February 12th, 2009

Posted by Robin Harris

Comcast lost corporate credibility last year over Internet bandwidth management: breaking FCC rules; enraging customers; and packing public meetings with Comcast employees. All that over network management?

Nope. Comcast has a much bigger problem – and it isn’t with Torrent users.

Follow the money
How does Comcast make its money? Selling TV programs – and now HDTV programs – to subscribers. Internet access is a profitable addition for current subscribers, but as a stand alone business it stinks: cable costs are too high to be supported by ISP revenue alone.

But what are Internet users doing? The are using the Internet to download TV shows and movies. Comcast can’t sell you the content as “cable TV” when you can get it for free on the web.

VOIP too
Another fast growing business for Comcast is VOIP. But if you use Skype over your Internet connection you won’t buy Comcast’s VOIP service.

It is a conundrum, indeed. If they increase the bandwidth of their system to enable Internet HD video, they slit their own throats. If they don’t the telcos may steal Internet business with DSL or wireless 3G.

What is Comcast to do?
It looks like they’re moving towards a multi-prong strategy:

• Meter Internet bandwidth. This is a winner: less investment in bandwidth; a chance to collect overages from heavy downloaders; entry-level pricing low enough to keep DSL and satellite at bay.
• Push “everything” packages. TV, phone, Internet at a price carefully calculated to be less than the sum of the parts. Grab telco revenue, minimize downloading, lock out ISP competition.
• Kill “net neutrality.” Comcast wants to charge Internet entertainment suppliers so make up for the people canceling cable TV service. Common carrier status (see “Net Neutrality” is stupid) eliminates this revenue, so Comcast is fighting it.

The Storage Bits take
Cable’s had a good run, but it is coming to an end. TV, which used to be concentrated in 3 networks, is now atomized among dozens competing for screen time with video games, DVDs and computers.

Cable’s costly infrastructure, optimized for hundreds of channels, can’t adjust to a world where entertainment is downloaded. They have to tame the Internet to survive.

The telcos have been going through hard times as land line usage craters. Cable is next up.

Gigabit Ethernet to every home should be a national goal. Let people, not companies, decide what cialis prescriptions they want to see. Let entrepreneurs build new services to use that bandwidth and see what happens. It will be cool.

Comments welcome, of course. I’m their worst nightmare: no cable; no landline; just a wireless ISP and a cell phone. I don’t miss either.

A reader asks: "I have a problem with my digital camera. When I shoot an off-center subject, the camera focuses on the wall behind them. How can I make the camera focus on what I want?"

Many digital cameras focus on whatever is in the very center of the viewfinder or LCD screen. So, if your subject isn't there, the stuff behind (or in front) of them will be nice and sharp, but it won't.

One time to really watch out for this is when you're photographing two people cialis prescription online standing side by side. You have a person on each side of the viewfinder, but the sensor is busy focusing on the wall behind them.

For example, take this photo of two chairs I just shot in the basement (sorry, I was the only one around, so I couldn't get any actual people to pose):

In this close up, you can see how the camera focused on the wall behind them (gasp!):

Ah, but not to worry. There's an easy way around this little problem!

Most digital cameras have a feature called "focus lock." The vast majority of these activate when you press the shutter release half way down and hold it there. Usually, there's some sort of light to indicate you have sharp focus (and this light is usually located next to the viewfinder and glows green when the image is properly focused).

So, all you do, again with most cameras, is move the camera so your subject is temporarily centered, press part way down on the shutter release to lock in the focus, hold the button in position as you recompose and finally, press the shutter release the rest of the way down.

In this instance, I just centered one of the chairs, held the focus lock, moved the camera back to the composition I wanted and shot.

Note that if you let up on the shutter release at any point in this procedure, you'll lose the focus lock and have to start over.

As always, consult your owner's manual for specifics, but this is one procedure that seems universal for most digital cameras. Happy shooting!