A la carte cable mandates would be a benefit to nearly everyone except for the smallest, unsupportable niche channels. But even then, some of that programming would just shift over to more viable channels with a broader scope.

The cable companies are freaking out, knowing that they’ll not be able to charge me $200/mo for the 16 channels I’d have if they didn’t force-feed us the other 350 we NEVER watch.

So what do they do? They stir up the FUD with groups who want their “niche” channels. And I mean to use the quotes because I dont think their channels are niche. They’re as mainstream as any other ones, but the cable operators want them to think that an a-la-carte law would shut them down. Not only are they spreading FUD, they’re essentially creating fake grass roots movements supported by good old cash.

If the cable operators are bribing and scaring people to go thier way, do you think their aim is good for the consumer?

Wow, I was hoping that she would have come off as very smart and that the incident on stage was just a weird diet-pill interaction. So sad, they asked her questions like she’s a 2nd grader… She’s 18! The comments on Digg are HYSTERICAL.

Then, her answer..oh, it’s almost too much to bear. She says that her friends can all find the US on a world map, like that’s special… Wow.

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Since there is an apparent glut of foodstuffs with the image of Jesus or Mary on them, it seems that Beelzebub wants in on the action too.

Some guy on eBay is selling a Nokie 8801 with photos he took in the Arizona desert which came out as the face of the Devil.

I will say that the photo, whatever it’s actual origins are, is damn freaky. Who would want a pic of the devil and pay $500K for it is anyone’s guess.

What is the Devil doing on a highway in Arizona? Well, it IS Arizona in August, he might have thought he was home and hung out for a while.

The auction also states that the phone’s ringer doesn’t work. Work of the Devil?

I watched this segment on 60 minutes a few weeks and it just freaked me out. The head of the GAO (the CFO for the US) is telling us that we’re going broke and no one in Washington is doing anything about it. That’s frightening.

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I’ve had a few big tickets in my time. Rather than incriminate myself, suffice it to say I got close to this guy’s speed on a public road in New Mexico. No ticket and I’ll also say that it was the dumbest thing I’ve EVER done and had I lost control of the car (Audi Quatro V8) it would have been lights out. So, don’t think I’m impressed by this guy, he’s dome something very bad and could have killed more than a few people had he (very likely untrained driver) not kept the car perfectly straight and lucked out of hitting a wandering badger.

In the UK Tim brady managed to unwind their Porsche 911 Twin-Turbo out to a solid 172MPH. A record for the UK, not in speed but in getting caught. Not only was Tim tempting death, it was in a car he borrowed without asking (stealing???) from his work.

Previous to that, the record in the UK was 156 in 2003 by a BMW driver. He served 5 months in jail for winning that honor.

I’ve worked very hard to break the stereotype of IT in the workplace. It’s sometimes hard to escape the desire to scold people for being dense, not looking past their own noses for answers or just being overly needy. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Helpdesk is about customer service, not shaming people who don’t know the ins and outs of computers. Then again, some people can drive you over the edge.

Craig’s list is a big part of my life. To be specific, the selling part is a big part, the rest is off my radar. People’s flames etc are amusing but when I need to offload anything from a busted fridge (sold for $100 in 23 minutes) to buying mid-century modern furniture, it’s got the paper classifieds beat.

What I like about it is if you have something that you need taken away and offer it for free, it’s rare that it won’t get snapped up pretty quick. This is, of course, no secret as this woman found out. While I think it’s funny, the effects of a well placed CL ad can be massive.

Thought of the day: Since this worked so well with a house, imagine how it world work for that neighbor you have that keeps the primer Sentra parked out on the street making for a nasty eyesore. Wait until they’re out of town and place the ad (not from your own PC) for a free car, no keys, no title. A tow truck will show up faster than a gold AAA membership would get it there.

Back to my thing on cable companies and their reluctance to offer the programming people are interested in… When you force the public, the public finds an outlet. Prohibition -> bootlegging, $22 CDs -> Napster, $12 movie tickets -> BitTorrent, making people pay for 350 channels when most people only watch about 15 -> IP TV startups. The bastion of being a broadcasting head-end is under siege. Once again I will put some blame right on the shoulders of Scientific Atlanta for continuing to deliver antique technology, horrible UI and mammoth STBs that should be the size of a portable hard drive by now.

Tubecast has a very cool UI and while the offering is very new, the implementation is SLICK. SA, guys, seriously, these people came up with a UI in a few months that’s on a whole other level. When will you decide to deliver what the public wants? Or, to be more on target, deliver what will keep you in business.

