I don't see how this follows. The whole point of "must carry" is that cable and satellite must carry local affiliates, not a network feed. (Except in a few cases.)
That's actually an important point. Here's the thing about "must carry", though. It's not the great thing that affiliates might think it is. It's a stop-gap measure at best. As the recent Comcast and DirecTV deals show, it's entirely possible for the networks to do an end-run around their affiliates if they choose to. If affiliates stop making enough money for the network, they could probably now find a way to make money without affiliates. Lord knows MTV makes money without them...
The whole iTunes Video thing just shows yet another way in which video production networks can distribute their content without the help of over-the-air broadcast stations. Broadcast guys are in trouble, much like the music publishing industry, and they know it.
As far as local v.s. national advertisers... I'm going to guess we might see market-specific ads online in places other than 'Yahoo/Google local'...
Keep in mind, I'm not saying over-the-air broadcast is going away, I'm just saying it's less important, even to the networks themselves.
If scientific observation indicates that current theories are inadequate to explain the complexities biological structures, why would you want to supress that information?
Who is suppressing that information?
My science teachers were always very clear that there's a limit to what we currently know, and that there is still a lot of interesting work to be done in research science, as there are many things we don't know about every single science subject you could study.
Did someone try to teach your kid that we know everything there is to know about the origin or life?
Are you implying that teaching pseudoscientific or religious-based explanations for the origin of life ( or any other less-than-certain scientific topic ) is the right way to combat some supposed "suppression" of "information" ? Does that really make sense to you ?
Or would you just like to see your religious-based views taught in public schools? Be honest, please...
In short, they claim to have counter-examples to the fundamental premise of materialistic evolution.
They make that claim, but is it backed up by anything even remotely resembling real science?
Your Flying Spaghetti Monster comment is spot-on, by the way.
One doesn't attempt to directly prove the existence of God through ID. ID argues that the non-existence of a higher-power can be disproved.
Uh... I fail to see how "prove the existence of X" logically != "disprove non-existence of X". Honestly. X exists or does not. This is independent of the *fact* that the evidence to "disprove non-existance" is pretty much "we don't understand this process, so it must be X at work!", which is hardly scientific.
I mean really. Come on. Be honest with yourself for a second...
Apple video uses QVGA, which is Quater VGA. It means exactly what you think it does, you can put 4 tiles of QVGA into one VGA image. That's 320x240 pixels. 320x240 VERY compressed pixels. VGA is the same resolution as NTSC. Yes, it's crappier than network television quality, if that's possible.
Yup. Optimized for the video iPod. You are somehow thinking it should be optimized for your computer? Not until Apple can make more money on that model...
The affiliates probably wouldn't be happy about either of those options.
This assumes (a) that the affiliates are not owned by the broadcaster and (b) that the affiliates are in a position of power.
Let's think for a minute. What's a better market for an advertiser : All of the viewers in one major market, or all of the users of iTunes?
The local, independant affiliate has lost market share in a big, big way over the years. They don't have the sway over the broadcasters that they once had. How many people get their TV off-air ( not via cable or satellite ) these days? Is that market the wealthier, even middle-class group that advertisers like to target? Affiliates might not be the most important part of the network equation, at least not for long...
I am also a True Believer and attend a worship service every Sunday.
That said, ID is NOT true science. It is simply a score of men who wish to get nonsense into our textbooks.
Ok, I rarely comment on lame moderation, but really, you're currently moded "Flamebait" for that?!? Someone needs to turn in their geek card and have their moderation responsibilities take away from them. Until someone can come up with an experiment to prove the existence of a deity, that's not flamebait, it's fact. "Intelligent Design" is not a Scientific Theory, it's not even really qualifiable as a Scientific Hypothesis... in order to be either there would need to be a way to test it. There are experiments to test all sorts of wacky quantum physics things, but not I.D., and there is a reason for that. How the heck do you propose to prove that "some intelligent designer" "guides" evolutionary forces?
Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean that it's done by magic.
Thank god those school board lamers got voted out. The petty power-hungry jerks that end up on school boards in America, I swear... they're the worst... you just *know* there are real, serious needs of the students that went unaddressed while these guys were pushing their religious agenda.
Whew. The system works. In the time it took me to write and preview my comment, you went from flamebait to insightful. Faith in humanity partially restored, given that and recent election results;-)
. The onboard camera is the best quality cell-phone camera I've ever seen (640x480 VGA, good brightness adjustment.)
funny, I've only heard complaints about the camera picture quality. The pics look OK as long as you leave them on the phone. Just don't look at them on a computer...
