Random Thought Of The Day #447

Day 447

The other day, I made that off-handed comment about a kinky singularity and then realized how not-off-handed it really was. I thought about it a little bit and here's kind of what I came up with on this:



Can I turn a singularity into a beer bong?

 First of all, what is the singularity in the first place? I see it as the point where the whole game changes. And as much of a futurist as you may be, you can't quite predict where things go beyond there. The point where pretty much any potentiality becomes reasonable and cultural norms shift.

Secondly, I think that the term  "kinky singularity" was a little too assuming of a particular outcome and part of a larger picture. The more apt term would be the sexual singularity. Thought Kinky Singularity does still work if you're considering a portion of the sexual singularity.

Now, before I begin to explain this more, here's a quick disclaimer:

Read this under the assumption that I'll be using words like "deviant", "normal", "abnormal", "common" and other terms in the the most literal sense and not as pejoratives. They are objective terms applied to the subjective cultural norms of Americans. So the meanings of adjectives such as these shift as the "cultural norms" of Americans also shift.

For instance, if a group is primarily populated by those that identify as "omnivores" and a particular person skews fully into carnivore or herbivore territory in their dietary choices, then they have effectively chosen an "abnormal" diet.



No veggies? Dietary Deviant!

 Conversely, if a group is primarily populated by those that identify as "carnivores" or "herbivores" and a particular person skews fully into the opposite or "omnivore" territory, then they have effectively chosen an "abnormal" diet as well.

Neither of these imply one is more necessarily correct than another, simply that the majority choose 1 path and an individual chooses a path that is not the same.

All that stupid shit said, we get to the question:

What IS the sexual singularity (and also the kinky singularity subsect of the sexual singularity)?

I see it as the point where presently "abnormal" or culturally-determined "deviant" sexual behavior ceases to become a minority of the population. The point where there are more people that identify as "kinky" or "queer" & "non-hetero" than those that identify in gender-binary, hetero & vanilla.

This is the point of the sexual singularity. It induces a radical social shift. It's a total cultural change. Your definitions begin to change. The previously vocal minority now assumes the role of the majority within society. And how is variable impacts the zeitgeist is what makes it a singularity.

But what happens at this point?

We have to assume that this particular singularity is not so much a paradigm shift as one of the zeitgeist. A paradigm shift implies a point-of-no-return. But with a singularity, we have no clue about potential for return. It's something wholy new.  We have no idea what is on the other side of that point and we have no clue as to if the zeitgeist can swing back the other direction again.

The only thing that we know for certain is that the culturally subjective application of terms such as 'deviant", "common", "normal" and "abnormal" change.

Now, the kinky singularity is a sub-sect of the sexual singularity. It can be reached long before the sexual singularity. It only applies to the "vanilla" vs. "kinky" portion of the equation.

And it appears as though we're trending in that direction. It's hard to determine if this is actually true or just an appearance, however. We are seeing increases in the number of people getting involved in the kink community. We are seeing increasese in kink sub-cultural influences in mainstream culture. We are seeing an increase in non-kinky people dabbling in kink to spice things up in their relationships. We are seeing an increase in a lot of things with regard kink in the mainstream or increases in people identifying publicly as being non-vanilla that is disproportionate with population increases.

But that's the thing. All we're doing is observing increases. We don't have a true base-line. We have a perceived base-line for these things to compare them to. But all we're doing is observing increase. The same number of non-kinky people could have been dabbling in kink to spice things up before, but we didn't observe it. The same % of the population could have been kinky before but are only now getting involved in a community.

The only measureable increase is the kink sub-cultural influence in mainstream culture & entertainment. But that can also easily be explained as just another flavor-of-the-month for shock value or simply a result of leniency in entertainment censorship. But in the meantime, we will have to get a greater sample size to determine if it is a trend or simply a coincidence.

And even in the even that you can prove a trend in any or all of these categories... the same question arises:

What happens when/if you hit the point of singularity? How does the world change? How does the legal system and the entertainment world and religion and everything else change? Is it a point of no return?

We've never seen it. We've seen hints of it, but the pendulum has always swung back the other way before actually reaching the point of the singularity.

Take this thing with a grain of salt. It's simply a first attempt at trying to define something that I KNOW exists but I've never heard anyone really talk about much before. And my sleep-deprived, caffeine-addled brain isn't completely functional yet today.

