SSW Blog

High Hope for our Future National Broadband Plan

Posted on | June 30, 2009 | No Comments

Lately there is a firestorm over how to draft some specifics into a national broadband policy as well as there is ongoing debate about how to advance broadband deployment, how to define broadband as “service” or “infrastructure” and other concerns like unserved and underserved rural areas. The plan will be due by February 17, 2010. I am grateful when FCC decided to extend a deadline to July 21st to file comments about issues relating to the Plan. Please be encouraged to file reply comments or surf through the FCC by typing “GN Docket No.09-51″. You will be able to read some filed comments and provide feedback about how to put together any important issues into the National Broadband Plan.

On June 16, 2009, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation had confirmed Julius Genachowski, a new FCC Chairman. Look for the link: “View Captioned Webcast” (in spite of its poor quality of video; for warning: successive of black screens)

In hope to shift the FCC’s focus on the consumers from the Corporate interests, this Nomination committee had raised some excellent suggestions and concerns. Their major highlights are as follows:

  • FCC Reform – more transparency, more openness & fairness; and enforcement
  • Broadband Map
  • No need to “overburden” Broadcasters
  • Net Neutrality
  • Copyright protections in programming & entertainment
  • Broadband Installation in the Federal Road project
  • Uncompleted job of Digital TV Transition (DTV)
  • A new National Broadband Policy
  • Deployment Affordability
  • Declining of Traditional Media; Newspapers
  • Broadband Capability including deploying the fiber optics
  • Re-visit V-Chip
  • Universal Service Fund
  • E-911
  • Spectrum Policy
  • Wireless Broadband Network including mobile
  • Public Safety Network

However, I was very disappointed about some important aspects of equal access as missing from above. For example, what about captioning, TRS, equal access on the Internet and manufacturers for DVD, TV and HD like CC chip?

By April 2009, 63% of Americans had used broadband connections. Out of 30 countries, USA is lagging behind the world as 15th rank.  The Senate Nomination had mentioned that it is an embarrassment to the U.S. as being falling behind by broadband deployment, speed and price as well as performance.

From Our Taxpayers’ Expense

Do you know that the White House will provide $7.2 billion grant and loan program for broadband access? The breakdown of this program is as follows:

  • $250 million for innovative programs;
  • at least $200 million for upgrade tech & capacity;
  • $10 millions for audit & oversight;
  • $350 million for broadband mapping.

Will it be the FCC that oversees this massive project or who will make decisions about mapping the broadband across the nation? There is one place called Connected Nation to handle the broadband mapping project but almost all people who serve the board are representatives for Corporations. (See Info).

There are several websites about the broadband map in your area but some are shut down due to the sabotage lately.

Please be encouraged to file your comments at the FCC or one other web site: Internet for Everyone that will help you with the steps. Let’s look forward to the new FCC web site as FCC Chair Genachowski had promised the staff today on his brief speech.

Further Reading Recommendations:

1.  Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

2. Organization for Economic Co-Operation & Development

3. Broadband Census

4. Reaching for the American Dream by Connecting our Nation

5. Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology

Category: Broadband
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Wisconsin’s Misstep of Passing State Law for Cochlear Implants

Posted on | June 15, 2009 | No Comments

As I had learned with dread feeling that Wisconsin had recently passed the bill proposal, Senate Bill 27 to require health insurers that cover hearing aids and cochlear implants for persons under 18 years of age, I bet that Wisconsin State Government made a fatal mistake to pioneer this unethical law. It is very dangerous precedent, representing the early stages of blowback from the propaganda campaign of promoting the lobotomy.

There are some unforeseen factors of Cochlear Implants (CI) as follows:

  • CI surgeries are experimental.
  • CI is not considered as a matter of death or life situation.
  • CI are called as “enhanced hearing aids”.
  • CI is useful for people who lose their hearing later but may not be suitable for people who are born deaf.
  • CI is a mechanical and foreign but non-organic. (Similar to pacemaker – limited functional ability)
  • FDA’s new warning states the risk of bacterial meningitis in children (3 out of 6, those children developed meningitis between three and four years after implantation.)

