Salvage 1 aired in 1979 though it didn't last long.

In the 1970's, Cray's early designs tackled the data processing bottleneck by maximizing IO throughput and minimizing path lengths. By the 1980s, Thinking Machines, nCUBE, KSR, and MasPar had developed massively parallel processing designs that tried to tackle the bottleneck by distributing the workload. In the '90s, Cray Research's T3D and T3E architecture and more recently IBM's Blue Gene architecture are other examples of massively parallel systems with memory located close to the compute nodes to try to overcome the bottleneck issue. Thus, finding ways to overcome that bottleneck has been a consistent focus of designs for decades. With ever-shrinking semiconductor scales, this latest effort looks to be more of a natural progression based on earlier designs.

Found the story here: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-...

...back in the late 1980s. This was pre-internet days, and membership was one of the ways to get a free version of the 1.0 MIDI spec which was still in development. I needed details in the spec for my electrical engineering senior project which was essentially an external storage for Roland D-50 synthesizer patch banks (i.e. programmable sound data). There were storage cards available, but they were expensive. The synth allowed the patch bank to be transferred through the MIDI port, and I wanted something more portable than a dedicated sequencer like the MC-500 or a PC for travel, so I ended up designing and building the external memory unit. I barely managed to get it done before the deadline for my project, but thankfully it worked, albeit briefly. A few months later it died, possibly due to ESD, and I never got it working again.

I had originally hoped to land a job that related to designing electronic musical devices, but my engineering career took a different path, and I have no regrets with how things turned out. I still have my old musical gear, along with the MIDI cables to connect it all together, and it still works too.

Is it the same study as this? https://science.slashdot.org/s...

Actually, based on reading various forums, there appear to be quite a few Series 2 units out there still in use. Also, there's still an active market for series 2 units with lifetime subscriptions on e-bay (search for "tivo series 2 lifetime")

We have a series 2 and still use it regularly. The analog tuner issue isn't a problem since you can get cheap or even free digital to analog converter boxes. The dial-up change won't affect ours since it is using our broadband (via wifi) to get the program updates.

TiVo is still working great!

We own two TiVos with lifetime service (a Series 2 model in a bedroom, and a Roamio OTA model in our family room). Given how long we've been using them, our TiVos have been extremely cost effective DVR solutions, and we're extremely happy with their features. Both connect to our wifi to get regular programming updates. We don't have cable or dish, and instead we use an indoor antenna to get over 30 local channels, several in HD. Since the Series 2 doesn't natively handle digital OTA signals, we use a digital to analog converter (which I got for free) in between the antenna input and the antenna, and the IR output from the TiVo controls its tuning. Since the Series 2 doesn't record in HD and can only record 1 channel at a time, we mostly use it for recording shows on sub-channels or sometimes for various reruns. The Roamio OTA records up to 4 channels at once and in HD. Both of these units get used almost every day.

It's hard to beat the cost of our monthly bill for TV + DVR package: $0.00. Whenever we get calls from cable or satellite services that say they can beat the price we're currently paying for our TV service, I simply reply, "Great! How much are you going to pay me to use your service?" The calls end soon after they figure out that I'm not kidding.

I've had a window office. I've also had a cube adjacent to a windowed wall where turning my head left let me look right outside. I've worked in labs with windows. However, I found I was always more productive in offices or rooms without windows. Invariably, I find having a window ends up being more of a distraction than a benefit.

What I prefer instead is being able to leave the site during lunch. That gives me plenty of time to get out, enjoy some fresh air and clear my head midway through the day. As a result, I rank flexible work hours and being able to pick when I arrive, and when I leave as a much higher than having a window. Vacations, sick days, personal days and so forth also rank much higher than having a window. And of course, getting paid and getting insurance tops all of those.

They based this on the commute times from the census bureau, but I'm not sure how they arrived at the values. Two of the cities (pop 100K to 150K) where I've lived in are listed at 39+ minutes for commutes (roundtrip), but you'd have to take some really bad routes to need more than 15 minutes to go point-to-point in those cities. 8-12 minutes each way for a round trip of 16-24 (avg 20) minutes would be a more realistic average for most residents in those communities.

On the other hand, the commutes for some of the larger cities actually seem too low. Could the census bureau method be biased and incorrectly scaling up commute times in smaller cities for some reason?

We have two kids and 2 amazon kindles loaded with a bunch of free kids stuff including PBS Kids apps. However, the kids still prefer to watch most of the shows directly on the big screen TV. We also have 2 TiVos (SD series 2 still kicking with a digital OTA converter box I got for free, and a HD Roamio OTA). Both have lifetime subscriptions that have more than paid for themselves several times over.

It's true that the Twin Cities metro area is somewhat unique for OTA broadcasting. However, there are several parts of the state that are not able to easily view TC channels, so it's not accurate to say that the MSP market covers most of the state, not by a long shot!. In those areas, both cable and satellite have strong market penetration.

Some examples:
Duluth - Gets about 4 to 5 good stations, but non are from the Twin Cities. Terrain and distance is definitely a factor

Rochester - Gets about 4 to 5 good stations, but none are from the Twin Cities. Rochester's terrain is essentially a large bowl, and it really limits their ability to pull in anything from the TC metro areas to the northwest.

Mankato - due to the river valley terrain, large parts of this city can't pull in anything beyond the local station KEYC. Even the eastern hilltop area is a virtual OTA wasteland without a pretty tall antenna. Cable and satellite are the preferred options for many residents there. For kicks, try punching in zipcode 56001 into the dtvmaps website. It's not a mistake that it returns 0 stations. There are areas where you can't even pull in KEYC!

There are several more outstate examples in the southwest, west, and north areas of MN that are unable to view TC stations. Those cover the TC metro, but not much beyond it.

"Churn" equates to "change" or "fluctuation" and it doesn't have any associated upward or downward velocity. In fact, a common phrase is "steady churn" which essentially means constant change or continual fluctuation.

In this phrase "Sign of Churn In TV Watching", it means is that there's still a continual change affecting how people are watching TV. Historically, the changes been::
- OTA viewing being displaced (and almost fully replaced in many areas) by cable TV broadcast
- Cable TV viewing being displaced somewhat by satellite
- Both Cable and satellite TV viewing being displaced by online streaming services
- Now it appears that cable and satellite are also being displaced by a significant number of people returning to OTA TV viewing.

Yes and No. It's highly dependent on where you live. I'm fortunate to live in a 2-story home with vinyl siding which is located in a relatively flat area within 30 miles of multiple towers with no obstructions. I can easily pull all of those in plus a few farther away with an inexpensive flat indoor antenna. It took me all of 5 minutes to find a spot to place it in an upstairs room, and then run the signal back to the main junction to split it out to the 3 TVs in our house. Ever since putting it up a few years ago, it has continued to pull 30+ channels flawlessly.

Those living in other ares may not be so fortunate. For example, my parents 1 story house is blocked by multiple 3-story apartments nearby, and they're unable to receive any signal using an indoor antenna at all despite the nearest towers being just over 30 miles. At their previous house just a few miles away, they could get those stations with a small roof-mounted antenna, but they'd need a huge tower to clear the nearby apartments for their current residence.

It's usually an afterthought, but when buying a house, the OTA maps should definitely be a factor. Considering you might live there for many years, being able to save $100+ per month by using an antenna instead of paying for cable or dish, that can add up to a significant savings over time.

For us it was purely price. We don't subscribe to any streaming services (now or ever). Our primary viewing is major networks, especially for local news broadcasts, and some sports, along with PBS for the kids. We're also big believers in 1-time purchases vs. any form of monthly fees or contracts. I don't see how any service with a monthly fee can realistically compete against our one-time antenna purchase (under $50) that gives us 30+ channels per month for free which includes all the major networks we want to watch.

...I didn't do it sooner!

I started out using cable, but our local provider had terrible signal and service. We experienced complete loss of signal out anytime it rained, go figure. Calling their service line would usually take over an hour of waiting to reach a human, Due to all the problems in our area, their repair teams are spread so thin that they can't arrive for at least a full week after a service call by which point the problem would gone so they can't ever find the root cause to fix it. This entire neighborhood, and adjacent ones had the same issue and the repair guys were completely clueless as to how to fix it which is why everyone moved to satellite or antenna. We opted for satellite and initially liked the service, but the costs kept creeping up until it was well over $100 per month with no premium channels.

After checking the OTA coverage in my area with various sites (tvfool.com, antennaweb.org, dtvmaps), I was surprised that we could probably receive broadcasts from at least nearby towers with over 30 channels of programming, much of it in HD. I bought a up a small, flat rectangular indoor antenna for under $50 that has an amp and was supposed to have a 50 mile range, and it pulled in all of them plus a few more. We now get 33 channels, and 11 of them are in HD. Best of all, it's all the major networks and PBS that comprised over 90% of our regular viewing.

So for less than half the monthly cost of the dish, our 1 time antenna purchase allows us to watch the same major networks. Whenever I tell people about this, they are usually shocked, but after investigating it, several have since made the switch themselves. As the word continues to spread, I would expect more and more to cut the cord and make the switch.