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I never made a conscious decision to eschew digital in favor of the bygone days of simple machines and media. It’s just who I am. I don’t see the printed word as an anachronism in a world of Kindles and iPads. As an editor, books are my livelihood and my earliest and most prevalent passion. Vinyl is not the latest craze; it is the way I listen to music, a physical way of experiencing the auditory. And I still receive and send greeting cards to my grandmother in Mississippi. I am not alone. This analog lifestyle has caught on in...

  Make no mistake: I do not merely hate computers. I loathe, fear, despise, curse, and have constant torture and dismemberment fantasies about them. I know there are others out there like me, an entire unorganized underground. I've talked to some of them, in conspiratorial whispers. We are not cyberterrorists -- viruses hurt us more than anyone else. But we need a support network. We need a manifesto.   This isn't it.   The university that employs me gave every one of its nearly 1,000 professors a free computer. Having had no luck with IBM PCs in the past, I...

The long-awaited switch from analog to digital TV took place last Friday, and if you're like most people, you weren't aware of it. But if you are poor and/or stupid, you've probably had a rough weekend. "Nearly 700,000 calls were received by a federal hot line this week from people confused about the nationwide switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts that occurred Friday. About a third of the calls were about federal coupons to pay for digital converter boxes." Does that really say, "federal coupons for digital converter boxes?" "The largest volume of calls came from the Chicago area..."...

DTV Transition Partially Occurs, World Doesn't End Federal call center easily handles user calls, problems... 05:58PM Thursday Feb 19 2009 by Karl Bode About 421 of the nation's roughly 1,800 stations made the transition to digital broadcasts on the originally scheduled date (February 17), and so far the world has continued rotating. Fears that consumers weren't ready for the switch resulted in Congress extending the deadline into June, though TV stations were given the right to cut over ahead of the deadline -- as long as they got permission from the FCC. According to the Associated Press, the Federal call...

Some TV stations will cut their analog signals today and move to digital-only broadcasting. Others will take advantage of a grace period passed by Congress and wait until June 12. In theater superstition, a bad dress rehearsal is supposed to foretell a good opening night. If so, the U.S. might be in good shape when it turns off the last analog TV broadcasts in June, because the lead-up to the smaller-scale turnoff Tuesday has been confusing to both viewers and TV stations....snip... A patchwork of 641 stations across the country, mainly in thinly populated areas, are still turning off their...

It's hard for the hillbilly to say goodbye to certain things. Like the rims off the tire of some 1970s-era muscle car that rusts in the front yard. Or the old lady moo-moo, a fashion style that slips easily from the bedroom to caseworker waiting room. Some hillbillies have a hard time saying goodbye to people. That's why the Protection From Abuse, or the PFA, order was invented. But, nothing has been harder to say goodbye to than analog television.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says it will no longer respond to distress calls sent by analog signal starting Feb. 1. The agency is switching to digital frequencies and says the new equipment cannot process signals transmitting on 121.5 or 243.0 MHz. The Coast Guard said Wednesday in a statement that the switch to digital will provide a more stable and powerful signal that could improve response times. The agency said mariners and aviators should upgrade their equipment to include a digital 406-MHz distress radio beacon and register it [snip]

President-elect Barack Obama is urging Congress to postpone the Feb. 17 switch from analog to digital television broadcasting. In a letter to key lawmakers, transition team co-chair John Podesta warned today that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air broadcasts won’t be ready. The incoming administration is pushing for a delay in part because the Commerce Department has run out of money for the coupons that subsidize digital TV converter boxes for consumers. People who don’t have cable or satellite TV or a new TV with a digital tuner will need the converter boxes...

...Then God your Father spoke, "It won't be long now children before your televisions will be completely useless and that they'll contain The Chip..."

MAURICE SKLAR MINISTRIES Buy Postage Seven Signs of the Times Maurice Sklar Mar 12 2007 05:21PM 1. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes...

