It's safe to say that 2004 will be the year of the Entertainment PC—you can tell your grandchildren you were there when it happened.

We started using an 'entertainment pc', actually just my laptop, in the fall of 2002 to watch Sopranos. While this fall we had lofty plans to hack an Xbox into a 'media center' those never panned out so my laptop continues to sit in as our entertainment pc. On it this term we've watched a bunch of movies, such as Swimming Pool and the Last Samurai. We also watch a lot of tv such as the OC, Family Guy and Clone High.

Of course living on the bleeding edge is fraught with perils. Some housemates complain we watch downloaded shows just for the sake of watching downloaded shows. And then there is the problems with the technology. For instance last night we were watching Swimmming Pool and had all sorts of problems: the audio had a lot of background noise initially because I forgot to unplug my power adapater, then my screen saver was kicking in, one of the upstairs housemates was downloading a movie and we were having congestion issues and finally, someone was making dinner with the microwave which was causing John's laptop's connection to cut out (he was serving me the movie).

Those issues aside, with the advant of BitTorrent and the increased popularity of Kazaa it's now possible to download an hour long show in about an hour. So everyone who says that digital movie downloads are years away are dead wrong. They're here today. There have also been some improvements in codecs and the quality is generally acceptable (but Benny's standards occasionaly slip). And of course it's great to watch tv shows without the commercials.

PVRs (both Rogers and Bell now offer them), Media Centers and s-video enabled laptops will soon alter the way you watch television. I am certain that in three years Media Centers will be just as popular as DVD players are today.
8:39:00 PM   []

...I'm looking for Microsoft bloggers working on Media Center, Media Player and other media stuff.
7:40:56 PM   []

Globe and Mail: File-sharing suits come to Canada

Regarding the CNET article. The Canadian Copyright Act did not change though the Copyright Board provide a ruling on the interpretation that makes it clear that it is okay to download.

Now regarding this announcement from the Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA) that they will now go after uploaders isn't exactly a surprise, but in my opinion it's a huge mistake for the following reasons:

• It is never a good business move to sue your customers
• It's an even worse move to sue your customers when it is unclear you can do so
• Of course, will Canadian ISPs map IP addresses to addresses for CRIA?
• A link between suing your customers and a reduction in record industry loses has not been demonstrated
• The cost of this suing campaign will likely exceed the amount of money collected through settlements.

Instead of wasting money on suing downloaders CRIA should spend the money advertising and improving legal download services. Earlier lengthy writings on this subject:

• How do you get me to spend money on music?
• What the music industry has to learn from the porn business.

6:51:17 PM   []