Video on Demand seems like a great way to go. I have Dish Network and I'm offered a bunch of PPV and VOD programs. I'm hesitant to take advantage of this technology though. I think it's a hold-over since just a few years ago PPV programs were very expensive and generally the programs offered on PPV besides sports were not exactly family friendly.
I like the Entertainment Information Merger. When I lived in town, we had Charter, and you may groan at their customer service but having cable tv, really fast internet and cheap phone service all on one bill was awesome! I know I sound like a freakin' commercial but now I pay too much for crappy satellite programing and I sit way, way, way too long at my computer as my dial-up modem blazes away at a full 26.4 kbs and my wife witches at me for tying up the phone line. And by the way, this may be a flat world, but the "second shift" that was outsourced to India did not do a very good job helping me trouble shoot why I could achieve the full 56 kbs that my connection was capable of when I started my AT&T service. I think they scaled me back after they figured I was in for a while. Their media convergence hasn't done me any favors.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Chapter 9 - Information Storage
Some of the technologies mentioned in this chapter as new are already getting old and out-dated. I suppose it's a tribute to the fast paced technology but as computers get faster, people want to do more things with them and they want a way to store it. It just keeps building on itself. This chapter doesn't even mention blue-ray or hi-def, that technology is too new, but as more consumers wanted high def tvs, they needed a movie player that capitalized on the software.
This area of technology is probably one of the most rapidly changing or evolving sectors. It becomes difficult for consumers to feel confident investing in this technology. People want a movie and music collection, but it would be nice to know we can still use it in 5 or 10 years. And that's no exaggeration. 10 years ago I did not have a DVD player, 15 years ago I did not have a CD player. My kids will never own a disk-man, they will go straight to MP3s or something else entirely.
It really does blow your mind when you think about the floppy disk and how many were needed for programs and software just 20 years ago. Then someone hands you a shiny frisbee with a hole in the middle and tells you the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is on here!
This area of technology is probably one of the most rapidly changing or evolving sectors. It becomes difficult for consumers to feel confident investing in this technology. People want a movie and music collection, but it would be nice to know we can still use it in 5 or 10 years. And that's no exaggeration. 10 years ago I did not have a DVD player, 15 years ago I did not have a CD player. My kids will never own a disk-man, they will go straight to MP3s or something else entirely.
It really does blow your mind when you think about the floppy disk and how many were needed for programs and software just 20 years ago. Then someone hands you a shiny frisbee with a hole in the middle and tells you the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is on here!
Chapter 5 - Fiber Optics
Fiber Optics may very well be the hard-wire wave of the future. Satellites will expand and wireless will become more ubiquitous but, at least for the foreseeable future, there will always be a need, a niche and a market for wired information.
A quick side note, my sister and her husband live in Indiana. A year or two ago a communication/media company ran FO in their neighborhood. They were very excited to be an early utilizer of this technology and they have been very pleased with their results. The only FO tech I have is for my stereo. I guess everyone has to start small.
Not being able to splice it quite as easily does seem like an inconvenience. If FO cable ever gets to the point where coax is right now someone would probably come up with a clever fix. It really seems like a small hurdle for the potential benefits.
A quick side note, my sister and her husband live in Indiana. A year or two ago a communication/media company ran FO in their neighborhood. They were very excited to be an early utilizer of this technology and they have been very pleased with their results. The only FO tech I have is for my stereo. I guess everyone has to start small.
Not being able to splice it quite as easily does seem like an inconvenience. If FO cable ever gets to the point where coax is right now someone would probably come up with a clever fix. It really seems like a small hurdle for the potential benefits.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The New CT Ch 1: Comm in the Modern Era
I've long appreciated and anticipated the convergence of more and more technology. This topic was briefly touched upon in chapter one. One can only imagine that far enough in the future, rather than tv, radio, computer and telephone, we'll have mulit-media stations, and we'll probably have a few of them scattered throughout the house. The basic PC is evolving into such a device. You can hear radio broadcast from around the globe (I have not heard that advertised as much any more. I think I heard somewhere that it was too cost prohibitive, but the capabilities are certainly there) and more phone companies are using the internet, like Vonage and Charter. Then we have those adorable ovoo commercials. How cool is that? Although I must admit, I have no idea how well it works and I have not checked out the site myself.
But all these convergences lead into another point of chapter one (and the course), who's listening and watching us do all this? The movements and habits of an individual are fairly easy to track over the internet. As we begin to rely almost solely on internet programs for information transfer that means we are probably being watched and tracked all the more. But is that necessarily a bad thing?
All this available tracking could make it much easier to catch criminals. Obviously no one likes too much government control and I'm not advocating we all get chip implants in our thumbs to clock in at work, swipe like a credit card at the store or unlock our house, but it would be handy to turn on my kitchen mulit-media screen and see where my kids are.
One more subject I would like to touch upon: censorship. like so many other government programs or institutions it started out with the people's best interest in mind. You may cry 'first amendment" and that you have the right to express yourself as you see fit, but I may say it's not fit for anybody. I'm thinking as a parent here. I am very cautious of what my kids see and hear on TV (and other media). I'm not just talking about cartoons, but if they're in the same room and a prime time program starts to get too racy, I change the channel. I look up, and sure enough, they're staring at the TV instead of coloring like they were two minutes ago. It is within my ability to further censor what they see and I appreciate that the government helps to ensure the media isn't any more audacious than it already is during prime time. Of course I can't censor everything from them forever, but for now I'm censoring as much as I can so I can decide when and what they're exposed to it. To me, some level of censorship is a necessary evil. Everyone, even little kids, are very in tune with multiple media outlets.
But all these convergences lead into another point of chapter one (and the course), who's listening and watching us do all this? The movements and habits of an individual are fairly easy to track over the internet. As we begin to rely almost solely on internet programs for information transfer that means we are probably being watched and tracked all the more. But is that necessarily a bad thing?
All this available tracking could make it much easier to catch criminals. Obviously no one likes too much government control and I'm not advocating we all get chip implants in our thumbs to clock in at work, swipe like a credit card at the store or unlock our house, but it would be handy to turn on my kitchen mulit-media screen and see where my kids are.
One more subject I would like to touch upon: censorship. like so many other government programs or institutions it started out with the people's best interest in mind. You may cry 'first amendment" and that you have the right to express yourself as you see fit, but I may say it's not fit for anybody. I'm thinking as a parent here. I am very cautious of what my kids see and hear on TV (and other media). I'm not just talking about cartoons, but if they're in the same room and a prime time program starts to get too racy, I change the channel. I look up, and sure enough, they're staring at the TV instead of coloring like they were two minutes ago. It is within my ability to further censor what they see and I appreciate that the government helps to ensure the media isn't any more audacious than it already is during prime time. Of course I can't censor everything from them forever, but for now I'm censoring as much as I can so I can decide when and what they're exposed to it. To me, some level of censorship is a necessary evil. Everyone, even little kids, are very in tune with multiple media outlets.
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