Downloadable Movies: Slowest. Technology. Ever.

Yes, we really will all be 107 years old before downloaded films become commonplace. At least it seems like that when the major players (the studios, Apple, etc.) seem so uninterested in making it happen now. Ironically, Netflix, the one business whose model seems so antiquated (the Post Office? Really?), is taking some of the first tentative steps toward it. Netflix subscribers will now be able to download a limited number of hours of streaming movies each month for free. The part is nice. The streaming part, not so much. Here's Ars Technica on Netflix's plan:

The initial selection is fairly thin, with only 1,000 titles available (out of more than 70,000 available on DVD), but this was the same number of DVDs that Netflix launched with back in 1999. It's probably just as well; Netflix has made clear that they want to roll out the new technology slowly to make sure that everything works correctly. As CEO Reed Hastings notes, this isn't a market that is going to pay big dividends for a few years yet.

"While mainstream consumer adoption of online movie watching will take a number of years due to content and technology hurdles, the time is right for Netflix to take the first step," he said. "Over the coming years we'll expand our selection of films, and we'll work to get to every Internet-connected screen, from cell phones to PCs to plasma screens."

An Airline Needs Your Help

Apparently Virgin America, a fledgling airline founded by Richard Branson has been blocked from operating U.S. routes because of too high a percentage of foreign ownership. Somehow foreign airlines are what, more likely to allow their planes to be hijacked? Anyway, the airline's CEO (not Branson himself, unfortunately) actually released a viral video asking perk-susceptible travelers to help them fight the good fight.

A College Worth Dropping Out Of

There is a burgeoning movement among some U.S. states to drop the Electoral College like a bad habit. It's nice to see polticians taking a rational look at an outdated system. After all, if you're going to justify the EC on the basis of the founding fathers, at least come up with something better than their aversion to mob rule. Here's a political scientist on why the system is so screwed up:

Koza said the current system encourages parties to focus on a few contested ''battleground'' states -- Ohio and Florida, in recent years -- and exaggerates the significance of issues important to those states.

''Why is the rest of the country interested in Cuba? It's a couple of million people, we don't trade with them, and it's certainly been no military threat for 40 years,'' Koza said. The reason, he said, is that Florida is a battleground state.

H-P Fought Moore's Law and H-P Won

Hewlett-Packard announced today that researchers there have made advancements in nanocomputing -- which means that future microprocessors could use tiny molecular-sized switches to make them more versatile than anything we've ever seen. Instead of buying a whole new computer to upgrade to Windows Vista, for instance, your computer processor could upgrade itself into a new configuration. Thank goodness that geeky kid was paying attention back in science class.

My Computer is Over There... Inside the Wall

An Israeli tech company now has a PC that fits completely inside the wall. All that's visible is a plastic terminal with various input/outputs. You wire the Jack PC up and then simply plug in your monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. It's obviously not very customizable and would probably be a hassle to open up and perform maintenance, but it's yet another step in the direction of making technology more integrated with architecture. Instead of treating them like toaster ovens and blenders, we'll treat computers more like central air conditioning.

Why You'll Want Your Own Home Server

Lost amid all the excitement over the Apple iPhone and Apple TV, Microsoft previewed its own piece of technology awesomeness, Windows Home Server. The idea is to make operating a server user-friendly enough to appeal to casual computer users. Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows explains why this is such a big step forward:

When you think about the market for a home server-type product, you obviously need to consider how many people there are out there who would want and could take advantage of such a product. According to Microsoft, the market for WHS is quite big: There are over 40 million people worldwide that have broadband access and 2 or more PCs at home. They've got important data stored on those PCs, including digital memories (photos and videos), work and personal documents, financial data, and more.

The problem, of course, is that as more and more people use PCs to store their important data, the user base, overall, gets less and less technical, and the needs of the market migrate down to the mainstream. For this reason, WHS needs to serve the needs of average users as well as more advanced users (you guys). What Microsoft expects is that most of the people who acquire the first version of WHS will be enthusiasts. But they'll be so excited about the product that they'll evangelize it to others. And the product needs to work for these people.

Buddha in a Box

A couple of china-based musicians have invented a handheld music player that only plays back loops of Buddhist chanting and music. It even has a headphone jack for meditating on the subway... I think.

