Wednesday, November 28, 2007

A corporate competition where everyone loses



I'll begin by saying that I'm a big supporter of the idea that competition between companies brings lower prices and greater innovation, giving the consumer better, cheaper products to choose from. However, this is not always the case.

The battle for a new high-definition video-disc format is killing everyone. The consumers lose because there are 2 incompatible formats that do pretty much the exact same thing for about the exact same price, except the title availability isn't the same. So if I flip a coin, and go with HD-DVD I lose out on all the Pixar films I love. If I decide to switch over to Blu-Ray, I'll miss out on Paramount and Dreamworks films. And even if I drop the huge amount of money on a quality player from each camp, I'm still stuck when it comes to heading over to my friends' house: what player do they have? I might as well buy the DVD version of everything and forget about all of this high-falutin' high-def stuff.

Now here's where the companies lose too. By not collaborating on one format, they lose customers who either choose the other format, or neither.

Personally, I'll be waiting, along with most of the world, for a winner. If that winner never comes, we'll either see both formats die and be replaced altogether, or we will see high-def combo players become standard (to note, this would be fine by me, just as long as they get cheap soon).

For the time being, no one's happy, and it's all because the big studios were too busy worrying about this piracy thing that they keep telling us is killing their profits, to see that a new unified format is the only way to rake in money like DVD did.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

November is Hip Hop History Month


Now's the time to break out all your Run-DMC, Eric B & Rakim, KRS-ONE albums, and spin a James Brown break or two, all while poppin' and breakin' and watching your local graf crew bomb the city.

Let us all celebrate the four elements of hip hop this month...
1) Emceeing
2) DJing
3) Break dancing
4) Graffiti
...and remember those who have come before you.

Grab a copy of some of these fine documentaries: Style Wars, Freestyle, The Freshest Kids, Scratch

Bonus points for anyone who knows who that is in the picture, and why he's notable.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Cellphone surprise! (Solved!)

It appears that it was not "Annie" they were saying but "Amy." Thankfully I know just who that Amy is. Mystery solved. Thanks, Ames (even if you're always 10 days late)!

Monday, November 12, 2007

Cellphone surprise!

Most people just call someone when they want to wish them a happy birthday. Apparently I have a friend who decided that that was too mundane. For today I received a voice mail from India wishing me a happy birthday. It's 10 days late, but really, it was a great surprise. I wish I could somehow post the message here because it was great, but you can pretend to listen to it by visiting the website at TajTunes.com and read the greeting to yourself in your favorite Indian accent.

I couldn't tell who it was that sent me the message, but it sounded like they said "Annie." I don't know any Annies that would know my birthday, so it's a bit of a mystery. If you have any information on who this might have been, post it in the comments, I'd love to thank them.

Friday, November 02, 2007

I have a bunch of new co-workers!



This was new co-worker 26453. He worked hard, but we had to kill him when he got too close. Let this be a warning to all of my other new co-workers. Except Paul, we'll let him live.

Halloween is serious business



Because I can't stay away from my punk side, I dressed up again this year as a punk. You might remember me as being Elvis Costello a couple of years back. I went to WookieFoot's halloweeen show this year, and had myself a fine time rockin' out and checking out the amazing variety of costumes there.


Maybe next year I'll go as something post punk, so I can have a punk time line triptych.