Apple TV Promises to Take 2008

141 comments ↓

#1 Brau on 01.21.08 at 6:15 am

Wow! I never thought of the AppleTV that way. Liberty seems to be pretty good deal at a mere $249. I do find myself conflicted as to which side of freedom or fascism Apple is on when they so openly court Gore, GreenPeace, and their global political agendas.

#2 BjK on 01.21.08 at 6:23 am

I agree. Take that, liberal media!

(just kidding, don’t get too upset)

#3 UrbanBard on 01.21.08 at 6:38 am

“It is fitting that Apple TV is springing on stage in 2008, the year that will define the future of America as either a deeper dive into the black waters of willful ignorance and fear, or a targeting of the moon as John Kennedy did back in the 60s, when America aspired to lead the world as a well educated, optimistic, liberal minded, progressive role model rather than as an inquisitional holy crusader running roughshod over international conventions and hypocritically killing babies while outlawing stem sell research.”

Boy Daniel, You can sure pack a whole bunch of leftist bigotry into one sentence. It’s too mind twisted for me to decode. Besides, you never listen to anything that I have to say. So, Dream on.

I have a wait and see attitude on Apple TV.

#4 timpritlove on 01.21.08 at 6:41 am

A minor correction: Apple does not “host” the RSS feeds. The iTunes Podcast Directory just “lists” these feeds by storing the URL of the feed in their system.

I wonder if the new Apple TV actually allows subscribing to the feeds therefore creating the first non-iTunes podcast client or if it is just a Podcast Directory browser that allows you to download and view individual episodes on-demand.

#5 addicted44 on 01.21.08 at 7:21 am

I wish they had added a TV tuner to the Apple TV. For no reason other than to make it the only box besides the TV in a living room…

#6 lmasanti on 01.21.08 at 7:38 am

quote:
“No … NSA spying,…”

I think this is utopian.
They will figure it out pretty soon.
(And, of course, will cost billion of dollars to the taxpayer to get an unworkable system!)

#7 lmasanti on 01.21.08 at 7:41 am

quote:
“I wish they had added a TV tuner to the Apple TV. For no reason other than to make it the only box besides the TV in a living room…”

This –I think– is the BIG POINT to Apple, from Dan’s point of view.
We are lazy people. If we have a TV tunner we “just zap” thru the trash they send us.
If we have not “we have to decide” what to look for.

And democracy is about “deciding”, not “eating shit”.

#8 kent on 01.21.08 at 8:51 am

Right on Daniel. I was just reading memos written by Jay Rockefeller in which he recommended using the government power to destroy any critic of Hillary’s National Health Plan in 1994. We need Apple TV so we can fight these forces of fascism when they get back in office.

#9 Rich on 01.21.08 at 9:37 am

The Apple TV has been a niche product so far, but it’s been a niche that I’ve been part of.

About 6 months ago I was looking for a way to watch my ripped DVDs and music on my home cinema system. The 160GB Apple TV seemed ideal since my home wireless network is really too slow for streaming and all my media is stored in iTunes. I even met the requisite of having a HD widescreen TV already. Since then I’ve really been happy with it. It doesn’t have a mass of functionality but what it does, it does well.

The update is an added bonus. I don’t know if I’ll ever pay for movie rentals but we’ll have to see.

“Apple might have been unable to deliver the NetFlix ‘return at your leisure’ rental subscription model that I envisioned due to external factors”

The ‘return at your leisure’ model is doing fantastically well in the UK via physical mail. There’s a lot of competition and the monthly price isn’t much more than renting a single movie per month. A lot of the services also offer video games too. I think a digital version is the way forward.

“The service subscription model certainly has been a huge failure for the music business.”

I think it’s near impossible to succeed when your music service is incompatible with 70%+ of DAPs. I don’t see any reason why an Apple music subscription service wouldn’t be a success. I’d love to have access to the entire iTunes store for $15 a month.

