Archive for November, 2008
Blockbuster releases a set-top box for movie distribution. Facebook spammer story lives on. Lenovo’s new computer has a remote kill command. Machine can be killed from a distance. Black Friday coming up with sales everywhere. Look for Apple to do something. Obama phone not hacked. Ray Ozzie comes out in public with a speech. He wants MSFT to go back into start-up mode. is the computer mouse dead? Two new memory technologies in the news. Look for a big future for graphene storage.
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$873 million fine against spammer. What a farce. Twitter for sale? $500 million valuation. Micron new 256 GB SSD looks to be fast. Intel getting into it too. Ballmer will testify over the "Vista Capable" suit. Microsoft to use the name KUMO for its cloud stuff? Maybe. Bay Area going electric. HP stories contradictory. IBM allowing Open Solaris. Will IBM buy Sun?
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Lately, the news is full of bailouts for major players in the economy. Banks, Insurance companies, and now the big three car companies have their hand out waiting for the government to solve their problems by creating a plethora of others. I get a kick out of people who tell me, “why isn’t the government bailing out my company?” Well, let’s see, you don’t employ thousands of people and entire corporate structures are not reliant on your companies success, so yeah, you’re on your own.
I get why the bailouts are happening and I definitely see the benefits of such, however, when does it end? Today I heard that the Networks are also finding their place in line for handouts as well. Why would they need bailouts, you ask? Well, apparently the big three auto companies are a major source of advertising for the networks and since they are broke, they are advertising less, and the networks are hemorrhaging money.
This makes me wonder if this is why the networks are getting so picky about the shows they keep on the air. They are cancelling everything these days, and a lot of good shows are falling by the wayside. “My Own Worst Enemy”, “Pushing Daisies”, “Eli Stone”, etc etc.
Being a fan of all the above shows it made me wonder what the heck?!
So, getting to the point finally, what can TV networks do to keep good shows like the above on the air, even if they aren’t getting the “ratings” they need? They should use the shareware model. Hear me out.
This idea came to me a few weeks back when I was downloading the first few episodes of “Life on Mars” from iTunes, since I had completely spaced it off, and missed it on my TiVo. Networks should release a show to TV for 8 - 13 episodes, to effectively get you hooked to the show, and then drop it from air and release all further episodes on a PPV model through online markets like iTunes, and even their own online medium, that they all have set up already.
For instance, “My Own Worst Enemy” got canceled because only about 5 million people were watching it. Some of the complaints were that the show was too confusing (translation: too intelligent) and some of the heavy actors in the show were not being utilized. OK, so suppose the show costs 1 million dollars to create one episode. If 20 percent of people currently watching purchased future episodes, at 2.99 per, from online sources, then the budget is met, and money can be made.
I, for one, am willing to pay for shows I like, especially ad free, and feel that we are moving toward a world where your average consumer feels similarly and will understand HOW to do this as well.
This allows for the current model of TV watching that we know and love, with ads, where shows can be tested and premium high viewership shows can remain on the air, and shows that lots of love, but don’t cater to the masses can find a home in PPV model.
This is kind of a rambling blog post, and I apologize for that, but share your thoughts on this in the comments. Would you pay for a show you like, but isn’t sustainable through typical ad methods on the networks?
This is definitely from the “too much time on my hands” file cabinet, but it provided me with laughs today … and I appreciate laughs, especially when it comes from a mix of two of my favorite things in the world.
If you have a favorite funny you tube video, post it in the comments.
Obama picks tech team. All seem like government hacks. RIAA gets the state of Tennessee to throw away $10 million on spying on its students. MacArthur Foundation says Intern socializing is a good thing. New Honda Supercar, funny-looking. Google pulls plug on the unknown "Lively." Analyst suggests that Nokia should be Yahoo.
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Now that Yahoo is gone under $10 Microsoft is not interested anymore. Apparently the company is not interested when it’s a bargain. MSFT decides to do anti-virus for some unknown reason. Company also unable to promote Silverlight against Adobe Flash. HP story from yesterday actually explained. I run down all the stocks that are in the tank.
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Sun Microsystems to fire 6000. Crazy wording in FT. Jerry Yang quits. AOL kills Homestead. HO Says sales are heading up, not down like Intel thinks. USB 3. released (finalized) today. I highlight two stories about USB 3.0 showing how bad today’s tech coverage has become.
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Mark Cuban in trouble for insider trading. Vista Capable suit causing problems. Obama is going to have to stop using the Blackberry. Look for the AVCHD fake Blu-ray discs. Intel rolls the i7 as AMD rolls the Shanghai. Google has new sketch-up art program
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Microsoft shows Wave 3 of Live.com. Social networking part of the scheme. Apple will do search? Microsoft search bribery is working. OLPC still lives in England. Valleywag’s demise shows Silicon Valley is not Hollywod.AMD shows new chip and technologies. Dell CTO steps down.
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So I am surfing around youtube looking for a version of the video “The Metal” by Tenacious D and I stumbled upon these gems. Lego music videos of metal songs…
Unfortunately my two favorite videos have embedding disabled, but it is worth the click :
Metallica One - Lego
Tenacious D - The Metal
Then if you are a Guitar Hero player you likely know this song, otherwise probably not, but it is a cool guitar song: Through Fire and Flame:
Chop Suey from System of a Down :
Yep .. awesome … awesome in pants!