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Re: [OM] the Internet; TV

Subject: Re: [OM] the Internet; TV
From: "Lee Penzias" <l_penzias@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 23:04:27 -0500
You make some pretty rash assumptions there - and there is no need to be insulting. And if I were to follow your assumptions, I could say, "government is motivated only by power". That is of course untrue in the absolute sense, as is the notion that "private enterprize is only motivated by profit". Both could be said to be true when speaking of their basic interests. But there are always particular people working within both spheres, and each has to be judged on his or her own merits or otherwise. And if you want to get specific - try and find out how many of your "government" folk have "private enterprizes" of their own. Then call them up and ask them which catagory they belong to; "for profit" or "for power"?

You imply that I hold the position that the government does not put money into R&D. I simply stated that it was in specific areas of interest to them. In aggregate, if you add up what the government spends in R&D as opposed to that of our entire private and commercial sector spends, I would be very surprized if the former spends more than the latter.

As for the internet itself - I happen to like it - in a way. I just wish I could get a faster PC so it wouldn't take so long to get around.

Nothing more to say on this subject. Apologies to everyone for this. I didn't expect such salvos flying around on the subject.

Regards,
Lee

----Original Message Follows----
From: "William Sommerwerck" <williams@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OM] the Internet; TV


I don't know what Lee Penzias is thinking, but the US Government did,
indeed, "invent" the Internet. It was an outgrowth of the need for military researchers to keep in touch.

Mr. Penzias wants us to believe that whatever private industry does is right and good and justified (if for no other reason that someone can profit from it), and whatever the government does is wrong and bad and useless and a waste of taxpayer's money, which could be better "spent" on reducing the taxes of the wealthiest American individuals and businesses.

Private enterprise is motivated _only_ by profit. It's fortunate that the government started the Internet, because otherwise we probably wouldn't have it yet, and if we did it would cost a lot more.

The Internet is a wonderful example of techno-socialism, even if that was the furthest thing from the minds of those who set it up. Contrary to what Mr. Penzias would like to think, the US government pumps billions of dollars into research every year.

John "log-head" Baird was certainly the first person to put together a
"working" television system. But it was of low quality and not really a
practical system for more than one or two viewers.

Fully-electronic television requires three basic inventions: an image-pickup device; an image-display device; and a some method of synchronizing the two. The display device -- the CRT -- existed from the end of the 19th century. The synchronizing system is not obvious, but neither is it a terribly complex invention.

The "hard" part of the system is the pickup device. Farnsworth was the first with a practical one. In that sense, he can be said to be "the" inventor of electronic television.



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