Yes, a plot that involves swimming in lava, surviving freezing tundra, and of course a female news reporter? oh yeah.... He kidnapped Ann Coulter, holds her head under the lava, then after what amounts to a steam bath to our super hero, relaxes in the cool waters of freezing tundra. Yeah I know I missed a few plot points, but so far this has the makings of very high ratings in the US.
Makes you wonder if the tail is really the *AAs and perhaps not some other group or agency that has friends in high places. Of course, it's conspiratorial for me to say anything like that. I have trouble seeing where the money is going with moves like this too, and sometimes think it's easy to say it's not money that is changing hands but perhaps a get out of jail free card or two.
Can we just go ahead and admit that the broken windows economy doesn't work.
Seriously, I don't think that it will take long for this to make Windows 7 as popular as Vista is. All we need to do is tell people that Kubuntu is Windows 7 and everything will be fine.
I jest of course. We really should tell them that the one that works is Linux, and the one that looks like it but doesn't work is Windows 7. I'm truly perplexed at the pace with which this one company tries to put itself in the red. There isn't much to say that doesn't come out as MS bashing when I hear this. Lets just throw it away and pretend it doesn't exist... quickly.
The complaints of taxes on downloads in NY that were made today. NYC has had an unsustainable population since the early 1900s. From this story
Probably it had not been for the blizzard the people of the city might have ignored one for an indefinite time enduring the nuisance of electric wires dangling from poles, of slow trains running on the trestlework, and slower cars drawn by horses in the streets dangerous with their center tearing rails. Now two things tolerably certain that a system of a really rapid transit which cannot be made inoperable by storms must be straightaway devised and as speedily as possible constructed and that all the electric wires -- telegraph, telephone, fire alarms, and illuminating -- must be put underground without any delay.
At some point it will become nearly impossible to import enough food and merchandise to sustain the population of NYC as it is dispersed currently. Increasing the volume of locally produced food stuff will definitely decrease the cost of living there by some degree... if enough is produced there. Unfortunately, as the story details it, such efforts are also vulnerable to the elements if not encased inside the buildings themselves. In the terms of climate change I think this is necessarily appropriate to think of. The closer that NYC comes to being a city in a bubble, the closer we are to many science fiction themes... interesting.
This story is tagged 'hellfrozeover' and I get a flamebait mod? Cool!!!!! Awesome waste of a mod point. I think I'm up to 5 or 6 flamebaits now:) Flamebait being the most obvious mod mode for anyone invoking the name of satan. Doubly awesome:)
I agree. The planet exists, and therefore is a system flexible and reliable enough to function without human management, so leave it alone and spend efforts elsewhere, or so the reasoning goes.
Just because it exists and we are not yet trying to make it better does not mean we are not fucking with it already. Do you know if your food has the same nutrients as the same food did 60 years ago? Do you know if the lifestyle of the Western world countries has modified genetics/behaviors of its inhabitants? Do you know... well, you get the point.
Research that looks like it might be useful for Eugenics may actually only be the research for preventative medicine in respect of preventing damage to the gene pool through environmental factors. It depends on your perspective. How many more generations will it take before our species REQUIRES high fructose corn syrup to fully metabolize a western diet?
Are you kidding? Did you see any CEO's from wallstreet in the unemployment line? Not to be cynical, but both captains may have been doing exactly as they were ordered to do. Yes, I know wallstreet is in the USA, but you get the point. Chicken is a tough sport, no matter what kind of equipment you have. When you are playing 'lets trade punches' in the dark, with blindfolds on, it generally is no harm, but that's not true 100% of the time.
Within four days of the news of the Russian sub sinking, the USS Augusta came limping into port, shrouded in tugs and tarps, photography forbidden. The next day I was talking with a friend of mine who worked at Electric Boat. The damage to the Augusta was such that they had to hit something head on, at a very fast pace; the kind of damage you would expect if you drove your car into a solid brick wall at 55 mph. The timing on all of the news bits matches the story exactly. The Augusta hit an 'underwater object' sure enough. Funny how a Russian sub sank right after they hit it.
