I don’t have internet in my apartment right now, and it is wonderful. Life has slowed down considerably. I go out of the house to a coffee shop if I really need to check my internet for some reason, but other than that, I stay at home and write, pet my cat and enjoy life.
When I do step out of my home, however, it is made obvious that the rest of the world is paying entirely too much attention to the internet. How can I tell, you ask? Easy: gas prices.
Since moving to western Virginia a month ago, the price of gas has gone up 10 cents nearly every week. Over the past five years, I have seen the price go up and down quite a bit, down at just below 3 dollars, back up to 3.54, back down again, and round and round it goes. But something happened after we “hit the fiscal cliff” in January. My guess? It’s all fictions.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt that the “fiscal cliff” is real. What I doubt is that anyone outside of yuppies in congress have the faintest notion as to what it is.... let alone people who own gas stations.
What does this lack of knowledge produce? Fear. What does the internet provide? An enormous quantity of information. Put ‘em together and what’ve you go? Bibbity, bobity.... misguided panic.
The internet, for all its genius, has stunted our ability to process information in any reasonable way. For thousands of years, news and information has travelled at a pace that the average human brain could process and understand at a reasonable rate. The internet has not made us smarter, it has made our knowledge infinitely broad, but incredibly shallow.
So since we know ABOUT everything, and yet know NOTHING about individual topics, everyone is an expert, despite the fact that no one has any idea what they are talking about. Groups like Anonymous, LULZSec and other have seen this, and along with internet trolls, have made it their personable business to make sure that no one takes the internet as “serious business.”
And they are right. Increasing the number of blind men leading each other around, does nothing to increase anyone’s ability to see. There are simply a larger number of people falling into holes. Granted, the greater numbers also increase the odds of someone stumbling upon a loaf of bread... but there are still more people than not falling into holes.
As a result, the fuel market has fallen into the hole of misguided panic. If I am to believe the Bible as a Christian (and I do), then I take the Scripture’s word that there is nothing new under the sun. People today do the same stupid crap that they did when King Solomon commented on how everything is meaningless.
But just like our inflated egos are so quick to accept the evolutionary lie that we are better than all those who came before us, so too we are quick to deface our time and say that no one has ever had it harder than us.
Both are equally false. As my history professor sagely informed me: “There is no such thing as ‘the good old times.’” There were fools thousands of years ago, there are fools now. There were wars thousands of years ago, there are wars now. Christ was in charge thousands of years ago, and He is still in charge now.
Fear profits a man nothing.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Ultraviolet No No
There is something really wrong with these... and if you want my advice: steer away from them.
Oh... sorry, let me explain what they are first.
In today’s wonderfully modern age, we have all sorts of ways to enjoy life, entertainment and storytelling. Now that things are becoming increasingly digital, things are more instant and “now, now, now!” than ever before. Movies have experienced the effects of this change probably more than any other medium.
For example, 40 years ago, the only way you could enjoy a movie was if it was running on one of the three stations you could get from your television set. It was either that, or shell out cash to see a new flick in the theater.
20 years ago, a shift had taken place with the invention of VHS, and now you would take the fun with you and watch the movie of your choice in your hotel room, bedroom or living room.... provided that you have a VHS player and television, of course.
13 years ago (ish), we saw the rise of movies on disc... something that had previously only been able to host music files, now packed enough data to store an entire film.
Then, around 2006, movies became available through the internet, due to increasingly large quantities of data that could be projected through digital cables. And now, we have digital rentals, downloads, purchases, bit-torrenting and a whole host of other options. Ultraviolet, however, is the worst option of the lot.
You may noticed that a lot of DVDs being sold in stores now-a-days are advertised as giving you a plethora of options in which you are able to view your movie. Sometimes you can even get a movie pack that gives you the movie in digital download format, regular DVD, high quality DVD and 3D DVD..... that is.... if you want to shell out 60 bucks for a movie.
But not all digital copies are equal. At first, when the bonus digital copy editions came out, there was only one version (pioneered by Disney). As time went on, there arose a format war ala Beta vs. VHS, or HDDISC vs. BLURAY. While companies like Disney, Universal Studios, and Lionsgate Films made the Digital Copy standard on their DVD releases, other film studios such as Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures decided to introduce a new format of “digital download”... the Ultraviolet “Movies in the cloud!” While Disney’s Digital Download format could actually be downloaded to your computer and put on MP3 players, laptops, harddrives, thumbdrives, bake sale drives, as well as your little brother’s cat.... Ultraviolet instituted a series of steps that were ten times more complicated than putting a DVD into a disc tray.
Digital copy required no information from your or new account to keep track of you. Ultraviolet did.
Digital copy let you upload your movies to external drives and players and discs. Ultraviolet did not.
Digital copy required no internet access after you downloaded your movie in order to watch it. Ultraviolet did.
Digital copy required no other software be downloaded in order to access your movie. Ultraviolet did.
The digital format war is still going on. Ultraviolet is inferior in every way, and Warner Brothers needs to learn to play nice with others. Say no to Ultraviolet.
Oh... sorry, let me explain what they are first.
In today’s wonderfully modern age, we have all sorts of ways to enjoy life, entertainment and storytelling. Now that things are becoming increasingly digital, things are more instant and “now, now, now!” than ever before. Movies have experienced the effects of this change probably more than any other medium.
For example, 40 years ago, the only way you could enjoy a movie was if it was running on one of the three stations you could get from your television set. It was either that, or shell out cash to see a new flick in the theater.
20 years ago, a shift had taken place with the invention of VHS, and now you would take the fun with you and watch the movie of your choice in your hotel room, bedroom or living room.... provided that you have a VHS player and television, of course.
13 years ago (ish), we saw the rise of movies on disc... something that had previously only been able to host music files, now packed enough data to store an entire film.
Then, around 2006, movies became available through the internet, due to increasingly large quantities of data that could be projected through digital cables. And now, we have digital rentals, downloads, purchases, bit-torrenting and a whole host of other options. Ultraviolet, however, is the worst option of the lot.
You may noticed that a lot of DVDs being sold in stores now-a-days are advertised as giving you a plethora of options in which you are able to view your movie. Sometimes you can even get a movie pack that gives you the movie in digital download format, regular DVD, high quality DVD and 3D DVD..... that is.... if you want to shell out 60 bucks for a movie.
But not all digital copies are equal. At first, when the bonus digital copy editions came out, there was only one version (pioneered by Disney). As time went on, there arose a format war ala Beta vs. VHS, or HDDISC vs. BLURAY. While companies like Disney, Universal Studios, and Lionsgate Films made the Digital Copy standard on their DVD releases, other film studios such as Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures decided to introduce a new format of “digital download”... the Ultraviolet “Movies in the cloud!” While Disney’s Digital Download format could actually be downloaded to your computer and put on MP3 players, laptops, harddrives, thumbdrives, bake sale drives, as well as your little brother’s cat.... Ultraviolet instituted a series of steps that were ten times more complicated than putting a DVD into a disc tray.
Digital copy required no information from your or new account to keep track of you. Ultraviolet did.
Digital copy let you upload your movies to external drives and players and discs. Ultraviolet did not.
Digital copy required no internet access after you downloaded your movie in order to watch it. Ultraviolet did.
Digital copy required no other software be downloaded in order to access your movie. Ultraviolet did.
The digital format war is still going on. Ultraviolet is inferior in every way, and Warner Brothers needs to learn to play nice with others. Say no to Ultraviolet.
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