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Digital TV does not mean you have to buy an HDTV.

My argument was specifically about HDTV electronics marketing price curves.

The digital TV supply curve is, as you say, down quite a bit.

And specifically, I chose the 1080p 42" HDTV set due to personal product research - 50" or above is too big (based on my family, brother has a 72" set, sister has a 60" set - both told me that they wish they'd bought the 42" set in retrospect, and after seeing the images, and how it impacts their houses (in Santa Barbara, my brother-in-law is an actor). And what I saw in looking at them in various stores.

Based on quality and game consoles as well - 1080p is the most stable version that will probably become the baseline version around 2010 to 2012.

This is also based on feedback from movie watching friends of mine who are Platinum Lifetime and Lifetime members of Cinema Seattle, most of whom are into geek things.

Thus, based on all this feedback, my prediction is for the market supply pricing curve of the 42" HDTV set. Not a digital TV set capable of displaying 480i resolution on a 42" aspect.

My favorite way of making coffee is to buy the fair trade organic coffee beans I bought on sale for $7 a pound and keep them in a 2 pound sealed ceramic jar. I then take a handful and put them in my Braun handheld coffee grinder (bought for $15 in Canada about 25 years ago and still working fine), swirl it and turn upside down to get a really good grind as I grind it, then tamp it lightly into the espresso cup (? that thing you put the fresh grounds in), and make a nice espresso latte - double or triple - with foamed 1 percent organic vanilla soy milk, and a shot of caramel, french vanilla, or hazelnut syrup.

Yum!

If it's the weekend I put it in a large soup cup and stir it with those pastry long cookies they sell in tins, or eat it with english muffins soaked in organic butter - but if it's a weekday I grab an organic apple for breakfast and eat it while I walk to work, as I also drink the latte from a Seattle International Film Festival cup I wash and reuse at day's end.

I used to drink Twinings tea (various) when I lived in BC, or get a nice coffee and a donut (non-glazed) from Tim Horton's, but that's what I do here.

and then his family would be shipped to Gitmo.

What moron thought up this as an idea for a sequel? I love movies, but this smells like a desperation move by someone clueless.

Count me out.

I've been a Lifetime Member of Cinema Seattle, which puts on America's largest film festival, for years now, been to Cannes, Vancouver BC, Santa Barbara, Venice Italy for their film festivals, and I have to say that most of the reason for people not going to see films has more to do with the overuse of formulaic films and lack of quality films than it has anything to do with piracy.

Heck, my brother-in-law Gil Luna is an actor. I'm just hoping the film he's shooting turns out to be good ...

But blaming the downturn in movie attendance on piracy is just plain wrong. It's more likely caused by any of the following:

1. increased movie ticket prices;
2. increased movie food/drink prices;
3. obsessive security making it less fun;
4. too many bleeding cell phones that should be hammered into small bits; or
5. the decisions by movie theater chains to be unoriginal.

Now, saying that, it's not like there are no good films, I've seen quite a few, but recently I've been very uninterested in the films I see playing locally, and I see more than a hundred films most years. Given me more free time, I admit, but it's not piracy.

I've met them all, and Steve is more of a force for good, Paul is into sports (the SF stuff is fine) and helps out with the local Seattle International Film Festival by donating the use of his fantastic film theater Cinerama for a couple of weeks each year and bringing in some neat directors and actors like Adam Sandler, and Bill is spending ten times what the feds are on actual research and solutions for real problems impacting the world like malaria etc.

But that's my personal opinion.

The timing of the movie releases makes me wonder - will The Matrix be the Opening Night Movie for the Seattle International Film Fest which is this May? Especially since it doesn't open to general release until the fall, and prior SIFF opening or closing night films have involved the use of the Space Needle or Seattle Monorail - the IMAX theatre is just a few feet away at the Pacific Science Center, so maybe you can get to see it in ultra-high definition if you buy the Opening or Closing Night film add-ons for the Film Fest?

It wouldn't surprise me - after all, Paul Allen donates the use of his Cinerama theatre to the Film Fest for an entire week each year ...

Sweet!

I work for Seattle International Film Festival and from what I know, films such as Gigantic will do the festival circut in attempts to pick up distribution. I was speaking with the director of Who The Hell is Bobby Roos last night, and he was telling me about how rough it is to get your film picked up, even getting a deal for video.

So depending opon the response at the festivals, and the eyes that see the film, it may or may not get picked up.

It is sad to see people play with reality.

I just watched the World Premiere of Digby Goes Down here at the Seattle International Film Fest. And they show overhead shots of NYC - with not a single shot remaining (very noticeable "jump" in the film pan) of the WTC towers.

It was sad.

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Some prints of high-profile movies are even deliberately mis-labelled on the outside of the shipping cans.

I can attest that this is true. I attend the Seattle International Film Festival's Secret Festival, where you must swear in writing to never tell what you see before they will sell you the tickets. More than once I've seen a movie they said they "borrowed" from a distributor, as in "We went down to pick up [insert film title here] for next Tuesday's screening, and we saw [secret title] laying on the shelf and had to borrow it to show you." Then they start the flim and lo-and-behold, it's not what they thought it was -- the label lied. Happens I'd say about once every other year. Fortunately the film in the mis-labelled cans is usually pretty good...

