a copy of Connect

winter 2013
WIN
a Google Nexus 7
see page 2 for more details
connect
Cyber safety
Enjoy your devices this
holiday season, but also
remember the importance
of protecting your personal
information.
Countdown
to Christmas
2
Tips for buying HDTVs
3✰
Community events
5
Food at your fingertips
5
Shentel neighbor
6
Where in the
world is Shentel?
7
Want more?
Join us online at www.shentel.com/connect
for more tips, tricks and winter fun.
While you’re there, tell us what you’d
like to see in the next issue of Connect
Magazine.
Lucky Stars Contest
Count the number of stars (✰) in
your Connect magazine and go to
www.shentel.com/connect to view contest
ruls and enter to win. Correct entries
received by Dec. 31, 2013 will be entered
into a drawing for a Nexus 7 tablet.
Recommendations and advice included in this magazine are general in nature and only represent Shentel’s good faith opinions. Before
relying on this material users should carefully evaluate its accuracy,
completeness and relevance for their purposes.
2
presented by SHENTEL
Moment In Time: A December picture from the 1960s of downtown Covington, VA. Long-
time residents remember this bustling Main Street with The Busy Bee and Palace Restaurant.
Everyone shopped at Leggett’s and many a bike from Western Auto ended up under Christmas
trees.
get interactive with the
#1 holiday destination on TV
Hallmark Channel offers original movies, apps and more!
Hallmark Channel is inviting viewers to get interactive this holiday season as apps enhance the
channel’s well-loved holiday movie extravaganza, “Countdown to Christmas.”
Leaping from the TV onto the computer screen, Hallmark is launching “The Meaning of
Christmas” campaign featuring apps which offer fun, interactive and shareable holiday experiences. One exciting app enables fans to transform their Facebook cover photos into personal
expressions of the season.
Other shareable interaction includes “If Life Was Like A Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie”
meme posters and a “Countdown to Christmas” tab on the Hallmark Channel Facebook page that
includes weekly programming schedules, links to Hallmark Channel holiday themed games and
a video player showing exclusive sneak-peeks of upcoming Hallmark Channel Original Movie
Premieres.
“Countdown to Christmas” this year features 12 new movies, a Walden Family Theater
Original Movie and more than 1,200 hours of holiday programming including The 125th
Tournament of Roses Parade. In addition, “Countdown to Christmas” will also feature Hallmark
Channel Christmas fan favorites such as “Meet the Santas,” The Christmas Card,” “Debbie
Macomber’s Mrs. Miracle,” “Debbie Macomber’s Call Me Mrs. Miracle,” “Debbie Macomber’s
Trading Christmas” and “Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus,” that are sure to delight the entire family.
Also, as part of Hallmark Channel’s philanthropic initiative to give to those who need it
most, the network is creating a unique, geo-targeted wish map app enabling users to share their
personal “The Meaning of Christmas” traditions with friends and family across the country.
Hallmark Channel will donate one dollar to the Salvation Army on behalf of the first 10,000 user
submissions.
You’ll want to keep Hallmark Channel close by as a magical and inspiring touchstone for all
your family’s yuletide festivities, adding a heartwarming touch of merriment to the season.
Continued on page 7
tips for buying an
HDTV for the holidays
The holiday season is unofficially HDTV discount season. Whether it’s time to upgrade your current flat
screen or add a new TV, check out these handy HDTV buying tips before you brave the electronics store.
Added features
Smart TVs have been on the market for the last few years and have
changed our lives. Smart TVs or Internet enabled TVs have a suite of
apps that allow you to instantly access your favorite online entertainment
or video streaming services. When shopping for a Smart TV, make sure
you look for the apps you want to use. Remember that Netflix, Amazon
Instant, Hulu Plus and other video streaming services require an additional monthly fee.
Although the hype around 3D-ready TVs has died down, many TVs
are still featuring 3D capability. In order to view the 3D effects, you’ll still
need glasses and 3D specific content which has been hard to come by.
