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There is a specter haunting advertisers, marketers, and manufacturers all across the fruited  plain. It is the specter of the sharing economy.

Many of the young are turning their backs on the very concept of owning much of anything apart from toiletries and clothing. They see no need to buy cars, houses, appliances, and machine tools. They can rent or share them as the need arises.

Since much of our consumption, and much of the nation’s gross domestic product, is tied up in the purchase of goods we use only occasionally, our settled economic milieu may be ripe for disruption. We buy and maintain vehicles that we drive only one or two hours a day, so they’ll be ready for us in case we need them. We spend more than half of our lives away from home, and volatile career paths may induce frequent moves, so purchasing real estate may mean stranding resources in illiquid assets. Our appliances and our machine tools are idle most of the time.

These patterns of consumption waste massive amounts of money, material, and energy. Recognizing this, many Americans have embraced the sharing economy. Ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, and home-sharing services such as AirBnB, are only part of the first wave.

In concept, the sharing economy is not new, though the applications cited above are. The first major manifestation of the concept was the public library, its first wares donated by wealthy people whose books would otherwise gather dust. Through the lending library, a book that might otherwise be read by only one or two people in its entire existence, might be read by dozens in a single year.

Building on the success of Uber, Lyft, and AirBnB, entrepreneurs are extending the commercial sharing concept into other fields. The pioneering efforts of Uber and Lyft in the ridesharing market have opened the door for related transport services. RelayRides, a venture backed by Google, enables borrowing of cars from neighbors, by the day or by the hour. Spinlister is a peer-to-peer network for the sharing and renting of bicycles. Boatbound, “the AirBnB of boat rentals”, helps users reserve boats in any major city near a lake or other navigable body of water.

The sharing concept has begun to make inroads into the labor market. TaskRabbit is a mobile market for the hiring of temporary help: tasks ranging from repair to delivery to cleaning to administrative work, even commercial art and writing. “Rabbits” must undergo interviews and background checks before being listed in the system. Zaarly is a peer-to-peer market for home and commercial services. It differs from Taskrabbit in seeking to create “stores’ for particular types of services: iPhone repair or lawn care, for example.

The sharing concept may solve problems that are otherwise insoluble. Where will you leave your dog or cat, for example, if you’ve scheduled an extended trip out of town? A kennel is far from ideal. With DogVacay, you can leave your pet with other pet owners who love animals, and who will give yours a level of care you wouldn’t expect from an overworked and indifferent kennel employee who is responsible for dozens of animals.

One of the most important developing opportunities in the sharing economy is commercial real estate. Long term leases of offices or merchandise display space may not make sense in a fluid economy, and some business owners may just rent them for an hour or  a day, as needed. Some nomadic souls may exchange support pads for tiny homes.

If you’re tired of accumulating goods you seldom use, the sharing economy has much to offer you. And it’s barely getting underway.

(To participate fully in the sharing economy, you need sufficient bandwidth. Talk to us.)

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REPLACING THE PASSWORD

Security is one of our most important concerns in use of the internet. Carelessness can expose our devices to malware and hacking, and we risk our bank accounts and our identities.

The password is a partial solution, our best attempt to limit the risk in internet use. It’s not a perfect defense, though, and it brings its own drawbacks. Passwords that are easy to remember may also be easy for hackers to guess. More difficult passwords we can forget more easily, and we can be locked out of our devices or our secured sites. With multiple passwords, we compound the burden on memory.

In the future, even the best, most complex passwords may not be adequate defenses. As hackers gain access to ever more processing power, brute force attacks could overcome even our most sophisticated encryption efforts. What, then, can we do?

In the long run, replacing the password may be our only realistic chance of protecting our data, our money, and our identities. But what will you replace your password with?

One of the most promising new security protocols is use of biometric data. Replacing your password with a fingerprint, a facial scan, or an iris scan would save having to remember a complex code. A hacker can’t duplicate your features, your fingerprint, or your retinas. It wouldn’t matter how much processing power he had. Without physical access to your computer, he couldn’t break the code.

Dell, Microsoft, Digital Persona, and a few other vendors sell fingerprint scanners for computer security. All sell at retail for less than $80.00. One sells for less than $20.00. After installing your scanner, you can log in just by pressing your finger in the designated slot. You’ll never need a login password again.

Iris or retinal scanners are commonly used for airport and military security. They are too expensive for most consumer uses, but this is expected to change. Improvements in sensor technology will drive prices downward.

One of the most important technologies replacing the password will be machine learning. Ray Kurzweil, one of the most famous computer scientists, as well as a prominent author, inventor, and futurist, said that in the future “the machine will learn you”. Advanced software algorithms will learn the habits of computer users. Eventually, your computer will know your patterns of use and the cadence of your keystrokes. Your computer could detect attempted hacking simply because the hacker’s use patterns will differ from yours. No other security protocol will be necessary.

For now, replacing your computer passwords with more advanced security tools requires time, effort, or money. Before long, you won’t need to expend extra effort or money, as all computers and (legitimate) websites will have adequate security tools built in.

Meanwhile, you may have to rely on your memory.

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PASSWORD MANAGERS

You know the drill for logging in to your computer. You have to enter a password. You also need passwords for your internet service, for specific websites, and for online commerce.

The use of passwords for online security comes with certain drawbacks. If your password is easy to remember, it may also be easy for a hacker to guess it. If your password is more complex, a combination of letters and numbers, you’re more likely to forget it, and you could be locked out of your computer. If you have several passwords, you’re almost certain to forget one sooner or later.

Some people use password managers, installed browser plug-ins that track all of the passwords the user needs for all different online functions. If you have the plug-in and you log in to a secure site, it offers to save your password and any other credentials. You need to enter the information only once. With every subsequent visit, the password manager offers to fill in the information automatically. If you have saved multiple logins for a particular site, the password manager will show you multiple login options. Most password managers display a toolbar menu with a list of saved login credentials, so you can visit any saved site and log in automatically.

If you need to change a password, or you need login credentials for a new site but don’t want to think of a new password, most password managers will generate and save new passwords automatically.

Most password managers will also fill in personal data on internet forms: name, address, phone number, e-mail address, etc. This could save you considerable time.

Most password managers are free. The better ones cost between $12.00 and $39.95. You don’t have to shell out a lot of money for a superior product, though. One of the top-rated password managers, Lastpass 4.0 Premium, costs just $12.00.

If you want your online activity to be secure, but don’t want to remember multiple passwords, consider installing a password manager. And for the best internet service, talk to us.

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CUTTING THE TV CORD

One of the advantages of having HughesNet service is ‘cutting the cord’: getting multichannel TV service without a cable or satellite subscription. You can stream video directly over the internet. Several comprehensive video services are available for streaming, and they don’t require proprietary equipment, scheduling an installation, or long term contracts.

Several providers offer fairly complete video streaming services. Unlike Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video, these providers offer live TV in addition to recorded shows or movies.

One of the leading web streaming services is Sling TV, launched by Dish Network last year. Unlike the legacy Dish Network service, the new video platform doesn’t require any contracts. Sling TV works on home TV sets or on mobile devices such as tablets, smart phones, and computers. Among the devices supported by Sling TV are the Roku, Chromecast, and Amazon Fire TV streaming boxes and sticks, iOS and Android tablets and phones, and XBox One and PlayStation Vue gaming consoles.

Sling TV’s basic twenty-three channel package costs just $20.00 per month. Optional news, sports, and movie packages are available, each one costing just $5.00 per month . In total, more than sixty-five channels are available, and Sling TV is constantly adding more. The basic package, called The Best of Live TV, includes ESPN, AMC, A&E, Food Network, TBS, History, Lifetime, Adult Swim, Disney, Cartoon Network, Bloomberg, and CNN, among other channels. HBO is available for $15.00 per month.

If you need five hundred channels, you’ll have to get a cable or satellite TV subscription. But if you watch only movies and a few favorite live TV channels, a streaming service such as Sling TV will work better for you. You could get a wide variety of entertainment, news, sports, and premium movie channels for $50.00 to $60.00 per month. This is about half the average monthly cost of a cable subscription, so if you’re interested in cutting your entertainment budget without sacrificing quality, Sling TV may be what you need.

You can manage cutting the cord, and cutting cost, without cutting quality- if you know where to look.

(To find out more about streaming video services, and other enhancements to HughesNet, talk to us.)

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Magnavox HDD DVR and DVD Recorder w/ Digital Tuner

DVRs For Cord Cutters

Many consumers, exasperated with the high fees and poor customer service common to cable TV subscriptions, have become ‘cord cutters’. They’ve ditched the subscription model. With millions of people using mobile devices for nearly all communications, and with internet video streaming becoming more practical, the cord cutting trend is now irreversible.

Though cord cutting saves money, it comes with drawbacks. Free over-the-air TV is limited to live broadcasts: little other than local news, sports, and award shows. An over-the-air (OTA) DVR can help expand expand your viewing options. Most DVRs have been dedicated boxes available only with cable or satellite TV subscriptions. In the last three years, though, several manufacturers have built OTA DVRs that don’t require subscriptions: TiVo, Tablo, SiliconDust, and Channel Master, among others.

The Channel Master DVR is among the best of them. It sports dual tuners, so you can watch one show while recording another, and its on-screen electronic programming guide is free.  TiVo, probably the best OTA DVR on the market in features and function, requires an annual $150.00 service fee in addition to its $300.00 purchase price.

The most surprising new entries into the OTA DVR market are by Magnavox. Once one of the dominant electronics brands, Magnavox has been a minor player in the industry for the last two decades.

In last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, though, Magnavox unveiled three new DVR models. Each one has at least two tuners and 1 TB of storage capacity; one has six tuners and 3 TB. All are due for release in the last quarter of 2016. Each has  a free on-screen EPG. Each has a built-in WiFi router, so you can stream live or recorded video to iOS or Android devices. Magnavox says its DVRs will also download content for viewing offline, and one model will burn video into an integrated DVD recorder.

(For streaming video, you need the right internet service. To find the one that works best for you, talk to us. It takes just one phone call.)

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NEW TV SETS AT C.E.S.

At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, manufacturers will demonstrate their most advanced TV sets. Most of the industry buzz surrounds 4K, High Dynamic Range (HDR), and flexible displays.

4K, also called Ultra HD, is a resolution standard. 4K TV sets display four times the number of pixels in conventional HD displays, hence the name. With four times the resolution, the picture will be much sharper, though you’d have to view from within six feet of the screen to tell the difference. Broadcasters and movie studios are taking their time in providing 4K content, since filming and editing in 4K is more difficult and expensive, and requires encoding four times the information in conventional HD. Downloading 4K video also requires four times the bandwidth of conventional HD.

Still, every major electronics manufacturer now offers a 4K-capable TV set. As more content becomes available in 4K, demand for new 4K sets will explode, and no manufacturer wants its technology to fall behind consumer demand.

High Dynamic Range is one of the more interesting new TV technologies. 4K, by contrast, is brute force, simply stuffing more pixels into a display. HDR is more subtle. Long a staple of the more advanced still cameras, HDR offers much higher contrast ratios and greater color accuracy. HDR TV sets display greater contrast between dark and light, and more detail and subtlety in the mid-range.  Most video experts believe HDR will improve the viewer’s experience of TV much more than 4K will. Also, HDR encodes only 20% more information than conventional HD does, so it won’t consume nearly as much bandwidth as 4K.

Despite its obvious advantages, HDR has not been embraced by manufacturers as enthusiastically as 4K has. This is beginning to change, though. Samsung and LG are demonstrating HDR sets at the Consumer Electronics Show, and other manufacturers are expected to follow soon.

The industry trend toward ever thinner and lighter screens continues. LG demonstrated a new OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen that is just 2.5 millimeters thick. This is about as thick as five stacked credit cards. The screen can even be bent and rolled up without damaging it.

(To get the most out of new TV technologies, make sure you have adequate bandwidth. Talk to us. We can find the internet service that works best for you.)

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STREAMING SERVICES: VIDEO & MUSIC

One advantage of having a HughesNet broadband connection is access to video and music streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, Spotify, and Pandora. Such services stream content to you directly via the web. Most of them don’t require a cable or satellite TV subscription, nor installation of any proprietary equipment. Most are compatible with iOS and Android tablets and smartphones, XBox One and Playstation Vue gaming consoles, Mac and PC computers, and Chromecast, Roku, and Apple TV streaming devices.

Most such services are very inexpensive. Pandora and Spotify, two of the leading web music services, charge nothing for their basic service tiers. The only catch is that your music will be interrupted occasionally by commercials. To skip the ads, you’ll pay a nominal monthly fee: $4.99 for Pandora, $9.99 for Spotify.

Video streaming services are not free, but they don’t cost much. Hulu, which carries a wide variety of TV shows and movies, charges $7.99 per month for video streaming with “limited commercials”. For an additional $4.00 per month. you can get the commercial-free version. Netflix, the most popular streaming video service, carries a huge library of TV shows and movies. The basic Netflix service, at $7.99 per month, will stream to just one device, and is available only in standard definition. For $9.99 per month, you can get an HD-capable version for up to two devices. For $11.99 per month, you can get it in Ultra HD on up to four devices. Most of Amazon Prime Video’s content is free with a $99.00 annual membership, which includes free shipping for most items sold in Amazon’s online store.

Sling TV, launched by Dish Network in early 2015, is an interesting addition to the streaming video market. Sling TV differs from most other streaming services in offering live TV. The basic 23-channel package costs just $20.00 per month. Several movie and sports packages can be added to the core package for just $5.00 per month each. For about $50.00 to $60.00 per month, about half the cost of a standard cable or satellite TV subscription, you could get a combined live TV, sports, and premium movie channel bundle. You would have a very complete TV service, and if you don’t require a huge number of channels, you can save a substantial sum of money. Unlike the standard Dish Network service, Sling TV doesn’t require a satellite dish or a long term contract.

These are just a few of the internet video and music streaming services available. For a wide variety of convenient and low-cost entertainment options, you should look into it.

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PRIVACY AND THE WEB

The internet has been a huge benefit for most of us. It opens up nearly the entire store of the world’s knowledge to us, and it enables easier and faster communication. It comes at a huge cost, though: loss of privacy.

Your browser tracks your website visits in order to help advertisers identify your interests, so they can more easily identify the pitches you will respond to. Your posts on social media, and tags by others about you on social media, can live on forever, despite your best efforts to suppress them.

Some of the more prominent browser operators and social media sites have attempted to limit damage to personal privacy. There is only so much they can do, though. Parties determined enough to find and publicize the information can usually do so.  When Google attempted to comply with the European Union’s 2014 “Right to Be Forgotten” law, the British Broadcasting Company aggregated and reposted the links to its own stories that the search engine had delisted. The State of California enacted an “eraser button” law for minor children. Under its terms, minors are guaranteed a means to erase their social media posts, but the law can’t keep others from disseminating the information in them.

Any technical fixes may reduce our vulnerability, but they don’t eliminate it. Last June, Google expunged links to revenge porn from its search engine, and deleted the information in them. This makes revenge porn much more difficult, but not impossible. YouTube’s “face-blurring” tool can prevent being tagged by facial recognition apps. This is especially useful for participants in public gatherings, such as political demonstrations. It won’t prevent publication on other social media sites, though. And a person whose face has been blurred can still be identified by clothing, posture, or other distinctive features.

It would be unrealistic to expect to be forgotten on the internet. The best we can hope for is obscurity. Once your information is online, whether posted by you or others, you can’t control who sees it. With some prudence and a few technical fixes, though, you can shield yourself from casual spies. Only the most motivated, persistent, and technically savvy can find what you’re hiding.

To some, this will be cold comfort. For most of us, though, it will be enough. Take a few simple steps to guard your online privacy, and you probably will be fine. Use complex passwords that will be difficult to break. Disable tracking cookies on your browser. Be careful about the websites you visit. Above all else, remember your mother’s advice: avoid doing anything in a public venue you don’t want the whole world to know about. Be especially wary where cameras are likely to be present.

