I don't know. The technology is certainly there, and I think it's possible get your TV via Internet for the most part. But I'm not sure the infrastructure is there for mass adoption. If Netflix streaming is account for 17% of bandwidth usage already, that doesn't bode well.

I don't think the bandwidth issues will be too huge a barrier. It will ramp up because there will be tremendous market demand.

I've seen a lot of rumblings among buffistae, and NYTimes just had a piece on how to use rabbit ears to nab the new digital signals.

One of the reasons why filesharing took off so quickly with music was because there was tremendous market resentment about the pricing on CDs. They'd been set at a gouge-o-riffic $17 each and the record companies conspired to avoid competition on pricing to drive them down. So the record companies had a brief, super lucrative monopoly for a few years and managed to kill off their entire industry. At least as it had existed.

I'm just seeing a lot of chafing under cable monopolies which makes people feel justified/eager to nab content without paying for it, or just look for workarounds. Netflix is liek that. Hulu is like that. Apple TV represents another workaround.

So the technological pressure is there and the market is there and I think that trend will bust open within the next five years. Probably three.

It's closer than people think. Viewing habits have already skewed that way considerably.

I'm oddly OK with the idea that I won't be here one day. Maybe it's because I believe I'll be somewhere else. Not a fluffy heaven, but somewhere.

I'm sorta' OK with, you know, ceasing to exist some day. I mean, there'll come a time when I cease to be conscious and then never be conscious again.

But as death approaches, who knows - I may feel differently.

DLC is the future--the infrastructure will catch up.

I'm sorta' OK with, you know, ceasing to exist some day.

Personally, I'm against it. For you and me both. In fact, nobody here is allowed to not exist on my watch. That's an order!

It's closer than people think. Viewing habits have already skewed that way considerably.

Yeah. People in their 20s are much more likely to not have cable TV and instead get all their video from various online means.

NYTimes just had a piece on how to use rabbit ears to nab the new digital signals.

Tim made an antenna out of metal coat hangers, and it works beautifully. (Now we get about 12 different PBS affiliates. Woo.)

I'm just seeing a lot of chafing under cable monopolies which makes people feel justified/eager to nab content without paying for it, or just look for workarounds.

I'd pay for cable if I could do a la carte channels. All I really want are Cartoon Network and Comedy Central. And possibly Bravo. A la carte channels couldn't be hard to do, but there's no incentive for cable companies to provide content that way.

I don't think the bandwidth issues will be too huge a barrier. It will ramp up because there will be tremendous market demand.

But the cable companies are usually the ones providing the bandwidth that reaches the customers. They have a disincentive to facilitate streaming video.

I'd say I'm getting at least 50% of my TV from Netflix Instant these days. omg Friday Night Lights! I guess people did try to tell me how good it was and I was all 'HS football = meh' but y'all should have insisted.

To me the issue of death and its impenetrability, has to do with the mystery of time.

Because if time is as Einstein describes it, then it's really a matter of my limited perception. My past still exists. My future still exists. My little space on the timeline doesn't go anywhere. I just think time is moving forward in a linear fashion.

So I am still learning to play catch with my Dad in the front yard. And my Mom is still making me pancakes. And I'm still eating green olive and black olive pizza with Julia. And I'm chatting with Fred and Barry at baseball tryouts.

And fifty years from now I'll still be talking about scrambled eggs with Chikat. Or possibly my head will be in a jar.

Having finally gotten Netflix (since I can use it on my BlueRay player), I'm thinking of cancelling cable. Although I may wait until after the Doctor Who x-mas special on the 25th.