As I don’t want to go on as I believe most people would agree with me on the above list. Wisconsin’s passing the state law will definitely open a Pandora’s box  – to lead to some possibilities:

  • Unnecessary CI surgeries on babies who are born deaf. In long run those who wear CI have to endure months of speech therapy, every five or ten years of replacing CI devices, every two or three months of replacing batteries, and loss time of early learning (lagging educational, environmental and social skills).
  • Risk of loss of neurological ability during few successive CI surgeries
  • Unethical and radical therapies
  • Assemble line CI surgeries
  • Lack of the Right to Choose for Humanly Life  – very similar to lobotomy which surgeries occur near the brain and nerve system

I bet some people don’t wish anyone to fiddle with their brains and especially put foreign part inside their brains.  It is sad for everyone, not only Deaf people that school board members, educators, physicians, and professionals are interested in money rather than saving human lives.

As you would imagine about 200 babies are born deaf or hard of hearing in Wisconsin each year (so the Wisconsin govt had claimed), I would not blame their parents but they don’t understand about the dangers of CI. Parents would bring their children to hospitals for CI in high hope to see their children becoming normal like hearing people.  Come on, we hate hospitals! I am not surprised that some parents do not realize going forth and back to the hospitals must be frightening to their children.

Sorry, parents, not really, that is false hope but some deaf people who are trained to speak well would speak like deaf voice, no matter, how long they were trained. What if some deaf people are innate not to speak well should be “forced-speech”?

The state of Wisconsin government evidently forgets one important step by checking with FDA first before proceeding to draft the bill proposal but unfortunately that state would become murderer to the deaf and hard of hearing children by forcing the insurers to cover costs but possibly unforeseen lawsuits.  Per FDA’s warning, it would be possible that approx. 50% or half of 200 newborns with deafness in Wisconsin would be exposed to meningitis after CI surgery.  Very scary figure but what the heck the state legislators think? Did they know?  Or Pity to health insurers, they will be furious if learning about FDA warning and may consider their counterattack at the state of Wisconsin. Will they?

Back to the issue on the state law written poorly by the state of Wisconsin, it should be rewritten clearly that the costs for hearing aids should be covered by health insurance carriers for persons under the years of age 18.  No No No, they should exclude CI. I cannot answer about CI because it is not safe proof and experimental but it should be up to persons above the years of age 16 – persons’ the right to decide  to choose CI, not parents. It is inappropriate for the parents who make decisions over their children.  You have to remember that loss of hearing is not a matter of life or death.  Parents should not be informed that CI would cure deafness and of course it may be ineffective, not 100% guarantee. However the parents need to understand that CI may be good tool in helping improve speech ability.

Note that if you find this article very offensive about CI I hope you keep your mind open with open heart to listen to people who had been gone through similar fate as you do. I am very grateful for my parents because they had allowed me to make a decision and believed in me as I was able to make good judgment call as adult. (At that time I became the age of 16). After some tests, I was asked by doctors that I was a good candidate for CI surgery but I had weighed my decision on my own life and my future, not parents’ future and their dreams or hope. As I had decided not to choose, I rather live normally and enjoy whatever I can. I want to tell the parents that I am not sorry about my decision and love my parents very much for respecting for my right.

Category: General
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Bummer, No Success After WP 2.8 Upgrade

Posted on | June 12, 2009 | No Comments

Last night I had dared to apply the WP plugin, Wordpress Automatic Upgrade and hoped that it may work once I upgraded WP from version 2.7.1 to 2.8. To my surprise, I had faced the blank white screen page except one error saying,

“Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/dashboard.php)
[function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/(username)/public_html/wp-admin/index.php on line 13″

No idea, I had to search through the support forum or google and however,  it was suggested that I tweaked the URL in php file. After tweaking it still did not work but led to another new error.  See the error message here:

“Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required                                                                                          ‘ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/dashboard.php’                                                                                                                                          (include_path=’.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php’) in /home/(username)/public_html/wp-admin/index.php on line 13″

Again no idea what the heck this error means, I had to remove all old WP files and reinstall WP 2.8 except some files that I saved for backup. Of course, I had the old database files for backup. (God blessing!) After done with reinstalling WP 2.8, I had discovered that there was an error about plugin files as I had restored plugin from my old WP files. However, I had to clean out old plugins which were not activated during the blog site and reinstall new plugins that I want for the final site. Not easy to keep old plugins but I had to ensure that some plugins are upgraded and compatible with WP 2.8.

