Engadget reported that the House did not reach enough votes to pass the bill that was approved by the Senate. Personally, I think this is fantastic. Obama wanted to delay this originally. It shows that there is some sense between the Congress and President Obama.  By some, I mean the 168 who voted negative in the House.

"But Peter!!! What about the poor people who can't afford to get a converter box?" My response: they're shit out of luck. The money that was handed out originally was a dumb idea, and it's still a dumb idea after they ran out of money. We're not talking about power, water, food supply, etc. We're talking about catching up on Heroes before the season starts back up. Not worth using tax dollars to help anyone.  I stand corrected, the money doesn't come from taxes. I still think it could have gone to better use. Like highways, debt, bigger guns, etc.

And if we're so concerned about the economy, wouldn't it make sense to keep the transition date and force people to upgrade? How about this for a sales pitch? "You can buy this converter box which is sooo clunky, or you can buy this new HDTV!!!"

Our President-Elect has preached to bring change to America. I've kept somewhat silent on this blog about our man Obama, but this one is too good to let go by.  Engadget posted that Obama is asking Congress to delay the DTV Transition.

For those of you that are somehow on the internet, but don't watch TV, this involves shutting off analog TV broadcasts and forcing people to watch digital TV (DTV) over the air (OTA). This is a great idea and makes a lot of sense. It's more efficient and supports HD to just keep the story short. The hypothetical bad is the following: the people who have been blatently ignorning the many DTV transition commercials and think the problem will just go away, will be without TV until they go buy the converter (maybe this will help stimulate the economy).

If Obama has his way, this will be just like the Metric conversion in the US. Still waiting....... Companies, industries, and many Americans have been prepping for this for a VERY long time and have been dilligent. Obama, you were in the Senate. Why didn't you bring this up while you were there? Oh wait, you weren't there because you misspent a lot of your time campaigning for the Presidency. Thanks for representing Illinois.

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Long story short: DirecTV is bitch slapping Microsoft for not integrating Satellite TV into the Media Center TV Pack 2008 release.  Since it was not integrated, the feature would have to wait until Windows 7. As much as MS is shooting for next year, DirecTV knows better.

It is still very depressing that DirecTV isn't going to stick it out. VMC won my heart when it could integrate many different sources into one UI creating a true 'set-top box experience' through a PC.  Integrating Satellite TV would be one more way to corner the market and provide something NOONE else can.

http://www.gearlog.com/2008/12/its_official_the_directv_hdpc2.php from http://thedigitallifestyle.com/cs/blogs/ian/archive/2008/12/09/no-directv-for-media-center.aspx

Chris was out shopping @ Circuit City and gets excited,"Do I want Bourne on Blu-Ray?" Fortunately, he realized he asked himself the wrong question and decided to snap a picture. I miss the HD format war. Reminds me of my Browncoat days.

I rely on my Nextel for emergency pages from our Police Dispatch Center. Their system pages out to Nextel phones only, but that's a different story.  For the past week and a half, I've been missing text messages. And I am not the one.

Luckily, our department has been semi-aware and we've been calling each other to relay the messages.  After each emergency call, I reboot my phone and all of a sudden the messages come flowing through.  I did a bit of some testing, and I get about 25% of text messages immediately.  The other 75% if have to reboot my phone to receive.

Nextel Customer Care confirmed this problem. They've had nationwide problems with delayed/missed text messages. Their official recommendation is to reboot the phone.

There is a good side to this though: the Nextel Customer Care center I got @ 11PM on a Saturday was in Washington, USA. The lady I talked to was extremely knowledgeable and very understanding.  That was enough to calm me down and make me think they were devoting their resources to correcting the problem!  I don't have a text messaging plan since I do not get enough emergency pages per month to make it worth my while to buy a text messaging plan. So I thanked the lady and asked if I could get reimbursed for all the test text messages I sent to myself.  Got this email a few minutes later

Dear: Peter Fattore

Telephone #:

Sprint has added a credit to your account for $2.80. The adjustment reason is Courtesy Credit. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.


If you have any questions, please feel free to respond to this email. Thank you for contacting Sprint. Have a great day!