Things have been harried at the House 'O Toob, and thus today, you get little bits of news--in one fell swoop. You have a promise for more meaty techno-babble on the 'morrow. Grin.
Child Three or Under=TV Verboten
An argument showed up yesterday, that any television watching by kids three and under is harmful. Fine. Could be. Maybe my second-grader could now be reading at a 9th Grade Level instead of sixth. Whatever.
Parents who use the Toob as a baby-sitter ought to be ashamed (as hard
as parenting can be.) We at Toob allowed our little one to watch 20 or
so minutes a day as a tyke. Today he gets an hour or two a day on any
non-school day. But again, moderation in everything is a fair
response--including moderation in losing your mind over kids and
television. Sometimes, a kid'll watch. So what? For those of you who let your little one watch stuff that even some adults wouldn't be able to deal with? Shame on ye.
Switched Video Broadcast
Showing up rather late on the radar is a story from the end of June by Multichannel News/Matt Stump. The discussion centers around SBV or Switched Broadcast Video. This product basically pumps the 20 most used channels out (always) via your cable co, and feeds the rest of the less watched goods (Oxygen? Discovery Kids? Hallmark?) on-demand via switching. This allows the company to do about 2.6 channels where they have one today. Download a .pdf from one of the providers of the tech, here should you want more information. Supposedly this will allow 500 channels and 50 HD feeds in the current pipeline. But, if the content looks any more compressed than the crap we get today on digital sat -versus- what the original DirecTV feed looked like back in Spring 1994 (not to mention the awful local cable co here.) we don't want it. We'd rather stick with O.T.A., DVD's and a good book.
The FCC, Finally Acting Responsibly?
The Federal Commuications Commision appear to be putting the hammer down on a multitude of things. They've been holding feets to the fire on tuners, HDMI, et al. [Rubbing hands together, here.] Now it is the long-overdue time for the Cable Co's and their STB's or Set Top Boxes (locally called Botches.) Yay!!!
Hot Air Balloons ala Home Made
You might check the legality of this in your region, but this is a display that you can watch for up to twenty minutes sometimes, and it'll kick your butt. Literally? A gas. When I was a kid, I'd BEG my 'rents for their dry-cleaners suit or dress bags... and with a birthday candle in hand...[Wonder if my parents knew what we were doing with those bags?] Besides, that site deserves a pimping as their history, and data, and all are wonderful. And they link to the story of the little-known Battle of Los Angeles.
Good for you on the baby watching tv thing! Lucas sees it cause it's on but he doesn't usually watch it unless it's making music he finds interesting! Just thought I'ld share! :)
Posted by: RobinHansen | 06 July 2005 at 20:21