I Don't Get It - I'll Wait for the Holodeck

[Caj]

I don't have a TV.

If I ever get one, it will be an LCD projector, because technologically there are a lot of huge innovations in the pipeline for movie screens.

For example, engineers just recently invented a screen material that only reflects the 3 specific color bands made by an LCD projector. This means that glare from a window will no longer be a problem--you can watch without dimming the lights, and the display will seem brighter, like a normal TV.

For the larger pocketbooks, there is a pricey new rear-projected screen that allows light to pass right through it unless it hits at just the right angle. So the projector is set to that angle, and window glare passes through it.

Both of these are clever ideas, but not completely non-obvious. It just happened that nobody thought much about improving projector TV displays until recently. It's due for a few big leaps.

Caj

[glauber]

It just happened that nobody thought much about improving projector TV displays until recently.

That's interesting, considering that they're such a huge source of annoyance in business meetings.

[glauber]

Me no care; me wants it!

If we could have one Star Trek thing, i would love to have a transporter. Even considering the high risk of ending up in a parallel universe, or having my good and evil parts ending up as separate beings.

[emmline]

Maybe it's just like some of us spending hundreds on whistles when the $10 jobs will do just fine...oh well.

Philo

I don't think it's like whistles. My attraction to my upscale whistles is their handcraftedness. Electronics are anonymously mass-produced.

If we could have one Star Trek thing, i would love to have a transporter. Even considering the high risk of ending up in a parallel universe, or having my good and evil parts ending up as separate beings.

My good and evil aspects are far too co-dependent to disengage. I'd be safe. But I'll still take the holodeck.

[PhilO]

We kid about Star Trek, but there are several things and ideas therein which have or are becoming realities. I love Dr. McCoy ("Bones")'s non-invasive little diagnostic zapper thingy, etc. I truly believe that we can eventually realize anything we can think of; so Glauber, perhaps my great grandchildren will see or use a transporter or be a crew member on an intergallactic ship (hopefully not after some atomic apochalypse, survived by a super race led by Ricardo Montalban).

Live long and prosper. How many of you can do that thing Spock does with his fingers?

Philo

[amar]

We kid about Star Trek, but there are several things and ideas therein which have or are becoming realities. I love Dr. McCoy ("Bones")'s non-invasive little diagnostic zapper thingy, etc. I truly believe that we can eventually realize anything we can think of; so Glauber, perhaps my great grandchildren will see or use a transporter or be a crew member on an intergallactic ship (hopefully not after some atomic apochalypse, survived by a super race led by Ricardo Montalban).

Live long and prosper. How many of you can do that thing Spock does with his fingers?

Philo

i can....do I smell a poll...?

[Charlene]

We kid about Star Trek, but there are several things and ideas therein which have or are becoming realities. I love Dr. McCoy ("Bones")'s non-invasive little diagnostic zapper thingy, etc. I truly believe that we can eventually realize anything we can think of; so Glauber, perhaps my great grandchildren will see or use a transporter or be a crew member on an intergallactic ship (hopefully not after some atomic apochalypse, survived by a super race led by Ricardo Montalban).

Live long and prosper. How many of you can do that thing Spock does with his fingers?

Philo

i can....do I smell a poll...?

I can do the Vulcan salute with my left hand but not too well with my right.

I think I already own the Romulan cloaking device (that the Klingons stole and adapted for their ships)- everytime I'm out driving around people cut in front of me like I'm invisible. It must be attached to me, not my vehicle, because it doesn't matter what car I'm in!

Back to the main topic - aren't we (in the US) going to have to buy an HDTV sometime in the next 10 years due to some silly FCC regulations? I think that's why regular TVs are so cheap now.

[aderyn_du]

I can do the Vulcan salute with both my left and right hands, and also with my toes.

Aren't you ever-so-glad to know that??

[TomB]

I can do the Vulcan salute with both my left and right hands, and also with my toes.

Aren't you ever-so-glad to know that??

Yet another person with many talents.

Tom

[emmline]

Back to the main topic - aren't we (in the US) going to have to buy an HDTV sometime in the next 10 years due to some silly FCC regulations? I think that's why regular TVs are so cheap now.

Heeeeey! What? Someone answer this please!

[emmline]

I can do the Vulcan salute with both my left and right hands, and also with my toes.

Aren't you ever-so-glad to know that??

This explains why you've never exposed your ears in a avatar photo.

[TomB]

I can do the Vulcan salute with both my left and right hands, and also with my toes.

Aren't you ever-so-glad to know that??

This explains why you've never exposed your ears in a avatar photo.

The following is from a PC World article, in May of 1994. Other than that, I don't know.

Under FCC rules, commercial broadcasters had to begin digital TV transmissions by May 2002, and the National Association of Broadcasters' Web site says that 1155 of the United States' over-the-air broadcasters met the deadline. But while the FCC allocated sufficient bandwidth for these stations to broadcast HD content, it established no statutory or regulatory requirement that they do so. At least a few stations have begun using the bandwidth to broadcast standard-definition digital channels--a practice known as multicasting--because they can fit about half a dozen such broadcasts within the bandwidth of 19.4 megabits per second that is required for a single HD channel.

Though the FCC has made no hard-and-fast rule that stations must broadcast HD content, "There's a general understanding that we have to be good stewards and not completely subvert the positioning of HDTV broadcasts," says Steve Pair, vice president of engineering for WCBS (the CBS-owned-and-operated station in New York). The FCC says broadcasters may use the channels "according to their best judgment" as long as they offer free digital service at a resolution comparable to that of the analog shows they air during the same time periods.

A likely scenario, in Pair's opinion, is that stations will use some portion of the 19.4-mbps bandwidth for additional broadcast streams, which would remove some data from an HD show but not enough to degrade the quality of the image significantly


Tom

[Sunnywindo]

Was going to say "I want a holodeck" but spend too much time on the computer as it is, imagine how addicting a holodeck could get!

Sara

[TomB]

Was going to say "I want a holodeck" but spend too much time on the computer as it is, imagine how addicting a holodeck could get!

Sara

Yeah, but at least you could do what you want, without anyone bugging you.

Tom

[bradhurley]

I think I already own the Romulan cloaking device (that the Klingons stole and adapted for their ships)

Watch the news early next week, you might just hear something about this.