Jan
12
Hey, motion picture industry. You just turned a perfectly honest, hard working American consumer into a raging pirate. You took 10 hours of my life and now it’s “go time.”
All I want to do is hook up my TiVo and DirecTV DVR via HDMI to my friggin’ receiver and see it on my tv. Nope. Can’t do it. See, these fokkers who make movies are so afraid that we’re going to copy their precious stuff that they’ve convinced the manufacturers of electronic equipment to cripple the stuff.
Well, guess what? I used to pay for all of my music and movies. I used to lecture people about doing the same. I used to believe that people deserved to to be compensated for their product. That was before today. Today I was treated like a criminal. Today I spent ten hours trying to get a simple configuration to work because the instruction manual didn’t tell me that it wouldn’t. After doing a ton of internet research I found out that the feature that I had been trying so hard to make work had been intentionally disabled in order to keep me from copying some piece of garbage that Hollywood passes off as entertainment.
You’ll die like a rag doll and I’ll be laughing as I copy and distribute your crappy programming. You brought it on yourselves.
Dicks.
Jan
6
CES 2008
Filed Under travel, tech, jobs | Leave a Comment
I’m in Las Vegas covering the Consumer Electronics Show for a large cable company based in Philadelphia. Chew on that one. This is my first time in Vegas and I must say that I have been very impressed so far. The city is clean and colorful and really interesting.
I’m shooting XDCAM HD and I can’t stress enough the joy I get from looking like a real professional in an environment like this. I mean, this camera is a real professional camera. That’s the problem with much of today’s smaller gear. It’s makes you look like an amateur. This honkin’ axe commands instant respect!
There’s a ton of stuff to see and do so I’m sure the days will fly by. I plan to take tons of pictures and will post some here if I can figure out the flickr thing.
I hope to get to the Hoover Dam on Wednesday since it’s only 32 miles from my hotel, the Luxor. I’m told that seeing it produces one of those holy crap moments, kinda like the Grand Canyon. We shall see.
Jan
6
Two Games
Filed Under NFL, jobs | Leave a Comment
Like black and white, chocolate and vanilla, my jobs last weekend couldn’t have been more starkly opposite. The work was simar but the atmospheres felt distinctly playoffs and pre-season. On Saturday night I was in East Rutherford to cover history as the Patriots would bid for football immortality - an undefeated 16 game regular season.
Usually interconference games are kind of dull. Not this one. The Pats are clearly one of history’s best squads and the Giants, though limping into the playoffs, still have enough juice to ruin someone’s day. The game didn’t disappoint but the outcome did. I think most of America was pulling for big blue but it just wasn’t enough. It was loud in there though and for much of the game the Giants gave us hope that the “any given Sunday” thing isn’t just a dream.
After a long season of shooting matchups like Cardinals/Ravens it was really exciting to be in a playoff-like atmosphere. I got home around 2am and then headed off for the Linc where I would experience the complete opposite effect.
The Eagles/Bills tilt was like the fourth preseason game. You know, the one where season ticket holders give away their seats and the dull din of the place ends up sounding like a funeral home. The Eagles won and blah, blah, blah. I can’t wait to get to the playoffs and get that intensity back.