Watch out, the world is changing…

SUBJECT: ENDING THE WORLD'S ADDICTION TO OIL--EMPOWERING THE PEOPLE TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING--WHAT WE CAN ALL DO FOR OUR COUNTRY

I have enjoyed your recent articles.

Please be advised that there is an important new book available on subject.

The book is: "HOW TO LIVE WELL WITHOUT OWNING A CAR" by Chris Balish.

This book provides a voluntary, step-by-step, plan to empower all people in the fight to reduce the number of cars on the road, to break the world's addiction to oil, and to stop global warming. Car sharing is an important part of this plan.

This is a good plan that could be a great plan if governments would offer a few incentives to further encourage its adoption.


Sincerely,

Tom Balish
Ledyard, CT

I think I'm alone in thinking that Microsoft vs Apple comes down to the battle between the XBOX and the iPod, two things that at first glance, have nothing to do with each other...... then again, why would these two things even compete if they are two different things? I think it's much deeper. It's a heart and soul battle.

Those devices aren't viewed as computers, and I'm willing to bet that the installation process and 'tech phobia' is much different than that of the computer. Where much different = hardly present.

And the mobility folks will point out how phones aren't computers. (Even though under the hood it's all computers, but this isn't about tech, it's about lifestyle and experience-- that thing that makes the iPod win. It's not about tech. It's all the ethereal stuff).

I'm a techie but my better half is not. When looking at the cost of all these devices she'll conclude.. "I'd rather go on holiday" and she's right, I'd rather a holiday than an HDTV.

There's been massive hype about the new consoles this year and I fell for it thinking the Wii360 combo would be nice. Her reasoning was "I'd rather a weekend away". We went to a gaming exhibition at the Science Museum and I'll be honest Pong was the game we enjoyed the most that and Buzz.

As nice as all this technology is, to some it's just not important or even interesting.

I never even watch TV. What kind of pop culture addicted morons are you?

Don't you dare tell me that Survivor, Who Wants to be A Millionaire, or Deal or No Deal are compelling content.

Someone's actually using the fax machine as an argument in *support* of this?

Myself, I'm spending some time this week - and this week only - refusing to let this nonsense go by.

Dave's a millionaire. That he can go out and spend whatever on a new PC just to plug into a four thousand dollar TV is nice for him, and he earned his money so fair play to him.

What it manifestly is *not* is something in any way relevant to those of us who greet the idea of buying a computer just for the TV, or buying a TV which costs several thousand instead of a couple hundred with the same incredulity as we would if you'd just insisted we were idiots for not going to the moon next weekend.

Dave's particular horse-and-cart analogy would sound slightly less ridiculous if he also included the length of time it took for cars to become widely affordable.

Now... try and get them to go BACK to the horse and buggy! (heheh) Won't happen! That's the beauty of a free-market... it'll kinda sorta decide its course (with a little help from the manufacturers).

@14: Add Asia/India to the list. I still know plenty of people who do not own a PC and have no clue about email. They manage to live quite well actually. Go figure.

A LOT of people in NYC and in many cities in Europe manage to live very productive lives without owning a car. Go figure.

I'm sure many people will still manage to live happy and fulfilling lives without ever having the need, or more important the WANT to connect their TV to their PC.

Even though you may think you are in touch with the real world because you travel outside of SV every so often, people like you and Winer are pretty much completely clueless on how the rest of the world lives, or what it is they want.

I worked for a business owner in 1989 who said that the cell phone and fax machine were just a fad and he would never own either one. He changed his mind!

Dave Winer and you are way off base here - of course I'm used to that since you both have your heads firmly implanted up your ASCII. Sure, most people didn't want to swap their horse and buggy for an internal combustion vehicle. But something happened to make them want to switch - more reliable and cheaper cars as well as better roads.

Similarly, the computer and content delivery will need to mature significantly before 'most' of us will want to attach the two. Sure, I see lots of potential for the idea but no there's too little delivered for the hassle.