But in a subsequent statement, it admitted that the collision between the two submarines took place.
"They briefly came into contact at a very low speed while submerged," the statement added.
I forgot about that, but there were a few other pieces of malicious code that relied on trusted users to spread with vehemence. Yes, one infection of a security server and the whole house of cards blows away in the hurricane....
Big 8 military always play little war games with each other; sometimes there are accidents. There is absolutely NO reason to think the British and French don't play war games. If the USA and USSR couldn't get sonar navigation good enough for playing chicken, there is no reason to think the British and French would.
Sorry, according to recently released Whitehouse records the term is "Intarwebsprivatelessnessscardycats" or AmericaHaters for short.
Truly, people who posted pictures of themselves or their friends doing stupid things is just... well, human nature. Just look at the list of contenders for the Darwin awards. People are stupid, on the whole. I tried to tell my stepson that pictures of him dressed up like a gay looking movie character should not be posted to the Internet, even if it was just for Halloween. Seriously, try stopping the gay jokes now! It doesn't matter how good of a person you are, how big of a pillar of the community you are, how much you give to charity, how many Purple Hearts were awarded to you... you can be a fantastic guy, hero, respected and valued citizen all your life, but as soon as you get caught screwing one goat... it will say goatfucker on your tombstone.
I don't think people truly understand that. The people who don't are not likely to read the TOS anyway. It will be interesting to see what comes of this: perhaps a FaceBook style Darwin award? American Moron? Or will pictures be relegated to reality series style events? say a photo album island where 3D characters are modeled after the pics from canceled Facebook users. I'm sure they can find something that will make them money off your drunken brawl photos.
Sorry, can't find the study report now. It was to do with instincts, or those brain programs we seem to be born with. Where you say little kids don't care about bugs but older children do, I see kids who are afraid, and kids who are not and I question: Why is that? This would explain it or at least give a possible explanation. To the point of evolution, such things could be passed to offspring supporting survival even in the absence of parents or guardians. This does not apply to all aspects of life it seems, but it does explain some fundamental issues.
on the question of intelligence we often compare all artificial attempts at intelligence to the human mind. A process that I feel is fundamentally flawed given the nearly complete lack of scientific understanding how the human mind works. It's all very interesting.
That answered a couple of questions that I have. I'm saying thanks, and ensuring that I can find your post again so I can look more of that information up when I have the time. That there is a possible mechanism says tons given that it does explain most of what is needed to pass the trait on.
To me, this is one of the great mysteries of evolution. Not a physical trait, but a social trait becomes widespread. Social groupings and culture do not fully account for many things in my view. A genetic susceptibility to assuming a trait would explain many things that do not yet have a good explanation. Put simply, how do we inherit the equivalent of programming?
They say that small children who have never seen a spider are afraid of them? How did they learn that? Perhaps the hardwired instincts we are born with are not so hardwired as inherited programming. Which of course makes them changeable, and has implications for nature vs nurture questions. All very interesting.
That is actually the point. To learn to teach ourselves and our children in the best possible way. Unfortunately, there are those that would have us taught certain things regardless of their merits or value or truth.
Recently, researchers found that there might be a manner to attach the brain to limbs that have no function due to nerve damage. Apparently there are parts of the brain that can learn to do any function with some training. This means that neuropathways in our brains can be altered through training and remain fixed in this position for many years. There is no magic to suppose that this alters biochemistry to suit the new use. If you ask me (and I know you didn't) this is part of how evolution works. Once monkeys start using tools I doubt they will ever magically 'forget' how to use them. It won't be but a generation or two before this is part of normal brain function. If you've ever watched a new foal learn to walk within hours of birth, then learn to run in the same morning, you will no doubt wonder what is in the horses brain that makes them capable of this? Humans and other mammals have a long learning cycle for this.
