Robot Loves Kitten

CNet reports on the FCC’s approval of the broadcast flag proposal, which prevents cosumers from sharing ‘pirated’ copies of digital TV shows. This applies to digital TV and new equipment must be able to read the broadcast flag.

Apparently, you haven’t heard: I have a 1.6 Gigahertz processor in my PC — and I’m nothing but old news. I have 100+ Gigabytes of storage and 512Mbytes of RAM. And again, my equipment blows.

Bear with me as I gase into my crystal ball. Someone, probably in Finland or the Ukraine, is going to write a nice little Linux app which gets ported to Windows in 3 days and blogged and Slashdotted and then makes the New York Times which has crafted some oblique and not all that well reported angle on where did all the good TV go now that everyone is an Internet pirate? And this app is going to rip that broadcast flag right out of the data stream, perhaps even re-encoding the entire file, which just isn’t a big deal because that little application is built around a batch function, so I just crank it up, feed it the 12 new episodes of Smallville, CSI, or whatever else garbage I happen to have found that evening, and let it run ALL night.

Did I mention that I have Gigs of cycles and bytes to spare?

Good point here by John Battelle/O’Reilly about the future being in networked applications. And if John is right, and the best networked apps are media-centric, then how should that affect our digital devices?

The current push (led primarily by media co’s) is to lock down our device hardware and DRM our content. I have to believe that these initiatives significantly diminish possible network effects.

Grado Labs SR-60 ()
About the best headphones (open air) that you can buy for the money (~$65). Sweet cans, good for home/office use, where you don’t want to block out ambient noise. The cable is quite thick on these, making them less than ideal in portable situations.

Shure E2c ()
These sub-$100 ‘phones have been getting nice reviews. They’re on my list. Because they are in-ear, they block ambient noise very well. I’d be a little cautious taking them out walking (some times, hearing traffic is a good thing), but many folks swear by these for traveling.

Etymotic ER-6 ()

Comparable to the Shure E2c’s, Etymotic also makes superior in-ear headphones.

Have a superior product you’d like to recommend? Add your comments below.

from Reuters via Wired News:

Just reading this article gives me a headache. The gist? There are a lot of crazy options for listening to your digital music collection throughout your house. The article is a simple rundown of devices, with no advice as to which is best, or what to consider when building a home media network. In short, it sucks.

It’s perhaps the reporter’s conclusion that gets me, however.

“Of course, music fans without thousands of dollars to spare could run Belkin’s Audio Y Cable Splitter ($7) between the computer and the stereo — a cheap, if inelegant, solution. “

What’s “inelegant” about a solution that’s cheap, functional, and doesn’t require fumbling with a manual, file formats, downloading software upgrades, antenna jostling, head-thumping, and cursing?

There is a perception — mostly in the media — that all new ‘gadgets’ are good. This is because writers are paid to create stories regardless of their importance, and because they don’t test the products, or even need them. There is no perspective, no context. No pushback.

Let’s get down to it: gadgets are worthless. They’re eye-candy, trinkets. What you really want — what you need — that’s called ‘gear’. Maybe I’m being too subtle?

I don’t believe that there’s any one ‘best’ solution, and I don’t believe that expensive begets quality. Every user’s situation is different: their equipment, goals, experience, and budget. A truly ‘elegant’ solution should fit a person’s needs, not the needs of Best Buy.

The home media landscape is extremely complex — read the article again, then ask yourself, What should I do when building my home media network? So many technologies and devices are popping up, providing us all so many different options, that I think it would behoove us all if we actually tried to provide these manufacturer’s some feedback, not only on the devices we’ve tested, but on the features we’d like to see integrated into the next generation.

I guess that’s what I’d like to begin doing here on this site. It’s time for a little pushback.

(11.2003) is a boutique winery in California’s Anderson Valley. Provided: Marketing consulting services.