The parent of this thread just wants a VCR that uses a hard drive instead of tape, and is easily programmable/accessible through the network as well as remote.
As you point out, this type of system is at the mercy of the networks, who love bumping/moving things around - and many of these changes don't even show up on TV Guide's website.
Yes, this means that the box will continue to work no matter what companies come/go. But I'll take the added conviences added in by Tivo.
Congrats. You're about to go from 20/day to 200/day.
Now that you've told a spammer that your email address is not only valid, but is unfiltered, AND read by a human being (ie. you)! It can now be sold to other spammers for much more than an unconfirmed email address which may or may not be valid, or read, etc.
Spammers are not trustworthy.
As for my spams... I'm up to 150/day. Half of which originate from China/Taiwan/Korea and are in chinese or korean and advertise websites in those countries. The other half are in English, and originate from various places around the world because the spammer is using open-relays and other misconfigured machines to hide himself. Some of these advertise websites in asia (because they don't mind spammers) others are hosted by companies in the US that have also proven themselves to be pro-spam (all the phone companies, for instance.)
If china, korea and taiwan were to fall off the internet tommorow, I guarantee people would see a sudden and dramatic DROP in spam.
The spammers may be offshore, but their clients aren't.
I've been spammed by Californian companies who ended up hiring someone to spam for them, not knowing it was illegal or what the spammer was going to do exactly.
Spamming for scams like penis pills or cable descramblers doesn't make nearly as much money as bilking some legitimate company out of thousands of dollars for a single email run. In the latter case, the spammer doesn't care if his messages get any replies or not - he's already been paid.
Heck, I'll "sell" my spam at $100/message and whatever the agency can extract from the spammer's greasy hide, he can keep!
Unfortunatly the math won't work out...
Say some spammer-for-hire slimes 1 million people, 10% of whom decide to sue the spammer. That's $10mil.
Do you honestly think someone with $10mil. is going to be spamming? No. In fact, most spammers turn out to be little more than nearly-bankrupt white-trash, often with a police record for petty crimes, maybe even some jailtime, living in a trailer somewhere and living hand-to-mouth.
One of the reason they ARE spamming is that they're too stupid and/or lazy and untrustworthy to hold a "real" job.
I'd fast-forward through commercials during shows I recorded with a VCR.
What makes Tivo different in this regard? Tivo does not skip commercials. You must FF through them, or use the 30-second backdoor. Either way, you still have to do something to get past the commercials, otherwise they'll just play as normal.
Now, I do watch a few ads, but let's face it, the typical ad on TV runs 3 to 5 times an hour. Just how often do you need to hear about yet another minivan? The local cable company was making noises about customized ads for different consumers (eg. a single guy would get beer and sports ads, but NO maxipad ads, while the family with a new baby next door would get an ad about diapers and minivans...) If this ever appeared, maybe I'd watch more ads...at least until I got sick of seeing the same ads over and over again.
What Tivo DOES do is allow me to do what I want without having worry about when various shows are on. I could care less now. Maybe I don't feel like watching that show tonight, and instead watch an episode of Nova that's been sitting on my Tivo for the past month.
You could do this with VCRs, but it's more time consuming to manage all the schedules, tapes, etc.
People expected WebTV to totally kick the PCs and ISPs off the internet. Didn't happen.
What I see happening is that intially a lot of people will sign up for this thing from AOL. Then these users will run into a Tivo user...
The biggest hurdle Tivo had advertising-wise is that it's trying to sell a product that most people haven't seen before, and so it's hard to cram a hard selll into the standard 30 second adspace. Even Tivo's informercials are lacking because they don't let *you* try the thing out.
Anyways, once Mystro gets out, people will at least understand the basics of a PVR. This will allow more people to understand (and appreciate) the features that makes Tivo special.
From the article, it sounds like Mystro will require no additional hardware, so getting a Tivo doesn't mean "throwing out" the Mystro, since there's nothing physical to throw...
