Month: December 2005

TIVO Deathwatch: Clash with a Titan?

Variety reports that TIVO, through its new deal-a-day CEO, is moving towards a showdown (cue Archie Bell song). Seems the TV networks, who presumably are the requiring force behind the DRM functions TIVO has been experimenting with, are all a tither about the forthcoming feature (or maybe it’s already here- I have a $1000 HD-TIVO/doorstop that doesn’t get any of the new features rolled out to the $100 boxes) that will allow people to download network TV shows to their iPods (really- will anybody actually do this?). Of course the networks are also worked up about the fact the TIVOs allow you to fast forward through commercials, even though (a) VCRs have allowed this for decades and (b) that’s one of the main reasons people buy TIVOs (along with the ability to hold doors open once they are pre-maturely obsolete).

Here’s my thing:

1) People can record network shows for their own use. The networks fought and lost that battle a long time ago.

2) No one is going to do this purely to rob the TV networks of their rights. While I will never experience it firsthand, I’m pretty sure a show on an iPod is less fulfilling experience than a show on an HDTV big-screen.

3) These shows are broadcast for free. I get most of my network HDTV over the air and so do most other DirecTV customers. It’s not like people are stealing unreleased movies and putting them on the internet.

I honestly believe that the networks and the record label cartel are so freaked out by the gradual decline of the goose that has laid golden eggs for so long that their knee-jerk reaction any time they hear the word download is to start screaming and flailing around wildly.

The cat is out of the bag as far as media distribution goes. These companies need to start adapting to the world, because I don’t think the world is going to stop turning just because their gravy train has slowed down a little.

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More DRM Madness

rootkit

If you want to read more reasons while I will never buy a DRM-infested song or CD, check out David Berlind’s article over at ZDNet.

He mentions a couple of problems that the record label cartel’s beloved DRM forces on the unwilling and perhaps unsuspecting public- one of which is the inability to easily pass your music collection on to someone else when you die. That’s a good point that I’d never thought about before. For the casual music fan who has a couple of hundred songs on an iPod, DRM probably isn’t that big of a deal. Where it is a gigantic problem is when you are a huge music fan with thousands of records comprising a vast music collection that you spent a lifetime and tens of thousands of dollars putting together. In other words, the record label cartel is screwing its best customers the hardest.

Let’s think about the practical effects of this problem. I have over 20,000 songs in my music library, all of which came from LPs, cassettes and mostly CDs that I have bought. All of them have been ripped onto my music server (which after several evolutions is now a dedicated hard drive in my computer and a synchronized back-up drive on my network). The CDs are all stacked in boxes in my garage- hard, tangible assets my kids can dust off and enjoy when they hit 40 and realize that dad’s music isn’t as lame as they thought (this happened to me when I had my “blues epiphany” back in 1994 and realized that most of the old blues songs I thought I hated were awesome songs). While I have some songs from my old LPs and cassettes that would never be recovered if my digital music library got destroyed, most of the songs are on those CDs in those boxes. On the other hand, if I had compiled my music collection via DRM-infested downloads, what exactly would I own? Or would I own anything? Is it truly an asset if you can’t sell it at a garage sale or on eBay or leave it to your children? What’s next, DRM on your mutual funds?

Whatever I would have (and I tend to think that conceptually I wouldn’t own much), I would not be able to legally and easily pass that music on to my kids and even if somehow I could and/or did, the music could stop at any moment if I or they run afoul of the ever-growing list of restrictions that the record label cartel is putting on the downloaded music (some of the fine print relating to DRM indicates that additional restrictions can be added after you buy the song). In sum, you don’t truly control (read truly own) DRM-infested song files and that’s a deal-stopper for me.

The record label cartel uses fact that someone might allow others to acquire unauthorized (read unpaid for) copies of a CD as a carte blanche to sell us crippled and broken goods. If CDs do go away and the only music available is DRM-infested downloads, I simply won’t buy any more music. I’ll just listen to the radio (online and satellite- not over the air, since commercials are almost as unacceptable to me as DRM). Talk about an industry in trouble, traditional music radio is in a world of hurt, but that’s a topic for another day.

