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Broadband War of Words: Meet the Slowskies

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Written by Peter Carmel
Monday, 08 May 2006
Have you seen the cute Comcast TV ads lately with the turtles named the Slowkies. It typifies the smoke and deception that Comcast and the cable industry have used over the years. As usual, there is some truth to what they have to say, but there is also some fiction as well. Let’s take a look and try to sort facts from fantasy, and price from value. That is what a consumer needs to make an informed choice of broadband providers. Comcast would like you to think that because their service has four times the download bandwidth as the typical DSL connection, you will always get four times the speed when surfing the Internet. This is patently a false assumption. ISPs like to talk about speed or bandwidth. But what exactly is bandwith? It’s not really speed at all. The information on the Internet is electrical, so it moves at the speed of light.
Last Updated ( Friday, 20 July 2007 )
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Keep Patting My Back, My Wife is Watching

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Written by Peter Carmel
Sunday, 09 April 2006
When two people meet, what is with the hugging and back patting behavior? Are they hoping to give themselves a back rub? Don’t misunderstand me, I like the custom. It does feel good. I don’t remember this custom when I was younger. When did this custom creep into our culture? It must have been gradual, as I didn't notice. Here in California, I was raised with shaking my friend’s hand. A close family member usually got a hug. Especially if I had not seen them for awhile, like maybe a year or more. Where did all this new hugging come from?
Last Updated ( Friday, 19 January 2007 )
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To MP3 or not to MP3: Beneath the iPod Skin

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Written by Peter Carmel
Thursday, 09 March 2006
In recent news, France has decided to pass a law intended to force Apple to make the compressed music files (CMF) Apple sells on its website able to play in their competitors’ music players. Presently, the music files available from the Apple Internet store iTunes will play only by using an Apple i-Pod. Either Apple must make the CMF playable in all brand of portable music players, or stop doing business in France. In this article, we will take a look at the background leading into the legal, technical, and social issues that has resulted in this French decision. In the last couple of years, Apple and others have begun making CMF available on the Internet for about a dollar each. Now that the compressed online music business has heated up, let’s take a closer look at compressed music and what it has to offer the average consumer. Apple has made CMF into a legitimate businessUntil now, the compressed music business has been limited to techno-dweeb teenagers and music pirates. Of interest to us is the fact that while there is more than one format for compressed music, the MP3 format is the most commonly used and is the format that Apple chose to provide to their customers. The MP3 format has been around for several years, and since then, about a half dozen or so alternate formats have emerged. Most notably, Microsoft has offered the WMA format which has perceptibly better sound quality when compressed to even smaller files when compared to MP3. Of course, compressed music can never sound as good as the original uncompressed music audio CDs. Looking back at the history of recorded music, perhaps a few of us remember the early days of LP records. Back then, there were no computers, no Internet, and of course no audio CDs. You bought what the recording studios offered, or you enjoyed the silence. One important point to note is that back in the days of 33RPM/LP records, you could also buy smaller 45s with one or two hits for a much lower price. That practice effectively protected consumers from having to buy entire LPs full of songs when you really only wanted one or two. How many times have you purchased a music CD and were disappointed to find that you only liked to listen to one or two songs on the CD?
Last Updated ( Friday, 20 July 2007 )
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