Having owned a BMW (well, sort of. It belonged to the folks, but I've driven it enough), I can tell you that it isn't the same thing. If BMW told me where I could get their chassis, their straight-six engine, their transmission, their suspension, etc., and I could pay my mechanic to put it together for $8,000 less than it cost at the dealership, THEN it'd be close to the same thing. The fact that a 3-series sedan costs about $10,000 more than your basic japanese sports sedan shows in a Bimmer. The stick shift clicks happily into place, no effort. It feels like quality. Things like the instrument panel backlight, the gas struts for the hood lift, and the attechment mechanisms for the trunk look as though they had a good amount of thought put into them. Not to mention that their engines are torquey as hell and the ride is ridiculously smooth even as you run into 3-digit speeds. If you ever have the opportunity to drive a new Bimmer (not some 60,000 mile model that's been ragged on by the owner), do so. You'll see that the extra $10,000 you spend really does go somewhere (although I don't think I could ever personally justify the money).
I suppose rather than "computer company" I should have used the words "PC Company". Nintendo succeeds with 14 year-old boys because even a 14 year-old can afford a $150 GameCube. Save for a few months, ask for money for your birthday and you're set. Companies like Alienware and so forth are charging over $3,000 for units that can be bought for $800 less. 14 year-old boys can't even fathom $800, much less $3,000, unless they're of the ludicrously spoiled persuasion. While I don't see Dell marketing to 14 year-olds, I do see Nintendo. So, again, where is the market for these PCs?
I go to college in a small town, and thus I pay my college bills by working for Best Buy. We carry Alienware systems (well, carry is the wrong word, since they're ordered through our store but there are no pre-built systems kicking around). As I walk by our demo unit, I often ponder the market for systems like Alienware, Falcon Northwest, and these Wahoo Fellas. These guys are all using standard component parts, (in the case of Alienware, readily available cases from Chieftec and standard off-the-shelf boards components). In the case of companies like Wahoo and Falcon Northwest, they even tell you the actual Mobo, RAM, Hard disk, etc. manufacturers. So honestly, where is their market?
Retail Boxed PCs have the ignorant consumer who knows the brand name. Screwdriver shops have the slightly more informed consumer looking to save a buck or get more standardized parts (or the geek who doesn't feel like spending his day off building a PC). But these companies seem to charge an extreme premium for their products, given that most screwdriver shops would sell you the exact same parts and assemble them in the same manner (maybe not this watercooling business, but I know of a couple shops that would probably do that). The best I can figure is heavily spoiled 14 year-old boys who know that the Radeon 9700 is good because they saw it on PlanetQuake, but you can't build a computer company on the whims of 14 year-old boys (can you?!?). So seriously, I'd like some input here. Does anyone own, for example, an Alienware or similar system? Do you know someone who owns one? What was the motivation for the purchase? Since it's the only item I can really quantify that they might offer beyond the local shop, do these "premium" PC companies have tech support that's really that much better (or honestly, necessary) than the screwdriver shop that'll sell you the same PC, built with the same parts, for $500 less?
It's the only model in the iMac lineup to offer DVD burning, and more and more people are getting into this.
No, there's also a 15" unit with Superdrive. I own the 17" model, and I remember heavily comparing the two (it was purchased for my girlfriend). If I recall correctly, the 17" model is $300 more than the 15" Superdrive model, and offers, essentially, a 17" widescreen monitor (which we love), an 80GB vs. 60GB hard disk, and a GeForce4 MX rather than GeForce 2 MX. The Hard disk is a good reason, since swapping the internal unit is a pain, but really the 17" monitor is the only big functional difference.
I don't think it's a product of the "burst", but rather, the fact that USB requires a CPU to actually control the system (where firewire's speed is completely handled by the firewire controller). It's the reason why you can go, say, DV camcorder -> DV Camcorder or DV Camcorder -> Television, even though none of them have actual CPUs designed to handle the function. Thus, while the firewire controller can completely handle the 400mbps transfer, USB 2.0 peaks on most systens around about 80 or 100mbps (and puts a nasty load on the CPU to boot).
for $250 I can buy a DVD player from a company that, admittedly, is not a huge consumer electronics corporation. And at $250, that DVD player is significantly more expensive than similarly specced (excluding the networking) players from companies like Sony, Toshiba, or Panasonic. It's only saving grace: the ability to play back video over a network.
OR
For $199 (after the two $50 rebates), I can get the 40 hour replay TV (granted, subscription required) which IS a PVR. Many of the name brand DVD players nowadays will support SVCD if you're dying to watch your MPEG-4/DiVX movies on your television. My other question: with as many different flavors of DiVX, and as many different takes on encoding the audio there-in (MP3, WMA, OGG, standard AC3), I don't really trust a hardware-based player to be able to handle any old DiVX file without some tinkering. Once I get to the point where I'm decompressing the audio and other similar exploits, I'm not as interested.
There certainly are. Several of the ReplayTV models are priced (or were, maybe they've changed) sans-subscription. Of course, the prices started at $500, coincidentally, very similar to the subscription-based models + lifetime fee. The subscription fee is really just a different method of making a profit on the hardware. The catch is that few (or fewer, as these companies are all struggling) people would shell out $500 for this equipment, but $200-$300 falls within the acceptable range. Just think about it this way: your PVR costs $500+. You can pay them now, or you can break half of that out in installments.
Not to toot the ReplayTV horn again, but their units ship with 10BaseT Ethernet. Although there isn't official Replay->PC support, there are programs that let you do it.
I can't speak to the "store brands" on the list, but Sony is the only company up there that runs with a 1 year parts/90 days labor warranty. This from a company that used to offer a 3 year/ 3 year. It's the same as the hard drive industry. Sony didn't pull this number out of their ass, it's carefully calculated to optimize their return. It's the reason why my Pioneer Laserdisc player with the manufacture date of November 1994 is still playing away while I've retired a Sony DVD player with two years on it, two playstation 1s, one PS2 (literally defective out of the box. No, literally possessed out of the box, because at least defective models don't carve up your $50 game), and so forth.
When I was working at Circuit City about a year and a half ago, we had these, although only sort of bundled. The Sony rep stopped by, and along with his usual propoganda about various Sony features , he had a stack of Star Office CDs in slip cover-type cases with the Sun and Sony names printed on the outside (this was a pre-printed glossy cardboard slip, not some bootleg crap he rolled himself). It wasn't really bundled, per se, but he said, "when people ask you if they come with MS Office, you tell them they come with this." Right at that point I thought, "wow, that's a great idea. Way to go Sony. People really need to get used to the idea that they don't need to pay upwards of $400 for their basic word-processing and spreadsheet needs." Still, it never amazed me that in the face of Lotus SmartSuite and Star Office with different manufacturers (namely Toshiba and Sony), people still insisted on MS Office (even after we went to the trouble of saving various.doc and.xls files to a floppy and opening them with the other programs to show that you could indeed bring work home). Oh well, you can lead a horse to water...