I've been told it's a good *phone*, though, which is what counts... the V3i has a 1MP camera, btw...
The NSMenu API has been re-hosted on top of the Carbon menu manager, and the upshot is that it's much harder to write a custom menu than it was under NeXTSTEP. Subclassing NSMenu or NSMenuItem is just about hopeless.
Dude, don't get me started on that menu bar. I know it's an item of religious value, but that top-level-menu-bar introduces so many problems from both a UI and practical programming perspective that I've finally decided it's just not worth it. It's bad enough that it won't just go away, can't they at least re-write it and make it not Carbon? GUH. Start a frickin' polling loop on a mouse-down, will you? I just want to kick the thing...
To make matters worse, it doesn't work from a UI point of view. I can't tell you how many times I've had a user confused about what application was running in the forground because they look at the topmost visible *window* for the cue, not the menu bar at the top of the screen... these are long-time Mac users I'm talking about, not *nix or Windows users looking for what's familiar- these people should intuitively know to look at the top of the screen for this clue, but they don't, because they're ( rightly ) looking at the *window*. You know, where the *data* and *controls* are.
Um. Sorry. Rant off. But OS X will never be NeXTSTep because they'll never lose that top-of-screen menu bar. Oh, and that whole "but it's easy to hit this point" argument? If your users can't hit a button at the top of the window they're working on, they have bigger problems that aren't going to be solved by that top-of-screen menu bars.
what, we're getting and postscript-based window manager? Core Data is succeeding in giving some sort of Enterprise Objects Framework back to us ? We're getting DSPs in our Macs?
We're getting rid of Carbon? Oh god, tell me we're getting rid of Carbon... oh, wait... we are, that's part of the Intel move, huh! I'd almost forgotten... thank goodness for that...
Ok, ok, carbon has it's uses... sadly enough... or does it?
I wonder what would happen if I got a G5 system, or, peraps, should I wait until the Intel Macs arrive?
Do you have money burning a hole in your pocket, or desire for a really fast system with high-end graphics performance?
If the answer is yes, then by all means go ahead and buy a PowerMac. You're going to like it a lot. The case and hardware layout is dreamy. The thing is just pretty, and performance certainly doesn't disappoint. I like the dual 1.8Ghz G5 I have... but I'm not getting another G5, I don't think. I'll be looking for the second-generation Intel laptops...
If your Mini does what you need it to do, though... there's a reason why Mac users are slow to replace their systems. They don't need to.
I really think the iPod video is about having the *option* to carry your video around with you. It's not the main feature. It's almost a diversion.
The real feature is downloading TV shows over the internet. iTunes Music ( and Video ) store, to be specific.
Why is everyone focused on the iPod video and mobile phones? Did you not notice that iMac shipping with an integrated remote control ? Do you think every one of those million videos sold in the first 20 days of iTunes selling videos went anywhere near a mobile?
If I had a chance to sell a million of something for $2.99 each this month, I'd do it, even if I only made a fraction of that $2.99 off each sale.
This may not be all about the iPod, people. Apple has to keep refreshing the iPod to chase those huge iPod sales numbers, but this iTunes video initiative may not depend on a portable device. 45% of everyone is a pretty good start, and as people get used to the idea and put their computers in more media-friendly locations with more high-speed connections, that number is only going to grow.
have never understood the appeal of those portable DVD players
You do not have children.
I was also puzzled as to why you'd get one of these. Then I needed to take my 4 year old on a multi-state driving trip. I love my portable DVD player, although I've never, ever personally watched it myself...
Won't somebody please make a commodity Power PC box I can run Linux on?
If you really want it, why haven't you already searched for it?
The most basic search comes up with Terra Soft and the fact that their Linux distro supports Apple ( the obvious choice, at least for the next year or so... just buy a mini and you're done, or buy a high-end model if you like ) as well as IBM Blades and an interesting Genesi desktop which fits the pricepoint between the Apple mini and the IBM blade and Apple PowerMacs...
On the other hand, though, I'm not sure why it makes a difference to you. These AMD chips seems pretty nice, don't they?
Not only does a uniform policy for the entire country make it easier to do business, a federal law can preempt any attempts at laws that actually mean anything useful to individuals, making doing business much, much easier.
