Did Anyone Else Have Trouble Leaving The Twentieth Century Behind?

[sleepy]

As I said in another thread, I'm 56. I found The Millenium/2000 celebrations to be high hype and I was overwhelmed by the number 2000, with its promotion of shine and futurism....until I remembered that the dang thing 2000 is just an arbitrary number, meaningless without events attached to confirm its validity, else The Hype Squad will pump it up for commercial purposes and someone else's Prosperity.

What did confirm the importance of the number 2000 was the callousness and insouciance of various clerks, managers and store owners whom I have dealt with in respecting their Customers. Blockbuster Managers who refused to honor coupons because I was using it on a game rental in spite of the fact that the coupon did not specify "for movie rentals only".

Hardware stores that no longer sell provisions like Lye Drain Cleaner, choosing instead to sell that liquid stuff even though Lye is needed to make soap and helpful to mine certain metals. Here the folk arts which we people used to exercise for our means and our survival take another hit in the name of blind obedient consumerist employment, like cattle to the slaughter and the store personnel are clueless to the impact of their decisions.

And too often I receive gray meat burgers from fast food corporate help and the help know not what they did wrong and continue to cheerfully serve Salmonella gray out the door. And the next one. And the next one.

Find a cable tv box being thrown out by apartment management after somebody else's eviction? Return it to the company for a big Thank You and no consideration, no stipend. Well why should they show consideration. I probably stole the damn box to get a freebie!.

Have a story to tell about Future Shock. Share it here.

 

[faralos]

not only will the cable company NOT give you any stipend vbut if you do not send your own box back they can bill you up to $750 US for the damn thing. Happened to me when I moved out of New Jersey. for two months i called Comcast telling them I was moving and to pick up their damn box. well the guy never showed, I moved and was sent a bill of 750$ dollars! i told them where to stick it as I had TAPED phone calls with them over this matter and had proof they had made and broke numerous appointments with me! they argued with me; i told them to sue me. well i still have their box in my closet and no bill at all to pay, they ignored me after I threatened a lawsuit. happy new year to me that year ('05!) ah the niceties of large corporations! So I too am leery of 'new year' anything as most people just continue on their stupid ignorant ways, god bless ignorance! (actually most of my country thrives on it!)

 

[sleepy]

Well you know...somebody suggested increasing the number of cable channels by using Pulsed Amplitude Modulation (PAM) back in 1984.
PAM is a radio system where a signal, video or audio or data, is modulated on a single center radio frequency. At that time (1984), the typical digital video signal would have been ~6 Mhz. bandwidth (3 Mhz. video x 2 digital samples per video pixel).
By taking advantage of a television's RF Frequency's (Radio Frequency) tendency to be at 52 Mhz. and higher, a 6 MHz. digital video signal can easily be grafted onto a single RF frequency with multitudes of available frequencies for many, many channels by detecting these very narrow video channels with a Phase Locked Loop (the invention of which in 1960 was also never acknowledged or paid for!) , and then, if one were to difference the resultant PAM signal by phase shifting the result and then by comparing it to the original frequency at its original phase of 0 degrees, you would then potentially have 2, 3, or possibly 4 times the available channels as you have using straight PAM. They now call this phase shifting system of multiplexing additional digital channels into available bandwidth space C-QAM
(Quadrature Amplitude Modulation: not sure what they mean by the "C" though).
This person who conceived this scheme was originally interested in embedding a video signal within the available bandwidth of then-current FM Stereo stations broadcasting @ 88 to 108 MHz., to provide music videos with the radio, but then considered cable tv.

Well, some Hollywood folks with connections to Hughes, Texas Instruments, Motorolla and Time/Warner Bros. took this idea and they never ever let on to the person who came up with this system of digital cable tv that it was being used commercially, let alone even lift a finger to pay this person for it, or even provide cable tv in gratitude to this person.

I hope you burn their asses every chance you can, and Happy New Year.

 

[faralos]

man the fcc can't keep my cell conversations coherent i am afraid of phase shifting any channels given their track record so far. I always can hear other conversations coming thru my cell, i can just see two channels coming into my tv at once due to some weird phase shift mishap.

 

[Wizards_Hat]

I always can hear other conversations coming thru my cell, i can just see two channels coming into my tv at once due to some weird phase shift mishap.

Did this happen whilst you were aboard The Enterprise? :D

Regards,
Dan.

