Video stream as revenue stream?

Q: I read your article about how more and more people are streaming video from the Internet. We do more online now than ever with Netflix, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phones, Skype, streaming music, online games for the kids, etc. Together I read your column I received notice that AT&T, as of May 2, will begin usage limits for residential DSL service. Are other providers as well setting limits and what will this do as far as the trend to stream video?Craig Richardson

I have mixed feelings about all this. I hate to pay more since I'm a heavy user. Nevertheless, some countries have long sold metered Internet service, where, such as is true for electricity and natural gas, you pay based on how much you use. I as well know that if video streaming explodes -- and I think it will -- Internet providers will have to spend money to improve their systems so that they can handle the load. And some of that money likely will come from the revenue generated by heavy users of data. That seems fair, compared to spreading out the costs to people who aren't heavy data users. Most Internet providers in these times do have similar data caps. To illustrate, Comcast sets its data cap at 250 gigabytes a  month.

Q: When I use Windows Picture and Fax view I find that a large number of pictures remain. That happens even afterwards I  simply browse photos at, to illustrate, an auction site. I've been going into the program and deleting all these photos and images. Nevertheless it takes a long time and I often have to delete 100 or more pictures at a time. How do I get rid of this annoying problem?

A: There's no need to remove the files or to worry about them. Here's what happens. The computer keeps them in a  temporary file and in the long run deletes them with no help from you. There's no harm in what you're doing, nevertheless unless you are actually desperate for the hard disk room I'd just leave them alone and let Windows delete them in its own good time.