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! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."