#10 Mike in Helsinki on 01.21.08 at 9:51 am

Daniel,

You’re a great observer and commenter in the tech arena. Been reading your column for some time now. I have even been a donator in the past to your work. I, as most of us, appreciate your competency, skills and passions.

And anyone who is open-minded would also compliment you on wanting to assert your political opinions … even those who would be 180 degrees in thought.

But there comes a point when one transgresses upon the other, and it begins to cloud your judgement. You are being seen as progressively co-opting your tech column now as a forum for your political thinking, and the objective is colliding with the subjective.

You are sounding shrill, dogmatic and detached from the what has been the objective of Roughly Drafted.

Think. We are customers, consuming your product. We compensate you by clicking on your site and by sending you contributions. When you start to become a political commentator, you diverge from serving your customers (surely though, not all. Some certainly like BOTH your tech and political commentary). But it is misguided.

Think.

Why not create a second blog that segregates your political commentary from your tech commentary, of which both have little in common. Your customers, of any political persuasion, would both welcome that and appreciate it.

Its a friendly suggestion.

If, however, you are unable or unwilling to compartmentalize the two subjects into separate blogs, then so be it. Its your column, you have that right.

So Mike in Helsinki indeed lives in Finland. And as such, you could dismiss my advice and pass it off as cultural differences. Here, you’ll find the same breadth of political opinions as anywhere, but we do tend to compartmentalize things to remain clear thinking.

The unforgivable sin here is to be seen as not being able to cope. Are your fits of anger in your articles a reflection of an inability to cope, or a failure to compartmentalize one from the other?

#11 ibookfast on 01.21.08 at 10:07 am

Dan, thank you for writing about two subjects I’m passionate about.. Apple technology, and politics. As usual you’re right on the money. One of these days I’ll send some donations your way. You’ve become my favorite blogger.

#12 solipsism on 01.21.08 at 10:19 am

Not a fan of the political stuff in these articles but I’ll take what I can get from RDM.

Many sites/magazines voted the AppleTV the worst product of 2007. I wonder if it will be voted the best product for 2008 after the software update.

#13 lmasanti on 01.21.08 at 10:31 am

quote:
“Many sites/magazines voted the AppleTV the worst product of 2007. I wonder if it will be voted the best product for 2008 after the software update.”

I wonder if they will say something like…

“It turned out that I was wrong.” (Dan’s dixit)

Or in the lines of…

“We didn’t see it coming…”

#14 solipsism on 01.21.08 at 10:37 am

@ Imasanti,

I think it’s more likely that they’ll denigrate Apple in the process to mask their own short-sidedness.

“We knew the AppleTV would be a hit if Apple would just eat some humble pie and play nice with the movie studios for once.

I figure they’ll pull a cliché out there asses. They always do.

#15 heitorfr on 01.21.08 at 10:38 am

“Perhaps if we all have access to real news, published by anyone with a camera and a voice rather than by a few huge media organizations with a documented desire to convert the world into a single fascist global government, we’ll figure things out for ourselves.”

It’s good point but I’m not sure Apple TV is the answer. I’m fond of Apple for putting out great products but It wouldn’t be fair to give them the credits of liberating information from the media business domain. That is emerging now from a mix of new technologies and new attitudes independently of Apple, they’re just riding the wave.

And I think that kind of effort should come outside of the commercial sphere. You should look at projects such as Miro (previously Democracy TV).

Besides I wouldn’t call Apple liberators of any sort because of the degree of control they want to impose on your computer/media experience, although for positive reasons such as giving you the best user experience. Apple TV is a closed product which you cannot extend with any services, protocols and applications besides what Apple decides fits your needs and theirs.

#16 rener on 01.21.08 at 10:57 am

The one disadvantage the Apple TV has compared to cable (and maybe satellite) is that Apple does not own nor control the pipe.

You not only have to pay for the rental, you have to consumer your cable/dsl/whatever bandwidth to download it.

