You were probably kidding, but I'd like to point out that our local humane society has rules against adopting out animals for the purpose of pest management or hunting.
Wow. You sure went the distance to get your revenge on someone ho was making a snarky joke about the typical glacial pace of congressional progress. Your parents must be proud.
Are they talking white space or are they talking 700 MHz?
White space means unused TV channels, which means 470-700 MHz after the transition.
What it sounds like, however, is that they're referring to the rules that will govern the new 700 MHz allocations that were auctioned last year.
There is no "abandoned" analog bandwidth. The top 100 MHz of the UHF TV band were reallocated to other services and the TV broadcasters were "packed in" closer together thanks to ATSC's less stringent adjacent channel spacing requirements.
If you have your converter, you won't notice. No confusion.
That's not 100% true.
As stations transition, their digital transmitter changes frequency. Receivers must be informed of this, either by being told to rescan or (in the case of things like DirecTV receivers that have a built-in or add-on ATSC tuner) get these changes from a service provider.
If 2/17 had remained the transition date, then this nonsense would have been done once.
But if the transition date is fuzzy, then it's going to be a gigantic pain in the tuchus.
The nice thing about Greco-Roman mythology is that there are a lot of gods, and they have personalities and attributes that can work sometimes.
So in our house....
BSD mail/web/external server -> zeus Mac Pro -> achilles iMac -> morpheus (yes, it was called that before The Matrix came out. The god of sleep and dreams, because that machine had an alarm clock on it) MacBook Pro -> minerva (goddess of wisdom, commerce and music) Mac mini -> bacchus (god of entertainment, more or less - this one is in the living room hooked up to the TV). Macbook Air -> cupid (belongs to the wife)
FWIW, I believe you could work-around this problem by putting a resistor across the clapper's output in parallel with the load. You need to use the highest value resistor that will still allow the clapper to function.
If I'm wrong, then it's because the resistor value must be so low for the clapper to work that it winds up being an inefficient heat-dump when the thing is on (potentially even a fire hazard).
If I were going to try it, I'd try it with a 1 watt 25 k-ohm resistor. If that doesn't work, then forget it.
I bought a timer switch once upon a time for some lights in the driveway. This particular timer is nice because you tell it your latitude and longitude and the date and it knows what time sunset and sunrise is. It is, however, designed to work in 3-way switch configurations, which means that it requires a conductive load, just like the clappers do.
Fortunately, the CFLs that I use (apparently) understand this dilemma and offer a resistive load when turned off, since the whole thing still works correctly.
I bought another one of these switches for working the outdoor low-voltage lights, but this time bought the one that is set up for higher power switching. That one requires access to both the hot and neutral, but has the virtue that it continues to work with no load attached. I used an outlet box to rig up a sort of ghetto power strip, but with sun-timer control. Worked very well.
Then your brother applied early in the program when the first half of the coupons were still available. Go read the FAQ once again. Your statement that the coupons are available now for homes with cable is false.
Clearly I'm not the one with the reading disability. The form demands that you declare truthfully whether or not your household has cable or not. Why do you suppose they ask that? Because they're curious? No. Because half the coupons are, contrary to your blind, stupid assertion, NOT AVAILABLE for households served by cable or satellite.
Well, for the next 30 days after 2/17 (or later if they move the date), analog stations may be left on the air on a non-interference basis as part of the provisions of the DTV "nightlight" bill that was passed in December and signed by President Bush at the end of the year.
The nightlight bill says that the analog stations can transmit information relating to the transition for 30 days, as well as emergency information.
So until mid March, people will be both educated on the transition and be able to receive emergency information.
Bullshit. Go look at the FAQ for the coupon box program:
Are all consumers eligible for the coupon program? Yes, but supplies are limited. There are 22.25 million coupons available to all U.S. households. Once those coupons have been used, there are an additional 11.25 million coupons available only to households that solely receive their TV broadcasts over-the-air using an antenna. Households with TVs connected to cable, satellite or other pay TV service are not eligible for this second batch of coupons. Consumers can apply for coupons until March 31, 2009, or until the funds are exhausted.
