Since it is Christmas Eve and everyone young at heart will be anxiously awaiting for Santa’s arrival, I thought I’d let you know how you can track where Santa is – so you know when you need to be fast asleep!  Even though our government does some silly things at times, NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is on top of the important things and is tracking Santa as he makes his journey around the world.  So check out the NORAD Santa Tracking page to find out when Santa will be in your neck of the woods!

It’s coming – in 62 days.  Are you ready?

In 62 days on 2/17/2009 all (except for a few low power or translator stations) TV stations have to end their over-the-air analog broadcasts.  A few stations have already turned off their analog signal and some are turning them off prior to 2/17 – including WKAR.  If you receive your TV signal OTA (Over-The-Air aka with an antenna) and aren’t prepared for the Digital TV transition – you won’t be able to watch TV after 2/17/09.  To receive the new digital signals you’ll need to have either a newer TV with a built in digital tuner or a converter box.  Digital TV offers better sound and picture quality – including HD channels – and can offer a wider selection of channels.

Stations throughout Michigan have or will conduct “soft-tests” this week.  A soft-test is where they send a message to let you know whether you are picking up the digital signal or not.  Stations across the country are conducting similar tests – check with your local station to see when they plan on having a test.  For information about the Michigan tests and the DTV transition in Michigan – check out http://www.michigandtv.com/

Some sites with a lot more information about the DTV transition include http://www.dtv.gov/ and https://www.dtv2009.gov/.

Even if you are ready for the DTV transition – do you know of anyone who could use your help in making sure they are ready?  This is happening nationwide and we’ll get through it without a problem if we all work together.  Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the DTV transition.

First – yes I know I missed last week Wednesday – but that’s what happens when I lead a busy life.  I’ll try to do better in the future! 🙂

This week’s website is TitanTV.  This is my favorite website to get TV show listings from.  It’s the only one I’ve found that has an easy to use interface, supports Cable and Over the Air lineups combined (it also supports satellite listings, but I don’t have a satellite so I don’t use those listings), and is good at showing which shows are in HD.  It displays the listings in a nice, easy to read and use grid format with being able to click on a show to get details for that show.  The listings are very customizable with selecting which channels you receive, which are your favorites, and what order the favorites appear in on your Favorites tab.

If you have certain DVR software you can use TitanTV with that.  Also, you can setup reminders to be given by email or an RSS feed when shows are coming up.  The site also supports several different addresses, so if you need to check listings for different places you can setup a new place without losing all the customizations for the main location.

So next time you need a website to view some TV listings, check out TitanTV.