[clue-talk] Vintage Voltage Expo

[Nate Duehr]

On 3/21/07, Sean LeBlanc <seanleblanc at comcast.net> wrote:

> Speaking of radio...maybe some folks on here know something about DRM (no,
> not THAT DRM[*]). I was wondering what others might know about this:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio_Mondiale
>
> I sometimes try to poke around and see if there will be anything in the U.S.
> with this as I find it very interesting. It seems to be something very real
> in the EU, and from what I can tell, the rather bogus HD radio is being
> pushed here.

HD Radio = so far too expensive for anyone other than audiophiles or
bored people with lots of money.  I predict it won't go anywhere until
a major automotive manufacturer puts it in their built-in car stereo
systems... then maybe it'll come down in price.

> Don't know much about ham, though at the last Clue, Dennis told me about the
> requirements for Morse being dropped. I would think that would do just what
> you say: garner interest AND inflame some of the people at the same time. :)

Yeah.  You can't make everyone happy - it's fun to watch the whiners, though.

> [*] Names seem to matter a lot. I would think the DivX codec probably
> suffer[s|ed] a bit because of the association that name has with that stupid
> failure of a product from Circuit City back in the late 90's. Lisp is
> another...man, what a dumb name. If Lisp had been given a sexier name like
> Java, Java and C++ might never have happened. :)

Marketing trumps technology almost every time -- sad but true.  Only
large "order of magnitude" technology leaps trump marketing...

> Come to think of it, has *anything* ever been decided on technical merits
> alone? It always seems to come down to marketing, emotional attachments to
> things - hence the emphasis on "branding", and spurious aspects of the
> market.

Yup.  People do business with names they trust... this is one of the
challenges that has always faced Linux...

Nate