Yes they do. That's why the current language in the bill makes the deadline extension voluntary. Since the stations can proceed with the shutdown on 2/17 as planned, it's almost a foregone conclusion that virtually all of them will.
This whole thing is a shameful exercise in blame tossing. By passing this bill the congress can say, "it's not our fault - we wanted to extend the deadline, but those naughty broadcasters wouldn't play ball!"
TV news is also invaluable if you live some place with frequent storms (e.g. anywhere in tornado alley).
How many people have a UPS for their TV? There's a correlation between storms and power failures, last time I checked.
That, and the antenna is either going to be the first part of the house to get blown over by the storm, or the most likely thing to be struck by lightning.
No, it's not. Cable companies are required to continue transmitting analog versions of the local broadcast channels for the foreseeable future (I think I heard the date 2012 once in this context).
It won't affect me, since I switched from rabbit ears to cable. And I got my coupons early last summer.
Careful there. If you switched to cable before you got the coupons (unless you have two TVs in your house that are not connected to cable), then you committed an act of fraud, since the questionnaire on the application form makes it clear that the coupons are only for TVs that are not served by cable or satellite TV.
BIOS is way, way obsolete. The bigger question is whether or not Windows 7 will be bootable on EFI machines. This article says that Windows 7 "delivers support" for EFI. It is likely that means that it will be bootable on EFI equipped machines, but there's wiggle room there.
EFI and GPT offer real improvements beyond merely sweeping away the legacy cruft of decades of backwards compatibility. It's time to move on.
One thing that PHB types need to be made aware of is that the level of use within open source projects does not necessarily imply usage in general. I would expect PHP to be used less to make open source projects. Rather, I would expect it to be used to build websites, which tend to be heavily customized things that don't need to be replicated across sites the same way that open source software tends to be.
Obviously there are exceptions for things like Squirrelmail or PHPBB, but they don't invalidate my argument.
What if nothing had been done? We'd still have crappy (I'm talking picture and signal quality here, not making a value judgement about the programming - that'll be the same at 1080i as it was at 480i) analog TV and the extra 100 MHz of spectrum would not be available for advanced wireless services and public safety communications. But in order to shift things around to make room for those new services, we need to squish the TV broadcasters closer together, which means converting them to ATSC, which, by the way, will result in a much better experience for viewers at the cost of backwards compatibility. The work-around for the backwards-compatibility problem is the subsidized converter boxes.
The net benefit of the whole deal has to be taken into account. Part of the cost of the deal is the subsidized converter boxes. The money for them isn't a tax-funded boondoggle. It is part of the deal to shift 100 MHz of UHF spectrum to a better use, which benefits the public good more than the status quo ante. And that's government doing what government ought to be doing.
But the coupons aren't coming out of tax money, they're coming out of the license fees paid by Verizon for the 100 MHz of spectrum being taken away from the UHF TV band.
You could argue, I suppose, that it all comes from the US treasury and so it offsets taxes, but the linkage is quite strong, since the conversion to digital has enabled the extra spectrum to be leased, which brought in the funds to pay for the coupons to subsidize the converter boxes.
And yes, the conversion to digital really has enabled the band to be compressed. ATSC is more generous with adjacent channel allocation rules which allows the broadcasters to be packed in together tighter than was the case with analog. In particular, adjacent channels are allowed to be used by broadcasters transmitting from the same site. This is why channels 33, 34, 38, 39, 43, 44 and 45 will all be coming from Sutro tower post-2/17. You weren't allowed to do that with NTSC.
It's not your money or his money, it's Verizon's money. They bought a chunk of the 100 MHz of spectrum being given back from the UHF band, the coupons are coming out of that.
In my case, since I don't drink (it's not that I'm recovering or religious - I just don't like it), any accusation of DUI would be bogus. Thus, I'd want to be damn sure to get the most accurate test possible.