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that (was it Warner?) started talking about pay-per-bandwidth the same week Apple TV Take 2 was announced, but I can easily see the pipes trying to throttle Apple by adding usage fees on the bandwidth, while leaving their own competing services with free access.

(I’m in Canada, with a 20GB cable limit per month, no such thing as over-the-air or clear qam HD, no cable card, and large ISPs down-throttling things like Skype to try and “encourage” their own VoIP services already, so I’m not hopeful that HD downloads via Apple TV would be practical based on file size alone — though some independent DSL resellers are still unlimited)

#17 ReneRitchie.net » Apple TV Take 2 and Find Bandwidth in the Morning… on 01.21.08 at 11:07 am

[…] Apple TV Promises to Take 2008 — RoughlyDrafted Magazine While 2007 was the Year of the iPhone, 2008 appears to be set as the Year of Apple TV. After languishing for a year with weak sales, derisive media scoffing, and an official designation as a “hobby” for Apple, the product’s newly unveiled software upgrade has already kick started sales, even prior to the new “take two” software being released.As one Apple Store employee observed a day after Macworld ended, “Apple TV is crackin. We went from selling one a week to one or two an hour.” January 21, 2008 - Apple, HD - […]

#18 MikeInSyracuse on 01.21.08 at 12:08 pm

Ah, to be a Bay-area leftist.

Apple didn’t just serve as the stage for independent political expression, but also allowed Newman a moment of uncensored speech that the company then broadcast to millions in its streaming keynote feed. Seriously, which is more impressive: Newman casually saying “shit” in an inoffensive context on stage at Macworld, or Apple, Inc. making no effort to bleep it out in its keynote feed?

Why is either thing “impressive”? What would censoring it out have deprived listeners of? Why would you cheer Apple for not wanting to be the “nanny of the nation” while simultaneously being obviously in favor of politicians who want the federal government to be the “nanny of the nation”?

It is fitting that Apple TV is springing on stage in 2008, the year that will define the future of America as either a deeper dive into the black waters of willful ignorance and fear, or a targeting of the moon as John Kennedy did back in the 60s, when America aspired to lead the world as a well educated, optimistic, liberal minded, progressive role model rather than as a inquisitional holy crusader running roughshod over international conventions and hypocritically killing babies while outlawing stem sell research.

seriously, you should be the tech writer for Democrat Underground or Daily Kos or something. Perhaps you already do post over there, this tripe reads like a cut-and-paste from a typical rant on one of those sites.

#19 Bob Forsberg on 01.21.08 at 12:34 pm

Love the AppleTV and will buy one when it does 1080p. Right idea, just slow getting started.

I’d also enjoy your articles more if the left wing looney liberal political stuff wasn’t there.

#20 Blad_Rnr on 01.21.08 at 12:39 pm

Daniel said:
“…targeting of the moon as John Kennedy did back in the 60s, when America aspired to lead the world as a well educated, optimistic, liberal minded, progressive role model…”

Daniel, I don’t know how old you are, but if my memory serves me, President Kennedy was the one who sent American troops to Viet Nam, ignoring the fate of the French just a few years before. Just because he was assassinated before taking the full blame for it is immaterial. And please explain just what spending trillions on moon exploration ever did for us, besides increase American Fascism (us versus the Communists)?

I love your tech articles. You are a voice in the wilderness when you delve into the real stories of the tech age we live in. There is no writer who seems to have your talent. I commend you for telling it like it is.

But mixing your liberal politics into the mix is just awful, especially when you distort the past for the sake of taking pot shots at our President who was elected by a majority vote by the Electoral College, twice.

Why go there?

#21 LyndellR on 01.21.08 at 12:45 pm

Does Apple TV support encrypted protocols? Encryption could frustrate policing the internet and throttling bandwidth.