As mentioned, this might explain religion however tenuously. There are studies happening as we speak about how the brain is hardwired for religion, or more specifically accept that magic is responsible for things outside our current ability to understand them.
The important next point would be showing altered biochemistry and/or genetic change due to learning/experience. The studies like the one that hints that engineering types are more likely to have boys than girls is important. It means that or hints that brain chemistry has biochemical effects on us and our offspring via genetics. Animal husbandry would tell us this if we listened, but we need to see it in humans to fully 'get it'... I don't want to say that this is more evidence for the support of eugenics, but... well, it seems likely.
Truly, we are not yet done learning about the human condition. Perhaps one day we will be able to engender and recognize many more folk like Einstein or Newton et al. Unfortunately that will only come at the price of recognizing others as second class citizens or some form of Gattica etc.
I hope that it is used to improve the condition of all, not simply the best or those most able to pay. Genetic change/mutation comes to all, just as rain does not fall only on the unjust. Eugenics would limit the gene pool and that would be bad for all of us... in the long run.
Hopefully this will turn out to be a good thing and not leave the human race with the regrets Nobel died with.
You are dead right. Gated community is FUD/PR Spin machine running full tilt. First, lets look at the reasons that some might argue that the current Internet is a dangerous place?
Got those in your head? Don't forget social engineering as the number one threat to Internet security, and that it CANNOT be fixed with hardware other than removing the network cable from the back of user's computers.
Now, let us look at how a gated community might fix security issues:
-social engineering dangers? Nope -Spam? Nope -open WiFi APs at home? Nope -DDoS? Nope, those are not end user issues. If an end user can reach a given service, their pc can be taken by a bot and used in a DDoS. -Viruses? Nope, gated communities will not stop all, if any, attack vectors
So, quite initially, the benefits here are nil, null, void, empty, vapor... So what is the impetus to make such gated communities? To remove your privacy. Period. there is no other reason. ever.
How can the current Internet be made better? There are lots of ways. First large ISPs need to re-organize their networks to handle the traffic required of them. Decentralization is imperative to both remove DDoS dangers and to ensure that user's across town from you are not using the bandwidth that you would otherwise be using. Content on demand can not be served efficiently from a single data source. Current network designs are designed that way for financial reasons and not network functionality. If you think the current state of Internet infrastructure is fucked, you have only your large ISP's to blame. They did not, and ARE not planning for a network topology that will support safety or expected data throughput requirements.
Those that have been fighting DDoS attacks can tell you more. Gated networks won't stop the real problems. They will ONLY take your privacy for the facade of security.
How much bandwidth do you think is available to broadcast television? Seriously? That little pipe coming into your home is bigger and will *always* have more capabilities... at least for the foreseeable future. So while you have a point, it's not relevant to this thread. More to the point, even wikipedia authors have pointed out that getting real High Definition television (1080p) is not going to happen on DTV. DTV has a number of advantages over analog(ue) television transmissions, but none over catv options. The problems with compression are relevant to both DTV and catv options.
The problem, as we should all know by now, is bandwidth. Digital signal technology surpasses analog(ue) technology in many ways. The troubles of lack of bandwidth remains. Simply switching to digital does not give broadcast television stations *more* bandwidth. Your view of more channels with crummy quality vs fewer of high quality is COMPLETELY misplaced. In fact it is so misplaced as to make you sound like a shill.
Your comment makes it sound like all broadcast television stations will broadcast in 1080i - this is simply not true. In fact it is likely that watching television on your computer via Youtube or Hulu et al will be a better viewing experience than watching broadcast DTV in many if not most cases. Nobody really seems to like references to wikipedia, but even they have got this part right.
There is no math or physics in this universe that makes the current technologies such that broadcast DTV is going to be better than catv options in your life time. Catv systems do not suffer from signal fade. It's a problem you can't get around with any technology currently available. If it takes 10 years to implement DTV, implementing completely new technology will take just as long. Don't hold your breath on DTV being better than catv... on second thought, perhaps you should.