Finally after I spent over over 8 hours of repairing WP upgrade, this blog site came out working fine with WP 2.8 but visual text editor was missing (no Visual tab on Posts).  Then I was unwilling to trust anything saying upgrade button but had swallowed my doubt by going to Tools , Upgrade and clicked “Automatic Upgrade”. (I believed that it could reinstall the package to bring all files up-to-date in order.)  No luck, the visual editor did not appear, no matter.

As I had to scan through the WP forum and found one that had suggested that we turn off the Google Gears and the visual editor would appear. I thought it was a possibility and so I went along with this suggestion. It works fine. But, but but…what about IE? No success on Posts – Visual panel but nothing was typed on the screen – white blank! I am using the Mozilla Firefox for time being since the visual and html editor work on Posts. There is one bug being unsolved!

Phew! My advice is for you who want to upgrade your WP blogs, best to wait for several weeks and don’t upgrade to WP 2.8 yet.  There will be some new and unfriendly errors. I don’t know whether I will confront some new bugs here in WP 2.8 but pray that it will not happen again. Wish me luck!

Category: Open Source
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Mozilla Firefox Ascends to the Top Browser Spot

Posted on | June 10, 2009 | No Comments

Based on browser statistics I had reviewed the history of browsers and discovered that Mozilla Firefox (FF) became currently popular browser this year, 2009. I am not sure whether it would be a leader in the browser market but I believe Internet Explorer continues as the browser leader depending on the demographics. Nice to watch the live graph of browsers at the link. 
Browser Graph

As I believe you have some problems with FF and same as I do, I am trying to figure out why there are some repeated bugs that haven’t been fixed, unusual of Mozilla tech group because they usually repair quicker and respond very well to some bugs respectively.  In this case it has not occurred yet like the following:

  • Crashes
  • Slowest loading speed
  • Loss of bookmarking favorites
  • Too many addons
  • Uninstalling and re-installing
  • Once installing new browser version you need to set up extensions and plug-ins such as flash video, javascript, pdf, etc
  • Missing manage profile tab
  • Lack of  info about ongoing issues relating to the browser version upgrades
  • Log In Access Inflexibility

As you can see the long list of bug problems above, I am more than happy to share some reasons on several on the above list. One major reason is that I want to bring the tab back into the browser menu which is “Manage Profiles” . It would be easier and most convenient for us to secure one of multiple profiles as locked or checked while leaving other multiple profiles unchecked whenever running it. No need for FF repeatedly to ask me which profile before I run it. I would love to see this feature for managing profiles being enhanced. For example I would be able to save bookmarks by logging on the Internet and using profile to carry those over to any of browsers upon my preference. It looks like Diigo as similar as excellent example. It is very useful feature but sometimes awkward for several reasons like highlight, or sending via email that may not work.

I am tired of repeated FF crashes but I did my best to remove some features like Skype based on some suggestions via FF forum. Darnedest, it is no luck in spite of tweaking and removing addons I keep getting crashes and figuring out how to resolve this. Of course, I will report this persisting bug to the Bugzilla.

Regarding the browser extensions, plug-ins and addons, I wish that there are some kind of tips, reviews, or suggestions. For example I am not sure whether it is good idea to apply some of addons or extensions but where is information about important basics in order to make the complete browser package? I had to install some extensions regardless of which as part of basics like PDF, video, or downloading feature. One thing that I dislike from the FF extensions or addons is particularly Adobe as more likely as monopoly of the browser software.  There should be optional features availability like Nitro PDF Professional, OpenPDF, or other types of PDF and so no need to “force” us to install Adobe Reader.

Why not basic extensions with new FF ready before downloading?

As I offer computer troubleshooting job as one of some professional services for my business, Spiral Shell Web, I went out to assist some customers with their computers, desktop and laptop.  I found several customers who are not familiar with FF but they are used to Internet Explorer (IE), thanks to the manufacturers that package IE in every new computer hardware before selling on the market.  I had explained about needing to install basic extensions and addons but unfortunately it is inconvenient and uneasy for them to understand further technical stuff.  Some would say, “forget it, I rather stay with IE” or “My god no way for me to call you all times whenever I find something missing from the browser?”.  This shows some concerns about FF and so I hope Mozilla tech people may consider to load the FF browser with basic extensions before downloading new FF version.

