How Sony got slapped by Micro$oft... and Nintendo... all for Blu-Ray

Balmer gloats and drinks the Champagne of sweet victory...

"Ohhhh, we so sowwy abowt PS3" Chairman apologizes for PS3 recalls...

I can’t believe the war is finally over.  Sony wins!!!  Blu-Ray is the new heavyweight CHAMPEEEEN of the Wooooorrrrrrrrlllllllldddddd.

WRONG!!!!!

You know who won this fight?   really?  MICROSOFT!!!

And everyone who bought a Blu-Ray disk, player or sticker helped them do it.  The best part is, they don’t even realize how they were duped, manipulated and used so that MS could pump up the XBox 360 and demolish the PS3.  Sorry, legion of  Sony fans.  Even as you bought your Blu-Ray PS3s you were lining the coffers of Micro$oft.  Well done!

Lets forget the fact that the format of HD-DVD was better.  Blu-Ray has ALOT going for it, and it won the war because it was the better technology.  Since the release of the two specs, the only thing HD-DVD had going for it was it’s cheaper format and easier structure.  In every other major category, Blu-Ray kicked it’s ass.  So why did it take over 2 years of constant fighting to bury HD-DVD?

Well, set your way back machine to when both companies were announcing the new 3G video game machines.... Xbox 360 and PS3.  MS knew it needed to do something incredible to make a dent in Sony’s market domination with the PS2.  Then Sony offered them the greatest gift the business world has ever seen.  They trumpeted how the PS3 would have and be a Blu-Ray player.  Instantly, Balmer and Gates were hugging and crying in their champagne brunch!

They knew they would go with the abortive format from Philips called HD-DVD.  They knew they could leverage a format war, that Sony would spend BIG money on Blu-ray, all the while, developing the XBox 360 download service and getting a LEGION of fanbois to embrace the digital delivery method.  (Can you say, Apple TV, NetFlix, TiVo etc)

And just like the dupes they were, Sony POURED money into Blu-Ray, spent HUGE money to woo the major studios and bought off major game developers all in a vain attempt to win a format war that they had won at the starting gate.   And the side effect of all this?  MS was able to market the 360 way ahead of Sony, they had great games at the rollout, all while Sony and it’s developers tried desperately to get killer games onto the system.  (Meanwhile Nintendo walks in and slaps both of them, but that’s another story.)  As Sony poured money into Blu-Ray, they had to slight something, and it was game development.  Sony even went so far as to buy the Blu-Ray equipment for some smaller game developers.  What a bonus if you’re a small developer.

“My favorite iteration of the HD DVD campaign was the negative push whereby all you heard was how Blu-ray disks would scratch easily and be ruined by a single thumbprint, or how they are hard to manufacture, and on and on. This was an orchestrated attack and none of it was true.”, John C. Dvorak

So here’s the scoop...

1. MS never intended to back HD-DVD


2. Blu-Ray was better from day 1


3. Sony poured capital into backing/hyping Blu-ray


4. MS didn’t spend a dime on HD-DVD


5. 360 rolls out with network that works and people get behind digital delivery model for stuff


6. PS3 rolls out with lousy games, network flaws and some very Un-Sony-like problems


7. MS “loses” the fight and Sony wonders why it cost them so damn much to win


8. Phillips/MS/HD-DVD people all giggle and watch the latest Blu-Ray copy of “The Office”

It truly has been fun to watch this fight.  I’m kind of proud of Steve Balmer, he managed to win a fight like this without buying another competitor.  In fact, he showed more style than Bill Gates.

Oh, and congratulations to all you PS3 / Blu-Ray buyers.  You’ve got some great hardware there... <snicker>  But just think... 2008 is going to be the year of the PS3.  (Unless of course, they roll out some more clunker games...)

Rethinking AIDS in Africa - mind blowing....

Wow, I like this lady alot.  She really makes you think about things in a new way!  By looking at AIDs from an economic standpoint and re-examining the assumptions made already, she really turns the epidemic upside down.  Her points were validated when the UNAIDS foundation revised it’s estimates of the number of world-wide AIDs patients way down.  But like she says, growth of the epidemic is still way up.  I love how she addresses policy issues, without trying to say who should do what, she just says we need to think again... long and hard, about how we need to fight this scourge.

Here is a link to her talk at TED... it’s a VERY good watch.

TED | Talks | Emily Oster: What do we really know about the spread of AIDS? (video)

And here is some links to her other works;

TED | Speakers | Emily Oster

Check this out, you won’t be disappointed.  (Well, maybe you will if you think we should just ignore AIDs.)

I am so tired of Mac Haters

As many of you know, I have switched my focus and effort from the PC world to the MAC world.  This was all brought about by the abortion known as

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 64 Bit Edition.

After installing this bloated piece of software crap (designed by Micro-tards, marketed by scumbags) I started a several month long journey into the depths of MS-Hell (Version 6.6.6).  Drivers that did not work, were not signed or simply sucked so much ass that an 8th grader in Hoboken could have done better.  And those great Apps.  WOW... holy shit, look at the great updates there... ummm, solitaire is fuckin cool now and Mah Jong comes STANDARD baby!  Too bad networking was broken and User Account Control was implemented so poorly that you had to be asked every 8 seconds if you really wanted to do anything at all??????  They managed to break everything of value that was in XP, or move it to some incomprehensible new menu structure.

