Who asked for the transition? Consumers, Gov't, Industry? You guessed it! Well now the tv ads are running and consumers are more confused than ever. In some cases being convinced to buy HDTV set when all they really may need is a converter box or an SDTV (Standard Definition TV). No, we want people to consume, consume, consume. Well part of me wants to tell you to not wait, go ahead and request your  2 subsidized vouchers so you have them BUT there's a catch you have to use them within 3 months of acquiring them. And yes many, many people will need them not all people are using cable or satellite tv. 22.5 million coupons are expected to be available and the last day to make a request will be March unless something changes. Bottom line: if your tv uses rabbit ear antennas to watch tv you will need a converter box for your tv to work. But many consumers have no idea that this change is coming, and members of Congress are voicing concern over the lack of cooperation between federal agencies and the entertainment industry. The political clash comes as broadcasters, retailers, cable operators and regulators argue over how to educate consumers about the change.

So,what do you think about this transition, are you for or against it, post a comment below?

For more info logon to: www.dtvanswers.com or call 1-888-DTV-2009

Have you seen the ads yet? See the NAB ad here: http://www.dtvanswers.com/dtv_30spots.html

At least that's what researchers from Northwestern's Relationships Lab are saying in this article from the New York Times about how online matchmaking, not dating, sites work.

Researchers who studied online dating found that the customers typically ended up going out with fewer than 1 percent of the people whose profiles they studied, and that those dates often ended up being huge letdowns. The people make up impossible shopping lists for what they want in a partner, says Eli Finkel, a psychologist who studies dating at Northwestern University’s Relationships Lab.

“They think they know what they want,” Dr. Finkel said. “But meeting somebody who possesses the characteristics they claim are so important is much less inspiring than they would have predicted.”

Also of interest in the article, EHarmony.com is allegedly responsible for 2% of the marriages in America last year, at least according the survey EHarmony.com comissioned. It seems that the main problem with online dating is that 1) people pick and choose potential dates on faulty criteria and 2) people project too many expectations onto others based off of intangible information (as Lux Nightmare, editor of Boinkology.com noted in this Digital Cafe segment).

 Hitting It Off, Thanks to Algorithms of Love from the NYT

This isn't an exaggeration - part of the problem of using a computer for me since the availability of broadband has been the constant distractions: IM, email, the Internet party.

Dark room is a free, lightweight text editor that looks like my web page from 1998. Sure, you could just fullscreen Microsoft Office, but there's something about the green on black text and lack of features that just makes it appealing. It also makes you feel like you're typing in the Matrix.

Spurred by outrage over the censorship of a video featuring Tom Cruise, an Internet group named "Anonymous" has declared war on Scientology. So far this has allegedly involved Denial of Service attacks on their servers, as well as other means of disruption detailed at Project Chanology. Operation Clambake, leading web source of information critical of the Church of Scientology, does not condone these actions. What do you think? Are these Internet vigilantes doing more harm than good? Or is the information being brought to light in wake of these publicized events justifying the actions?

There Can Be Only One - from Wired 

This chain of events was partially spurred on by Blogging Media Uber-conglomerate Gawker refusing to remove this video of Tom Cruise

Looking to make a small edit to a personal web page but don't know where to start? Haven't looked at HTML in a few years? Want to teach yourself how to build a web page from scratch? W3Schools has free tutorials covering topics like:

• XHTML
  
• CSS
• Flash
• Javascript
  

Ever felt curious, but never got around to experimenting with Linux? Now you really don't have any excuses. Wubi  makes it a snap to dual boot Linux on a Windows machine. The Wubi installer acts like any normal Windows program, so you can uninstall it from the Add/Remove section under the Control Panel if you decide that you don't want to have Linux on your computer anymore. No need to mess around with partitions! Setup is a snap, it took me a click or two to get the installation process moving, and a little bit of a wait while Wubi downloaded the necessary installation files for Ubuntu, the most widely adopted flavor of Linux out there right now. Unfortunately, wireless support for Ubuntu right out of the box is not quite there yet, there were a few solutions that I easily found that required going into the Terminal and putzing about.

Otherwise, Ubuntu might make the ideal operating system for a grandparent or someone with limited computer needs: email/web surfing/word processing. It's not nearly as susceptible to viruses as Windows and unlike a designer Apple product, it's free! It even comes with the open source Open Office, which is pretty compatible with Microsoft Office. I haven't tested it, but Ubuntu should run fine as soon as you install it on a desktop system, and its relatively low system requirements means that it should work fine on older computers.

Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.