 

[mrschultz]

Back to the original topic, it is kind of funny how people celebrate multiples of 10 more than any other date, fives get a little extra nudge as well. We really are obsessed with our fingers.

Hardware stores? You've still got them? Last one around hear closed up years ago, couldn't compete with the big chain stores like Home Depot. I wouldn't want to go back technology wise, but it would be nice to turn back the clock with respect to these giant stores wiping out the local ones.

Maybe there's one thing I'd turn back in technology, cell phones, I think we could do without people using them while driving and walking around talking loudly to their earpieces. :)

As for cable TV, the rates now are just crazy, they are trying hard to deny any cord cutting is going on but the numbers keep getting larger. When they started scrambling the non-basic QAM channels around here making you get a box for them it made me look at how much I was spending vs. what I was watching, so I dropped down to only local channels (can't get all of them with an antenna here) and get the few cable shows I like through iTunes or Netflix, saves about $500+ a year.

 

[tiltjlp]

At least in my mind, it's still 1975. I don't have cable, I only have a cell phone becuase I qualify for a free phone and free rollover minutes. It's never on unless I make a call. Other than Jeopardy and a few PBS programs, I watch DVDs, the majority in B&W. And while I appreciate what computers can do for me, and I wouldn't want to be without one, I have been at times, and the world didn't end. I never watch current TV or movies, and don't know who any of the current celebs are, and don't care to know anything about them. I live in 2011, simply because there's no way to go back in time.

 

[druadic]

At least in my mind, it's still 1975. I don't have cable, I only have a cell phone becuase I qualify for a free phone and free rollover minutes. It's never on unless I make a call. Other than Jeopardy and a few PBS programs, I watch DVDs, the majority in B&W. And while I appreciate what computers can do for me, and I wouldn't want to be without one, I have been at times, and the world didn't end. I never watch current TV or movies, and don't know who any of the current celebs are, and don't care to know anything about them. I live in 2011, simply because there's no way to go back in time.

John;

Amen bro. I hear that! I'm still in the 70's! I still enjoy all my father used to show me: b&w movies, camping, bowling and anything that can bring me back to my youth. I don't watch current TV either. Also, I only have a cell phone. 90% of my movies are from the 30's through the 80's. That's it. After 1990 I think most of the movie companies died; they can't bring out anything that is really worth watching. I've sat through a few DVD's and really was appalled by nothing more than re creations of the same stuff. Have they no more ideas left?

Anyway, it's nice to know someone out there is living just like me

d

 

[sleepy]

But cable QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) IS phase-shifted modulation and has been in use by the cable companies since the Cable Digital TV rollout offering hundreds of digital channels in the late 1990's. It's similar to the old analog NTSC phase shifted color signal, but uses discreet digital data instead.
Before that rollout, analog cable was limited to a capability of ~60 channels max.
Wish the idiots who ripped the invention off would get off their "J. Paul Getty" kick and
pay the inventor sometime.

 

[sleepy]

I think mrschultz is correct. Time Warner has been raising the rates to $52/Mo. for Digital Cable. A year earlier the same service went for $29/Mo. They do offer Cable/ISP/Telephone for $33/Mo. each, but you have to buy all three services.
At the same time, they've been raising the Internet rates to $48/Mo.
Their last earnings report indicated a gain in revenue due to Internet subscriptions.
Looks like they are charging Internet users to offset losses from Cable TV. Their ISP rates went up after a Cable TV HDTV equipment upgrade.
And then, because somebody didn't get paid for the operating system in current use, if they ever were forced to buy it, they would then likely raise their rates Again to maintain their current earnings while paying the rightful owner for use of the equipment.
Big Tobacco did this very thing over the Light/UltraLight and 100's cigarettes (didn't pay the inventor), but that's an inside story.

Something else. Last May while this company raised their Cable TV rates to $52/Mo. they had a special offer of only $10/Mo. "in celebration of Cinco De Mayo" for Spanish Cable subscribers offering Broadcast and cable-exclusive Spanish language programming. This occurred at the very same time that everyone else is expected to pay $14/Mo. for Broadcast TV and an additional $38/Mo. for Basic Cable, a total of $52/Mo. for both and neither can be purchased separately, and then the language programming other than Spanish is offered as Premium Channels. The Spanish tv service is frequently offered by contractors for Time Warner Cable for $24 to $29/Mo.