There is a dirty little secret in the cable industry. Its being kept secret not by the cable distributors, but by the big cable networks. End this practice and the United States goes from being 3rd world by international broadband standards, to top of the charts and exemplary. Make this change and Net Neutrality becomes a non issue. There is plenty of bandwidth for everyone. What is the dirty little secret ? That your cable company still delivers basic cable networks in analog. Why is this such an important issue ? Because each of those cable networks takes up...

I've read one argument coming from Congress that holds this change will be a boon for employment and manufacturing. However, inasmuch as things electrical are not manufactured in our country this needed production can only benefit our not-so-good friends in China. There is a further argument that it is necessary for some yet to be explained national security purpose. I've come across the minutes of one Congressional staff meeting ( H.R.___, Regarding the Transition to Digital Television in which 'security' is referenced forty-six ( 38 ) times; 'national security' is referenced three ( 3 ) times; and Homeland Security is...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hispanics are nearly twice as likely as whites to be left without television service following the nationwide transition to digital broadcasting next year, according to a new survey. Beginning in February 2009, full-power broadcast stations will transmit digital-only signals, meaning people who get their television programming over an antenna and do not have a digital set won't get a picture without a special converter box. The Nielsen Co. survey released Friday estimates that more than 13 million households in the U.S. receive television programming over the air on non-digital sets, meaning they will need converter boxes. Another...

The federal government doesn't usually give things away, but starting Tuesday broadcast TV watchers can apply for a gift that could keep their sets from going dark in 2009. Via a toll-free hot line and Web site the Commerce Department will begin accepting applications for coupons worth $40 off a no-frills converter box to allow older televisions to receive digital broadcast signals.

Dec 31 05:14 PM US/Eastern John Dunbar, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Write a Comment WASHINGTON - Millions of US$40 government coupons become available Tuesday to help low-tech television owners in the United States buy special converter boxes for older TVs that might not work after the switch to digital broadcasting. Beginning Feb. 18, 2009, anyone who does not own a digital set and still gets their programming via over-the-air antennas will no longer receive a picture. That's the day the television industry completes its transition from old-style analog broadcasting to digital. The converter boxes are expected to cost between $50 and...

In the year ahead, a long-heralded revolution in wireless communications will finally come to pass. It may throw handset makers and service providers into turmoil, but over time it should be great for consumers. Fast, wireless data will become more widely available, the choice of data devices and mobile handsets will expand, and service just might get cheaper. The biggest driver of change is an event slated for February, 2009. It is, of all things, the shutdown of analog television broadcasting. The conversion to digital TV will free up space now occupied by UHF channels 52 to 69. A chunk...

Some car owners and other users of General Motors' OnStar service may find themselves in trouble this February, the Associated Press notes. As of February 18th, the FCC will allow GM to halt the analog version of OnStar, in a bid to make its network all-digital. The difficulty is that while the approximately one million OnStar cellphones can be replaced, some cars built as late as 2005 can only access OnStar via analog signals, and have no support for GM's $15 digital upgrade. Meanwhile, some home alarm systems with OnStar must default to a backup connection without analog. OnStar service...

When Adele Rothman bought her 16-year-old son a car in 2003, she made sure to pick one that had OnStar, the onboard communications and safety system. What the Scarsdale, N.Y., resident didn't know was that the OnStar system in the car was already doomed to die. The federal government decided in 2002 to let cellular carriers shut down analog cell phone networks, used by Rothman's Saab and about 500,000 other OnStar-equipped cars, after Feb. 18, 2008.

The cast for the federal spectrum auction in January has now been assembled. On Tuesday night, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a list of 266 applicants who want to bid. The auction will offer frequencies that had been used for analog transmission by TV stations, which are now moving to digital. The applicants include Google, Cablevision, Cox, Qualcomm, Alltel, Chevron, US Cellular, as well as Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc., regional carriers such as Leap Wireless and MetroPCS, the startup Frontier Wireless, and a Guam-backed phone company headed by Roy Disney, Walt's brother. There's also the tiny, Middletown, Rhode Island-based...

