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It looks like the cell phone companies will be answering questions today in a US Senate committee hearing on the rapid rise of text messaging costs to consumers.
The true answer, of course, is that vowels are so expensive to buy. At least that’s what I learned from Wheel of Fortune.
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The DTV transition was mandated in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, but 13 years later, 2.8 million Americans were still not ready for the switch that happened today.
I had the opportunity to help answer phone calls with DTV questions on the Fox 8 News Call for Action phone bank yesterday and today, so I had firsthand experience with a few Cleveland area viewers who were not all set for the analog TV signals to go dark at 10:00 am today.
Although most Americans are ready for the transition, according to the FCC, there was an estimated 55,000 or more Cleveland area residents who weren’t. Most of their questions involved where to turn to as they had expired converter box coupons, having not bought their equipment yet. The answer, of course, was to call the 1-888-CALL-FCC hotline.
The other question that came up often was whether they really needed the converter box. I had a number of callers who believed that because the word “digital” appeared somewhere on the front of their TV, they were ready to go. In many cases, I found out that it was a “Dolby Digital” sticker on the set that was causing some of the confusion.
The cutoff came and went hours ago, and the world hasn’t ended. However, I really sympathize with anyone manning a DTV support phone bank in the US, as now the compatibility issues with faulty equipment, or VCRs that won’t automatically change the channels on converter boxes start to come up. Good luck, brave DTV soldiers!
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The DTV transition is finally (no, really!) going to happen on Friday, June 12th, at 10:00am. I had an opportunity to answer DTV questions on Fox 8 News Unplugged this morning, and will likely be helping out on their Call for Help hotline on Thursday to get viewers through their remaining DTV issues.
You can find out more about the DTV transition at geeksquad.com/dtv.
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I previously posted a link to the RocketryPlanet.com story about Steve Eves and his giant 36 foot tall model of the Saturn V rocket that took us to the moon.
As you can see from the above video, the April 25th launch went off perfectly. You can read more about the launch celebrating the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 at Ars Technica.
Do you know any college women interested in scicence, technology and public policy?
The Geek Squad Academy and the Women’s High Tech Coalition are teaming up to offer 2 female college students a Congressional summer internship to work on science and technology-related public policy on Capital Hill.
The deadline to apply is May 6th, so if you know anyone interested, send them a link to the Geek Squad News article today!