Fair?

And yes, I miss the 70's to mid 80's. I used to frequent Revival Houses like the now-defunct Fox Venice Theater where for $1.50 I could catch a double bill of everything from Mel Brooks to Herchel Gordon Lewis to "The Groove Tube"/"A Boy and His Dog" to Rocky Horror Picture Show to Casablanca to Ken Russell's The Devils in newly minted prints with Bob Dylan's "Isis" and Grateful Dead and Walter/Wendy Carlos tracks playing during intermission in full 4 channel sound under the indigo black light carpeted ceiling and I've been waiting for a Revival House Channel, but it has yet to appear.
There was a move for a Horror Channel, but TWC dropped it from "On Demand" and so it goes.

 

[sleepy]

The point I was trying to make about Cable is, if your ISP subscriptions are up, shouldn't the price come down?

 

[faralos]

funny thing about comcast. they advertise up to 20 megs up/download speeds. but, due to the number of people online at any given time i have NEVER had anything faster than 960 kb/sec up/download speeds ever. most times it bogs down at around 500 kbs...

 

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Let me see if I am getting this straight

You are on a forum that celebrates pinball’s earliest years, to a bunch of guys that like to play games that had their hey-day 30+ years ago, if they have trouble letting go of the past?

 

[sleepy]

Let me see if I am getting this straight

You are on a forum that celebrates pinball’s earliest years, to a bunch of guys that like to play games that had their hey-day 30+ years ago, if they have trouble letting go of the past?

Uh, yessir. That's right.

 

[druadic]

You two are something else. ROFL.



d

Why do I make these old machines? Personally, I wasn't even born then! I just found that pre flipper machines are amazingly tough to win. They require extensive nudging and skill to manipulate that ball to where you want it to go. Also, I think by preserving these relics, younger folk will pretty much understand where "today's" pinball came from. Make no mistake it was these old pre WWII machines that made pinball what it was in the years ahead. That's why I do this. Not just for me; that's selfish. But knowing that a small piece of history can be made and archived to VP is the most important thing anyone using VP can accomplish.

 

[mrschultz]

The point I was trying to make about Cable is, if your ISP subscriptions are up, shouldn't the price come down?

Well, when there is no competition, no, the price will only go up...

And even where there is competition, the most you get are 2 choices, and the prices are all the same. Where I am there's Verizon and Comcast, prices are about the same for both. Where my Dad lives he can get Comcast or AT&T, again prices are about the same for both.

For internet, last mile costs are fairly fixed, backbone costs continuously drop, but subscription prices still go up... And the prices for the different speed packages have zero relationship to actual costs.

For truly insane internet pricing look at wireless, low caps and massive overages, you can end up paying something like $10 per gigabyte of data. There are some deals to be had there, if you are lucky enough to be in an area covered by several wireless carriers.

Gotta love how the definition of a monopoly gets watered down when it comes to this stuff, if one person in your town has a choice of more than one company then according to the government it's not a monopoly so all those anti-competitive practices the one provider does are not illegal.

Oh well, went on a bit much, but the internet is one thing that would be hard for me to do without, banking, bill paying, shopping, ect...

 

[sleepy]

Which brings us to a new tendency of the 21st Century.
Companies float their losses in specific sectors of their industry by tacking the losses on to their more successful divisions and products.
In better days, when a sector floundered and you wanted that sector's product, then you paid for it, and with successful sectors showing volume sales on the rise, the price came down for those products.

On a similar note, I saw a billboard on New Year's Eve claiming that you can earn 10 cents with Shell Oil through Ralphs Groceries Club purchases. Well, I think that works by charging more at the store somewhere while the majority of Ralphs' shoppers either do not take advantage of the offer or by poverty are prevented from doing so.
That's how it was with Savings Stamps until they were discontinued in the 1970's.

 

[druadic]

I think mrschultz is correct. Time Warner has been raising the rates to $52/Mo. for Digital Cable. A year earlier the same service went for $29/Mo. They do offer Cable/ISP/Telephone for $33/Mo. each, but you have to buy all three services.
At the same time, they've been raising the Internet rates to $48/Mo.
Their last earnings report indicated a gain in revenue due to Internet subscriptions.
Looks like they are charging Internet users to offset losses from Cable TV. Their ISP rates went up after a Cable TV HDTV equipment upgrade.
And then, because somebody didn't get paid for the operating system in current use, if they ever were forced to buy it, they would then likely raise their rates Again to maintain their current earnings while paying the rightful owner for use of the equipment.
Big Tobacco did this very thing over the Light/UltraLight and 100's cigarettes (didn't pay the inventor), but that's an inside story.

