I just contacted comcast about some other issues. I asked about this as well:

Comcast (Ramon) > Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Me > One more thing: I just learned that you removed the ability to schedule VCR-compatible channel flipping any time more than a few hours in advance for people who don't buy the $20/month DVR service.
Me > Is it affects both digital and analog subscriptions?
Me > Is it affect my DVR capabilities if I'm using a computeR?
Comcast (Ramon) > No, Me. That is a different not true.
Comcast (Ramon) > We did not remove the ability to remove the ability to schedule VCR.
Comcast (Ramon) > If so, you will be receiving a notification about this.
Me > http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/04/11/2256251/Comcast-Disables-VCR-Scheduling-In-New-Guide
Me > than you might want to answer this news officially
Me > will I have the option to save this chat after we end the session?
Comcast (Ramon) > Let me double check our tools here as I don't see a notification about disabling of the VCR functions.
Me > I think it refers to channel changing capabilities of 3rd party VCRs, it is not about comcast VCR service
Comcast (Ramon) > Thank you for that information.
Comcast (Ramon) > I don't see a notification about the disabling of the third party VCR service in our bulletin board.
Me > ok
Me > I will try after I fixed my service...
Me > thanks, no more questions
Comcast (Ramon) > I believe that will not happen now as we are offering cable cards for TiVo and this device is a third party equipment.

So they don't know about such limitations. This news might not be true

Same in Engineering. I have an old professor friend, who is a journal editor. They send the same crap to hundreds of journal, and even though it has no scientific value it will pass the filter by chance. It's much easier to accept than deny, because you don't have to reason. You just don't have the energy and the manpower to politely deny all. And even if you deny, he sends it again next week with very little modification.
But that's not their fault. Science is benchmarked by publications, no matter what is behind them. They just specializing to reach maximum in impact factor and not in real research. It's the same with the TOEFL and GRE. They achieve the maximum score without problems, but it doesn't mean they can speak English at all.

My B-52 (strategic bomber) still works and was built in the 50s. :-) But generally military stuff is not planned for 5 years, even if it uses high tech electrical components, which became quite obsolate in 10-20 years.