Resolution
For screens under 34”, you won’t notice a difference between “HD Ready”
720p and “True HD” 1080p. But as 1080pTV are coming down in price,
720p TVs are getting harder to come by. Some manufacturers are rolling
out 4K or Ultra HD TVs which have twice the resolution of True HD, but
prices start at around $5,000.
Screen type
This comes down to personal preference and the conditions of the room
you’ll be watching TV in. LCD screens are generally cheaper and energy
efficient, but they can make motion blur more noticeable. LED is a type
of LCD screen that is brighter and even more energy efficient. LED is
best for rooms with a lot of light. Plasma is more expensive to own and
operate, but it is ideal for a home theater set up as it has a wider viewing
angle and better black level performance. The glass screen can cause glare
in bright rooms. You may have heard about the new screen technology,
OLED. This promises the largest, flattest and best quality displays available. Unfortunately, it also comes with a hefty price tag.
Screen size
A good rule of thumb is to measure the distance from your couch to
where you’d like to place the HDTV and divide that distance by three. If
you had a 12 foot distance between the couch and the TV, you should get
a four foot or 48 inch TV. If you are placing the TV in a piece of furniture, make sure you have at least an inch on all sides for ventilation.
Input types
You’ll want at least 3 HDMI ports, one for your cable box, another for
DVD/Blu-ray player, and one for your gaming console. Many TVs now
incorporate USB ports or SD card slots so you can easily view pictures.
Older AV ports are still available if you need to connect your Wii or
Commodore 64 console. n
What to look for
§§ Resolution: 1080p “True HD” for screens above
34”.
§§ Screen Type: LED screens are brighter, thinner
and more energy efficient.
§§ Size: Depends on your set up.
§§ Inputs: At least 3 HDMI ports and whatever else
you need to connect your equipment.
What to ignore
§§ Refresh rates over 240Hz. They are hard for
most people to detect and add to the cost.
§§ Contrast ratios are non-standardized and vary
from brand to brand.
§§ 4K or Ultra HD and OLED Screens are the latest
and greatest and have a hefty price tag.
what to look for
presented by SHENTEL
3
practice cyber safety
when you
go online
Some of the most popular holiday gifts are computers, tablets, iPads, phones and readers which,
in addition to what they were originally designed to do, also are gateways to the Internet.
For most people, even children, the Internet is no longer an optional resource. As everyone
becomes more comfortable using the Internet, they loosen up and start giving out personal information to shop or bank or sign up for software and games. This comfort level sometimes leads to
situations where information can be stolen and abused by others.
StaySafeOnline.org, powered by the National Cyber Security Alliance, has information on what
steps an individual or family needs to take to stay safe online. Those tips are based on their slogan
Stop Think Connect.
Keep a clean machine
§§ Make sure your security software is
current.
§§ Automate software updates so your computer will be ready to defend against the
latest viruses and malware.
§§ Scan all USBs and other external devices
before using them.
Protect your personal
information
§§ Secure your accounts by asking for protection beyond passwords. Most providers
have additional ways for you to verify who
you are before you conduct business.
§§ Make passwords long and strong. Combine
capital and lowercase letters with numbers
and symbols to create a more secure password.
§§ Unique account, unique password. Do
not use the same password for different
accounts.
§§ Write it down and keep it safe. Write down
your passwords and keep them somewhere
away from your computer.
§§ Own your online presence. Set the privacy
and security settings to your comfort level
when it comes to information sharing. It is
OK to limit how and with whom you share
information.
Connect with care
§§ When in doubt, throw it out. Links in
4
presented by SHENTEL
email, tweets, posts and online advertising
are often the way cybercriminals compromise your computer.
§§ Get savvy about Wi-Fi hotspots. Limit the
type of business you conduct and adjust
the security settings on your device to limit
who can access your machine.
§§ Protect your money. When banking and
shopping, check to be sure the sites are
security enabled.
Be webwise
§§ Stay current. Keep pace with new ways to
stay safe online.
§§ Think before you act. Be wary of communications that implore you to act
immediately, offers something that sounds
too good to be true or asks for personal
information.
§§ Back it up. Protect your valuable work,
music, photos and other digital information by making an electronic copy and
storing it safely.