#22 Brau on 01.21.08 at 12:50 pm

One thing to remember before going too far and predicting Apple will take over the world, is that the movie studios (IE: Time Warner) are hell bent to make sure Apple doesn’t become the defacto distributor. When they signed their contracts with Apple, they did so knowing they already had other alternatives coming down the pipeline. Indeed, they have already announced an initiative to offer movie downloads (Windows only) through HBO (http://tinyurl.com/2j7zlg). More will services be added through the Xbox and the Sony PSP meaning AppleTV will still have a very hard time competing against the features these offer.

So here goes … I going to say it … I predict AppleTV2 will languish (after a brief surge by early Apple fans) just the same as the first version unless Apple truly opens the device and thereby make it the must-have device it should have been. If they had done this it would have sold millions by now. Adding movie rentals simply does not make it that much more attractive, not does the paltry price drop. Instead they continue to employ the same protectionist tactics that Steve Jobs has accused the music industry and cell networks of, by locking down the AppleTV and artificially limiting it to iTunes streamed content. Apple should allow iTunes to be used side-by-side with whatever competing content the customer desires to use on their AppleTV - just like we do on our PCs.

#23 solipsism on 01.21.08 at 12:54 pm

@ LyndellR,
TV supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption for wireless.

They are encrypted files on the application layer only, which is why you need your iTunes account to play them. Even if they were encrypted at the network layer, any network engineer could easily setup priorities based on the origination network to throttle back access from the iTunes servers.

However, i don’t think any US broadband provider would do that. It could easily be considered an anti-trust issue. Throttling back torrents is a different story.

#24 David Dennis on 01.21.08 at 1:02 pm

I have to agree with many of the others, Daniel. I enjoy the technical articles, but leave US politics to the billions of political blogs that do it better. Particularly since Apple is not controlling the content of podcasts and so it’s really no different from the Internet, just with more video.

It looks to me like Apple, despite their image, has a customer list split roughly 50/50 between left and right, so by showing lefty bias you are antagonizing roughly 50% of your potential readership.

However, I thought your expose of the Muni was very well done, so local politics is not so bad. Corruption and incompetence, sadly, crosses party lines.

D

#25 UrbanBard on 01.21.08 at 1:11 pm

It’s more absurd than that, Blad_Rnr. President Kennedy got us into the war, LBJ changed it from a guerilla war using surrogate forces, which we were winning, into a conventional war.

Then LBJ placed incompetent generals to run it, and micromanaged the war for its political value, so we stared to lose it. The TET offensive, which the Leftist Press says we lost, was a stunning victory which destroyed the North Vietnamese Army. Who says that? The North Vietnamese commander, Nguyen Giap, said so in his book five years ago.

Then, the New Left took control of Congress and, in 1975, cut all military aid to Vietnam. This hampered President Nixon’s ability to get us out of the war. When the Communists attacked again against a vastly weaker South Vietnamese army, they naturally won. The leftist press then blamed Nixon and the Republicans for a war they never caused, then won and was sabotaged by the New Left politicians in Congress.

The Left has whipped us with this lie ever since then. They get away with it because of public ignorance and their control of the Mainstream Media. Now, their political drones have no knowledge of the truth since they only read from approved Politically Correct sources.

#26 mrbee on 01.21.08 at 1:18 pm

To the guy in Canada that is paying for cable and now “has to pay for content” … I am in Canada also and what we do is use the second option. We get our internet from the phone company (actually faster) and don’t watch cable at all. That way, you are only paying for the bare bandwidth and not all that programming on the cable that you don’t watch or need.

Kudos to Dan for the censorship angle. Censorship is rampant in today’s world and it’s *always* a good thing to get rid of it (read your history people). Why is it that three year olds are allowed to watch exploding heads on some shows in prime time but the saying “god damn” or showing a bare bum will be censored? Twisted stuff that.

I am shocked also at all the backwards right-wingers here. I would think if you were on the same page as the average Apple user you would be beyond all that George Bush bullcrap, because anyone with a brain can see reality if they want to.

