I've known for years I'm an outlier... that most people don't care, and some people are totally
ignorant, like the KFOG callers months into 2009 who thought Dave was still spinning new 10@10s.
But shit. Piss. Fuck. Fuckety-fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
I will never take crap again for using video tapes and occasionally burning stuff to DVD.
The cable-company-supplied PVR crapped out yesterday, and I lost dozens of hours of programs. Some
can be viewed via other sources, and some I can live without. But there were many that as a practical
matter will be impossible to find, and I don't have a complete inventory of all that was lost.
In "Silicon Snake Oil," Clifford Stoll waxed fondly about paper card catalogs in libraries, and opined
that how much a card was dog-eared and worn was information about the usefulness of the work it
referenced which was lost when the catalog was computerized. My own memories of card catalogs are
less practical and more nostalgic, but I recognize there is an important point here. While there can
be obvious benefits in upgrading to newer technology, there are also downsides, often hidden. Rarely
is something gained without something else being lost.
It's also galling because I know the PVR is simply a specialized PC, that it contains an off-the-shelf
hard drive, and, if it's not the hard drive that failed, all those programs are just sitting there
as files which could be copied off easily with the right utility. Alas, neither the utility nor that
service are offered, and the tech needed to take the old PVR for possible refurbishment. The simple
reality is that the cable company owns the box, and my use is on their terms; no negotiation possible.
I suspect the majority of people regard all their media as ephemeral. In one eye and out the other.
But then, their lives are largely ephemermal -- one shiny distraction after another. Nor do they care
that their consumption is at the sufferance of one corporation or another, who can and will change
the conditions without notice to serve their interest regardless of the impact on their customers.
As Gil Scott-Heron sings in B Movie, "when the producer names the tune, the consumer has to dance."
I'm not in that majority, and I don't like being there.
This sucks.