All Is Not Fair In Love And War: Are Canadian Telcos Exploiting “Do Not Copy” Rules To Sell More DVRs?

May 30th, 2007 Davis

The conspiracy theorists tried to warn us that it would happen, but Congress still choose to ignore consumer rights when they passed the “broadcast flag” legislation. Under the program, DVR makers were forced to recognize “do not copy” rules that could be applied to certain types of content. So far the rules haven’t prevented any HDTV content from showing up on the bit torrent networks, but they have been successful at preventing consumers from being able to transfer HDTV content (that they paid for) throughout their homes. The bill has also formalized rules to prevent consumers from recording pay per view content.

As part of the legislation, there were also rules set up in the US, that prevented cable companies from abusing the copy never tag on over the air content. Apparently though, because the FTC has no authority in Canada, these fair use rights are not required. As a result, Vista customers north of the border, have complained that they’ve been prevented from recording certain types of content, unless it’s on their cable company’s DVR.

The application of the broadcast flag hasn’t just been tagged to HDTV content, but has been inserted into the analog signals as well. Because Microsoft respects, the broadcast flag, they are prevented from recording shows, while the Canadian telcos are allowed to ignore the FTC restrictions, that regulate Microsoft’s recording capabilities. In a few instances, Canadian customers have complained that they have not even been allowed to watch live TV because the DRM shows up as, copy never. Complaints about the do not copy “errors” started showing up in one of the Green Button’s forums, about a month and a half ago. Since that time Microsoft MVPs have gotten involved and have confirmed that the blocked content is being caused by the local cable companies applying the broadcast flag to content that consumers should be allowed to record.

As, more and more customers have stepped forward, it’s become clear that this is an issue affecting more than a few Canadian Vista customers. Here are a few of the quotes, from some of the posters who have been locked out of, one of Vista’s best features.

Almach1 wrote “For the first time today microsoft or Direct TV is blocking something!!!! Direct TV lets me whatch every channel except for the IFC channel. Independant movie channel.!!! This is such bull. Does anybody else have this limitation with premium channels like HBO Cenemax ect….????? it’s a regular sattelte tv signal connected over composite cables to my tuner card. I thought those signals don’t carry DRM so it must be in the downloaded Guide from microsoft that the permissions are restricted.!!!!”

Randy G wrote “I am on Shaw in Canada, and they are putting “Copy Never”‘ on a TON of shows, all the movies, even lots of kid’s shows my three year old likes to watch. Even reruns of Reba that my wife likes.

This is not PPV, or VOD.

I know it’s CGMS-A “copy never” because I am an electronics junkie, and a professional programmer. I trapped the signal on line-21 on my oscilloscope. Then I made a circuit that blanked it out. And that fixed it, period, no more guessing. It’s not noise . . . This problem appears to be centered to Canada. None of the above rules apply here. No rules apply here for CGMS, actually. So the cable companies, so far Shaw, and recently it appears Star Choice, and Rogers, have decided to abuse it.

My response from Shaw was ‘ya, we know. We don’t support Microsoft PVRs, complain to them, not us. If you want to record everything again, buy a Shaw PVR, it has no problems recording any channels’”

PeteJ wrote “I think your experience shows that R2 and the similar feature added to Vista are at the root of this issue. I looks like we will need to rebuild and go pre r2 which is a huge hassle but at this time it is the only option as post r2 you are just playing russian roulette with recordings. It won’t take long for people to drop mce altogether since most people don’t even know about TGB or other such forums.

If MS fixes this in an update I will upgrade to Vista tomorrow. Until then, I agree, there is no reason.”

For as far as the digital revolution has propelled media forward, it’s also taken us several steps back. Right now, if you buy a DVD, you are allowed to give it friends or even sell it to someone else, but if you buy a digital file, you lose your fair use rights and end up with a non-transferable license to a file. As HDTV and downloadable content, continue to suck consumers in, more and more fair use rights are being sacrificed. When TiVo and Microsoft agreed to support the broadcast flag, it was under the assumption that the cable providers would be forced to play by the same rules, but if the Canandian telcos are allowed to block Microsoft Vista from copying content that a user has paid for, then there is little incentive for Tivo, Microsoft or any DVR manufacturers to respect these rules outside of the United States.

If you live in Canada and don’t want to see your cable companies block competitors from offering a superior DVR, then I would encourage you to file a complaint with the CRTC and asked them to stop the Canadian telcos from applying bogus do not copy tags to your favorite shows.

Posted in TV, DRM, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | 2 Comments »

Because Breaking Up Is Hard 2.0 Do

May 30th, 2007 Davis

They say that breaking up is hard to do, but it turns out that breaking up in a web 2.0 world can be even more complicated than break ups from the past. Social networks have made it easy to meet new people and to share pieces of your life with a larger community, but what happens after the music fades and you are not quite as enthusiastic about someone being able to stalk track your life online?

If you remove your ex from your top 8 on MySpace, will your friends start asking questions? Should you add your new girlfriend to your friend’s page or is that just tacky? If you change your relationship status on Facebook, will new love interests come out of the woodwork or will your ex-girlfriend’s social network, start asking why things didn’t work out? In the past, you could just lay low for a little while and let the tough parts blow over, but when so much of your social network overlaps with an extinguished flame, it can make it awkard to use some of your favorite sites on the net.

I don’t think that there are any easy answers to dealing with a break up, but Chris Furniss has written a funny post listing steps that you can take, if you plan on severing digital ties with a loved one. In the post, he covers the easiest way to split up your Netflix and TiVo queues, the proper etiquette for posting on Flickr after a breakup, and the best way to deal with the fallout from changing your relationship status on Facebook and MySpace.