Shentel is proud to bring high-speed Internet
service to thousands of customers in Virginia,
Maryland and West Virginia. For more information about how to protect your personal
information and how to keep your part of the
Internet safe and sound, visit www.stopthinkconnect.org or www.staysafeonline.org. If you
have questions about your Shentel Internet
service, call 1-800-SHENTEL. n
Is it time to get a cloud?
Saving it to the cloud. Your pictures are in
the cloud. Buy more space in the cloud.
Are you picturing a big fluffy cumulus
cloud over your house that is somehow
connected to your devices? Turns out you
are not alone. A recent survey of 1,000
adults showed that only 16% associated the word “cloud” with an Internet
network to store, access and share data
with all kinds of devices.
You probably are cloud-computing
without even realizing it. If you bank
online, shop online, access Facebook
or Twitter, play online games or store
photos, video or music online, you are
cloud computing.
The “cloud” in cloud-computing is the
combination of networks, storage, hardware and interfaces delivered as a service.
You probably are cloud-computing
without even realizing it.”
The flexibility of cloud-computing is what
makes the this option so attractive to
individuals and businesses alike.
Individual cloud-computing allows the
end user (you) to store data safely online
instead of on your hard drive which can
freeze up, break down or otherwise deny
you access to your stuff. Hard drives can
also fill up, while clouds offer a scalable
storage option. And you can access your
stuff no matter where you are as long as
you have Internet access. You do not have
to be hooked to your hard drive.
So maybe you should consider cloud
shopping this holiday season. Some of the
top sellers are justcloud.com, zipcloud,
myPCBackup.com, SOS Online Backup,
SugarSync, mozy, BackupGenie, Dropbox,
and CrashPlan. Prices range from free to
$9.99. There is a cloud out there waiting
just for you. n
community events
Here are some holiday events happening in and around the communities that make
up the Shentel footprint. We hope you will be able to take time to enjoy this season.
Brunch with Santa at Cooper’s Landing Inn
801 Virginia Avenue, Clarksville, VA
8:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 7
Wonderful family event and toy collection.
www.cooperlanding.net
Community Christmas at Barter Theatre
127 West Main St., Abingdon, VA
Monday, Dec. 9
Fundraiser to feed the hungry.
www.abingdon.com
Winter Lights Festival and Tuba Christmas
College Avenue, Blacksburg, VA
4-7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6
Late night shopping, free gift wrap, holiday
specials.
www.dowtownblacksburg.com
Miracle on 34th Street
Fayette Theater, Fayetteville WV
Through Dec. 8
Classic movie brought to life on stage
www.historicfayettetheater.com
Franklin County Christmas
320 Franklin Street, Rocky Mount, VA
5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6
Annual Come Home to Franklin County
event.
www.franklincountyva.gov/parks
Winter Festival of Lights
465 Lodge Dr. Wheeling, WV
Nov. 19-Jan 6
One of largest light displays in US.
www.oglebay-resort.com/fol
Bedford Christmas Parade
Downtown Bedford, VA
4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4
This year’s theme is Parade of Heroes.
www.centertownbedford.com
Deck the Halls, Naturally
Smith Mountain Lake Park, VA
1-3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7
Use Nature’s bounty to make decorations.
www.smlsfriends.com
tips for traditional meals or try something new
Great websites
There are thousands of websites with millions
of recipes. Are you intimidated yet? Don’t be.
Here are five great websites to start with and
you can search for your own too. When using
a search engine, put in as much information as
you can to inform the search, such as: traditional holiday recipes, easy holiday recipes,
sugar-free, recipes to feed 20 or more. The
more detail you can put in the search line, the
better your results will be. These five are tried
and true favorites.
Snowflake Express Train Ride with Santa
South Side Depot Petersburg, WV
Dec. 13 and 14
Get cocoa and cookies and climb aboard!
www.southsidedepot.com
The Christmas Shoppe
Stonewall Resort, Lewis County, WV
Through Dec. 31, hours vary
Perfect gifts for holiday fun.
www.stonewallresort.com
New Year’s Eve at Twin Falls Resort
Mullens, WV
Tuesday, Dec. 31
Enjoy a rustic lodge dinner and dancing.
www.twinfallsresort.com
Graduate Art Student Show
Gallery 205 Radford University, VA
5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan 28
Grad students mount art in various mediums.
www.radford.edu
✰
food at your fingertips
Create a holiday feast this year that fits your
needs. Go homey and traditional or stretch
your skills with gourmet. You have all the help
you need at the tip of your fingers.
