Communications

Competitive spoils go to consumers
Competition is the watchword for wireless telephones in Boston today. Six companies are battling for market dominance by slashing prices and aggressively extending their coverage area, and consumers are ending up the winners.

Getting "me" on-line
"Personalize this page!" "Your News!" "Your Sports!" "Your World!" Chances are, if you've hit your favorite Web search engine lately, you've noticed a button or link inviting you to "personalize" your visits to the site. Personal? The Internet? Well, yes, sort of. [ More ]

HDTV: Broadcast's quiet, pricey revolution
This month, the biggest change in television technology since TV broadcasts first began more than 50 years ago is starting to hit the airwaves -- and most people won't even notice.

Do-it-yourself high quality CDs
For more than a decade, the music-loving public has been given a choice between quality and control. Consumers could buy their music on high-quality digital compact discs, and be forced to listen to music the way the record studio intended, or you could create your own cassette tape with the tunes that you wanted, and be forced to put up with the inferior analog sound quality. [ More ]

What it takes to make a home office work
You're considering swapping the sociability and resources of the office for the convenience of working at home. Calculating how much money and time are wasted commuting in the overall context of one's life is a sobering revelation. At home, you roll out of bed and walk a few feet into your office. Dress like a slob (or not at all), and bathe every other day. Choose when you want to see people. [ More ]

A search engine that uses linguistic
analysis to cut to the chase
Kathleen Dahlgren is on a mission: It's not to save the world, but to " InQuizitize" it.

Repetitive strain injuries crippling high tech workplace
Computers are helping people with disabilities as never before. But ironically, experts who work in the field say that the largest and fastest growing group of disabled computer users are otherwise healthy people whose hands and wrists have been injured from years at the keyboard. [ More ]

Now you can be on speaking terms with your computer
Not too long ago the only places you would find talking computers were in sci-fi novels and films. Well, the future is here and speech recognition software (computer programs that understand spoken language) has progressed from the drawing board to a cutting-edge product available to a marketplace that is hungry to gobble up the latest technological toys. [ More ]

Students plug in to high tech demands of college
When asked about buying a computer for new college students, Louis and Karen Coppi draw on 10 years of experience. "We're a 24 semester family," says Karen Coppi. "Three kids times eight semesters. We have five semesters to go." [ More ]

Necessity's abandoned techno child
Remember the old James Bond movies? Just after the credits, Bond's boss M would briskly outline the latest threat to world peace and tranquility. Then 007 proceeded down the hall to Her Majesty's armorer, Q. Back when Sean Connery had a rich head of hair, Q had all the cool gizmos. Bond never faced SPECTRE without the latest high-tech geegaw, whether it be a fountain pen that accepted trans-Atlantic phone calls or a short-wave briefcase. [ More ]

They believe they can fly
It's Monday night, and the air over Boston is crowded. There are dozens of Beechcraft Bonanzas and Boeing 737s flitting through the dark skies. Far below, Dan Mastropietro sits hunched over a glowing video display, trying to keep them all sorted out. Mastropietro runs air traffic control for the Boston area, heading a team of controllers who keep tabs on flight plans and manage takeoffs and landings. [ More ]

Consumers need to assess the Y2K impact on their lives
Fact or fiction? It's midnight, Dec. 31, 1999. When the lights go out, it's not because of the New Year celebration, but rather, because the utility company's computer systems weren't converted to recognize the year 2000. [ More ]