I actually wouldn't mind too much if they played ads while I had the show paused. I'm usually not in the room anyways, and besides, the ads would help prevent screen burn-in.:p
Of course, what I don't understand is why play ads while the show is paused at all? Think about the reasons you'd pause a show. Most of the time, it's because you're leaving the room to do something else (bathroom, get a snack, answer the phone, etc.) and aren't going to be paying attention to the screen ANYWAYS.
So, sure, play your ads while the show is paused. Just don't expect them to be watched...
In my area, between 30-50% of all the ads shown during shows are for the local cable company and its various services.
Networks wonder why people want to FF through ads so much, well, maybe it's because I really don't want to see the same ad 3 times per commercial break!
How hard is it to go to your local store and buy a long phone cord as well as one of those little adaptors that turns one jack into two? Ok, so running the phone cord to the Tivo might be some what of a challenge for some folks...
As for the actual configuration, all I had to do was tell Tivo my area code, my zip code, and after a few minute phone call, my cable provider. Tivo informed me it would then be busy downloading and preparing its database, so I went and took a shower and made dinner. When I came back, it was done.
If folks are so dull that they don't even know their zip code and area code, then I agree that Tivo is too complicated for them. In fact, what are they doing living alone? They're going to hurt themselves when they forget to breath.
As for Mystro...the article/ad was very very vague. I got the impression that the author of the article/ad either doesn't understand how Tivo actually works, or the folks at AOL/Time Warner were blowing too much smoke around their mirrors...
Assuming this is a local box, how does it allow me to watch a show from a week ago, if I didn't record it? I got the impression that Mystro has some sort of 'video on demand' type technology built in which lets it access episodes not stored locally. But if it is video on demand, how did they solve the bandwidth problem? Imagine one million people wanting to watch 1 million different streams - all of which have customized ads stuck into them...
No, I don't think AOL/Time Warner have a clue as to what they're trying to do, meaning "Mystro" is likely to remain a mysterious vaporware product that will never fully materialize.
Problem is...that's about 300 hours MORE than your typical month has.
I guess you could take a CD, and have you and your 4 friends sign on with the same account (I don't know anything about AOL, so this may not even be possible.)
Problem is, the large companies (you know who they are) have been there so long, they can't or won't adapt anymore.
If anything, this article speaks volumes about Tivo. You know you've "made it" when you've got a company many, many, MANY times larger than you publishing a panicky article about how scared they are about your product.
The article was full of half-truths and anti-Tivo propaganda to try to make the company and product sound EVIL:
* Fast forward through commercials. Big deal. VCRs have been doing this since the early 80s. It didn't doom the TV networks then, and it's not going to doom them now.
* TIVO users don't watch commercials. As a TIVO user, I can say this is definitely not true. I have the 30-second backdoor enabled on my TIVO, but if I see an ad that actually advertises something I'm interested in (say, a new movie trailer) then I'll stop, REWIND and watch it. Of course, I'll only do that once. I don't need to see the same ad over and over and over again.
* TIVO is "cumbersome to set up." Well, if AOL/Time Warner is using their average AOL users as a model, that may be true.... But if anything, the TIVO is easier to setup than a VCR. It walks you through the initial setup with onscreen instructions for crying out loud...
* TIVO users are "evil" because they can watch what they want, when they want, regardless of the network schedules. Yes, I can simply tell my Tivo to record what I want, then watch it later. I can do the same (to a lesser extent) with a VCR. Again, VCRs didn't destroy the TV networks, and they're over 20 years old now.
If anything, these boneheaded networks should realize that being able to record now, watch later means that you can run MORE content on your network. For instance, if NBC sees that ABC is running a killer show during this week's Friends, simply rerun Friends at 2am! Even if ABC does the same thing, the audience will be able to record both shows. Or, if ABC is smart, they'll run "new" content during NBC's reruns! Ah, damnit...you mean the networks will have to compete for viewers 24/7 with quality programming?? Man, this Tivo thing is evil!
