CEA Surveys US Households

There's an interesting article from Media Center PC World, quoting a study by the Consumer Electronics Association. It says the average U.S. household owns 25 consumer electronics and the average adult spends $1,200 a year on these products. Gee, I spend that much on my cell phone alone!

The article continues with the top five most owned products; TV, DVD player or recorder, VCR, cordless phone and cellular phone.
Source: www.mediacenterpcworld.com

So do I fit the average profile? Let's count 'em up and see...
3 cell phones
2 TV's
2 PC's
2 monitors
2 external hard drives
2 flash drives
2 sets of external speakers for PC
telephone with digital answering machine
surround sound speaker system for TV
component stereo system
DVD player
DSL modem
Cisco router
scanner
printer
VCR
iPod
Total = 25
Yep, I'm just an average guy.

Google Web History

Google's new Web History enables you to:
View your web activity
Search the full text of pages you've visited
Get personalized search results

With Google Toolbar you can:
Search smarter with instant suggestions
Access your bookmarks from any computer
Add custom buttons to search your favorite sites

Please Note: you need to install the Google Toolbar with PageRank enabled, which sends information about these web pages to Google and associates it with your Google account. See Google Web History to learn more.

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office & Home

Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 11:29PM
To: All
From: Mike
Subject: Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home (Knopf)

USA Today has a great article about David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, authors of the new book Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home (Knopf.)

The two longtime friends, both professional editors, came up with the "survival guide for the digital age," after comparing notes on email and how it's used and abused. They make a good point that we all use email, and sometimes live and die by it too. So a practical guide for it's use is just a natural thing.

"Never forward anything without permission, and assume everything you write will be forwarded," and "Never forget a Cc has the power to publicly shame someone, whether that's your intention or not."

They say one thing everyone wants, but no one has invented, is a "panic button," a short delay after hitting send, like the kind TV networks use to bleep obscenities.

"Think before you send," says Shipley. Send email you would like to receive," says Schwalbe.

They've also set up a website to collect "bad emails," at Thinkbeforeyousend.com.

Source: www.usatoday.com

Microsoft Expression Web page editor

PC Magazine gave Microsoft Expression Web page editor a pretty good review. The software just finished a long public beta testing, and the final version of the new web editing package is finally available.

Expression Web is the first up-to-date web page editor that creates modern CSS and XML based web pages out of the box. It replaces the familiar FrontPage web page editor, the last version was 2003, and is no longer supported by Microsoft. It does keep some of the best features of FP, like a similar menu structure and the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) design views. It's standards-based approach supports CSS, RSS, and point-and-click control over XML data sources.

I started searching for a full version of Microsoft's Expression Web editor to install after the beta expired in December, but it was virtually unavailable until now. I've been a long time FrontPage user, starting in '98, but it's been such an ordeal using and troubleshooting this program, then getting used to the beta and having it time out on me and disable itself, that I'm considering switching to DreamWeaver.

Both web editor packages have several versions that are bundled with other nifty applications that enhance your web building experience, so shop around if you're in the market for a cool web page building program. Expression Web will also be available in these different flavors: Expression Blend, Expression Design & Expression Media.

Online @ www.microsoft.com/expression

50 Best Tech Products

PC World has an interesting article on the 50 best tech products of all time. Some of these names sure bring back memories. Plus it shows just how fast technology is moving along. Let's take a look at their Top 10...

#1 Netscape Navigator, first introduced in 1994, popularized the world wide web browser (based on Mosaic)
#2 Apple II Computer, the original personal computer, first appeared in 1977
#3 TiVo HDR110, introduced in 1999
#4 Napster, also introduced in 1999
#5 Lotus 1-2-3, introduced in 1983, was the PC's first critical application
#6 Apple iPod, which debuted in 2001, now commands a 73% market share of the music player market
#7 Hayes Smartmodem, in 1981, introduced the first 300-baud modem
#8 Motorola StarTAC, 1996, was the first clamshell design cell phone
#9 WordPerfect5.1, introduced in 1989, was one of the last DOS based applications
#10 Tetris, introduced in 1985, was one of the first puzzle based games to cross over computing platforms from PC to MAC to GameBoy.

Source: www.pcworld.com/article

Google Voice Local Search 1-800-GOOG-411

Now you can search for a local business with just your phone. The automated system is completely voice prompted, so you just say the name of the business or a general category, to get a listing. The search results are numbered, so you can say or press the corresponding number, just like selecting a link on a web search. Then it connects you to that company phone number.

This new service is called Google Voice Local Search and it's still in the experimental stages. When I tried it, the system worked great. I gave it both a company name, and a general category, and it found nearby matches by name and physical location. It's free from Google Labs.

To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone. More Info @ labs.google.com/goog411

TXU Power Play

The TXU Electric utility is making headlines again. Just last week they were slapped with $210 million in fines after an investigation accused them of manipulating the electric market to increase their profits.

The Public Utility Commission said this abuse of the market cost consumers $70 million and earned the TXU utility $20 million in extra profits. TXU is the largest power generator in Texas, and is alleged to have inflated their prices during 2005, which caused electricity prices to rise 15.5 percent during that summer.

Now TXU is claiming that if they really have to pay this huge fine, they may not be able to continue to operate some of their older power plants, causing some interruption in power for some customers. This kind of corporate power play just makes me sick. The big bully is pouting and is threatening to take away his toys.

A month ago a buyout offer was announced to acquire TXU Corp. for about $32 billion. This sure gives me something to think about the next time I pay my electric bill.

Comcast continues to grow

The largest cable operator in the U.S., Comcast has announced their plans to purchase another cable company, Patriot Media and Communications, for $483 million.

Comcast had previously announced it would take control of fifty percent of Insight Communications, which is the ninth-largest cable operator in the country, located in Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

Also noteworthy...Comcast Set To Pass Vonage As Leading VoIP Provider...

Moffett expects Comcast to continue to show dramatic growth: he says the company will increase the number of homes with access to its phone service by more than 10 million in 2007, “equal to almost three Cablevisions in a single year. Source: blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily