Personal Tech

Rob Pegoraro
Washington Post Personal Technology Columnist
Monday, September 11, 2006 2:00 PM

The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online to answer your personal tech questions and discuss this week's column: Speak and Spell, Slowly Growing Up and other recent columns on Monday, Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. ET .

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Past editions of Rob's e-letter are online here .

The transcript follows.

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Rob Pegoraro: Lots of questions already in the queue about the subject of yesterday's review, voice-dictation software. (In case anybody's wondering, I'm not using any today; I'm in the office and, for the reasons outlined in my column, am in no position to fire up Dragon here at my desk.)

Let's get started...

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Jonesboro, Ark.: Dragon Naturally Speaking has a standard version and a preferred version. What does the preferred version offer that is not available with the standard version. Greater accuracy?

Rob Pegoraro: Not greater accuracy--it's the same basic software engine underneath--but more features. This page at Nuance's site explains what each version can do.

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Eugene, Ore.: Using Dragon N. S.: I tried using a version of DNS in 2002 and found in the working area I was to use it in was not usable. First, I had to speak to loud to get a response. Second, my "Vital Capacity", the amount of air I take in to speak was not sufficient for more than 7 words, then my voice would trial off, and so would the words I spoke. Last, My background noise was too loud. I am a Quadriplegic, C-5/6, and DNS in 2002 just did not work for me.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the posting. The Dragon developers say the voice-recognition engine in the current version is much improved from what they had in earlier reasons (I know, such a shock to hear that!), but it can still be tripped up by pauses in speech. Turning off its automatic-punctuation features might get around that.

As for background noise--well, yup, that's a problem. Is the source of the racket anything you can control?

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Washington, D.C.: Care to provide your guesses as to what we might hear from Apple tomorrow at their press event? It seems like some movie downloads plus new iPods but I wonder if we'll see incremental or more significant changes. Also, do you think there is any chance there will be some sort of new hardware like a media center?

Rob Pegoraro: Great question. I think you're right in expecting movie downloads and new iPods--everybody's stories agree on movies being added to iTunes, and the iPod is just plain due for an update.

I don't expect any new Media Center-type machine; Apple already updated its two home desktops, the Mac mini and the iMac, last week.

The other possibility some folks have raised is a new wireless media receiver that would let you stream a video download wirelessly from a computer to the TV. Not sure about the odds of that happening...

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16th and M: HELP!!!!! Can anyone out there -- Rob, fellow chatters -- tell me how to successfully combine Linux and Verizon DSL? They sent me the Westall device that is both a modem and a router, but after hooking everything up, I get "You are running an unsupported OS. Only Windows and Mac OS are supported" in Firefox. I called their tech support and they said, "Go talk to Dell and have them call us." WHAAAAAT?????????? What does Dell have to do with anything? The computer had Windows on it when it was sold. I probably broke every warranty there is by installing Linux (and removing Windows, so I can't use that to get around Verizon). Where does Verizon get off telling me what OS I can and cannot use? Aargh!!!

Rob Pegoraro: You've got me. I can see Verizon employing some idiotic proprietary account-setup system that would require you to use a specific browser, but I don't know of any way they could continue to enforce that restriction after setup is done. (Do you have a Windows laptop you could borrow?)

Anybody got advice for 16th and M?

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Jonesboro, Ark.: Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your work. I teach composition, and I often use your pieces to stimulate discussion or writing assignments. Have a great day!

Rob Pegoraro: You use my work as an example of what not to do, right? :)

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Wheaton, Md.: Rob - when looking to buy an LCD TV, should I pay attention to the Contrast Ratio? Is there a big difference between, say, 1000:1 and 3000:1? I've noticed some differences in display TVs at the major electronics retailers, but I don't trust those TVs to be properly set up for home viewing. FYI, my preferred size to buy is 30" to 32". Thanks for your continued good work.

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, contrast ratio is a big deal in LCD TVs. It's your best clue as to how they'll do at reproducing darker shades properly--many LCD TVs have showed anything below a certain level of black as just plain black. (As a result, for instance, when you're watching The Sopranos, Dr. Melfi's suit blends into her chair.) Higher contrast is better.

The other number to look out for is the refresh rate--here, lower is better to avoid any smearing or blurring effects when viewing fast-moving images. (12 ms is typical but not great, a lot of LCDs now manage 8 ms, and some go as low as 4 ms.)

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Toledo, Ohio: Going back to the Dragon Naturally Speaking software, how easy is it to switch back and forth from talking to typing (to edit text) and back again? Also, have you tried Dragon with a digital recorder? J.S.

Rob Pegoraro: Not hard at all--as long as you don't try to talk to the software while you type. But: If you use the keyboard to fix errors instead of the standard correction mode, the software can't learn what it got wrong.

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Bowie: Rob, I've heard you over web-videos and suspect you're well suited to using most U.S. voice recognition software. How well does it handle the voices of recent immigrants with accents?

Rob Pegoraro: I have no idea, really--although Dragon has done well enough when my Jersey accent has surfaced. (I've gotten plenty of responses from readers sharing their own experience with Dragon, but I haven't had time to read more than a handful of them... the answer to your question may be lurking in my inbox.)

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Syracuse, N.Y.: Hi Rob,

The time is right for us to dive in and buy an HDTV. Given the space constraints and viewing angle requirements of our family room, a 42" plasma seems like the right choice for us. We would also be looking to get an A/V receiver that supports surround sound, an upconverting DVD player, and new speakers.

The problem is that the array of options on these components and the litany of decisions to be made is positively dizzying. For example, it seems that getting a receiver that supports HDMI switching is a good idea if the TV only has one HDMI input, but with the pending HDMI 1.3 standard will such a receiver be quickly obsolete? I have a notebook with numerous questions along these lines, and the harder I work to try and answer them, the more questions in my mind that arise.

I guess what I am really asking (in a roundabout way) is whether you plan to have a buying guide for home theater systems in the not-to-distant future. That, my friend, would truly be an early Christmas present.

Rob Pegoraro: Not home-theater systems per se, but I am working on an LCD-versus-plasma column. Should be in print later this month or early next month.

FWIW, knowing what I do (which isn't always that much!), I'd go ahead and get the HDMI-switching receiver now. As I understand it, HDMI 1.3 simply beefs up support for 1080p resolution--which you almost certainly won't get in a 42" plasma unless you pay the premium on a very high-end model. Besides which, you won't be able to *see* the difference between 1080p and 720p from the average couch's distance...

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Oregon City, Ore.: Is there any value at all to the new BROWZAR browser? (http://www.browzar.com/) I recently ran across it, tried it, found it to be something related to IE and wondered why use it? Since you can't get rid of IE, and some web sites still require IE to function properly, you have to use it once in a while.

So why use BROWZAR? It doesn't seem to gain anyone much (except perhaps the owners of their search engine).

Rob Pegoraro: No, I don't see the point of this one. It's not even really a browser; it's just a wrapper for the IE code already on your machine. If you want a browser that can delete all your Internet-surfing data with a couple of clicks *and* resist any hijacking attempt you're likely to see, get Firefox.

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Arlington, Va.: My free ZoneAlarm firewall corrupted last week and I had to uninstall. I switched over to Windows firewall and my machine runs much faster now. Is it safe for me to stick with just Windows firewall, or should I sacrifice some performance and re-install ZoneAlarm?

Rob Pegoraro: Stick with Windows firewall. ZoneAlarm will stop any spyware already on your machine from uploading data, but if you already have spyware on your machine you're already hosed--it's like buying door locks that ensure a burglar can't get out of your house after breaking in. I'd rather use a simpler, stabler firewall that won't require periodic debugging.

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Portland, Ore.: You recently mentioned an inexpensive TV with digital tuner for $200. Could you provide more details? Are flat screen digitals now available in smaller sizes? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Hit the Web sites of Best Buy, Circuit City or pretty much any other mainstream retailer. These sets are entry-level CRTs, no bigger than 27 inches, with digital tuners--so when they pull in a digital signal properly, you get a perfect picture, not with the snow or ghosting you can get even with a reasonably strong analog signal. (But if the signal cuts out, the whole picture can disintegrate instantly instead of getting steadily worse.)

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Alexandria, Va.: Rob

You gave me some good advice a couple years ago about durable MP3 players to consider buying before I deployed to Iraq. I hope you can help me out again.

Over the past few months, the processing speed of my five year old Gateway has slowed significantly. I've tried all sorts of home remedies. I've also tried some free scans of my system from Internet sites which tell me that their scan corrected some faults but I must purchase their software to correct other "serious problems".

One thing I haven't yet tried is to delete some of my CPU "processes". I have anywhere from 30-40 running depending upon when I check my Task Manager. However, because of my uncertainty of which processes are important, I'm very leery about deleting any of them.

So my options appear to be:

¿ Purchase some software to scan my system, detect problems, and correct them

¿ Hire someone like Geeks on Call to look at my system

¿ Delete some of the processes in the hope it results in improved speed with no harm to the system

¿ Look for another computer

Can you give me any other advice?

Thanks.

Rich

Rob Pegoraro: I'd rule out buying a new computer right away--in a worst-case situation, you could restore all of the machine's original performance by backing up your data, then wiping the hard drive and reinstalling Windows from scratch.

But you shouldn't have to go that extreme either. I would try using Microsoft's free Windows Defender to police what runs at startup. Just going through Add/Remove Programs to get rid of stuff you no longer use can also help.

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Columbia, S.C.: Are you aware of other voice recognition products besides Dragon and iListen?

Rob Pegoraro: There's an IBM program called ViaVoice, but it appears stuck in permanent developmental limbo--it hasn't gotten an upgrade in a few years.

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North Bethesda, Md.: My wife said it's time to by a flat-screen TV for the kitchen (got to love her). You've answered this before but I can't remember and I don't want to make a mistake. If I'm using cable and a box, it doesn't matter if it is a HD TV or not, right? If I want to continue to just have a cable into the TV, I should get HD as in a few years, non-HD won't be available, right?

Rob Pegoraro: If you buy a screen larger than 26 inches, it's almost certain to have a digital tuner built-in--and you should look for one that has that feature. If you only watch the networks, you may find that you'd rather watch digital TV off the air for free--without needing to add a cable box to the kitchen.

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Re: 16th and M, Verizon and DSL: You can probably easily get around it by just getting a router. The cable modem will interface directly with that, and you can interface with the router via Linux or Windows.

Rob Pegoraro: Here's one option for our Linux-using friend...

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Bethesda, Md.: Re: 16th and M. Just guessing, but I'd bet that your DSL box has a configuration page located at some pseudo-Internet address (i.e., something like http://127.xxx.xxx.xxx). If there is, you can just go to that address in your browser and work from there.

Rob Pegoraro: And another...

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Sherwood, Ore.: Hi Rob,

A few weeks ago during your chat, you mentioned having just sent a review iMac back to Apple. Was it the 24-inch? Are we going to see a review of this iMac in your column? I am about ready to buy one. Could you summarize for me your impressions of Apple's newest, biggest all-in-one?

Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Nope, that wasn't the 24-incher. I'm not planning on reviewing that one--it's a little too expensive for my blood, and it's also not a huge change from the previous model.

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Pegoraro v. Krebs: Rob - interesting comment on the ZoneAlarm firewall. Your colleague Brian Krebs recommends using ZoneAlarm to catch any nasty intruders before they get out of control. Any chance we'll get to see a debate between you two on this issue (broadcast on the Internet, of course)?

Rob Pegoraro: I keep trying to set up a steel-cage match, but Krebs keeps coming up with schedule conflicts :)

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Fix or Buy?: My 2003 Dell computer's been dead (no power) since June after the electrical storm. I bought a new power unit from Dell but nothing happened. Now I'm told its probably the mother board and I'm wondering. Should I purchase a new one or try to fix it? I'm a little bit nervous about trying to fix it because paying someone and buying a new mother board sounds like it will cost at least $200. Buying a new computer (without the viruses I've acquired) would be $350ish. Thoughts? I don't have a ton of pictures or financial documents on the computer. I mainly surfed the web, and used the computer as an alternative to going into work on the weekends.

Rob Pegoraro: The motherboard might cost less than $200; I'd get a solid estimate on it first. Thing is, buying a new machine might not get you any amazing increase in *perceived* capability--given how little you were taxing the processor on the old box, I doubt you'd see that great of a jump in performance (especially if you threw some extra memory into the old heap, a very cheap and cost-effective upgrade).

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Portland, Ore.: We're in the process of building a 2,400 sq. ft. house on two levels, with tv's and music on each of the levels. I'd love to have an entirely wireless system, with all music and at least some movies stored on a central server, and controllable by a remote. Ideally, at least one of the tv screens could serve as a substitute monitor for the laptop.

From all I read, the technology in this area still seems to be a bit spotty. Is there a neat solution for all of this -- whether wireless or, if necessary, wired?

Rob Pegoraro: No, not really. The music-sharing isn't that hard; you could use the Sonos system I reviewed a few weeks ago to do that, for instance. But I haven't heard of any whole-house video-streaming options.

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Biloxi, Miss.: I'm in the early stages of Apple ownership with a baseline MacBook, and the test drive edition of Word is getting ready to expire (which it tells me every time I save a file, which only makes me want it to expire that much quicker). Is there a free word processor out there that's Mac-compatible?

Rob Pegoraro: You've got a couple of choices--both open-source apps that have been ported to Mac OS X (meaning they won't have all the fit and polish of something "born" as a Mac program). Try starting with AbiWord (www.abisource.com), a small, *fast* word processor that doesn't try to match Word feature-for-feature. If you need something more powerful, you can try the beta version of NeoOffice (based on OpenOffice), at neooffice.org.

And if you don't need *anything* but the basics, try plain old TextEdit. It can open, edit and save files in Word format, although it will get confused at any really complex formatting.

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Governmentland: I use Firefox at home. However, my organization's web-based databases are only compatible with Explorer. Isn't it ridiculous that the government should file an anti-trust suit against Microsoft and still require us to use only their products? Are any candidates for Congress addressing this?

Rob Pegoraro: Remember, there are people in this Congress who think the Web is a "series of tubes." You're completely right about the idiocy of having IE-only sites, but you should save your lobbying efforts for individual IT people in your shop, who will probably know what Firefox is in the first place.

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Rockville, Md.: Rob, have you heard any further details about the TiVo Series 3 release recently?

Rob Pegoraro: Still more advice for the would-be Fios user.

Now, my own advice is for Verizon: When the customer wants to give you his money, let him do that! It's not your job to tell people what software they should run to go through some stupid registration process--much less go through the extra work needed to block out people using the "wrong" software.

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Las Vegas, Nev.: Cannot access secure financial web sites since I downloaded latest Internet Explorer 7 update--where can I get IE6? or how do I adjust to access secure sites?

Rob Pegoraro: You can uninstall IE 7; hit Add or Remove Programs, then click the "Show Updates" checkbox at the top of that window.

BTW, what exactly do you mean by "cannot access"? What message does IE flash when blocking these sites?

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1080 what?: Hi Rob, I'm going to buy a LCD for the bedroom, which may eventually become a tv for a living room. I'm thinking wither 26" or 32". Will 26" be made with 1080p soon? I'm confused whether you can see a difference in quality at these sizes, but I assume its better to go with 1080p for viewing movies. Help! Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Forget about 1080p at those sizes. Forget about it for any screen below maybe 50 inches, unless maybe you plan to use it as a computer monitor for a large portion of the time. This notion of 1080p as "full" or "real" or "true" HD is pretty much complete BS. You can't watch *anything* in 1080p unless you invest in the idiotic Blu-Ray/HD DVD format war; all broadcast, cable and satellite HD comes in at 720p and 1080i. Hell, when I've asked marketing guys at TV makers who will notice 1080p resolution versus even 720p, *they* have said you pretty much can't see any difference below 50 inches.

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Annapolis, Md.: Remember that crazy audiophile guy from Clifton (?). What's he been up to lately.

Rob Pegoraro: Uh, shopping for a 1080p HDTV?

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New York: Rob -

Taking into consideration that, over time, installing/uninstalling app's has the potential of messing up the registry, among other things...should the pre-packaged software that comes with a new computer just be left alone? Or can I go about removing the annoying clutter? AOL trial, MS Office trial, Netscape, plus a slew of Sony's own stuff (Connect music service. 'Nuff said). I'm not short on disk space - just unhappy w/ the junk ware cluttering things up.

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, punt that junk off the hard drive. (If you want the cleanest system possible, see if the system-recovery feature on the computer will let you install just Windows and any necessary drivers; some manufacturers offer this as an option to putting the whole package back on the hard drive.)

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email formats...: Rob, my question is about Internet email. I used to use .Mac, and loved the flexibility that having IMAP mail gave me, but I couldn't justify paying $100/yr when GMail is free. The only problem I have with GMail is that it's POP3 and comes with all the related annoyances when checking email from multiple computers. Now that using multiple computers to check email is the norm rather than the exception, why aren't there more IMAP options out there? It would be nice to be able to send/recieve emails and have those messages stored no matter where I am at the time.

Rob Pegoraro: Try fastmail.fm. I've heard nothing about good things about that service from readers in the past.

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Buena Vista, N.M. 87712: Are there any cell phones which transcribe the speech onto the screen?

I am deaf so that I am unable to hear any calls on the cell phone. If I could read the message from the cell phone screen it would be a life changing experience.

Alan

Rob Pegoraro: I'm afraid the technology isn't there yet.

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Washington, D.C.: When I watch a DVD through my DVD player/receiver, white horizontal lines appear during major action sequences. The player is about five years old. I thought there might be a problem with the lens and have tried to clean it, but that doesn't seem to help. Do you know what the problem might be?

I never seemed to have the problem before I bought a plasma TV last year. The dvd/receiver doesn't have component connections and I use an S-video cable, if that makes a difference.

Rob Pegoraro: See if there any video-processing/upconversion options enabled on the plasma TV; they might be introducing artifacts in the footage.

But, really, you should just buy a new, upconverting DVD player. It shouldn't run you more than $200, maybe much less than that--a small price to pay to take full advantage of your plasma's capabilities.

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DC: Hiya Rob, Between now and Christmas, is there any one time better than another to buy my new iMac? Thanks for all your great articles!

Rob Pegoraro: Go ahead and buy now--Apple *just* updated it, so you'll either get a good closeout deal on the old model or you'll be buying the brand-new version. (FYI, Amazon's offering its usual rebates on them--$100 to $150, depending on which version you get.)

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Silver Spring: Can you provide any information on firewall/virus software that may (or may not) be built in to the new Ubuntu Linux platform? I don't see any information about this as a built-in on the distribution.

Rob Pegoraro: Ubuntu has a firewall built in, like every other Linux distribution I've tried. No anti-virus built in. You can download one if you like; they do exist for Linux. But you are *extremely* unlikely to run across any Linux viruses in the wild, much less put one in any position to infect your machine. (You'd have to do some non-trivial tinkering just to get it to run, assuming it arrived attached to an e-mail message.) If you only download from trusted sites--an easy thing to do, as long as you stick to using its built-in software installer--you pretty much don't need anti-virus software in Ubuntu.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi Rob, I've asked a few times in the past few weeks, but no response. Please, even if you have no info, can you tell me what you know about when FIOS might be available in the district?

Rob Pegoraro: Sorry, I just don't know. If you're sick of Comcast, get RCN instead. If you can't get RCN, try Dish Network or DirecTV. If you can't put up a satellite dish, see if you can live with free digital TV over the air. If that doesn't work or you must have the extra channels... well, Comcast will continue to own you. Sorry.

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London, UK: Rob,

Thanks for your excellent column. My question is the following : I just got a spanking new Dell laptop.. which came with all this pre-installed junkware (AOL, Corel). I tried Windows/Uninstall - that didn't work (install.log file not found, etc); I then tried running the Dell De-Crapifier - which didn't work either (starting getting Windows installer errors); I then tried giving Dell a call - which didn't work as they don't give software support ! Apart from the terrible caveat emptor customer service provided, have you heard of a good way to fix this??

Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: See my previous suggestion about using the computer's system-recovery features, then opting out of the "bonus" software. (I don't know offhand if Dell gives that option, but I know the last time I did have to rely on a Dell's recovery feature, it didn't even install the right drivers by default, much less any extra software!)

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Boonsboro, Md.: Referring to your Midrange Blues article, and looking to finally replace my obsolete desktop PC. Planning to do some video editing of old home movies in the near future and burn them to DVD. Would a low to midrange PC be sufficient for this if I install a decent video card myself, rather than the default Intel graphics?

Rob Pegoraro: The video card won't help you edit movies; it's only there for 3-d graphics (and, should you install Vista, to render the Aero Glass interface). For editing movies, you really do need a fast processor. There's no getting around that.

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Arlington, Va.: Here is my plan -- I want to make sure its possible: Buy a Macmini, buy a reasonably nice flat-screen TV, and keep my existing stereo.