Some prints of high-profile movies are even deliberately mis-labelled on the outside of the shipping cans.

I can attest that this is true. I attend the Seattle International Film Festival's Secret Festival, where you must swear in writing to never tell what you see before they will sell you the tickets. More than once I've seen a movie they said they "borrowed" from a distributor, as in "We went down to pick up [insert film title here] for next Tuesday's screening, and we saw [secret title] laying on the shelf and had to borrow it to show you." Then they start the flim and lo-and-behold, it's not what they thought it was -- the label lied. Happens I'd say about once every other year. Fortunately the film in the mis-labelled cans is usually pretty good...

Why do you say that? I mean, it's Survivor: Africa, not Survivor: Afghanistan.

I was one of the people who watched Survivor a couple of times, and I'm getting pretty bored by it, even if Khaki Man is from Seattle. It was great fun watching the premiere of the film he directed at the Seattle International Film Fest, and I ended up sitting next to him and Monsieur Beneit (sp?) at the awards.

But let's get real. The Tick is nigh unbeatable in competition with Survivor.

And that's the unvarnished truth.

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While Balmer is using FUD in his carefully chosen phrasing that implies, but does not state, that Linux is a cancer in terms of the GPL enforcement, he has reason to do so.

The main problem right now is the entire business world isn't buying MSFT spin on why they should buy Office XP. Most are being forced to "upgrade" to Office 2000 and Windows 2000, or lose product support, but the move to Office XP and Windows XP locks them into a never-ending product "upgrade" cycle dictated by MSFT.

So Balmer is faced with a product launch that's already fizzled. You could tell, just by talking to people in line at the Seattle International Film Fest who had helped with tech and promo at the product launch in NYC - the business public isn't buying it.

Why? Because they don't need to. Part of this is that we've shot them down on why you need Windows XP for servers, when a Linux box will do the job at half the price, and more reliably, with better TPC for your database or file ops.

[caveat - I own both MSFT and RHAT shares]

Their server growth is dead; the xBox is doomed to be a third runner in a tech world where first place wins the big bucks, second place wins some bucks, and anything lower than that loses its shirt. All they have is the PC franchise, and people just aren't buying the latest and greatest.

And why aren't we buying new PCs? Because what we have works, and we care more about other things. The market has matured and Intel can't even sell its P4 chips at the upper end, cause the consumer doesn't care. Nor does business.

Basically, what I've seen so far is far superior in terms of a representation of the written work on the small screen than Dune The Movie was.

There are a few exceptions - the stillsuits in the movie were far superior than those in the series, for example.

But, the ornithopters were killer, the acting is much more balanced and believable, the feel is very good. Cinematography, if not quite so epic, is much more believable. And that, alone, makes this a good TV series.

People forget that all science fiction requires that the viewer suspends disbelief. This acheived it; the movie did not. I'm not saying the acting is better, it's just more balanced, more in tune with the written work it's based on.

But hey, what do I know, I'm just a lifetime member of Cinema Seattle, and watch a few hundred international films every year.

Mostly it's just these:

Cost
Speed
Crew
Mobility of Equipment
Easier to digitally enhance and add SFX

Plus, it's the fad according to all the directors who were at the Seattle International Film Fest, probably the most highly attended film fest that directors vye to be at.

While this article, like most by Jon, is too long, it's quite readable, suggesting that Jon's starting to grok the Net and the fact that a lead story must be segmented differently. Congrats!

The DMCA suggests that corporate pressure can reverse the way lawmaking ought to work: the law seems to have come before the discussion, as is clear from messages like this one from Brad Zimmerman:

"This week I've 'pirated' 1GB of MP3's via my 512K ADSL line. What I also know is that wholly because of MP3's I've bought three Aphex Twin CD's, a Apoptygma Berzerk CD, a Cleen CD, several Beastie Boys CDs, a Juno Reactor CD, etc. Later this month, I'll be buying a bunch of CDs (six, online) and they will mostly be stuff I've heard of via MP3s. What I do is still illegal, though. I know it. I do it anyway. I highly doubt I will ever be caught because I honestly believe there is no money in prosecuting me -- and the music industry, though blisteringly short-sighted, knows what makes money and what will lose money."

I too am in this category. I have ripped CDs that I bought at WOMAD, so I could push them to my MP3 player and listen to them at the Seattle International Film Festival while waiting in line. I have downloaded techno and rave and ethereal space music, listened to it, and then if I really like more than three songs by the artist, I buy the CD. As a result I now have CDs from England, from Argentina, from France, from Brazil. The record companies don't want me to buy this stuff. By buying these CDs I support artists that I want to hear. Plus, I can check out some of the local bands, before getting trapped in a smoky bar listening to garbage. If I like them, I catch the live show, then I buy the CD.

This is the future. Soon, music nomads will roam the globe, visiting the spots where they have the most downloads, booking a gig over the Net with the clubs in the area, pointing out how popular they are in that area. Musicians make more money, clubs play what people like, we are no longer straight-jacketed into some record executive's idea of what the kids want to hear.