No, he's correct. Your standard DV format does consume on the order of 1GB per 5 minutes of video. Of course, when you capture to WMP, you're playing compression games. Go ahead and compare the video quality, though, and you'll see where the issue comes up. It's like saying, "This 64MB MP3 player is better than that CD player over there, because it contains an hour of music in 1/11th the space". Well, yes, it does, and at a loss to the audio, or in the WMP example, video quality.
A few others have mentioned the pioneer 1394-based unit, but no one has gone into why these things don't have standard optical/coax out: a receiver doesn't know what to do with the data.
When a CD player outputs the audio via a digital-out, it's outputting the PCM signal. It's 44.1K times/second of a "snapshot" of the audio. Receivers know how to decode this.
When a DVD player (or laserdisc or XBox or whatever) outputs a Dolby Digital or DTS signal, your receiver has to know what to do with it. You have to have a DSP chip in there that knows how to decode the DD or DTS feed. Most receivers from the past few years can do both of those formats. If anyone remembers the old 5.1 Amps that didn't have decoders (in the early/mid 90's, when Dolby Digital laserdiscs were out there) you had a separate decoder for the feed, which then output an analog signal. That's what these players have to do.
I'm not completely familiar with DVD-A (I think it is actually PCM just bumped up to a 96Khz feed), but SACD has nothing to do with the PCM format or any of the other formats out there. The DSD system it uses would be meaningless to a receiver. You might as well throw a digital feed of the kernel source at it, because the receiver's DSP isn't going to know what it's looking at. Hence, analog out: if you convert the feed to 5.1 and output it in analog, problem solved. We're at the point that those Dolby Digital LDs were at when there weren't any receivers with decoding built-in. The analog stuff still sounds amazing, and if this bit about the pioneer equipment is true, it'll sound even more amazing. So while the watermarking is explicitly designed to prevent copying, the lack of a digital-out is just a product of most receivers not having any use for the data.
It would mean the entire US would have but one satellite provider, which would be a total monopoly in those areas not served by cable
That's not entirely true. There's a service/company called, I believe, The Rural Communications Collective (forgive my laziness in not searching). Basically, people out in the boondocks who can't get cable are given reduced priced receivers and DirecTV service, as mandated by law. The FCC (rightly so, in my opinion) believes that although it does sound a bit corny, the ability to watch television is more or less a right. In fact, long before DirecTV or Dish sold local channels as an add-on for anyone, if you lived outside of the range of any of the closest big three (NBC/ABC/CBS) transmitters, you got "local" channels from (I think) New York. While I can certainly see the DoJ's complaints, I also don't understand exactly why they're worried about a monopoly. These companies would still have cable to compete with, and they're required by federal law not to gouge people who can't get an alternative to their service. I guess the way I see it, it'd be sort of like HP and Dell merging, and the DoJ complaining about a monopoly on computers. I can still build a PC/buy it from a few other companies, and there's also Apple/Sun/SGI/IBM/ ad infinitem to provide me with computers.
An Austin-based software company who targets their marketing to broadband ISPs. A friend of mine interned there last year while she was finishing out her journalism degree. Her job, if I recall correctly, was to write (like a journalism, not CS major would write) some of the webpage content and also press releases.
Essentially, their purpose is sort of like the giant installer CD that comes with your sound/video card. See, broadband ISPs, particualarly cable-based ones, don't really have their own install techs. Their guys are sub-contracted. In fact, Roadrunner's guys will have their company name and a "licensed subcontracter for Time-Warner Cable" printed on the side of their van. At least around here, there is a reasonable lead time for install, about a week, although I'm sure RoadRunner would like to speed that up, as it just leads to faster revenue/happier customers.
Anyway, it's like the Video/Sound card CDs in that it's a bunch of useless software in addition to an auto-install program that speeds up the tech's process. Rather than configure the windows PC to pull on DHCP via the NIC, and set the mail client and web browser up, the broadjump software does it for them. It also (like the vid/sound card disc) installs a bunch of other useless cruft. They allegedly had some sort of remote support program, and a MMORPG (Blood pledge, I think... It's really big in Korea) where if the customer signed up through the link on their desktop, the ISP got like a $3/month cut.
I have wonderful experience with Netflix, although I think they opened a depot in Houston, and I live about 200 miles west.
I really like Netflix for a different reason than avoiding the store (and I suspect I would enjoy this service for that same reason): I rent things on Netflix I normally wouldn't rent.
In both models, you're paying a subscription, not a per-movie charge, so it's in your best interest to queue movies you kinda wanted to see, but aren't willing to get instead of something you REALLY want to see. Right now, Natural Born Killers is in my queue. I haven't seen that movie in about 8 years, so while I do remember liking it, I don't remember much about it. Everytime I walked into Blockbuster, I'd see the DVD, but I'd always say, "eh, I really want to see X". Now, I get to see it. Ditto for anime series, for example. I'd feel extrememly ripped off if I paid, say, $15 for a 3 episode volume of some anime. In a lot of cases, very few local rental stores stock the shows, so that's the only way to go. In comes Netflix... Sakura Diaries arrived Wednesday, was viewed Wednesday, and was in the post box Wednesday. Additionally, I take a lot of film classes and english classes which require analyzing films. While everyone else is driving to nearby cities when the one copy of a movie is rented out, mine's been sitting at the house for three days waiting for my chance to watch it. Netflix isn't the way to go for people who like to up-and-rent a movie when there's nothing to do on a weekend, but it works great for people who just generally enjoy watching movies.
I can't even get to the article, but it seems pretty simple.
Don't use the composite video cables that came with your system. All kinds of TVs from 19" on up now ship with S-Video and even Component inputs (JVC ships a 20", 25", and 27" TV with component-in), so if you're anywhere near being in the market for a TV, there's no reason why you shouldn't be getting one with those inputs. $25 gets you the Sony-brand component cables, ditto for Nintendo (although you have to order them off of Nintendo's website). XBox component cables have been a little cheaper, $20 at most places, but the cables themselves look kind of cheap.
While the difference between S-Video and Component isn't quite as pronounced (I mostly only see the difference in the colors, not in the fidelity of the picture), the difference between composite and either of the upper-tier inputs is enormously pronounced. On larger televisions in particular (32" and up), you can see very pronounced scan lines and blurriness of the image when using composite cables. The Nintendo Gamecube can give you a great demonstration fo this fact. The back of the unit has the standard video-out and then the "digital-out" port where the component video hooks in. You have to have both jacks connected and active, since the video is only fed on the component port, and the analog audio is still fed along with the composite video. Hook up both signals, turn on a game, and just flip back and forth between component and composite. You'll see what I mean.
There are plenty of TVs out there that display 1920x1080 (the HD standard).
Re:Most Resume Advice is Totally Subjective?
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Resume Tips For Jobs
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· Score: 2
A lot of people just don't like Mormons, like a lot of people don't like Jewish people or Muslims or Catholics. A lot of people are stupid.