I don't think that rabbit ears are going to be a threat anytime soon. That PayPerView things is pretty compelling. Admittedly, in tough financial times switching to just a few local channels for free would be an option - until you look at unbundling your catv from internet and phone etc. I'm pretty certain that cable providers have a grip on how to bill this so changing really doesn't save you anything worth getting excited over.
Now, if bundling of services with savings was not allowed, and catv ISPs were forced to act like common carriers things might be different. That doesn't look likely to happen any decade soon.
As cynical as I am I expect that soon I'll be paying a penalty for using Vonage instead of the catv ISP version of VoIP; which is a sucky service BTW. None of the available VoIP services can compete with Vonage for features or price or price per feature in my area. No soft phone, no taking your phone modem on vacation, and North America Plan means only US and protectorates - no Canada or Mexico etc.
My mom has DTV and during a storm it sucks. Yes, with indoor antenna it still sucked. Pixilation was devastating to viewing pleasure. It had nothing I'd switch from catv for.
This is an interesting thought, but nothing we'll see in reality.
Yeah, but no matter what it makes us, the US population in general will not know about it till well past 2010. It will take that long for our legislators to actually read the damn thing. Sure there will be watchdog groups who have read it before then, but like those that nay-sayed on the DMCA and US PATRIOT Act, they will be ignored until we are suffering the bad and unintended consequences of caveats in this bill.
I don't think there is much more that can be said... the TED video is awesome. I can see that tech built into things like phones. Shake it at your PC and get an address book sync. and other such things... awesome.
That would be a default pendulum, though many of us would like to see a defendant pendulum. Can you imagine a huge executive clacking ball thing made from the heads of wallstreet CEOs?
Slashdot Mirror
Some folk are limited in streaming content at work.... can't see much of TFA that is linked...
Yes, a plot that involves swimming in lava, surviving freezing tundra, and of course a female news reporter? oh yeah.... He kidnapped Ann Coulter, holds her head under the lava, then after what amounts to a steam bath to our super hero, relaxes in the cool waters of freezing tundra. Yeah I know I missed a few plot points, but so far this has the makings of very high ratings in the US.
Makes you wonder if the tail is really the *AAs and perhaps not some other group or agency that has friends in high places. Of course, it's conspiratorial for me to say anything like that. I have trouble seeing where the money is going with moves like this too, and sometimes think it's easy to say it's not money that is changing hands but perhaps a get out of jail free card or two.
Can we just go ahead and admit that the broken windows economy doesn't work.
Seriously, I don't think that it will take long for this to make Windows 7 as popular as Vista is. All we need to do is tell people that Kubuntu is Windows 7 and everything will be fine.
I jest of course. We really should tell them that the one that works is Linux, and the one that looks like it but doesn't work is Windows 7. I'm truly perplexed at the pace with which this one company tries to put itself in the red. There isn't much to say that doesn't come out as MS bashing when I hear this. Lets just throw it away and pretend it doesn't exist... quickly.
Well, okay. Humor me... read the reply again slowly, thinking to yourself that I must be writing with tongue in cheek.
The complaints of taxes on downloads in NY that were made today. NYC has had an unsustainable population since the early 1900s. From this story
Probably it had not been for the blizzard the people of the city might have ignored one for an indefinite time enduring the nuisance of electric wires dangling from poles, of slow trains running on the trestlework, and slower cars drawn by horses in the streets dangerous with their center tearing rails. Now two things tolerably certain that a system of a really rapid transit which cannot be made inoperable by storms must be straightaway devised and as speedily as possible constructed and that all the electric wires -- telegraph, telephone, fire alarms, and illuminating -- must be put underground without any delay.
At some point it will become nearly impossible to import enough food and merchandise to sustain the population of NYC as it is dispersed currently. Increasing the volume of locally produced food stuff will definitely decrease the cost of living there by some degree... if enough is produced there. Unfortunately, as the story details it, such efforts are also vulnerable to the elements if not encased inside the buildings themselves. In the terms of climate change I think this is necessarily appropriate to think of. The closer that NYC comes to being a city in a bubble, the closer we are to many science fiction themes... interesting.