In spite of serious concerns and flaws, FF is becoming our favorite cool browser. Let’s keep watching the live statistics and we believe, of course, that there are always some rooms to improve FF.

Category: Blackberry, Mobile Design, Open Source, Software
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Netflix CEO: His Attitude Evokes Wrong Idea of Captioning

Posted on | May 29, 2009 | No Comments

As I happened to read a blog about CEO’s comments at the Annual Shareholder meeting about captioning in response to one shareholder. (“Got Shares?” Blog) I don’t want to repeat this but let you visit there and however, I want you all to go there and share what you think.

I am not sure what the heck CEO and Founder Reed Hastings thought about captioning. Surprisingly he was obviously ignorant because he believed hulu.com did not provide captioning.  Therefore he did not think Netflix wanted to go further anyway down the road. Reed Hastings, he should’ve checked with hulu.com before making any comment. Hulu.com does provide some online movies with captioning. Thank you hulu.com and hope to see more upcoming captioned online movies.

As a matter of fact, I don’t want to be bothered with Netflix, Blockbuster and others like Hollywood. I had encouraged my family and friends not to subscribe to these and any TV providers that offer VOD.  The fees are ridiculously too high as I had noticed they kept increasing fees to $5.99 per rental for one day, as same with DirecTV that offers $4.99 pay-per-view (PPV). I bet that most movies are not captioned no matter you have to  figure out whether it is captioned or not. I dread being one of frustrated people when finding out the movie is non-captioned in spite of what advertising sometimes claims false about available captioning or SDH.  Of course we have to drag ourselves on extra mile by bringing the stinking DVD back to the store for credit or have to argue if the store refuses to yield. This is one of rewinding and replaying our bold actions but unfortunately we have our custom of these, we are being tired of being only ones to fight back -  as we rarely set back and are contented.

Since 1980s I have not been to the movie theaters except ASL films at the deaf clubs. I feel good about it as I don’t support the fat dirty Hollywood cats who make profit. They don’t respect in good moral and show very poor fair governance.

I couldn’t believe some bloggers like “Got Shares?” keep saying “hearing impaired (HI)”.  No, No, No, it is improper wording. It should be changed to D/deaf and hard of hearing.

Come on, some bloggers, you forget about captioning that can benefit everyone, not only deaf and hard of hearing people, especially seniors, children, foreigners who want to improve reading skills and people who prefer non audio.

I am shocked that one blogger had suggested why not hiring people from India to work in the area of captioning. No way! I have high respect for Indian people but they interpret very differently than Americans. Their English grammar sometimes make no sense to some Americans like myself who read some DVDs with subtitled for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH) and don’t understand the whole concept of the movie plot because of wrong side of English interpretation by Indian people. Very poor job and stinky quality of captioning (sic).

Hearing people, please join us to boycott against Netflix, Blockbuster, movie theaters, and especially Hollywood media people. Please don’t subscribe and let’s quit from any subscriptions until they must listen to us by adding more and more captioning. Better make it high quality of captioning or SDH, all online movies be captioned.

I am kindly conservative but we would express our compliments to hulu.com for its persistance to add captioning and same with CNET.com. Hope to see both wonderful companies to increase online videos with captioning. Thank you, Hulu.com and CNET.com!

Category: Captioning
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Closed Captioning Woes

Posted on | May 18, 2009 | 1 Comment

No matter, you and I are not satisfied with almost all TV programmings due to poor quality of Closed Captioning (CC). Poor one gal, she asked whether we had similar cc problem on Medium by NBC. As a matter of fact, I had no problem with Medium episodes and however, it looked like it was a local TV station problem, not national wide.  Besides, she hoped to catch up one episode of Medium at Hulu.com, but she had no luck when we knew that NBC is stubbornly not releasing its ownership of episodes to Hulu.com or cc is not available.  That is frustrating! We sometimes had to miss some or few episodes of our favorite TV programming due to unforeseen conditions.

