Kilo Seven

Update: This Reuters news story confirms a likely shortage of analog TV converter discount coupons. Update #2: They're out of coupons. Update #3: Posts in this series now have easy-to-remember TinyURLs: tinyURL.com/dtv-pdx This post. tinyURL.com/dtv-qanda Q&A on DTV conversion. tinyURL.com/dtv-ready How to tell if your TV set is digital-ready. WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE DIGITAL TV CONVERSION Thanks to The Consumerist blog for this diagram. If your set is NOT digital-ready, AND you don't have cable or satellite, you'll need a converter. Call 888-DTV-2009 or go to www.DTV.gov and provide your name and address to get $40-off coupons. Move fast, as coupons could run out . A future blog post will list available converters. Many Portland stations will change their channel assignments. Click on this chart of Portland-area stations, sorted by their network, to see it in a new window or tab with greater clarity. Since the list above shows every VHF station in Metro Portland wi...

A blog entry at the Wall Street Journal Online reveals a giant vaccine and pharmaceutical company, Glaxo, has not fully prepared its staff for a pandemic . If a flu vaccine contractor does not already have 100% of its workforce vaccinated against H5N1, I have to ask, why?

This New Scientist article points to multiple looming shortages in strategic metals and minerals needed for devices now commonplace and important. Similar tensions over supplies of other rare metals are not hard to imagine. The Chinese government is supplementing its natural deposits of rare metals by investing in mineral mines in Africa and buying up high-tech scrap to extract metals that are key to its developing industries. The US now imports over 90 per cent of its so-called "rare earth" metals from China, according to the US Geological Survey. If China decided to cut off the supply, that would create a big risk of conflict, says Reller.

A list of 20 great free programs for Windows all IT folk, and some home users, should consider.

Look at one e-mail send by Bill Gates. After you put your coffee down.

This Scientific American interview confirms what I have known for decades; software is no science.

Got to wonder how long this embarassment to cyber journalism will last. For, there is no University of Northern Oregon, and therefore I do doubt there are any chimps posting on Facebook... Here's the story , and the debunk , for your ROFL du jour.

Here's this year's hockey-stick nullification , more bad science undone by facts. Freeman Dyson 's also actually done some science in dissecting two books on global 'warming' . Both recommended.

After reading a NY Times article on easy smart card ID theft , I decided to go looking for a new wallet to hold my new WaMu-issued credit card with the Fast-Pass/Quick-Pay/Easy-Steal RFID 'feature'. I found a five-pack of RFID sleeves for $25, a $23 wallet (in red, pink, tan, black leather and black vinyl), an any-color-you-want-so-long-as-it's-black wallet for $20, more wallets , and a $10 shield for one card (all prices FOB No Name City, Oregon). If I worked for Halliburton, I suppose I could afford the $95 stainless steel wallet found here . Then, I found a DIY design ... and will test it once I find myself the copper foil I got at the good ol' hardware store for slug protection, and some metal window screening. The more crafty among you will enjoy this source for metal cloth .

5GB of off-line storage is available for free from Microsoft's Windows Live SkyDrive and 4Shared for off-site backup of your important data, if you need to make files available to other folks, or if you need access away from home and don't want to set up a remote acccess program . It's easy to back up your Documents and Settings folder with the Open Source freeware program, 7-Zip . Uploading the data the first time may take a while, but if you do a differential (everything that's changed since the last complete backup), subsequent backups are much quicker to make, much quicker to upload.

tinyurl.com/5s6x8l

Despite their red robes and shaved heads and the fact they were spending their days in a giant monastery at the top of a windy hill where they were meant to be in dialogue with God, some of the 15 monk disciples had cellphones — Nokia cellphones — and most were fancier models than the one Chipchase was carrying. One of the disciples asked to look at Chipchase’s phone. “So he’s got my phone and his phone,” Chipchase told me. “And as we’re talking, he’s switching on the Bluetooth. And he then data-mines my phone for all its content, all my photographs and so on, which is absolutely fine, but it’s kind of a scene where you think, I’m here, I’m so away from everything and yet they’re so technically literate. . . . ” From an NY Times story on how Nokia studies who's buying cellphones for the first time, and why.

Interesting list of services to help your cellphone do more in the   NY Times technology pages .

Mrs. KiloSeven has advised the 15 y.o. Samsung guest room TV Has To Go , due to the high-pitched audible from the flyback transformer. So, I am starting to mull over the updated list of what Sears has (as they owe us a kilobuck for reasons too esoteric to mention here) and starting to read HDTV Buying Guides . What buying guides have you found useful? Any thoughts on choices?