Dating in the web 2.0 world is a lot like dating in the workplace. When it works out, it’s great, but when things get tough, it can make going into work unbearable. If you visit a site everyday and choose to date someone you meet there, good things can happen, but if bad things happen, it will take away a lot of the enjoyment you get from spending time at that community. Unlike work, you don’t necessarily have to log into MySpace everyday, but if a breakup makes you feel awkward about using the site, it can still be a drag once you’ve gotten used to visiting that community each day.

The post doesn’t address the best way to breakup with your Friendster dates or how to minimize the impact of a breakup on your more professional LinkedIn contacts, but it does raise some interesting questions about what you choose to share online and the impact that a break up might have on different services that you’ve gotten used to using. None of these tips will make a break up any easier, but with a little bit of careful planning, you can minimize the backlash from your social communities, when relationships don’t work out.

Posted in Technology, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Would You Give Up TiVo For Your Air Conditioner?

May 29th, 2007 Davis

TiVo’s remote can do a lot of great things, but apparently Brainfreiz’s remote, includes a little too much functionality. The good news is that he’s able to control his new air conditioner with his TiVo remote. No special hacks, it came out of the box like that. The bad news is, everytime he hits the select button, he turns his air conditioner on and off.

I can understand why this would be annoying and hopefully, someone out there knows how to solve his problem, but in the meantime, he is asking for America’s help on deciding whether he should ditch the air conditioner or say goodbye to TiVo. If it was up to me, I’d choose a hot apartment with TiVo, over a climate controlled life without, but as a TiVo enthusiast, I’m probably a little biased. Air conditioning is a nice luxury, but is it nicer than TiVo? If you were forced to choose between the sweltering heat or having to watch live TV with commercials, which one would be unplugged in your household?

Posted in VOD, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | No Comments »

Davis Freeberg’s Site Of The Week

May 28th, 2007 Davis

Given the technology focus on my site, I never thought that a woman’s magazine would win site of the week, but Queendom’s great tests won this week’s award. Queendom is a site that hosts lots of polls and tests that you can use to answer all of life’s riddles. Most of the polls are for the types of things that you’d find in woman’s magazines, but the have polls for men too. I’m probably the wrong demographic for the site, but I still thought it was entertaining. My favorite tests were some of the more random ones. When I took the test for whether or not I had baby fever, here is the advice the site gave me.

“Although one day you may consider becoming a mother, presently it is the farthest thought from your mind. In fact it may not even exist in your five-year plan. Whatever your opinions on motherhood are, one thing is certain. You are not anxious to endure the agony of childbirth, the sleepless nights, nor sacrifice your freedom for next twenty years. Perhaps the idea of dirty diapers dampens your spirits or you may simply feel that you are still not ready to appreciate the pleasures of motherhood. You could be at the pinnacle of your career, finishing a degree or focusing on becoming a better person. You are wise enough to realize that being liable for another life is a huge responsibility. Being a mom is great … when you are ready! “

They are right about the dirty diapers, but I’m not too worried about the agony of childbirth, I plan to leave that up to somone else. The site also has more in depth tests, but you have to pay to get the detailed answers for the report and what’s the fun of answering 200 questions, if you can’t see what it means.

The nominees for next week’s site of the week award are listed below. You can vote in the sidebar. If you know of any good sites, you can send them to me and I will add them to the pool of contestants.

Tower Blaster

Blood Gut’s and Gore

SonicX

Posted in Site Of The Week | 3 Comments »

24 In 24 Hours - A Whole Season (Almost) In Real Time

May 26th, 2007 Davis

For the most part, I’m pretty content to time shift my television and watch it at my own pace, but when it comes to 24, I have always made a point to watch it the same night that it aired. The show is just too exciting to wait a day longer than you have to. This year though, I decided to try something a little bit different.

In the past, the hard drive space on my DVR was so limited that, if I didn’t watch the shows within a week or two, then I would start to lose content. This is a good motivator for staying up to date on your shows, but kind of obnoxious for when you want to save content for later in a season. This year though, I upgraded to a 750GB internal drive on my TiVo series 3 and it’s changed the rules a bit. I’ve gone from too little storage to too much storage, so when 24 started season 6, I decided that I would store up all of the shows until the end of the season.

It’s been hard not watching the shows along the way, but my patience has finally paid off. I managed to avoid spoilers and water cooler talk for the whole season and have been eagerly waiting to find out what happened to Jack Bauer, after he was shipped to China.

I would probably get more enjoyment out of the show, by watching it for the next month or so, but given the format of the show, I was curious to see what it would be like to see the show in real time, so for the next 24 hours, I’ll be watching season 6 and will live blog the experience, during the time reserved for commercial breaks. At the end of it, I’ll compare the different ways that I was able to watch the show. From this point foward, there are spoilers in this post, so if you haven’t seen season 6 yet, you may want to skip this post for now.

The following takes place between 6AM - 7AM . . . In real life, it’s been over a year since I last saw the show, but in the show it’s been about 2 years. Seeing the characters is a little strange because they are so familiar, yet many of the relationships have changed. Getting caught up is a little confusing. Jack still has ice water in his veins. Keifer Sutherland plays that part more perfectly than anyone. The tension in the show is electric. All of the characters work well together. I’m a little disappointed by them not showing us what happened in China, but the show is still off to a good start. Some of the decisions being made seem a little improbable, but it was still an intense hour. Jack is back in perfect form and just took a huge hunk of flesh out of someone’s throat with his teeth, after undergoing torture.

Jack Bauer Fact #19 -“Chained to a chair, tortured, and with the threat of death hanging over him, Jack just wanted something to eat.”