No way is Google going to spend the capital to do their own satellite system or the licensing fees to use someone elses. They'll be doing it over broadband to a hard drive within the Set Top Box.
It's way worse than that. There is *absolutely* no evidence whatsoever that Google is even *thinking* of owning or operating satellites. None.
This whole story is predicated on a blog which speculates about googletv.* and googledvr.*... now, I absolutely believe Google has plenty of intentions on video, TV, heck maybe even DVR-like tech. They already have Google Current, why think they'll stop there? But to jump to "they're doing Satellite TV!"?!? That's going way too far, and greatly reduces the credibility of the blog this was posted in.
Of course, I suppose Google might have the funds to do satellites at this point, but they seem more interested in throwing bodies at OpenOffice... let's talk about Google Satellite when there's some evidence of them being in talks with Dish Network or DirecTV. Until then, let's focus on things that might actually pan out.
Are Google rumors the new Apple rumors?
Is Google's stock going to tank when investors learn that Google has no plans to launch a satellite TV network?
Due to a combination of the number of bugs and misdesign, MySQL does not (to any reasonable degree) provide the feature "When I do an update to the database and do not get an error, that update is guaranteed to be there". It happens regularly that it isn't there.
One of the many, many reasons why we chose PostgreSQL.
If I thought you had any choice in the matter, I'd ask why you aren't using it. Short of the "it uses less resources" argument, I've always been confused as to why you'd choose MySQL when PostgreSQL is available... not that I'm not open to using MySQL... I just never found the arguments for it too compeling, and too often they're like "it works for me, what's your problem, loser!", which doesn't really help MySQL in a corporate or even small business setting.
No, this shouldn't be a PostgreSQL/MySQL debate. We should be talking about this Oracle thing... which is nice, but just reflects matching what the competition already offered, right?
"Just Do It" works if you're successful. Not so much if things turn out poorly.
For this guy, things worked out. Maybe it's more like "just do it if you know what needs to be done and are sure of your success".
Then again, there are some managers who dislike anything that's not their idea or at least didn't require their blessing. If that's who you work for, though, I'd say get the hell out and find someone who rewards productive risk-taking and successful initiative. If you're the *head* of your IT department, you should be given a fairly serious amount of control over how things are done, *especially* if you've been tasked with taking over a high-cost failure, as this fellow was.
I suspect our friend here had perhaps a bit more buy-off from upper management than it appears. He was probably instructed to "fix it, don't spend money, and don't bother us with the details". Does the fact that he succeeded without a load of bureaucracy bother you, or is it the adoption of OpenBSD ( no problems with corporate use there, BTW ) that bothers you?
Again, I'm agreeing with you generally- going it alone is often a poor choice - but inaction is fairly often worse than action, and it's hard to argue with success. People tend to view successful execution of an independent plan as "initiative". It's only "insubordination" if you fail. The lesson? Don't fail.
So he just wants to set up this as a pretext for slamming Sony with "Look at them using propriety memory sticks in the PS3!" and Apple with "Why don't they support more formats (like wmv) in their devices?"--all the while protesting that he's the enlightened one who offered to make peace.
So very precisely... which is what makes it all such a marketing farce. He's made up a hypothetical which makes no sense and is out of touch with any reality.
Worse, in this case it's *Microsoft's* place to call asking for cooperation on integration, as they stand to benefit more from interoperability in this case. Working with the Xbox actually goes directly against the 'Apple computer halo effect' that the iPod is working towards, and while Sony wants their PSP and other devices as Windows- compatible as possible ( to connect with their own computers ), it's not in their interest to have them work spectacularly well with the Xbox.
For Apple or Sony to approach him is a very large 'IF'.
Big-time. Let's think. What are there more of, iPods or Xbox360s? Ok, that's a little unfair. What are there more of, iPods or Xboxes? Sony cameras, PSPs, and other Sony-brand audio and video devices, or Xboxes? Somehow I think we all have iPods and Sony cameras/videocameras/media devices, but only some of us are even considering an Xbox360.
Sony and Apple don't need the XBox, and they don't need to work with it, either. The Xbox needs to work with *them*. Either MS has already approached both companies about ensuring compatability, or MS knows they'd just get laughed out of the room if they did...
This is such thinly veiled marketing garbage, to even suggest that it's Apple's or Sony's job to even think about such an issue.
I work with a bunch of licensed Electrical Engineers. I write engineering applications they use to do their work.
My job title ?