In my humble opinion, Mac’s are just better.  Easier, faster, able to do things intuitively etc.  Are they perfect, nope, far from it.  Are they a damn sight better than XP or Virus... you damn right they are.  When you start up your mac, you just start to get things done right away, no searching for disks to insert, no begging for the latest signed driver file to download, you just do it.  To me, one of the biggest things I notice on the Mac is the style.  Yes, on a Windows box you have 967 choices of programs to get a certain task done while the Mac world may only offer 2.  I will tell you one thing though, in the mac world, you’re going to use one of those two programs and wonder “Why doesn’t the PC do it this way?  It’s so much better,easier,faster...etc...”  Even during my switching period, where I didn’t know how to accomplish certain things, as I learned about it, I found myself saying “wow, that’s awesome” ALOT!

What is really starting to kill me is the constant tirade of Mac hate out there.  It’s easy to see where it comes from.  The Microsoft flag wavers got their asses handed to them with Vista and they are seeing the market share numbers creep ever so slowly up for Apple.

This is not to say that Apple will ever dominate the marketplace, far from it.  The will however, command respect in the marketplace and the decades long dearth of software will begin to ease as developers realize they need to support this market.  So instead of droning on and on, let me just present my list of things and some answers.  Trust me, if you want to get the measure of your life back that MS and PCs are snarfing from you, SWITCH!  Ask me how!

1. Macs are toys - show me a computer that isn’t... JP Getty made a fortune without a PC


2. The Mac OS won't run games - Ok... so far I must agree... mac gaming is lame


3. Mac’s are too simplistic - And there is a problem here?


4. There’s no software for it. - Have you looked?  MS Office is on the Mac, dolt!


5. Microsoft bought Apple - I love that one...


6. If you want a REAL computer use a PC - Otherwise you can’t have your viruses and spyware


7. No Macs on the network, they are a security risk - And Windoze isn’t? - eeegads


8. Macs are so expensive - You get what you pay for


9. 95% Market Share for Windows, Game Over, Game Over, (repeated ad infinum)


10. I can build a windows system for 1,000 dollars cheaper - assuming the OS is of equal value


11. Apple stole GUI from PARC - Which MS then promptly stole from apple...


12. Macs are for artsy people and not getting real work done. - Me? Artsy?  My ass


13. Mac's don't work with the internet. - I love that one...


14. “Mac's are slow. d00d, I can get a 3GHz PeeCee for $150, but MAC'S are only like 2.0GHz at $5,000. OMG Tahts stoooopid!11!!.” - UGH, where do I start??


15. Mac's are only good for working with graphics - <cry> old habits


16. Mac's crash every 2 minutes. - My iMac has been uptimed for 3 months... (Not even a reboot)


17. Mac's don't even have USB or FireWire. - WHAT?


18. Macs don't have solitaire - 

President's Day

It’s Presidents’ Day, a holiday which itself has a weird and winding history. In honor of all of the U.S. Presidents who have graced the White House and fearlessly led our country, here (in no particular order) is a list of 10 of the weirdest things you (probably) never knew about some of our Commanders-In-Chief.

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt (President #32) was related in some way to 11 former U.S. Presidents.

2. James Garfield, the 20th president, was a professor of ancient languages; he was also ambidextrous. He is said to have been able to write in Latin with one hand while writing in Greek with the other.

3. John Tyler, the 10th president, fathered an impressive 15 children. He was in his 70s when the 15th child was born.

4. The tall stovepipe hat that Abraham Lincoln (President #16) is usually depicted wearing was, in fact, a useful wardrobe device. He stored important papers inside of it.

5. Our 17th President, Andrew Johnson, was born poor and could not read until the age of 17, when he met his future wife and she tutored him in reading, public speaking, and mathematics. He was later very nearly lynched in Virginia and forced to flee his home in Tennessee when he opposed the South’s secession from the Union.

6. The 22nd and 24th president, Grover Cleveland, was drafted in the Civil War but paid a substitute $150 to take his place so he could stay behind to care for his mother and sisters. Cleveland wasn’t widely criticized for this move: the Conscription Act of 1863 expressly permitted such a substitution.

7. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was reported to be a very interesting character. When not having his head massaged with Vaseline during breakfasts in bed or riding his own mechanical bull, he was ringing the White House doorbell and then running off to hide.

8. So far, all American presidents have claimed ancestry limited to one or more of just seven nationalities: Dutch, English, German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh.

9. Grover Cleveland was the only president to openly admit that he had fathered an illegitimate child. When the allegations came out during his presidential campaign, he instructed his staff to tell the truth about the child. In reality, it was never determined whether Cleveland was the child’s real father; he paid child support because he was the only single man among the mother’s suitors.

Farewell, Roy Scheider

Well, it was a day of mixed emotion.  Odd, I guess.  One of my personal favorite actors, Roy Scheider passed away Sunday afternoon.  He may not seem like a hollywood notable to many, but I was always impressed by him.  When I was younger, probably 12-13 I saw him at the Godspeed Opera house in a production of “Richard III” and he was really good.  He then, of course, went on to do other things, all with reasonable success.  I have to say, I really enjoyed 2010 with him as the lead.   Anyhow, all my best to his family in this sad time for them.

Roy Scheider, Actor in ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 75 - New York Times