End of the Battle?
Monday, January 07, 2008 - 02:44 PM
Let’s hope that Warner Bros. announcement that they are dropping support for HD-DVD and will distribute exclusively in Blu-Ray after March 2008 will put an end to the “format wars”. That would be the best thing for the consumers and, despite what Toshiba wants to believe right now, for the entire industry.
I know for me, personally, the announcement has put an end to the decision making process. Since most of the content I would have actually bought was already Blu-Ray, this cinches it. The only thing now is to wait for the prices of the players to drop a little more (which they no doubt will in the coming year - I’m actually hoping the PS3 price becomes reasonable in the coming months).
Time will tell. But, not to the studios that are still in the HD-DVD camp: For me, and many other consumers, the war is over; if you don’t switch to Blu-Ray, you’ll never see any money from us.
UPDATE
From this article at Fortune, which stress my point about the format war being bad for the industry (and not just the consumers):
Consumers who bought HDTVs were so afraid of backing the wrong high-definition movie format that they decided not to buy movies at all.
Exactly. That’s why I haven’t bought any movies (with the exception of the new Futurama movie) at all this last year. Like many people, I was waiting to see which HD format would come out on top, and I didn’t want to spend my money on the soon-to-be-dead standard DVD format.
Netiquette by Force
Thursday, December 20, 2007 - 08:25 AM
If you’ve ever spent any time reading comments on any websites/blogs (particularly anything dealing with “Politics”, “Religion” or “Mac vs. PC"), you’ve got to think that this is a good idea:
I love this, from the FAQ:
Isn’t filtering stupidity elitist?
Yes. Yes, it is. That’s sort of the whole point.
Now, if only someone could come up with a real-life stupid filter.
Thom Yorke interviewed by David Byrne
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - 10:05 AM
That’s right, the lead singer from Radiohead interviewed by the man who wrote the song Radio Head.
It’s an interesting conversation, and definitely worth listening to; especially if you’re either a David Byrne or Radiohead fan.
The text article is an edited version of the interview - listen to the sound clips for the full thing. Oh, and as one of the comments mentions, Thom Yorke sounds just like Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap!
Also, make sure you check out David’s essay on the state of the music industry - Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists.
Zeppelin Doesn’t Disappoint
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 09:17 AM
If you’re like me, you were worried that Led Zeppelin’s highly anticipated tribute concert for Ahmet Ertegun would turn out to be a disaster. As much as I love Led Zeppelin, I could see the possibility of these guys getting together after not playing together for so long and putting up slipshod renditions of their old songs. They could’ve gotten on stage and pretended that they were the same band they were 30 years ago, like some other bands do. Or, they could have just sounded terrible.
Luckily, that was not the case, according to (at least) this review:
Led Zeppelin Finds Its Old Power
I just hope they decide to release the performance on CD or DVD (or both), even though there’s no current plans on doing so. (Of course there are no plans for it, yet - what if it had been a disappointment?)
And, I’ll join the chorus of people asking for it, even though it’s highly unlikely: I do hope that they decide to go on tour. I’ve seen Robert Plant live; I’ve seen Jimmy Page live; I’ve seen Robert and Jimmy together live; and I’ve seen John Paul Jones live. I’d absolutely love to see “Led Zeppelin” live.
UPDATE
The Telegraph has a “round up” of reviews, and they all appear to agree that the boys were at the top of their form:
Telegraph.co.uk: Reviewing the Reviews
Why NOT to by a Dell
Monday, December 10, 2007 - 10:50 AM
No, it’s not just because Dells are crappy computers, there are deeper reasons not to buy from Dell:
(I thought the article was going to be about their poor quality or bad service. It turned out to be something else altogether.)