Tom; Unfortunately, this kind of funny-money scheme is specifically forbidden if one wants to stay within the federal anti-deficiency act. The bureaucrats learn another trick: spend all of your annual budget allocation, even if you waste large parts of it, because if you end up with a surplus, your budget will be cut the following year, since you ended up with more money than you needed to do your job. John Willkie -----Mensaje original----- De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En nombre de Tom Barry Enviado el: Friday, January 23, 2009 3:10 PM Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Asunto: [opendtv] Re: [opendtv] And I think only a bit more than half the coupons sent out are actually redeemed. If they assumed no more than even 75% of outstanding coupons would be redeemed then it seems they would be safe sending out maybe another 4 million (resulting in < 3M more redeemed) and still be within budget yet no longer have the waiting line excuse for delaying the transition. - Tom Manfredi, Albert E wrote: > Craig Birkmaier wrote: > >>> So far, 24 millions sold, with coupons and outright. >>> >>> That's a pretty huge hit. > >> Where did you get this number? > > Oops, it was a different thread, in the same time period, which you > already responded to: > > --------------------------- > [opendtv] Plenty of DTV converter boxes left, study finds > > Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:56:12 -0500 > > http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212901071 > > After some shortages in the first quarter of 2008, when only 1.3 million > converter boxes were sold, retailers made some changes to their supplier > roster, Moore said. As a result, shipments of converter boxes increased > by 49 percent in the second quarter, another 64 percent in the third > quarter and nearly 100 percent in the fourth quarter, according to > Moore. > > "While the Congress works out the last-minute issues surrounding the > waiting list for government coupons, the NTIA [National > Telecommunications and Information Administration] program has resulted > in sales of nearly 20 million coupon-eligible converter boxes," Moore > said. "And our research shows that as many as four million additional > boxes have been sold to consumers without coupons." > --------------------------- > > Bert > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: > > - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org > > - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.