It's now 25 years since 1984. Here is the future of what we used to call "Television":
Commercial Television:
Spot ads will disappear. Sponsor-integrated shows.create the illusion of an ad-free experience. News continues to devolve away from factual journalism. The current Spingeresque freak-show opinion fest will merge with "light news" to become a feeder for sponsor-integrated shows -- "next up -- What happened to American Idol? Details after this word from our sponsors..."
Public Television:
"Messages from supporters" will be replaced with what used to be called spot advertising. Intermissions will increase in frequency until they reach the most profitable message-to-content ratio, and subscriber telethons will be replaced with a more convenient surcharge on your delivery provider subscription.
Next Wave Television:
Underground "open-video" stations will start appearing, built from recycled legacy technology and operated by neo-socialist college students and 70's throwbacks.
Trends:
Viewership will increase with the advent of the "ad-free" sponsor-integrated programming but will start dropping in favor of local, free "open-video". The OV movement will grow virally until it becomes a practical threat, at which time OV providers will be sued station-by-station by the content delivery industry for violating copyrights and breaking FCC frequency spectrum use restrictions.
And life will go on.
Peace,
Robert
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Shape of the World
Is the world flat, curved or round? Sometimes it's flat and things stay right where I put them, other times it goes all Einsteinian and things start rolling away as soon as I set them down, no matter where I stand or which way I face. Still other times the world is perfectly round and no matter which way or how long I walk I never seem to actually get anywhere.
There is one immutable law, though. No matter what shape I think the world has taken on, it's different when I step into it (much to Heisenberg's delight, I'm sure).
Peace,
Robert
There is one immutable law, though. No matter what shape I think the world has taken on, it's different when I step into it (much to Heisenberg's delight, I'm sure).
Peace,
Robert
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Self-Improvement Threat
Self-improvement is the process by which members of the lower of the 2 universal human classes, the Haves and the Have-Nots, can cross the gap and join the upper of the two. Thrift, frugality, etc. are components of the process. The process is based on the proposition that humans are fundamentally equal in capability, and the existence of a strong middle class proves the proposition. Of course the process is under threat -- it has been since the Magna Carta because it validates the idea that the Have-Nots can own some of the wealth they create, that they don't just exist to enrich the Haves. It doesn't take long for that little crack in the windshield to wreck the view from on high -- if the little guy can accumulate wealth just like the big guys, how can you tell which one is which? Without the dual principles of Divine Right and Genetics to fall back on the only reason the little guy can't join the country club is that the big guy's an a**hole.
And the Big Guy is a technicolor, full-figured, winged harpie of an a**hole. Look at what he's done so far:
Step 1. A house divided against itself cannot jack us for pay raises. The "Great Communicator" decertifies the Air Traffic Controllers Union, establishing the principle of Union-busting for the Greater Good. The Private Sector follows up shortly thereafter by developing a virtually impenetrable Union-proofing process obliquely referred to as "outsourcing".
Step 2. You gotta have money to make money. The Government of all of us opens the borders in the name of Wealth and Prosperity For Everybody! The little guy gets to compete for jobs with people who can buy an entire year's worth of food, clothing and shelter for what the little guy has to pay just to keep his lights on for a month. Cha-ching!
Step 3. Ya can't get there from here. The Liberal Media floods the airwaves with a relentless barrage of propaganda branding anything that looks like a part of the self-improvement process as Socialist and Anti-American. Because the Liberal Media consists mostly of Conservative (and a few Ultra Conservative) vocabulists dedicated to keeping the "bully" in "bully pulpit" nobody else can get a word in edgewise and the principle of Validation by Repetition reigns supreme.
Personally, I've gone underground. I have a quart jar that I'm filling with pennies (they're too small too be seen from up there) and I don't buy anything without using actual money (in other words, I don't buy anything). And if I happen to get anywhere near a Big Guy, rest assured I won't be throwing any shoes.
I'm throwing that jar.
And the Big Guy is a technicolor, full-figured, winged harpie of an a**hole. Look at what he's done so far:
Step 1. A house divided against itself cannot jack us for pay raises. The "Great Communicator" decertifies the Air Traffic Controllers Union, establishing the principle of Union-busting for the Greater Good. The Private Sector follows up shortly thereafter by developing a virtually impenetrable Union-proofing process obliquely referred to as "outsourcing".
