Obama's [four trillion-dollar] plan would trim domestic spending by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade, striking hard at programs long favored by Democrats to make room for targeted increases in energy and medical research, corporate research and development and a new network to bring high-speed Internet access to 98 percent of Americans.A whole new network, eh? Something told ignorant ol' me that this wasn't gonna be good, if it actually happened.
Roberta X held me down and dropped the other shoe. First she points out that bandwidth on the radiofrequency spectrum actually is a zero-sum game, and this magical "network" would take a helluva lot of it. Then she opines as to where that chunk of frequency might come from...
That's right. To get you that "free" wireless (you'll still probably have to pay somebody), Uncle Sugar will be taking away some of the free TV you already have. Oh, not entirely; they want to take those sparkly-shiny super clear High-Definition TV pictures (the one you bought a new TV to see) and smash them back down to what's called "standard-definition," like old-time TV with a hint of YouTube, then spit out several channels in a slice of RF the same size as one full HD channel: the same lousy TV you had before the analog shut-down, only now on a great big screen so every flaw is that much bigger! Hooray!
...And which stations will be doing this? Hint: FCC is offering Big! Cash! Rewards! Your local high-dollar network affiliates, they don't need the bucks. But the little independent stations, the guys that run old movies and oddball syndicated shows? Times is, as they say, tough. Your local PBS station may want some more green from the Fed'ral trough, too; you didn't want to see Nova in HD anyway, right?
...Oh, and meanwhile? It turns out 98 percent of the population in the States already have wireless broadband service.
8 comments:
That's ok... once we get the lamp posts and trees all decorated nicely, we can take care of any crap like this pretty easy.
You have bought extra rope, I pray... The shortage of that is going to make the ammo thing look pale - just as soon as someone starts the ball rolling.
Rope + lamp post + politician: some assembly required.
Amateur radio operators have slowly been losing slices of the spectrum for years-they've been losing operators for decades(partially the result of the Internets),and they may find themselves with a tiny fraction of the spectrum that they now have. Digital transmissions means you can cram a lot more information into a given chunk of RF,but there is a limit..
Once again, the guvmint is doing something that really doesn't need doing.
ML, I don't have any lamp posts. Is this something I should start working on?
A1:41, the hams I've known were mostly so wrapped up in fetishizing their licenses that they didn't have time to actually use the spectrum available to them, anyway. I've got a ham license, but must admit I'm almost as down on hams as I am on cops, and for somewhat the same reason. Screw them and their legal toys.
While I generally agree with you, I have to wonder where you found that statistic: "It turns out 98 percent of the population in the States already have wireless broadband service."
Last I heard, maybe 50% of people in the country of some kind of broadband access, wired or otherwise, if only at work.
Where I'm at there is no DSL or cable modem service available. Theoretically, I could spend beaucoup bucks for Hughes sat Internet. If I wasn't broke. Or I could spring for Verizon wireless. If I wasn't broke. And install an exterior antenna system about 30 feet high. But I'll be damned if I'll beg Uncle Sugar to give me broadband.
Somehow, I don't think 98% of the US population has wireless Internet.
I didn't make that claim, Carl, Roberta X did. I've no idea where she got it.
Sorry, 'bout that, Joel.
Joel said...
ML, I don't have any lamp posts. Is this something I should start working on?
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Conversely there are Probably not that many politicians near the Secret Lair either. (?)
IF I might be allowed to comment here I would suggest that you save the rope for when you go to the 'city' where the politicians are and {Oh Joy} the lamp posts are already installed.
How convenient those city planners think of everything ....
ML said ....
"You have bought extra rope, I pray."
As one impoverished [but Free] curmudgeonly (quasi) hermit to another ....
Rather than BUY, with those exceedingly difficult to obtain tokens of exchange, Rope can be hand made from horse hair and many of the common desert plants as well.
Not Easy but entirely possible.
Just sayin' ...
I'll go be quiet now ....
gooch
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