IP head-ends that can license content for live & VOD will change the programming landscape. The technology is still early and without a supporting STB it will have a hard time with penetration but this is where it all starts. The PC in ist current form may never make it into the living room but what I see in the future is a tethered device in the same capacity as an XBox or PS2 that lives on the network, streams media from a home computer but also acts as the main Set Top Box for the living room. From there, the options are wide open for the consumer. What’s to stop a consumer from “subscribing” to programming from anywhere on earth, all a-la-carte.

The barrier to all this is, of course, cumbersome licensing for content. If the content holders all can agree (HAHAHAHAHAHA) on a flat scheme for all this IP TV, the landscape will change and content holders will benefit.

If they dont? This is a picture of the future:
IP TV stations will use a P2P distribution network for “channels”. Looking at Pirate Bay and how they are able to avoid the most aggressive measures the MPAA can use, off-shore head-ends will be able to provide free or almost free VOD programming to anyone on earth. Downloading will end, near-real-time streaming will be the norm, decentralized networks of P2P users will create a massive multi-petabyte WAN RAID network effectively creating a compendium of all digitized content on earth, all a click away. Media will be uploaded into the grid in real-time and once in , it would be nearly impossible to get it out.

It can all be avoided. I would like to see it avoided. Why? If the media companies don’t come to their senses piracy will make it impossible for them to stay viable and the entire entertainment industry could collapse. really, if they stop making money, they’ll close down. That’s not a good outcome. People who make content should be paid for their efforts but the license holders should also realize that the public is demanding a new distribution system that allows easy access, reasonable prices and CHOICE. When you’re forced to pay for channels you dont want, there is only so long you’ll put up with it. When people can get their programming from somewhere else that offers choice, they’ll do it. People are showing that they’ll download TV shows which take time and effort. They Wouldnt do it if they had simple VOD access to it all. They don’t, so in response to loving a TV show and missing an episode, they’ll download it. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact.

I don’t want piracy to continue to evolve because it will start to do harm to the point where we’ll see the weaker media companies fail. It’s the thin end of the wedge. Hollywood, Cable companies, STB makers, Congress, everyone, please, understand, you have to change, you have to evolve, and you have to do it quickly. There are many people who are working on ways to improve the system like Tubecast and other IP TV companies but there are also many people working on better methods of stealing. Don’t fight, be creative, give people what they want, people will be happy to pay for it, just make it easier.

This requires no comment whatsoever.

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Oh, never mind, that’s way too plausible. Stan Sinberg, a writer for the “paper” (what exactly do you call that kind of stuff?) waxes poetic about his tenure of spewing weird faux-news to trailer-park occupant subscribers. In mumus. Who might believe at least one story printed. Who also votes. OMG, the end is neigh.

I previously covered this “story” and assumed that it would just fade away while the nation pretends that no one read the stuff.

I will say that once I did read the story, I realized that it was a lot like the Onion as he said but since the stories were targeted at a lower-brow audience and was more often dark and odd it never caught on with the cool kids who read the other acceptable faux-news zine.

I don’t think it’s sad that WWN is closing down, they didn’t evolve and like other beasts that fail to meet the challenges of a changing world, they eventually succumbed to the forces of nature. And low circulation.

Someone please melt the printing equipment so no one gets any bright ideas…

Great quote:

.” I once pitched a story positing that the U.S. government had data confirming that the one commonality linking all mass killers, including the Columbine shooters, was that they never masturbated. Rather than issue this report, which would save lives but promote onanism, the government preferred to let occasional slaughters take place. My editor rejected it on the grounds that it was “too plausible.”

Oh VW bus, you bastion of stoner culture, you can’t seem to escape your past. There isn’t anyone among us who didn’t go to high school with at least one of those guys who had the van, the tie-dye and the smoke cloud in his wake. It’s the eternal symbol of all things stoner and granola. Good, bad or indifferent, that’s simply the way it is.

In this case, a “personal stash” of weed managed to be “forgotten” within the subframe for at least 30 or so years. You know some guy was freaking out trying to remember where he put the stuff. By the time it was found I doubt it was viable but I knew a few people who’d load it up in a bong and give it a go. In case you’re wondering, it was disposed of.

Not sure if this is useful for every possible situation but if you have a hard time deflecting blame and end up a scape-goat all the time, you might want to check it out.

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Ok, you want to be low impact and eco-friendly? I do but how low-impact can you go? Toilet water low?