While Dan does wax political once in a while, in this particular case, all he is saying is that JFK was overall a good man with a positive vision for peace and hope for the future. This is not exactly in dispute, regardless of any presidential orders he may have signed. As Americans, you should know that part of the job of being President means signing papers to send men and women to their deaths once in a while. That doesn’t have any bearing on the overall direction of a particular presidency. Even Jimmy Carter, one of the kindest nicest people ever to be elected to President had to do things like that.

The positioning of JFK as the antithesis of George Bush and Dick Cheney is *very* relevant and very indicative of the choice you all face this year, and to argue against that is idiotic and shallow. You may like the way your country is going now, that’s your choice, but to imply that “JFK was just as bad” or some such nonsense makes you look like you just don’t know much about history.

#27 Ephilei on 01.21.08 at 1:20 pm

Yeah, please leave out the political tripe. Or at least isolate it into its own articles so I can avoid it neatly instead of wading thru it in your tech articles.

#28 Blad_Rnr on 01.21.08 at 1:32 pm

Thank you, UrbanBard. I was hoping I wasn’t the only one who was blindly accepting revisionist history.

Seriously, when are we going to all realize that the political spectrum is not one-dimensional? It’s 2-dimensional!

Think of personal freedom as the Y-axis, and financial freedom as the X-axis. Now we have a true picture of where the parties fall (in theory): Democrats are typically in the top left corner (high personal freedom, high taxes for social works) and Republicans in the bottom right corner (lower taxes, less personal freedom). Fasicsts, Communists, Ultra-Left Wing and Right Wings fall in the lower left corner (is there really a difference between Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Hitler?).

Where is the party, or group, who is in the top right corner? The Libertarian Party, for one. They support low taxes, high personal freedom, limited government. But on the one-dimensional scale, they don’t (can’t) exist. How convenient for the two-party system.

But I digress.

#29 Blad_Rnr on 01.21.08 at 1:40 pm

mrbee,
Thanks for calling some of us “backward right wingers.” See above.

I wasn’t calling Kennedy anything. All I was pointing out was that he sent troops to a country to fight in a war we couldn’t win, and didn’t learn from the French experience. I agree Kennedy was a forward-thinking visionary. A smart guy. But I don’t agree that we can look at politics in this country along party lines. BOTH parties share an equal amount of blame for the destruction of financial and personal freedoms. They have both abused their powers. You may dislike Bush. You may think he is a red-neck, ignorant crony who is lining the pockets of his friends. But this is somehow a new thing to American politics?

Give me a break.

#30 flybynight on 01.21.08 at 1:48 pm

Tech, tech, tech, Apple is great, AppleTV this and that, WHOA! Liberal landmine!

I don’t agree with you politically, but even if you were a conservative, I still wouldn’t appreciate the political stuff intermingled with the tech stuff.

As for Blad_Rnr, I disagree with your analysis of the personal freedoms. The left has been very hard on personal freedoms (think smoking bans and property rights, nanny-state policies, etc). Unfortunately, many of the Republicans aren’t true conservatives anymore. Government messes things up, so we need less of it, and therefore, they need less of our tax dollars. I think we need to push people that lean more towards the Libertarian to run under the Republican ticket. I don’t see the 2 party system going away, but it can be improved.

#31 John on 01.21.08 at 2:05 pm

I’m with the others as far as the political comments, but I vote that we give Dan a pass on it, and just filter it out as we read it.

As far as AppleTV 2 - in the context of all Apple products, it fits well. Apple provides a nice wireless context that makes life simpler for us. The Apple TV for playing in the family room what’s actually on our computer; Airport Extreme for our network and backup; iTunes for managing our media on all our devices; and now the Apple TV2 for also playing in the family room what’s on the internet. The key is “simpler”. All this capability exists outside of Apple, it just requires a Geek to do it! Now it’s for the rest of us.

