Mike Nally

I read with some genuine sadness that Chrysler will soon be offering an in-car television solution in some of their vehicles. For around $700 plus “installation” along with a $9 monthly fee your passengers will be able to view live broadcasts from up to 20 providers.

Whoopie…

Promoting a luxury gadget like that, in an economy like this, with a tired and uninspired product line, leads me to a simple conclusion.

Chrysler knows their products stink. But maybe, if they put enough whipped cream on their mess… Enough people might just eat it while they scramble to change their culture and their product line.

I’ll pass.

I’m becoming facinated by the flip flopping of social expectations of what we should pay for and what should be free.

Examples:

Many of us now pay more than $1,000 a year to receive television entertainment from various cable and satellite providers. Yet we used to expect television programs to be provided to us for free in exchange for commercial interruptions. You pay for ESPN. Is it commercial free? You pay for the Discovery Channel. Do they run ads? You also pay for dozens of channels you rarely if ever watch. They run commercials as well. And, oh, by the way, they track your viewing habits down to which commercials you skip and which ones you rewind and freeze-frame to get a better look at if you know what I mean.

What happened to free commercial-backed programming?

We pay more now for television programming than ever before.

And yet.

We used to pay for our newspapers and magazines even though they were full of ads. $.50 a paper and $4 for a magazine was the norm I remember.

Now we expect the same or better content be provided to us via the web at no charge and the ads served to us better be targeted, limited, and easily avoided if we so choose.

How dare the Wall Street Journal charge for access to their content? It’s on the Net! It should be free!

Who needs a local paper delivered for $5 a week when it’s all available for free from Google News and Comics.com?

We pay for what once was free yet we demand for free that which was once happily paid for.

Strange times these digital days.

Now in their latest move to monitor and control your life, Google will give you free GPS software for your Andriod phone (and soon your iPhone to be sure) likely wiping out two multimillion dollar companies in the process. Goodbye Garmin and TomTom and your $99+ GPS devices.

In exchange for Google’s magic free software? Oh, just the usual simple Google ads I’m sure. They would never track your location to build a targeted advertising database on you. Please. Don’t be silly.

Why would they want to see that you were at the mall before sending you their ads. Or the doctor’s office. Or a book store. Or a church…

Remember. There’s free and then there’s Internet free. Beware.

Now whose turn is it to get up and change the channel. Jeopardy is coming on next…

How many more times are we going to let Microsoft and Apple convince us that yesterday’s version of our computer’s operating system needs to be replaced because, well, this year’s version is “superior” in every way?

Nope. It isn’t. Not any more.

Years ago it was true. Better Web integration. Cleaner code that took advantage of rapidly improving hardware technology. Greater support of the “videoization” of the computer experience.

That was Windows XP and OS X Panther.

Since then both Apple and Microsoft have asked us to work through two major upgrades. Apple moved from Tiger to Leopard. (Sorry fellow Mac fans. Snow Leopard is a service patch that we paid for.) Microsoft moved from XP to Vista (horrible) to Windows 7 (hopeful).

But the average users experience has changed very little.

Why?

Because the Internet is now where innovation is taking place. No longer are the tools provided by Cupertino and Redmond driving the market. Instead they have both been reduced to providing us functional gateways to access our most important data that is now controlled by Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

We expect our OS to manage our photos, videos, tax records, and the like. That is a bare minimum. Everything else we are moving into operating system agnostic spaces so that the PC v Mac debate begins to become moot.

Have you noticed the latest Microsoft and Apple ads? Have you seen how they’ve both been reduced to showing you how dumb you must be and how their software will help you solve data management issues that were “obviously” too hard for you to manage with the competitor’s tools or even their own older tools?

What happened to innovation and more power from my operating system? Why is “even you can do it, you moron” a feature?

Because, the Internet is the future.

Both Apple and Microsoft are being marginalized by that reality. The killer app isn’t whether you drive a BMW or a Honda or a Ford F150.

The killer app is the system of roads.

More and more computer users are finally realizing that it doesn’t matter what they use to get there. It’s where you go that matters.

FlashForward is officially driving me crazy.

How can the timeline not be changed by knowing the timeline? See your life threatened at the office while drunk on Flashforward Day? Spend 4/29 at the beach instead. Hell, spend “magic day” locked in a closet with a 2-litre of Coke and a bag of chips and a laptop to keep tabs on the end of the world.

Duh?

The base logic of the show is failing me. Changing the future is easy. We do it constantly with every choice we make and by the choices those around us make. The butterfly effect is real. Flashforward fails for me because it tries to be rooted in a reality that falls too quickly.

Plus, the plot itself fails. This is the Internet age of big business. You’re telling me it took a rogue branch of the FBI to set up a searchable website for people to share their FlashForward stories?!? As if Google, Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook, and a dozen new social media start-ups wouldn’t have already been all over this idea with a solid monetization scheme making them billions in just a few weeks.

The FlashForward world should be in a state of religious and political anarchy, not business as usual with a population of billions feeling acceptance that the next six months have been pre-determined and they can just put life on cruise control for a while.

A “what if” concept that sounded interesting in the network pitch room but, so far, can’t get me to let go of reality long enough to enjoy the show.

Lost? Yes, I like Lost. The difference? Lost is so “out there” with immortals, smoke monsters, mystery energy fields, moving islands and the living dead that logic is easily thrown aside and I can just enjoy the insane ride. Lost works because it tells reality to take a hike – it’s got a sci-fi mystery story to tell.

Dare I say, FlashForward is failing me because it’s trying to be too rooted in a reality that is too easily dismissed as a Hollywood construct.

At least so far.

I’m hooked but I’m not happy about it.

Just wasted 4-hours trying to migrate this blog from one account with our hosting company to another account we have (had) with that SAME hosting company.

So angry right now!