TECH THURSDAY
It looks like the transition to digital TV will be delayed after all.
With so much immorality prevailing in the previous administration (torture, wiretapping Americans, unjust wars) it was hard for such a trifling issue to appear on anyone’s radar. But the switch to digital TV was ill-conceived, poorly publicized and contemptuous of the public at large. Little information was made available and the shift was ramrodded through the administration with little consideration for its effects on ordinary, especially non-cable buying (read: poor) people.
In spite of the tremendous economic crisis, Mr. Obama and his administration turned immediately to this issue in his first week in office. At first, I admit, I worried he would become bogged down in trivia. Yet now I see that this issue illustrates plainly the new wind of our government. This issue became important because it speaks to the core of our national situation: by delaying the switch to digital, the administration and our leaders are saying, Guess what, the little people matter, after all.
Among the many problems with the switch is the shortage of the coupons, that work like store gift-cards. You take your card to the electronics store and it gives you a $40 credit on a converter box. (Never mind that the box is $60 … someone is making a fortune on this and you know it’s not the Chinese workers who made them.)
Once you get the box set up it’s nice having a digital signal. But let’s face it: electronic gadgets are complicated, even if you can figure out what to purchase. My husband set ours up … I refused to read the instructions out of fear they would scramble my brain like something from Star Trek.
So the government has run out of coupons … and we’re so busy giving money to idiot bankers and investment firms who frittered away our hard-earned house payments for the past 10 years on trips to Vegas and investments with Bernie Madoff that it doesn’t have enough for coupons.
In addition to that snag, there are problems with the signal itself. If you live outside the area of strong signal, you may not be able to receive any signal at all. That’s because it’s not possible to receive a partial digital signal … it’s all or nothing. This is called “the cliff.”
Previously, you could receive an analogue (or wave) signal even weakly and have some picture. With digital, once you fall off the cliff, you have nothing.
So now we have until June 12 to figure it out. To publicize the shift, to make the American public part of the change. That’s good news. It will cost broadcasters, including Public Broadcasting System, or PBS, thousands they don’t have right now. That’s not. But the times require it.
IN OTHER NEWS, Google is rethinking its partnership with AOL and selling its investment. Hard times online.
TOMORROW: Figuratively Speaking Friday
