What’s with this people?  Every time I go into a Hair Cuttery in search of a haircut, I get blank stares, and get asked something on the order of, “what can we do for you?“  My standard answer is, “Strangely enough, I’m here for a haircut.”

Are they expecting me to come in looking to buy furniture or something?   I just find it a bit ridiculous that every time I go in, I have to tell them I want a haircut.  It’s not just me either.  Any time I’m waiting for someone who can run clippers and scissors, I see other guys come in and get the same treatment.

Next time, I think I’ll ask if they sell Buicks.

...who had 3 different pregnancy tests at the register next to me. Good luck.

Today, the BBC is reporting that Bigchoice, err.. Blockbuster Video has lined up on the Blu-Ray side of the HD video disc war. It seems that BD titles were rented quite a bit more than HD-DVD titles at the 250 Blockbuster test locations.

In general, I don’t particular care one way or another who wins the format war, but I’ll say that HD-DVD does have some things in their favor, even if they’re the 2007 equivalent of VHS to BD’s Beta. For instance, HD-DVD’s don’t seem to be suffering from the disc rot problems currently being reported over on the AVS Forums. Further, HD-DVD lacks the extra layer of DRM, BD+ that is available on the BD side of the house.  In my book, the less DRM, the better, preferably, none.

Why no DRM?  It has nothing to do with piracy.  Pirates already have proven themselves wildly successful at circumventing copy controls on all sorts of media (VHS, CD-ROM, DVD, various digital music formats even).  DRM has to do with you & me, the consumers.  The ones that pay for their content.  You see, according to the RIAA or MPAA, if we want to shift our media to a different format, preserving our investment, we should have to re-purchase the media.  Don’t even get me started on the commercials urging you to “own it on DVD today!“  You know what you own?  A disc and the box it came in.  What you don’t own is the content that you were led to buy.

In a perfect world, what would I choose?  Blu-Ray’s technical superiority, no DRM, and the dual-format publication system that lots of HD-DVDs are using now (standard def DVD on one side, HD-DVD on the other).  Why?  I’ve seriously pondered buying those, and I don’t even own an HDTV, let alone hi-def player of any format.  But I will.  Why re-purchase the movie?  So, I pay a bit more up front, but (hopefully) save on the back end, and have the ability to play the movies I’ve already got in 1080p, rather than just 480p.

Wow. I’ve got a new definition for “devotion.” You decide to tattoo the logo of your MP3 player on your arm.

I can only hope it’s a joke and photoshopped.

Dude, go outside or something. And next time, wait until something is going to be sticking around before you go tattooing it on yourself, if being stabbed thousands of times is your thing… I’m not even to go into the list of how many ways the iPod is better than the Zune. At this point, it’s been beaten to death so badly, that I’m surprised “Zune” is not synonymous with “bad tech”.

Welcome to the social, indeed.

This one goes out to Phil, who wanted to read this here.

Yes, I know, it’s a bunch of commercials for pants. It’s true.

Get over to YouTube and watch the videos from Haggarfilms. You’ll laugh yourself silly.

Forbes is running a story about a couple of companies that I’ve never heard of, Media Rights Technology and BlueBeat.com.  Seems the kids at MRT and BlueBeat think they’ve got a DRM solution that would keep people from copying digital media.  Ok, so it’s just another DRM solution, right?

Apparently not.  The brain trusts at MRT and BlueBeat believe that Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Real and others need their products so much that they’re suing.  They’ve send cease & desists to Adobe and Real for “actively avoiding their X1 SeCure Recording Control.”

Ok, so under the DMCA, you can send a C&D for circumventing a security mechanism, but this is a whole new level.  Now threatening lawsuits because I didn’t buy and use your product?  That’s just stupid.

Hey guys, maybe they just don’t want your product.

Wil Wheaton, yes, that Wil Wheaton, posted a great piece about his recent experience camping.

Long story short? Wil takes family camping. Discovers that the campground has Wifi. Watches kid glued to a PS2, rather than playing with the gaggle of other kids all around him. Laments. Wonders. Writes.

One thing he mentioned that strikes a chord with me – parents that have the DVD player going in the car for taking junior to the mall, the supermarket, church, or whatever. Can’t your kid spend 10 minutes apart from animated fantasyland? Mine can. Heck, our minivan has a DVD player in it. We’ve never turned it on in front of the kids. In fact, I’ve only ever turned it on once to test it. Why get it? The van already had it installed.

It gets worse. A couple of months back, Heather went to Target, with Alex in tow. She encountered this lady pushing her 2-ish year old kid around in the cart, complete with an elaborate rig of entertainment. The child safely seated in the cart, strapped into the shopping cart seat liner to keep the germs away (come on, what mom doesn’t have a stack of wipes the size of your head stashed away?) along with a carefully attached portable DVD player playing the Backyardigans for the kid.

Come on people, don’t you think junior can stand to spend an hour away from Pablo and Tyrone? Think back to when you were a kid, back in the days before the DVD. What did you do to occupy the time at the store? Played with a small toy? Read a book? Used your imagination? Amazing how we didn’t need portable DVD players plastered on our shopping carts.

Nice job Wil.

“It’s like trying to put 10 pounds of traffic in a 1 pound bag.”

Thank you Pete Toriello of NJ 101.5.

Over lunch today, somehow, our conversation wound up including the music of Bon Jersey..errr..Jovi. So, it never occurred to me, or my buddy that I was lunching with, that these guys are the masters of the cliche. Consider a sampling of song/album titles from the band:

• Have A Nice Day
• Slippery When Wet
• Last Man Standing
• Last Cigarette
• Story Of My Life
• The One That Got Away
• Lonely At The Top
• Wanted Dead or Alive
• Livin’ on a Prayer
• Bad Medicine
• It’s My Life
• Keep The Faith

Eeek, the list goes on and on and on. These guys have made a career out of putting cliches to hair-band music. We’re hypothesizing that their next smash hit album will include such tunes which will rocket up the charts like:

• One Good Turn Deserves Another
• A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned
• Don’t Take Any Wooden Indians
• Do Unto Others As You’d Have Them Do Unto You
• Needle In A Haystack

Currently playing in iTunes: Life on the Edge by Eli

For the past three weeks, the citizens of New Jersey have been largely flipping out over Gov. Corzine’s car crash. Should he get a seat belt ticket? Should the Trooper driving him get a ticket? He was speeding (91 in a 65!) to get to a stupid photo opp. The Trooper was answering a text message while driving. Any number of things people are going on about.

Here’s the genius part. Corzine could have put this stuff behind us almost immediately by calling up Col. Fuentes (Superintendent of the NJ State Police) and having a Trooper issue a seat belt violation, publicly, complete with Corzine writing a check for $46 for the ticket. Instead, he’s dragging things out, resulting in the state’s population being dragged into discussions about seat belt tickets and speeding, rather than focusing on the actual problems NJ has.

I certainly do not wish anything bad on the man personally. Politically, however, is another matter altogether. I wish the political figure would start acting like a leader and actually doing something that’s good for the state, even good for us dissenters who chose to vote for someone else. Like, say, fixing corruption in our state government, or say, getting a handle on school spending in this state.

Currently playing in iTunes: You Do It All The Time by Wagstaffe