Re: Tell me whats wrong with this

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 2:10 PM 2/9/96, Mike McNally wrote:

>The intent of making the V chip (what does "V" stand for anyway?
>"Violence?" Eerily Orwellian if so...) mandatory seems to be that it's

The "V-Vhip" stands for "Virtue-Chip," as it will protect the virtue of
Christians, children, and small animals who will not be subjected to
cybersmut, cyberporn, and cyberbadthoughts.

(An alternate theory, emanating out of the Great White North, is that it
came from "View-Chip," the chip that is (apparently) availalbe in some
places in Canada. I saw a blurb on t.v. (no V-chip in it) about how a panel
of educators, social scientists, and moral persuaders reviews each
television program and gives the show a 0-5 rating on each of 3 scales:
violence, sexuality, and explicit language. The viewer sets her
preferences: a 5-5-5 would let everything through, etc. The developer of
the chip claimed he could mass produce the chip for a buck, and this may be
where all those estimates of "$1-2 per set" have come from. However, seeing
the chip--apparently a 20-30-pin square flatpack--and knowing how much PCB
real estate would have to be used to accomodate it, and factoring in design
and other expenses, that $1 chip will likely translate it into a $30
overall increase in t.v. set price. Not necessarily prohibitive, though I
still think the effort a waste.)

--Tim May



Boycott espionage-enabled software!
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