Actually, the library SHOULD have rented the room to the guy.
Libraries are public institutions - not private ones. So long as he wasn't breaking any of the rules or being disruptive to the other people in the place, they have no right to decide what sort of person can or cannot rent a room.
Now, if he came to my house and asked to hold a meeting in my living room, that's different. My living room is private property, and as the owner, I can refuse whomever I want.
Is it censorship if I decide I don't want to read your posts and killfile you?
Is it censorship if I decide I don't want to read the posts from your entire ISP and make a killfile entry for that?
No? Then let's continue.
If I am in charge of a usenet server and decide I don't want posts from a certain ISP, am I "censoring" anyone? No. It is *MY* server. It is private property.
Even the news servers belonging to larger ISP such as AOL, or even usenet providers like Supernews are....PRIVATE PROPERTY.
As such, the owners get to decide the rules.
Don't like? Go somewhere else, or start your own server.
First, your posts would only be autocancelled on servers that are following the UDP.
No UDP has ever had 100% participation.
Second, if I found out my ISP was under a UDP, I'd ask my admin why things were allowed to degenerate to this point? UDPs don't happen overnight. Telstra/Bigpond has been a major problem *FOR YEARS*. Surely, they can't claim ignorance on this issue after 1000s of complaints. It's clear that they are aware of the issue, but prefer to do nothing about it.
If my ISP was making no motions to correct the problem, I would obtain an external usenet account, and deduct the fee from my ISP's payment. Afterall, usenet access was one of the services they were to provide, it's broken, and they're not fixing it.
What about the innocent people at the ISPs that are receiving all this garbage from Telstra? Don't they matter?
The UDP is a reccomendation for usenet admins to refuse posts from a certain ISP.
If the admin decides to enact the UDP, that is his choice. He is not obliged to carry traffic from anywhere, nor is anyone else obliged to carry traffic from his network.
The internet works only because of give and take. Be a bad neighbor, and don't be surprised if people stop talking and listening to you.
As for the users of Telstra, they'll still see their own posts showing up on their local server(s) - that is unless Telstra decides to participate in the UDP themselves (this has happend before!) The only difference will be that servers following the UDP will see zero posts from Telstra.
If anything, the effects on Telstra will be pretty mild. They'll still see posts from the outside, they'll still see their own posts.
That's no excuse for their spam-friendly behavior.
They should still be good internet neighbors, regardless of how much or little competition is in the area.
Otherwise, a UDP will be the least of their worries... If they get onto SPEWS or 1000s of privately maintained blocklists, Telstra will quickly find themselves to be nothing but a very large intranet, cut off from the rest of the world. Usenet may not bring in much revenue, but I can assure you when companies start losing the ability to send email overseas, there's going to be hell to pay...
The internet is slowly being partitioned into two parts. One part will be made up of nothing but the spammers, and the other part will be the internet. Things like UDPs or email blacklists are a way of telling the ISP that they need to make a choice of which side they're going to choose.
UDPs are merely a suggestion to Usenet admins to not carry articles from a specific ISP. It's not something forced upon the server unless the admin takes action. Of course, not many ISPs provide usenet servers themselves, but outsource to dedicated providers, like Supernews. You can bet many of these larger providers will pay attention to an UDP since they're probably already using spam-cancelling services to control the problem anyways.
As for an email "UDP", there are public blacklists galore. SPEWS seems to be the most effective right now, but there are also blackhole lists that cover entire ISPs like CW, or Rackspace, and entire countries, such as china, or russia.
Again, these have to implemented by the admin or the individual user. And again, there's nothing the affected ISP(s) can do if you decide to refuse their traffic.
You've seen how many pop-ups there can be during Excel Saga, yes?
Can you imagine trying to air something like that on Cartoon Network? In some cases, there are so many pop-up notes, they totally obscure the screen (and the subtitles!)
Besides, do you REALLY think a joke about Japanese culture from 30-40 years ago, fully explained in a pop-up, is going to be funny?