If you have ever been online, your privacy won’t be absolute. With a few basic precautions, though, you should be able to avoid serious problems.

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TV EVERYWHERE

With your HughesNet service, you’ll have expanded options for TV viewing. With the ability to stream video via the internet, you are not limited to the programming choices or bundles offered by cable and satellite TV systems.

TV Everywhere is an industry term for streaming video services that don’t require conventional cable boxes or satellite dishes. It’s also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video-on-demand. For most such services, you won’t need to have any equipment installed, and for some, you won’t have to sign any long term contracts. Access to programming is through an authentication code you enter on your device.

The pay TV industry developed TV Everywhere to answer the competitive challenge posed by streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.

TV Everywhere offers flexibility in viewing platforms. Most TVE applications are compatible with iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Mac and PC computers, Roku, PlayStation, XBox One, Apple TV, and Chromecast devices.

Most TVE services are additions to conventional cable or satellite TV subscriptions. Last February, though, Dish Network launched Sling TV, an independent web-streaming-only platform. Sling TV customers don’t have to sign any long term contracts, can pay on a month-to-month basis, and don’t need Dish Network dishes or receivers. Most programming packages are light on the wallet. The core Sling TV package of 23 channels costs just $20.00 per month.

Since then, some cable system operators are considering offering similar products. Comcast and Verizon have tested separate streaming apps in some markets. Use of these apps does not require the standard cable TV subscription, though Comcast’s streaming service is available only to its broadband subscribers.

As a rule, streaming video services cost much less than cable or satellite TV subscriptions. This is mainly because their channel bundles are usually much smaller. You will need to research TVE providers, though, to be sure you save money- and that you’re getting the channels you want.

(For access to TV Everywhere or other internet services, talk to us.)

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SAVING DATA: MY OWN EXPERIENCE

Every internet service provider rations the amount of data each customer can use per month at the standard speed. If you break your data cap, your download speeds will be cut drastically. Knowing how frustrating this can be, you can benefit from learning how to economize on data without hampering function.

You might find it helpful to know my own experience with data caps, and with my efforts to get the most out of my data allotment.

Needing to research a high volume of material, and being pressed for time, I use Google Chrome for browsing. Chrome is faster than competing browsers, but it comes with a significant drawback: it consumes more data. I needed to find ways to get the most out of what I had.

My data saving program began with disabling auto-play video. Not only is such video advertising annoying, it eats a huge amount of data.

First,  I disabled Adobe Flash, which most- though not all- auto-play ads run on. This required opening my computer’s control panel and hitting the ‘settings’ tab. From there, I scrolled scroll down to the ‘advanced settings’ tab at the bottom of the ‘settings’ window. On the second page of ‘advanced settings’, I found the ‘privacy’ tab. Under ‘privacy’ I found the ‘plug-ins’ tab. One of the options there is ‘manage individual exceptions’. Hitting this tab revealed a list of several optional apps, and Adobe Flash was the last one listed.  I hit ‘disable’ for Flash.

Disabling Adobe Flash doesn’t mean you can never use it again. If you want to watch a video that requires Flash, you can enable it as needed, then disable it again when you’re finished.

If you’re a typical web-surfer, disabling auto-play video and audio should reduce your data consumption by about 20%.

My second major step in saving data was enabling Chrome’s data saver extension. This app compresses picture, video, and sound files.

After hearing about the data saver extension, I looked it up through the browser. It told me the extension was available through the Chrome Web Store. Visiting the store, and searching under ‘apps’, I brought up ‘extensions’.  ‘Data Saver’ was the first extension listed. I chose the ‘download’ option.

Downloading the Chrome Data Saver extension takes only a few seconds. If you want to disable it later, you can easily do so.

Google says that use of this extension will reduce data consumption by up to 70% on some devices. In my own experience, it actually averages 15% to 20%. Every bit adds up, though.

Other browsers feature their own  data saving extensions and means to disable auto-play video. The procedures for them may differ slightly from the Chrome process, but they follow the same general outline.

There are other means of saving data. You can, for example, limit the number of tabs you keep open at a time. Downloading your data saver extension and disabling auto-play video will produce the bulk of your saving, though.