I know some people who are Wiccan, and they just don't bring it up around anyone else. One of the tenets of that religion, in fact, is to sort of operate in secrecy. 9 times out of 10, people get this image of either devil worshipping, idiots who think they can throw fireballs, or wannabe goth kids. In the same respect, a lot of people outside of Utah have a lot of negative views regarding Mormans. Primarily because most Mormons are very faithful to the tenets of their religion, a lot of people do tend to view them as somewhat anachronistic or foaming-at-the-mouth (although I've never met a Mormon who was either).
Maybe it would be enough to tell people that I'm single, 30, and don't vote republican?
[joke]Well, that just says to employers, "I'm gay!"[/joke]
Re:Most Resume Advice is Totally Subjective?
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Resume Tips For Jobs
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· Score: 2
My one bit of advice (and this is not meant in any way to offend): drop the bit about Missionary work. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who simply do not like mormons. There are a lot of self-righteous people of other Christian denominations who consider it a cult. There are a lot of people who are going to stereotype and infer that a) mormons have lots of kids, so b) this guy is going to cost us a lot of insurance money and c) ask for a lot of time off.
It doesn't matter if you aren't even married. It doesn't matter that there are laws in this country that prevent an interviewer from asking you about your religion or marital status or from discriminating against you because of those points. You just set it out in broad dayliht, right in front of them. Even if an interviewer isn't the sort that would actively discriminate against someone, that interviewer may have some of those nagging stereotypes in the back of their mind (particularly if they live/grew up in an area without a large Mormon population). BYU doesn't always click with people, but Latter-Day Saints almost always does.
Your resume is strong enough already without that one point. I'd lose it if I were in your position.
Read my statement. I'm referring to modular housing, not pre-manufactured housing.
How much of that is the land? A miniscule amount. Assuming one is purchasing a tract home, the land is generally part of the home deal; the lots are generally standardized sizes. This is out in the 'burbs, where land is cheap. People want a home for their money, not land. Approximately $5,000 worth of that price is land.
I'll use a computer analogy to demonstrate: A manufactured home (trailer) is a retail PC, say, a Compaq Presario. We know they suck, but for some people it works well enough.
I'm proposing something akin to the ATX standard. You buy the case size you want, and your Mobo manufacturer (or, in this case, the company that mass-produces pre-built wall units) makes them in a standardized size. PCI and AGP cards fit as they should, the power supply area is standardized. Parts are trucked in, not a pre-built house.
The current "custom" home market is akin to Micron, Intel, Nvidia, and Abit setting up temporary fab equipment in your house and making a single chip for you on the spot. Then IBM shows up with a mobile clean room and builds your Hard disk, 3Com rolls up with a partially assembled NIC, likewise for, say, Creative with a soundcard, and so forth. You get the idea.
In some instances, a completely custom jobby is the best way. A 10,000 square foot home would call for things like domed entryways, custom blacony setups and so forth that would make integrating modular pieces ineffective. But that aforementioned 2,200 sq. ft. home? I doubt it.
Houses tend to retain their value, and essentially increase an incremental amount with the cost of living. It is a reasonable investment, and most people can expect a return somewhat similar to what they might get with a good CD or Savings Bond. This, of course, assumes that property values in their area don't swing wildly in any direction. Again with Houston (can you guess where I used to live), there was a booming market in the Richmond area of buying up the tract homes that had been there since the early 50's, knocking them down, and buidling two 3 or 4 story homes in their place. Many people saw the value of their homes shoot from $70,000 to $150,000 in less than a year. On a completely different line, between Hurricane Allison last year and this year's mid-spring floods, the 100-year-flood plain was completely withdrawn. Guess what happens to your property's value when you got drawn into it?
I'm not suggesting a fab system along the lines of trailer homes, where the whole place is already built. If a manufacturing company were to produce a variety of pre-built walls in varying heights (vaulted for the living room, standard-sized for hallways, ancillary bedrooms, etc. 1/3-sized for a bar) and builders were to design their cookie-cutter designs based on those available sizes, it would streamline the hell out of the whole process. Truck out x number of part A01, and Y number of part B02, provide a system so that certain walls can provide easy access for the electrician/plumber/HVAC/etc. (maybe part A01r has a removable face), and then just put the house together. It would still be built on a foundation and would be indistinguishable from the normal tract-home setup where the only major variance is the type of decorative lights, the color of the carpets, and the paint on the walls.
it's called Manufactured Housing, although most people know them by their slang name, Trailer Homes.
Seriously.
You can get Single, Double, and Triple-wide manufactured homes, and I've even seen two story setups (I used to pass a ton of these "dealerships" on my way to college each day). The basic concept is not unique, but it also isn't stupid: I seem to recall a number being quoted as about 1/3 the cost to assemble as a "custom" home (which makes sense, as these are essentially produced on an assembly line). Take modular pieces, assemble together, call it a day. No different than cubicles or the Habitrails you built for your hamster as a kid.
Is it a bad idea? I would say not at all. No one smirks at the build quality or luxury of a Mercedes Benz or BMW, but they're just as assembly line built as, say, a Kia (or Yugo or whatever). Assuming modular housing could succesfully target itself at the lower-end of the new home market, people would get a lot more house (and in a lot of cases, a better built house) than they do from the "custom" market (custom in quotations because that market is essentially nothing but cookie-cutter tract homes where housewives get to feel important because they paid $500 extra to change the color of the walls in the living room).
Stop and think about it: In Houston, which has probably the cheapest real-estate market of any major city, $100,000 gets you a stripped-down ~2,200 sq. ft. house about 30 miles from downtown. No fancy garden bathtub/jacuuzi, no structured wiring system for a house-wide network, no faux marble countertops, and shitty carpet with shitty padding. That same $100,000 could go a hell of a long way on modular housing. It needn't be a trailer home dumped on a slab; a simple arrangement of modular wall pieces available in multiple sizes and completely assembled using steel, insulation, and wallboard would be, as far as I'm concerned, just as good as one pieced together from raw materials by 6 guys who know what the hell they're doing and 40 guys who were picked up from the immigrant labor force at the 7-11 that morning.
I once worked for a subcontractor, and I needed to run some wiring through a colum that was in the kitchen area. Knowing that the wiring I was running was quite large, and would require a 3/4" hole in a 1 1/2" piece of wood, I asked the construction foreman whether or not the pillar was load-bearing. He replied, "how the hell should I know, ask the guys who made the blueprints" and returned to whatever it was he was doing. I vowed right then never to buy a home made by that particular company.
I would say that the company that can figure out the proper configuration system and negotiate contracts with the entry-level tract-home builders would be a profitable company indeed.
Re:"good technology outdone by better marketing"
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Why VHS Was Better
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· Score: 5, Informative
It wasn't really marketing. As previously indicated, it was Sony shooting themselves in the foot.
Beta did have an ever so slightly higher horizontal reolution (the way most TV video sources are measured) than VHS. I wanna say 350 lines vs. 320, or something asinine like that. But, technically, it was better.
For the better majority of Beta's life, though, Sony was the only company who made players. They didn't want anyone else getting a slice of the pie. When companies like Panasonic, Philips, RCA, etc. wanted to make a Beta player, Sony said, "no".
Enter JVC.