Yes. You read that right. I guess they’ve been doing this for a while now. Porsche made tractors 50 years ago so I don’t see this as out of character. In the US farmers may not be seen as an affluent class but elsewhere in the world farming is still lucrative. I have no idea what economic differences there are there that don’t exist here but it seems to be the case.

As you might think, it’s cool looking, has lots of power and is very expensive. No surprise there. I did expect to see more Lambo colors like burnt orange or banana yellow. Seems like EU only, sorry.

Ok, not rioting but Engadget confirmed that the uber-phone is now free to be used with any other provider on GSM. Is there panic over at Apple or AT&T. I doubt they thought it wouldn’t happen, I mean come on, how silly would it be if they’re surprised. Now, if they try to break the unlocks… PR nightmare.

Parents are always looking for something to give their kids the edge they need to survive in the urban infant environment. With crime and violence creeping into lower and lower grades the prepared child is the safe child. Thankfully for a number of forward thinking companies, our youth will be prepared for life in the chalkboard jungle of today.

While some may think this is going overboard, who can put a price on safety? I am very happy to know that not only can you get the helmet but they provide a full line of body-armor that can stop most of the common grade-school variety rounds.

I do think that the baby gas mask is a little much… Guns are easy to find for kids but the threat of VX-Gas in the classroom is still a few years off. IMHO.

In a move unlike the FCC, they’re actually advocating for the will of the public. In essence, cable providers will be forced to sell programming by the channel, al-la-carte. Meaning, you’ll only buy the stuff you watch and not the stuff you don’t.

I believe that this might come to a head. If this goes through the way people watch and buy TV will be very interesting. I think a few things will happen:
1. The real crap that no one watches will get killed very quickly. The good shows that people like from those will get sent over to the channels that people do watch, creating richer channels.

2. We’ll see what our American culture actually likes and doesn’t like as it will be Nielsen-by-wallet. With the consumer actually controlling what lives and what dies, networks will get the quality wake-up-call they desperately need. Since they never react with quality, they’ll respond with sensational shit like live executions in order to garner support for their channels. I hope that’s not the case but I do see that as networks vie for sustainability, they’ll go to great lengths. It will ultimately fail.

3. In about 12 months after a-la-carte is implemented the system will have shaken itself out and the TV landscape will be MUCH smaller but there will be some very good channels and some very bad ones (channel 75-all-girl-street-fighting Network). Hey, we’re Americans.

There are simply too many networks and the majority of them have been getting a free ride. Ultimately, a-la-carte offerings will be put in place, the bubble for ESPN 8 “the ocho” is going to burst.

In that vacuum, new networks will have a chance to give it a try. That’s good. What is also going to happen is the niche networks that were skirting by will die. Niche is imortant, for example, a channel dedicated to road racing is in development. In an a-la-carte world, it might not have a chance since only a few hundred thousand people may pay for it, but those fans are rabid and desperately want it. I think that’s where IP TV will come in and it may help these little guys.

Since programming has been so closed off to the reality of the real marketplace and what people want, I think there will be great change but the forces of the market will put it where it needs to be and true balance will exist. I can do without HSN and I don’t want to pay for it. I also don’t want to pay for Cartoon Network (they’re wildly profitable) but I know that kids will. Most of the Discovery channels will survive as will many lifestyle channels but I’m interested to see what gets killed off. I’m dying to know if VH1 has enough people out there to keep it alive.

I think that a lot of this could have been avoided by simple UI features. Scientific Atlanta builds the set top boxes for the majority of cable operators. If they only included the simple option of hiding channels in the line-up you dont want to see listed, people would forget that they’re paying for Oxygen. People also wouldn’t have to flip through 900 channels to move around the grid. The SA UI is so bad, it’s driving me to get rid of my PVR (you cant even search!!!) and just get a Tivo. It’s another example that UI is very important and that simple features like hiding and searching can impact a larger business model.

I look forward to the massive channel churn that would be brought on by this. I hope in that we’ll get the real BBC channels from the UK as offerings here and some other foreign channels that might remind all of us that Hollywood isn’t the owner of all things creative and entertaining.

I’m seeing more and more sites that have how-to videos showing how to make lasers that burn stuff, smoke flares, trap someone on a tree and now, open a locked car with a tennis ball

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I’m over the cult of weight loss. People spend billions on weight loss and they’re getting fatter. I don’t think weight loss is a mystery. I say this because I lost 50 lbs in about 12 months and I didn’t join a gym, take pills or eat mail-order food. Getting to and maintaining a healthy weight is VERY simple, portions, nutrition, activity.

