Conference hydra::amiga_v1

1537.0. "Amigas and Cable TV" by LEDS::ACCIARDI (I Blit, therefore I am...) Wed Jul 13 1988 22:28

    I suppose by now you've all heard this story before, but last night
    I saw it with my own eyes.
    
    Our local Cable TV supplier, Greater Media Cable, normally runs
    a continuous program guide on channel 29.  They also have a channel
    dedicated to 'Video Pages' where local vendors advertise.  The graphics
    always looked suspiciously Amiga-like to me.
    
    Last night at 10:00 I flipped over to channel 29.  I saw the following
    screen:
    
    	 ___________________________________________________________
        |                                                           |
        |  Software Failure.  Press Left Mouse Button to Continue.  |
        |    Guru Meditation #000000000.foobarbarfoobar             |
        |___________________________________________________________|

                                                                     
    Half jokingly, I called the Greater Media service office.  The
    conversation went like this...
    
    (ME) "Hi... could someone press the left mouse button on the Amiga that's
    running Channel 29?  You've had a system crash."
    
    (Bewildered woman on other end of line...) "Huh??"
    
    (ME)  "I said please press the left mouse button on the Amiga.  I know
    that you've had a system crash and the machine needs to be re-booted."
    
    (BW) "Wait a second...(hand over mouthpiece) 'There's some guy
    here that wants me to press the left mouse button on the video
    computer.  He says we've had a system crash.  What's a system
    crash?  I don't know what he's talking about'"
    
    (Voice from across the room)  "Oh, right... well, I'm not going to
    do that, since it's not my job."
    
    (Other Voice in Room)  "It'll be taken care of by morning."
    
    (ME)  "So, you guys use Amigas here, huh?  I got one too!  What
    kind of video software are you running?"
                                                       
    (BW, hand over mouthpiece)  "He wants to know what kind of software
    we use.  He says he has an Amiga too."
    
    (Other Voice in Room)  "I dunno, video GCR or GPA something.  The
    guy who does it isn't here now."
    
    The Bewildered Woman thanked me for my concern and I hung up.  I
    never did see them re-boot Amy, but everything was fine in the morning,
    just like they promised.
    
      //
    \X/  AMIGA -the Choice of Video Professionals Everywhere!
    
    Ed.
    

    
    Ed, while this has little to do with the amiga I would like to take
    this opportunity and say:
    
    	Greater Media Cable != Video Professionals...
    
    Which is what I am sure that you also wanted to make clear :-)
    
    brad

    	My local cable company in A.A. county MD. must use a 1000 for
    their info chanel. I saw it asking for kickstart after some power
    outages. I think they must be using new software the pictures used
    to look like they were done on a 64/128 (but I to had seen guru
    messages). Now they have much better graphics.

Re .0

Just out of curiosity, what town was this in? Both my son and I have our
"licenses" to work at the Northboro and Westboro stations, doing video
productions. I don't recall seeing an Amiga at either location.  I have used
some of their equipment for editing and generating titles for a production I did
for them. I would like to use the A500 I just bought to create titles and/or
effects at home. How would I go about doing this? 

On another note, being new to the world of Amiga, I would like to meet, or at
least get the names and numbers of some more experienced users living in the
Northboro area. It's a pain to run into a problem in the evening and have to
wait 'till the next day to ask someone over the net. If anybody listening would
be willing to answer "emergency"  ;^)  questions in the evening, let me know off
line. Thanks. 

Dave [OPUS::]Busch 

    Cambridge community cable has an Amiga, but also a dedicated character
    generator.  People there prefer the char gen because they know how
    to use it.  The engineer and I prefer the Amiga, and we transfered
    some of my computer graphics onto video tape last week by way of
    familiarizing ourselves with its capabilities.  My graphics lines
    were too thin for NTSC, vertical ones disappeared.
    To
    

    
    Re: .3
    
    I live in Grafton, but I believe we receive the same service as
    Worcester.  Shrewsbury contracted with a different cable company.
    
    Ed.
    

    Warner Cable in Nashua also uses an Amiga for their "TV Guide" station
    (channel 17).

    
    Worcester = Greater Media Cable...It's on Park Ave in Worcester
    near ELM Park.
    
    brad