Year of the Code Monkey

In six minutes of testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Fred Rogers was able to persuade John O. Pastore, head of the subcommittee and a man known for his impatience, to increase funding for public television by $20 million. This short video is a recording of those proceedings, and illustrate just what a great man Mr. Rogers was. The song he recites at the end of this video is particularly compelling.

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   October 30, 2008 at 8:19 am

    

   Wow. I just looked up Mister Rogers on Wikipedia and learned that his testimony in the Supreme Court was instrumental in the decisions allowing time-shifting of TV broadcasts with VCRs, paving the way for DVRs:

   His 1979 testimony in the case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. noted that he did not object to home recording of his television programs, for instance, by families in order to watch together at a later time. This testimony contrasted with the views of others in the television industry who objected to home recording or believed that devices to facilitate it should be taxed or regulated.

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