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charles d asked: im getting an hdtv and i have comcast digital cable should i upgrade to comcast hd or get direct tv………Website content

So you have been thinking about the purchase of an LCD Flat Screen Tv.
In days past the choices on where to purchase highly regarded home theater equipment was pretty limited. If you were lucky enough to live near a big city you had several specialty electronics stores to choose from. If you lived in suburban [...]

With everyone trying to figure out just what went wrong to cause the rather spectacular financial mess Wall Street finds itself in these days, Saul Hansell over at the NY Times wanted to find out why all the sophisticated risk management quant algorithms that Wall St. has been so big on lately failed to warn of impending doom. His answer, basically, is that a href=”http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/how-wall-streets-quants-lied-to-their-computers/?partner=rssuserland#038;emc=rss” target=”_new”people on Wall St. were lying to the algorithms/a, coming up with ways to purposely enter data such that the risk seemed much less than it actually was — in order to let them keep pushing the boundary. Then, it became a situation where people start relying on the computers just because the a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050220/2340207_F.shtml”computer says so/a — even though the data is bad. This happens time and time again. Even when people know that computers make mistakes, it’s just so convenient to have a computer “confirm” your thinking that you start ignoring other warning signs.
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It’s been a good week for video gamers and a bad week for stereotypes of video gamers, apparently. Earlier we wrote about a study talking about how video gamers were actually a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080916/1934422288.shtml”quite social/a, and now a new study suggests that online gamers are a href=”http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg19926746.400-online-gamers-are-fit–physically-if-not-mentally.html?feedId=health_rss20″ target=”_new”more physically fit than your average American/a (perhaps not saying much). No one seems to think that there’s a causal relationship here, as it may just be that video gamers tend to be wealthier and more educated — who also tend to be in better shape. There’s also the issue that this appears to be based on self-reported stats, which may not be that accurate. Still, it appears that studies are starting to chip away at the stereotype of the overweight, social loner video gamer.
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titleSome HDTV Technologies Are Better Than Others at Displaying SDTV/titlecategory98/categorypDespite the growing popularity of HDTV and the rising sales of HDTV sets, most of the TV content thats watched on HDTV sets is in standard definition television- the older format thats been around since the dawn of broadcast TV more than half a century ago. [...]

titleHow to Watch Television Online/titlecategory98/categorypWatching television shows online used to be quite difficult, with many websites offering lots of tv shows and movies for download. The problem was that these were illegal, and to download anything from them was dangerous. With the recent release of the BBC Iplayer in the UK, illegal downloading of television [...]

With US-based clickstream tracking company NebuAd a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080806/1346251910.shtml”on the rocks/a, similar UK competitor Phorm has actually a href=”http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/09/phorm-targeting.html” target=”_new”received approval from the UK government/a, despite a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080317/114621560.shtml”concerns/a over legality. Apparently, the UK has decided that as long as Phorm clearly states what’s happening, allows easy opt-outs (even if users change their minds later), then it’s fine. What’s not clear, though, is how the government will treat Phorm’s early tests, which did inot/i include clear notification or easy opt-outs. In the meantime, if such programs really are clearly communicated to users, do you think enough people would opt-in to make it worthwhile?
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There’s been plenty of backlash against a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080604/2243441315.shtml”red light cameras/a (which often a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080313/231629539.shtml”increase/a the number of accidents) and a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040107/1933259.shtml”speed cameras/a (which seem to have problems with a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050302/1117213.shtml”accuracy/a). However, that’s not stopping the manufacturers of those cameras from trying to get governments to buy even more of them for other purposes. A few folks have sent in a story from TheNewspaper (a site that actively fights against the spread of traffic-related cameras), noting that the two big firms in the space a href=”http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/25/2537.asp” target=”_new”are pitching the cameras to governments for surveillance purposes/a, to keep records and data on motorists. They talk about using it to recognize license plates on stolen cars, but you can imagine it’s only a matter of time until it also puts together a nice database on where you traveled when. It’s yet another step towards proving the saying that you no longer have any privacy anywhere. At least not from the government. Maybe next up, they’ll look to just put cameras directly in your cars, like some taxis have these days. That way they can track what you’re saying as well.
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Only two years or so after we a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20061204/013017.shtml”questioned/a why anyone would seriously consider the notoriously unreliable SMS text messaging system for iemergency/i alerts, the mobile trade group 3G Americas a href=”http://www.cellular-news.com/story/33684.php?source=rss” target=”_new”has released a research report stating the same thing/a. Basically, the system isn’t reliable or efficient, and in an emergency is likely to get overloaded quickly. It’s not clear why it took anyone until now to notice this, but hopefully no one was seriously considering using SMS for emergency alerts.
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It’s quite common these days for people to “live blog” or “live Twitter” different conferences or events they’re attending, filling in others what’s happening in near real time. However, what happens when someone does that in a college class? Already, there are some professors struggling with the fact that students a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080418/170854893.shtml”use the internet/a during class, but they’re not at all happy about the idea that they might not just be using the internet to surf around — but to report to others what’s happening inside the classroom. The issue is discussed in detail by Mark Glaser in his latest MediaShift column after an a href=”http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/09/digging_deepernyu_professor_st_1.html” target=”_new”NYU professor told her students to stop blogging or Twittering things about her class/a.
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The controversy apparently began when a student in the class actually wrote a guest “embedded” column for MediaShift a few weeks ago, a href=”http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/09/embedded_at_nyuold_thinking_pe.html”complaining that NYU’s journalism school wasn’t up-to-date/a on teaching students about social media and the new tools of journalism. The professor in the class she talked about wasn’t particularly happy about the article, which was then discussed in the class itself (very meta). According to students in the class (and the author of the original piece), the professor made it clear that they were no longer to blog, text or Twitter about the class, or to quote the professor without permission. Considering the class itself is called “Reporting Gen Y,” that seemed like an odd restriction.
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The professor differs on what she told the students, saying that she only meant they couldn’t blog or Twitter iduring/i the class, but were free to afterwards. However, she stood by the comment that she shouldn’t be quoted without permission. Glaser investigates the legality of this, and how it fits with NYU’s journalism standards. That said, it is a little odd that it’s perfectly fine to quote or blog about conferences or other events, but once you’re in the classroom, a cloak of silence is expected. To some extent, this sounds like it may just be a generational issue. Perhaps it’s the actual Gen Y’ers who should be teaching the class on Reporting Gen Y.
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