It's funny to read the varied definitions of progress, especially as I write my first post on a Windows 7™ computer.
I'm not a fan of a lot of the Windows 7™ "gimmicks" like the transparent windows, etc. They do nothing to enhance my computer experience, and re-educating myself on how to do things I've already done (like file-trees) does nothing to enhance my productivity. I suspect that's why my work computer is still XP... No point in learning on company time, so says the IT department, lol. I've already converted as much of it as possible to look like "Windows Classic".
On a few computer forums, the guys who want to be seen as "modern" are slamming the guys who resent Microsoft© changing the OS every few years, rather than making true, intuitive improvements.
It's the same way I feel about digital TV. I think many of you were too hard on Jeffhs. Our government isn't automatically corrupt, it's just that they take the path of least resistance, rather than sticking to principle. Let's not forget that for 20-years, the FCC decreed that any picture-quality improvements (e.g. HDTV) would have to be backwards compatible. Then the lobbyists came (most foreign, representing the same interests that killed American consumer electronics a decade earlier) and suddenly compatibility goes out the window.
Another decade of digital and analog (99-09) at the same time, yet digital just wasn't winning in the marketplace. The equivalent would have been a government decree in 1964 that all broadcasts will be in color, and non-compatible with B&W. Because they didn't, we saw manufacturers forced to make more reliable and less expensive color TVs. Broadcasters felt similar pressure to offer more colorcasts.
But with digital, we were sold a load of post-911 bunk about the need for more "emergency frequencies" and eventually analog ceased to exists. That means manufacturers haven't much motivation to work out the final few bugs, and broadcasters haven't much reason to use side-channels for much more than infomercials (Mark my words, RTN/RTV and "This" will be dead inside of 5-years).
As I have stated before, in a true free-market without a widely-known "drop-dead" date, broadcasters would have been sending both digital and analog signals, but... They would have been motivated (by costs and advertisers) to make the digital side channels very appealing. Perhaps by offering some local content, in-depth news, interactive features, etc. Manufacturers would have offered "dual standard" tuners, (at a cost to them of less than $10) to bridge the gap for at least a decade. This would have created actual demand. Win-Win for the consumer/citizen, much like the way the aforementioned color TV battle played out.
Instead, your congressman/woman got a free trip to China, wined & dined, and a hefty contribution to their campaign in exchange for a "friendly FCC". You get to pay for $80 coupons, via tax dollars. You get an inferior system full of bugs, and side channels full of infomercials.
Saying this doesn't make me a kook in a shed waiting for the FBI raid... it just means I've paid attention to what has gone on during the whole digital ramp up. For me it just means I watch less TV in my freetime, which is just as well considering the content sucks. More time to work on my car and exercise my mind reading on the internet. Win-Win for me.