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You were probably kidding, but I'd like to point out that our local humane society has rules against adopting out animals for the purpose of pest management or hunting.
Hasn't every president for about a hundred years gone everywhere with a realtime tracking system?
That, and presumably it's not ground like Mr. Magoo's glasses (unlike Hubble was).
Wow. You sure went the distance to get your revenge on someone ho was making a snarky joke about the typical glacial pace of congressional progress. Your parents must be proud.
Are they talking white space or are they talking 700 MHz?
White space means unused TV channels, which means 470-700 MHz after the transition.
What it sounds like, however, is that they're referring to the rules that will govern the new 700 MHz allocations that were auctioned last year.
There is no "abandoned" analog bandwidth. The top 100 MHz of the UHF TV band were reallocated to other services and the TV broadcasters were "packed in" closer together thanks to ATSC's less stringent adjacent channel spacing requirements.
If you have your converter, you won't notice. No confusion.
That's not 100% true.
As stations transition, their digital transmitter changes frequency. Receivers must be informed of this, either by being told to rescan or (in the case of things like DirecTV receivers that have a built-in or add-on ATSC tuner) get these changes from a service provider.
If 2/17 had remained the transition date, then this nonsense would have been done once.
But if the transition date is fuzzy, then it's going to be a gigantic pain in the tuchus.
The nice thing about Greco-Roman mythology is that there are a lot of gods, and they have personalities and attributes that can work sometimes.
So in our house....
BSD mail/web/external server -> zeus
Mac Pro -> achilles
iMac -> morpheus (yes, it was called that before The Matrix came out. The god of sleep and dreams, because that machine had an alarm clock on it)
MacBook Pro -> minerva (goddess of wisdom, commerce and music)
Mac mini -> bacchus (god of entertainment, more or less - this one is in the living room hooked up to the TV).
Macbook Air -> cupid (belongs to the wife)
FWIW, I believe you could work-around this problem by putting a resistor across the clapper's output in parallel with the load. You need to use the highest value resistor that will still allow the clapper to function.
If I'm wrong, then it's because the resistor value must be so low for the clapper to work that it winds up being an inefficient heat-dump when the thing is on (potentially even a fire hazard).
If I were going to try it, I'd try it with a 1 watt 25 k-ohm resistor. If that doesn't work, then forget it.
I bought a timer switch once upon a time for some lights in the driveway. This particular timer is nice because you tell it your latitude and longitude and the date and it knows what time sunset and sunrise is. It is, however, designed to work in 3-way switch configurations, which means that it requires a conductive load, just like the clappers do.
Fortunately, the CFLs that I use (apparently) understand this dilemma and offer a resistive load when turned off, since the whole thing still works correctly.
I bought another one of these switches for working the outdoor low-voltage lights, but this time bought the one that is set up for higher power switching. That one requires access to both the hot and neutral, but has the virtue that it continues to work with no load attached. I used an outlet box to rig up a sort of ghetto power strip, but with sun-timer control. Worked very well.
Then your brother applied early in the program when the first half of the coupons were still available. Go read the FAQ once again. Your statement that the coupons are available now for homes with cable is false.
Clearly I'm not the one with the reading disability. The form demands that you declare truthfully whether or not your household has cable or not. Why do you suppose they ask that? Because they're curious? No. Because half the coupons are, contrary to your blind, stupid assertion, NOT AVAILABLE for households served by cable or satellite.
Dumbass. Learn to read.
Well, for the next 30 days after 2/17 (or later if they move the date), analog stations may be left on the air on a non-interference basis as part of the provisions of the DTV "nightlight" bill that was passed in December and signed by President Bush at the end of the year.
The nightlight bill says that the analog stations can transmit information relating to the transition for 30 days, as well as emergency information.
So until mid March, people will be both educated on the transition and be able to receive emergency information.
This, I believe, is sufficient.
Bullshit. Go look at the FAQ for the coupon box program:
Physician, heal thyself.