What about Japanese languge specific puns? Unless you know Japanese, you're not going to get the joke anyways.
Furthermore, this would require the show to be shown in Japanese, with subtitles - something most Americans are NOT comfortable with.
Yes, I know many anime fans prefer subtitles, literal translations, and cultural notes - but you have to understand that that group is in the *MINORITY* compared to the audience at large.
Lupin's popularity in Japan was mainly due to the whole spy/gadget craze back in the 60s - when Lupin debuted.
Most Americans were introduced to Lupin via the movie "Cagliostro Castle" which still stands today as one of the classics of anime, as well as just being an overall great action film.
With the Lupin cartoon on TV in America, now Americans can see what the original was like. Cagliostro Castle toned the characters down a bit (especially Fujiko.)
Still, if you're a fan of the older James Bond films, along with the Flint spy films and The Pink Panther films, then there's a pretty good chance you'll find Lupin III enjoyable.
Technically, Disney has the rights to Studio Ghibli's works.
When Miyazaki did Lupin III: Cagliostro Castle, Studio Ghibli didn't exist. As far as I know, this movie still belongs to Toho - the studio that distributed the film in Japan.
Were I Toho, I wouldn't be so eager to let Hollywood to do remakes of my films - especially after seeing what they did to Godzilla.
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DirecTiVO is really great... ...except...
I don't have satellite.
I don't want satellite - I get free basic cable.
While I admit stand-alone Tivo's IR blaster feature is quirky at best, I don't need additional hardware for basic cable, which is just fine for me.
Were I to get satellite, I'd probably get Direct TV just so I could specifically get DirecTiVo.
The parent of this thread just wants a VCR that uses a hard drive instead of tape, and is easily programmable/accessible through the network as well as remote.
As you point out, this type of system is at the mercy of the networks, who love bumping/moving things around - and many of these changes don't even show up on TV Guide's website.
Yes, this means that the box will continue to work no matter what companies come/go. But I'll take the added conviences added in by Tivo.
Congrats. You're about to go from 20/day to 200/day.
Now that you've told a spammer that your email address is not only valid, but is unfiltered, AND read by a human being (ie. you)! It can now be sold to other spammers for much more than an unconfirmed email address which may or may not be valid, or read, etc.
Spammers are not trustworthy.
As for my spams... I'm up to 150/day. Half of which originate from China/Taiwan/Korea and are in chinese or korean and advertise websites in those countries. The other half are in English, and originate from various places around the world because the spammer is using open-relays and other misconfigured machines to hide himself. Some of these advertise websites in asia (because they don't mind spammers) others are hosted by companies in the US that have also proven themselves to be pro-spam (all the phone companies, for instance.)
If china, korea and taiwan were to fall off the internet tommorow, I guarantee people would see a sudden and dramatic DROP in spam.
The spammers may be offshore, but their clients aren't.
I've been spammed by Californian companies who ended up hiring someone to spam for them, not knowing it was illegal or what the spammer was going to do exactly.
Spamming for scams like penis pills or cable descramblers doesn't make nearly as much money as bilking some legitimate company out of thousands of dollars for a single email run. In the latter case, the spammer doesn't care if his messages get any replies or not - he's already been paid.
$300/spam?
Heck, I'll "sell" my spam at $100/message and whatever the agency can extract from the spammer's greasy hide, he can keep!
Unfortunatly the math won't work out...
Say some spammer-for-hire slimes 1 million people, 10% of whom decide to sue the spammer. That's $10mil.
Do you honestly think someone with $10mil. is going to be spamming? No. In fact, most spammers turn out to be little more than nearly-bankrupt white-trash, often with a police record for petty crimes, maybe even some jailtime, living in a trailer somewhere and living hand-to-mouth.
One of the reason they ARE spamming is that they're too stupid and/or lazy and untrustworthy to hold a "real" job.
Most of the spam I get from asia still advertises websites located in the US.
I'm in CA, so if some company that's also in CA sent its ad via some broken server in Korea, it's still covered by the law.