The following takes place between 7AM - 8AM . . . The plot has already started to thicken. Jack tried to warn the president that they were going after the wrong guy, but of course no one listens to Jack, that doesn’t create enough drama. Throughout the whole series, there has always been a rebel angle to 24, but this season it feels a little forced. The characters love sneaking around behind each other’s backs and there are lots of betrayals to keep it exciting, but it’s hard for me to understand why Jack can’t work with CTU this time. In this episode, we get to see a guy get knifed in the knee and Jack kicks a suicide bomber out of the back of a train just in time to save 100’s of lives. Awesome special effect. I’m not sure if it would make up for his total kill count, but at least it gives him some positive karma to outweigh all of the bad things Bauer has done in his life.

Jack Bauer Fact #15 - “If everyone on “24″ followed Jack Bauer’s instructions, it would be called “12″

The following takes place between 8AM - 9AM . . . I’ve liked most of the characters on 24, but have never been a fan of the presidents. David Palmer grew on me, but his brother Dwight keeps making the situation worse and worse. In this episode, he lets 114 prisoners go, just because he got a telephone call threatening that something bad would happen. Of course, his actions only resulted in a nuclear bomb being turned over to the bad guys. Jack is going to be busy today. So far no signs of his girlfriend or daughter, but there is a new family that has been introduced to the show. It is one of those extra families that the producers like to throw in there, just to keep up the body count. The father killed a guy, so that he could get his hands on a nuclear component. His motivation for killing the guy was because his family was being held at gunpoint by a terrorist with a bad leg. The writers of 24 use this motivation a little too often. If that was me, there is no way that I’d deliver the package. I’d be on the phone with the cops and let SWAT take out the terrorist with sniper rifles. They need to keep an environment of fear to keep the show exciting, but so far it seems like the writers aren’t trying very hard.

Jack Bauer Fact #24 - “On Jack Bauers Tax Returns, he has to claim the entire world as his dependants.”

The following takes place between 9AM - 10AM . . . Wow, things are starting to get exciting now. They just set off a nuclear bomb. This is exactly why I love this show, they are not afraid to take risks. The aftermath is going to be fun to watch, but I still blame Dwight for letting the nuclear scientist escape and the father character who gave them the trigger instead of calling the cops. At least his wife had the sense to call Jack Bauer, he can fix anything. Jack had to shoot Curtis after he lost his cool, they left it a 15 minute cliffhanger as to whether or not he survives. Curtis was too rigid for me anyway, it must have taken a lot of guts to shoot a friend like that, but Jack is like that, he’s just cold. I missed the first four episodes on my TiVo, so I had to Netflix them, but now I go to glorious high def 24 on the TiVo instead. I’ll have to fast forward the commercials, but it will be worth it.

Jack Bauer fact #60 - “If Jack Bauer gives you his word, return it immediately and run.”

The following takes place between 10AM - 11AM . . .In this episode, Jack’s family get’s involved and it’s even more dysfunctional than my own. Within a half an hour of talking with his brother, he was already trying to sufficate him. I can’t wait until Jack meets up with dear old dad. The jump to high def is noticable different. It makes the content more dark and intense. Even National Geographic is entertaining, when it’s in high def.

Jack Bauer fact #15 - “After running out of ammo, Jack stood in the line of fire, took 3 shots to the chest, and used them to reload.”

The following takes place between 11AM - 12PM . . .We get to meet Jack’s father and after 15 minutes, I can already tell you that I would not want to be there for their Thanksgiving dinners. I’m really starting to like Peter MacNicol’s character as the president’s advisor. It’s hard to tell if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. Hopefully, they don’t kill him off, he’d make a great president for future seasons. I like him in Numbers too, but he’s so much darker here, a villian with a machievelian mindset. This only keeps getting better and better. I hate to spoil such in good thing in such a short period, but so far it’s a lot better than I expected.

Jack Bauer fact #36 - “Jack is sorry for your loss, but he needs you to focus on the primary objective right now.

The following takes place between 12PM - 1PM . . .It turns out that Jack’s dad is just as ruthless as he is. He killed his own son to keep his role in David Palmer and the nuclear bomb a secret. It will be fun to watch when Bauer Sr. and Bauer Jr. have to finally lock horns. Chloe O’Brian’s love interest has just found himself in a very sticky situation. Apparently, he has the skills to activate four more nukes and the bad guys have taken him hostage. Even more work for Jack to take care of.

Jack Bauer fact #18 - “Jack Bauer once mistook a box of bullets for Cheerios in his cereal. He didn’t even notice.”

The following takes place between 1PM - 2PM . . .Jack’s father is turning out to be quite the villian. He’s already killed one son and now is going after Jack. The political angle in the show is starting to look a little weak. The politicians in the show have always been cut throat, but I’d rather see more action. You can see a lot of political comentary about the real life president in the undertones of the show.

Jack Bauer fact #47 - “You will tell Jack Bauer what he wants to know. It’s just a matter of how much you want it to hurt.”

The following takes place between 2PM - 3PM . . .This episode ended with a bang. Jack gets bad intel and is sent to a house that his dad has rigged to explode. It looks like he survived the blast, but they don’t tell you for sure, just to keep the next one more interesting. Most seasons, I’m nervous that they really will kill off Jack, the writers are just like that, nothing is out of bounds. Earlier in the year though, I saw that Keifer Sutherland had signed on for two more seasons, so I know that he’s at least safe for now. It takes away some of the edge, but it makes me happy because there are more episodes to look forward to.

Jack Bauer Fact #56 - “Only Jack Bauer can fly a plane from the luggage compartment.”

The following takes place between 3PM - 4PM . . . - So much for my wanting to see Peter MacNicol’s in future episodes, he just got clobered and was possible left for dead. One thing I don’t like about 24 is that they have so many people die and come back to life, that you can’t be certain unless Jack Bauer is the one killing them. We stll haven’t seen Kim. I know that people find her annoying, but I think Elisha Cuthbert is dreamy. Hopefully, they didn’t write her out of the entire season.

Jack Bauer Fact #89 - “Don’t ever ask Jack Bauer what is going on. He’ll explain in the car.”