I like to compliment Communication Services for the Deaf (CSD)  to bring Digital TV web site solely for Deaf and hard of hearing consumers for their great job but they received the grant from FCC and had to do it anyway. Here is the CSD DTV web site.  Please be encouraged to fill out the survey about cc and visit there for more information. One disappointment is that CSD DTV did not provide their videos or link for sharing with other websites, blogs or social networks. They did not endorse this part as very important part for everyone to spread the word as far away as possible across the country. I tried sending this suggestion to them twice but they seemed not to understand or to be uninterested about our suggestions. They should know better to include their video clips at You Tube, Google Video, Vimeo or others whatever they can as many as they should share information.

One guy asked about a converter box as though he has his new HD LCD 55 inch TV and subscribes to the cable provider. He thought he needed it because of DTV urgency but I had advised him not to worry about it as though I advised him to contact CSD DTV for any further help. I believe some deaf people are confused with DTV converter box and DVR/HDVR receiver box.

Will cc work fine with HD TV programming? Strangely cc is noticeably missing, lagging in time and disappearing during HD TV programming series but cc works beautifully on standard TV programming series. What is the difference? Obviously it is due to the conflict between E608 and E708. I am unsure why it had happened often but will there be any excuse for TV stations to get away with poor CC or no CC if broadcasting HD?

Lastly, I am puzzled to learn that some sponsors began dropping out from several TV stations like CBS, NBC and ABC for adding closed captioning on some TV programmings including local news. Is it true about losing sponsors and so we will not be able to watch cc anymore? Several captioners had forewarned us about this possibility.

I will continue sending complaints to FCC about CC and hope so you will join by sending out your complaints.

Category: Captioning
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CMS Too Difficulty for Web Admin Novice

Posted on | May 6, 2009 | No Comments

As I was trying to train some people on how to maintain or update their own web sites I found this basic training too consuming and distraction. CMS refers to Content Management System. Depending on the specifications of web site design CMS is built in with the administration access. Some sites are not built in with the administration access but these require FTP access instead. FTP access refers to any type of software, free or cost such as FileZilla.

Some wrong assumptions by some customers are as follows:

  • Web site design is very easy to learn in similar to the usage of email.
  • Web site template is free but very limited and infeasible for any changes to suit own preference.
  • Web site is equivalent to “web page”.
  • Web design could be done by “anyone”.
  • There is no need for web design expertise.
  • Cost for setting up, designing and incorporating a new web site should be lower than $500 or free.
  • Domain name registration is confusing and misunderstanding.
  • Hosting server is not fully understood and unfamiliar.

As you can see more than such claims above, I had received some replies from both new and former customers about my web design business. Sometimes I found their responses offensive and lack of respect for my career. Some had stated that web design was nothing important and not a big deal as they could not realize what takes very tough job to work in the web development. The Internet keeps changing and growing over 400% as though most web designers and developers like myself have the responsibility to know how to stay in practice and keep up with web programming on up-to-date basis.

For example, we have the ability to read and change HTML codes, plus Flash, AJAX, PHP programming or others in order to make a web site look sharp and running properly on the Internet. We should test every browser to enable the web site running smoothly such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. In addition, we are required to verify the layout of web site to suit the monitor screen such as resolution.  There is no limit to go on and further work on just one web site, no matter, what is involved. Sometimes it takes more than two months to complete one web site. If information and layout are provided as ready on hand it may normally take an average of two or four weeks.

Every web site is unique and different, not the same to each other. However, free web template of course looks too similar and commercial.  If preferring a free web template then we have to be careful with its copyright or intellectual property rights.

Sadly, more and more web templates are growing popular on the Internet. I am very concerned about freedom of web artworks and the right to design whatever you like to.  Noticeably the web templates are easy for anyone to steal at no cost, and play smart as if he or she thinks too good as web designer. It is nice to own one web template just not because of free lunch and timing issue but lazy to be creative and have the challenge to create the best web site.

One reason is for CMS as necessary for some people that I offer Joomla, Wordpress or Drupal in hope that it is easier for them to access and do whatever they like.  With my regrets my guess is wrong as I had discovered some people who have no computer skills, or unfamiliar with web design they are hesitant to access to the administration or dashboard. They asked for me to help train them as I had some patience and willing to help them until I did not see any further improvement or action they should take on own in next step.

Right now I am not sure how to help them but I begin thinking more likely that the web design is too complicated and high tech today than a few years ago because of fast-paced growth and new web mechansims.

