Our old telly was of a vintage that just wasn’t coping well with the changes in broadcasting…so…back before Jane got sick, and in a kind of a Christmas moment, we had gotten a modern system, a nice modern system that has some wireless built in, so it links the cable input with things that communicate wirelessly. The center of this wizardry is a nice [but slow] LG blu-ray player, which serves as a kind of hub. It’s all tapped into our antique [electronically speaking] household network router, so for whatever it’s worth, the entertainment DVD knows our laptops exist and can display what they display.
As a wireless ‘hub’ connected to the telly, it receives network ‘streaming’, which we like a lot: Netflix in this mode suits us fine. We’re phasing out the old DVD du jour service—in favor of as many of these as we want per night—a lot of anime and old movies. The device will actually play our digital home movies of Eushu and Sei off our computers. Not perfectly, but really, I’m amazed.
This LG unit behaves like a computer. And updates itself. Often. And just occasionally, well, there’s an update that doesn’t play nicely. Remember our antique router? Last night one decided to reach out and touch Jane’s computer in some mysterious way, since she was linked to it at the time of upgrade. We’re not real sure what happened, but for a while her computer itself was totally iffy, and would not answer to System Restore. We think we’ve gotten it ironed out now. It was a sweaty moment. So the brave new world of entertainment still has some bugs in it. We are finally going for a newer (N class) router in hopes it will answer the household internet slowdown and the mysterious LG glitch, and various other manifestations.
Computers. They’re everywhere. In your microwave. Now in your entertainment system. And they talk to each other. I’m beginning to eye that LG unit with some suspicion, as in, I’d like to know what it’s planning.
Last Wednesday, while I was at a birthday lunch with some members of our “Active Older Adults” water exercise class, we had a line of thunderstorms come through the area. Apparently, there was a strike close enough to my house that the electromagnetic pulse from the bolt caused an induced current flow in the network cables and destroyed the network cards for my desktop and a laptop that belongs to one of the clubs for which I’m secretary. It also destroyed the DSL modem and power supply for the modem, which thankfully is a rental from CenturyLink, formerly Embarq, formerly Sprint. I got a replacement (same model, and just about as old, too) modem, and then spent the next 3 days trying to get my system working again. I finally got the router and the modem to talk to each other, then got the new laptop to talk nicely to the router, but the desktop and other laptop were not going to play. At first, I thought it was the router, since both computers were plugged in rather than wirelessly connected. But I have an old Dell Latitude that I use for my weather reporting that is also plugged in to the router and works just fine, thank you. So, this morning, I invested in a Wireless-N USB adapter for the desktop to see if it would work with my router. I am happy to report that I am making this entry on said desktop. Since most of my critical things are on the desktop, I really did want this one connected again. I do have the critical stuff backed up, but I don’t like using the laptops as my main computer. I want the luxury of leaving the computer on, plugged in to the power supply, and ready when I want them to be ready. I don’t like leaving the laptops plugged in because the batteries can develop a “memory” problem with their charging and not work properly. Newer battery designs have lessened this effect, but not eliminated it. So, perhaps my next computer will be wireless-N and I won’t have to worry about all of these cables around the house and the vulnerability to EMP from lightning.
Must be that time of year…
A lightning strike fried our DSL modem on Thursday. It took out half of the touch-screen on the downstairs thermostat. (The right half, if anyone is interested.) Both computers came through AOK, however.
OMG. That’s scary. Brilliant work, that, getting it going. The N device—I think Jane ordered it last night—is apparently the way to go. We were going to get the Apple one, but its reviews have sort of begun to sink: we decided finally on the Linksys, because that company has been the easiest to deal with and the nicest on the phone: they’ve literally walked us through setup and the WEP stuff back when we were total novices at network and connecting was more difficult. I tell you, as automated as these systems now are about finding one another and setting up, you still want a company that communicates and helps and has clear instructions in the first place.
Lightning was our curse in Oklahoma: we lived beside a lake in a fixer-upper house half built of steel I-beams, with huge metal stairs, and with all the electrics for the main room wrapped around one of those I-beams. One zap managed to blitz 3/4ths of Fortress. Thanks to Lynn and Jane, who recovered my files by primitive ocr and a lot of time at Kinko’s—I was able to keep working forward and not totally lose my concept of where I was going.
I often wonder if Arthur C. Clarke got it just slightly wrong in “Dial F For Frankenstein” – it’s not telephones we have to worry about but computers.
Definitely a thing to worry about. They know everything about us, and (most of) us know so very little about them.
What worries me is what people DON’T know about what’s being learned and stored about them. Little children, because their parents have put information on the internet, now start life with information about them spread all about. People who support one cause and the other now are on a List—questionable whose List, but as the old Roman said, “she swears tis hers and true she swears, for I know where she bought it.” Information is a commodity worth money, and it is worth more, not as statistics, but as attached to your name, your address, your city.
“i often wonder if Arthur C. Clarke got it just slightly wrong in “Dial F For Frankenstein” – it’s not telephones we have to worry about but computers.”
This just in-the telephone is a computer.
Phil Brown
Now it is but was that true back in 1964 when the story was first published?
