Re: Advertising in space !
- From: OM <om@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:09:52 -0500
On Sun, 4 Sep 2005 09:21:50 +0100, Jonathan Silverlight
<jsilverlight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>Also Arthur Clarke ("Watch This Space") who gets around the problem of
>resolution (the letters are too small to see with the naked eye, as RAH
>notes) by assuming that people will be watching the event with
>telescopes or other optical aid.
....Pat may remember this one, but there was a "Strange Adventures" or
"Mystery In Space" story from the 50's that was about the last TV show
to be broadcast some decades in the future. After giving an overview
of the highlights of a century or more of TV programming, the show
ends with an explanation of why TV is going away. Seems a meteor
dumped a lot of radioactive dust that's screwing with the ionosphere,
which essentially produces so much TVI and Skipland Chatter that TV
broadcasting will simply become impossible by the time the program is
finished.
....So what are people to watch? They project TV on the surface of the
Moon, and viewers lay back on their rooftops and use polarized
telescopic lenses to select which program to watch. Couch potatoes
live happily ever after.
Or do they? Let's look at the facts the story sort of ignores:
0) First off, daytime programming is pretty much out of the question.
This means all those Bluehaired bimbo soapjunkies will *really* have
to spend their days cleaning house from now on.
1) The Moon is only full enough to use for this purpose for 3 nights
out of the month. Unless, of course, you're going to build big, shaded
light sources that illuminate the Moon. And the astronomers are going
to bitch about the constant illumination.
1a) And then there's the hippies bitching about how the constantly-lit
Moon is going to affect the nocturnal aspects of nature. Especially
those animals that base their spawning cycles on when the Moon is - or
isn't - full.
2) Of course, any source of light bright enough to produce the results
required is going to annoy the hell out of any colonies already up
there. Bank on it.
3) And then there's the issue of clouds. Nuff said.
4) Oh, and the fact that the Moon doesn't stay in the same spot all
the time. It moves across the sky. Of course, Laz-E-Boy could make a
fortune with recliners that move with precision to match the Moon's
arc...
....The story, due to the era in which it was written, ignores two
basic advances in TV viewing:
1) Cable TV. What TVI can do to broadcast, Cable can usually deal
with. Add the proper low and hi-pass filters, and even the inbred
dipshit next door who's running his CB rig with a full 2Kw linear with
all tubes glowing red and a PDL-II pointing down your throat can get a
good signal. And Digital even less prone to the Tennessee Valley
Indians.
2) The sheer number of channels we can choose from today - sadly, the
majority of them bullshit sports channels we *can't * choose not to
receive - would have overwhelmed the Moon projectors. In the story,
they only had *three* channels to choose from. I suspect the writers
were expecting only See-BS, NBC, and either ABC or DuMont. Which, at
that time, was *really* being optimistic, as the latter two were,
respectively, dying and for all practical purposes dead.
And to think that "Star Trek" history claims that TV will be extinct
by 2040...
OM
--
"Try Andre Dead Duck Canadian Champagne! | http://www.io.com/~o_m
Rated the lamest of the cheapest deported | Sergeant-At-Arms
brands by the Condemned in Killfile Hell!" | Human O-Ring Society
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Advertising in space !
- From: Dale
- Re: Advertising in space !
- From: Jonathan Silverlight
- Re: Advertising in space !
- From: Pat Flannery
- Re: Advertising in space !
- Prev by Date: Re: Trans-atmospheric vehicle of the 1980s?
- Next by Date: Re: How will history view ...
- Previous by thread: Re: Trans-atmospheric vehicle of the 1980s?
- Next by thread: Re: Advertising in space !
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
