[Novalug] Mildly OT: .. for Dummies author opportunity?

cmhowe@patriot.net cmhowe@patriot.net
Wed Mar 10 23:43:48 EST 2010


List,

Having recently been true a situation with the possibility, fully
realised, (no, not what has been happening to me) I suggest that Comcast's
(and everybody else) cable box offers a lot of both opportunities and
opportunities for going wrong.

There has been a flat screen television in my house for about a year. Now
a second one, my son's, who lives with me, has been added. As of a few
days ago I pay an extra $7.50 a month for one cable box and an additional
$3 + for a second cable box. We (my son, who is a lot better at manging
gadgetry than I am; a LOT better) had to switch from a Scientific Atlanta
to a Cisco back to anothe type of Scientific Atlanta, make three trips to
a Comcast office, all the while puzzling over stuff before he finally got
it right.

If you examine the back of cable boxes, you will see a lot possibilities
-- and possible pitfalls.

(Actually, one thing still isn't right. The volume has moved smoothly up
till now when I hold the volume lever, but now it only moves one click
when I press it. When I am by myself or my wife isn't looking/listening, I
use my Sennheiser earphones, turn the TV volume down to zero and use the
TV as a radio (Sirius/XM sattelite radio would be a better value, I
guess.) But when she wants to watch/listen and seemingly can't get the
volume to behave, she gets very frustrated and there is hell to pay. She
has Alzheimer's.)

Wait, there's more: Exfinity. Back in the nineties there was something
called WebTV. I was living in Florida but traveled up to the Washington
area twice a year. It was possible to buy an HP InkJet and do email and
otherwise print some stuff, but the screen was lousy. I got the impression
that it would never be any good as long as you were stuck with interlaced
lines.

Now comes Exfinity, and who knows what Cox, Jones, etc, will do.

The punch lines: there is room for a .. for Dummies book on the topic.
Maybe, even, and O'Reilly book.

Charlie





More information about the Novalug mailing list