The following takes place between 4PM - 5PM . . .This was one of the best episodes so far. At the end of it, they try and take the president out with a McGyver type bomb. The ended the episode with the President lying unconscious. If I was watching this on Fox’s schedule, I’d be waiting to see how it gets resolved, but instead I can find out in the same time frame that the characters do in the show. One thing that I have noticed so far, is that information in the show travels faster than it could in real life. A bombing will happen and two minutes later, the President is getting all kinds of details that would take time to gather or a terrorist will have a cell phone call and they’ve flagged it and have it ready for intel in three minutes.

Jack Bauer Fact #4 - “The odds of completing anything without Jack Bauer is less than 20 percent.”

The following takes place between 5PM - 6PM . . .One of the things I love about 24 is how edgy the show is. I bet that it’s even more violent than the Soprano’s on HBO. In this episode the writers stuck to a tried and true formula. Cigar Cutter + Jack Bauer = Missing Fingers. Very grusome. What was a little hard to understand is why Jack would go back to the Russian consulate after he just spent 2 years in a Chinese prison over the same thing. Now he has been caught and it will take at least 3 hours for him to figure out a solution to this mess.

Jack Bauer fact #7 - “Jack Bauer doesn’t take fingerprints, he takes fingers”

The following takes place between 6PM - 7PM . . . You just never know what to expect from this show and at the half way mark in the season, the former president’s ex-wife stabbed him in the neck with a pair of scissors. Very unexpected and intense. They’ve left the situation with him on life support, but things look bad, he’s lost a lot of blood. I never cared for Charles much anway, his character was too much like a weasle.

Jack Bauer Fact #15 - “Jack Bauer can get McDonald’s breakfast after 10:30.”

The following takes place between 7PM - 8PM . . .Jack Bauer just saved my own life, by taking control of a nuclear drone that was targeting San Francisco. Luckily, he crashed landed it right before the end of the show, so I’m still here to see the next episodes. San Francisco gets mentioned a fair number of times in TV shows and it always makes me want to watch those shows more. There is just something fun about seeing local places featured in the bigger than life films and TV shows.

Jack Bauer Fact #85 - “Jack Bauer’s cellphone battery went dead 12 years ago. It has run on pure adrenaline ever since”

The following takes place between 8PM - 9PM . . . One of the neat things about watching the show in real time, is that I can watch the weather change along with the program. For the most part they have gotten the conditions right, but early on, it seemed a little too bright and for when some of the scenes were filmed and in this episode it was too dark. By the end of the episode it was dark outside, but for the whole episode it was night. Getting the right lighting condition probably takes a lot of coordination. If a shoot goes too long, you could ruin your chance at getting it right. There is a lot of flexibility with editing, but I bet piecing it all together takes a lot of time.

Jack Bauer fact #30 - “The real reason the Army ditched the Army of One campaign? Jack Bauer sued for copyright infringement.”

The following takes place between 9PM - 10PM . . .President Palmer is back up and running and he is still making dumb decisions. Now he wants to launch a nuclear strike without evidence, after they brought him out of a coma to stop such a strike. The last two episodes have focused more on the politics than any action. We did get to see a Russian spy cut off his own arm to get rid of a planting device that Jack injected into him. Even by chewing off your arm, you can’t hide from Jack, it just buys you a little time that’s all.

Jack Bauer fact #48 - “Jack Bauer thinks the word mercy just means “quick interrogation.”

The following takes place between 10PM - 11PM . . .Jack started out strong, but he is starting to look a little haggard. He’s been beaten up more than a few times already today. I’m starting to wear down too. Getting through the first part of the day was easy, but the later it gets, the more tired I am. I’m not sure how Jack does this each year. I’ve got Redbull in my fridge, but want to save that for the last two hours or else I’ll crash at 3am. I’m going to try and hang in there. If Jack Bauer can with stand torture and chase scenes and non-stop action for 24, I should be able to at least watch all of the episodes without falling asleep.

Jack Bauer fact #29 - “Fox executives once tried to cancel 24…. but Kiefer Sutherland asked ” Are you a mole?” and it was never tried again.”

The following takes place between 11PM - 12AM . . . Jack was able to successfully capture the nuclear bombs with 6 hours left to spare. The storyline has gone in a new direction, but the biggest threat has been removed from the show. This takes away some of the tension, but there are still things to follow up on. It turns out Audrey wasn’t really dead, but had been captured by the Chinese. Jack’s trying to get her back, but of course no one is listening to him. Instead they want to arrest him, even though I can’t figure out for which crime.

Jack Bauer fact #23 - “When Big Tobacco claimed that cigarettes didn’t cause cancer in test subjects, there test subjects were all Jack Bauer.”

The following takes place between 12AM - 1AM . . .Jack made a trade for Audrey with the Chinese, but ended up losing an important piece of technology in the process. In the end, Jack got what he wanted, but it turns out that Audrey has gone crazy from her time in the Chinese prisons. I really like this twist. Audrey as a psycho will be much better than Martha as a psycho. Martha had to rely on Doctors and pills to convince the audience that she was unstable, but something tells me that Audrey is going show Jack what psycho really looks like. Lucky for Jack, he has experience with crazy women. His first wife betrayed him and everyone he gets close to ends up dead. Come to think of it, all of Jack’s ex-girlfriends have been crazy too.

Jack Bauer fact #89 - “Don’t ever ask Jack Bauer what is going on. He’ll explain in the car.”

The following takes place between 1AM - 2AM . . .So far I haven’t seen a lot of product placement, but Cisco was showing off their video conferencing solution in this episode. It looked pretty slick. Cisco has been sponsoring the show for years, but it wasn’t until I actually heard the 24 ring in real life, that I realized they were a sponsor. I’ve also seen an ad for a Sprint cell phone and noticed that all of the vehicles belong to Ford. The very nature of 24 makes it harder to do product placement, but with any show there will always be opportunities to sneak things in there. In 24, they do it more subtle than some shows, but you can still tell what’s an ad and what’s just part of the show.