JVC came up with VHS. it's not quite as good, but they didn't have any real technical disadvantage. But (and this is the big thing), they would license technology. Philips, Panasonic, and RCA could now make a VCR. Now the consumer had a lot of choices: some companies could make stripped-down models, or models with different features, or what-have-you. Additionally, the customers who just have to have all of their equipment the same brand can do so.
It wasn't really marketing in the way someone wants to think (ads and so forth), it was just a better idea.
Think about it this way: Apple vs. PC. If IBM's technology had stayed completely proprietary, and Compaq had never reverse engineered the system, there's a good chance Apple or even some other platform would've won. Instead, there are 1,000s of brand-names for PC and still just one Apple.
the original DiVX WAS DVD, just with the quasi-rental/ownership system implemented. Many of the DiVX players in the last days of the system were DVD/DiVX combo units, in a stretch to try and sneak the DiVX system into homes.
Fun fact: DiVX was originally slated to be carried by Wal-Mart and Blockbuster as well. At the time, Blockbuster was gearing up for an IPO setup, and decided that DiVX was going to be too large of a capital expense to risk when they were getting ready for their IPO. Quite literally overnight (really, everything was set the night before, then BB decided they wanted out), the entire setup went from a good business plan that really could have given DVD a run for it's money to nothing. Once blockbuster left, Wal-mart realized that the lack of rental/ownership market would torpedo the setup, and Circuit City was left holding the DiVX cards.
Fun Fact: DiVX discs are literally worhtless now, in any sort of value sense. The authentication/charging server was taken down early last year, so the discs won't even play.
I used to work retail, and I can tell you the number one reason why these things aren't being readily adopted: piracy, or rather lack thereof.
I'm serious. I've owned three different CD Burners going back to the days when they started to become remotely affordable (as DVD burners are now). When I first got them, truth be told, it was for the purpose of creating mix CDs (completely legal) and burning MP3s found from the various FTP sites (this was around the time when Napster was just barely registering on geek radar, much less the public's eye). My current unit hasn't ever written a single CD with music on it (at least not for the purpose of playing in a CD player... I've probably archived an mp3 at some point). I use it heavily for backing up data, particularly TV shows that I time shift and digital photos.
But this isn't what the average Joe user uses it for. I know, I talk to them every day. They want it for music, almost exclusively for music. In fact, a lot of Joe Users aren't aware that CD burners can be used for anything else (seriously).
From Joe User's perspective, copying a CD is easy. Converting and burning an MP3 is easy. It's all done with fun, easy wizards. Drag and drop songs until the wizard says the CD is "full". Press start.
doing the same with DVDs isn't easy. First, I have to contend with running DeCSS and ripping the video off of the DVD. Assuming the source is a single layer, single side DVD, all I have to do is write and go. Assuming it isn't, now I have to split the source file into two different DVDs or recompress into a tighter space. See, all the/.ers just said, "yeah" and Joe User spaced out when I mentioned DeCSS. On top of that, creating a DVD of home videos is difficult for Joe unless he's running an Apple, but he heard those suck 'cause they can't run windows. (Note to Apple fans: I said for Joe User, not for real people. I own two apples, and I love 'em).
DVD Burners do have many great uses, just as CD Burners do, even to Joe. But for him, the gateway use is copying movies, just as his gateway use on the CD burner was copying CDs. Would he discover cool uses for his DVD burner just as he did his CD Burner? Sure. But right now it's too difficult for him to use it for what he perceives to be it's primary purpose.
I don't watch Will and Grace, so I can't comment on that episode, but I'm assuming from the tone of the statement that you consider it to be a crappy episode. I'll give you that. Even very skilled writers have a hard time figuring out how to implement a story line similar to what I imagine the show centered around without a) selling out or b) pissing off sponsors.
But take, for example, the Kenny Roger's Roasters, Drake's Coffee cake, or Black Saab episodes of Seinfeld (episodes for which the studio and writers received no compensation at all). Kramer was conflicted because the neon sign of the Kenny Roger's place was keeping him up, but the chicken tasted so good. People can laugh at Kramer's misfortunes and still get the idea that Kenny Roger's makes a tasty chicken (for the record, it is pretty good). Had KRR paid the writers/studio for that episode, it would've been a perfect example of what I'm describing. For the record, Seinfeld fans consider the Drake's Cake and Kenny Roger's episodes to be some of the funniest around, not to mention that the season arcs about Jerry getting his own show on NBC (a show about nothing) would've worked wonderfully as an NBC self-ad.
The Simpsons (social satire) used to be rife with Fox insults ("wow, Fox turned into a hardcore porn station so fast", "I'm sure there's something better on from those fine folks at ABC", "Friday's just another day between NBC's thursday night must-see TV and Saturday's CBS crap-o-rama"), which I'm sure would do as good a job as "you're watching Fox".
Insidious? It's not a global conspiracy; it's just the way TV's business model works, and it's likely the way it always will work. For all the talk of $2 per show with free previews, it plays out a hell-of-a-lot like the micropayments idea that web comics wish they could implement. It sounds great, but really, the public would simply be too lazy to engage in it. Oh, and I'm sure Visa will love to handle $1 and $2 charges all day long (and the credit disputes customers will bring when 'this show sucked').
Fact of the matter is that advertising is what pays for TV. Until they can prove that a micropayment system works reliably, they're probably gonna stick to the same plan that's been working for the past 50 years. Sure, they may modify it a bit if PVRs start allowing large amounts of people to skip commercials, but they'll make their money somehow. I currently own two DVD television show compilations: Buffy Seasons one and two. It's a grand total of about $70 worth of television shows. Now assuming my apartment complex didn't include extended cable by default, the cable I get right now (extended basic) would cost me about $40 a month. That price is partly subsidized by advertising dollars, as the $10/month for a single channel of ad-less HBO would indicate. Assuming an ad-less TV setup (and interpolating that $10/month tag for ease of math/estimation), I'd need to spend a good, solid $80/month to see the television shows I enjoy: I'd need UPN for Buffy, Fox for Simpsons, NBC for Friends, The History Channel for the cool stuff that comes on it, HGTV for the girlfriend, TNN for their Next Generation re-runs (for the girlfriend; am I the only geek who DOESN'T like Star Trek?), Cartoon Network for the occasional anime that I enjoy watching, and the Food Network (Iron Chef). I'd rather deal with Iron Chef using Ginsus, Bart getting the latest Eidos videogame instead of Blood Warrior 3 (although the fake videogames are always funny), or a plug for Home Depot during an HGTV remodeling show than shell out a smooth $80 for the eight channels we watch at my place. If it comes to that, then I'll decide at that point if $80 is worth it, but until then, I'll deal with the subtle insidiousness.
Just as an aside, I do try to help out those things that I enjoy. I bought the Buffy DVDs despite the fact that I have every season already archived on CD-Rs. And no, it isn't the "incredible picture quality" that motivated me (the tape to DVD transfer on those DVDs is wretched, particularly the first season). I just like Buffy, and I hope to encourage further seasons. I've bought T-Shirts from Thinkgeek and comic compilation books from Bob the Angry flower. There's a fine line between "being a good little consumer" and keeping the companies (or programs) I like in business/on the air.
