|
Friday November 16, 2007
|
DirecTV will launch a new HD satellite next year, and to get some ink (or in this case, bits) for that bit of news, it's made NASA an offer the agency will almost definitely refuse: free, satellite-based, high-definition television for the International Space Station (ISS).
Considering that NASA updates its technology less frequently than even a typical corporate IT department--isn't the computer on the space shuttle the equivalent of a Commodore 64 in computing power?--I find it unlikely NASA will go for this. Plus, there's the issue of couch-potato astronauts. Zero gravity can only hide so much.
However, it's probably no problem at all for the DirecTV installer to find someone at home between noon and 5 PM.
DirecTV plans to offer 100 HD channels to its old-fashioned, terrestrial customers by the end of 2007, and 150 after the launch of the DirecTV 11 satellite next year . Now if it would just announce a new deal to support new HD TiVo boxes...
Post by Eric Griffith
Posted By:
Gearlog
|
|
|
Stumble
Digg
del.icio.us
Slashdot
November 16, 2007 6:33 PM
Hah! Given how hard those guys have to exercise (something like 2-3 hours A DAY) just to keep their bones and muscles from atrophying, I hardly think that they have much to hide. That being said, Zero-g doesn't leave much to the imagination, I'm afraid. yeesh.
Anyway, the ISS is so much of a deathtrap that I think they'd have a hard enough time trying to figure out what those random smoky smells are and why half of the station doesn't have power before they'd have time to watch reruns of Lost.
And hey! No jocking NASA technology - at least it works, right? Would you really want the space shuttle flying with Windows Vista on board?!