FPGA VAX update

[Jules Richardson]

Tony Duell wrote:
>>5.1/6.1/7.1/whatever sound even with cheapest receivers. The second 
>>point emphasizes on the "digitalization" issue:
>>in the near future there won't be any analogue AM or FM 
>>transmissions/transmitters any more; even SW band migrates
> 
> 
> THis ia a great pity, and actually, given the number of cheap radios 
> around, I wonder if it will ever happen. I can't believe the public will 
> accept having to replace doxens of sets.

Well UK terrestrial analogue TV's getting canned in what, five years? So 
far there seems to be no outcry whatsoever, yet I'm amazed that people 
aren't up in arms about having to fork out for a new set (or several, in 
the case of most households), or at least a cable box and having to sign 
up for cable TV.

I expect it's way too late to stop the switch-off too, as the cable / 
satellite people will be in bed with the Government by now and of course 
the Government are convinced that digital-everything is the way forward 
for our society...

Personally I like my 4 channels (Cambridge uni's astronomy forbid us 
from receiving channel 5 up around Cambridge) when compared to cable. 
Cable might have way more choice, but the programming quality's a lot 
poorer, there are way more adverts, and the broadcast quality isn't up 
to much compared to analogue either with signal drop-outs all over the 
place...

>>Of course. Building some gadget from a kit is just part of learning the 
>>usage of the tools. I did this in the very beginning,
>>as almost every newbie, but after a while changed to own experiments.
> 
> I do still occasionally build kits. I do it if I want the end result, and 
> by building the kit (a) I know it's been built properly and (b) I get a 
> schematic. For example by bench PSU was built from a kit. Yes, I could 
> design one, but actually, the kit was no more expensive than buying the 
> bits separately.

I find the building is 99% of the fun and the using is 1%, no matter 
what the gadget. I'm just a sucker for seeing how things work (whether 
done well or not) regardless of what they are...

cheers

Jules