Jack Bauer Fact #71 - “When someone asks him how his day is going, Jack replies, “Previously, on 24…”

The following takes place between 2AM - 3AM . . .Jack’s father is back into the storyline and this time he’s paid the Chinese to invade CTU and get his grandson. This component of the plot seems a little silly given how much CTU is locked down. You would think that there would be easier opportunities to kidnap the boy, but that would be less dramatic. Jack has just been freed from custody for the fifth time today and is trying to save his nephew.

Jack Bauer Fact #35 - “Lets get one thing straight, the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.”

The following takes place between 3AM - 4AM . . .Sometime between 3 and 4, Jack Bauer proved he was a stronger man than I after I fell asleep during the last show. Luckily, I woke up 3 hours later, so I’m still watching the East coast scenes in real time, but with just three hours to go, I wasn’t able to make it. I’m still surprised that Kim has only been mentioned once in the whole show. Elisabeth Cuthbert was probably asking for too much money or something. I would have thought that they would have worked her into at least a few episodes.

Jack Bauer fact #12 - “Jack Bauer knows seven words that rhyme with orange.”

The following takes place between 4AM - 5AM . . .The final showdown between Bauer Jr. and Sr. is about to happen. They picked a deserted oil platform for the final setting. This was a good choice. There are still a few loose ends to tie up, but most of the danger is now just down to Jack’s nephew. Ricky Schroeder got his face blown off with a bomb. It was a good twist in the show. I can’t wait to see how they do his makeup next season, it should be brutal. Jack’s scars from the Chinese prison camp were pretty gnarly, but Schroeder’s damages are on his face. I bet that they can only keep him around for the first few shows because he looks so terrible.

Jack Bauer fact #18 - “If you wake up in the morning, it’s because Jack Bauer spared your life.”

The following takes place between 5AM - 6AM . . .Most of the exciting stuff gets wrapped up in the first 15 minutes and they use the last 45 minutes to tie up the remaining loose ends. Bill and Karen lose their jobs, but get pardoned. Jack finally connects with Audrey, and Chloe tells her ex-husband that she’s pregnant. It’s hard to tell what direction the show will go next season because they ended it with Jack staring out into the sunrise and when they ran the next season promo, it was just clips from season 6 recycled.

Jack Bauer fact #41 - “When Jack Bauer goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.”

Overall, I thought it was a good season for 24. I’m not sure why people didn’t like it, but there have been worse seaons than this one. There were a lot of decisions made during the show that seemed like they were intended more to keep the drama going than a realistic scenario of how people would respond in real life, but sometimes with television, it’s best not to think too much about it. Watching the season in a day was fun, but I think a month and a half is the ideal amount of time for a season. Watching that much TV non-stop was really exhausting, it takes a toll mentally. I think I’ll spend the rest of my weekend getting plenty of sunshine, but am glad that I got to at least see one season, in the format that I did.

Posted in TV | 14 Comments »

Welcome To My World

May 24th, 2007 Davis

Posted in VOD | No Comments »

Taking Apart The Financial Gears Behind iRobot

May 22nd, 2007 Davis

I’ve always been a fan of iRobot as a consumer, but I’ve never been a big fan of their stock. When the company first went public, there was a lot of buzz, but I could never get past their razor thin margins. I knew that they were doing interesting things, but my interests were elsewhere, so I didn’t pay much attention to the company.

Having recently become an iRobot customer, it’s made me more interested in finding out more about them, so when I saw that Helen Greiner, iRobot’s Co-Founder and Chaiman, was presenting at a JP Morgan technology conference, I figured that it would be good conference to listen in on.

I knew that iRobot was selling robots to the government, but I didn’t realize how much of their revenue was coming from their military contracts. Their revenue is split about 60% consumer products and 40% government and industrial robots. They haven’t restricted their sales to just the US market, so they have some decent international exposure. They sell their consumer robots in Japan, South Korea, Austrailia, as well as a number of other countries.

Since going public, they’ve introduced several new products including the Scooba and a pool cleaning robot. There is a strong seasonality to their business with most of their earning’s payload coming at the second half of the year. The company likes to build their robots internally, but hasn’t been afraid to partner when it’s advantageous. They are working with Boeing on a new ground robot and have also been developing a 1,500 pound military robot with the help of John Deere.

Much to investors chagrin, iRobot has been investing a pretty good chunk of cash into research & development. In the past they’ve targeted 6 - 8% of revenues and this year have been runing at 7%. Because of their military work, they also receive grants from the Government, that boost their R&D budget closer to 15%. The company’s continued commitment to R&D has been painful for shareholders in the short run, but the investment has gone a long way towards creating new products and speeding up the introduction of pipeline products to the market.

Greiner told investors that they had good visibility on their government orders and that 70% of their guidance, was business that was already lined up. The consumer market is harder to predict, but with a 30% cushion, the numbers don’t seem all that hard to hit, especially with new products on the market. Management has disappointed investors in the past, but this may be a case where they’ve underpromised, so that they could make sure to over deliver.

Most of the conference was about boring financial stuff, but during the middle of the presentation, Greiner said that iRobot was introducing two new consumer robots to the market. She refused to divulge information about what they were, but the robots will be out in time for the holidays. Investors had apparently, already heard this news, but it was the first time I had heard about new products and it made me wonder whether it would be something that I might find useful.

Greiner refused to play 20 questions about the new products, but she did drop hints and that only made me more curious. She said that it was not a talking robot and at a previous conference she told investors that it wasn’t a floor cleaning product. These are good hints to start with, but it still leaves too much out.

