] "You never quite get the (consumer electronics)
] experience," Kay said. "That's always my critique of
] media center. It's still ultimately a Swiss Army knife,
] rather than a katana (a Japanese sword)."

thoughts on media center systems? I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, closed systems and drm are kinda wack, and i tend to disapprove of convergence, for much the same reason as Mr. Kay indicates above. The right tool for one specific job it a well tested philosophy which i tend to agree with, no matter how much ghettohacking or jerry-rigging i may do.

However, we've got our TiVo playing mp3's on the normal home stereo, and i kinda like it. Arguably it's lame to have to have the TV on to control your mp3 player... perhaps we should've bought a sliMP3 device instead.

Anyway, the market will decide just how much convergence is good i suppose...

Microsoft buffs up its Media Center | CNET News.com