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I want to access the Internet through TV cable. How do I go about doing it? Do I need any particular channel, interface cards or special software?

David

Some cable operators are providing Internet through cable. To access the Internet in this mode, you need a cable modem.

The cable through which we get various channels on our TV needs to be connected to this cable modem. From this cable modem a network or USB cable will have to be connected to the computer.

Once the physical connection and the configuration are done, you can start accessing the Internet from your browser. There is no additional software to be installed in the computer to access the Internet through cable.

Internet through cable is sometimes referred to as cablenet. The cablenet uses TV cable as the medium for the Internet. Normal TV signals and the Internet signals are sent separately along different channels in the same cable.

Both the signals are sent in the same cable simultaneously without any distortion. The cable modem will do the separation of the Internet signals and send them to the computer.

The Internet and TV can be watched simultaneously. There will not be any interference to either one because of the other.

In Internet through cable, the Internet connection is always on. No telephone is required. And there is no dialling to the Internet. The speed of access is also higher. In Internet through telephone line you will have to dial and get connected to the Net. The cablenet scores over the regular dial up Internet service. Broadband Internet service has also become popular nowadays.

You can check with your local cable operator for the availability of Internet connection, and the various plans and tariff details.

Solution by P. Natarajan

Does adding the CD artwork to an MP3 song make that file a lot bigger?

Adding album covers or other images does make the song file larger. The artwork, along with other data like track information, is stored in the ID3 tag embedded within the music file.

Giving up a bit of extra hard-drive space may be well worth it to many people who like to see the artwork displayed when listening to music on the computer or portable player. Those generic CD icons in Windows Media Player or grey music notes in iTunes can get a little monotonous.

Just how much extra space is taken up depends on the art itself. If the album cover is sized at 200 by 200 pixels (the default size for Windows Media Player), it may take up only around 35 Kb. Using bigger files with a resolution like 300 by 300 pixels can mean another 62 Kb or so, but this will vary by image.

A few dozen kilobytes may not sound like much in today’s giant 120-Gb hard drives. But if you are ripping every track in a 1,000-disc collection and then snagging an album cover for every disc, all those kilobytes can add up to a noticeable chunk of megabytes. — NYT

Tip of the week: Sometimes the Subject line of an email message is all you need: “Meet me at the theatre at 7.45.”

If you use Gmail and get annoyed by its worried alert box about the lack of body text, there is a simple fix to save a mouse click. Just type EOM (short for End of Message) after the text on the subject line and fire away. The message will be sent post haste. — NYT

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