Great, well made video…yet a little sobering…it’s a perspective of our impact on this planet, or rather, how we treat it.
TV: a dying business model
TV, as we have known it, is dead…the industry just isn’t willing to give up and is doing its best to keep it on life support. The best example of this is commercial-skipping technology. ReplayTV was sued and ultimately put out of business largely due to this feature, and the latest lawsuit targets Dish Networks for similar technology, that automatically skips over commercials in recorded shows.
Does this technology impact studios’ bottom line? Probably. But the invention of the horseless carriage affected horsewhip makers everywhere…and this alone is not a reason to hold back progress. The technology is here to give the viewers a better viewing experience, but studios are doing everything they can to block change. Apple has been rumored to be working on a TV, though building the hardware is the relatively easy part…it’s the software and user experience that is the most challenging to fix….here’s hoping they can pull it off in 2013.
As for me…I cut the cord over a year ago, tired of paying so much for so many channels I just didn’t want. I replaced our DirecTV subscription with a combination of purchasing shows via iTunes, and recording free over-the-air broadcasts from the major TV networks. My iMac records those broadcasts using an EyeTV tuner, with the free software plugin comskipper automatically going through and marking commercials for deletion (I still like to review that manually as it often leaves some in there). A simple click then exports it directly into my iTunes library for viewing on any of our AppleTVs. It’s really not that hard…just imagine how awesome the user experience could be if the studios embraced technology instead of fighting it every step of the way.
TV’s business model is obsolete…it’s time to reinvent it. If anyone can do it, it’s Apple. My AppleTV prediction – voice and gesture control. Face recognition tied in with parental controls to limit what kids can watch without an adult present. An aluminum enclosure, very similar to the latest iMacs. Sales in the billions.
Gravity-powered lamp
GravityLight is a new LED-based lamp that is powered much like a cuckoo clock…a bag of sand (or anything weighing about 20lbs) is pulled down by gravity, generating electricity to power the LEDs for about half an hour. It’s a neat idea for developing countries. The project is being funded via indiegogo, and have already surpassed their funding goal (with 33 days left in the campaign).
(read more at FastCompany)
Making fuel from air
A British company is working on a process which makes a hydrocarbon fuel out of CO2 and water. Cool idea, but at this point it’s a lab experiment and nothing more (though they’ve produced about five liters in the lab, so it’s proving itself). The big question is, is it scalable, what’s the efficiency, and what’s the source for the energy required to power this process.
The most important point here though, is that this is just one of many such projects in the works, trying to find more eco-friendly fuel sources. If just one of these can be successful, it can make a real impact on the sustainability of our lifestyle on this planet. Our current fossil-fuel-dependent lifestyle is most definitely NOT sustainable and we need to transition to an alternative quickly.
Read more here.
Introverts vs. Extroverts, explained
This is a really cool video that helps explain introverts versus extroverts. In a society where extroversion is the ‘norm’, introverts can feel out of place when in reality it’s society that needs to change, not the introverts (can’t change who you are!). This video is a good one for introverts to watch as it helps you understand why you don’t fit in, and it’s good for extroverts to watch to better understand introverts.
(In case you’re wondering, I’m very introverted…and once I came to understand and accept that, life become so much better!)