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Having owned a BMW (well, sort of. It belonged to the folks, but I've driven it enough), I can tell you that it isn't the same thing. If BMW told me where I could get their chassis, their straight-six engine, their transmission, their suspension, etc., and I could pay my mechanic to put it together for $8,000 less than it cost at the dealership, THEN it'd be close to the same thing. The fact that a 3-series sedan costs about $10,000 more than your basic japanese sports sedan shows in a Bimmer. The stick shift clicks happily into place, no effort. It feels like quality. Things like the instrument panel backlight, the gas struts for the hood lift, and the attechment mechanisms for the trunk look as though they had a good amount of thought put into them. Not to mention that their engines are torquey as hell and the ride is ridiculously smooth even as you run into 3-digit speeds. If you ever have the opportunity to drive a new Bimmer (not some 60,000 mile model that's been ragged on by the owner), do so. You'll see that the extra $10,000 you spend really does go somewhere (although I don't think I could ever personally justify the money).
I suppose rather than "computer company" I should have used the words "PC Company". Nintendo succeeds with 14 year-old boys because even a 14 year-old can afford a $150 GameCube. Save for a few months, ask for money for your birthday and you're set. Companies like Alienware and so forth are charging over $3,000 for units that can be bought for $800 less. 14 year-old boys can't even fathom $800, much less $3,000, unless they're of the ludicrously spoiled persuasion. While I don't see Dell marketing to 14 year-olds, I do see Nintendo. So, again, where is the market for these PCs?
I go to college in a small town, and thus I pay my college bills by working for Best Buy. We carry Alienware systems (well, carry is the wrong word, since they're ordered through our store but there are no pre-built systems kicking around). As I walk by our demo unit, I often ponder the market for systems like Alienware, Falcon Northwest, and these Wahoo Fellas. These guys are all using standard component parts, (in the case of Alienware, readily available cases from Chieftec and standard off-the-shelf boards components). In the case of companies like Wahoo and Falcon Northwest, they even tell you the actual Mobo, RAM, Hard disk, etc. manufacturers. So honestly, where is their market?
Retail Boxed PCs have the ignorant consumer who knows the brand name. Screwdriver shops have the slightly more informed consumer looking to save a buck or get more standardized parts (or the geek who doesn't feel like spending his day off building a PC). But these companies seem to charge an extreme premium for their products, given that most screwdriver shops would sell you the exact same parts and assemble them in the same manner (maybe not this watercooling business, but I know of a couple shops that would probably do that). The best I can figure is heavily spoiled 14 year-old boys who know that the Radeon 9700 is good because they saw it on PlanetQuake, but you can't build a computer company on the whims of 14 year-old boys (can you?!?). So seriously, I'd like some input here. Does anyone own, for example, an Alienware or similar system? Do you know someone who owns one? What was the motivation for the purchase? Since it's the only item I can really quantify that they might offer beyond the local shop, do these "premium" PC companies have tech support that's really that much better (or honestly, necessary) than the screwdriver shop that'll sell you the same PC, built with the same parts, for $500 less?
It's the only model in the iMac lineup to offer DVD burning, and more and more people are getting into this.
No, there's also a 15" unit with Superdrive. I own the 17" model, and I remember heavily comparing the two (it was purchased for my girlfriend). If I recall correctly, the 17" model is $300 more than the 15" Superdrive model, and offers, essentially, a 17" widescreen monitor (which we love), an 80GB vs. 60GB hard disk, and a GeForce4 MX rather than GeForce 2 MX. The Hard disk is a good reason, since swapping the internal unit is a pain, but really the 17" monitor is the only big functional difference.
I don't think it's a product of the "burst", but rather, the fact that USB requires a CPU to actually control the system (where firewire's speed is completely handled by the firewire controller). It's the reason why you can go, say, DV camcorder -> DV Camcorder or DV Camcorder -> Television, even though none of them have actual CPUs designed to handle the function. Thus, while the firewire controller can completely handle the 400mbps transfer, USB 2.0 peaks on most systens around about 80 or 100mbps (and puts a nasty load on the CPU to boot).
for $250 I can buy a DVD player from a company that, admittedly, is not a huge consumer electronics corporation. And at $250, that DVD player is significantly more expensive than similarly specced (excluding the networking) players from companies like Sony, Toshiba, or Panasonic. It's only saving grace: the ability to play back video over a network.
OR
For $199 (after the two $50 rebates), I can get the 40 hour replay TV (granted, subscription required) which IS a PVR. Many of the name brand DVD players nowadays will support SVCD if you're dying to watch your MPEG-4/DiVX movies on your television. My other question: with as many different flavors of DiVX, and as many different takes on encoding the audio there-in (MP3, WMA, OGG, standard AC3), I don't really trust a hardware-based player to be able to handle any old DiVX file without some tinkering. Once I get to the point where I'm decompressing the audio and other similar exploits, I'm not as interested.
There certainly are. Several of the ReplayTV models are priced (or were, maybe they've changed) sans-subscription. Of course, the prices started at $500, coincidentally, very similar to the subscription-based models + lifetime fee. The subscription fee is really just a different method of making a profit on the hardware. The catch is that few (or fewer, as these companies are all struggling) people would shell out $500 for this equipment, but $200-$300 falls within the acceptable range. Just think about it this way: your PVR costs $500+. You can pay them now, or you can break half of that out in installments.
Not to toot the ReplayTV horn again, but their units ship with 10BaseT Ethernet. Although there isn't official Replay->PC support, there are programs that let you do it.
I can't speak to the "store brands" on the list, but Sony is the only company up there that runs with a 1 year parts/90 days labor warranty. This from a company that used to offer a 3 year/ 3 year. It's the same as the hard drive industry. Sony didn't pull this number out of their ass, it's carefully calculated to optimize their return. It's the reason why my Pioneer Laserdisc player with the manufacture date of November 1994 is still playing away while I've retired a Sony DVD player with two years on it, two playstation 1s, one PS2 (literally defective out of the box. No, literally possessed out of the box, because at least defective models don't carve up your $50 game), and so forth.
When I was working at Circuit City about a year and a half ago, we had these, although only sort of bundled. The Sony rep stopped by, and along with his usual propoganda about various Sony features , he had a stack of Star Office CDs in slip cover-type cases with the Sun and Sony names printed on the outside (this was a pre-printed glossy cardboard slip, not some bootleg crap he rolled himself). It wasn't really bundled, per se, but he said, "when people ask you if they come with MS Office, you tell them they come with this." Right at that point I thought, "wow, that's a great idea. Way to go Sony. People really need to get used to the idea that they don't need to pay upwards of $400 for their basic word-processing and spreadsheet needs." Still, it never amazed me that in the face of Lotus SmartSuite and Star Office with different manufacturers (namely Toshiba and Sony), people still insisted on MS Office (even after we went to the trouble of saving various .doc and .xls files to a floppy and opening them with the other programs to show that you could indeed bring work home). Oh well, you can lead a horse to water...
