Category Archives: Grumbles

annoyances… to me, anyway

Emerging, Grumbles, Multimedia

HDTV is dead

Rocketboom guest declares HDTV dead
Tonight as I watched Rocketboom (noting how they seem to fluctuate between various qualities of resolution with each iTunes download – what’s up with that?) I was overtaken with nostalgia as they highlighted a new professional grade Panasonic digital video cam, the ag-hvx200.

This used to be my world, oh, before I crossed over from non-broadcast video production (from ad agency animatics for O&M to nuclear power plant training for Ontario Hydro, if you really want to know) to the dark side of computer science to eventually become – The Portable Consultant 😉

My point, if I have one, is that I was pleased to see that not only is video tape dead but I was informed by a knowledgeable professional, David Tames, that HDTV is also dead and has been for years! Unbeknownst to the telcos and big media, convergence is indeed real and has really happened. Briefly, as others have been saying, your PC is your TV.

I want my MTV
Thank goodness. I wanted to build my own MythTV anyway (after watching Revision3’s DIY video, here). But I had better hurry up before Big Media leads the US government to inflict all digital systems with DRM and plug Analog Holes (A-holes!).

…sigh…

-pmh

ps: how about that “4-card RAID array” that fits in the palm of your hand instead of a DV tape! How my own digital lives have now converged.

Grumbles, Open Source

British Computer Society member worries about open source

“What we really need from government is an investigation of the long-term effects of OSS on our indigenous software industry.”-ITNOWextra -member view- September 2005

Before you go jetting off to Vancouver’s OSCMS conference, just take a moment to reflect on all the trouble that open source causes.

You may decide it would be better to get together with some friends and destroy a few textile machines!

Via: Simon Phipps’s The Mink Dimension

–pmh

Grumbles, New Paradigms

Consumers hit in shoot-out between big media thugs

If you thought that digital rights management (DRM) was mostly about protecting copyright in the digital age then this story on Barry Ritholtz’s Big Picture blog may disturb you.

It seems that in this case the media production establishment has finally lost its collective mind and is engaged in all out commercial warfare. In a war between Sony and Apple the consumer has become a victim of collateral damage.

When you’ve read the story, continue on with the posted comments. In the end consumers always have the final say.

-pmh