Oddly enough, while she was defining the potential markets that iRobot could go after, she did mention healthcare robots, as a possible growth area? I’m not sure how iRobot would go after the hospital market, but if they started making smarter robots that could take out your spleen instead of mopping your floor, it would open up large addressable markets that they could go after.

During the Q&A session of the conference, I was pleased to hear one investor raise my concerns about gross margins. This investor told managment point blank that

“profit margins are a great barometer of healthy new emerging businesses and yet your profit margins do not look like they’re high enough to me. They don’t look like a lot of new emerging busineseses often have looked and I wonder two things about your margins. Number 1, do you invest much of your R&D into production technology to lower costs the way Intel was known to do. What percentage of your R&D goes there and secondily, what do you think of your own profit margins, do you have objectives for those margins, is there anything you can do about them?”

iRobot CFO, Geoff Clear, fielded the question and did a pretty good job of addressing this criticism of their business model. He outlined a plan to bring margins up to a point where investors could be more comfortable with them. In his response to the potential investor, Clear told him that the company tracks two different metrics in evaluating the business. They look at revenue growth and pre-tax operating margins. Their margins have been steady, but not high over the last few years. The company thinks that they can start to increase operating margins as soon as the second half of this year. Eventually, they’d like to get to a point where they can move from 2% operating margins to margins someplace in the mid teens. This would be a big accomplishment and would validate their business model.

To do this they need to get their gross profits higher. Last year they were at 37%, but Clear felt that they needed to get to 40% to accomplish the growth that they are after. The company isn’t willing to cut R&D to enhance margins, but he did mention that there were other areas of the company, where they could improve operating margins.

One of the highlights during the presentation was when JP Morgan Analyst Paul Costner started fishing for information on how receptive management would be to an outside company acquiring them. Normally, executives try and avoid answering these types of questions, because they only lead to rumors, but Greiner took the bait. She did say that they wanted to acquire other companies and grow the company independently, but was also very quick to point out that the UK defense company QinetiQ has recently had a large appetite for robots. She also suggested that the defense industry has always been interested in their technology.

With management being at least a little open to shopping the company, investors could see a takeover premium, if someone stepped in. If Boeing is not interested, I am sure that there are private equity shops that would love to take them private and then spin them off again. I wouldn’t bet on a takeover happening, but as an investor, it’s always nice when management is open to this sort of potential event.

Towards the end of the presentation, Costner asked Greiner why investors shouldn’t just skip iRobot’s growing pains now and jump in, after they are more fully developed, she responded by defending the robot industry and told investors that the company is at a tipping point.

“I cannot imagine a future world without robots and they’ve already been adopted. They’ve already been adopted by our armed forces and there is no going back and they have already been adopted by 2.5 million consumers across the country. This is a tremendous time for the robot industry. It really is at the tipping point now and I believe that the company is at a tipping point going into the back half of the year.”

After listening to the call, I’m still not in love with their margins, but am more comfortable with their strategy for increasing the bottom line. I think that iRobot has tremendous brand value and a lot of flexibility over the markets that they can address. The military contracts should help to stabilize revenues, while they continue to reinvest in new product development. I’m not in love with the stock, but over the last two years, it is down 40%. With their market cap down to $390 million, this could be a value opportunity for the right investor.

Between their healthy queue of military orders and their $70 million in cash, iRobot looks cheap for a company that took in $180 million in sales last year. There is always the possibility that their stock could fall another 40%, but given the barriers of entry in their industry, I think that there would be companies willing to pay a premium to get access to their robot think tank. They have patents, they have engineers that specialize in advanced robots and they have developing revenue streams that will add diversification to the business. There is a lot that iRobot is doing right, even if it hasn’t translated into profits.

Overall, I’m not 100% enthusiastic about iRobot’s business model, but I do like their valuation. I don’t think that the robot revolution will happen overnight, but iRobot is leading the consumer component of it. There is always the possibility that their stock could go down further, but with 17% of the float short, I think that the markets have been too harsh is assessing iRobot’s prospects. Without knowing more about the company, it’s hard for me to get a sense of what I think the company should really be worth, but Greiner’s presentation was enough to get my attention and at least put iRobot onto my radar.

Posted in Robots, Technology | No Comments »

Davis Freeberg’s Site Of The Week

May 22nd, 2007 Davis

This week’s winner of the site of the week contest was Every Stock Photo. Every Stock Photo is a site that is especially helpful if you happen to be a blogger, because it allows you to search Flickr, StockXchange and other photo sharing sites, for images that are available under the creative commons license.

I love the creative commons license because it allows me to use other people’s photos by giving them attribution for the work. The photo I used above for example, was originally taken by Grant Mitchell on Flickr. Some artists would prefer to lock down their content, but if someone wants to use Mitchell’s photo’s, he doesn’t mind sharing his content with the rest of the community.

All of my own photos have also been licensed under creative commons. Some artists might worry that other people will use their photos for free, but my opinion has always been, that there isn’t much value to my photos anyway, if other people don’t have an opportunity to see them to begin with. If someone wanted to use one of my photos in a marketing campaign, I’d probably request some type of payment, but if someone wants to share one of my photos with a larger audience, I certainly wouldn’t want to stop them from presenting my work.

Flickr also has a creative commons filter that you can use to find photos, but by default, their search field includes a lot of all rights reserved photos and it’s frustrating when you find a great photo, but someone doesn’t feel comfortable letting you use it.

Another perk of using Every Stock Photo, instead of Flickr directly, is that you can search more than just one service, for photos that people are willing to share. Currently, the site indexes over a million creative common photos, from a number of different sites.