Step 2. You gotta have money to make money. The Government of all of us opens the borders in the name of Wealth and Prosperity For Everybody! The little guy gets to compete for jobs with people who can buy an entire year's worth of food, clothing and shelter for what the little guy has to pay just to keep his lights on for a month. Cha-ching!
Step 3. Ya can't get there from here. The Liberal Media floods the airwaves with a relentless barrage of propaganda branding anything that looks like a part of the self-improvement process as Socialist and Anti-American. Because the Liberal Media consists mostly of Conservative (and a few Ultra Conservative) vocabulists dedicated to keeping the "bully" in "bully pulpit" nobody else can get a word in edgewise and the principle of Validation by Repetition reigns supreme.
Personally, I've gone underground. I have a quart jar that I'm filling with pennies (they're too small too be seen from up there) and I don't buy anything without using actual money (in other words, I don't buy anything). And if I happen to get anywhere near a Big Guy, rest assured I won't be throwing any shoes.
I'm throwing that jar.
Monday, February 2, 2009
On Being Frugal
There are people now going around claiming to be the New Evangelists of Frugality. "Frugalistas", I've heard them called. This, of course got me to thinking. How do you know if you're actually being frugal or just stingy?
Frugality isn't about putting price first. It's closer to the engineering idea of "elegance", where you spend exactly the right amount for the desired result. Go for the lowest price you don't get what you wanted, pay too much and and you're losing the opportunity to use that money for some other thing. It's a dynamic idea that requires you to constantly monitor the quality of your expenditures, not just of money, but of time, effort, emotional involvement and all the other things an experience can cost.
For instance -- I used to ride a motorcycle to work -- it cost less than half the money as driving a car, and because a motorcycle is considered a high-occupancy vehicle I could use the car-pool lanes, which allowed me to time with my family I would have spent idling in gridlock. Financial, temporal and ecological efficiency resulting in a higher quality daily journey -- elegance. But when the price of gas tripled the financial gain was lost. My daily fuel cost exceeded the price of a bus ticket, so I switched to public transit to bring the monetary expense back down to budget levels. The time spent commuting is back up where it was, but it wasn't lost -- the time I spend in transit is MY time, and I spend it reading the paper or (even better) working on knitting my community back together by talking about anything but work with my fellow transit captives, something today's work-centric attitudes have prevented from happening almoist completely, and something I was unable to do while riding my motorcycle.
A job differs from welfare and social security only in that it can be terminated without due process. The key to becoming a frugal person is in recognizing that for whatever reason you are on a fixed income. Money, energy, good spirits, all are limited resources. Once you accept that little truth frugality becomes the difference between surviving and living.
Peace,
Robert”
Frugality isn't about putting price first. It's closer to the engineering idea of "elegance", where you spend exactly the right amount for the desired result. Go for the lowest price you don't get what you wanted, pay too much and and you're losing the opportunity to use that money for some other thing. It's a dynamic idea that requires you to constantly monitor the quality of your expenditures, not just of money, but of time, effort, emotional involvement and all the other things an experience can cost.
For instance -- I used to ride a motorcycle to work -- it cost less than half the money as driving a car, and because a motorcycle is considered a high-occupancy vehicle I could use the car-pool lanes, which allowed me to time with my family I would have spent idling in gridlock. Financial, temporal and ecological efficiency resulting in a higher quality daily journey -- elegance. But when the price of gas tripled the financial gain was lost. My daily fuel cost exceeded the price of a bus ticket, so I switched to public transit to bring the monetary expense back down to budget levels. The time spent commuting is back up where it was, but it wasn't lost -- the time I spend in transit is MY time, and I spend it reading the paper or (even better) working on knitting my community back together by talking about anything but work with my fellow transit captives, something today's work-centric attitudes have prevented from happening almoist completely, and something I was unable to do while riding my motorcycle.
A job differs from welfare and social security only in that it can be terminated without due process. The key to becoming a frugal person is in recognizing that for whatever reason you are on a fixed income. Money, energy, good spirits, all are limited resources. Once you accept that little truth frugality becomes the difference between surviving and living.
Peace,
Robert”
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