I can't remember where I read this, but I read somewhere about a year ago that the Federal Government was going to require that (pardon inacuracies, can't remember specifics) by something like 2010 all Cable Television service providers would have to be fully upgraded to a completely DIGITAL system, with the ability to allow people to pay per channel or two, not by the handful. The article I read indicated (w/out specifics as to prices) that it would be like you would be able to choose a base package of 10 or so channels (locals, movies, sports, news, science, games, etc), and then you'd be able to add single channels for like $1 each.
Again, I can't remember where I read this, though I know I saw more than one article about it about a year ago, probably online, maybe even in a newspaper or something.
Having been a "Cable Guy" myself, It would really simplify things. Basically everyone would be hooked up through a Digital line, and us Cable Guys would no longer have to remember which system used the A42-filter to give HBO, and which one used it to give Playboy chanel. (no joke, I ran into problems like this). Rather once you're plugged in and have your digital box, it would have your information downloaded, and you'd get only the channels you ask for, nothing more.
Who knows, maybe this will actually happen, but at the rate the Cable companies where I live now are going, they'll not be done until 2150.
When I worked in Tech Support for that ISP back in the day, My cubicle was directly across the way from a little mini-break room with a fridge and a sink and a coffee making machine. But here's the thing that tortured me forever while I worked there: The coffee machine had a place to put the water, a place to put the filter basket, a burner (and it was actually directly below where the filter basket goes), and there was a drawer in the room that actually had coffee, filters, and the works. But there was NO FRIGGEN ON SWITCH!!!!
You simply couldn't turn the thing on! The plug went into the wall, and you could hear it wirring like it was prepping the heating mechanism, but there was no button or switch to turn it on.
Every day during each of my two 10 minute breaks and my 30 minute lunch I would continually inspect the machine and search for a switch. I came in one day with my computer toolkit to take it apart and find the hidden switch, but my supervisor found me before I could and told me to log-in and get to work instead. Then we got a company wide email stating that there should be no taking apart of the equipment (no matter what it was) unless you were in Help Desk.
It gets worse, because I put a request into Help Desk to have it fixed, and my "friend" in helpdesk sent me this strange email that said something like:
You mean you actually tried to get that thing to work??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahahahaaa aaaaaaaa!!!! Wait 'till I tell the rest of Help Desk!
Well you can imagine after that I became a smoker and brought Mt. Dew every day (2-2liters)
well, actually... if everybody was happy with current technology, there would be nobody researching future technology... meaning that nobody would be trying to create new methods of doing things...
I suppose that doesn't mean nobody would suddenly out of no where think... Hey! It would be easier to do it this way!... but it would take a LOT longer for that to happen if people didn't get tired of doing things one way and decide that "This method or technology is really silly, it could be easier"...
or something like that... (you know... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"...)
Everytime something new comes along, there's atleast one person that says "Why not just use $existingTech?" Maybe because the existing method isn't as efficient as it seems?
Exactly! And for that matter.... If everybody had the mentallity.. "Why not just use $existingTech?".. then we'd never get anywhere technologically would we!
Lets look at things from this angle. Google currently logs things like what people search for, when, for how long, what they click on, etc etc etc... But they only use this information to serve ads that are more closely relevent to the person searching.
It sounds to me like Google is going to try to put their Database and Search technology to use in a similar capacity only with TV. Anyone who has digital cable and/or sattelite television programming in their home, or even TiVo for that matter, can have their viewings logged. So Google may enter these programming companies and start logging what we watch, how often we watch it, and even what commercials we actually stop to watch instead of continueing the programming with our TiVo remote control. Then, they can serve more comercials about beer to those who stop to watch the beer commercials, etc...
Of course this would go further if they can successfully match the web surfing to the TV watching. The hard part here is that how can they know that The Mother who is watching In-Home-Living is not the same person as the teenager who is searching on the internet for their cooking class in High School.
Google's pretty genious though, I'm sure they'll find a way to do that. Maybe family members will be able to "login" to their personal TiVo home and have their showtimes listed when they login, and Google can do things that way... who knows?
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I can't remember where I read this, but I read somewhere about a year ago that the Federal Government was going to require that (pardon inacuracies, can't remember specifics) by something like 2010 all Cable Television service providers would have to be fully upgraded to a completely DIGITAL system, with the ability to allow people to pay per channel or two, not by the handful. The article I read indicated (w/out specifics as to prices) that it would be like you would be able to choose a base package of 10 or so channels (locals, movies, sports, news, science, games, etc), and then you'd be able to add single channels for like $1 each.
Again, I can't remember where I read this, though I know I saw more than one article about it about a year ago, probably online, maybe even in a newspaper or something.
Having been a "Cable Guy" myself, It would really simplify things. Basically everyone would be hooked up through a Digital line, and us Cable Guys would no longer have to remember which system used the A42-filter to give HBO, and which one used it to give Playboy chanel. (no joke, I ran into problems like this). Rather once you're plugged in and have your digital box, it would have your information downloaded, and you'd get only the channels you ask for, nothing more.
Who knows, maybe this will actually happen, but at the rate the Cable companies where I live now are going, they'll not be done until 2150.
When I worked in Tech Support for that ISP back in the day, My cubicle was directly across the way from a little mini-break room with a fridge and a sink and a coffee making machine. But here's the thing that tortured me forever while I worked there: The coffee machine had a place to put the water, a place to put the filter basket, a burner (and it was actually directly below where the filter basket goes), and there was a drawer in the room that actually had coffee, filters, and the works. But there was NO FRIGGEN ON SWITCH!!!!
You simply couldn't turn the thing on! The plug went into the wall, and you could hear it wirring like it was prepping the heating mechanism, but there was no button or switch to turn it on.
Every day during each of my two 10 minute breaks and my 30 minute lunch I would continually inspect the machine and search for a switch. I came in one day with my computer toolkit to take it apart and find the hidden switch, but my supervisor found me before I could and told me to log-in and get to work instead. Then we got a company wide email stating that there should be no taking apart of the equipment (no matter what it was) unless you were in Help Desk.
It gets worse, because I put a request into Help Desk to have it fixed, and my "friend" in helpdesk sent me this strange email that said something like:
Well you can imagine after that I became a smoker and brought Mt. Dew every day (2-2liters)
well, actually ... if everybody was happy with current technology, there would be nobody researching future technology ... meaning that nobody would be trying to create new methods of doing things ...
... Hey! It would be easier to do it this way! ... but it would take a LOT longer for that to happen if people didn't get tired of doing things one way and decide that "This method or technology is really silly, it could be easier"...
... (you know ... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" ...)
I suppose that doesn't mean nobody would suddenly out of no where think
or something like that
Lets look at things from this angle. Google currently logs things like what people search for, when, for how long, what they click on, etc etc etc ... But they only use this information to serve ads that are more closely relevent to the person searching.
...
... who knows?
It sounds to me like Google is going to try to put their Database and Search technology to use in a similar capacity only with TV. Anyone who has digital cable and/or sattelite television programming in their home, or even TiVo for that matter, can have their viewings logged. So Google may enter these programming companies and start logging what we watch, how often we watch it, and even what commercials we actually stop to watch instead of continueing the programming with our TiVo remote control. Then, they can serve more comercials about beer to those who stop to watch the beer commercials, etc
Of course this would go further if they can successfully match the web surfing to the TV watching. The hard part here is that how can they know that The Mother who is watching In-Home-Living is not the same person as the teenager who is searching on the internet for their cooking class in High School.
Google's pretty genious though, I'm sure they'll find a way to do that. Maybe family members will be able to "login" to their personal TiVo home and have their showtimes listed when they login, and Google can do things that way