But for reading all this, you get some wonderful words from Deadpool:


Gotta love finishing up a thought on sexuality by making a gay joke.



Random Thought Of The Day #446

Day 446

"The Mr. Fusion is over there... Next to the Mr. Coffee.
Don't get them mixed up."
- me (if I had a nuclear reactor in my kitchen)



How the fuck did I not hear about this?

Some dude in Sweden was arrested and jailed after trying to build a nuclear reactor in his kitchen!

This guy even apparently achieved fusion. And is apparently the 38th independent physicist to achieve this feat.

How fucking cool is that? I want a nuclear reactor in my kitchen. That would be fucking awesome!

See, this is the kind of crazy mad science we need to see more of in the world. The kind of people that just do this wildly crazy shit in the pursuit of knowing "Can it be done? Can I do it? Why has nobody else ever done this?"

I was just talking to a friend about something along these lines last night. You don't seem to see the rockstars of science and futurism anymore. The kind of people going "hey, I bet if I did this and this, I could make this totally never-before-seen thing happen" and then doing it in their home lab. Even if their home lab is in their kitchen.

I mean, sure... you have like Steven Hawkings and that japanese guy whose name I can't pronounce or even contemplate spelling... Miz-something-or-other. But outside of that... what do we have? We don't have an Edison or a Tesla or an Einstein or Currie or Ben Franklin or anything like that. I guess we got Gates & Jobs & Woz, but that doesn't really count. At this point, those guys hire 7 million people to actually do any of the inventing for them and are just faces. Well, maybe not Woz, but still...

We just don't have the kind of borderline Mad Scientist types that are so wildly unconventional and ignore all the so-called "rules" and just create cool new shit. The kind of people that are so deeply interested in discovering new cool shit that they don't even care if they blow themselves up to do it. They just want to do SCIENCE!!

I mean, you look at history and they're filled with these people. But today or in the last 20 or 30 years? I mean, we had some guys building computers in their mom's basement, but outside of that? We need new, "throw caution to the wind" people that just come up with awesome cool new shit or theories or something.

Or we'll end up with fucking Flubber.

Random Thought Of The Day #445

Day 445

I haven't reminded you in a while... so you might need a reminder...

Daddy is watching. Behave.

I'm watching. I'm ALWAYS watching.

The Science Jesus will give, unto you, your kinky singularity. And the world will never be the same.

Fear me. Love me.

Even Deadpool has become kinky:

Silence is golden. Duct Tape is silver.

I am already immanentising the eschaton.

(Yes, that was intentionally spelled that wrong. Shut it.)

Random Thought Of The Day #444

Day 444

You know, it kinda bugs me that this isn't doing a 1-5 or 6-0 numbering thing on Monday thru Friday anymore. I liked when Monday was always Day XX1 or XX6 and friday was always Day XX5 or XX0.

I think that's just my own version of OCD kicking in.

I think we all kinda have our own little OCD moments. It doesn't matter if it's a numbering scheme, the way shit is arranged, how clean things are or anything else, but we've all got them.

I know mine is in numbering or naming things.

I've spent hours and hours monotonously re-naming mp3 files, adjusting ID3 tags or anything like that to get them all the same and into the same format. Even as far as capitalizing first letters of words and the number of spaces I put into things.

We all have our own weird personal OCD moments.

There were a number of us discussing them on Friday night. And we realized something:

Do you know what's better than tilting the picture hanging on the wall around someone with OCD?

Tilting a picture that's screwed to the wall around a person with OCD. (hint: it involves a power drill)

*grin*

And off that topic



I want my life to have captions.



Random Thought Of The Day #443

Day 443

I wish I had more to say today. I'm kinda shocked that I don't. Considering I had like a full week of letting shit accumulate in my brain that I'd eventually have to get out.

Instead, I'm sitting here thinking "you know, if this thing didn't suck as much as it has recently, this thing would actually be worth reading again. Maybe I should kick up another shitstorm about anything just to make shit interesting again. I haven't done that in about 5 months.". But the problem is, I can't even think of anything I'd want to yell about or any idiots that would be fun to take shots at right now.

THAT is how uninspired I am.

Instead, I'm left with posting stupid pictures, commenting on the stupid playground politics and retarded attempts at community engineering of a local scene that I'm not even involved with anymore and throwing in some Deadpool to get a laugh out of it.

