FCC

The MPAA and RIAA are one note wonders. Whenever something goes wrong, the customer is the one to blame. It could never be their ridiculous practices, the poor excuse for quality content, or their own gross stupidity.
Or could it?
This time, it’s actually worse. Not only does paramount Studios want to blame the customers, they want [...]

Normally, I wouldn’t write much about a cable company getting whiny about an FCC ruling, but with the upcoming net neutrality legislation, it seems as though the people at Comcast are making a bit too much of the matter, in order to highlight the argument.
Comcast was deemed to be in violation of current FCC guidelines [...]

I don’t usually get worked up about many things. I tend to believe that most things will take care of themselves, and individuals cannot do much to change things in a short time.
That might seem like fatalism, but it really isn’t – it is simply realism, I believe.
I have been reading so many things about [...]

I remember being told by my father that no one ever really “grows up”. That, deep inside, no one feels old, or any different than when they first became truly self-aware. He said that for most, the outside was the only indicator of advanced age, because seldom do people advance beyond the mental age of [...]

The one we have seems to be butting up against the limits imposed by the large carriers that refuse to put out the dollars needed to expand as needed. A blurb in slashdot asks why it should be that the large carriers (telcos and cable companies) have the power to shape the internet, instead of [...]

It’s out now. We can see the unvarnished truth. The entire story of how the nation that invented the internet (no matter who you give the greatest credit to) became the land of low speed, and lower penetration by population, than other countries, once considered backwards.
from Betanews
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better [...]

I’m one of the people old enough to remember far enough back in time to when the FCC was a body that actually protected the rights of citizens, and was not merely a tool of big business. During the late ’70s, when I was very young and had not much more to do than be [...]

If that sounds a bit convoluted to you, you’re not the only one. More and more the movie makers and the content providers (cable, satellite, and fiber optical companies – doesn’t that include everyone?) want to remove the abilities of your hardware at home, claiming that too much innovation for the consumer has made it [...]

For as long as I can remember, there has been a bad taste in people’s mouths, left there by interactions with cable companies. It does not matter the brand of the provider, from Adelphia, to Comcast, to Charter, and finally Time Warner, the basic move that these companies are trying is to get over on [...]

During my lifetime, I have seen many things change. Many things are for the better, like never hearing a word that would stop me in my tracks, and cause a sick feeling in my stomach. You know, the slur for African-Americans that begins with an ‘n’. From my earliest recall, it was something I knew [...]

Well, it’s been two days and I haven’t seen news of anyone spontaneously exploding or otherwise expiring.
The long day’s journey into night has taken place. We now have digital television and all is well with the world – sort of.
Proving that lying is more popular than ever, the station I wrote about  a couple of [...]

Looking around for the last few days, it is hard to escape the news that the digital transition for television broadcasting will take place in the next 18 hours, if, in your area, it has not already done so.
I realize there are lots of stupid people in the world. You could say I am acutely [...]

I’ve always moved through this life wondering why some of the things in life are so difficult to discern, and why no one helps out with a little truth. Perhaps that was the source of the John Lennon song, ‘Gimme Some Truth’.
Well, in matters of the digital transition for television, we are, at least in [...]

One thing is for certain, the government is never as efficient as it should be. It seems the best we can hope for is an occasional acknowledgement that it can, and should, be doing better for the citizens.
So it is with the FCC’s mandated transition to digital television. The moving of the date was a [...]

After writing about the latest in the long line of FCC blunders yesterday, I took a moment last night to see if the latest web page from the Federal Communications Complication was at all useful. It was stated to be a real time look at conditions for the DTV user.
I went to the site, and [...]