Something else. Last May while this company raised their Cable TV rates to $52/Mo. they had a special offer of only $10/Mo. "in celebration of Cinco De Mayo" for Spanish Cable subscribers offering Broadcast and cable-exclusive Spanish language programming. This occurred at the very same time that everyone else is expected to pay $14/Mo. for Broadcast TV and an additional $38/Mo. for Basic Cable, a total of $52/Mo. for both and neither can be purchased separately, and then the language programming other than Spanish is offered as Premium Channels. The Spanish tv service is frequently offered by contractors for Time Warner Cable for $24 to $29/Mo.

Fair?

And yes, I miss the 70's to mid 80's. I used to frequent Revival Houses like the now-defunct Fox Venice Theater where for $1.50 I could catch a double bill of everything from Mel Brooks to Herchel Gordon Lewis to "The Groove Tube"/"A Boy and His Dog" to Rocky Horror Picture Show to Casablanca to Ken Russell's The Devils in newly minted prints with Bob Dylan's "Isis" and Grateful Dead and Walter/Wendy Carlos tracks playing during intermission in full 4 channel sound under the indigo black light carpeted ceiling and I've been waiting for a Revival House Channel, but it has yet to appear.
There was a move for a Horror Channel, but TWC dropped it from "On Demand" and so it goes.

Well.

If it isn't going to make the company money (or so they think) then they will not do it. I've noticed this with PC and Nintendo games. My God, overseas they STILL make games for the original Gameboy and Gamboy Advance! No joke. People STILL use those over there. Over here, if they see $$$ then they discontinue an item and release something that can be a pain in the ass becuase it has more features. Honestly I think if it's good enough and does it's job, leave well enough alone. I DO HAVE an Original Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance and a Nintendo DS (Zelda) and they all work - I have TONS of games for these which I hope to sell soon. But now they have a NEW Nintendo DS which does very little more to me. Why? $$$$$$$$$$. There is the answer. Also, it won't play the Advance games. STUPID.

It's like with BluRay discs. Okay, I can understand all the hype about it. But for me DVD's are just fine. I can see the movie and enjoy it. If the companies want to replace ALL my DVD discs then I will go to BluRay. Until then it won't happen. I have VHS movies that have never been released to DVD.

Same with computers. I always tell folks to BUILD a PC. DO NOT buy an pre built machine becuase if something goes down and you don't know what's in your system, you're screwed unless you know what you're doing. When you buy separate items you can pinpoint the problem and fix it.

I don't know. I can preach all this till I'm blue in the face (no John, I won't post a pic of me like this) but folks just don't listen. As for paying for TV, I have no comment. I won't pay for it. I can get all my info from Yahoo or read the newspaper when I get to work. I get all the info I need.

Not much else. Just a rant or two. I am happy how I live, I have no complaints about it and refuse to add more bills to my saga of keeping SOME money in my pocket.

d

 

[mrschultz]

It's like with BluRay discs. Okay, I can understand all the hype about it. But for me DVD's are just fine. I can see the movie and enjoy it. If the companies want to replace ALL my DVD discs then I will go to BluRay. Until then it won't happen. I have VHS movies that have never been released to DVD.

Once you've seen one of your favorite movies on Blu-Ray it's hard to go back. I have a huge DVD collection and have only upgraded some to BD. And it's not like they are incompatible like the switch from VHS to DVD, DVDs will play (and get upconverted) on all BD players. This year BD players will start getting as cheap as DVD players. The thing that always hits me is the colors, the increase in dynamic range really gets you very close to actual film, the restored versions of the original Star Trek have colors on tables and walls I never noticed before.

Also this year the studios are supposed to start getting more older films out on BD, you wouldn't think it would make a difference but it's amazing how much nicer older movies look. For example the monster in Forbidden Planet never looked scary to me on tape or DVD, but with all the fine lines in the animation visible it looks way more menacing in HD.