But I'm not blaming anyone for it. I just can't seem to get my brain to engage and get creative again. Or even funny.

And it seems as though I'm not the only one. Fetlife has been mostly dead. I haven't read a decent discussion in months that wasn't pretentious as fuck or so stupid that even I couldn't get a laugh out of it. I haven't even read any news stories or articles or anything that wasn't just the same recycled crap as everything else.

I mean, this is the fucking internet. We should be able to at least find something worth checking out.

Wow... an Ayn Rand phrase just popped into my head that seems to be rather fitting. The moratorium on brains. That's what I keep getting the vibe of everywhere I look.

Is the stage just too big for everyone? I mean, I know we're in a super-connected world. Did everyone else just realize it and get stage fright? Or am I just not looking in the right places anymore?

It's probably the second one.

And I'm probably just blabbering like an idiot. Like usual.

Oh, fuck it. I'm apparently just writing to see what comes out on the screen right now. This was completely pointless.

Off to go do science.

Random Thought Of The Day #442

Day 442

You know... I was starting to write something about what a "community leader" is, what their function is and what power they actually have, but honestly? I'm too still-not-awake and far too brainfucked this morning to actually put together much of a cohesive thought.



This is what Authority looks like. See? They wear costumes.



I'll just throw out the bullet points here without really explaining it. I think that the term "community leader" is nebulous and that they really don't have any actual power.

I think a more apt term would be a "volunteer community facilitator". They don't lead shit. They facilitate a location for meet-ups. They are "known" persons. But any "authority" that they are granted in decision making for the groups that they represent is completely at the immediate consent of those within the group. The minute that anything is done that the group members disagree with in great enough numbers, there ends their authority. Because nobody is required to patronize any particular group.



When you don't have authority
you're kinda not a leader.

 And anyone is free to create their own groups if they so choose for any reason. Maybe it's as a special interest group, maybe it's because the time or location of the existing group meet-ups don't work for them, or maybe it's because they disagree with the direction of the existing groups. And at least a handful of people will support or patronize it.

Whatever.

In the end, what is presently called a community leader is a misnomer.

If you can be a "community leader" because people know who you are, your voice or opinions carry some degree of weight or you organize a group, that would make me a "community leader" as well. And I sure as shit ain't one. I'm an asshole with a keyboard, a big mouth and too much free time to write things at 7 or 8am during the week. And even when I was attending events within the larger established community and not just organizing random @ElitistFucks meet-ups, I wasn't one either. I was just outspoken. There's a difference.

I don't really have any funny caption for this.

These volunteer community facilitators do serve a function. They take on a responsibility that others don't have the time, money or energy to do and for that, they should be thanked. But thanks does not equate to authority. It doesn't equate to power. It is simply appreciation for their effort and their attempts. They are not elected officials. In many cases, they're hand-picked successors to previous group-runners. Or they're simply people with their own agendas that they want to promote through their own notoriety.

None of which entitles them to any more than our thanks, even when we disagree with them. It does not grant them any power. Simply an appreciation from others.

That's pretty much all I gotta say about that.

This is a pretty disjointed post, but fuck you... I'm still barely awake. And my brain has yet to engage today. 6 hours of sleep in 2 nights will do that, I guess. Sadly, I could only find some moderately amusing pictures for any of this stuff today.

But here's some deadpool instead, even though it's entirely irrelevant.

PIMP

Random Thought Of The Day #441

Day 441

Finally... The Dok... has come BACK... To... Fetlife.

Sorry about that... channeled my inner Rock there for a moment.

Alright... now, onto the fun stuff. Namely... things I have to say.

I was gonna write some long rant about the whole TNG thing again, but I just can't really bring myself to care enough to devote the time to even writing more than this:

Who cares if there's a new TNG that's affiliated with the new BRIDGE group? Does it really matter? And why does it need to be "created" by anyone in any position of paper-authority within the community? Why not just watch things happen when there's a necessity for them? Why does it need to be "created" at all?

Sorry kids... but it just smacks of too much community engineering to me.

If a bunch of 18-25 or 18-30 or 18-35 year olds want to get together from time to time as their own SIG, who the fuck has the authority to say "well, it needs to be an approved group by the community leaders" or some crap along those lines.

