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Satellite TV From a Moving Car

An anonymous reader sent us an article about an in-car digital satellite television system. that can stay trained on the satellite even while moving. Of course, Most amusing is all the comments about how TV in cars is for passengers, because as we know, the drivers are too busy talking on their cell phones.

13 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. heh dvd? by rwven · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Kinda reminds me of those DVD players that pop out of the head unit. My friend wants to get one of those so he can watch movies while driving. Kinda scares me to say the least. I think this is somewhat overdoing it. Cars are transportation, not audio/visual entertainment. As if there arent enough distractions already...

    1. Re:heh dvd? by NightSpots · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Cars are transportation, not audio/visual entertainment. As if there arent enough distractions already.

      There's no reason it can't be entertainment for the passengers. It just takes people being personally responsible for once in their lives.

      Anyone with kids knows that travelling is much, much easier if you give them something to do on long trips. DVDs in the headrests so the kids can watch/play from the back seat are a GOOD THING.

      Realistically, these shouldn't be much of a problem. The people who drive while watching will eventually hit something, and hopefully what they hit won't be a person. After that they'll either learn very quickly not to do it again, or go broke repairing everything they keep hitting. Eventually they will either learn not to do it, or they won't be able to afford a satellite dish.

    2. Re:heh dvd? by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Excuse me but when I've got my kids confined in the car for long periods of time, I'd rather we discuss current events, history, science, and literature than have them zonked out in front of a passive entertainment device. Long car trips is a great time to talk to your kids - they can't get away. Try it out.

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    3. Re:heh dvd? by swestcott · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think most kids get enough TV how about talking to your kids or better yet on long trips I get a good audio book booth kids and parents can enjoy The Harry Potter books are excellent and we have enjoyed them many times we are currently listening to the Series of Unfortunate Events very funny for kids and adults.

    4. Re:heh dvd? by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 1, Insightful
      First of all, you should not be taking a 3 year old on an eight hour car drive. They are not built for that much sitting at a time. You should plan your trips with plenty of stops where they can get out and have fun. I'm not talking about stopping at a rest area and letting them walk around for ten minutes. I'm talking about finding attractions and museums along the way where they can spend an hour or two out of the car. Yes, if you've got a long distance to travel - this trip will take a much greater amount of time but that's a sacrifice you should make for your kids - or take a plane. And obviously when talking to your children, you cater the topic of conversation to the age of the child. Honestly, this is so typical of Slashdot. Make a good point that, when used with common sense, is a perfectly suitable system and then you get some Slashbot replying with an example where it doesn't work. Yes, there are times where things don't work! Nothing is absolute so you should work within the framework and bend it when needed.

      And who is so stupid that they can't figure out that discussing Nietzsche with a 3 year old is not something I was suggesting in my original post? Oh, it's that AC.

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  2. I wonder... by SharpFang · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...how well do those work under viaducts, in tunnels, in cities behind big buildings, in high mountains, in forests and mostly everywhere where large part of the sky is obscured.

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  3. How about some conversation by jwjcmw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "It's like you don't even have them. You can baby-sit and drive at the same time"

    Isn't it great that we don't have to pay attention to our children anymore in the car just like we don't pay attention to them at home. Why would we need to when the TV/computer/video game is there to "baby-sit" them? We can plug them in at any time...they don't talk to us about any of their inane, childish ideas. We can blissfully act like we are still freewheeling non-parents going off on some big adventure than like the haggard parents we really are who have been forced to "care" for these inferior beings.

    I have three of those annoying little brats, ages 3,5, and 7. I know how blissful a moment to yourself is, and how seductive it is to plug them in and tune them out.

    But you really need to remember that they will be getting their values/ambitions from whatever is raising them. I think most people would not want to think that they are basically raising their children to be ignorant, negative consumers, but they need to watch the shows their children watch, and pay close attention to the advertising that comes along with those "children's" shows.

    As fast as the world goes today, being in the car for a while might be one of the few times that a family can actually talk to each other for an extended period of time. Listen to those children, don't tune them out.