Category: Web Design
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Déjà vu about PC game, Demigod

Posted on | April 24, 2009 | 1 Comment

As my son begged me to purchase another PC game, I had an instinct about possibly of something in similar to Spore and however, I went along to acquire it for his sake.

Guess what?  My instinct was right about déjà vu on installation problem. Demigod is in conjunction with its major game publisher, Stardock. Same with Spore in conjunction with Electronics Arts (EA).

My son was excited and asked me if he could go ahead to install it by himself. I don’t mind to let him do it but I am concerned about some unforeseen situations that we may never know after trying to install. Somehow one downloading problem had appeared on the screen. Right away, I had to take over and install the CD rom but it would not allow me to proceed through.  The error message kept saying the memory is not sufficient. I was puzzled because of adequate memory space that this PC has about 60 GB.

In my mind I had suspected that something like game publisher prevents us independently to install indirectly or direct the game software without its permission. I had to browse and look for Stardock’s own software called Impulse. Once I found it as part of files on the CD rom I had installed Impulse in first step. As a result it had worked.

Interesting enough, Impulse had directed me toward Stardock’s web site to install Demigod from there, not CD rom. I thought it was pecular and ridiculous for game publisher to control whatever they wish rather than not allowing us to use the CD rom. Then I had typed in serial numbers from CD rom before downloading Demigod software.

Finally it was successful. I am not sure why necessary for any game publisher to control over software. Watch out Spore and Demigod, this method could be misleading and confusing for most of people who are unfamiliar with the computer.

Now my son is enjoying to play Demigod.

Category: Software
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Fed Up With Scams

Posted on | April 17, 2009 | 1 Comment

I bet most of you are tired of being victims by scammers. Scammers target Deaf and hard of hearing community by taking an advantage of IP based relay services, email, social networking such as Facebook and AIM. We need to work together and fight back against scammers. How? I know it is not easy to answer although we don’t have any resource to help protect ourselves against future scams. We would increase more awareness and understanding about types of scams.

In latest events, some deaf people were victims by losing thousands of dollars (not just hundreds but thousands of money!), and even losing their homes. Sadly several deaf “friends” had convinced their deaf colleagues who were unwary of sly covert scams but they ended up losing trust to each other. That is one of the worst nightmares because one of your friends or even closest best friend could scam or defraud you!

There are several web sites to offer tips and advices but troubling is lack of whose ownership and reliability of these websites. For example, take a look at Stop Relay Abuse. Who is running the site? What purpose does this site provide for? How good would information be reliable? When was information being posted?  It looks like this site showed its last activity in 2005. It is insufficient  and unfortunately poor resource.  I am unable to compliment some relay agents for their willing to speak up or set up the web site as similar to Stop Relay Abuse not just because of their positions but who or what organization do they represent? or what if we don’t want them to speak for us?  Who are they thinking that they are qualified for their expertise for the Deaf and hard of hearing community? They should have asked deaf organizations first (on courtesy) before they plan setting up their websites.

Look at another example, a guy named Spencer Critchley is a freelance writer at his blog about four parts on IP relay abuse. I believe his writing about four parts is very good informative as it provides insights by both sides of relay agent and deaf organization. Clapping our hands for his wonderful job!

When you receive any email or letter you are not sure whether it is authentic or real. Please be encouraged to double-check by visiting snopes.com, search engines (e.g., yahoo.com, google.com, or dogpile.com) and several federal government sites (e.g., Internet Crime Complaint Center ).

Some popular tips for scams are as follows:

  • long weird domain names (e.g.,www.xxpppxx.us)
  • ask for money, no matter, any service fee
  • too much personal questions
  • inform you about friends or family (e.g., “Your sister, ANN is my friend”)
  • threats (e.g., your wife is in auto accident.”)
  • misspelled words or odd numbers (e.g., %5.##)
  • trust your instinct (when you doubt it please discard it quickly.)

Who are scammers?

Everyone could be scammers. Sad you never know your friend who may be one of them. Even you would find beautiful woman or handsome man in photo. Best thing for Deaf community is to ask for videophone and so you would identify the person through your videophone. In most cases they are turning away when being forced to speak via videophone. I am pleased when learning that Nigeria has its Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Please visit one of some videos about ongoing scam arrests by EFCC. (Those videos are not captioned.)