I didn't watch commercials before I had a Tivo.
I'd fast-forward through commercials during shows I recorded with a VCR.
What makes Tivo different in this regard? Tivo does not skip commercials. You must FF through them, or use the 30-second backdoor. Either way, you still have to do something to get past the commercials, otherwise they'll just play as normal.
Now, I do watch a few ads, but let's face it, the typical ad on TV runs 3 to 5 times an hour. Just how often do you need to hear about yet another minivan? The local cable company was making noises about customized ads for different consumers (eg. a single guy would get beer and sports ads, but NO maxipad ads, while the family with a new baby next door would get an ad about diapers and minivans...) If this ever appeared, maybe I'd watch more ads...at least until I got sick of seeing the same ads over and over again.
What Tivo DOES do is allow me to do what I want without having worry about when various shows are on. I could care less now. Maybe I don't feel like watching that show tonight, and instead watch an episode of Nova that's been sitting on my Tivo for the past month.
You could do this with VCRs, but it's more time consuming to manage all the schedules, tapes, etc.
Not neccessarily...
People expected WebTV to totally kick the PCs and ISPs off the internet. Didn't happen.
What I see happening is that intially a lot of people will sign up for this thing from AOL. Then these users will run into a Tivo user...
The biggest hurdle Tivo had advertising-wise is that it's trying to sell a product that most people haven't seen before, and so it's hard to cram a hard selll into the standard 30 second adspace. Even Tivo's informercials are lacking because they don't let *you* try the thing out.
Anyways, once Mystro gets out, people will at least understand the basics of a PVR. This will allow more people to understand (and appreciate) the features that makes Tivo special.
From the article, it sounds like Mystro will require no additional hardware, so getting a Tivo doesn't mean "throwing out" the Mystro, since there's nothing physical to throw...
I actually wouldn't mind too much if they played ads while I had the show paused. I'm usually not in the room anyways, and besides, the ads would help prevent screen burn-in. :p
Of course, what I don't understand is why play ads while the show is paused at all? Think about the reasons you'd pause a show. Most of the time, it's because you're leaving the room to do something else (bathroom, get a snack, answer the phone, etc.) and aren't going to be paying attention to the screen ANYWAYS.
So, sure, play your ads while the show is paused. Just don't expect them to be watched...
In my area, between 30-50% of all the ads shown during shows are for the local cable company and its various services.
Networks wonder why people want to FF through ads so much, well, maybe it's because I really don't want to see the same ad 3 times per commercial break!
How hard is it to go to your local store and buy a long phone cord as well as one of those little adaptors that turns one jack into two? Ok, so running the phone cord to the Tivo might be some what of a challenge for some folks...
As for the actual configuration, all I had to do was tell Tivo my area code, my zip code, and after a few minute phone call, my cable provider. Tivo informed me it would then be busy downloading and preparing its database, so I went and took a shower and made dinner. When I came back, it was done.
If folks are so dull that they don't even know their zip code and area code, then I agree that Tivo is too complicated for them. In fact, what are they doing living alone? They're going to hurt themselves when they forget to breath.
As for Mystro...the article/ad was very very vague. I got the impression that the author of the article/ad either doesn't understand how Tivo actually works, or the folks at AOL/Time Warner were blowing too much smoke around their mirrors...
Assuming this is a local box, how does it allow me to watch a show from a week ago, if I didn't record it? I got the impression that Mystro has some sort of 'video on demand' type technology built in which lets it access episodes not stored locally. But if it is video on demand, how did they solve the bandwidth problem? Imagine one million people wanting to watch 1 million different streams - all of which have customized ads stuck into them...
No, I don't think AOL/Time Warner have a clue as to what they're trying to do, meaning "Mystro" is likely to remain a mysterious vaporware product that will never fully materialize.
AOL is already offering "1000 free hours."
Problem is...that's about 300 hours MORE than your typical month has.