Yes they do. That's why the current language in the bill makes the deadline extension voluntary. Since the stations can proceed with the shutdown on 2/17 as planned, it's almost a foregone conclusion that virtually all of them will.
This whole thing is a shameful exercise in blame tossing. By passing this bill the congress can say, "it's not our fault - we wanted to extend the deadline, but those naughty broadcasters wouldn't play ball!"
TV news is also invaluable if you live some place with frequent storms (e.g. anywhere in tornado alley).
How many people have a UPS for their TV? There's a correlation between storms and power failures, last time I checked.
That, and the antenna is either going to be the first part of the house to get blown over by the storm, or the most likely thing to be struck by lightning.
They have time to get through that process before the deadline.
You must be new here.
For those on cable it is different.
No, it's not. Cable companies are required to continue transmitting analog versions of the local broadcast channels for the foreseeable future (I think I heard the date 2012 once in this context).
It won't affect me, since I switched from rabbit ears to cable. And I got my coupons early last summer.
Careful there. If you switched to cable before you got the coupons (unless you have two TVs in your house that are not connected to cable), then you committed an act of fraud, since the questionnaire on the application form makes it clear that the coupons are only for TVs that are not served by cable or satellite TV.
BIOS is way, way obsolete. The bigger question is whether or not Windows 7 will be bootable on EFI machines. This article says that Windows 7 "delivers support" for EFI. It is likely that means that it will be bootable on EFI equipped machines, but there's wiggle room there.
EFI and GPT offer real improvements beyond merely sweeping away the legacy cruft of decades of backwards compatibility. It's time to move on.
One thing that PHB types need to be made aware of is that the level of use within open source projects does not necessarily imply usage in general. I would expect PHP to be used less to make open source projects. Rather, I would expect it to be used to build websites, which tend to be heavily customized things that don't need to be replicated across sites the same way that open source software tends to be.
Obviously there are exceptions for things like Squirrelmail or PHPBB, but they don't invalidate my argument.
Let's look at it another way:
What if nothing had been done? We'd still have crappy (I'm talking picture and signal quality here, not making a value judgement about the programming - that'll be the same at 1080i as it was at 480i) analog TV and the extra 100 MHz of spectrum would not be available for advanced wireless services and public safety communications. But in order to shift things around to make room for those new services, we need to squish the TV broadcasters closer together, which means converting them to ATSC, which, by the way, will result in a much better experience for viewers at the cost of backwards compatibility. The work-around for the backwards-compatibility problem is the subsidized converter boxes.
The net benefit of the whole deal has to be taken into account. Part of the cost of the deal is the subsidized converter boxes. The money for them isn't a tax-funded boondoggle. It is part of the deal to shift 100 MHz of UHF spectrum to a better use, which benefits the public good more than the status quo ante. And that's government doing what government ought to be doing.
But the coupons aren't coming out of tax money, they're coming out of the license fees paid by Verizon for the 100 MHz of spectrum being taken away from the UHF TV band.
You could argue, I suppose, that it all comes from the US treasury and so it offsets taxes, but the linkage is quite strong, since the conversion to digital has enabled the extra spectrum to be leased, which brought in the funds to pay for the coupons to subsidize the converter boxes.
And yes, the conversion to digital really has enabled the band to be compressed. ATSC is more generous with adjacent channel allocation rules which allows the broadcasters to be packed in together tighter than was the case with analog. In particular, adjacent channels are allowed to be used by broadcasters transmitting from the same site. This is why channels 33, 34, 38, 39, 43, 44 and 45 will all be coming from Sutro tower post-2/17. You weren't allowed to do that with NTSC.
It's not your money or his money, it's Verizon's money. They bought a chunk of the 100 MHz of spectrum being given back from the UHF band, the coupons are coming out of that.
Whoosh.
For those who also do not feel the gust of air from the joke flying over your head, let me google it for you.
In my case, since I don't drink (it's not that I'm recovering or religious - I just don't like it), any accusation of DUI would be bogus. Thus, I'd want to be damn sure to get the most accurate test possible.
"Woah."