Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The technology mafia doesn't want me to work

I don't consider myself a tech-head.  Far from it.  I resist changes in technology for the most part.  Not voluntarily, but lack of expendable income tends to limit which technological trends our family follows.

We got our first dvd player somewhere around 2003.  I got my first mp3 player in 2006 - and didn't use it because I had to rip all of my cds, and that took time.  Way too much time.  I've probably only ever bought about 5 songs on iTunes.  I got my first laptop 3 months ago.


When I purchased a desktop computer for work a couple years ago, I didn't realize that they didn't come standard with modems (uh, essential for me because I was still working with dial-up internet).  Yes, I've graduated to satellite internet (the move "up" was menial) - the lack of DSL is the fault of our BFE location and not a function of us being cheap.  Satellite internet is HIGHLY unreliable, relatively slow, and equally expensive as high quality DSL.

In the eight years my husband and I have been together, we've had cable/satellite tv a total of 3.5 years.  Not consecutively.  We lived on dvds - Northern Exposure, Friends, The Office, and Scrubs to be precise - and one clear (sometimes) channel (CBS).

We still don't *gasp* have an HDTV.

Yes, football games in HD are amazing.  I agree.  Seeing the newscaster's pores - not so great.

I'm sure eventually, we'll get there, but not yet.

In the meantime - I'm disappointed in being left in the dust.

Even the standard channels (ahem: Fox) have converted to a digital format that favors wide screen tvs.  Thing is, they've abandoned the black bar on the top and bottom of the screen to show us ol' square boxers the whole picture.

Now, we get to miss parts of the credits, weather, and scenes where two actors are pictured (we've got a great view of the space between them though!).

It is disappointing that the stations are in bed with the tv manufacturers to push those of us reeling from the economic downturn, student loan payments, and past predatory credit practices by making us intimately familiar with the background props on the office and obscuring our view of severe weather.

Thanks for keeping us in the dark - without warning of when a storm is going to blow through and knock me off the internet for hours on end....keeping me from working.

Bastards.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I haven't had cable in over four years and might never own an hdtv. I stopped relying on the television news in favor of internet though where I can skip right to the parts I want to know about- like the weather.

It's actually the fcc that is to blame, I think. Aren't they the ones who mandated everyone had to switch to that converter box if they were still so far in the "dark ages" that they hadn't bought the tremendously expensive, aesthetically pleasing flatscreen yet?