Nobody owns the name TNG (the claim of some dude in Illinois or Indiana or something and maybe Gene Roddenbery notwithstanding) so when a TNG ceases to exist, they also give up the right to the name. And nobody has to go ask anyone else permission to use it. Be TNG... Be Whippersnappers (I don't know if there actually is a national organization that needs to be chaptered for this one) or be the fucking Romper Room for all I care... do your own thing and stop letting people in positions of paper-authority tell you what you can and can't do.

And that's all I gotta say about that. And far more than I intended to initially.

For @Graydancer - see? friends are more than just enemies
I haven't yet found a solution for. They're also good
pack-mules.

I'd like to extend a speical thank you to @LordAlexanderRose, @TwistedView, @BrighidsCross, @Sadistic_Switch, @Farm_Boy13 and @Sybele for all their help with getting shit moved for Artemis_Fallen, Diotima & I. I know I'm probably forgetting someone (or 3) here for their help, but still... thanks to all of you.

Also, I'd like to welcome Diotima to Pittsburgh. She's the new roomie. Say hi to her. She's pretty fucking cool. She's a southerner, but we don't hold that against her. Though it will be really funny to see her in a coat come winter time that is of the approximate size of the Michelin Man.

We still have roughly 4000 boxes left to unpack, but it's coming along. We'll be announcing the housewarming party... um... eventually? And I'll be sending out the invites for the rescheduled Kegs & Eggs party soon as well. Patience, children... patience. It'll be worth it. 

But as a break from moving, I did get to see Captain America on Monday night. I loved it. It felt like a comic book in the same way that the Ang Lee "HULK" movie tried and failed miserably to do. And with a pretty cool story. It had just enough patriotism without crossing the line into nationalism or jingoism. Though with how much it borrowed from The Ultimates, it really could have used this line:

Fuck France. Cheese eating surrender monkeys.

OK, I think I rambled here enough for this morning. Here's some Deadpool.



Punching Hitler in the face makes you totally awesome forever. Even when you have wings on your head
and little red booties.



Random Thought Of The Day #440

Day 440

Son of a bitch... I already mostly wrote this once on my phone and then apparently forgot to save the draft. Fuck me sideways.

Well, the first version of this was funnier. I already forgot some of the jokes.

I don't have a useful picture for
group names. But this is probably more
funny than they would have been

I'm on vacation this week... so if you do get something to read, feel lucky.

I'm kind of amused at the discussion of new munch organization again. Didn't I already cover this? Oh yeah... I already covered this. Weeks ago.

As for group names... I'm voting for Kink 'N'@. A nice pittsburgh name in the tradiation of Pants 'N'At. Or maybe Super Awesome Mega Party!! as well. Just for the sake of being weird.

Or we can go with something more simple... like CitiGroup.  Oh wait... that one's already taken. Well, ButtMunch is also an acceptable alternative, @Danowar.

I'm not gonna rehash this too much from what I've said on the subject before. But I'll be honest. TNG is a SIG. That's all. And I'd even asjust the age restriction a little to make it more useful. Make it 18-35 AND new to the community. Then simply define what you consider "new" and then people graduate out. That's it.

Any other need for a TNG is kinda splitting hairs. And now that I think about it, I think we've been doing a LOT of hair splitting in order to justify groups that fill the void of social interaction from lacking a dungeon for the past year and change. But that's just me. I see far too much redundency that seems to only exist because people feel compelled to make something else new. But that's another thing I've already covered.

I already know how to shamlessly
self-promote. Beacuse I'm just that
damn good.

Seeing the "I already covered this" trend here? *shameless self promotion* "Read it here before it turns into a community thread a month from now!" *end shameless self promotion*

But back on this name topic... Define 'NEW" as a time frame. 6 months? A year? Whatever. Then have it run by someone that's recently "graduated" out of the group that still knows some of the people there and can relate to being totally new to the community. Figure out a "term" for them to act in that group-runner capacity and have them be there to play liason between TNG and parent group, help newbies feel comfortable and represent the newbs to the community at large when necessary.

But hey... whatever they name it and whatever new structure is put in place... at least it won't be as improperly named as TNG is right now.



This is kinda how I feel about the community
structure and what's done with it at this point.



I'm totally gonna start making people do something stupid to join @ElitistFucks after they're invited now. Like "jump up and down on 1 leg while singing "I'm a little teapot" in your best marilyn monroe impersonation voice" from now on. And then they have to learn the gang sign as well. Cause we already have one, bitches!

