Future of Cable TV

Quote: Pacomartin

I assume you know that "This way to the egress" was a very famous sign used by PT Barnum.

Now we can play "Real story or Urban legend?"

Wikipedia cites a reference on it, FWIW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum%27s_American_Museum

It does sound true to what the scam master would come up with.

Quote: Pacomartin

I assume you know that "This way to the egress" was a very famous sign used by PT Barnum. He built a museum in which people were known to dawdle for hours creating jams that prohibited him from sending in more paying customers. He hung up the sign and attracted many people to the hallway intent on viewing the "egress" attraction, only to find themselves out the exit and required to pay another fee to re-enter.

So your sign creator may have been trying to show off his education in Americana as well as his command of Latin. Curiously the use of "egress" for the way out is actually 100 years older than the use of "exit" to mean the same thing.

I know the deal, and that is why I know what the word meant. It is just that you had to also see the sign. "NOT AN EXIT" is a few bucks at a hardware store, whoever made this probably ended up needing a custom job.

Cord cutting on a pace for 1.5 million this year.

It will keep getting worse. We are out of "innovators" and into "early adopters" by now.

Quote: AZDuffman

It will keep getting worse. We are out of "innovators" and into "early adopters" by now.

1) Verizon Wireless is raising it's entry level wireless phone plan to $50 + taxes and fees on Thursday. 2) Verizon Home charges $62 + taxes and fees for a home telephone line with unlimited domestic calling. 3) Cable TV is charging a lot of money per television for decoder equipment, and they charge us $12 surcharge for "entertainment", "sports", and " retransmission consent of broadcast TV" . So now you are getting surcharges for the primary reasons to watch TV (as opposed to people who just watch CSPAN).

In comparison Internet is proving to be the true bargain in home services. For $30-$50 you can get high speed wireless which can provide as a subset video, telephone, and even mobile communications if you are frugal enough.

Tablo is becoming more popular. Although it is billed as a DVR, basically it transmits all antenna signals to signals that can be read over network and watched with tablets (which can also be cast onto larger TVs). The signals can be recorded and played back skipping commercials.

How is Tablo different from that service that was forced to shut down, Aereo?

Quote: Dalex64

How is Tablo different from that service that was forced to shut down, Aereo?

I'm guessing it merely streams inside your home those signals you already receive. You probably need to connect an aerial to it.

BTW, for me the least important part of TV is over the air. Aside from very occasional major news, I only tune in to two channels during the NFL season.

Quote: AZDuffman

Speaking of signs, for some reason I am reminded of the one at the CC where I took my welding class. It is kind of a vo-tech extension that has welding, an auto shop, and some other things. Normally when a door does not lead out and you do not want people using it you post "NOT AN EXIT."

What did the sign say there? "NOT A VALID MEANS OF EGRESS."

I would always just shake my head. When I make posts about over-education and people ask why I am down on it, what is wrong with college, yadda yadda I want to show them the sign and say "THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH HAVING TOO MUCH EDUCATION!"

Not that it is the biggest deal. I mean, in an emergency someone might not know what it means. But it just looked so silly as to want to smack the person who would write such a thing. Surely they "graduate" to higher and higher jobs where they can write memos and other things equally over confusing.

You can blame the lawyers AZD. I am not sure about the US building code but it likely uses the same term as the Canadian code. If a door is deemed a "required means of egress" then the building code requires many items. These include panic hardware, exit signage, emergency lights. fire alarm pull station and possibly other mobility related items. Not all doors that exit a building are "required means of egress" and these doors don't require all the bells and whistles.

Quote: Nareed

I'm guessing it merely streams inside your home those signals you already receive. You probably need to connect an aerial to it.

Yes that is correct. You can also transmit over the internet to a single home, but you can't do it to thousands of homes.

Interesting note, in 1902 when transmission over radio was being invented the term "aerial antenna" was invented. I think it has been shortened to "antenna" almost universally in the USA, while I believe that "aerial" is still more popular in British English. I would have thought that Nareed would go for the word in AmE.

Quote: kenarman

You can blame the lawyers AZD. I am not sure about the US building code but it likely uses the same term as the Canadian code. If a door is deemed a "required means of egress" then the building code requires many items. These include panic hardware, exit signage, emergency lights. fire alarm pull station and possibly other mobility related items. Not all doors that exit a building are "required means of egress" and these doors don't require all the bells and whistles.

Lawyers are not the issue. I have seen signs saying "NOT AN EXIT" many times. What was written was someone trying to act like the smartest guy in the room.

I forgot if I wrote this above, but I had a Business English class which was dedicated to business-style writing. Memos and stuff. PRof showed us this memo the faculty wrote for I forget what. They had her check it because "she is an English teacher." I do not remember the exact wording, but what they wrote and what she fixed it to hardly looked like the same memo. Theirs looked as if someone vomited a dictionary on the page. You read it and said, "HUH?" ("wtf" had not been invented then.) You read hers and it read smooth, you instantly knew what was being conveyed.

Quote: Pacomartin

Interesting note, in 1902 when transmission over radio was being invented the term "aerial antenna" was invented. I think it has been shortened to "antenna" almost universally in the USA, while I believe that "aerial" is still more popular in British English. I would have thought that Nareed would go for the word in AmE.

I mean this as flattery: are you Sheldon Cooper's long-lost twin brother? ;)