No, he's correct. Your standard DV format does consume on the order of 1GB per 5 minutes of video. Of course, when you capture to WMP, you're playing compression games. Go ahead and compare the video quality, though, and you'll see where the issue comes up. It's like saying, "This 64MB MP3 player is better than that CD player over there, because it contains an hour of music in 1/11th the space". Well, yes, it does, and at a loss to the audio, or in the WMP example, video quality.
A few others have mentioned the pioneer 1394-based unit, but no one has gone into why these things don't have standard optical/coax out: a receiver doesn't know what to do with the data.
When a CD player outputs the audio via a digital-out, it's outputting the PCM signal. It's 44.1K times/second of a "snapshot" of the audio. Receivers know how to decode this.
When a DVD player (or laserdisc or XBox or whatever) outputs a Dolby Digital or DTS signal, your receiver has to know what to do with it. You have to have a DSP chip in there that knows how to decode the DD or DTS feed. Most receivers from the past few years can do both of those formats. If anyone remembers the old 5.1 Amps that didn't have decoders (in the early/mid 90's, when Dolby Digital laserdiscs were out there) you had a separate decoder for the feed, which then output an analog signal. That's what these players have to do.
I'm not completely familiar with DVD-A (I think it is actually PCM just bumped up to a 96Khz feed), but SACD has nothing to do with the PCM format or any of the other formats out there. The DSD system it uses would be meaningless to a receiver. You might as well throw a digital feed of the kernel source at it, because the receiver's DSP isn't going to know what it's looking at. Hence, analog out: if you convert the feed to 5.1 and output it in analog, problem solved. We're at the point that those Dolby Digital LDs were at when there weren't any receivers with decoding built-in. The analog stuff still sounds amazing, and if this bit about the pioneer equipment is true, it'll sound even more amazing. So while the watermarking is explicitly designed to prevent copying, the lack of a digital-out is just a product of most receivers not having any use for the data.
It would mean the entire US would have but one satellite provider, which would be a total monopoly in those areas not served by cable
/IBM/ ad infinitem to provide me with computers.
That's not entirely true. There's a service/company called, I believe, The Rural Communications Collective (forgive my laziness in not searching). Basically, people out in the boondocks who can't get cable are given reduced priced receivers and DirecTV service, as mandated by law. The FCC (rightly so, in my opinion) believes that although it does sound a bit corny, the ability to watch television is more or less a right. In fact, long before DirecTV or Dish sold local channels as an add-on for anyone, if you lived outside of the range of any of the closest big three (NBC/ABC/CBS) transmitters, you got "local" channels from (I think) New York. While I can certainly see the DoJ's complaints, I also don't understand exactly why they're worried about a monopoly. These companies would still have cable to compete with, and they're required by federal law not to gouge people who can't get an alternative to their service. I guess the way I see it, it'd be sort of like HP and Dell merging, and the DoJ complaining about a monopoly on computers. I can still build a PC/buy it from a few other companies, and there's also Apple/Sun/SGI
Just my $0.02.
An Austin-based software company who targets their marketing to broadband ISPs. A friend of mine interned there last year while she was finishing out her journalism degree. Her job, if I recall correctly, was to write (like a journalism, not CS major would write) some of the webpage content and also press releases.
Essentially, their purpose is sort of like the giant installer CD that comes with your sound/video card. See, broadband ISPs, particualarly cable-based ones, don't really have their own install techs. Their guys are sub-contracted. In fact, Roadrunner's guys will have their company name and a "licensed subcontracter for Time-Warner Cable" printed on the side of their van. At least around here, there is a reasonable lead time for install, about a week, although I'm sure RoadRunner would like to speed that up, as it just leads to faster revenue/happier customers.
Anyway, it's like the Video/Sound card CDs in that it's a bunch of useless software in addition to an auto-install program that speeds up the tech's process. Rather than configure the windows PC to pull on DHCP via the NIC, and set the mail client and web browser up, the broadjump software does it for them. It also (like the vid/sound card disc) installs a bunch of other useless cruft. They allegedly had some sort of remote support program, and a MMORPG (Blood pledge, I think... It's really big in Korea) where if the customer signed up through the link on their desktop, the ISP got like a $3/month cut.
So anyway, that's their software.
I have wonderful experience with Netflix, although I think they opened a depot in Houston, and I live about 200 miles west.
I really like Netflix for a different reason than avoiding the store (and I suspect I would enjoy this service for that same reason): I rent things on Netflix I normally wouldn't rent.
In both models, you're paying a subscription, not a per-movie charge, so it's in your best interest to queue movies you kinda wanted to see, but aren't willing to get instead of something you REALLY want to see. Right now, Natural Born Killers is in my queue. I haven't seen that movie in about 8 years, so while I do remember liking it, I don't remember much about it. Everytime I walked into Blockbuster, I'd see the DVD, but I'd always say, "eh, I really want to see X". Now, I get to see it. Ditto for anime series, for example. I'd feel extrememly ripped off if I paid, say, $15 for a 3 episode volume of some anime. In a lot of cases, very few local rental stores stock the shows, so that's the only way to go. In comes Netflix... Sakura Diaries arrived Wednesday, was viewed Wednesday, and was in the post box Wednesday. Additionally, I take a lot of film classes and english classes which require analyzing films. While everyone else is driving to nearby cities when the one copy of a movie is rented out, mine's been sitting at the house for three days waiting for my chance to watch it. Netflix isn't the way to go for people who like to up-and-rent a movie when there's nothing to do on a weekend, but it works great for people who just generally enjoy watching movies.
I can't even get to the article, but it seems pretty simple.
Don't use the composite video cables that came with your system. All kinds of TVs from 19" on up now ship with S-Video and even Component inputs (JVC ships a 20", 25", and 27" TV with component-in), so if you're anywhere near being in the market for a TV, there's no reason why you shouldn't be getting one with those inputs. $25 gets you the Sony-brand component cables, ditto for Nintendo (although you have to order them off of Nintendo's website). XBox component cables have been a little cheaper, $20 at most places, but the cables themselves look kind of cheap.
While the difference between S-Video and Component isn't quite as pronounced (I mostly only see the difference in the colors, not in the fidelity of the picture), the difference between composite and either of the upper-tier inputs is enormously pronounced. On larger televisions in particular (32" and up), you can see very pronounced scan lines and blurriness of the image when using composite cables. The Nintendo Gamecube can give you a great demonstration fo this fact. The back of the unit has the standard video-out and then the "digital-out" port where the component video hooks in. You have to have both jacks connected and active, since the video is only fed on the component port, and the analog audio is still fed along with the composite video. Hook up both signals, turn on a game, and just flip back and forth between component and composite. You'll see what I mean.
There are plenty of TVs out there that display 1920x1080 (the HD standard).
A lot of people just don't like Mormons, like a lot of people don't like Jewish people or Muslims or Catholics. A lot of people are stupid.