Every Stock Photo is a great resource, but there are a few ways that they could improve the site. I’d like to see them add more sources to their filter. Right now the service relies pretty heavily on Flickr, but looking through the search results, I didn’t see any hits from Photobucket, Zooomr or Webshots. Because Flickr already offers their own creative commons content search, by adding extra sites, it would significantly enhance the value proposition of using Every Stock Photo’s portal instead.

The site also doesn’t offer much in the way of sorting photos. One of the cool things that you can do on Zooomr is sort photos by how awesome they are. Zooomr and Flickr both use an algorithm to figure out which photos are good and which ones are junk, but Every Stock Photo doesn’t seem to take interestingness into account. This makes it harder to find the best photos on the site, unless someone has specifically tagged the photo for the term that you are looking for.

Overall though, the positives of the site, more than make up for the negatives. There are a lot of people out there willing to share their photos with the rest of the world, but sometimes finding people open to sharing, can be more difficult than it’s worth. Every Stock Photo, helps you get around this problem by making sure that every photo you see, has already been approved for people to use on their own sites.

Congratulation to Every Stock Photo for winning this week’s site of the week contest. The nominations for next week’s site are listed below, you can vote in the sidebar. If you know of any good sites that should be considered for nomination, feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to check them out.

Area Code Database

Queendom: Land Of Tests

Bootleg Subtitles

Posted in Site Of The Week, Technology, Search | No Comments »

A Closer Look At TiVo’s Series 3 Remote

May 21st, 2007 Davis

When most people think about TiVo, they only think about being able to record TV. They might be aware of some of TiVo’s extra features, but unless they’ve actually tried the service, it’s hard to understand the little things, that make TiVo so great.

It’s easy for consumers to understand the appeal of features like suggestions, wishlists or internet scheduling, but it’s the more subtle differences, that actually makes TiVo such a luxury product. Things like being able to clip out that extra minute of programming the networks schedule, just to punish DVR viewers or being able to skip forward 15 minutes at a time, so that you can get back to the middle of a ballgame, in case you happened to pass out fall asleep before the end. When I had my generic DVR, I was forced to navigate several menus, just to get to my recorded content, but with TiVo, all I need is to hit the TiVo button twice and I’m right at my now playing list. It’s a very small detail, but one that makes their user interface, so much more enjoyable to interact with.

Of all the subtle differences that make up the TiVo experience, the remote control probably has the greatest impact. The cable companies remote might get the signal to your set top box, but the TiVo remote looks better and gets you where you need to be faster.

From the very start, TiVo got the remote down right. It’s peanut shape fits perfectly in the palm of your hand and the buttons were placed in areas, where you would optimize them most. When the remote first came out, it was recognized by the Consumer Electronics Association for it excellence. I used my first remote so much, that I wore off the fast forward icon on my button.

I was always happy with the original remote, but when TiVo released the series 3, I was excited to see an upgraded remote, included with it. While the series 3 remote doesn’t offer any functionality that you can’t live without, some of the the new features are still worth checking out.

One of the things missing from the first remote was an input key for your TV. This time around, TiVo did not leave it off. This makes it easier to switch between TiVo and the Xbox, without having to fish around for the TV remote.

Their old remote was built before widescreen TVs really became popular, but with HDTVs selling like hotcakes, TiVo included an aspect button, that lets you change the ratio of the screen, depending on what you are watching. When it is in HDTV mode, it automatically displays the correct aspect, but for standard def content, this button is very useful.

I’m not sure if it was wishful thinking on TiVo’s part, but they also added a switch, that lets you use the same series 3 remote, on two different TiVo boxes. I haven’t tested this one out personally, but it could come in handy, if I was still running my old box concurrently with my new one. Two tuners is usually more than enough to catch everything that I want, but if someone really wanted to go nuts, they could hook up two TiVo’s and run a quad tuner setup, from a single remote.

When TiVo first released their peanut shape design, it maximized comfort, but it also made it hard to tell which end you were using, especially in the dark. To help solve this problem TiVo added two new features to make sure that your signals ended up beamed at the screen, instead of yourself. They added ridges to one end of the remote so that you could feel which end is the bottom and they weighted it heavier on the end, so that when you lift it, you know which direction you should point it.

It’s hard to describe, but I found that the change in the distribution of weight, made the remote more fun to play with. During programs I find myself tossing the remote and flipping it through my fingers, when commercials come on, it feels more like an ad zapping pistol than the previous model.

To help you see which button is which, TiVo added a backlight that lights up all the buttons everytime the remote is used. Most of the time, you will not need this, but it’s nice if you want to slow mo and are having trouble finding the button in the dark. The backlight feature is one of the more noticable features on the new remote, but there is one dark side to this latest innovation. The backlight is a power hog.

I’ve had my series 3 for about 6 months now and already I am on my third pack of batteries. The first time the batteries went out, I almost had a heart attack. I was getting a delay when I hit play after fast fowarding commecials and I thought that TiVo had updated their software down generic cable levels. It turns out though, that when the remote dies, it goes slowly, so some of my signals would hit and some would not and I was blowing past my commercials. After the first set of batteries went out, I figured TiVo must have given me low life batteries when they shipped it, but it only took about four months before my replacement batteries also wore out.

It could be something else, but I suspect that it’s the backlight that is being the hog. I don’t think I would give up the feature, even if I could make the batteries last longer, but it would be nice if consumers had an option to turn off the backlight or be able to assign specific keys to trigger when it goes off. This might help save on AAA batteries and would still make the remote easy to navigate, in the dark. (it turns out that you can turn off the backlight by pressing and holding the thumbs down)

While I’d love to give TiVo’s remote a perfect 10 rating, there were a few features that were lacking. Given that the series 3 is THX certified, it would have been nice for TiVo to incorporate a button that turned home theater systems on and off. You can program it to control you TV, but there is no room to also include a home theater system.

