And the Winner is....Not US....

The time as come to wax poetically, or just rant... on and on,,,,,,,,,,

I have several pet issues, which I've covered in some detail. I don't want to bore you by going over ground you can just as easily read by clicking on my archives.
As you may know the Oscars are coming up very soon, I haven't watched a Oscar show in many years, I've also not watched any awards show for music in at least as many years.
I haven't let myself get pulled into the pettiness and shallowness and gaudiness of of toady's commercialism . While its hard to completely ignore the advertisements and the push to get you to buy into a system where you want it before you even know what it dose. It can be done. The thing to do is realize that 99% of the "stuff" that is pushed into the market is either useless or just plain junk that should never have ever been brought to market in the first place . I have been heard many a times, when a commercial come on, saying to whoever was around, usually myself,"If you believe that, I've got some Farmland in the Middle of the Ocean to Sell YOU" meaning they're full of" whatever adjective you want to insert.". and I don't believe one word of their BS.

This morning my seven year old daughter wrote up a list of item she wanted for her birthday this spring,there were only three, but the point is, She saw them all advertised on tv this morning and decided based on one 30 second spot that she wanted them. Of course I know by the time her birthday comes around she'll probably forgotten about them, but it bring home the point about people particularly young kids thinking they have to have every new thing that they see, whether they need it or not. Kids are not he only who fall into this trap. Many adults of the last couple of generations have grown up with advertising blasting at them from the time they wake up in the morning, till they go to bed at night. They think they have to have every new do-dad that is shown them. weather they need it or not..

The basic of the new economy is consumerism and a throw away mentality, that is use something once and throw it away. It all started after WWII during the prosperity of the 1950's when the US economy was a giant in the world, exporting more then we were importing and selling goods all over the world. Science was making new discoveries every day and they were trickling down to the consumers at unbelievable rate. Consumers were bombarded with a whole new world of goods and experiences that had never dreamed of, soon they had more stuff then they knew what to do with.All that new stuff has to go somewhere when is being replaced, It used to take 10 plus years before something needed replacing, now almost anything needs replacing in two -three years; either because it stops working entirely or because its so outdated its useless it has to go.

Technology was moved so faster that its impossible to keep up with it. Computers that cost $3,000.00 10 tears ago, are now relics sitting in the back of a closet collecting dust, while some of the faster of the older machine can be used as servers and linux boxes, the vast majority are consigned to the giant tech pile of trash we as a world are building everyday.

All of this is not even counting the push for alternative means of generating energy. windmills, solar, ect, and some really off the wall stuff that if implemented with the proper backing and funding and management could actually work, People have a knee-jerk reaction to new ideas, if we don't as a world and as a country step back and reexamine every idea to help save our world or we'll be digging our way out of a massive pile of Tech junk the suffocating us so we can't breathe what air there is.

I realize that this is a pretty broad indictment of the economic system which we've come to know and love. I think that one to take a step back and reevaluate what they're spending their time and money on in the way of contributing to the national economy.
Well, I guess thats my rant for this week, I hope it give folks some ideas of things they should think about...

And if we're not very careful the winner will not be us...

Tivo, Dish, Microsoft, and other News,of Noteable Interest

In reading over the rss feeds I have set up to come in on the top bar of my gmail, I found only two that piqued my interests. One of the Items that caught my attention is quite possibility a direct impact on me, Tivo suit of Dish Network on their "Stealing " of Tivo Patented Time Shifting technology. I hope that they can work this out like gentleman, and not have to have Dish shutting down millions of DVRs, I'm afraid that cats out of the bag, o to speak, Weather Tivo has a leg to stand on is after all theses years almost impossible to tell. What is in some way more scare then that prospect of Dish having to temporary disable all dvrs while they settle with Tivo. is when they're turn back on they're dumbed down and capabilities reduced so can conform to both what Tivo, and the DRM Gods want. Anyone who has read any of my earlier articles knows How I feel about DRM.

The next item that interested me is Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo for 44.6 Billion dollars. Letters of interest have been written and published almost as soon as they were delivered. So much for keeping things on the QT.... I personally have very little use for Microsoft and even less for Yahoo.. Haven't used Yahoo in years.. Only use Microsoft by necessity . The big over all question is what dose this mean for consumers and and the Internet and computer world in general.. You can rest assured that every new computer bought will have Yahoo hooks into the next computer you buy if this goes through.
Microsoft has realized in spite of being the 500 pound gorilla in the computer software world, people don't like them in spite of having to use them daily. Unfortunately Yahoo's creditability with consumers has fallen, Google is the new 500 pound gollia in the Internet world and quickly branching out, I haven't even mentioned Apple yet, I just read that Apple stock rose sharply, Mac sales were up 64% YOY, a considerable jump in any one's book..., In the recent years Apple has made serious inroads into mainstream PC markets the advent of Intel macs that could be Dual booted OS X and Windows XP, now Vista, The mac min which was only 6 inches square and could dual boot, Apple is now announcing its newest laptop a super thin light model, of course there are major trade off to achieve this thin profile, such as no cd/dvd drive, among other things, I like thin and light I don't think I'm ready to make this kinds of trade offs to get it.. I said all this to say Microsoft has many business looking to taking a piece out of its hide, and Yahoo hasn't been faring much better against Google. I think the original google interface, one single search box and a logo, brought many people to , it was simple, it loaded quickly, especially on a dial-up connection which is what most folks were using, and I was up to about 2 years ago, in other words. KISS; Keep It Simple Stupid!!! Too bad Microsoft forgot KISS... There is the possibility that the FCC will step in and not let it go through even if Yahoo says yes.. In some respects it would be like Google buying Yahoo, FCC probably would let it go through either. Microsoft's search is failing miserably and Yahoo.. isn't doing any better, They hope to build a advertising basis and get more eyes seeing their ads, only problem is people have become so desensitized
to ads they don't really see them anymore, If there is a ad on a page I sort of automatically mentally block it out so I see it but I really don't see it not so I could tell you what it was 5 minutes later.. I think most people who spend a lot of time on line have learned to do this see without seeing. So all those extra eyes seeing their ads are seeing without seeing... Hopefully Microsoft investors will raise such a ruckus that the idea will be dropped..

On the other side of things,,The FCC spectrum action is coming along.. and One of the main big hurtles in the action is the "Open Access Spectrum" in the C block, It had a reserved bid of 4.71 billion dollar bid, The bid is still sealed as are all the bids for all of the different spectrum until the end of the action, which is when there are no mere bids, This is the airways we now use for our tv , By moving to the digital bands they are freeing up this the bandwidth to be used by communication companies to improve our services and add


Hopefully Tivo and Dish can settle their differences without undue bloodshed, although I doubt that they will. Microsoft was sleeping on the job when they came up with the idea of merging with Yahoo.The federal Spectrum auction is going to play out over the next few months. Then theres the February 9 2009 deadline. When analog signals will cease. by then the Auction will be over and the systems will be hopefully upgraded to newer cheaper capabilities.. Right now, the climate is changing and depending on which way the judges , bidders, and investors blow, it could be a interesting spring....

As A disclaimer,: I am very biased for and against some of the people, entities mentioned above. I say this to make you understand I mentioned these because I feel hat following theses stories will for many of us in the long run have a direct impact on our lives, and for many more a indirect impact. Do your own research and follow the leads to the stories and find out as much as you can about the FCC spectrum auctions and how you will be affected when he new rules go into effect. We now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging...


Ken

I am adding links to the items mentioned in this article:


http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/12782.cfm

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2008/02/open_access

http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/22/1820202

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2008/02/msft_yhoo