I know some people who are Wiccan, and they just don't bring it up around anyone else. One of the tenets of that religion, in fact, is to sort of operate in secrecy. 9 times out of 10, people get this image of either devil worshipping, idiots who think they can throw fireballs, or wannabe goth kids. In the same respect, a lot of people outside of Utah have a lot of negative views regarding Mormans. Primarily because most Mormons are very faithful to the tenets of their religion, a lot of people do tend to view them as somewhat anachronistic or foaming-at-the-mouth (although I've never met a Mormon who was either).
Maybe it would be enough to tell people that I'm single, 30, and don't vote republican?
[joke]Well, that just says to employers, "I'm gay!"[/joke]
My one bit of advice (and this is not meant in any way to offend):
drop the bit about Missionary work. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who simply do not like mormons. There are a lot of self-righteous people of other Christian denominations who consider it a cult. There are a lot of people who are going to stereotype and infer that a) mormons have lots of kids, so b) this guy is going to cost us a lot of insurance money and c) ask for a lot of time off.
It doesn't matter if you aren't even married. It doesn't matter that there are laws in this country that prevent an interviewer from asking you about your religion or marital status or from discriminating against you because of those points. You just set it out in broad dayliht, right in front of them. Even if an interviewer isn't the sort that would actively discriminate against someone, that interviewer may have some of those nagging stereotypes in the back of their mind (particularly if they live/grew up in an area without a large Mormon population). BYU doesn't always click with people, but Latter-Day Saints almost always does.
Your resume is strong enough already without that one point. I'd lose it if I were in your position.
Read my statement. I'm referring to modular housing, not pre-manufactured housing.
How much of that is the land? A miniscule amount. Assuming one is purchasing a tract home, the land is generally part of the home deal; the lots are generally standardized sizes. This is out in the 'burbs, where land is cheap. People want a home for their money, not land. Approximately $5,000 worth of that price is land.
I'll use a computer analogy to demonstrate:
A manufactured home (trailer) is a retail PC, say, a Compaq Presario. We know they suck, but for some people it works well enough.
I'm proposing something akin to the ATX standard. You buy the case size you want, and your Mobo manufacturer (or, in this case, the company that mass-produces pre-built wall units) makes them in a standardized size. PCI and AGP cards fit as they should, the power supply area is standardized. Parts are trucked in, not a pre-built house.
The current "custom" home market is akin to Micron, Intel, Nvidia, and Abit setting up temporary fab equipment in your house and making a single chip for you on the spot. Then IBM shows up with a mobile clean room and builds your Hard disk, 3Com rolls up with a partially assembled NIC, likewise for, say, Creative with a soundcard, and so forth. You get the idea.
In some instances, a completely custom jobby is the best way. A 10,000 square foot home would call for things like domed entryways, custom blacony setups and so forth that would make integrating modular pieces ineffective. But that aforementioned 2,200 sq. ft. home? I doubt it.
Well, not technically.
Houses tend to retain their value, and essentially increase an incremental amount with the cost of living. It is a reasonable investment, and most people can expect a return somewhat similar to what they might get with a good CD or Savings Bond. This, of course, assumes that property values in their area don't swing wildly in any direction. Again with Houston (can you guess where I used to live), there was a booming market in the Richmond area of buying up the tract homes that had been there since the early 50's, knocking them down, and buidling two 3 or 4 story homes in their place. Many people saw the value of their homes shoot from $70,000 to $150,000 in less than a year. On a completely different line, between Hurricane Allison last year and this year's mid-spring floods, the 100-year-flood plain was completely withdrawn. Guess what happens to your property's value when you got drawn into it?
I'm not suggesting a fab system along the lines of trailer homes, where the whole place is already built. If a manufacturing company were to produce a variety of pre-built walls in varying heights (vaulted for the living room, standard-sized for hallways, ancillary bedrooms, etc. 1/3-sized for a bar) and builders were to design their cookie-cutter designs based on those available sizes, it would streamline the hell out of the whole process. Truck out x number of part A01, and Y number of part B02, provide a system so that certain walls can provide easy access for the electrician/plumber/HVAC/etc. (maybe part A01r has a removable face), and then just put the house together. It would still be built on a foundation and would be indistinguishable from the normal tract-home setup where the only major variance is the type of decorative lights, the color of the carpets, and the paint on the walls.
it's called Manufactured Housing, although most people know them by their slang name, Trailer Homes.
Seriously.
You can get Single, Double, and Triple-wide manufactured homes, and I've even seen two story setups (I used to pass a ton of these "dealerships" on my way to college each day). The basic concept is not unique, but it also isn't stupid: I seem to recall a number being quoted as about 1/3 the cost to assemble as a "custom" home (which makes sense, as these are essentially produced on an assembly line). Take modular pieces, assemble together, call it a day. No different than cubicles or the Habitrails you built for your hamster as a kid.
Is it a bad idea? I would say not at all. No one smirks at the build quality or luxury of a Mercedes Benz or BMW, but they're just as assembly line built as, say, a Kia (or Yugo or whatever). Assuming modular housing could succesfully target itself at the lower-end of the new home market, people would get a lot more house (and in a lot of cases, a better built house) than they do from the "custom" market (custom in quotations because that market is essentially nothing but cookie-cutter tract homes where housewives get to feel important because they paid $500 extra to change the color of the walls in the living room).
Stop and think about it: In Houston, which has probably the cheapest real-estate market of any major city, $100,000 gets you a stripped-down ~2,200 sq. ft. house about 30 miles from downtown. No fancy garden bathtub/jacuuzi, no structured wiring system for a house-wide network, no faux marble countertops, and shitty carpet with shitty padding. That same $100,000 could go a hell of a long way on modular housing. It needn't be a trailer home dumped on a slab; a simple arrangement of modular wall pieces available in multiple sizes and completely assembled using steel, insulation, and wallboard would be, as far as I'm concerned, just as good as one pieced together from raw materials by 6 guys who know what the hell they're doing and 40 guys who were picked up from the immigrant labor force at the 7-11 that morning.
I once worked for a subcontractor, and I needed to run some wiring through a colum that was in the kitchen area. Knowing that the wiring I was running was quite large, and would require a 3/4" hole in a 1 1/2" piece of wood, I asked the construction foreman whether or not the pillar was load-bearing. He replied, "how the hell should I know, ask the guys who made the blueprints" and returned to whatever it was he was doing. I vowed right then never to buy a home made by that particular company.
I would say that the company that can figure out the proper configuration system and negotiate contracts with the entry-level tract-home builders would be a profitable company indeed.
It wasn't really marketing. As previously indicated, it was Sony shooting themselves in the foot.
Beta did have an ever so slightly higher horizontal reolution (the way most TV video sources are measured) than VHS. I wanna say 350 lines vs. 320, or something asinine like that. But, technically, it was better.
For the better majority of Beta's life, though, Sony was the only company who made players. They didn't want anyone else getting a slice of the pie. When companies like Panasonic, Philips, RCA, etc. wanted to make a Beta player, Sony said, "no".
Enter JVC.
