Sciencetechnology
Rich Warren | Picture this: Your webcam makes a difference | Science-technology
Always look your best from the waist up when working or socializing online. That means not merely dressing appropriately, but using the best possible webcam. The last column highlighted online software to facilitate personal and business connections over the internet. Here’s the hardware to enhance your online presence. In August, after a long wait, I …
Rich Warren | Nothing is as simple as it once was | Science-technology
Internet service providers and electronics retailers continue exploiting people uncomfortable with electronics and the vagaries of the internet. Internet connectivity evolved from a useful luxury to an absolute necessity. Thus shoddy and deceptive treatment from suppliers is unacceptable. In the days of Ma Bell (the original AT&T), everyone paid the same price for limited options. …
Rich Warren | Virtual show offers head-scratching novelties | Science-technology
The 2021 virtual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) arrived and departed as ephemerally as a former president’’s tweet. Originally predicted to entice 170,000 people to Las Vegas, it became a virtual worldwide event with all of the glamour of online classroom learning. Every year, CES debuts head-scratching novelties, but rarely from major brand names. This year, …
Rich Warren | Lo-fi music anything but low stress | Science-technology
The oxymoron of the week appeared on page 8 in last Sunday’s Target advertising circular, extolling 15 percent off Just Wireless cables. Lo-fi, another increasingly popular term, makes little sense. An online mental-health service advertises lo-fi music as a way to relax, another offers lo-fi background music. Having spent my entire adult life promoting hi-fi, …
Rich Warren | Can you do the cam-cam? Logitech can | Science-technology
Smile at the camera. Before the smartphone, embodied by the first Apple iPhone, cameras were, well, cameras. Apple quickly followed with the less convenient camera-equipped iPad. Soon, all phones, tablets and laptop computers included cameras. Initially, most trailed dedicated cameras in image quality. In the past few years, the best rival some dedicated cameras in …
Rich Warren | Luckily, we’re more connected than ever | Science-technology
Count your blessings: thousands of them. While we would prefer mobility during the central Illinois spring, remaining at home is far less onerous than it would have been just 30 years ago. If this pandemic had struck in 1990, we’d be choosing among fewer than a hundred cable channels, communicating via mostly landline phones and …
Rich Warren | Magnepan speakers looking at going small | Science-technology
Wendell Diller reminds me of why I began writing about audio 44 years ago. Diller, the marketing manager for Magnepan speakers, exudes the now rare passion, enthusiasm and expertise, once common in the speaker business. Diller, although eligible for social security, continues touring the country preaching the gospel of Magnepan. Magnepan, manufactured in Minnesota, makes …
