PC Mike -Tech News

I regularly hear from readers in rural areas of the country not serviced by cable, DSL broadband or 3g wireless phone data packages who want to know about satellite access.
>From my research, it appears to be consderably slower and more costly than its terrestrial rivals.
DirecWay costs $599 for the hardware and then $59 a month.
For that, you get download speeds of just 500 kbps, which is way, way slower than DSL or cable.
WildBlue charges $299 for the hardware and has packages available starting at $49.95 a month for 512 kbps and up to $79 a month for 15 mbps.
Anybody using these services? How reliable is it? Are there other satellite broadband alternatives?

The bigger the Internet gets, the smaller and more local it’s becoming. New services from Yahoo! and WeatherBug drill down to your neighborhood. MIKE WENDLAND: New onlineinfo on your area

Posting the below item from the Chicago Tribute reminds me to remind you to use a service called Bug Me Not if you want to get around those annoying and increasingly intrusive registration requirements used by some Web sites.

This has to be one of Comcast’s worst PR nightmares come true. And the customer service award does NOT go to …

CyberMatrix Corporation has launched DVD Trades for people in their own communities to trade legitimate DVDs, movies, CDs, games and software amongst themselves. There are many DVD trade sites out there, but DVD Trades insists it is very different. Unlike other DVD trade sites, DVD Trades is completely free and you don’t have to wait several weeks for the trade to take place. The idea behind DVD Trades is that media can be traded amongst people within their own communities. Other media trade sites can involve lengthly wait times for the trades to take place. When you trade within your own community you can make the transaction at your leisure and there are no shipping fees.

I’m a Lance Armstrong wannabe. Alas, about the closest I’ll come is by using a nifty device called a =heart rate monitor when I ride a bike or work out. MIKE WENDLAND: Heart-rate monitors keep people working out at peak efficiency

Apple iBooks are nice… but not THAT nice. Seventeen injured during used laptop sale

Once again I point out: Macs don’t get viruses… or spyware! Worm strikes down Windows systems

Google seems to be quietly building a network that has the industry buzzing. Google to offer free WiFi access in the US?

What’s up with this? Whenever I tried to go to Google for a while this afrternoon, I got this site.
Somebodys DNS numbers were scrambled. Or something more sinister is afoot.
Anyone else experience this?
This apparently has happened before, back in May with the same SoGoSearch site returning whenever someone tried to go to Google. Back then, it was blamed on a DNS glitch.
Today’s incident began a little after 1 p.m. ET.
UPDATE Google is back at 1:54 p.m.

Many people spend at least $2 to create one ringtone. This can get pricey if you want to create more than one. Often times when you purchase a ringtone, you can’t customize the clip. Users end up buying the same ringtone (the same portion of the song) as everyone else.
With a new service called Xingtone Ringtone Maker, users can quickly convert and transfer portions of an audio file from their PC/Mac or a CD to their mobile phones using cable-free, over-the-air transmission. For a one-time cost of $20, users can create an unlimited amount of ringtones for their mobile device such as any portion of their favorite song, audio clips, soundtracks, soundbites from movies, or record your voice or your baby’s voice…pretty much anything you want.
XRM lets you choose any audio you want and then trim it to the desired length (usually about 10-20 seconds depending on your phone model and carrier). When it’s ready, simply click the “SEND” button on the XRM software on your PC/Mac (no special cords needed). XRM sends a text message to your phone that contains a link back to your new ringtone. Follow the link, download your ringtone, save it on your phone and assign it as your ringer. Users can create an unlimited amount of ringtones with XRM.
Pretty cool.

Windows users better make sure their anti-virus software is updated. New Internet worm affects Windows users.
Mac users may ignore this and blissfully go about normal activities.