And for the record, until like 3 months ago... I STILL was getting the BurgherMunch and Burgh Munch names confused. And when I don't think about either group for another 2 months, I'll forget which one is which again. I'll know where they are and who runs each of them, but I'll still forget which one is named which.

Now that that horse is slowly turning to fucking glue... and since you might not get any more this week... Here's some Deadpool too.




I do think in little yellow boxes. I can see them.
But you can't.



Random Thought Of The Day #439

Day 439

Since I wrote a motherfucking novel yesterday, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet today.

I hate you all.

Except that guy... that guy is pretty awesome. And that girl is pretty cool too.

And anyone that's going to help me move next week. I like you too.

Oh, and here's something funny that is totally fitting for me:

Random Thought Of The Day #438

Day 438

First of all... the Kegs & Eggs party is cancelled. I know you were all looking forward to it but something came up and it's just not gonna be able to happen. We're gonna reschedule it for a few weeks from now but I'll send out new invites when we do. Yeah, I know... it sucks. Nobody has done a morning party in forever and just the novelty is awesome. But yeah... sorry kids. We're gonna have to cancel it for the time being.

Now that that's out of the way... on to something that's been on my mind for the past few days since I first got the e-mail about Netflix changing their price structure rather seriously.

In case you didn't know... Netflix is changing their price structure rather seriously. Presently, you can get your basic "1 dvd at a time (but unlimited rentals per month) & unlimited streaming" package for like $9 a month. That's cool. That's a great fucking deal. Yeah, the streaming content is a little lacking. There's a LOT of full seasons of TV shows on there, but movie content is rather mediocre. You get a lot of direct-to-dvd stoner comedies, low-budget horror movies, a bunch of 90's and early 00's movies, mediocre documentaries and the occasional big-budget blockbuster type movie thru their agreement with Starz.

Their streaming is actually worth it just for the TV show content, to be honest. But that's really the only portion that has much selection for recent quality content.

And if you want something recent on dvd, you still get 1-at-a-time that is only delayed by a month from in-store release. So if you're even moderately diligent about watching the dvds (which I'm totally NOT), you can get 2 or 3 a week if you time it correctly on when you return them. That alone pays for the $9 a month vs Redbox, on-demand thru your cable provider or (if you can still find a brick & mortar) Blockbuster.

After the price structure change however, it'll be $8/month for unlimited streaming and another $8/month for the 1-dvd-at-a-time package. This is still not a bad deal. $16/month for unlimited streaming of (mostly tv show) content and maybe 4-10 dvds per month. That's not a bad deal. You're still saving a good chunk of cash over hitting Redbox or Blockbuster. And you're saving a boatload over the OnDemand thru cable.

So while it's still a good deal, it's not amazing anymore. Especially when you consider that the tv shows you get are, at best, last season (when the present season has already started on live tv) if not 2 seasons ago.

But that's not really the issue that I've been pondering. No, the bigger issue is the tv networks, cable providers and movie studios reaction to streaming content.

In the early 00's, dvd "collecting" became the thing to do. It was cheaper than vhs had ever been during it's reign as the dominant format. It was smaller & took up less physical space for storage. It was better quality. It was more durable. And because the economy was doing well, people realized "hey, I can have my content when I want it in better than broadcast tv quality and all I  have to do is pop the disc into the player? game on!" and as a result, the boom of dvd sales was on. And the studios made a fucking killing. They still had their previous revenue streams. The content licensing to HBO/Showtime/Cinemax/Etc. , the content licensing later to the cable networks like Fox and Turner, the rental licensing to places like Blockbuster and your smaller stores. But now they also had the dvd sales to the consumer that they didn't have in nearly the same quantity when vhs was the dominant format.

And additionally, they had a more secure format (for a while) from bootlegging. Anyone else remember daisychaining vcr's together to copy your movies from the store when you rented them? And at like $3-4 a pop for a blank vhs tape, that was kinda fucking pricy still. Between the rental fee and the blank tape, you were looking at 1/3 of the price of the real one. Those were the days.

But regardless... the studios made a fucking killing.

When tv shows started getting put onto dvd as well, that was a whole other revenue stream that the studios  & now the networks. TV shows that had long ago been pulled off the air and maybe a decade or 2 later showed up on cable channels like TVLand for a tiny licensing fee now had totally new life. Hell, it even breathed life back into previously cancelled shows. Family Guy and Futurama both got renewed years after their previous cancellation just because of dvd sales (though the syndication ratings of the shows didn't hurt either) that never would have existed with the vhs format.