#32 rener on 01.21.08 at 2:22 pm

@Mrbee:

While some, usually re-seller DSL companies have unlimited* (*fairuse) accounts, unadvertised limits are increasingly the norm, and if force wholesale prices for re-sellers disappear (as I believe they may be in the US), then there goes unlimited* internet.

#33 Robert.Public on 01.21.08 at 2:22 pm

Electoral college? That institution that should have been tossed a longtime ago disqualifies this county frombeing a real democracy.

And just because it isn’t new to have a red neck ignorant crony lining his pockets, how in any way does that make it acceptable in this day and age? It is an absolute OUTRAGE!

#34 rener on 01.21.08 at 2:23 pm

BTW- The political injection in the article seems to have cause comments to get caught up in that aspect, and mostly ignore the technology discussion. Sad.

#35 gus2000 on 01.21.08 at 2:51 pm

Dear Daniel,

I love your articles, except for when they suck. Could you please leave out any words or topics that I personally find offensive? I’ll be happy to send you a list. Thanks.

YOU GUYS NEED TO GIVE DANIEL A BREAK. He lives in San Francisco! Most of his friends probably think he’s a moderate. I have the opposite problem living in Texas, where drinking a lite beer is enough to get you branded as a left-leaning homo.

Political ideology exists in all media and art; there is no such thing as 100% objectivity. The difference here at RDM is that Daniel will tell you exactly what he thinks, right to your face, no bullshit. If you want to get told exactly what you want to hear, there are plenty of other outlets that will be happy to help you.

#36 johnnyapple on 01.21.08 at 2:55 pm

The ability to rent or buy directly from you T.V. is the killer feature, I think. It makes more sense that purchased content sync back to your Mac or PC and that rented content never does. I believe in time, this will be a game changer in entertainment and information content delivery. I think it’s a fantastic upgrade!

For those offended by political shots from the left I must say, I think that’s one of the qualities that make RDM unique and interesting. Feel free to disagree and post a counter opinion. These forums are wide open to just about anything but spam. Asking that he leave it out or separate tech from social opinion, I’ll have to disagree. It sounds to me like you’re asking that he voluntarily censor his own work.

“when America aspired to lead the world as a well educated, optimistic, liberal minded, progressive role” ah yes, that would be nice. I wasn’t born yet. Those were troubling times and we had a leader who believed in his people. I’m no fan of the current administration - full disclosure - so perhaps I don’t mind the political comments because I mostly agree with them. I don’t mind a good debate though. I don’t like to loose but I’m OK with calling it a draw.

#37 johnnyapple on 01.21.08 at 3:02 pm

well gus, it looks like you hit your submit button before I hit mine. Damn people around here keep interrupting me with work.

#38 lmasanti on 01.21.08 at 3:14 pm

quote:
“…And please explain just what spending trillions on moon exploration ever did for us…”

The transistor and the microcircuits are “rests” from that spending.

(And the famous multi-million space-pen that the russian suplanted with pencils!)

#39 Blad_Rnr on 01.21.08 at 3:16 pm

@ Robert.Public,
When in ANY of my comments did I say it was okay to act as the current administration has? My point was that some people act like it hasn’t ever happened in any other administration. If you read all of my comments, you would see I am not keen on either party.

As for the Electoral College, I was just stating the facts. I wasn’t making an opinion either way.

@flybynight
I agree. Which is exactly my point. BOTH parties are against us: they want to limit our freedoms AND tax us to death while increasing the size of our government.

I will end my political opinions at this point.

Dan, thanks for a great article, once again. I agree that the Apple TV has a chance to become huge this year. I think Apple has all the pieces in place to have a lion’s share of the video download market. I would like to know what your set-up at home is in regards to your flat panel TV. Many accuse the Apple TV of poor image quality. Would a 720P be a better fit than 1080i or p?