I guess you could take a CD, and have you and your 4 friends sign on with the same account (I don't know anything about AOL, so this may not even be possible.)
Business is about adapting and staying in front.
Problem is, the large companies (you know who they are) have been there so long, they can't or won't adapt anymore.
If anything, this article speaks volumes about Tivo. You know you've "made it" when you've got a company many, many, MANY times larger than you publishing a panicky article about how scared they are about your product.
The article was full of half-truths and anti-Tivo propaganda to try to make the company and product sound EVIL:
* Fast forward through commercials. Big deal. VCRs have been doing this since the early 80s. It didn't doom the TV networks then, and it's not going to doom them now.
* TIVO users don't watch commercials. As a TIVO user, I can say this is definitely not true. I have the 30-second backdoor enabled on my TIVO, but if I see an ad that actually advertises something I'm interested in (say, a new movie trailer) then I'll stop, REWIND and watch it. Of course, I'll only do that once. I don't need to see the same ad over and over and over again.
* TIVO is "cumbersome to set up." Well, if AOL/Time Warner is using their average AOL users as a model, that may be true.... But if anything, the TIVO is easier to setup than a VCR. It walks you through the initial setup with onscreen instructions for crying out loud...
* TIVO users are "evil" because they can watch what they want, when they want, regardless of the network schedules. Yes, I can simply tell my Tivo to record what I want, then watch it later. I can do the same (to a lesser extent) with a VCR. Again, VCRs didn't destroy the TV networks, and they're over 20 years old now.
If anything, these boneheaded networks should realize that being able to record now, watch later means that you can run MORE content on your network. For instance, if NBC sees that ABC is running a killer show during this week's Friends, simply rerun Friends at 2am! Even if ABC does the same thing, the audience will be able to record both shows. Or, if ABC is smart, they'll run "new" content during NBC's reruns! Ah, damnit...you mean the networks will have to compete for viewers 24/7 with quality programming?? Man, this Tivo thing is evil!
Actually, the library SHOULD have rented the room to the guy.
Libraries are public institutions - not private ones. So long as he wasn't breaking any of the rules or being disruptive to the other people in the place, they have no right to decide what sort of person can or cannot rent a room.
Now, if he came to my house and asked to hold a meeting in my living room, that's different. My living room is private property, and as the owner, I can refuse whomever I want.
Is it censorship if I decide I don't want to read your posts and killfile you?
Is it censorship if I decide I don't want to read the posts from your entire ISP and make a killfile entry for that?
No? Then let's continue.
If I am in charge of a usenet server and decide I don't want posts from a certain ISP, am I "censoring" anyone? No. It is *MY* server. It is private property.
Even the news servers belonging to larger ISP such as AOL, or even usenet providers like Supernews are....PRIVATE PROPERTY.
As such, the owners get to decide the rules.
Don't like? Go somewhere else, or start your own server.
First, your posts would only be autocancelled on servers that are following the UDP.
No UDP has ever had 100% participation.
Second, if I found out my ISP was under a UDP, I'd ask my admin why things were allowed to degenerate to this point? UDPs don't happen overnight. Telstra/Bigpond has been a major problem *FOR YEARS*. Surely, they can't claim ignorance on this issue after 1000s of complaints. It's clear that they are aware of the issue, but prefer to do nothing about it.
If my ISP was making no motions to correct the problem, I would obtain an external usenet account, and deduct the fee from my ISP's payment. Afterall, usenet access was one of the services they were to provide, it's broken, and they're not fixing it.
What about the innocent people at the ISPs that are receiving all this garbage from Telstra? Don't they matter?
The UDP is a reccomendation for usenet admins to refuse posts from a certain ISP.
If the admin decides to enact the UDP, that is his choice. He is not obliged to carry traffic from anywhere, nor is anyone else obliged to carry traffic from his network.
The internet works only because of give and take. Be a bad neighbor, and don't be surprised if people stop talking and listening to you.