Senior Computer Programmer.
Despite the fact that my degree came from a school of engineering just like theirs did, and I do complicated system design *and* have to understand all of the details of their engineering practices and workflow, I actually think my job title is more appropriate than that of 'Software Engineer'. Not that Engineer would be inappropriate, it's just that 'programmer' is more descriptive and technically correct. Hardware guys are engineers, software guys are programmers... there's a qualitative difference, even if you're following good engineering-based software design practices.
Erotic film producers are expected to play a major role in deciding the next DVD standard. Large outfits tend to support the high-capacity Blu-ray Disc, while small outfits generally favor the less-expensive HD-DVD.
which makes perfect sense. In reality, their support is as fluid as any other studio, and what's most likely is that the smaller studios will continue to release DVD-only until the price of either drops enough or a winner is clear.
IMHO, the pr0n industry won't so much *decide* the winner in this one, as *crown* the winner... they'll be the first to objectively look at market statistics and release only on the format that has the most... um... penetration.
Slashdot Mirror
... but I will.
I've seen enough of his "work".
At this point, Lerner has a *lot* of work to do in order to regain any sort of credibility.
Really, by the time Vista actually sees the light of day, won't there be Intel Powerbooks sitting around soaking up any spare attention I might have ?
Laughing at these articles is as much attention as Vista is likely to get from me ( or the company I work for ) any time soon...
That's actually an important point. Here's the thing about "must carry", though. It's not the great thing that affiliates might think it is. It's a stop-gap measure at best. As the recent Comcast and DirecTV deals show, it's entirely possible for the networks to do an end-run around their affiliates if they choose to. If affiliates stop making enough money for the network, they could probably now find a way to make money without affiliates. Lord knows MTV makes money without them...
The whole iTunes Video thing just shows yet another way in which video production networks can distribute their content without the help of over-the-air broadcast stations. Broadcast guys are in trouble, much like the music publishing industry, and they know it.
As far as local v.s. national advertisers... I'm going to guess we might see market-specific ads online in places other than 'Yahoo/Google local'...
Keep in mind, I'm not saying over-the-air broadcast is going away, I'm just saying it's less important, even to the networks themselves.
Who is suppressing that information?
My science teachers were always very clear that there's a limit to what we currently know, and that there is still a lot of interesting work to be done in research science, as there are many things we don't know about every single science subject you could study.
Did someone try to teach your kid that we know everything there is to know about the origin or life?
Are you implying that teaching pseudoscientific or religious-based explanations for the origin of life ( or any other less-than-certain scientific topic ) is the right way to combat some supposed "suppression" of "information" ? Does that really make sense to you ?
Or would you just like to see your religious-based views taught in public schools? Be honest, please...
They make that claim, but is it backed up by anything even remotely resembling real science?
Your Flying Spaghetti Monster comment is spot-on, by the way.
One doesn't attempt to directly prove the existence of God through ID. ID argues that the non-existence of a higher-power can be disproved.
Uh... I fail to see how "prove the existence of X" logically != "disprove non-existence of X". Honestly. X exists or does not. This is independent of the *fact* that the evidence to "disprove non-existance" is pretty much "we don't understand this process, so it must be X at work!", which is hardly scientific.
I mean really. Come on. Be honest with yourself for a second...
Yup. Optimized for the video iPod. You are somehow thinking it should be optimized for your computer? Not until Apple can make more money on that model...
This assumes (a) that the affiliates are not owned by the broadcaster and (b) that the affiliates are in a position of power.
Let's think for a minute. What's a better market for an advertiser : All of the viewers in one major market, or all of the users of iTunes?
The local, independant affiliate has lost market share in a big, big way over the years. They don't have the sway over the broadcasters that they once had. How many people get their TV off-air ( not via cable or satellite ) these days? Is that market the wealthier, even middle-class group that advertisers like to target? Affiliates might not be the most important part of the network equation, at least not for long...
Ok, I rarely comment on lame moderation, but really, you're currently moded "Flamebait" for that?!? Someone needs to turn in their geek card and have their moderation responsibilities take away from them. Until someone can come up with an experiment to prove the existence of a deity, that's not flamebait, it's fact. "Intelligent Design" is not a Scientific Theory, it's not even really qualifiable as a Scientific Hypothesis... in order to be either there would need to be a way to test it. There are experiments to test all sorts of wacky quantum physics things, but not I.D., and there is a reason for that. How the heck do you propose to prove that "some intelligent designer" "guides" evolutionary forces?
Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean that it's done by magic.
Thank god those school board lamers got voted out. The petty power-hungry jerks that end up on school boards in America, I swear... they're the worst... you just *know* there are real, serious needs of the students that went unaddressed while these guys were pushing their religious agenda.
Whew. The system works. In the time it took me to write and preview my comment, you went from flamebait to insightful. Faith in humanity partially restored, given that and recent election results ;-)
sorry, I should have attached a ;-) to that... as if...
funny, I've only heard complaints about the camera picture quality. The pics look OK as long as you leave them on the phone. Just don't look at them on a computer...
I've been told it's a good *phone*, though, which is what counts... the V3i has a 1MP camera, btw...
Dude, don't get me started on that menu bar. I know it's an item of religious value, but that top-level-menu-bar introduces so many problems from both a UI and practical programming perspective that I've finally decided it's just not worth it. It's bad enough that it won't just go away, can't they at least re-write it and make it not Carbon? GUH. Start a frickin' polling loop on a mouse-down, will you? I just want to kick the thing...
To make matters worse, it doesn't work from a UI point of view. I can't tell you how many times I've had a user confused about what application was running in the forground because they look at the topmost visible *window* for the cue, not the menu bar at the top of the screen... these are long-time Mac users I'm talking about, not *nix or Windows users looking for what's familiar- these people should intuitively know to look at the top of the screen for this clue, but they don't, because they're ( rightly ) looking at the *window*. You know, where the *data* and *controls* are.
Um. Sorry. Rant off. But OS X will never be NeXTSTep because they'll never lose that top-of-screen menu bar. Oh, and that whole "but it's easy to hit this point" argument? If your users can't hit a button at the top of the window they're working on, they have bigger problems that aren't going to be solved by that top-of-screen menu bars.
Oooh! Snap!
Mod that one +5 Insider Informative...
what, we're getting and postscript-based window manager? Core Data is succeeding in giving some sort of Enterprise Objects Framework back to us ? We're getting DSPs in our Macs?
We're getting rid of Carbon? Oh god, tell me we're getting rid of Carbon... oh, wait... we are, that's part of the Intel move, huh! I'd almost forgotten... thank goodness for that...
Ok, ok, carbon has it's uses... sadly enough... or does it?
Do you have money burning a hole in your pocket, or desire for a really fast system with high-end graphics performance?
If the answer is yes, then by all means go ahead and buy a PowerMac. You're going to like it a lot. The case and hardware layout is dreamy. The thing is just pretty, and performance certainly doesn't disappoint. I like the dual 1.8Ghz G5 I have... but I'm not getting another G5, I don't think. I'll be looking for the second-generation Intel laptops...
If your Mini does what you need it to do, though... there's a reason why Mac users are slow to replace their systems. They don't need to.
The real feature is downloading TV shows over the internet. iTunes Music ( and Video ) store, to be specific.
Why is everyone focused on the iPod video and mobile phones? Did you not notice that iMac shipping with an integrated remote control ? Do you think every one of those million videos sold in the first 20 days of iTunes selling videos went anywhere near a mobile?
If I had a chance to sell a million of something for $2.99 each this month, I'd do it, even if I only made a fraction of that $2.99 off each sale.
This may not be all about the iPod, people. Apple has to keep refreshing the iPod to chase those huge iPod sales numbers, but this iTunes video initiative may not depend on a portable device. 45% of everyone is a pretty good start, and as people get used to the idea and put their computers in more media-friendly locations with more high-speed connections, that number is only going to grow.
You do not have children.
I was also puzzled as to why you'd get one of these. Then I needed to take my 4 year old on a multi-state driving trip. I love my portable DVD player, although I've never, ever personally watched it myself...
If you really want it, why haven't you already searched for it?
The most basic search comes up with Terra Soft and the fact that their Linux distro supports Apple ( the obvious choice, at least for the next year or so... just buy a mini and you're done, or buy a high-end model if you like ) as well as IBM Blades and an interesting Genesi desktop which fits the pricepoint between the Apple mini and the IBM blade and Apple PowerMacs...
On the other hand, though, I'm not sure why it makes a difference to you. These AMD chips seems pretty nice, don't they?
Not only does a uniform policy for the entire country make it easier to do business, a federal law can preempt any attempts at laws that actually mean anything useful to individuals, making doing business much, much easier.
