To try and clear up some things that are going through the comments section, according to Charter, all of their customers are fine at this point.

"Our message is consistent and quite simple," Charter spokesman John Miller said in an e-mail statement. "Any TV, whether analog or digital, will operate when connected to Charter's service, without the need for a converter box. Charter will be 'downconverting' the new digital broadcast signals back to analog so analog TVs can view them without the use of any converter box or digital receiver." (from: http://www.madison.com/tct/business/298744).

The issue at hand is that the community broadcast channels (gov't, schoo, etc) are being pushed to the digital tier channels. Meaning, without a converter box, you stand no chance of being able to watch the local gov't pretending that they actually still have any control over their populus.

These decision stem from the January ruling by the state that all cable and other telecomm contracts are now going to be controlled by the state rather than the local municipalities. This was pushed through by the fine folks at AT&T to create more "competition" and variety for local municipalities who traditionally stuck with one provider. U-Verse is slowly making its way out of the greater Milwaukee area and is now trudging toward Madison. Supposedly, it should be here by the end of 2008. But if they're like Verizon and their FIOS, it may very well be for more affluent neighborhoods first and then decide neighborhood by neighborhood.

How about rolling FIOS out to enough folks to where this is applicable news?

Again, not going to complain if Santa wants to drop these off

I really woudln't mind this mouse. My G5 is wearing out already and I'd like to get something a little different to try out.