    </rant>

  4. TV in a car? by Mullen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With hundreds of channels of entertainment, from the Disney Channel to HBO, to keep them occupied, they're silent. "It's like you don't even have them. You can baby-sit and drive at the same time,'' Montag said.

    Am I the only America left that thinks this is gross? I pulled up next to a Lincoln Navigator, the other day, that had TWO flat panel screens in it and they were both on watching TV. Now, this seems like a great idea to keep the kids nice and quite, but how does a kid see the world while on a road trip? If I am going to haul the kids and wife off to a National or State Park, they are to be looking out the windows and not watching DVD movie or some Cartoon. I can't imagine how this is good for America's kids. Should we just surrender to the terrorists now since the future generations will have a attention span to short to track Al-Qaeda down?

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  5. How fast can you go and have it still work by pozzy1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I want to know if Im cruizing along at 80mph will it still work. I saw this in popsci I think a long time ago and it had a top speed of 45mph. I didnt see them even address this at all. Im not going to slow down so I can watch tv.

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  6. laws and such by EvilOpie · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't know where the submitter of the article lives, but in New York it's illegal for a TV to be placed in a vechile within view of the driver. Then again it's also illegal for a driver here to use a cell phone that's not hands free, and we know how well people obey that law.

    Ah well, this is kinda a neat idea regardless. I mean, satellite TV for vechiles is not exactly a new idea, though before now they've been traditionally reserved for RV's and such, but this may be the first practical application for smaller cars.

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  7. Ah, the new generation of parenting by mblase · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With hundreds of channels of entertainment, from the Disney Channel to HBO, to keep them occupied, they're silent. "It's like you don't even have them. You can baby-sit and drive at the same time,'' Montag said.

    I have my own kids -- four of them now. I grew up in a family of five kids, two parents. So I know full well what it's like to have them arguing, complaining, fighting, and griping all through a long car trip.

    But I still maintain that drugging them into submission with non-stop video signals is not the best solution. It's easy enough to get into that habit at home -- sit the kids in front of the TV after school until dinner, then after dinner until bedtime. They're entertained, you have peace and quiet. Then when they get older, you wonder why they're thirty pounds overweight before they've hit puberty and never do their homework at night.

    TV, either in the car or at home, should be a privilege. Give it to them when they've earned it, and turn it off when it's done. I prefer a DVD player to satellite TV, because (1) there's no commercials, (2) I can control what they do and don't watch, and (3) when the show's over, it's over--there's nothing "coming up next" unless I say there is.

    Our kids would be overjoyed to have satellite TV in the car for our periodic 3-hour drives to my in-laws. Instead we give them toys, books, children's music, and Magna-Doodle drawing boards. Works just as well, the noise is minimal, and their brains actually continue to develop instead of just rotting away inside their skulls.

  8. The modern family by swb · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is an invention of the 18th century. Until that time the rich simply forked their children over to governnesses, teachers, etc and forgot about them until their kids challenged them for their holdings.

    Everyone else either worked as many offspring as they could sire in the fields, sold them off as indentured servants, or, if they didn't need or want more, comitted post-natal abortion.

    The idea that one actually had some involvement with their kids is historically kind of new. The idea of "childhood" itself is even newer; it used to only last until you were old enough to do meaningful work. The fact that it now lasts until the mid-20s or the end of college is a very new phenomenon and probably as unhealthy as selling them off as servants when they turned 10.

    1. Re:The modern family by Jahf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Amazing how you can aspire to take one culture's historically bad sense of family and assume that it applied to everyone from that time. And even then your examples are acutely pessimistic. Are you trying to tell me that before 1701 there wasn't a single father or mother in western society who paid attention to their children and loved them for their own sake instead of for some ascribed selfish desire?

      Revisionist at best. And all of the things you mention as having existing before the 18th century still exist today in pretty much all cultures to some degree. Those selfish nasty actions don't invalidate the love that many families share.

      I see your point, but it's a very very small point that mostly illustrates why I'm glad my viewpoint of the world isn't any more cynical than it is. Your view is quite depressing.

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