The only recession-related impact I have seen personally is from credit card companies mailing me notices that they have randomly jacked up my interest rate, for credit cards I don't use, no less.

Ash will rise high into the atmosphere and fall for months if not years after such an eruption.

Mt. St. Helens erupted in May 1980. Seven months later, my family visited my uncle in Basalt Colorado that December, and a very light dusting of ash was still falling, covering all the snow in a thin blanket of grey.

Good tech support isn't about knowing more than the user, it's about taking a new set of symptoms you haven't seen before and logically working through the possibilities to get to the solution.

I can see by all the superfluous caps and bold text see how upset you are, and I'm sorry that you're so riled up over this. I do understand and sympathize with your point of view, but the issue is not as simple as you are supposing.

The channel providers are all rapidly shutting off their analog feeds as quickly as they can. They are the ones who are in control of the content, format and delivery of their channels, not any cable or satellite company. Go ahead and complain to the channels themselves and demand that they provide an unencrypted digital signal to everyone who subscribes to their channel. Heck, ask the same of your cable provider. See how far that gets you. Good luck.

Since you're not being specific about what channels you're talking about, my point still stands true. Contracts are the main limiting factor here. Contracts are not imaginary boundaries, they are backed up by hundreds of years of case law.

I'll use my example from earlier: the NFL Network. On certain cable providers, per contract specifications, the NFLN channel is broadcast "free and clear" as you say, unencrypted. On other providers, it is specified as a digital (and encrypted) signal in digital packages. NFLN is trying very hard to do two things: 1. to force all cable providers to carry their channel no matter what the cost, and 2. to force all of them to carry NFLN in a basic unencrypted package, thus breaking NFLN's own contracts.

Make no mistake, NFLN is one of the most expensive channels out there. NFLN is suing not to get their channel seen, since 3/4 of the year nobody watches it, but for the tens of millions of dollars it would collect in weekly in subscriber fees. If this happens, your cable bill will go up, guaranteed.

It's easy to blame cable companies, but some of the blame of this ridiculousness lies also in the lap of the channels themselves.

P.S. for the record, I love NFLN and watch it every day during football season. I just think they're being silly trying to break their own contracts that they themselves wrote and signed.

Just because the technology exists to broadcast free and clear doesn't mean companies should violate their contracts just because you say they should.

I could (but won't) help all my friends and family get free cable and free satellite since I know how it works. For many reasons I refuse to do so. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

If life was as simple as you think it is, then we wouldn't be having this discussion. The situation is a lot more complicated than you are implying. For obvious reasons I will not go into specifics.

You're pointing the FCC in the wrong direction.

The FCC should be going after the channels and their silly contract requirements, not the cable companies. Check out the litigation history of the NFL Network and their failed history of suing several cable companies for some fun examples.

I'm sorry you're so pissed off by all this. It really is a mess. Without going into specifics, I know full well how screwed up it all is. Really I do.

You'd think I'd be pissed off too, since I'm on the inside. I've worked for a cable company going on 3 years now, and I've gotten to the point that while I do care, I don't get worked up about it much anymore. If you saw it from my perspective, and I'm not talking about brainwashing, I think you'd agree that you'd see it a bit differently.

As you say, the internet is indeed the future, and cable companies are embracing this. On demand services have completely changed the way that people watch TV, and cable/satellite/internet/whatever companies know this quite well. Many companies are scrambling to add on demand services to their lineups to meet the high demand for it. I think it's great.

Honestly, I could do without TV. I did for 8 years and didn't miss it. But now I have one and love my Monsterquest. However, I visit their website more often than I watch the show. Go figure.

The regulation in question covers over-the-air "local" stations ONLY, which have never been encrypted. These are stations you'd get even if you didn't have cable. Get it now? The FCC already forces cable companies to do this. Unless you mean channels like MTV or LOGO. Then you'll have to convince those stations to broadcast over-the-air for free to everyone. Good luck with that.

If only I had the motivation to muck through the horror that is the FCC website. Oh well, with your "heavy" research, I'm sure you'll do it for me to try and prove your point. Have fun.

I can't tell if you drank too much coffee or if you're failing at trolling. Either way your inflammatory tone and language detracts from your message.

Digital cable signals are encrypted so that people cannot easily steal cable from the cable company. Cable companies don't care if you download torrents or stream from NBC or steal satellite signals.

Video on demand services are exactly what I was referring to when I mentioned the future of television. Video on demand is an idea that isn't limited to cable. Satellite and internet companies are doing it too. Nobody has to use cable's on demand services. Folks can use whatever services they want. Or not. Up to you.

Nobody needs TV. TV is a luxury. I lived without it for 8 years and didn't own a TV before I started working for a cable company. Now I own a TV, get free cable, and mostly use my TV to play on my PS3.

It's actually simpler than this.

Cable is an "always on" technology. To turn it off you need to physically unhook or trap the coax itself.

The analog channels that are provided to the cable companies (NBC, PBS, etc.) are not encrypted and so do not need a box to decrypt the signal. Plug the cable directly into your tv, and you get analog channels.

The digital channels (Biography, NFL Network, etc.) are encrypted, and so they need a box to decrypt the signal so you can watch it on your tv. To decrypt a channel, you must subscribe to that tier of service. Similar to how your cable modem has a boot file that carries your subscribed speed of service, your tv box has a boot file that carries your level of service and what channels you subscribe to.

All cable companies (including the one I work for) have had the ability to add and use customer-purchased set top boxes with their cable services for over 2 years. You don't have to rent a box from any cable company. Buy your own box and we'll give you a free cable card to put in it. The cable card (instead of the box) carries the boot file so you get the channels you want.

Also, by FCC regulation, from February 2009 all cable companies must convert the local digital channels to analog and carry the resulting analog signal for the next 3 years. I'd get the link from the FCC website but it's Saturday morning and I'm too lazy.

The future of television is watching whatever show you want whenever you want after it is released. Nobody will ever wait for a show to "be on" at 8pm Monday night anymore since all you have to do is download the file and watch it the day it becomes available.

I want one of those snazzy UFOs that the tin foil hat guys are after.