Re: FCC Orders All TV's To Have Digital Tuners By 2007

["Aaron [Bishop] Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 12:31 PM 8/9/2002, Joseph Pappalardo wrote:
> > Or, to bring it closer to home, the public did not demand that AM
> > broadcasters stop using their FM stations as mere repeaters for their AM
> > content.  But the FCC finally mandated separate programming and, overall,
> > the result has been overwhelming good.  Yeah, sure, there's lots of
> > problems with AM and FM today, but there's a heckuva lot more and better
> > music programming now than there was prior to FM.
>
>And the AM band is dead.  Progress?

AHEM...*THAT* is an arrogant and unfounded statement.  I question you, who 
was number 1 in the Arbitrons last quarter?  And the quarter before 
that?  And before that, and before that, and before that?   Last I checked 
it was WBZ-AM...


> > Remember what a huge pain in the ass it was when
> > Macs were still in the running?
>
>They still are 'in the running'.

Over 90% of all desktop PC's are running Microsoft Windows of some 
sort.  Macs are not in the running and haven't been for years.  They are a 
niche operating system that is fabulous for multimedia and similar work but 
overall they are useless as "general PC's".  When you're a business, you 
can't afford to not be compatible with your customers, and unless you're in 
a niche market the odds are VERY high that customers are using PC's.


> > When it comes to technology that literally depends entirely on a specific
> > standard to work, "market forces" are a disaster in the making.
>
>But again, if the public sees no benefit in it...why force them to pay for it?
>JP

Who are you to judge whether the public sees no benefit in it?  And to even 
that statement out (because I'm not really trying to single you out 
specifically) I'll re-phrase it:  who are ANY of us to judge the benefit of 
something that we inherently cannot know the benefit of until after it is 
done?   Remember the famous (paraphrased) quote "There's a world-wide 
market for perhaps five computers, total" ?   Or that "radio with pictures" 
would never take off?  A lot of stuff that was widely denounced as foolish 
and unmarketable at the time turned out to be the best thing since sliced 
bread for the general public.  Hindsight is 20/20, eh?

Sure there have been lots of flops, too...but to just blithely insist that 
the public sees no benefit in something is an argument that just isn't 
valid.  If we only paid for ideas the public thought were great we'd still 
all be living in caves.

"So why the big secret?  People are smart, they can handle it."
"A *person* is smart.  *People* are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and 
you know it.  1500 years ago, everybody "knew" that the earth was the 
center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody "knew" that the earth was 
flat. And 15 minutes ago, you "knew" that humans were alone on this planet. 
<sigh> Imagine what you'll "know" tomorrow."
(Will Smith & Tommy Lee Jones, Men in Black)

____________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read     aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels.com Technical Consulting
www.friedbagels.com   AOL-IM: ReadAaron