Roanoke Chamber Brass
Bower Center for the Arts
305 N. Bridge Street, Bedford VA
8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13
Enjoy sounds of the season.
www.bowercenter.org
www.myrecipes.com
www.epicurian.com
If you are leaning more toward fabulous, this
website is for you. Gourmet food and wine
pairings abound. Christmas cocktails and
edible gifts for stand-alone options or you can
find entire luxurious meals with incredible
detail from the chefs at Epicurious.
Enjoy plenty of pictures with the holiday
recipes on this website. Everything from “fancy
feasts to casual parties” can be found there
including seasonal favorites like pumpkin
pie, eggnog and more cookies than you can
imagine. The way it is set up feels like a familiar cookbook.
www.bhg.com/christmas/recipes
www.food.com
www.foodnetwork.com
The choices seem endless. From breakfast to
dinner or even snacks with holiday flair, you
will find something to tickle your fancy. You
can become a member of this website and
organize favorite recipes or share some of your
own. There is a real cooking community just
waiting for you.
This website the perfect one for the creative
cook who likes to make food that can also
serve as decorations. It’s almost as much fun to
look at the recipes as it is to see how you can
display or arrange the food on the table. A feast
for the taste buds and the eyes.
You know you watch it. The Food Network
on TV has dozens of chefs who share their
personal favorites and tips for perfect pairings.
This website is for cooks who want to review
only the best of the best. All recipes are rated.
Continued on page 6
presented by SHENTEL
5
Continued from page 6
See how it is done
Using the Internet to find the perfect recipe is
a fabulous tool. Using it to learn how to make
certain recipes or holiday decorations takes
this tool to a whole new level. You are hosting
the holiday dinner this year, but you have
never stuffed a turkey and are intimidated just
looking at the frozen bird.
Have no fear. Go to YouTube and plug in
How to stuff a turkey and hundreds of options
come up. Now, you will have to pay attention
to the write ups that go along with the
videos because there will be various
versions of turkey stuffing.
Most of the cooking sites
noted above also have
demonstration videos for
stuffing turkeys, sharpening
knives, clarifying butter and
such.
They’ve got an app
for that
There are many applications
for smartphone and tablet. Apps
are the best of both worlds – pulling
together recipe selections with a video on
the side that shows how it is done in easy stepby-step instructions. Some apps even integrate
interactive shopping lists so you can stock your
pantry with just the right stuff.
Shentel neighbor
Anthony Baker
Whether he is sitting at the Kimball Town
Council table, wearing his Kimball Fire
Department uniform or driving a Shentel
bucket truck, Anthony Baker is a man
with a heart to serve his community.
“That’s the way I was raised,” Baker said,
asserting modestly that what he does is
6
presented by SHENTEL
There are hundreds of apps out there, but four
popular ones to consider are:
Allrecipes (available on iOS (free)
Like its name implies, there are thousands of
recipes on this app. It is home of the Dinner
Spinner which lets home cooks search more
than 40,000 recipes or use the fun spin feature
to get quick inspiration.
Whole Foods Market Recipes
(available on iOS (free)
Whole Foods shares some of its
recipes with recommendations
on the best in organic and
natural foods.
Real Simple
(available on Android or
iOS $4.95)
Like its magazine counterpart, this app has a
crisp, sleek design. No Time
To Cook serves up recipes
and interactive grocery list.
Put in how much time you have
to cook first, and then receive recipe
suggestions.
Cook’s Illustrated (available iOS (free)
Enjoy America’s Test Kitchen on PBS? Chris
nothing special. “My mom’s my inspiration. She taught us to ‘Do unto others as
you want others to do unto you.’ That’s
just what I’ve always done.”
He paused a moment and laughed. “I am
a momma’s boy,” he said. “When I moved
out on my own, I bought a house one
block away. And if she moved to California, I would move to California, one block
away!”
