From: Kong
Date: 28 Mar 2009
Time: 02:18:18
Remote Name: 63.239.248.1
Why the hell do we collectively put up with unending technology changes that aren't better than their predecessors? It seems they keep dazzling us with bells and whistles into thinking new means better, when nothing could be further from the truth. CD's and DVD's are not better than cassettes and VHS tapes, yeah, so you don't have to rewind a digital disc but they wear out much faster and so do the players, and the sound quality, while cleaner, lacks the depth and warmth of analog. I still have piles of VHS and a 15 year old VCR that still works fine, I still buy VHS movies because more than likely they're going to work even if they're 20 years old, unlike the many DVD's and DVD players I've gone through in the last decade. But back to the point, why did we just quietly accept the analog to digital conversion of tv? I guess the truth is most people haven't actually accepted it, why else would they keep pushing the conversion date back. An even bigger outrage is our federal government subsidizing the purchase of digital TV converters, can't they think of anything better to do with our money during an economic crisis? But the thing that provoked my outrage tonight was flipping on the tube with my new DTV converter and finding that when the signal gets weak with DTV the program skips and cuts out just like a scratched up DVD. There's no margin for error with DTV, unlike the analog signals that could get a little fuzzy but you could still enjoy the program. Fuck them and their planned obsolescence schemes that force us to continually buy new gadgets. The more technologically advanced it is the quicker it craps out, and that is by design by the way. Read about planned obsolescence on wikipedia, it started with light bulbs a long time ago. Believe it or not, once apon a time light bulbs did not burn out! And those poor little rich industrialist scumfucks that manufactured them came up with brilliant new scheme: make the filament just thin enough that after a certain number of hours it would pop and the consumer would have to replace the bulb. Since then planned obsolescence has become a quiet industry standard, and as a consequence our landfills keep filling up with their electronic junk that self-destructs according to a pre-set internal clock. I would really love it if they never actually complete the conversion, or if they go through with it and find that there are millions of people who just don't value tv enough to go buy a converter box. That would be amazing wouldn't it? If people went back to barn dances and block parties and community events as a source of entertainment rather than staring at that box of idiots every night? Ahh, but I'm fantasizing of course...
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