I'll be able to hook both the TV & the stereo to the Mac, right? So I could play music from the Mac & play DVDs from the Mac drive. I'll also be able to use the TV as the computer monitor, right?

Also do you think this would be hard? Or is Apple's fabled compatibility going to make this a snap, or will it be somewhere between hard & a snap?

Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: I've done exactly that. It's all pretty straightforward; the only hard part is figuring out where to wire the different connectors between the Mac mini, the TV and the stereo system--what you'd have to do to add any audio/video component to the home theater stack.

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Leesburg, Va.: Question - my Linksys Wi-Fi (WRT54G) router interferes with my 2.4GHz AT&T portable home phone by causing clicking sounds during telephone calls. The problem is reduced when I move beyond 20 feet of the router. The problem makes it difficult to have phone calls in my office near the router.

Is there a more compatible portable phone system?

I think my current phone system is the AT&T model 2462 with a base station capable of handling up to six remote units.

In anticipation, thanks.

Jerry

Rob Pegoraro: A lot of cordless phones use the same 2.4 GHz range as WiFi, but they're supposed to avoid using the exact same frequencies. It sounds like yours doesn't. I'd put it up on eBay and buy a new one--you certainly won't be able to fix things by getting another wireless router.

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Charleston, S.C.: Rob,

In the past you have criticized office suites for being too complex and much more business oriented than home/home business oriented. Have you looked at Apple's iWork Pages and, if so, can you compare it in these respects to MS Word or other word processors? Perhaps you could compare it as you did when you compared Excel to an online spreadsheet, that is, Pages does x percent of what Word does in terms of home/home business use. Thank you.

Rob Pegoraro: I don't think iWork is any sort of Office replacement yet--how can it be when it doesn't include a spreadsheet app? (You can embed a very basic spreadsheet in a Pages document, but that's it.)

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Baltimore, Md.: Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, since this is my first tech chat. My question is regarding iTunes and external hard drives. I just bought an external hard drive because I'm afraid that my laptop is going to crash any day now. I have lots of songs on my laptop, but will I be able to transfer them? If I remember correctly, iTunes only lets a restricted number of computers to play the music on file. Should I burn CDs instead?

Rob Pegoraro: The iTunes limit only affects how many computers at any one time can play music; you can authorize or de-authorize computers as you want. This doesn't affect your ability to make extra backup copies of your purchases; you could put them on a dozen separate hard drives without a problem, as long as you don't try to play them on a dozen machines at once.

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Re: 1080 what?: Hi Rob, Okay, so if 720p is the best you're going to get for casual viewing at either 26" or 32", what are the most important specifications to look for when buying an LCD? Do you think its better to wait for the market to drop further before buying or is now as good a time as any? Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: I'm not done writing that column! Sit tight...

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Laptop repair follow-up question: Hi again, Rob. Did you ever have any more thoughts or get any good leads on whether you're better off taking your laptop to a mom-and-pop shop or someplace like MicroCenter when it needs to be diagnosed and repaired? There's a (relatively) new shop on King Street I'm tempted to try, but I don't know how to know whether they're good and I can't afford to get burned. On the other hand, the bigs are so focused on selling upgrades and extended warranties that I don't really trust them anymore. Ideas welcome!

Rob Pegoraro: Good question. (Just yesterday, I stumbled across one local blogger's rant about her experience with Micro Center's repairs. I'd hit the library and look up the last issue of Washington Consumer Checkbook to review computer-repair services. Or hit checkbook.org and buy a subscription for yourself.

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Governmentland again: "who will probably know what Firefox is in the first place" Some of them call it "Foxfire."

Rob Pegoraro: But if they know that refers to an alternative browser and not a Clint Eastwood flick, that's still something...

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Warrenton, Va.: What's the latest thinking about leaving a home computer on all the time vs. turning it off when not in use? I have a new iMac, and the user manual recommends leaving it on. But I'm worried about power outages. I only have a power strip type surge protector. So how much does it hurt the computer if the power fails occasionally?

Rob Pegoraro: Not really--the Mac has a "journaled" file system that should prevent any data loss or corruption after an unexpected outage. But if these outages come up often enough to interrupt your work, buy yourself an uninterruptible power supply. You don't need a high-end model that will work for hours and hours; the cheapest model in the store will still let you ride out the occasional blip and give you time to shut down things in orderly fashion if you're in for a longer outage. (I've got an APC model under my desktop at home, and it's done very well over the last few years.)

