todd.tokubo.com

Funny word… discourse.
My current political thoughts:

• Majority means approximately 50.01% of people approve of the idea
  • This leaves another 49.99% of people not necessarily in favor of the idea.
• WHY IS THIS RELEVANT: There are a lot of people who disagree with the stimulus package. 
• The philosophical problem is that if you want to please 75% of the people, meaning 75% must vote to approve, then you’re hamstrung by the fact that in reality 25% of people control the vote.
  • In this case, the minority truly holds the power inthe vote.
• The idea of majority rule is really an exercise in compromise
  • In my experience compromise, means nobody is truly happy.
• Speaking of happy.  Everything’s amazing and no one is happy.
• Saw this quote as a comment to a video: “The real political battle we are currently engaged in is between those who believe in liberty and those who are control freaks”
  • The problem is that liberty includes the freedom to fail.  Most people now don’t like to fail or don’t want to take responsibilty, to they blame someone else.  The second you blame someone else, you have enabled them to solve the problem for you.
  • In other words, if you were getting blamed, why wouldn’t you want the control in exchange
  • The way to solve this is for people to STOP COMPLAINING, STOP BLAMING and be responsible for yourself first
    • If you can’t afford something (this doesn’t mean credit cards), don’t buy it
    • If someone else has something you want, make friends and share (this does not apply to significant others or spouses, etc.)
    • Make the effort to understand ideological differences.  Blindly saying someone is wrong because they are a “Republican” or “Democrat” is lame.  Respect for each other will get us through this.
  • You cannot risk having success without risking failure.
    • Over the past decade, people got spoiled (read: couldn’t deal with failure).  
• Policial Correctness is a “mask” for blame.  
  • It brings differences to the forefront of a conversation.
  • All it does is put a magnifying glass to the problem.  It does nothing to address it.

People should do their part.  Be responsible.  Big government would not be a need, if we didn’t ask for it.  We take no responsibility for our own actions and simply point to the law.  Then, we start to feel entitled because it would be unfair for someone else to get something they didn’t earn.

Here’s the example:

1. A overweight person spills hot coffee on himself
   1. Made with an amazing machine that heats water in seconds.  It then sends the hot water through roasted coffee beans that were grown in South America and delivered by airplane and automobile.  Sealed in a plastic package, so it is preserved without harsh chemicals.
2. He claims that he didn’t know the coffee was THAT hot.
   1. Because he was NOT EXPLICITLY TOLD.
3. He sues the restaraunt claiming negligence
   1. The restaraunt should have protected HIM
   2. He’s overweight and therefore a minority.  Any personal attack would be seen as discriminatory even if the statement was completely factually correct.
4. A lawyer gets involved
5. The restaraunt loses lots of money
6. The restaraunt adds new policies (read: laws) to prevent this from happening again
7. Other restaraunts do the same thing.
   1. The cost and restrictions have now increased the overhead required to enforce the rules.
   2. This adds meaningless unionized jobs
   3. This inconveniences everyone else

This is all of the above topics rolled into a single event.  There are two easy ways to solve this.  The person has no convenience of buying hot coffee from a store (read: collapse of society or armaggeddon) or the person accepts the fact that they were at fault for setting the hot cup of coffee between their legs while going through the drive through, and politely asks the restaraunt to replace the cup of coffee they just spilled.

We all have things that we don’t enjoy on a day-to-day basis.  You can either deal with it, fix it or ignore it.  Complaining helps none of these (if you think I’m complaining, I’m not.  I’m trying to provide a solution by showing that simply being responsible for your own actions is the best way to go).

See… discourse = no course.  :)

But I sure feel better.

Hulu.com was forced to pull their support for an alpha Linux platform called Boxee. Story here.

I understand why (roughy). I’m befuddled why history continues to repeat itself. I heard a great line on the radio (yes… the radio) today. “It takes just as much energy to be a jerk as it does to be a nice guy. So why not just be a nice guy?” If the answer is, it doesn’t make you money. Then as you can plainly see from the responses to the post, being a jerk doesn’t either, so why not get at least good will out of it.

The quality of many TV shows is at a point where many of us feel like there is little to “pay” for. And I’m in the camp that I don’t mind being profiled if it means I see more appropriate commercials. It’s a hell of a lot better than seeing something funded by continuous product placement (like say… the Transformers live action movie - C’mon… Jazz was a Porche, Bumblebee was a VW bug, etc.)

There are decades of TV viewing habits built up. So it’s understandable why the tried-and-true wins. Most of the digital generation are in love with our widescreen large dimension LCD TVs. We’d like to have some kind of content to watch on it. More importantly, Hulu has made many of us give up the “more is better” formula of the cable and satellite provides. (I’d still pay for a la carte pricing by the way).

In keeping with this year’s big story, it’s time for change. There are parallels everywhere. Those who didn’t change with the times (GM, Chrysler, Ford) are in a world of hurt. Those who thought they could keep ripping off consumers (name a bank any bank) are in a world of hurt. Music CD sales are down (but that probably has to do with crappy content). Digital media sales are up.

This current situation has the exact same feeling of the RIAA and the Diamond Rio / MP3 players in the late 90s. I have been a Hulu subscriber since the early betas and really thought the “content providers” had figured it out. Did the content providers not go to CES this year and see Netflix being streamed DIRECTLY to the 2010 model LCD TVs? It’s like a heavy handed, sour grapes, “we didn’t think of it first”, so screw you response.

Instead of complaining about how much this sucks, I’d like to be a part of the solution. So, I’d like to throw out a few other ideas (that I’m sure your team has already thought about). And I encourage other Hulu fans to do the same.

The gist: instead of competing with TV (showing the SAME ads) how can Hulu make the ads more compelling? (ie make ads more valuable, make “content providers” more money.
- If part of the advertising argument is that the bug that shows on the browser isn’t viewable in boxee, then why not overlay the bug. Or have the “content provider”, put their down advertising bug watermarked on the screen (just like they have their network logo in the corner now)
- Find a way to make some kind of interaction using Flash.
- Open an API that sends an email when the bug or ad is “clicked” on to the user’s account. I would think that click through would be more valuable than views… or is that just sound insane?
- Why not make Boxee users have a registered account. No unregistered viewing.
- Simple restrictions like - pause only, no skipping.
- If the “content providers” are upset at the social networking context of boxee, why doesn’t Hulu help to close that argument and “partner” with boxee for the sharing of this information. I realize the Boxee guys are banking a business case on this, but you can either hop on the bandwagon or get left in the dust.
- Put ads that say WHEN the live show is on and on which network and on which channel specially for the viewer.

Use the power of the internet. CUSTOMIZE the experience.

Viva Hulu
Viva Video via the internet to any internet-enabled device and being able to display it wherever.

Everyone likes free stuff

• 20 Free PC games
• 2 Free Tacos at Jack in the Box on Feb 24

I guess it goes without saying that jobs are seemingly harder to come by.The NY Times had some interesting charts with regard to the job losses.BTW… big pet peeve… These charts showing negative job losses.  Negative job losses = job gains.  Simple math.   I realize why they show it the way they do, for impact.  But just for accuracy, can people please just use the correct wording.