6 Apr
2000
6 Apr
'00
4:08 a.m.
> Package a) a sole device USD 499,
> Package b) the device and a 24 Month contract USD 99 + 24 x 20
Or the common package C) box is part of the service
and "rented". Cable
boxes especially encoded ones are that case here (usa).
Yeah, but there are many places in the US where it is essentially illegal
to hook your own cable descrambler to the cable line, not too much different
than the old Bell System limits on third-party equipment hooked to phone
lines.
There are some attractions to cheap and uniform guaranteed service for
all, but I don't think I want Internet access to become the monopoly
that phone service used to be or cable service is today. It's bad enough
with some ISP's threatening that they only support Microsoft Windows
and that if you've got trouble accessing their service from any other
OS you're out of luck.
Actually DSL from some companies is already worse than that - you have
to have a PCI-bus PC-clone running Windows to use their service,
because the only interface device that will work requires that
hardware configuration and the only drivers available are for
MS-Windows.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
6 Apr
6 Apr
5:42 a.m.
On Thu, Apr 06, 2000 at 12:08:43PM -0400, CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote:
Yeah, but there are many places in the US where it is
essentially illegal
to hook your own cable descrambler to the cable line, not too much different
than the old Bell System limits on third-party equipment hooked to phone
lines.
It hurts my head trying to understand this. How the cable companies get
their little whims written into law is beyond me. I mean anything's silly
if you look close enough -- suppose my TV happens to be switchable to accept
a video signal of either polarity (or whatever it is), how is it that that
makes me a *criminal*? When the real issue is that the cable companies were
looking for a cheapskate way to segment their customers w/o having per-customer
wiring, so instead of giving me what I actually pay for, they give everyone
*everything* and then get laws pushed through to stop us from using it. So
they get to decide exactly what equipment I may use to measure the voltage
on the wire I'm paying for...
It's bad enough
with some ISP's threatening that they only support Microsoft Windows
and that if you've got trouble accessing their service from any other
OS you're out of luck.
The ISP that I use at home (Time Warner) is one of those, and of course
the funny thing is that their service in fact works fine with Linux, but
when used with Windows NT (where it's guaranteed to work, between crashes
anyway), it has general day-to-day flakiness plus occasionally it entirely
stops working for weeks at a time.
These same folks keep trying to convince me to buy/rent a digital cable box,
which if I understand right, gives them the ability to log what channels
I'm watching. And they expect me to get excited about this!
John Wilson
D Bit
7:33 a.m.
Tim Shoppa wrote:
Yeah, but there are many places in the US where it is
essentially illegal
to hook your own cable descrambler to the cable line, not too much different
than the old Bell System limits on third-party equipment hooked to phone
lines.
Actually not. For a few years now, federal law has *required* that
customers be allowed to buy their own cable boxes. However, if those cable
boxes descramble the scrambled channels without the authorization of the
cable company, that's theft of service. Sales of boxes that have been
modified to do that is unlawful.
The FCC has mandated that the cable companies come up with a standard
interface for Conditional Access Systems, i.e., smartcards that decrypt
or control the decryption of pay channels. That's what OpenCable(TM)
is all about. You'll be able to buy any brand of cable box you want (or
TVs and VCRs with the cable box built in), and rent just the access card
from the cable company. This is how the Ku-band
satellite systems have
worked for years.
The nice thing about all this is that we won't have the stupidity of
cable-ready TVs and VCRs that have to be left on channel 3 or 4 because
of a brain-damaged cable box.
4 p.m.
Hello CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com
On 06-Apr-00, you wrote:
different
> Package a)
a sole device USD 499,
> Package b) the device and a 24 Month contract USD 99 + 24 x 20
Or the common package C) box is part of the
service and "rented". Cable
boxes especially encoded ones are that case here (usa).
Yeah, but there are many places in the US where it is essentially illegal
to hook your own cable descrambler to the cable line, not too much than the old Bell System limits on third-party
equipment hooked to phone
lines.
There are some attractions to cheap and uniform guaranteed service for
all, but I don't think I want Internet access to become the monopoly
that phone service used to be or cable service is today. It's bad enough
with some ISP's threatening that they only support Microsoft Windows
and that if you've got trouble accessing their service from any other
OS you're out of luck.
Actually DSL from some companies is already worse than that - you have
to have a PCI-bus PC-clone running Windows to use their service,
because the only interface device that will work requires that
hardware configuration and the only drivers available are for
MS-Windows.
This is proof that Microsluff does control the market in their favor . . .
.
When I lived in Vermillion, SD the University of SD was the ISP of choice --
free to students and employees. I tried to get my Amiga up on the system,
but they used a proprietary script that required their software to access.
OF course that required either a Wintel box or a Mac.
The service was worth everything I paid for it -- which was ZERO.
And their so-called help desk had NO CLUE of what I was talking about. All
they understood was the software package supplied to them.
Gary Hildebrand
amiga lover forever
9031
days inactive
9031
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com -
eric＠brouhaha.com -
ghldbrd＠ccp.com -
wilson＠dbit.dbit.com