So long story short here... the studios and networks were making money hand over fist with the dvd collecting boom of the early-to-mid 00's.

And like any company, anything that threatens to bring this years revenue streams down below that of the previous year, regardless of if the previous year was a fluke or if they  were artificially inflated revenues due to a boom/bust cycle, these companies will try to kill it.

The demand for OnDemand content was growing.



A table, some t-shirts & mail bins is all the overhead
netflix has.

 So comes along something like Netflix (and to an extent, Redbox). You now have a company paying a similar license fee to Blockbuster, but without the overhead of operating a brick & mortar storefront. They don't have to worry about paying people to be Customer Service Reps to spend 20 minutes with a customer to help them find a movie they want. They don't have to pay an electric bill for their sign. They don't have to pay retail location lease prices. They don't have even 1/2 of the operating costs as a place like Blockbuster. They have a bunch of people in a warehouse sending out dvds at the 45 cent postage cost. So they can undercut the christ out of those brick & mortar stores.

And the customers love it even more because they don't even have to leave the house to get the movie they want, drive to the store only to find out the movie they really wanted is sold out, spend a half hour finding an alternative, wait in the lines at the store for checkout and then drive home.

And in the case of RedBox, the kiosks had virtually zero maintenance except to load new movies into the machine once a week. And the operating cost of it was a couple bucks paid to the stores where they were located. Most of the time, they were in grocery stores or WalMart, so you're not even making a trip to a dedicated movie place to get a movie. You just get one on your way out of the store. Convenience.

OnDemand content demand raises more as a result.

Sure, they had the option of PayPerView at home, but at like $15 a pop for something that might not start for another 3 hours and you still had to call your cable company to get it, only the most lazy people with more money than brains took that route. So I'm ignoring it.

So what did the studios & Blockbuster do about the rise of Netflix? They made RedBox and Netflix wait a month for new releases. But most people said "eh, whatever. I can wait." and still took the Netflix/RedBox route.

Then Hulu showed up. And for tv show content, that was a godsend. The past months worth of a tv show, online, so you can watch at your leisure? With minimal commercials? Yeah, you were watching tv on your computer, but it was only a minor inconvenience. It was still a total win. Yeah, their movie selection was absolutely attrocious, but that's what your $8 to Netflix was for.

But the networks & cable providers started seeing their live tv ratings drop. And when they drop, so do the ad rates that they can charge. So very quickly, the format for Hulu changed. More commercials were added. Longer commercials were added. Shows that had previously been on Hulu the next day started showing up 8 days later. Big budget shows stopped being made available. Where you had previously had a month or more worth of content available on Hulu, now it was only 2 weeks, and eventually, only 1 week.

The purpose of this was 2-fold. First, to force people back into watching live tv or using their dvr. Because then their ratings went back up and thus their ad rates could stay the same or go up. But secondly, beacuse the cable companies began noticing something... people were cutting the cord.

And the reason for cutting the cord was also 2-fold. First, because between Netflix (or to a lesser extent redbox), Hulu and some of the other smaller options, people were realizing that Lifetime, HGTV, MTV or the other cable channels just didn't offer enough can't-miss content that they could live without it. And the major networks were all available over-the-air. With either a standard antenae or an HDantenae. Unless you watched a lot of cable sports, you could generally live without it. And secondly, while content was getting cheaper and more OnDemand everywhere else, cable bills were steadily creaping higher and higher. Especially after the elimination of Extended Basic (ie. about 70 channel) packages. What used to be a $60/month cable bill is now over $100 because of this.

Instead of adapting, the cable companies pressured the networks into abandoning Hulu and moving their OnDemand streaming content back to the cable companies. This became most obvious when Comcast bought NBC from GE. Immediately, NBC removed virtually ALL of their streaming content from Hulu.

After deciding that the free (with some and then more and then a lot of commercials) wasn't a viable option, the Hulu Plus subscription was offered. It's basically old-Hulu but you have to pay for it. And you still get commercials during your shows & movies. And even that was acceptable for consumers. But the quantity of content has still steadily decreased.