This story is tagged 'hellfrozeover' and I get a flamebait mod? Cool!!!!! Awesome waste of a mod point. I think I'm up to 5 or 6 flamebaits now :) Flamebait being the most obvious mod mode for anyone invoking the name of satan. Doubly awesome :)
Well played. I believe that we agree much more than the original words led one to believe. MUCH more.
Don't worry... satan will not let this work, he doesn't do cold.
I agree. The planet exists, and therefore is a system flexible and reliable enough to function without human management, so leave it alone and spend efforts elsewhere, or so the reasoning goes.
Just because it exists and we are not yet trying to make it better does not mean we are not fucking with it already. Do you know if your food has the same nutrients as the same food did 60 years ago? Do you know if the lifestyle of the Western world countries has modified genetics/behaviors of its inhabitants? Do you know... well, you get the point.
Research that looks like it might be useful for Eugenics may actually only be the research for preventative medicine in respect of preventing damage to the gene pool through environmental factors. It depends on your perspective. How many more generations will it take before our species REQUIRES high fructose corn syrup to fully metabolize a western diet?
Are you kidding? Did you see any CEO's from wallstreet in the unemployment line? Not to be cynical, but both captains may have been doing exactly as they were ordered to do. Yes, I know wallstreet is in the USA, but you get the point. Chicken is a tough sport, no matter what kind of equipment you have. When you are playing 'lets trade punches' in the dark, with blindfolds on, it generally is no harm, but that's not true 100% of the time.
Within four days of the news of the Russian sub sinking, the USS Augusta came limping into port, shrouded in tugs and tarps, photography forbidden. The next day I was talking with a friend of mine who worked at Electric Boat. The damage to the Augusta was such that they had to hit something head on, at a very fast pace; the kind of damage you would expect if you drove your car into a solid brick wall at 55 mph. The timing on all of the news bits matches the story exactly. The Augusta hit an 'underwater object' sure enough. Funny how a Russian sub sank right after they hit it.
But in a subsequent statement, it admitted that the collision between the two submarines took place.
"They briefly came into contact at a very low speed while submerged," the statement added.
Did YOU RTFA?
"Comets could be the most significant impact hazard to Earth
Just what are the "other" impact hazards? I'm very curious about this.
I forgot about that, but there were a few other pieces of malicious code that relied on trusted users to spread with vehemence. Yes, one infection of a security server and the whole house of cards blows away in the hurricane....
USS Agusta vs. Russian nuclear submarine: It's true, trust me
Big 8 military always play little war games with each other; sometimes there are accidents. There is absolutely NO reason to think the British and French don't play war games. If the USA and USSR couldn't get sonar navigation good enough for playing chicken, there is no reason to think the British and French would.
Meh, shit happens....
Sorry, according to recently released Whitehouse records the term is "Intarwebsprivatelessnessscardycats" or AmericaHaters for short.
Truly, people who posted pictures of themselves or their friends doing stupid things is just... well, human nature. Just look at the list of contenders for the Darwin awards. People are stupid, on the whole. I tried to tell my stepson that pictures of him dressed up like a gay looking movie character should not be posted to the Internet, even if it was just for Halloween. Seriously, try stopping the gay jokes now! It doesn't matter how good of a person you are, how big of a pillar of the community you are, how much you give to charity, how many Purple Hearts were awarded to you... you can be a fantastic guy, hero, respected and valued citizen all your life, but as soon as you get caught screwing one goat... it will say goatfucker on your tombstone.
I don't think people truly understand that. The people who don't are not likely to read the TOS anyway. It will be interesting to see what comes of this: perhaps a FaceBook style Darwin award? American Moron? Or will pictures be relegated to reality series style events? say a photo album island where 3D characters are modeled after the pics from canceled Facebook users. I'm sure they can find something that will make them money off your drunken brawl photos.
