Windows

I just bought my wife a new 30-gigabyte video iPod for her birthday. We have converted all of her CDs using iTunes, and she loves it. We have some old videos of our kids playing in the high school marching band, and we would love to also load them on the iPod. I have converted the videotapes to DVDs using a ConvertX PXM402U hooked up to my Dell Dimension 4700 running InterVideo WinDVD Creator. Do you have any suggestions on software to use to convert these DVDs to use on the iPod? -- Bob Emberger You've got a lot of company.

Windows 98 offers a program called Microsoft Windows TV. I installed it and have the little TV screen icon on my task bar. When I log on, I get fancy diagrams but nothing moves when I try to use the mouse to turn on the television.Using that old cliche, when all else fails, read the instructions, I did and see where I missed the last instruction that said "install antenna." There is no port on the back of my PC that says "antenna." Can you help me?Count yourself among the hordes of Microsoft customers who have had their hopes built up about getting television programs on their PCs by misleading directions built into Windows 98.As your experience underscores, the Windows setup screens falsely indicate that any PC running Windows 98 can receive broadcast video in the WinTV module of Windows.

WASHINGTON -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Bill Gates met with the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust chief to make a personal appeal that blocking the release of Windows 98 would seriously disrupt the computer industry, company and government officials said yesterday.Gates met in Washington for about two hours Tuesday night with Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein and other Justice Department antitrust officials, just hours after Gates made a similar pitch at a New York news conference.

You drive in through a boatyard -- in winter, a parking lot for the yachts of folks who clearly must be accustomed to spending more than 50 bucks for dinner. But it was our anniversary and, given the choice of a few area restaurants, Bonnie picked Windows on the Bay. Truth be told, we could hardly see the Bay through the forest of masts outside, but we'll assume the Chesapeake was out there somewhere. Inside, fortunately, we had all we needed: Good food and genial, efficient service.

This week's cold snap reminded me that it is time to try to make the house into an insulated bunker, sealing leaks, stopping drafts. There seem to be about 1,000 fronts on this battle. Tactics range from putting another layer of insulation in the attic, to inserting foam-insulating plates on the electrical outlets of outside walls, to putting sweeps on the bottoms of outside doors. They are all pretty boring. The only weatherization procedure that sounds like fun to me is detecting drafts by carrying a lighted incense stick around the house, watching to see where the smoke disappears.

A federal judge in Baltimore issued an order yesterday requiring Microsoft Corp. to package Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java computer programming language with its Windows operating system. The order, which grants Sun's motion for a preliminary injunction, does not take effect for another two weeks to give Microsoft a chance to appeal. Microsoft plans to file a motion this week for an expedited appeal and a motion to stay the injunction until an appellate court finishes its review. "We don't agree that Sun is entitled to this injunction and will appeal the court ruling and the entry of the preliminary injunction order," said Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler.

Ravens running back Ray Rice probably didn't have much free time this week to begin with, as the Ravens play the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday. But he had to spend part of Tuesday explaining a recent tweet anyway. Rice posted on Twitter Monday night that he was pulled over by a Baltimore County police officer because of the dark windows in his white Range Rover. Maryland State law prohibits car windows from being tinted at more than 35 percent, a limitation enacted primarily to ensure police officers can see inside vehicles as a safety measure.

REDMOND, Wash. - If Microsoft Corp. built automobiles, the joke goes, your car might stop in the middle of the highway for no apparent reason, and you'd have to restart it. Occasionally, when restarting didn't work, you'd have to reinstall the engine. Now the company known for the infamous "blue screen of death," the maker of the ubiquitous and sometimes balky Windows operating system, seeks to take the lead in making software that is as secure and reliable as the networks that provide electricity, water and telephone service.

Microsoft Corp. has taken its boldest step yet toward co-opting Java, a programming language that was supposed to eliminate distinctions among computers but that Microsoft wants reconstitute in a unique Windows flavor.The announcement last week of J/Direct could eventually torpedo the efforts of companies that hope to use Java's promise of an easy, unifying programming language to weaken the software giant.If Java programs are written under the J/Direct guidelines, they will work more closely with Windows, but will not work in any other environment, such as Unix.

With windows for their canvas, Parkville High students put their creative talents to work during the local business association's fourth annual window decorating contest. Their assignment at Hohne Pool and Spa offered them some of the largest glass spaces on Harford Road. They checked sketches, drawn in their classroom, and set to work on a blustery, cold afternoon. Standing in raised but empty flower beds, they could extend their brushes to the tops of the tall windows. The falling temperatures and gusting winds Thursday had Ed Pinder, a contest organizer, wondering if the Parkville students could complete the task.