As for the users of Telstra, they'll still see their own posts showing up on their local server(s) - that is unless Telstra decides to participate in the UDP themselves (this has happend before!) The only difference will be that servers following the UDP will see zero posts from Telstra.
If anything, the effects on Telstra will be pretty mild. They'll still see posts from the outside, they'll still see their own posts.
That's no excuse for their spam-friendly behavior.
They should still be good internet neighbors, regardless of how much or little competition is in the area.
Otherwise, a UDP will be the least of their worries... If they get onto SPEWS or 1000s of privately maintained blocklists, Telstra will quickly find themselves to be nothing but a very large intranet, cut off from the rest of the world. Usenet may not bring in much revenue, but I can assure you when companies start losing the ability to send email overseas, there's going to be hell to pay...
The internet is slowly being partitioned into two parts. One part will be made up of nothing but the spammers, and the other part will be the internet. Things like UDPs or email blacklists are a way of telling the ISP that they need to make a choice of which side they're going to choose.
UDPs are merely a suggestion to Usenet admins to not carry articles from a specific ISP. It's not something forced upon the server unless the admin takes action. Of course, not many ISPs provide usenet servers themselves, but outsource to dedicated providers, like Supernews. You can bet many of these larger providers will pay attention to an UDP since they're probably already using spam-cancelling services to control the problem anyways.
As for an email "UDP", there are public blacklists galore. SPEWS seems to be the most effective right now, but there are also blackhole lists that cover entire ISPs like CW, or Rackspace, and entire countries, such as china, or russia.
Again, these have to implemented by the admin or the individual user. And again, there's nothing the affected ISP(s) can do if you decide to refuse their traffic.
Sue for what??
If I run a news server, and don't want posts from Telstra on it, guess what? I'm perfectally entitled to do so.
My server, my rules.
If my users don't like it, they can go elsewhere.
If Telstra doesn't like, too bad. No one has the obligation to carry packets from anywhere else.
I would think if this goes through, Telstra will be facing lawsuits of their own as their users sue THEM for failing to provide services.
This was funny?
Telstra has been a source of internet abuse for years. Email spam, usenet spam, probes/attacks/virii - they have it all, and they don't care.
I know people who are already blocking email from them. What's the big deal about dropping their uesnet posts?
You've seen how many pop-ups there can be during Excel Saga, yes?
Can you imagine trying to air something like that on Cartoon Network? In some cases, there are so many pop-up notes, they totally obscure the screen (and the subtitles!)
Besides, do you REALLY think a joke about Japanese culture from 30-40 years ago, fully explained in a pop-up, is going to be funny?
What about Japanese languge specific puns? Unless you know Japanese, you're not going to get the joke anyways.
Furthermore, this would require the show to be shown in Japanese, with subtitles - something most Americans are NOT comfortable with.
Yes, I know many anime fans prefer subtitles, literal translations, and cultural notes - but you have to understand that that group is in the *MINORITY* compared to the audience at large.
Lupin's popularity in Japan was mainly due to the whole spy/gadget craze back in the 60s - when Lupin debuted.
Most Americans were introduced to Lupin via the movie "Cagliostro Castle" which still stands today as one of the classics of anime, as well as just being an overall great action film.
With the Lupin cartoon on TV in America, now Americans can see what the original was like. Cagliostro Castle toned the characters down a bit (especially Fujiko.)
Still, if you're a fan of the older James Bond films, along with the Flint spy films and The Pink Panther films, then there's a pretty good chance you'll find Lupin III enjoyable.
Fujiko's name is a bit of a Japanese pun, to refer to her....large tracts of land.
Yes, that's right, Fujiko is the Lupin equivelant of a Bond Girl.
Technically, Disney has the rights to Studio Ghibli's works.
When Miyazaki did Lupin III: Cagliostro Castle, Studio Ghibli didn't exist. As far as I know, this movie still belongs to Toho - the studio that distributed the film in Japan.
Were I Toho, I wouldn't be so eager to let Hollywood to do remakes of my films - especially after seeing what they did to Godzilla.