David’s article also links to a story about Elliot Spitzer’s probe into the pricing of downloadable music. I suspect the Spitzer probe has to do with the record label cartel’s desire to have variable pricing at iTunes and other online stores- that way if some song becomes a huge hit, they could charge more than a buck for the download. Funny how the ten bad songs on a CD never cost less than a buck. This is another proposed screw-job on the American public, and I hope Spitzer can beat the cartel back under its rock, but as far as I can tell this isn’t really about DRM.

The only way I see to solve the DRM problem is for enough of us to vote with our pocketbooks. That’s what I’m doing.

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2006 Tech Trends

top10The Mercury News published its predictions for the Top 10 Tech Trends for 2006 today. It’s a broad list that covers some areas I know something about and some I don’t.

WiFi expanding seems like a sure thing. The big hurdle will be city-wide wifi, which would level the playing field and free us from Starbucks, McDonalds and price gouging hotels. Here in Texas the phone companies are trying to get the legislature to prohibit municipal wifi. Hopefully they will not be successful. If ever there was a bill that should result in an immediate cleaning house (and senate), that would be it. If municipal wifi gets legs, it could be the story of 2006.

Internet phone calls may be a trend, but someone has to convince millions of people like me that if we dial 911 on VOIP, someone will answer who can help and knows where we’re calling from. There are often no mulligans when it comes to a 911 call, so creating certainty in the minds of the masses will be critical to the trend-ablility of internet phone service. Otherwise it will be a utility for a few and a toy for many.

Video blogging seems like a good bet too. I suspect video blogging will become a complimentary feature to a blog (much like a podcast is now), as opposed to a substitute.

I’m a bit mixed on office moving to the web. Yes, Microsoft Office will be more “web like,” which is a very good thing, but no major corporation (and certainly no law or accounting firm) is going to allow mass storage of documents online for two reasons: one, liability; two, the fear of a bad decision (“if it’s always been done this way and I keep doing it this way, I’m not responsible if it doesn’t work; but if I change how it’s done and it doesn’t work, I’m toast”- I’ve actually had clients say this very thing to me before on more than one occasion).

I hope clean technology is a trend, but unfortunately the environment loses to the almighty dollar like the Generals lose to the Globetrotters.

I agree with Frank Gruber that RSS will also be a trend for the reasons I have already mentioned. RSS and the open-source movement are creating some incredible technology, and this trend is in its infancy. A lot of the great technology in 2006 and beyond will come from the cyber-garages that brought us Firefox and all of its extensions and add-ons. If I was trend hunting, that’s where I’d start.

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Christmas Part 3: Christmas Day

Cassidy woke everyone up around 8:15. I came downstairs first to get the video camera ready, then the the girls came bounding down the steps to see what Santa had left for them. We opened presents, played with our toys and ate stocking candy for breakfast.

Later we went to church, where every child got to bring his or her favorite toy to the front for the blessing of the toys. It was the first time I recall seeing this, and it was very cool. Afterwards, we came home and the girls played some more and jumped on the trampoline. In the afternoon, we went to the Fenrichs for a wonderful Christmas meal of homemade gumbo and potato salad. We played a litte croquet and the kids exchanged gifts.

Then we came home, played some more and the girls collapsed in their beds after a fun and busy day.

It was a great Christmas.

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Blogosphere’s Most Interesting People

interesting

Duncan Riley over at the Blog Herald has listed his Top 10 Most Interesting People in the Blogosphere for 2005.

It’s a good list and it’s hard to come up with the Top 10 in anything. In no particular order, here are some of the people I found the most interesting in 2005. The ones in italics are on his list as well.

Robert Gale: I find A Welsh View to be a compelling, every day read.

 Jason Calacanis: I like the way he speaks his mind with little reservation. It will be interesting to see if he will continue to do this now that he’s with AOL.

Robert Scoble: A lot of what I have learned about blogs and RSS came either from his page or from links on his page. The place to start to learn the who, what, why and how of blogs.

David Sifry: I say it over and over- Technorati is the backbone of the blogosphere. Someone is going to pay a lot of coupon for Technorati in 2006. Imagine the blogosphere without Technorati and you imagine a colder, darker, disconnected place.

Gabe Rivera: Memeorandum is generally the first place I read every morning. The New York Times of the blogosphere.

Improbulus: A Consuming Experience has the best blogging tutorials I have ever seen. Much of what I have implemented here was learned there.

Duncan Riley: He can’t put himself on his list, but he’s an easy inclusion on mine. The Blog Herald has been a daily read of mine for a long time. Along with A Welsh View, it’s one of the few blogs that can always be counted on for new and interesting topics.

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Looking for a Few Good Blogs

Thanks to the wonder of the blogosphere and the kindness of my fellow bloggers, I have already received 4 of the 10 things on my blog-related Christmas list (thanks Fred, JK, Flickr commenters and Memeorandum). Thomas Hawk is a sure bet to take more great photos, so we’ll count me at 50%.

My numbering is hopeless (I actually had to go back and ADD a number 4 because I skipped it (again)).

Kevin, J.P. and Dwight are still out shopping.

So tonight I want to focus on number 10- more good blogs to read. If you write or know of a good, regularly updated blog that would fit in on my blogroll, drop me an email. I’ll take a look and if I add it to my blogroll I’ll post a note about it here.

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Thinking Backwards, Looking Forward

Ray Ozzie has an interesting post today summing up 2005 and looking towards 2006. It got me thinking a little about the past and pending year.

2005:

Day Job: I did some stuff right and some stuff less than perfectly. Brand building was my focus, and we did some good there. Politics and diplomacy are my challenges pretty much 24/7/365. My challenges are to learn what I can fix and what I can’t and to focus more of my efforts on the former. I think too many of us obsess on the broken stuff at the expense of the places we can make a positive difference.

Music: I suspect my completed song output in 2005 was about as low as it’s been since I was in my 20s. I finished one song and co-wrote maybe two. I did get three songs recorded and had one chart in Europe. I need to either write more in 2006 or stop thinking of myself as a songwriter.

Internet: I renewed my ACCBoards.Com affiliation with Scout.Com. It’s not a perfect relationship but it’s one that benefits both companies. I moved Newsome.Org to a blog platform, first as a content management tool and then as a full-fledged blog. I have worked harder that I thought I would have to to generate traction, but I’ve actually got a bunch of readers- thank you, each and every one of you.

Family: Saving the best for last, this was a fun year for us. The girls are doing great. They have a little brother who will be born literally any day now. We bought the property next to us and built a play area and a soccer field. We are going to really enjoy it over the years.

2006:

I’m not going to make a lot of predictions, but I will say a few words about my plans and then make a couple I feel pretty sure about.

My Plans: As mentioned above, I need to adjust my sphere of concern a little- to encompass what I can change and not what I can’t. This covers a lot of areas, but can be boiled down to this- try to be very, very good at a few things instead of pretty good at a lot of things.

My Projects: As we all know, Project Flickr was a failure. I will still do a little Friend Fishing. Everything else here will be more or less the same- maybe a little tweaking to write in a little more depth about things that interest me. I will also start a year long self-improvement project in early January, which will be updated regularly here. More on that later.

My Predictions:

I just can’t help it, so here goes:

1) The new version of Internet Explorer will impress almost everyone. Tabbed browsing will help close the feature gap. But over time, Firefox will own the “geek” market and IE will be the choice of the (still large and worthwhile) non-geek market. Eventually, Firefox will make inroads there, but not so much in 2006.

2) Someone will release the killer podcast creation, publication and management application in 2006. I’m not talking about a website; I’m talking about desktop software. Maybe it’s a better version of Audacity; maybe something else. But it will happen. Also the RIAA will loose the hounds on podcasting in 2006 in another futile effort to stuff the cat back in the bag.

