UK electrical industry agrees to phase out analogue TV manufacture ahead of digital switchover

digital.jpgWith the recent news that over half of all TVs sold last year were analogue, set against imminent digital switchover, it’s no surprise that the UK’s electrical industry has announced that it’s to phase out the manufacture and sale of analogue TV equipment.

By the end of the year, the group (which includes well known high street retailers, independents, and manufacturers), has committed to:

* accelerate conversion of all TV product lines to digital, including small (16-inch and under) TVs,
* move to all-digital TV and recorder production lines at least 12 months before digital switchover in each UK region,
* provide clear consumer information in electrical stores,
* label all digital equipment with the “digital tick” mark to indicate it will work before, during, and after switchover,
* phase out the sale of all non-digital recorders, including analogue DVD recorders.

House of Lords Committee wanted to redesign the Internet, until told they couldn't

web_image.gifWhether they’d been talking to Elton John, or just wanted to live up to their popular reputation, isn’t clear, but the House of Lords’ Science and Technology Committee (bet you didn’t know they had one, did you?) recently decided that the Internet had bad things in it, and needed to be redesigned in order to make it more secure.

Believing the Internet to be like “‘a Wild West’ operating outside of the law”, their report claimed that, “While the internet supports astonishing innovation and commerical growth, it is almost impossible to control or monitor that traffic that uses it. So we have to ask the question, whether it is possible to redesign the internet more securely?”