colorado Springs, Colo., set up a telephone line which children could call to talk to Santa. Unfortunately, a newspaper ad promoting the phone line misprinted the number, and instead children ended up calling the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD). ...
Dial2Do offers convenience, questions (10/21/09)
I would call voice recognition and handwriting recognition the Holy Grails of computer ergonomics, except that it ruins the metaphor of the Holy Grail for there to be two of them. In movies like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and TV shows like "Star Trek," characters converse easily with computers using voice commands. ...
2, 4, 6, 8 - Columnist can't collaborate (10/14/09)
Thanks to a friend, I got an invite last week to the beta test of Google Wave. There had been a sort of online rumor a week or two ago -- the type of thing for which I don't normally fall -- that Google was giving away invites to those who Tweeted about the product. ...
'Monopoly City Streets' a fun way to buy Bedford County (09/16/09)
Did you see the skyscrapers I built on Madison Street last week? No? Maybe you just weren't looking closely enough. One of the most ambitious online game launches in recent memory took place last week -- not without some glitches. "Monopoly City Streets" is a sort of global melange of Monopoly and Sim City, with Google Maps as the playing board. ...
A good laugh on the web (08/26/09)
It seems almost redundant to do a column on Internet humor sites -- that seems to be something that people find on their own and share eagerly with friends. Even so, I thought I'd take the chance to pass along a few of my favorites and/or my recent finds. ...
John I. Carney
Loose Talk / Food Viewer / Charge Complete
John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette.