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FCC Gives Satellite Providers Some HD Slack

Washington — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has agreed to relax conditions for carriage of local HDTV stations by satellite TV providers, recognizing the special technological burdens providers carry.

Harmonic Distortion — Stewart Wolpin

Acme Products May Be Dangerous — To Coyotes

Okay, now I’m REALLY teed off.

First, sorry for the fortnightly gap in my submissions here. I was laid low with the flu. All the ideas that usually flowed from my subconscious through my fingertips flowed instead in a more physical form from my sinus cavity through other facial orifices in volumes that caused Kimberly-Clark’s stock to peak temporarily.

TWICE On Gaming — Peter Suciu

RIP Gary Gygax - Legendary Game Designer Embarks on an Adventure to the After Life

Last week Gary Gygax passed away at the age of 69. To video gamers his name might not be as familiar as Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier or Will Wright, but had it not been for Gygax there likely may have never been World of Warcraft, EverQuest or any other role-playing game. The Wisconsin native wasn’t a computer programmer or video game developer, but as co-creator of the paper and dice role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (or D&D) his impact on video games will be surely felt for decades to come.

In response to: Custom Faces Big Challenges, CEA Tells Installers At EH Expo, Elliot Tucker, Georgetown, Texas: “In my opinion, primary focus of custom should be retrofit not new. The retrofit market is actually much larger than new construction, but installer/manufacturer focus has to switch from $100+k deals to smaller ones and building repeat business. Networking,Internet TV, wireles [and] on-wall are just a few of the technologies needing custom installation for retrofits.”

In response to: Perry Outlines Panasonic’s Flat-Panel View, Bob Young, Alpena, Mich.: “I like Bob Perry’s comments, and agree that there is plenty of room for both LCD and plasma display product. He carries a lot of weight with the independent merchants with his background, and we trust that he’ll keep Panasonic moving forward. We also deal in Sony, LG and Toshiba, so we do have a good assortment of “tier one” brands. We do just fine with that mix (including plasma) and think the race to February 17, 2009, ought to be a great run, as long as the “tier two” brands don’t screw things up, or the big (dumb) box stores don’t throw away the profit opportunity.”

TWICE On the Scene Video: HP Execs Discuss The Blackbird

Hewlett-Packard’s Rahul Sood and Mark Solomon talk about the company’s latest high-end gaming PC, the Blackbird.