When I had my first TiVo remote, I reprogrammed the mute button to act as the input button on my TV. Since the new remote has settings for two DVRs, I had hoped that I could program in my own signals on the number 2 setting, but still keep the normal functionality when I had the remote switched to the primary DVR. Unfortunately though, when you use the learning feature on TiVo’s remote, it impacts both the #1 and #2 setting, so you can’t reassign keys without picking something to give up.

Overall, the new remote is a small upgrade, but it’s characteristic of the many things that makes TiVo stand out. It’s not something that will make a major difference in how you time shift your TV, but collectively, these small advantages add a lot to the quality of your television experience.

Posted in Technology, TV, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | No Comments »

EA Sports - It’s Not In The Game

May 18th, 2007 Davis

Over the course of my life, I have been one of Electronic Arts best customers. It’s embarassing to admit how much money I have spent on the company, but year after year, I’m the guy who falls for their trick of repackaging the same content, over and over again.

I’m not sure why I feel so compelled to upgrade each year, but for the last decade, I’ve purchased an EA title at least, once every three months. A few of these have been new games that EA has come out with, but by and large I’ve mostly stuck with the tried, but true sport franchises.

I like the sports games the best because they allow me to play a quick game without having to keep track of what’s going on. I’ll usually start with a season mode and by the end of the real life season, I am wrapping up the playoffs. When the online capabilities started to come out, I was pretty fired up about being able to skool other gamers with my mad John Madden skillz, but as a casual gamer, I quickly found out the hard way, that I was no match for the caliber players, who have the time to play online.

Right now my lifetime winning record for all Xbox Live games is under 10%. These days, I tend to stick to playing the computer, but every now and then, I’ll still log in, just so that I remember what it’s like to take a beating.

EA knows that they make their bread and butter on customers like myself. Most of their titles are franchise oriented, which allows them to have a neverending game pipeline in the works. In the past, I thought it was silly to upgrade from one title to another, just for the updated player stats, but each year the subtle differences in the gameplay was enough to convince me to keep upgrading.

Normally, overpaying for a game that I won’t play very long, isn’t really all that big of a deal, but over the last few years, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend at EA and after continuing to be disappointed with their products, I’ve finally decided that enough is enough.

Every since I first bought my Xbox 360, I’ve noticed that EA sports has been building in planned obsolescence into their franchise titles.

My first disappointment came when I purchased Fifa: Road To The World Cup. This game was one of the first few titles that came out for the Xbox 360 and as a huge World Cup fan, it was immedietely on my must have list. After getting the game, I quickly set up my franchise and ended up picking Sweden to try and take to the World Cup. For the next few months, I played my season diligently and finally made it to the end of the qualifiers. I had a lot of tied games, but was able to successfully make it into the World Cup tournament.

It was then that I found out, that my game wasn’t FIFA World Cup it was only “the road to the World Cup.” If I wanted to actually play in the tournament, it meant that I had to pay another $60 to EA, just so that I could get the follow up title that was released shortly thereafter. I did end up trying out the real World Cup game and other than the tournament, it was exactly the same game.

As a customer, this is really frustrating because it would have been easy enough for them to include a playoff round in the game, but instead they wanted to resell the same game to me a second time. Had I known about the subtlety, I probably wouldn’t have bought the game, but you never really know what a game will be like until you’ve already purchased it and it’s sitting in your console.

After being disappointed with the FIFA game, I decided to try out NBA Live 2006. At the time, the basketball season had already started, but I was eager to see how far Kobe could take the Lakers without the help of Shaq.

After buying the game, I loaded it up and was excited to try it out, but quickly found out too late, that EA had removed the franchise option from the game. The franchise has always been my favorite part of any sports title and often times, I would build up a promising, but young team, only to sim 3 or 4 years, so that I could play my players in their prime.

While I enjoy the actual gameplay of NBA 2006, trading players and adjusting the starting lineup can be even more fun for me. Even though this feature has been included in every NBA game that I can remember, for some reason EA left it out. Given their history, it makes me suspect that the reason why they did this was so that customers would have an added incentive to upgrade in 2007.

With both of these games, I was willing to cut EA a little bit of slack. When the Xbox 360 came out, there was a rush to get the games out. I could see Microsoft making them release a stripped down version of their games just for the launch. I kept buying titles hoping they would get better, but finally, my patience wore down. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the ultimate EA franchise game of all time, John Madden’s football.

I’ve been playing this franchise longer than any game I own today and every year I’ve felt really good about making the upgrades. There were some years that they would tweak the controls a bit and it would drive me nuts, but year after year, I’d see little improvements and the game only got better. Then all of a sudden, EA decided that they needed to take away past functionality that their customers had gotten used to. In this case, they decided to kill the ability to do a fantasy draft at the start of your franchise.

The fantasy draft was my favorite way to run a franchise. Not only could I make sure that my favorite players ended up on my team, but it also introduce parity into the league. When you combined the initial fantasy draft, with the college draft at the end of each season, it allowed a user to take over the general manager position and try their hand at managing a team from the executive level. Now it could be that I’m misinterpreting EA’s intentions, but given how popular this feature has been with players, the most logical reason to take the feature out would be if they wanted to build in an automatic reason to upgrade, for the next year’s game.

I don’t mind when EA adds new features that don’t turn out to be so great. I also don’t mind, if they kill features because they are terrible or because of outside legal considerations, but when they make their games intentionally defective, it doesn’t make me very happy about upgrading year after year. It would be one thing, if I had the option to take a bad game back, but most retailers have strict rules about returning lame games, after you’ve opened up the package.

Because I’ve become convinced that EA is intentionally making their games bad, I have stopped purchasing their titles unless someone makes a personal reccomendation. The strategy may ensure that more people upgrade each year, but by watering down their games, they’ve lost at least one important customer from being so short sighted.

Posted in Technology, Marketing, Media, Video Games | 1 Comment »