That was my first reaction as well. Clearly this was article was written by someone who has never, ever used IRC.
Even helpful people on the net are often that way just to get the gratification of being an 'expert'. I should know...
It's way worse than that. There is *absolutely* no evidence whatsoever that Google is even *thinking* of owning or operating satellites. None.
This whole story is predicated on a blog which speculates about googletv.* and googledvr.*... now, I absolutely believe Google has plenty of intentions on video, TV, heck maybe even DVR-like tech. They already have Google Current, why think they'll stop there? But to jump to "they're doing Satellite TV!"?!? That's going way too far, and greatly reduces the credibility of the blog this was posted in.
Of course, I suppose Google might have the funds to do satellites at this point, but they seem more interested in throwing bodies at OpenOffice... let's talk about Google Satellite when there's some evidence of them being in talks with Dish Network or DirecTV. Until then, let's focus on things that might actually pan out.
Are Google rumors the new Apple rumors?
Is Google's stock going to tank when investors learn that Google has no plans to launch a satellite TV network?
One of the many, many reasons why we chose PostgreSQL.
If I thought you had any choice in the matter, I'd ask why you aren't using it. Short of the "it uses less resources" argument, I've always been confused as to why you'd choose MySQL when PostgreSQL is available... not that I'm not open to using MySQL... I just never found the arguments for it too compeling, and too often they're like "it works for me, what's your problem, loser!", which doesn't really help MySQL in a corporate or even small business setting.
No, this shouldn't be a PostgreSQL/MySQL debate. We should be talking about this Oracle thing... which is nice, but just reflects matching what the competition already offered, right?
For this guy, things worked out. Maybe it's more like "just do it if you know what needs to be done and are sure of your success".
Then again, there are some managers who dislike anything that's not their idea or at least didn't require their blessing. If that's who you work for, though, I'd say get the hell out and find someone who rewards productive risk-taking and successful initiative. If you're the *head* of your IT department, you should be given a fairly serious amount of control over how things are done, *especially* if you've been tasked with taking over a high-cost failure, as this fellow was.
I suspect our friend here had perhaps a bit more buy-off from upper management than it appears. He was probably instructed to "fix it, don't spend money, and don't bother us with the details". Does the fact that he succeeded without a load of bureaucracy bother you, or is it the adoption of OpenBSD ( no problems with corporate use there, BTW ) that bothers you?
Again, I'm agreeing with you generally- going it alone is often a poor choice - but inaction is fairly often worse than action, and it's hard to argue with success. People tend to view successful execution of an independent plan as "initiative". It's only "insubordination" if you fail. The lesson? Don't fail.
So very precisely... which is what makes it all such a marketing farce. He's made up a hypothetical which makes no sense and is out of touch with any reality.
Worse, in this case it's *Microsoft's* place to call asking for cooperation on integration, as they stand to benefit more from interoperability in this case. Working with the Xbox actually goes directly against the 'Apple computer halo effect' that the iPod is working towards, and while Sony wants their PSP and other devices as Windows- compatible as possible ( to connect with their own computers ), it's not in their interest to have them work spectacularly well with the Xbox.
Big-time. Let's think. What are there more of, iPods or Xbox360s? Ok, that's a little unfair. What are there more of, iPods or Xboxes? Sony cameras, PSPs, and other Sony-brand audio and video devices, or Xboxes? Somehow I think we all have iPods and Sony cameras/videocameras/media devices, but only some of us are even considering an Xbox360.
Sony and Apple don't need the XBox, and they don't need to work with it, either. The Xbox needs to work with *them*. Either MS has already approached both companies about ensuring compatability, or MS knows they'd just get laughed out of the room if they did...
This is such thinly veiled marketing garbage, to even suggest that it's Apple's or Sony's job to even think about such an issue.
My job title ?
Senior Computer Programmer.
Despite the fact that my degree came from a school of engineering just like theirs did, and I do complicated system design *and* have to understand all of the details of their engineering practices and workflow, I actually think my job title is more appropriate than that of 'Software Engineer'. Not that Engineer would be inappropriate, it's just that 'programmer' is more descriptive and technically correct. Hardware guys are engineers, software guys are programmers... there's a qualitative difference, even if you're following good engineering-based software design practices.
IMHO, the pr0n industry won't so much *decide* the winner in this one, as *crown* the winner... they'll be the first to objectively look at market statistics and release only on the format that has the most... um... penetration.