Portions:
4-6oz of meat / fish / chix and 1 or 2 healthy sides.
No bread, no fried cheese apps, no sundays, none of that. Desert is fine, have a SMALL chocolate or even better, fruit. Portions are so out of control in this country particularly in restaurants. They choose quantity over quality. Choose quality. The amount of rice and beans most people get with a meal is enough for an entire meal.

Nutrition:
I’m making this sound very not-sexy and it might drive you to go out and get a burger. That’s fine, and I dont mean in an Atkins sort of way. A burger is fine, take the top bun off and eat it with a fork and knife. Don’t eat sides that are nothing buyt fat and carbs; fries, mashed taters, etc.
Stay off the sauce. Don’t drown things in gravy and butter and other creamy sauces. If you get a sauce, get one that’s more vegetable (green) based like a tommatillo sauce.

If you stick to meat and veg, ease off the sauces, quit with the soda (yes, no soda at all), back off the bread / rice / taters (a LITTLE bit is fine and good for you)

Activity:
This is simple. Play a sport like tennis once a week. Walk the dogs, do something active. Walk around the house when you’re on the phone. Wash the car, just keep ass+chair time to a minimum.

So unless this robot smacks you when you have a donut in your hand, I dont see the point on spending money on dieting. Dieting is free, in fact, it’s cheaper than eating poorly.

The world of cool works like this:
It’s underground and only the uber-hip know of it
Some word of mouth, references in blogs
Its in the news
White kids in the midwest are doing it
Government adoption

The world of social networking, like a cool night club or hidden gem of an eatery become less cool when more and more people know about it, use it, and then put their greazy hands all over it, ruining it for everyone. This is the case in LA for anything cool. With social networking, the tool in and of itself is innovative and for certain niches, it’s actually very useful. Blogs, Wikis, discussions, linking, it’s the future of the Internet and apparently some smart people in the Intelligence Community figured that it might break down walls in their own institutionalized institutions.

Will it work? Well, it will be great for the people who grok that stuff and the old fogies will get left behind . In this case the luddites might cost lives by not adopting technology. It’s a tricky project and I hope it works.

My wife and I both wanted to get married. The whole proposal thing was more of a nice conversation over dinner at Ocean Avenue Seafood than flowers, rather than getting down on bended knee, ring in hand. But that’s how we are, romantic but not into showy displays or cliché gestures. That doesn’t make our dinner there less memorable, we both talk about it often and fondly. I think if I had gone on one knee she would have scolded me. Thats why she’s perfect.

This guy I won’t accuse of falling for social requirements of contrived romanticism. He’s obviously an artist and artists will express or demonstrate in their own unique way. Nicely done.

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I don’t think this person was trying to be funny. After all, it IS a lathe…

The best personal ad I’ve ever seen.

You can sell ANYTHING on CL, even things that scare you.

Pricing for batteries is almost as arbitrary as airline tickets. In this case you can crack one open and get 8! It’s like battery puppies!

The story of a family who went a year without toilet paper. And other stuff too. If TP is bad then those moist wipes must be of the devil!

Then you have to ask, what’s the impact of what we actually use and throw out…

Guide to using chopsticks (for wifey)

Music retail is in serious trouble.

Ok, what gives here. It seems that in Orlando they had one of those guns-for-toys drives where the cops collect weapons in exchange for toys. The assumption is criminals will give up their tools so their kids can have an Elmo. I honestly don’t think that they’re getting any AR-15s or MP5′s off the street. Not that criminals use those. Crime stats actually show the .25 auto as the most popular shall size in crime-involved firearms. So, I guess the drive does make sense.

One guy, who wanted some shoes for his tot, turned in a SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE. WTF!!! Where do you get a surface to air missile? Then, what makes this awesome is that he had the stones to pull up and wait in line with it to get shoes. What’s going through his head? “just say you found it, no one will make a big deal out of it”.

I’m dissapointed that there is no more detail on the story like how the FBI are now 24 inches up this guy’s butt..

Feeling safe at home, particularly at night, in bed is important to our general well being. While in the US it’s not uncommon for people to have a Glock 22 at their bedside, in the UK, it’s often not an option. And quite possibly rude.

So what’s a nervous Londoner to do? Short of keeping a cricket wicket under the mattress, this little night stand would do the trick.

It would only work if you didn’t keep anything on your night stand. Judging by how most people put every book they “intend” on reading, a clock, TV remotes, water, pills, glasses, phones and gok knows what else on their night stand, getting this kit battle-ready might be a noisy and destructive production.

That said, if you end up having to use it, spilling water and magazines is not too important compared to being prepared for action!