Wireless signal drops 

MY wireless network’s signal keeps dropping out. If it’s not my cordless phone that’s jamming the signal, could it be my neighbor’s?

This question came several months ago from a friend whose bizarre technological mishaps have acquired quasilegendary status. He had read that some cordless phones use the same radio band as Wi-fi and wondered if they could be at fault.

After we determined that his own phone didn’t cause these problems—manufacturers learned years ago to use slightly different frequencies than Wi-fi—I suggested that a phone in the adjacent rowhouse might be at fault. But his neighbor protested his innocence.

The situation remained a mystery until my friend was reheating some food in the microwave and saw it start to smoke inside the oven. (His wife suggested that “user error” might have been involved in that.) He cut the power to the oven—and with the microwave out of commission, his wireless problems largely ended.

This roughly 20-year-old microwave apparently leaked enough radio waves to jam the Wi-fi signal. So if you’re having wireless problems, don’t forget to consider your microwave. Keep a fire extinguisher handy in the kitchen, too.

Can I get RSS feeds via e-mail?

THE free RSS FWD (http://rssfwd.com) will send a site’s “really simple syndication” update to your inbox, with a one-click unsubscription available. And unlike such competing services as SendMeRSS (http://sendmerss.com), this one doesn’t need the address of a site’s RSS feed—its home page will do.

The filters at some mail systems, however, may block these messages. Although RSS FWD e-mails showed up at a Yahoo account, none arrived at AOL or Hotmail addresses. SendMeRSS messages didn’t get through to AOL, either.

Going on a music trip

YOU would think that, given all the hoo-ha in the media about ours having become an iPod world, just about every music-packing man or woman and child you cross paths with in the mall or on a subway train—oh, all right, the MRT—would have ears plugged with those supposedly ubiquitous white stereo headphones.

Help File: Wireless signal drops

MY wireless network’s signal keeps dropping out. If it’s not my cordless phone that’s jamming the signal, could it be my neighbor’s?

A whiff of French Spring in the air

THE annual “French Spring in Manila,” a three-month-long festival of events celebrating French art and culture, will start this week with culinary art and photography exhibits. French Ambassador to the Philippines Gerard Chesnel said the annual French Spring seeks to increase artistic collaboration between France and the Philippines through unique festivals.

Show and Tell: Silent but deadly

THE replacement of aging matinee idol Gabby Concepcion by the much-younger heartthrob Dennis Trillo in the upcoming GMA Films offering I.T.A.L.Y. can only give Dennis’s career a major boost. Obviously.

Carey’s new album shows admirable restraint

WHAT advice do you suppose Mariah Carey will have for the American Idol contestants when she appears on the show as a mentor, part of the media blitz launching the follow-up to her big comeback album, 2005’s The Emancipation of Mimi?

Mulling education and indigenous expressions

IT was a lazy afternoon in the island of Sitangkay, the so-called “Venice of the South” of the province of Tawi-Tawi. My research team and I just had a full lunch of lapu-lapu (red grouper) and kamun (lobster-like sea mantis) and were raring for siesta.

‘World of Pun’ in digital and conventional artworks

THREE students of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) have merged both the power of digital images and conventional art to create masterpieces that convey serious themes with a touch of humor.