From our front-page news:
By now, you probably all know about the porn that aired for up to thirty seconds during the Super Bowl this past Sunday. It apparently only affected Comcast subscribers in Tuscon, Arizona, but it was clearly hilarious enough to become the most popular story on pretty-well every news outlet out there. It doesn't seem like the authorities or Comcast have figured out who pulled the prank, but I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of punishment something like that entails.
So the story is that people who weren't expecting pornography ended up seeing it, but did you know that with the proper equipment, you could tap into other cable customer's video-on-demand shows, which sometimes also involves such programming? The Super Bowl incident reminded Slate writer Josh Levin about an article he wrote a few years ago about just that, so he re-posted it since it seemed relevant.
It's an interesting article, to say the least. If you are equipped with a QAM Tuner and have the ability to program oddly-numbered channels, you might just be able to see what other customers are watching at that exact moment via VoD. This could range from anything, from Sopranos to The Office to an old comedy, but half the fun is stumbling on it all. Though this practice seems illegal, it isn't, and the writer's cable provider (Comcast) doesn't seem too concerned. They claim it's impossible to see who ordered which program, but it would have to be someone in your "node" (or cluster of neighborhoods).
Though it seems like far too much work to try, the article proves to be an entertaining read regardless. If you just so happen to own a QAM Tuner, you might as well give it a try on your own cable provider. Seems like a neat hobby to pass the time away.
If you don't have a cable box but do subscribe to cable, you can usually receive some digital cable if your television or TV receiver has built-in QAM support. A standalone QAM tuner, however, will let you tune in only unencrypted digital channels. Which digital channels are unencrypted? Most cable companies don't encrypt the digital signals that they pick up from local broadcasters. That explains why I get the HD versions of Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, CW, and PBS.
Source: Slate
So the story is that people who weren't expecting pornography ended up seeing it, but did you know that with the proper equipment, you could tap into other cable customer's video-on-demand shows, which sometimes also involves such programming? The Super Bowl incident reminded Slate writer Josh Levin about an article he wrote a few years ago about just that, so he re-posted it since it seemed relevant.
It's an interesting article, to say the least. If you are equipped with a QAM Tuner and have the ability to program oddly-numbered channels, you might just be able to see what other customers are watching at that exact moment via VoD. This could range from anything, from Sopranos to The Office to an old comedy, but half the fun is stumbling on it all. Though this practice seems illegal, it isn't, and the writer's cable provider (Comcast) doesn't seem too concerned. They claim it's impossible to see who ordered which program, but it would have to be someone in your "node" (or cluster of neighborhoods).
Though it seems like far too much work to try, the article proves to be an entertaining read regardless. If you just so happen to own a QAM Tuner, you might as well give it a try on your own cable provider. Seems like a neat hobby to pass the time away.
If you don't have a cable box but do subscribe to cable, you can usually receive some digital cable if your television or TV receiver has built-in QAM support. A standalone QAM tuner, however, will let you tune in only unencrypted digital channels. Which digital channels are unencrypted? Most cable companies don't encrypt the digital signals that they pick up from local broadcasters. That explains why I get the HD versions of Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, CW, and PBS.
Source: Slate