Baker’s work on the town council has
highlights and headaches. He has been
a member for six years. Kimball is a tiny
town in McDowell County, WV. “There
are a lot of meetings to attend and people
always want to share their opinions about
stuff,” he said.
Firefighting is his true love. “That is really my passion,” said the captain who has
been in the department for 14 years. As a
firefighter he is constantly training and
moving to the next level of certification.
Kimball, founder of that show and Cook’s
Illustrated, gives you 50 of CI’s all-time best
recipes plus step-by-step instructions, a
kitchen timer, shopping list AND a review of
supermarket ingredients that takes this app to
another level.
Food52 (available iOS ($4.95)
Food52 is a crowd-sourced cooking project that
gives voice to all the home cooks who want to
share their valuable knowledge with others.
App covers all major holidays with videos of
techniques and slideshows for preparation.
Ready, set, go make some
memories
Some folks may feel that surfing the web for
recipes and holiday ideas is not very traditional, but may be even more traditional. You
are surfing through the traditional ideas of
millions of people from all over the world.
Start new traditions. Give the kids an assignment to research a special cookie recipe. Take
pictures of your progress and upload them
and share with friends and family who cannot
attend.
Start planning now for the perfect holiday
for your family, accented by fabulous meals
and glittering decorations. Your imagination
(and maybe your Internet connection speed) is
your only limitation. ✰
As captain, he is in a leadership position
in the fire department which also covers
for neighboring towns, not just Kimball.
The department has a “smoke trailer”
that they take to local schools to teach
children about what to do if they are in a
fire. “It is a miniature version of a house
and the kids get in and we fill it with fog”
to show them how to escape safely, Baker
said.
Education is important in firefighting
and as a cable professional. Baker has
worked as a cable technician for 12 years
– three with Shentel. He admires the fact
that Shentel puts an emphasis on training
and education. “Shentel believes in training. We are always learning,” he said.
As a company, Shentel emphasizes the
importance of making deeper connections. Baker takes his commitment even
further by selflessly serving his town and
community. n
Countdown to Christmas
Continued from page 2
dec
The Christmas Spirit Sun. 8p.m.
Starring: Nicollette Sheridan, Olympia
Dukakis, & Bart Johnson. Nicollette
Sheridan (“Desperate Housewives”) is trying
to save her small town before Christmas. But
before she can do that, she’s in a car accident
that lands her in a coma, but her spirit is very
much awake.
Santa Switch Saturday 8p.m.
dec
Starring: Sean Astin, Ethan Erickson, Anne
7
Dudek, Annie Thurman & Griffin Cleveland
Even the real Santa Claus needs a break every
so often. And in “Santa Switch, we learn that
this is the year Kris Kringle requires a helping
hand.
Hats Off To Christmas! Sat. 8p.m.
dec
14 Starring: Haylie Duff, Antonio Cupo,
& Sean Michael Kyer. Starring Haylie
Duff (“7th Heaven”) as Mia, a young widowed
mother managing the Christmas hat shop in
1
Find 24 places in
Virginia, West Virginia
& Maryland
her small town who has to train someone for the job
she wanted. Mia starts to realize that trainee may be the
Christmas miracle she has been waiting for.
dec
15 Finding Christmas Sun. 8p.m.
Starring: Tricia Helfer, JT Hodges, Mark Lutz, &
Cristina Rosato. Christmas magic greets four people
unlucky in love.
dec
25
The Twelve Gifts of Christmas
24 Hour Marathon Wed. Dec. 25
As a special Christmas Day gift, Hallmark
Channel presents “The Twelve Gifts of
Christmas,” this seasons 12 Original Holiday
Movies, in a 24-hour marathon, presented
with limited commercial interruption all
running back-to-back on Wednesday, Dec.
25 beginning at 6 a.m. and running until
6 a.m. the following morning, Thursday,
Dec. 26. It’s just another reason why,
when it comes to the “Heart of
Christmas,” Hallmark Channel is the
place to be. n
where in the
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For solution visit: www.shentel.com/connect
presented by SHENTEL
7
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