3) RSS will gain widespread acceptance with the new version of Outlook (as we discussed earlier this week). More and more news services will start to distribute news that way. Some media source I read will try paid feeds and it just might work. If I am going to pay for a site, I’d rather read the stories in a news reader than a browser.

4) Someone, probably Google, will buy Technorati and pay a fortune for it. Google simply can’t afford to let Yahoo get in front of it again.

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Christmas Part 2: Christmas Eve


Today was a fun and relaxing day. The Clarks came over this afternoon and we played soccer in the new yard. The girls (Cassidy, Evie, Delaney and Yvette) beat the boys (me, Greg and Aidan) 20-8. I have yet to win a game on the new soccer field.

Later we went with the Fenrichs to the children’s Christmas Eve service at church and then to Outback for dinner. Last Christmas Eve we did the same thing, except it was snowing really hard and we came home afterwards and had a snowball fight.

After dinner the Fenrichs and the Clarks came over for dessert. The kids played on the trampoline and had a great time. Arnie and I played some pool.

After everyone left, the kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve presents, wrote a note for Santa and ran off to bed.

What a fun day!

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50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

PC World has released its list of the 50 greatest gadgets of the past 50 years. Here’s my take on the ones I know something about.

45. Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997)

Absolutely deserves to be on this list and probably higher. My first digital camera, after I fell in love with one owned by my brother-in-law. We still have it around here somewhere. It took digital photos directly onto a floppy disk.

43. Polaroid Swinger (1965)

I remember being utterly amazed that you could take a picture and it would print immediately while you waited. This was some amazing technology. Cassidy asked Santa Claus for a polaroid camera for this Christmas, so the technology is still around.

40. Connectix QuickCam (1994)

Another gadget I learned about from my brother in law. I have one of its great grandchildren attached to my computer right now. This was a great step forward in terms of internet connectivity.

36. Iomega Zip Drive (1995)

Yes, everyone owned one. The stock was a day traders’ dream back in the day. But the technology was crappy then and it’s crappy now.

32. Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)

Everybody had one, yes. But it wouldn’t make my list.

27. Commodore 64 (1982)

Absolutely, positively deserves to be on this list. Probably higher.

17. Texas Instruments SR-10 (1973)

The first TI calculator I ever had was a 1/2 pound Christmas present that seemed at the time like a dream come true. Definitely made math and Chemistry easier.

BlackBerry-850_a-703061

14. BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (1998)

This was the first Blackberry I carried around. I replaced it with the newer phone-form model, but this was truly amazing technology at the time.

7. Atari Video Computer System (1977)

My friend Andy Rogers’ brother had Mattel’s Intellivision competitor to this, and it was a groundbraking thing to be able to play video games at home. I still remember beating Andy’s butt at Intellivision Football for hours on end. I had two plays- roll out right and roll out left. And I was unstoppable!

5. Sony CDP-101 (1982)

CD Players changed the world and made me have to repurchase my music collection for a third time: LPs, cassettes and then CDs. I remember the first CD I ever bought: Hot Rocks by The Rolling Stones (I’m not a fan of greatest hits records, but there wasn’t a wide selection to choose from back then).

3. (Tie) ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (1999)

I’d actually pick all of the TIVOs and give them the number one place on my list, as I would have in my 10-year list as well. My love for TIVO is what makes me angry and sad as I watch it die a painful death.

2. Apple iPod (2001)

I’ve never owned an iPod, but as a stand-in for all portable MP3 players, it should be high on this list. But number 2 is a little too high.

1. Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979)

I had several incarnations of the Walkman line, and they were great products. Number 1 is too high, however. Maybe top 10, but you’ve got to put the stand-in for personal computers number 1. I’d put TIVO number 2. After that, maybe a tie between the Walkman and the iPod.

Here are some other people’s takes on the list (I’ll update as people send me links):

Engadget

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