{"id":1316,"date":"2012-02-16T10:44:57","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T16:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=1316"},"modified":"2012-02-17T20:30:11","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T02:30:11","slug":"they-call-this-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2012\/02\/they-call-this-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"They call this “progress”"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Warning: Rant ahead.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I have a seven-year-old, perfectly functional TV and VCR. I have been told I need to install an adapter to continue to get cable TV. After its installation, it is no longer possible to record one station with the VCR while watching another. I expressly asked about this three times when I picked the adapter up, and either was assured that wouldn’t be a problem or they didn’t understand the question.<\/p>\n

I honestly expected this would be the situation given my experience of the digital television switch with broadcast channels, which is its own ongoing disaster of a story. But I held out hope. I finally got my suspicions confirmed with another phone call. “But you can get a DVR for $22 a month.” Of course<\/em> I would like to pay more for something I used to be able to do without extra cost or effort, whether that’s recording a TV program without worrying about accidentally changing the channel, or watching a football game at 11 AM on Saturday in September.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Mediacom allows for more than one adapter, and there is at least one guide out there for how to use a two-adapter system<\/a>. “Sounds like an awful lot of work,” another tech told me when I asked if such a solution was feasible. It wasn’t a lot of work in 1986.<\/p>\n

Mediacom has also been intentionally vague about when the analog cable will actually be cut. If you look at the FAQ<\/a> to find out “when,” the answer is, “Now. The conversion is currently taking place.”<\/p>\n

I also am no longer able to eliminate channels I don’t want from the lineup.<\/p>\n

I’m not too worry about the situation because I have a device to let me watch TV on my computer, but I won’t know if that will also be rendered inoperative until it happens.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the same day this was going on, I missed out on a package delivery because I do not have a landline<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Finally, while I’m going full Andy Rooney: Remember when it didn’t use to cost six bucks to eat a “value meal” at Burger King?<\/p>\n

UPDATE FEB. 17: My feelings on age, right here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Warning: Rant ahead.) I have a seven-year-old, perfectly functional TV and VCR. I have been told I need to install an adapter to continue to get cable TV. After its installation, it is no longer possible to record one station … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions\/1319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}