Web/Tech

The latest news on the convergence front is that, with your TiVo, you'll be able to transfer television programming to your video iPod or Sony PlayStation. We've been talking lately about the survivability of newspapers. Maybe it's time to wonder if there's even a future for words on paper.

I've written here before about true convergence, the day when we can carry around a lightweight, handheld device that will do everything. That day keeps getting closer and closer:

But it is the potential for boosting mobile Internet use that makes electronic paper displays particularly attractive, said Karl McGoldrick, Chief Executive of Polymer Vision.

Everybody in the world is moving print products online. So it's a little refreshing to see that something that started online might end up in print:

Entries from Wikipedia, the popular free online encyclopedia written and edited by Internet users, may soon be available in print for readers in the developing world, founder Jimmy Wales said on Monday.

I have a cell phone with which I can talk to almost anybody, from almost anywhere. It has a 1.3-megapixel camera, with which I can take stills or very short videos and post them on the Web, again from just about anywhere. Apple just introduced a new iPod. It enables users not only to carry around thousands of songs and still photos, but also downloaded video; people can watch last night's episode of "Desperate Housewives" (or their own homemade videos, for that matter) while they're on the train or waiting in the doctor's office (OK, make that two episdoes).

I suppose this might be interesting to somebody. Does anybody actually even read TV Guide anymore? It was a wonderful publication when there were only three networks and people set their weekly schedules to make sure not to miss their favorite programs. But now there are hundreds of channels . . . just turn on the tube anytime, and you'll find something interesting. And if there's something you just have to see, Tivo the thing.

It's going to keep getting harder to get away from it all when it's much easier to take it all with us. This study from my alma mater shows that the communications revolution goes even deeper than we've realized. It turns out that everybody -- not just the young or the technically savvy -- multi-tasks. This is creating quite a buzz in the news business, as you might imagine.

This article about telecommuting (or "teleworking," a new one on me) talks only about pressure from rising gas prices and telecenters that allow people to do work closer to home, thus missing completely the real revolution: The ability of more people, because of technological advances, to do all their work without even leaving home. My brother lives in Hill Country, Texas, a good four-hour drive from his office in Houston.

Warning: You can really get sucked into this site and spend hours and hours there. It features daily podcasts of old-time radio shows such as "Fibber McGee and Molly," "The Shadow," Big Band concerts . . . If you listen to the first epidsode of "Gunsmoke," with William Conrad as the voice of Matt Dillon, pay attention to the early part where the marshal is complaining about all the people willing to exploit a bank robbery and double killing for their own reasons.

If you're going to set up a site on the Internet, be careful what you call yourself, or else you might get visitors who want what you can't provide.

Here's how it works: Enter two words or phrases, then hit the "throw down!" button to see which one Google found on more Web pages. Just what you needed -- another great bar-bet enabler.