It's not that people don't want to, it's that there's no compelling need. If you don't watch a lot of TV, then why get a new one that costs 3x or more what your current one costs? If you don't feel limited that your game console is not also a media center, a DVD player, a blender and a car, then again, why do you care?

Robert...please try to understand this, although it makes your head hurt, and scares you stupid...there are, really, tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people in this country, hell, even in techie areas for whom spending a car's worth of money on home tech and computers simply is not a priority. Your tech room is great, but it kind of stops being of use if you actually GO somewhere or DO something that doesn't involve sitting motionless in front of a great glowing screen.

All this crap you buy and talk about, and it all does nothing but encourage you to sit motionless inside.

I developed a personal video recorder with internet connectivity SEVEN YEARS ago (before TiVo). The problems I had are three fold: a) COMPLEXITY My product did a lot more than TiVo - interactive TV, Email, voice direction, multiple views: the same you can get today with XP Media Center Edition or Vista. However, TiVo is still better because it is simpler- people believe it is an appliance, but view Media Centers as computers. I am a geek so I like the power, but my wife (and most users it seems) prefer ease of use.
B) TECHNOLOGY: I was fighting to get downloads in a time when 56k speeds were a luxury. I hate to tell you guys: a lot of people in this country do not get broadband! My in-laws do not get cable- it is not worth it for the big companies. However, thanks to Moore's Law, the technology has grown. WiMax may be able to solve the last mile problem and video cards now can record at real time to a 1TB SATA disk.
C) PRICE: This is the hardest nut to crack. I tried to make my business model better than TiVo - FREE! I made my revenue off advertisements; however, it made it incredibly hard to stay profitable. Most people buy TiVo because it seems cheaper.

I'm still waiting for Apple, to release a 32" and greater screen with the Mac built in. Not an iMac. A widescreen thing of beauty where I slide the discs in the side and the cameras in the top. It has wireless built in and a 100GB (mininum) Hard Disk.

Oh and a digital tuner would be good.

I too believe that one day we will not have anything called the TV or the PC. You will need just one thing. And you could have that one thing in all the rooms. Brands, features will differ that's all. Why, something more will be added to it. Like say some thing that will be connected to your brain through which you can communicate with the machine. Scary. But it has to happen. It will be so convinient, just communicating and interacting without bothering to type words or even speak them. The thing in the room will just know. This is going to happen.

The replacement cycle for TV's is something like 8-10 years, the replacement cycle for computers is about 3.

What you will find is that there is no such thing as a "TV" anymore, there will merely be monitors that can be hooked up to any number of signal generating devices: from games to sat receivers to dvr's.

Now the question of what "computer activities" are done in the living room in front of a big monitor is interesting. Beyond gaming and video conferencing, I'm betting not many.

I think society is generally focusing on to much crap we dont need. You might want an Ipod, but I am pretty sure you dont need it.

But thats primarily a marketing rant.

"today it’s impossible to live in modern society without using the darned things"

Yes, it is. I am 33 and don't have a driver's license nor do I plan on ever getting one. Cars are a really stupid invention.

OTOH, I not only have my computer connected to the TV, I have built my own MythTV box which is the envy of all my Media Center-based friends.

Not true, I biked to work this morning and I don't want to connect my computer to a TV.

Doug: I really DO NOT want computers built into my screens. Why? Computers get updated far more often than screens will. I'd like them separate so I can have choice on the devices I'll hook up.

What folks don't realize is that they already have. Cable boxes, receivers, TIVO, XBoxes, Playstations, WII's... all of them are computers!

My view is that we won't be connecting our computers to our TVs, our TVs will have computers built in. If I'm going to pay $2k for an HDTV set, why not spend $3k and have it preloaded with Vista Home Premium Edition. I can view TV and see my email Picture-in-Picture.

Woohoo!