Sorry, can't find the study report now. It was to do with instincts, or those brain programs we seem to be born with. Where you say little kids don't care about bugs but older children do, I see kids who are afraid, and kids who are not and I question: Why is that? This would explain it or at least give a possible explanation. To the point of evolution, such things could be passed to offspring supporting survival even in the absence of parents or guardians. This does not apply to all aspects of life it seems, but it does explain some fundamental issues.
on the question of intelligence we often compare all artificial attempts at intelligence to the human mind. A process that I feel is fundamentally flawed given the nearly complete lack of scientific understanding how the human mind works. It's all very interesting.
That answered a couple of questions that I have. I'm saying thanks, and ensuring that I can find your post again so I can look more of that information up when I have the time. That there is a possible mechanism says tons given that it does explain most of what is needed to pass the trait on.
To me, this is one of the great mysteries of evolution. Not a physical trait, but a social trait becomes widespread. Social groupings and culture do not fully account for many things in my view. A genetic susceptibility to assuming a trait would explain many things that do not yet have a good explanation. Put simply, how do we inherit the equivalent of programming?
They say that small children who have never seen a spider are afraid of them? How did they learn that? Perhaps the hardwired instincts we are born with are not so hardwired as inherited programming. Which of course makes them changeable, and has implications for nature vs nurture questions. All very interesting.
That is actually the point. To learn to teach ourselves and our children in the best possible way. Unfortunately, there are those that would have us taught certain things regardless of their merits or value or truth.
Recently, researchers found that there might be a manner to attach the brain to limbs that have no function due to nerve damage. Apparently there are parts of the brain that can learn to do any function with some training. This means that neuropathways in our brains can be altered through training and remain fixed in this position for many years. There is no magic to suppose that this alters biochemistry to suit the new use. If you ask me (and I know you didn't) this is part of how evolution works. Once monkeys start using tools I doubt they will ever magically 'forget' how to use them. It won't be but a generation or two before this is part of normal brain function. If you've ever watched a new foal learn to walk within hours of birth, then learn to run in the same morning, you will no doubt wonder what is in the horses brain that makes them capable of this? Humans and other mammals have a long learning cycle for this.
As mentioned, this might explain religion however tenuously. There are studies happening as we speak about how the brain is hardwired for religion, or more specifically accept that magic is responsible for things outside our current ability to understand them.
The important next point would be showing altered biochemistry and/or genetic change due to learning/experience. The studies like the one that hints that engineering types are more likely to have boys than girls is important. It means that or hints that brain chemistry has biochemical effects on us and our offspring via genetics. Animal husbandry would tell us this if we listened, but we need to see it in humans to fully 'get it'... I don't want to say that this is more evidence for the support of eugenics, but... well, it seems likely.
Truly, we are not yet done learning about the human condition. Perhaps one day we will be able to engender and recognize many more folk like Einstein or Newton et al. Unfortunately that will only come at the price of recognizing others as second class citizens or some form of Gattica etc.
I hope that it is used to improve the condition of all, not simply the best or those most able to pay. Genetic change/mutation comes to all, just as rain does not fall only on the unjust. Eugenics would limit the gene pool and that would be bad for all of us ... in the long run.
Hopefully this will turn out to be a good thing and not leave the human race with the regrets Nobel died with.
You are dead right. Gated community is FUD/PR Spin machine running full tilt. First, lets look at the reasons that some might argue that the current Internet is a dangerous place?
Got those in your head? Don't forget social engineering as the number one threat to Internet security, and that it CANNOT be fixed with hardware other than removing the network cable from the back of user's computers.
Now, let us look at how a gated community might fix security issues:
-social engineering dangers? Nope
-Spam? Nope
-open WiFi APs at home? Nope
-DDoS? Nope, those are not end user issues. If an end user can reach a given service, their pc can be taken by a bot and used in a DDoS.
