From: John Tserkezis 
Reply-To: Fidonet AVtech Echo 

Bob Lawrence wrote:

>  I underastand *why* the marketeers push HDTV and widescreen. It's
> the same old computer trick... constantly upgrade and there is a huge
> pack of wankers who will follow blindly.

  I find it amazing that the idiots who sell this garbage are sold on it. Every 
time I ask them to compare the VISIBLE pixel size on the so-called HDTV sets, 
and one of the upper marked plain-jane sets, they STILL can't see it.

  "but it still looks better"... Perhaps they never knew just
about all sets 
nowadays have a sharpness filter.  Because I doubt it does anything else.

>  Performance still doubled, but no one gives a shit about the extra
> performance, no one needs to upgrade every three years... demand and
> prices fall. Isn't economic theory wonderful?

  When I'm processing map images, a batch could take all night.  A faster 
machine takes less time of course. But- since it's batched, it's just as easy 
to start it at night and go to sleep.
  It'll be ready for you in the morning.

  The days of faster procssing to "improve productivity" are long
gone.  We've 
been living with the law of diminishing returns for so long, we no longer see 
the faster processing let alone the negligable returns.

>  TV is a mature technology, so they've gone the "upgrade" route when
> normal TV is perfectly adequate and HD offers nothing. Widescreen is
> just plain silly. 

  I'm still pissed that I have to watch those bloody black bars when 4:3 is 
perfectly adequate.  Or at least untill 2007 or whenever they're going to turn 
analogue off...

>  I don't think the multi-channel interactive (low definition, btw)
> approach offers anything either,

  Don't have it, seen it, and still don't miss it.

> but I as wrong about the DVD.
> I thought VHS was perfectly adequate, but there *is* a need for an easy
> way to watch porn.

  I still can't believe that people are sucking up crappy DVD players for $59, 
yet still don't buy the REAL killer-app-black-box - the PVR.

>  In *my* day (the standard cry of the poor old fart), we were still
> tryign to improve the product. When I quit active participation in
> 1975, remote control was the big thing, then VCR's, but since then
> it's been all bullshit. Who the fuck cares about a flat TV screen? For
> the same cost, the picture is actually *smaller*!


> Fick'n hell. Are people stupid?

  Yes.

  I liked the curved screens, it enabled you to watch TV at sharp viewing 
angles and still be able to tell what's going on.  You lose what's happening on 
the "other" side, but what you gain from the middle to your side
makes up for 
the fact that they're still only showing crap in the first place.

-- 
       -o)
       /\\    Message void if penguin violated
      _\_V    Don't mess with the penguin

Linux Registered User # 302622                         http://counter.li.org>
Fido: 3:712/610  BBS/FAX: +61-2-9716-8310  Internet: jt{at}techniciansyndrome.org
--- ifmail v.2.15