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Alexandria, VA - Tell me about the 700wx: I have a friend who recently jumped from his T600 to the 700wx and has been blown away. He's a longtime Palm user, stuck to them religiously, but has been really surprised at the Sprint service and also at his overall approval of the device. Have you taken a look at it yet?

Rob Pegoraro: Nope, I haven't--it's almost the same thing as the Treo 700w I reviewed in January: http://www.palm.com/us/products/compare/index.html

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Arlington, Va.: Do you have any sense as to how Verizon's roll out of its new Fios service is going? I'm wondering if my experience is an aberration or if other people have had similar problems. We decided to switch to the Fios phone/cable/internet package because it theoretically should save us $35-40 per month, would give us the cable stations we want, and high speed internet. Verizon installs the phone service first and then installs the cable and internet at a later date. So, we had the phone service installed which took most of a day. It stopped working that night. We called Verizon and told them about the problem. They told us they could have someone out the next day and we didn't even have to be at home because they would only need to work on the box outside the house.

We got home the next night and found a note from the technician which said he could not fix the problem because we were not at home. However, the phone was working and when we called Verizon they could not explain why he had left that note. Within a few days we started getting a radio station faintly over the phone. Within a week the music on the phone was so loud we could not hear the people we were talking to. We scheduled another appointment and received the 8-12 time slot. My wife took another morning off work so she could let the guy in. She started calling shortly after 12 and was told throughout the afternoon that he would be there within an hour. He finally showed up a little after 5:00 p.m. Initially, he told my wife that it was "impossible" to get the radio over a Fios phone and that we needed to call the radio station and tell them to stop broadcasting their signal so strong. My wife told him that we had never had this problem before we installed Fios and persuaded him to check out the system. He eventually found that the initial tech had never disconnected the old copper wire. This solved the problem temporarily. However, within a few days we started getting the radio again, although it is very faint.

Last week we had the cable and internet installed. Both cable and internet work very well and we have no complaints. The guy who installed the internet was the same guy who originally installed the phone. He tried to fix the problem with the phone but could not do it. He said he was going to talk to his boss about the problem and get back to us but we haven't heard anything yet.

Any comments?

Rob Pegoraro: Weird... hadn't heard of *that* problem ever before. Most of the people who have told me about their Fios installations--aside from 16th and M today!--have actually been really pleased about the whole process.

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Worcester, Mass.: Hi Rob, I'm intrigued by HD radio, but don't want to be an early adopter (and end up saddled with the 2006 equivalent of a Betamax). What's your opinion of the technology and its chances of survival, especially vs. satellite radio? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: So many radio stations have begun broadcasting in HD that I would be surprised if it perished outright--but the manufacturers MUST get some more hardware in the market. If the selection is just as bad as it is now by the middle of next year, I might have to revise my predictions about HD Radio.

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Medford, Ore.: Hi there, my seven year old computer has been running so sloooow, and the computer info person at the senior center said it was hardly worth trying to up-grade. So I bought a new computer I will hook-up this week. What can I do to keep it operating safely, smoothly and efficiently? Thank you for taking my question, I enjoy your column.

Rob Pegoraro: Have a look at my how-to column on computer security from last winter: Basic Rules Plus Common Sense Add Up to Security

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Haymarket, Va.: You ran a column in December 2004 that I clipped and cannot find. Also, I couldn't find it online. Please help!!! We have had AOL for several years but recently moved to a new community. Broadband internet service is included in our HOA dues. Clearly, we don't need both, but we don't know how to keep our AOL address while dumping the service. Thank You

Rob Pegoraro: I just revisited that topic, actually--forunately, it's a little easier than it was when I described it the first time around:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/01/AR2006070100116.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200091.html

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San Diego, Calif.: In XP, if I have loaded anti-virus, spyware, etc. on one profile, are the other profiles covered? If not, does that mean that I have to add the protection onto each profile or is there one central place that I can manage the protection for all profiles? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Those apps should all work for every user without your having to change any settings.

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Rob Pegoraro: That wraps things up for today--the day job is calling me. Thanks for all the questions! I should be back here in a couple of weeks.

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