Improvements

These days, it seems like improvements and upgrades are no longer options to the consumer. Years ago, the customers called the shots. You didn't have to have a new-fangled "hi-fi" to listen to the radio, and if you chose to, you could watch your favorite programs on a black & white TV.






I think it started with 8-track tape. The tape manufacturers decided that it was time to move to cassettes, and away they went. Sure, cassettes played better, but...

Then of course, cassette tapes got bumped by CD's, and now CD's seem to be threatened by MP3's thanks to the Ipod. I think the death of the CD might be put off a little, because the Ipod isn't that great, and a lot of people don't care for them. Apple has taken a very haughty attitude toward the customer base, as if it's a privilege to own an Ipod, and if you happen to get one that doesn't work (and those are pretty good odds, by the way) you better prepare to grovel if you want to get it fixed or replaced. So I'm not sure the CD shelves are gonna disappear just yet.

Cable TV is the latest industry going through the upgrade-a-week phase, along with the television manufacturers. There are more and more offerings in HDTV, and we've pretty much gone over to digital cable coast-to-coast. HDTV doesn't really impress the majority quite yet, and it seems like you need a Degree to sort out the options for the sets that are out there. And digital cable has a lot of problems.

For instance, with the new and improved digital comes this problem.





I was watching a Food Network Program this morning. Regular old cable would show you a picture like this.

Color picture, no problem.









With the new-and-improved "digital cable", you get little treats like this:







All the pretty little boxes show up whenever the signal-strength isn't 100%. So I'm not too impressed with that output just yet.

I hope they figure out how to fix that before they jam this technology down our throats. I had enough of forced "improvements" after dealing with America Online all these years.




Of course, any day now, they're gonna replace me, but I'm doing my best to stay "new and improved" myself. Learn something new every day, so to speak. And I did.

So, do you know the name of Abraham Lincoln's Vice President from 1860 to 1865?

No Googling...honest answers.