Although I do have wifi capability, my two desktops are hardwired to the modem. But when my POS Dell cratered two months ago, I had them pull out the LightScribe drive in it before they junked it so I could put it in one of my other computers — no soap. It won’t work with either of them — wrong kind of connection. I recently treated myself to an “internet radio” — it streams content over wifi — internet radio stations, music services like Rhapsody (why I bought it), podcasts, etc. It took me two hours and three phone calls to get it up and running — one to the radio’s tech support (not our problem, call your ISP) and two calls to ATT-Uverse to finally get the radio and my wifi modem to “see” each other. The first phone call to ATT, I got a “techistani” which was, not surprisingly, a complete waste of time. (If it’s not in their script, forget it.) — thankfully, and surprisingly, the second call to ATT Tech support, I got an American. Took us over 30 minutes to get through the troubleshooting process, but we got’er up and running (and I’m totally pleased with the radio). Just last week, there was a big kerfuffle after a McAfee antivirus update short circuited most downloaded computer games if they were running on a computer that was using McAfee antivirus software.
I have the same model Dell that you do, the POS model.
It might not be quite that bad, but nearly. Since it’s new,
(this year) I’m stuck for a while.
THere is a way to get past the non-English assistance: just say, politely and kindly, “I’m sorry, I can’t understand. I can’t understand. I can’t understand. I’m hard of hearing. I can’t understand.” If you keep this up, ultimately they switch you to the problem desk and you get a guy whose first language is English.
Embryonic Skynet?
Our TiVO box is starting to develop a brain fut; there’s a 10-15 second delay in between sending a channel change command (for example) and having it respond, and half the time it ignores the command. Batteries in the remote are not the problem. In the old days, you used to be able to simply walk over to the TV and change channels, but not so much now.
I also recently replaced my router with a newer Linksys model, having been happy with the old one right until it died. I agree that their customer service is very helpful; the new model I bought was dirt cheap, too. I keep thinking about dumping cable and going to Netflix and Hulu and such, but I still cling to the convenience and variety–the use of the TV as background noise a lot of the time as much as specific, targeted watching. But the amount I pay to Time Warner monthly is obscene.
You PAY to have audio wallpaper??? Excuse me, I just can’t see it. I would pay to escape it. Fortunately I don’t have to. I just opted out of the whole deal several years ago. Books, audiobooks to listen to while I make things, a couple of movies in the theater per year. Gives me a LOT more time for the rest of my life. I guess I’m not participating in a lot of contemporary culture, but I don’t seem to miss it.
At about 8.00 a month, and downloads when you want them, Netflix is a good deal—but—there is no first run stuff. Our fare is 1st season Glee and Drop Dead Diva, Charlie Chan [which I actually enjoy: a blast from a distant past], anime,Labyrinth, The Darwin Awards (a hilarious indie movie if you don’t mind dark humor), Gor (we bailed: OMG that is bad); Agatha Cristie and Sherlock Holmes movies, war films, foreign films, various horror flicks (not our cuppa) and some iffy science fiction; some 60’s flicks; Dr Who [Tennant]; and some kidflicks. That’d be typical. They swear with the separation of their DVD unit and higher costs they’re going to go for more pricey titles. But they keep us entertained. On Saturday night, the thing glitches a bit [high traffic] but mostly it’s impeccable.
The “Basil Rathbone” Holmes? My Dad was his butler in Hollywood in the mid 30’s. I love surprizing people of a certain ilk complaining of illegal aliens by springing “My Dad was an illegal alien,” on them (Canadian, under a freight at Windsor/Detroit). He wanted to marry Mom, but had a problem with the papers. He mentioned it to a guest at a Rathbone party while both were in the kitchen. The guest said to cross to Tijuana as an American day-tripper, and come back as a Canadian applying for residency. It worked, and we all worked in the aerospace industry with “clearances”. The “guest” was David Niven. 😉
I love it!
we dropped our cable tv and cable internet last year, saving almost $2,000. we switched to high band ATT DSl and use netflix. If we want new releases of movies, we go to REDBOX. Can’t beat $1 rentals.
Similarly, I finally had to give up on keeping 80’s vintage stereo receivers working so I can listen to my “classical” music on Portland’s KOAC (streaming at allclassical.org). Got a new Sony stereo receiver/amp. It has a remote! Press the on button and nothing at all but a relay click happens for a full 5 seconds (while the CPU boots)!
Sheesh, I started programming in 1966, hand-built my own in 1976, but this is getting ridiculous!
Amazon may end up being the big player in streaming content.
Between ebooks, music, movies and TV shows, they’ve positioned themselves to overshadow both Apple and Netflix.
Their new Kindle Fire isn’t as good as the other Kindles for straight ebook reading, but its price and ability to serve as a media streamer could see their content services really take off.
We checked out Amazon streaming the other night, and unless you’re willing to pay 3.00 each for non-re-viewable first-run movies, they have a pretty poor list. Netflix at 8.00 a month has them beat in list quality, over all, and I think just made a deal with Pixar.
I tell you with the Kindle, get the one with the keypad. The versatility lets you take notes, mark spots, etc: we use it for on-the-road editing.