JVC came up with VHS. it's not quite as good, but they didn't have any real technical disadvantage. But (and this is the big thing), they would license technology. Philips, Panasonic, and RCA could now make a VCR. Now the consumer had a lot of choices: some companies could make stripped-down models, or models with different features, or what-have-you. Additionally, the customers who just have to have all of their equipment the same brand can do so.
It wasn't really marketing in the way someone wants to think (ads and so forth), it was just a better idea.
Think about it this way: Apple vs. PC. If IBM's technology had stayed completely proprietary, and Compaq had never reverse engineered the system, there's a good chance Apple or even some other platform would've won. Instead, there are 1,000s of brand-names for PC and still just one Apple.
the original DiVX WAS DVD, just with the quasi-rental/ownership system implemented. Many of the DiVX players in the last days of the system were DVD/DiVX combo units, in a stretch to try and sneak the DiVX system into homes.
Fun fact: DiVX was originally slated to be carried by Wal-Mart and Blockbuster as well. At the time, Blockbuster was gearing up for an IPO setup, and decided that DiVX was going to be too large of a capital expense to risk when they were getting ready for their IPO. Quite literally overnight (really, everything was set the night before, then BB decided they wanted out), the entire setup went from a good business plan that really could have given DVD a run for it's money to nothing. Once blockbuster left, Wal-mart realized that the lack of rental/ownership market would torpedo the setup, and Circuit City was left holding the DiVX cards.
Fun Fact: DiVX discs are literally worhtless now, in any sort of value sense. The authentication/charging server was taken down early last year, so the discs won't even play.
I used to work retail, and I can tell you the number one reason why these things aren't being readily adopted: piracy, or rather lack thereof.
/.ers just said, "yeah" and Joe User spaced out when I mentioned DeCSS. On top of that, creating a DVD of home videos is difficult for Joe unless he's running an Apple, but he heard those suck 'cause they can't run windows. (Note to Apple fans: I said for Joe User, not for real people. I own two apples, and I love 'em).
I'm serious. I've owned three different CD Burners going back to the days when they started to become remotely affordable (as DVD burners are now). When I first got them, truth be told, it was for the purpose of creating mix CDs (completely legal) and burning MP3s found from the various FTP sites (this was around the time when Napster was just barely registering on geek radar, much less the public's eye). My current unit hasn't ever written a single CD with music on it (at least not for the purpose of playing in a CD player... I've probably archived an mp3 at some point). I use it heavily for backing up data, particularly TV shows that I time shift and digital photos.
But this isn't what the average Joe user uses it for. I know, I talk to them every day. They want it for music, almost exclusively for music. In fact, a lot of Joe Users aren't aware that CD burners can be used for anything else (seriously).
From Joe User's perspective, copying a CD is easy. Converting and burning an MP3 is easy. It's all done with fun, easy wizards. Drag and drop songs until the wizard says the CD is "full". Press start.
doing the same with DVDs isn't easy. First, I have to contend with running DeCSS and ripping the video off of the DVD. Assuming the source is a single layer, single side DVD, all I have to do is write and go. Assuming it isn't, now I have to split the source file into two different DVDs or recompress into a tighter space. See, all the
DVD Burners do have many great uses, just as CD Burners do, even to Joe. But for him, the gateway use is copying movies, just as his gateway use on the CD burner was copying CDs. Would he discover cool uses for his DVD burner just as he did his CD Burner? Sure. But right now it's too difficult for him to use it for what he perceives to be it's primary purpose.
I don't watch Will and Grace, so I can't comment on that episode, but I'm assuming from the tone of the statement that you consider it to be a crappy episode. I'll give you that. Even very skilled writers have a hard time figuring out how to implement a story line similar to what I imagine the show centered around without a) selling out or b) pissing off sponsors.
But take, for example, the Kenny Roger's Roasters, Drake's Coffee cake, or Black Saab episodes of Seinfeld (episodes for which the studio and writers received no compensation at all). Kramer was conflicted because the neon sign of the Kenny Roger's place was keeping him up, but the chicken tasted so good. People can laugh at Kramer's misfortunes and still get the idea that Kenny Roger's makes a tasty chicken (for the record, it is pretty good). Had KRR paid the writers/studio for that episode, it would've been a perfect example of what I'm describing. For the record, Seinfeld fans consider the Drake's Cake and Kenny Roger's episodes to be some of the funniest around, not to mention that the season arcs about Jerry getting his own show on NBC (a show about nothing) would've worked wonderfully as an NBC self-ad.
The Simpsons (social satire) used to be rife with Fox insults ("wow, Fox turned into a hardcore porn station so fast", "I'm sure there's something better on from those fine folks at ABC", "Friday's just another day between NBC's thursday night must-see TV and Saturday's CBS crap-o-rama"), which I'm sure would do as good a job as "you're watching Fox".
Insidious? It's not a global conspiracy; it's just the way TV's business model works, and it's likely the way it always will work. For all the talk of $2 per show with free previews, it plays out a hell-of-a-lot like the micropayments idea that web comics wish they could implement. It sounds great, but really, the public would simply be too lazy to engage in it. Oh, and I'm sure Visa will love to handle $1 and $2 charges all day long (and the credit disputes customers will bring when 'this show sucked').
Fact of the matter is that advertising is what pays for TV. Until they can prove that a micropayment system works reliably, they're probably gonna stick to the same plan that's been working for the past 50 years. Sure, they may modify it a bit if PVRs start allowing large amounts of people to skip commercials, but they'll make their money somehow. I currently own two DVD television show compilations: Buffy Seasons one and two. It's a grand total of about $70 worth of television shows. Now assuming my apartment complex didn't include extended cable by default, the cable I get right now (extended basic) would cost me about $40 a month. That price is partly subsidized by advertising dollars, as the $10/month for a single channel of ad-less HBO would indicate. Assuming an ad-less TV setup (and interpolating that $10/month tag for ease of math/estimation), I'd need to spend a good, solid $80/month to see the television shows I enjoy: I'd need UPN for Buffy, Fox for Simpsons, NBC for Friends, The History Channel for the cool stuff that comes on it, HGTV for the girlfriend, TNN for their Next Generation re-runs (for the girlfriend; am I the only geek who DOESN'T like Star Trek?), Cartoon Network for the occasional anime that I enjoy watching, and the Food Network (Iron Chef). I'd rather deal with Iron Chef using Ginsus, Bart getting the latest Eidos videogame instead of Blood Warrior 3 (although the fake videogames are always funny), or a plug for Home Depot during an HGTV remodeling show than shell out a smooth $80 for the eight channels we watch at my place. If it comes to that, then I'll decide at that point if $80 is worth it, but until then, I'll deal with the subtle insidiousness.
Just as an aside, I do try to help out those things that I enjoy. I bought the Buffy DVDs despite the fact that I have every season already archived on CD-Rs. And no, it isn't the "incredible picture quality" that motivated me (the tape to DVD transfer on those DVDs is wretched, particularly the first season). I just like Buffy, and I hope to encourage further seasons. I've bought T-Shirts from Thinkgeek and comic compilation books from Bob the Angry flower. There's a fine line between "being a good little consumer" and keeping the companies (or programs) I like in business/on the air.