Best Buy said today it has stopped selling analog televisions and pulled all remaining stock from its shelves, signaling the end of an era as consumers increasingly move toward digital products with flat-panel and high-definition screens.

" ... 'embedded in the legislation to finalize the switch to DTV is a $1.5 billion fund to subsidize the purchase of these devices' ... The crux of the debate lies in the question of how much power we are willing to grant our elected officials ... " Excerpt from Nadd.com.

WASHINGTON -- Legislation requiring U.S. broadcasters to abandon their analog spectrum, opening up the "beachfront" spectrum to next-generation wireless services and emergency response agencies, is headed to U.S. President George Bush to be signed into law. Late Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a large budget reconciliation bill that included a deadline of February 17, 2009, for broadcasters to stop broadcasting analog signals and move to digital television (DTV). The House approval came after the U.S. Senate in December amended other parts of the House-approved budget reconciliation bill conference report. The final bill includes up to $1.5 billion in...

US analogue TV switch-off in 2009 The US Congress has approved plans to force broadcasters to switch off their analogue television signals by 2009. Setting a date of 17 February 2009 was called a "great technical revolution" by Republican politician Joe Barton, a main advocate for the change. Congress has allocated $1.5bn (£844m) to ensure Americans can convert their TV sets to receive digital signals. The analogue television switch-off in the UK is set to take place gradually from 2008-2012. The US measures, which were part of budget legislation, were passed in December, but Democrats in the Senate forced technical...

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Leading PC and consumer electronics companies announced they are developing a specification for a next-generation PC digital display interface that is also compatible with high-definition TV signals. Penned the Unified Display Interface (UDI), the standard is expected to replace the aging VGA analog standard and provide guidelines to ensure compatibility with the DVI standard. UDI will be also be compatible with HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), the standard digital interface for High Definition TVs (HDTVs) and advanced CE displays. UDI will be able to use High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) technology widely deployed in HDMI-compatible products today....

Enough has come out about the failure of the 9/11 Commission to include critical information about Mohammed Atta and other 9/11 attackers, to suggest a new Commission to investigate the original Commission. The cure may not be that drastic, but it is that important. In short, a special Army intelligence operation known as “Able Danger” identified Atta and four of his accomplices, and identified Al-Qaeda cells in Hamburg and Brooklyn and elsewhere, a year before the 9/11 attacks. They offered then to share that information with law enforcement agencies including the FBI. Those offers were cut off by Clinton Administration...

FCC moves up TV tuner mandate WASHINGTON-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and frequent critic of the TV broadcast lobby, will introduce a bill next Tuesday that will set the hard date for the completion of the digital TV transition at Jan. 1, 2009. McCain's move will pre-empt the current chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who said earlier this week that he is preparing a similar bill, but did not give a timeframe for introducing his bill. continued below The McCain bill will be similar to legislation known as the...

Technology is changing the huge global market for record collectors. As music dealers like those immortalised in the book High Fidelity disappear, will vinyl and CD rarities survive the download revolution? Second-hand record shops are becoming almost as rare a sighting in the UK as a first edition Beatles EP. The days of shuffling into grubby backstreet stores in search of that obscure Pink Fairies seven-inch are on their way out as dealers succumb to the march of online auction sites and MP3s. CURRENT RARITIES U2's Trabant car: £6,000 Queen 12" single: £10,000 Withdrawn Nirvana CD: £500 Led Zeppelin seven-inch:...

[News]Hollywood Wants to Plug the "Analog Hole" The Big Picture The people who tried to take away your VCR are at it again. Hollywood has always dreamed of a "well-mannered marketplace" where the only technologies that you can buy are those that do not disrupt its business. Acting through legislators who dance to Hollywood's tune, the movie studios are racing to lock away the flexible, general-purpose technology that has given us a century of unparalelled prosperity and innovation. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the "Content Protection Status Report" with the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, laying out...