Years ago, Microsoft had a better idea ...

Way back when, MS offered WebTV, a system that had a keyboard that addressed your television through a box that was hooked up to a dial-up internet connection.  It took you to email and websurfing in a closed and graphically-challenged way that was just okay for folks who couldn't handle connections to the net with a computer-connected modem, even operating at the then-available slow as dirt speeds.  Kinda like AOL for 'tards.

Now the gubmint wants to bring it back, but a little faster:

Looking to pare the shrinking but substantial number of Americans without high-speed Internet, federal officials are considering taking advantage of a technology that practically everyone has at home: the TV.

The Federal Communications Commission wants to revamp the market for set-top boxes — the channel-switching devices that cable and satellite subscribers typically lease for $5 or $10 a month — and equip the machines with Internet-surfing capability.

The thinking is simple: 99 percent of households have a television, and 76 percent have a personal computer. So why not piggyback on the TV to extend the reach of high-speed broadband, which lawmakers and regulators see as a necessity for anyone to function in the 21st century economy?

If the commission is successful, it could usher in an era in which people use a single gadget to watch cable shows, download movies from the Web and surf the Internet — all on their TVs.

So what do you think?  Do you want the government to channel internet useage?

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