| Microsoft
Media Player
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Microsoft Windows Media Player offers the first complete all-in-one player that is easy to use.
Welcome to a new digital media world! It also offers the best experience for the discovery, download, personalization, and playback of high-quality Windows Media audio and video, and the popular MP3
format
Windows Media Player comprises seven features in a single application: CD player, audio and video player, media jukebox, media guide, Internet radio, portable device music file transfer, and an audio CD burner. These software programs are combined into one easy-to-use application, which is designed to make playing digital media a mainstream experience.
Windows Media formatted files (WMA) offers some of the
best quality and smallest compression file sizes and it provides for
digital media license management.
Check it out. Microsoft
Media Player is Free!
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| Color Plasma Panels |
Color plasma panels are here! Some inventions take longer to mature and become
marketable. After 15 years of development, commercially available full-color
plasma panels are here.
Most every major manufacturer now sells a plasma
monitor and/or TV. Popular vendors such as Sony, Pioneer, NEC,
Panasonic, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi has made the ultra-large-screen computer/TV displays,
with it's sleek 4" thick frame, light weight and and hang-on-the-wall
capabilities affordable for the masses. This is really
cool technology. A pixel in a plasma display works much like a familiar
fluorescent light; electrically charged gas emits ultraviolet light, which then strikes
and excites phosphors that emit visible light. Plasma panels have been around nearly as
long as the PC. The earliest Plasma panels were a rusty-red monochrome, used in
transportable computers (remember the old Compaqs?) and as large, high-resolution displays
for engineering workstations. Only recently were phosphors developed for full-color
displays, along with new fabrication techniques required to accommodate the red, green,
and blue phosphors.
Plasma will enable screens much larger than is economically practical with conventional
CRT or even LCD technology. Matsushita (the parent company of Panasonic), Mitsubishi, NEC,
and Pioneer have all demonstrated 50-inch or larger color panels, but Fujitsu
was the first out of the gate.
While just a few years ago most plasma monitor/TVs
were over $20,000, many are now under $5,000 and include full TV tuner
capabilities that will allow for a traditional TV feel. Plasma
monitor/TVs are also HDTV ready for the crisp video displays of the
future, including the 16:9 aspect ratio.
Check out the
DTV City web site for a look at plasma devices available at various
costs.
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| Digital Subscriber Lines |
We
have many communications and Internet access solutions today, ranging from standard modems
(28.8K - 56K+), satellite dishes, cables modems, ISDN, Frame Relay, T-1s, T-3s and now DSL
(Digital Subscriber Lines). The common theme is that everyone wants more
speed. All these technologies offer pros and cons and some are still working out the
critical standards needed for broad success. Cable modems can transfer data at
speeds of up to 30Mbps (Actual speeds reach only around 1.5Mbps downstream and 300Kbps
upstream) and they are relatively inexpensive, but, not all cable companies offer the
service, you have to share bandwidth with your cable neighbors and they are still working
out the security issues. Satellite dishes can transfer data at speeds of up to only
400Kbps or a fraction of cable or DSL. ISDN today is widely available; permits fax,
data, and voice on the same line but generally only allows speeds up to 128Kbps.
Good old standard asynch modems still provide for access when all else fails. Enter
DSL or ADSL or G.SHDSL or the many to be defined variations.
DSL is slower than cable, with download speeds topping off around 9Mbps. But it's
20 times faster than satellite connections, 60 times faster than ISDN, and 250 times
faster than 33.6Kbps analog modems. Best of all, those bits are squeezed through the
same copper wire you use for phone calls, but without the complex setup of ISDN. DSL
does this by taking advantage of unused frequencies that exist on standard telephone
lines. While it creates channels for moving data up and down the line, the original
plain-old telephone service (POTS) frequencies remain free to handle voice traffic.
So you need only a single line for all your telecommunications. And while its peak
speeds may be slower than cable's, you don't have to share the line with your
bandwidth-hogging neighbors.
Right now several flavors of DSL
are available (DSL, ADSL,
G.Lite and G.SHDSL.
Asymmetric indicates that the data moves more quickly downstream (from the Internet) than
upstream (to the Internet). Symmetric means that data
can travel both ways simultaneously at similar speeds. DSL uses special modems called endpoints. Along with an
endpoint, your PC needs a network interface card that treats the modem like a local device
on the network. Many DSL modems combine both functions into a single internal card.
One of the most attractive things about ADSL is that it bypasses most of the public
switched telephone network (PSTN), the connection machine that often delays analog modem
and ISDN connections with busy signals, ring-no-answer calls, and other reliability
gremlins. Not using switches also means, in the long run, that monthly charges for DSL
could be lower than for ISDN. Another plus: DSL is a pure network service, so unlike
analog modems and ISDN adapters that must dial, connect, and disconnect from the Net, the
DSL connection is always on.
There is a downside to DSL, short term we hope.
You
must be located within 2-3 miles of a local phone company's central office. And that's not 2-3
straight miles but rather 2-3 miles of wire,
which with natural twists and turns can mean you need to be
significantly closer.
Another issue is industry stability.
DSL vendors are finding it hard to stay
financially afloat.
Yet another issue is standards. Which
version of the many DSL variations to you deploy/use? In many
ways, this is dictated by your service provider.
Anyway you look at the data access issue, speed is coming. DSL may offer the most
promising methods, but the market is prepared to attack speed from every angle. In
addition, for most people, all the options are not available in every location.
Enter G.Lite 1.5-mbps Modems. G.Lite modems
have arrived, thanks to a standards agreement by the International
Telecommunication Union. The G.Lite modem standard, called G.992.2, uses a stripped-down
version of asymmetric digital subscriber line technology that provides an incoming speed
25 times faster than that of 56-kbps modems. G.Lite modems have the splitter built
in, so users can install the modems themselves (versus DSL which requires a technician to
install). They also require less power, resulting in cheaper hardware on both the customer
and phone-company premises. Unlike the pricey and proprietary ADSL technologies, G.Lite
modems are standardized, so mainstream vendors can offer low-cost modems
through retail channels, and customers won't have to worry about the
modem not working if they change providers.
Now enter G.SHDSL. G.SHDSL is short
for the formal single-pair, high-bit-rate digital subscriber line or
symmetric high-speed digital subscriber line. Recently approved by
the International Telecommunications Union in February 2001, G.SHDSL is
a standard for a DSL technology capable of speeds of 2.3mbps-4.6mbps in
some cases. The new technology also can be delivered to customers
farther than 18,000 feet, or about 3 miles, from the phone company
switching facility by using repeaters - equipment that boosts the signal
over distances. DSL signals typically degrade over distance,
limiting the download speeds for some faraway customers. Analysts
and industry experts believe G.SHDSL will eventually replace today’s DSL
options, which primarily target either consumers or small businesses.
Speed is coming so be prepared.
Information for this article on DSL was collected in part from a piece by Phillip
Robinson in PC Computing Magazine
titled "DSL vs. The
World". Information on G.Lite was collected in part from a piece by Eric Brown in PC
World. Information on G.SHDSL
was collected in part from an article by Corey Grice and Sam Ames
titled "New DSL
standard has faster speeds".
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