-Viruses? Nope, gated communities will not stop all, if any, attack vectors
So, quite initially, the benefits here are nil, null, void, empty, vapor... So what is the impetus to make such gated communities? To remove your privacy. Period. there is no other reason. ever.
How can the current Internet be made better? There are lots of ways. First large ISPs need to re-organize their networks to handle the traffic required of them. Decentralization is imperative to both remove DDoS dangers and to ensure that user's across town from you are not using the bandwidth that you would otherwise be using. Content on demand can not be served efficiently from a single data source. Current network designs are designed that way for financial reasons and not network functionality. If you think the current state of Internet infrastructure is fucked, you have only your large ISP's to blame. They did not, and ARE not planning for a network topology that will support safety or expected data throughput requirements.
Those that have been fighting DDoS attacks can tell you more. Gated networks won't stop the real problems. They will ONLY take your privacy for the facade of security.
How much bandwidth do you think is available to broadcast television? Seriously? That little pipe coming into your home is bigger and will *always* have more capabilities... at least for the foreseeable future. So while you have a point, it's not relevant to this thread. More to the point, even wikipedia authors have pointed out that getting real High Definition television (1080p) is not going to happen on DTV. DTV has a number of advantages over analog(ue) television transmissions, but none over catv options. The problems with compression are relevant to both DTV and catv options.
The problem, as we should all know by now, is bandwidth. Digital signal technology surpasses analog(ue) technology in many ways. The troubles of lack of bandwidth remains. Simply switching to digital does not give broadcast television stations *more* bandwidth. Your view of more channels with crummy quality vs fewer of high quality is COMPLETELY misplaced. In fact it is so misplaced as to make you sound like a shill.
Your comment makes it sound like all broadcast television stations will broadcast in 1080i - this is simply not true. In fact it is likely that watching television on your computer via Youtube or Hulu et al will be a better viewing experience than watching broadcast DTV in many if not most cases. Nobody really seems to like references to wikipedia, but even they have got this part right.
There is no math or physics in this universe that makes the current technologies such that broadcast DTV is going to be better than catv options in your life time. Catv systems do not suffer from signal fade. It's a problem you can't get around with any technology currently available. If it takes 10 years to implement DTV, implementing completely new technology will take just as long. Don't hold your breath on DTV being better than catv... on second thought, perhaps you should.
I don't think that rabbit ears are going to be a threat anytime soon. That PayPerView things is pretty compelling. Admittedly, in tough financial times switching to just a few local channels for free would be an option - until you look at unbundling your catv from internet and phone etc. I'm pretty certain that cable providers have a grip on how to bill this so changing really doesn't save you anything worth getting excited over.
Now, if bundling of services with savings was not allowed, and catv ISPs were forced to act like common carriers things might be different. That doesn't look likely to happen any decade soon.
As cynical as I am I expect that soon I'll be paying a penalty for using Vonage instead of the catv ISP version of VoIP; which is a sucky service BTW. None of the available VoIP services can compete with Vonage for features or price or price per feature in my area. No soft phone, no taking your phone modem on vacation, and North America Plan means only US and protectorates - no Canada or Mexico etc.
My mom has DTV and during a storm it sucks. Yes, with indoor antenna it still sucked. Pixilation was devastating to viewing pleasure. It had nothing I'd switch from catv for.
This is an interesting thought, but nothing we'll see in reality.
Yeah, but no matter what it makes us, the US population in general will not know about it till well past 2010. It will take that long for our legislators to actually read the damn thing. Sure there will be watchdog groups who have read it before then, but like those that nay-sayed on the DMCA and US PATRIOT Act, they will be ignored until we are suffering the bad and unintended consequences of caveats in this bill.
I don't think there is much more that can be said... the TED video is awesome. I can see that tech built into things like phones. Shake it at your PC and get an address book sync. and other such things... awesome.
That would be a default pendulum, though many of us would like to see a defendant pendulum. Can you imagine a huge executive clacking ball thing made from the heads of wallstreet CEOs?