Seeking Nerdvana

"To infinity and beyond... as long as Uncle Sam says it's okay."

Bush Lightyear - keeping space safe for the US to do whatever it wants.

Buzz Lightyear is going to have to change his catch phrase after the United States recently re-wrote its National Space Policy to include the following;

"The United States will preserve its rights, capabilities and freedom of action in space … and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."

Not content with appointing itself global sheriff, the United States has appointed itself universal sheriff. Now we need Uncle Sam's blessing to boldly go where no one has gone before. What gives them the right to "deny adversaries the use of space capabilities"? Big guns and deep pockets - the same thing that gives them the right to overthrow governments and decide who gets to own the bomb.

What's this got to do with the digital lounge room, flimsy movie references aside? It's just more proof that the United States believes it has a God-given right to intervene in anyone's business - whether it be in Iraq, North Korea, the galaxy or your lounge room. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is over-ridding consumer rights in the US and will be inflicted on Australia as part of the Free Trade Agreement. Of course Australia will take it lying down like it always does, so expect Uncle Sam to start sticking his nose into your lounge room - like it or not. Privacy - the final frontier.

If your idea of home theatre stretches beyond the screen sizes promised by plasma and LCD giants, perhaps a projector is called for.

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Last night Australian Communications Minister Helen Coonan had the audacity to call herself a "friend of the consumer" ensuring "we won't be left behind in some sort of digital dark age". I'd say someone needs to tell her this country has already been left in the digital dark ages, but journalists and media analysts have been screaming it from the roof tops for years and the government refuses to listen.

With friends like Coonan, the consumer is in real trouble.

Coonan the Librarian was on the ABC's Lateline current affairs program - real current affairs, not that garbage that passes for current affairs on the commercial networks. She was spruiking her new media ownership laws, you can see an video of the interview (and later a transcript) here.

Coonan seems to think that the competition watchdog, the ACCC will help enforce here new laws - the same people who are surprise when the price of petrol goes up before every long weekend and seem powerless to do anything about it. Jamie Packer immediately responded to the laws, which haven't even become laws yet, by offloading a huge chunk of the Packer family's media assets to foreign owners so he can focus on the internet and gambling. Analysts such as Alan Kohler say this will put Jamie in a cashed-up position to make a play for Fairfax, but I don't think so. Fairfax may have been his late father Kerry's great white whale, but I think Jamie has bigger fish to fry. Regardless, I think Kohler is one of the few business journalists who seems to really get it when it comes to new technology and is mandatory reading for those looking for insight.

Fairfax is obviously a tempting target for someone looking for content, and my money is still on Telstra via its Sensis subsidiary once the T3 share offer reduces the government's Telstra ownership below 50 per cent and reduces the government's already limited ability to tell Telstra what to do. Content is the missing piece in the puzzle for Telstra, and we know Sensis has already considered buying Fairfax at least once.

Anyway, back on Lateline, Coonan actually said that the currently television business model isn't working, although when interviewer Tony Jones pointed out what she said, she denied it. This is what she said; instead of issuing a fourth Australian television license (which is what Murdoch wants), she wants to "do something new and innovative for consumers rather than have one more declining asset over time, declining model over time... Linear television that's not interactive, and is basically dependent on advertising about 13 minutes an hour, is not a model that attracts young viewers in a way that interactivity does and online information and entertainment does". I read that to mean traditional television is dead, but I don't think it's the government's job to be making such decisions. Backing winners has never been its strong point.

The only really newsworthy thing she said was she's determined to start switching of analogue television in 2010, but I don't like her chances considering so far this government has done everything possible to stuff up digital television and radio in Australia. If that's the government's idea of being a "friend of the consumer" then the digital dark age we're in could last for quite some time.

Whether you're in the boardroom or the lounge room, you should be at least trialling Voice over IP as a way to cut your telecommunications bill.

Read the full review at http://www.theage.com.au/news/upgrade/talk-is-cheap/2006/10/16/1160850869591.html

In the search for the ultimate digital lounge room companion, you might want to look beyond off-the-shelf products. Microsoft's Xbox may look like just a games machine but under the bonnet is a powerful computer just waiting to be unleashed.

Xbox Media Center (XBMC) lets you turn an Xbox into a full-blown media player. Version 2.0, released this month, plays a wide range of audio, video and image formats from the hard drive, optical drive or from a USB or network drive.

Xbox Media Center unleashes the Xbox's full potential.

You can't install Xbox Media Center on an Xbox out-of-the-box, it has to be modified first. Of course Microsoft doesn't want you to do this, as it sells the Xbox hardware cheap expecting to make its money back on the games. The legality of "modding" games consoles has been hotly debated in Australia for several years, but the Australian federal government released draft legislation last month to outlaw it completely as part of the Australia's free trade agreement obligations with the US. The laws are so broad they could even make it illegal to make a DVD player multi-region or install DVD decoders on your computer. Just another example of Australia blindly following the US.

Some how I don't think people inclined to hack Xbox will give a rat's backside what draconian laws the government passes.

Perhaps the most important element of the digital lounge room is under threat this week as Australia's Nine Network takes IceTV to court over its seven day Electronic Program Guide.

IceTV makes you your own TV programmer, which is why Nine fears it.

An EPG lets you call up the TV guide on your television screen, browse through the next week's schedule and select programs you want to record. It also makes it easy to set devices to regularly record your favourite shows. Most DVD and hard drive recorders have the ability to extract a seven day EPG from the broadcast signal, but the backwards thinking Australian networks refuse to provide more than what's on now and what's on next - and this is often wrong anyway.

Nine insists its television schedule is covered by copyright, even though the law clearly states you can't copyright a list of facts. It's painfully clear to fans of late night TV shows such as Star Trek and West Wing that the networks treat schedules, and viewers, with contempt. They even deliberately finish their shows late so you miss the beginning of what's on the other channels. Perhaps Nine's lawyers are going to claim that the TV schedule is actually a work of fiction.

The IceTV EPG can only be downloaded to media centre PCs, like those running Microsoft's XP Media Centre Edition, or a select few hard drive recorders such as those from Topfield. These devices often allow you to skip through the ads, which is a massive threat to Nine's revenues, but Nine has turned on IceTV rather than the box makers (not surprising considering Nine's in bed with Microsoft). Nine just doesn't get it, but it's not alone. Some media outlets don't even understand the difference between a Personal Video Recorder and an Electronic Program Guide - take a look at this Fairfax yarn from May; Nine takes on ad-dodging service.

Nine clearly is playing hardball - it waited until IceTV announced plans to list on the Australian Stock Exchange before taking legal action, forcing IceTV to cancel its float and refund cheques to investors. The word is Google is also considering producing an EPG - it will be interesting to see if Nine has the guts to pick on one of the big kids in the playground.

Once again the old guard like Nine view a new technology as a threat to be crushed rather than an opportunity to be embraced. As always the technology will eventually win out and change is coming whether the TV Tsars like it or not. When the revolution comes, Nine will be first against the wall.