Re: PC or Mac?

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <slrna5aac0.3m.byron@b60z27hbb464i.ab.hsia.telus.net>,
Byron Q. Desnoyers Winmill <byron@b60z27hbb464i.ab.hsia.telus.net> wrote:
 
> In article <a32uim$41n$1@merope.saaf.se>, Paul Schlyter wrote:
>> But for how long?  Digital television is approaching, and here in
>> Sweden the goal now is to close down the old analog television
>> network around 2007
> 
> A couple of years ago they (being the cable providers) said that
> analog cable service would be terminated in Canada later this
> decade.  But the reception to digital TV appears to be cold.
 
The reception of ground-based digital TV over the air has been
very cold here too.
 
Satellite TV is here quite different though: by simply terminating
almost all analog TV channels and at the same time offering
upgrades to digitalboxes at quite low prices, the providers have
forced a fast switch to digital TV.  And the same is happening to
cable TV, only a little later.
 
> My
> guess is that too many people are spending their time online.  ;)
> That may actually be a problem: if the cable companies cut off
> analog service for more expensive digital services, consumers may
> shift their entertainment time online.  The next five to ten years
> are going to bring huge changes online, and most of it is going to
> be directed towards entertainment.  Not only that, but people only
> have so much money to go around.
 
But if they spend so much time online, they'll have less time for
work =====> they'll earn less money.... :-)
 
>> And the situation was similar during the switchover from AM to FM
>> radio broadcasting
> 
> AM radio is used throughout Canada and, as far as I can tell, the
> United States as well.
 
I know the situation is very different in North America, where AM is
still very much alive - and you even have stereo AM broadcasts (we
_never_ had that).  Here in Europe, AM is used for DX radio mostly:
the MW and lower SW bands within Europe, and the middle and upper SW
bands for other continents.
 
>> Remember when the CD was introduced, and the switchover from vinyl
>> records?
> 
> I was too young.  Nevertheless, vinyl and CDs have been around
> much longer than the computers which most people use.  Heck, I
> still have CDs from my 386 (pre-1992).
 
My oldest CD's are from 1986 - my oldest computer is from 1980
(unless I also include a programmable calculator from 1975 :-)
 
>> And stereo radio could be heard on older monophonic radio receivers.
> 
> Older?  They still make monophonic radio receivers.
 
Yes I know -- with "older" I here meant receivers manufactured
before the specifications of FM stereo were available.
 
>> If you add a file transfer protocol to your shell account, then you
>> can transfer binary information as well through the shell account.  I
>> do that from time to time.
> 
> True.  But where can you find a shell account these days?  (Short
> of providing your own.)
 
I have one and I'm posting there right now... :-)  But I admit
they're getting rarer and rarer.... if this account would vanish, I
don't know where I could find a replacement.
 
> I have one from my university, but that won't last forever.  Short
> of that, the only reliable means for access that I can see is a PPP
> stack and a telnet client, but even telnet is being phased out.
 
If so, _how_ are you going to e.g. be able to execute programs on that
remote computer?
 
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter,  Swedish Amateur Astronomer's Society (SAAF)
Grev Turegatan 40,  S-114 38 Stockholm,  SWEDEN
e-mail:  pausch at saaf dot se
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