Hijexx wrote:

] Will the Joe Sixpacks unite? Probably not. They're too busy
] making the credit card payments for their shiny new system.
] If they did organize, it'd probably be too late in the game.

They don't have to unite and they don't have to organize. They just have to make an alternative platform decision. One at a time. The thing that has prevented them from doing this in the past has been either compatibility or that the other platforms simply weren't as good. Linux isn't as good as a desktop and MacOS has sucked for years.

Eliminate those barriers, and then provide them with an incentive.

] In short, DIVX failed because people didn't want their phone
] lines tied up and were accustomed to watching their movies
] when they wanted.

No to the former and yes to the later. DSS uses your phone line. In fact, almost all PPV systems do. No one minds. DIVX failed because it seemed to offer less flexibility in what you could do with your movies. DRM faces the same problem. It offers less flexibility.

] For all the hooplah, no one has quite figured out what they
] really want a computer for.

Same reason they've always wanted one. Word processing. Thats why you get a computer. People like email. Thats why they get the net. People also like video games, but I think VG systems offer a better option then computer gaming at this stage. In fact, that reality fits into my analysis. People won't buy computers for games in 2 years. People will buy specialized game systems like the X box. Those systems will be powerful enough to handle all their gaming needs.

"Convergence" always has been a myth. Computers are not about what you can consume, they are about what you can create, and the fact is that things like convergence are all about the idea that we'll consume everything in one place. It totaly ignores what we might be creating.

] ] they also do not have DRM. Apple has clearly stated they
] don't
] ] believe DRM will actually work.
]
] Just because Apple doesn't believe DRM will work doesn't mean
] they won't implement it. It's all about appeasing
] shareholders and whoring for clients.

Yes, it does. This is not a campaign promise or a marketing spin. Its an observation. DRM doesn't work. And they are right. DRM DOESN'T work. Their shareholders aren't going to force them to implement something that doesn't work. Their shareholders are a bunch of fanatics who think that apple is "cool." They have no will and have kept the company way overvalued even when they have been tanking HARD. And Apple doesn't have any large corporate clients. They lost them all in the mid-90's because macOS sucked. If corporate clients (who really don't care about DRM either) force them to go this direction those clients are clients they don't have yet.

The reason MS is going DRM is because they are trying to prevent more government intervention in the business and they want to control the media format wars by being the only format big media will release their stuff in. Microsoft thinks MP3 is going to die. They beleive it.

] Linux will not adopt the Microsoft paradigm of integrating the
] browser into the OS, nor should they. I like execution
] privileges, personally. Because of the reluctance to tie the
] page rendering engine into the kernel, you will never see IE
] being smoked by Mozilla on Linux. Just something you have to
] live with.

1. IE smokes Mozilla on MacOS.

2. I'm not sure what the nature of the integration is, but I see no reason why they couldn't pop in a module for this.

] I see big-brother enabling technology that masses of people
] will feel they can't live without (like the proven to
] re-arrange your DNA cell phones with fucking VIDEO CAMERAS,
] HELLO???)

Hrm. Those cameras don't help the government. Individuals control those cameras. They are distributed. And in that lies hope.

But we need a way to connect ourselves with the pictures that matter, without having to do it via a "power that be." :)

RE: The coming IT revolution.