All the while, the dvd collecting fad was dropping off. The economy took a nosedive. Now dvd wasn't a good enough format. BluRay came out. Then 3D BluRay. This all required more and more new hardware. Your old tv can't even handle BluRay. Now you have no choice but to switch to that HDTV for your living room just to watch a BluRay movie. And if you want 3D BluRay, you need an even higher quality tv. And the cost of the physical media was going up with each additional new technology.

VHS had a nearly 20 year life span. From the early 80's until as most recently as the mid 00's, you had stuff being still produced on VHS. DVD became affordable for the masses around 2000. Less than 10 years later, BluRay has all but replaced it. Less than 5 years later, 3D BluRay has replaced that.

The frequency of format changes has made adoption of these new technologies unaffordable. Updating your media library to meet these new formats is unaffordable. Instead, streaming content has become what the consumer wants instead. Let the content providers handle the hardware upgrades. Then stream it to you in the best quality format that your existing hardware can handle. If you have a 3D capable tv? Great... stream it in 3D quality. But if you only have a standard definition tv, then watching dvd quality is good enough too. All that is different is the density and compression of the data when it's shot from the provider to you thru the intarwubz. And it requires a single hardware upgrade for the providers instead of a hardware upgrade for every consumer of the content.

But see... this cuts into the inflated revenue of the studios, networks and cable providers. It cuts into their ad revenue. It cuts into their home media sales. It cuts into their bottom line. And they're going to do everything that they can to kill it, while ignoring the demands of the consumer. Because at the end of the day, the consumer still wants entertainment and if the only way they'll be given it is with an old buisness model of "watch this show at this time on this day or don't watch it without paying for a cable box with a dvr or paying for our OnDemand service", then they don't care. Because they think people will do it.

And honestly? Most people will. They'll bitch about it. But they won't do anything.

In January, Netflix content license with the studios expires and it's expected that the studios will either refuse to renew it, renew it at such a high cost that it would force a price hike of so much that it makes a service like Netflix cost prohibitive or refuse to license any content that any consumer actually wants to watch. Stuff like 70's and 80's flop movies that no one but the biggest cinematic masochist has any interest in seeing. The studios are too closely tied to the demands of the cable providers and they view Netflix as a threat to their bottom line.

I will tell you though, that this is going to end up backfiring on the networks, cable providers and studios. The less streaming content, the less people are going to be using a paying service to get it. They're going to go back to pirating.

3 years ago, I was ALWAYS downloading rips of tv shows the day after they came out because I hate being tied to a tv schedule. But with Hulu, I stopped. I'd deal with the handful of commercials, beacuse I could watch the whole previous month worth of episodes in 1 shot. But after the quantity of content went down and the quality of the remaining content went down as the networks abandoned it, I've either dropped shows entirely or slowly moved back into bootlegging.

People don't like physical media. Except maybe books (I still prefer to hold a book and physically flip pages over even an e-reader). But for their a/v entertainment like movies and music and tv shows, they want it on demand and they want it to not take up physical space. Streaming accomplishes that the best. But if that's not going to be what the companies are willing to go to, they're going to get bit in the ass with it. Pirating or bootleged streams are what people are going to go back to.

When I can download the dvd rip or BluRay rip of a movie that takes up 700 mb or 1.4 gb on my 1Tb harddrive, throw it into my media library, wirelessly stream it to my xbox and watch it on my tv, why do I need to pay for a dvd? But if for $8 or even $20/month, I can get unlimited dvds, 1 at a time, and streaming of the content that I want directly to my xbox or laptop or phone or tablet. And if for another $15 or $20/month, I can get unlimited streaming of the tv shows I want to watch with minimal commercials and not have to pay a cable company to get it? I'll pay those couple bucks.

There's options out there with a mixture of moderately cheap devices and services that I'm considering if Netflix ends up as nothing more than a big cesspool of crap that nobody wants to watch and Hulu ends up void of anything but cheaply produced reality tv that would still allow me to cut the cord. But I want to wait it out a little longer and see how bad it's going to get.

But with Apple TV and the iTunes store, the NHL Center Ice package for Pens games, possibly the NFL Sunday Ticket package (the nhl package is not yet available streaming on apple tv, but the nfl one is), netflix, a hulu plus membership and an HDantennae for local network shows, cutting the cord is getting more and more appealing.

But next thing you know, the cable/internet providers are going to start charging for tiered data packages or capping you so you can only stream so much and makes even that option prohibitive. Oh wait... they're already proposing doing just that....

Fuck you, media.