Same with computers. I always tell folks to BUILD a PC. DO NOT buy an pre built machine becuase if something goes down and you don't know what's in your system, you're screwed unless you know what you're doing. When you buy separate items you can pinpoint the problem and fix it.

I haven't bought a pre-build computer since the 80's. It's a little more expensive to upgrade a part at a time, but at least you get exactly what you want. I do wish they would stop changing the power connectors on the motherboards, my last 2 MB upgrades I had to replace the power supply also.

 

[faralos]

um... i still at times pull out my old Gameboy Advance to play metroid on it guess that makes me 'old school'

 

[Wizards_Hat]

um... i still at times pull out my old Gameboy Advance to play metroid on it guess that makes me 'old school'

The way you describe your pc Faralos, I'd say you're definately 'old school', and it's likely your GBA has more power than your pc

Regards,
Dan.

 

[faralos]

my computer specs...please no giggling...

well as much as i like my old computer it's starting to show its age...now I do have a wireless mouse and a neat light up keyboard (Saitek) but the processor is a tad ancient and I still use a 15" crt monitor. and now that i may be able to apply for permanent disability due to a work related injury, I'll never have any money for a new one
(and out of work again this week due to recurring hip injury...sigh...)

 

[bob]

well as much as i like my old computer it's starting to show its age...

That looks like Dorothy's computer....

Other than I have a decent graphic's card, my pc is not much better.

 

[druadic]

well as much as i like my old computer it's starting to show its age...now I do have a wireless mouse and a neat light up keyboard (Saitek) but the processor is a tad ancient and I still use a 15" crt monitor. and now that i may be able to apply for permanent disability due to a work related injury, I'll never have any money for a new one
(and out of work again this week due to recurring hip injury...sigh...)

Faralos;

At least your machine is faster than mine. I use a 1.4 GHz Celeron laptop. Laugh at me if you must. My friend who is a laptop junkie is placing a 3.2 Ghz processor into this for me soon. Also, I have 512mb of memory. That's it. He's also putting 1 Gig of memory in as well, along with a DVD/CD burner. I didn't pay much for this laptop thanks to a good friend so I am content. Wish I could afford an AMD since they run much better than Intel.

d

 

[sleepy]

And I'm still running a 1.2 GHz. AMD Duron, but with 1 Gb. PC 2700 memory.

With these low end CPUs the thing to look for is the L1 and L2 Memory Cache size. A CPU with internal 128 kB L1 cache memory is going to stall at some point when running any large program. The L1 cache memory is the main memory for instructions fed directly to the CPU, think motherboard and Windows here. The L2 and L3 cache memory feed the program to the CPU, so you have a 1 Mb.+ size chunk of Windows being fed to the CPU through a memory segment that is only one-tenth the size of the program. Notice how the new CPUs emphasize 8 Mb. L2 and L3 cache? Because Windows is always growing larger in overall filesize with that many more instructions.

And Man! I hate modern television. Does anyone else have trouble sitting through the modern styles of advertising? I sorely miss the low key ads of the 1960's- mid 80's
for Western Airlines with The Cocktail Bird and The Man from Colt 45 Malt Liquor.
Those ads had no need to shout to be remembered.
These modern ads like blue-gray car ads shot against downtown skyscrapers and latch key kids are Grim. Cars used to be advertised for fun. Hit the streets and cruise baby!
It was about LIVING, not about bill payments and Dental Appointments for crying out loud! Or is it just me that feels that "Waiting Room Vibe" in these car ads?

The endless modern Jones housewives and their air fresheners and furniture polish, and once again we have the Booming Announcers (I thought the FCC banned that stuff) but now with lightning cut edits like I Dream of Jeanie run amok.

I'm surprised The Nightly News isn't pushing Dramamine, but they push so many drugs with horrible and deadly side effects that they are probably overstocked.

And the last of the original Classic Rock stations in Los Angeles, KLOS FM. I hate it.
Was a time when the rock station had great ads, for revival houses and movies and concerts and drinks and probably sex and recreational drugs too, but those days are long gone and ten years ago the ads were mostly for Viagra/Cialis, and divorce lawyers, DUI attorneys, and bail bondsmen. Bummer.
I don't listen to radio much anymore, guess why, but the other day...mostly Plavix ads.
I swear to God, on my death bed reaching for a past pleasant memory on the radio, I sure as Hell don't want to hear the list of prescription meds and their abominable side effects for six to ten minutes between songs.