Finallly... A Journalist Not Swayed by the iPhone Hype

Stephen Colbert manages to reference both punchcards and Segway Polo leagues in his takedown of the Apple iPhone. Apparently he's "flaccid with rage."

After a very good run (almost four years) at Joel's Pub, I'm starting a new blog. It's called Tomorrow-Land and is going to devoted exclusively to online news. Di and I were talking about my career and I've told her many times about my desire to possibly move into the online news industry. Then we came up with the idea of me putting together a blog as a more professional pursuit -- something that, if it won't necessarily get me a job -- I can show off as a professional accomplishment.

So I hope you'll go over there and bookmark Tomorrow-Land. I will be posting stuff a few times a day, so check back often and post lots of comments. And if you have a blog of your own, please link to it and feel free to quote me as often as you'd like.

Iraq Insurgents Googling the Earth

British troops in Iraq are reporting that insurgents are using Google Earth to learn details about U.K. military bases in that country. It was only a matter of time before stories like this started coming out. Apparently Google already blurs out some areas -- supposedly including Israeli nuclear faciliities -- but according to the troops interviewed, the aerial maps show "where we eat, sleep and go to the toilet."

The Telegraph article, by the way, continuously refers to the fighters as "terrorists." Isn't a terrorist considered someone who attacks civilians, not military bases? I thought only American journalists continued using this silly terminology, but no.

Negative Outlook

Some people aren't happy with some major changes to Microsoft Outlook 2007. Check out the screen shots to see just how important graphic rendering is to making our e-mails look good. I know a lot of people are forced to use Outlook at work. And it is packed with features, but there really is no reason to use it at home, where Mozilla Thunderbird performs the same function and is free.

If Humans Were Better Drivers We Wouldn't Need Robots

The European Union is investing all sorts of money and effort into developing driver-less cars, taxis and trams. Hopefully this will pick up steam in the U.S., too. We're already using pilot-less drones for military and intelligence purposes, so why shouldn't we turn this technology toward civilian uses? The fact remains that humans just don't make very good drivers. We're too dependent on our reflexes and motor skills. Computer logic would actually be far more efficient at piloting small vehicles from point A to point B. Computers don't get drunk. They don't talk on cell phones. They don't feel the need to slow down and look at the fender bender on the other side of the highway. I think these driver-less systems will start popping up within the next 20 years in urban areas. The real leap forward will be when we're able to move from automated public-transit type systems to private automobiles that are integrated into larger transportation networks.

The Fashion Police Really Are Going to Arrest You

The Kenyan government has been trying to come up with a national dress code. The challenge has been to incorporate styles from all 42 of the nation's ethnic groups. Apparently it isn't catching on. I wonder what the United States' national dress code would look like? I'm thinking Larry the Cable Guy.

YouTube finally realizes it can do TV better than TV can do itself

It's been a wild week for home entertainment buffs (Which is basically everyone at this point. Even my mom has Netflix.). Apple introduced its set-top multimedia box, the Apple TV. Also, YouTube is considering starting its own conventional television channel.

Everyone knows the days of analog TV and shipping DVDs through the mail is waning. And it looks like some kind of universal home entertainment server is the direction we're headed. Wirelous routers and satellite dishes are great, but faster network access and better monitor technology means your TV in five years will be a lot more like your computer than the TV you have sitting in your living room right now. And the obvious technical challenges posed by this will be completely destroyed by an online experience that's faster and more visceral than old TV.

The internet is pretty much already at the point where it's better at TV than TV -- a fact apparent to anyone who realizes they just killed two and half hours surfing YouTube and Wikipedia.

Last of the Faux-hicans

David Beckham and wife Victoria (aka Posh) have landed. The world's most famous footballer (sorry Eli Manning) and his pinup wife will live out their celebrity-soaked lives in Los Angeles. Becks has signed an agreement to come to the U.S. at the age of 32 to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The usually-cynical English press was surprisingly chipper about the whole thing:

How intelligent of Beckham to leave European football at the age of 32. The timing of his decision means that he will enter Major League Soccer at a time when he is still capable of giving competitive performances at the highest level. Philip Anschutz, the owner of Los Angeles Galaxy (and much else besides), can be confident he has secured the signature not only of a celebrity whose aura alone can sell a million replica shirts but of a player who will persuade a whole new audience to fall in love with the game itself.

