D(tv) Minus

There was a "test" on the local stations tonight.
As expected, I failed.

The stations switched to digital temporarily.
All I saw was the warning message that my tv is not ready for the conversion.

Just because I have not hopped on the bandwagon to sign up for cable or purchase a converter box, whom have I failed? Am I less of a person? Or, merely less of a consumer? The latter certainly doesn't bother me as much. My procrastination is not to blame as much as my apathy.

Technologically out of the loop

I was born in the late 60s. I own and use a cell phone, but have never had cable. Just last year, I bought a DVD player and I have never owned an ipod, blackberry or its predecessor-what was that gadget that everyone HAD to have 10 years ago? Oh yeah, the palm pilot. I send texts to a few (less than five) people and just learned what a SIM card is. I signed up for a Twitter account, but I don't think I'll use it much.

Regarding television, I am in Columbus (Ohio) and can watch broadcast tv: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS and a handful of others depending on the weather. I watch two to four hours of tv a day- in the morning before work and just before falling asleep.
I have never seen HBO's The Sopranos or Six Feet Under. I never saw Sex in the City until it began in reruns. (I've always assumed it's an edited version, am I right?) I am interested in AMC's Madmen, but have never seen it.

I remember when cable was being tested here in the late 70s. Does anyone remember QUBE?
While at friends' houses, I mastered that system easily. But when remotes and cable became more common, I was always confused about finding the channels. I could never find the shows I wanted during babysitting gigs and usually ended up doing homework after the kids went to sleep.

Today's kids could activate the launch sequence for the space shuttle. (But just try to ask them to calculate a percentage!) Ok, I'll stay on topic...

So, there's the background on my technical apathy. But, keep in mind, I am blogging- so I'm not a lost cause. I have found as I get older that I am (I hope) more able to separate the technological wheat from the chaff.

January 1, 2009

The switch is 47 days away according to the recent public service announcements. I can't imagine how much money this whole thing will cost. I suppose there can't really be a price tag for everyone's time and effort.
I still don't get it, but I don't understand how television works anyway. Remember when television was called "the tube"? I used to think there we were watching people through a tube connected to Hollywood.