Especially during this bad time of economy we have to watch out for fake jobs, bogus employers and other different type of scams for job seekers, new college graduates, and unemployed people.  One of several web sites offers some excellent tips, thanks to TechRepublic.com.

Let’s be a strong Scam Proof! Please feel free to share your experience with scammers or offer tips against scams.

Category: Cyber-security
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Drawbacks of Closed Captioning

Posted on | March 25, 2009 | No Comments

Digital TV Transition is drawing near June 12, 2009. All TV stations across the USA will completely switch to digital signal. Goodbye, Old Good Analog TV. Americans had enjoyed watching analog TV since first public TV in 1939 and even did not pay or subscribe to any TV service by using a simple old fashioned antenna at every house. Until we wanted more than local channels or we were not pleased with inadequate and weak TV reception we had subscribed to either cable or satellite provider.

In late 1970s, we were thrilled to purchase first CC decoder at SEARS.  Believe it or not, in the beginning of CC, the quality of CC was excellent and in very good standards, thanks to National Captioning Institute (NCI). NCI had monitored and oversaw the CC throughout the TV stations. I am not sure how NCI had done in the past but presumably NCI acts lesser role today. Interesting, I had recently learned about an inventor of CC decoder. ( See an article below). We were satisfied with old good CC decoder for more than a decade, in spite of other CC equipments like smaller CC decoder built in VCR recorder and TV. The old CC decoder began to fall apart until SEARS announced no more parts for further replacement.

What about digital closed captioning (CEA-708)? Most televisions with above 13 inches or more are built in with closed captioning (CC) chip. Most televisions work fine with CEA-608 which it calls Analog Closed Captioning (CC). Will CEA-708 be fully developed as well as capable?  I had not seen any article about whether C708 is ready for release but I had read some articles that Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) had mentioned sometimes about “enhanced C608″ for use of digital TV in place of C708.

What about cable or satellite providers? Those providers tend to provide the receiver boxes including DVR or HDVR boxes to subscribers but some boxes may not be compatible with closed captioning chip. Therefore some subscribers have to purchase set top box for one major reason to enable closed captioning through the receiver boxes.

Some TV manufacturers, cable or satellite providers, video programming stations and TV stations are intentionally unaware about closed captioning including both analog and digital captioning but good enough, they don’t realize that they neglect an important piece of the FCC regulations that require closed captioning.

What about DVD or Blu-Ray players? What about HDMI or component cables? Unfortunately both DVD or Blu-Ray players do not enable any such closed captioning chip? I will explain about this DVD or Blu-Ray players later in next article.

There are confusion about how to enable closed captioning through HDMI or component cables but sometimes those cables won’t work successfully. I had tried one component cable as being advised by salesman when purchasing LCD 42 inch Zenith TV and however, it could not enable closed captioning through TV. I had replaced it with standard S-video cable and then closed captioning had appeared on the TV screen.

We are seriously concerned about On-Demand service by cable or satellite TV providers because this particular service is not covered under the rules by FCC to enforce closed captioning in the Internet.

Being dismayed at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2004, we could not believe the federal government for its weak decision to revise the captioning rule to require 100% of programming TV being captioned effective January 1, 2006. The FCC added “new rule” to allow new programming channel including digital programming to mandate captioning with some exceptions on or after July 2002. Revising the old rules to “pre-rule” by the FCC effective July 2008 it requires 75% of programming per channel per quarter, rather than 100% of programming on all channels. When will it be 100% of programming with CC on all channels?

There are ongoing problems in reference to CC about quality, poor placement, wrong type of analog vs. digital overlapping, methods of scrolling, crawler or popup, stinky English including bad grammar, unclear and baby words, lagging time, and so forth. Worst, more TV channels like CNN, FOX, or ESPN have added the screen with the crawler, inset boxes, scores, stocks, weather, and split screen. Those features would mess up CC and make not enough space on the screen for CC.

DTV deadline is nearing, as we are struggling with the FCC, TV stations and TV service providers over a major issue of CC.  There are some drawbacks that we have to take voluntarily motivation and patience to work together and hopefully make any better compromise for CC.

My recommendations for further reading and joining the forums about CC:

Category: Captioning
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