It remains to be seen whether this will be just a redux of Pele's signing with the New York Cosmos in 1975 -- a doomed attempt to market soccer in the U.S. I think this should definitely create a buzz for the sport, though. It's not every day that a world class player (which Beckham fortunately still is) comes here to play professionally. In the long run, it will be interesting to see if this is the start of a larger trend toward a more globalized sports marketplace. Yes, the soccer world is pretty well integrated already, but the world's lone superpower (grrr, I'm really starting to hate that phrase) has never been on board.
We have been importing athletes, especially baseball players, from other countries for a few decades, but the overall profile of international sports is low here. Maybe this is a sign of change.

Indoctrinating with Linux

You may already have heard about the $100 laptop. It's an initiative by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT and a group called One Laptop Per Child. The idea being, shocker!, to supply a laptop to every child in the developing world.
The computer uses a rubberized keyboard, small AMD processor and flash memory instead of a hard drive. The organizers are also developing a customizable version of Linux for each nation that receives the devices. Here's Negroponte on the decision not to use Windows and Office:

In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint," Mr Negroponte said.

"I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools."

We all like to believe in the power of technology, but you have to wonder if the poorest people on Earth have more pressing needs than using computers in the classroom. It's not even clear that these computers will improve education on a grand scale when families are so poor they need children to begin working at a young age. I'm not sure how a cheap laptop solves that.

Possible outcome? I wonder if the majority of these laptops will eventually end up being used by local businesspeople -- the typical small entrepreneur who finds computer access important. If that's the case, it might still be beneficial... just not in the way OLPC imagines.

Reach out and touchscreen someone

Your phone will never be the same. At last, that was the theme of yesterday's announcement that Apple will indeed be launching its iPhone in June. Is all the hype justified? It might be.
The new device is so groundbreaking because of its radical implementation of touchscreen technology. Yes, various PDAs and the iPod itself have been using some forms of touch technology, but that was only in a limited form -- not nearly what the iPhone promises to deliver. I think the main lesson from this is that touchscreen will be the main method users will interact with their devices. Buttons and styluses (styli?) are gone. Machines as versatile and complex as the iPhone will make physical buttons obsolete sooner rather than later.
Check out what Time had to say about Apple's approach:

They began by melting the face off a video iPod. No clickwheel, no keypad. They sheared off the entire front and replaced it with a huge, bright, vivid screen—that touchscreen Jobs got so excited about a few paragraphs ago. When you need to dial, it shows you a keypad; when you need other buttons, the screen serves them up. When you want to watch a video, the buttons disappear. Suddenly, the interface isn't fixed and rigid, it's fluid and molten. Software replaces hardware.

One area of the launch that wasn't so inspiring, though, was Apple's "singular" to offer the iPhone through only a single U.S. cellular provider. The rumors before the phone's launch were that Apple would offer the iPhone as an "unlocked" device -- meaning customers could use it with any cellular provider they wished. To the frustration of a lot of people, it won't happen right away. And that's too bad, because Apple's foray into unlocked phones could have had a massive effect on the industry overall. Customers willing to pay the $500-600 cost of an iPhone probably won't want to also be stuck with a contract for cell phone service. They'll want to shop around.

First!

First of all, welcome. This will be the home of my new blog, Tomorrow-land. The idea is to focus on current events, science, politics, technology and sports in a way that reveals signs about our world in the future. I'm not here to prognosticate, but to gather stories and blog postings from all over the place and hopefully give readers a better picture of how we'll live 5, 50 or 500 years from now.

Cheers,
Joel

oh, white people.


my favorite part of that is down at the bottom, though:
A first-grade teacher at Stoner Creek Elementary School in Mt. Juliet, Connie Akins has an array of sweaters that she's proud to wear the three weeks out of the year in which she can.

She hadn't heard of "Tacky Christmas Sweater" events before, but said if her 21-year-old daughter ever wanted to go to one, Akins would have to sit her down for a talk.

"I would probably talk to her about it and how it's disrespectful to make fun of other people," she said. "I would be shocked."


uh, your dauhter is 21 years old and she needs to be told not to tease others? is the south just completely retarded at this point?

bring on the cowgirls!

my beloved eagles pulled off another miraculous victory against the new york midgets today. some little brother named eli got intercepted a few times and brian "dawk-plex" dawkins had a monster game. now we go to dallas next week and invade that god-forsaken patch of earth called Texas Stadium.