#40 hrissan on 01.21.08 at 3:37 pm

Well, it seems people can not stand reading political views reciprocal to their own. Relax guys and try to realize what’s the reason for this in your soul? Try to be wise. Daniel is fantastic apologizing for his wrong predictions/opinions. Such a person is not a dumb ignorant moron, right? Then his opinions obviously have at least some ground, whether they are appropriate in this blog or not. Daniel, you may continue to pick people but it really makes comments a bit irrelevant to the topic, sorry.

#41 johnnyapple on 01.21.08 at 3:47 pm

Because Apple TV is now connected directly to the internet and not just to sync with you Mac or PC, it has the potential to bring the internets freedom and wealth of information (good, bad, right or wrong) to your TV, much like a blog brings to your web browser. I think the point is that we will have far more freedom to choose where we get our TV content, not just the network approved feeds. Wasn’t that the point of the final paragraph? It is technically relevant to the rest of the article.

#42 WebManWalking on 01.21.08 at 3:48 pm

Apple can call it Apple TV Take Two or 2.0 if they want, but it’s actually Front Row 2.0. Apple TV 2.0 would be 1080p. I already have the 144.63 GB Apple TV, and have been perfectly happy with it as-is, but I’d like to upgrade to a 1080p box, when it and 1080p content are available.

On a tangential subject, Front Row on the Mac, I cannot upgrade my PowerMac G5 to Leopard to get it, because I absolutely need the Classic environment. I will NEVER upgrade that particular machine beyond Tiger as a result. Since I’m clearly in a demographic that Apple wants (people with money to spend on Apple products), I’d like to point out something that Apple may want to heed: They would grow their movie rental market by making Front Row available to Tiger users without forcing us to hack the system software to allow it.

#43 solipsism on 01.21.08 at 4:35 pm

@ WebManWalking,

— How would the rental market big larger in Front Row was on Tiger? You can already get rentals through any machine running iTunes v7.6.
— AppleTV “Take 2″ is much more than an updated Front Row. There is a great deal that needs to be altered on the back end. I’m sure we’ll be reading about it in a couple weeks.
— 1080p content is not going to be coming anytime remotely soon. The files are way to big.
— It’s been 7 years(?) since Apple has developed for System 7. Doesn’t take you out of being Apple’s most common customer type.

#44 macmo on 01.21.08 at 4:55 pm

Rock on Daniel. I enjoyed every word.

Why are people so quick to classify under left or right? Whatever your political views, I submit that if you write thoughtful, well-supported, refreshing articles on tech, perhaps your points on other topics are just so.

Some are simply afraid of being ‘corrupted’ by different points of view. Just another sign of the sad state of our public discourse.

#45 nat on 01.21.08 at 5:17 pm

UrbanBard said:
“Boy Daniel, You can sure pack a whole bunch of leftist bigotry into one sentence.”

Leftist bigotry’s = oxymoron. :b

One of my favorite articles, Daniel. The depth is always there, but sometimes the subject really hits a chord.

At the moment I’m in my senior year livin with ma. While I know when I move out during college that all I’ll need is WiFi and a MacBook Pro to get my music, movies, podcasts, etc. my mom is still hooked on cable TV. I showed her how almost every cable news station she watches can be viewed online, but since many only offer video clips and confounding Flash displays (at least for ma) she decided she couldn’t deal with it. Now AppleTV 2.0 is out and it’s sooo easy, all I’ll have to do is download some episodes of Meet The Press and subscribe to a few nature podcasts and she’ll probably give in.

On that note, what does everyone think of the chances of podcasts playing on their own? One of my complaints about the idea of AppleTV (and the internet in general) is that many people only watch what they’re into, rather than exploring. Cable has a horrible selection of media, but on occasion I’ll stumble on to a show or movie I’d otherwise have never thought to watch. Is there a chance of an option that allows the user to switch from podcast to podcast like changing the channels, with different media streaming at different times set by the creator? If you stumbled upon something interesting, you could just start it from the beginning or if it got boring, you could fast forward. I know iTunes’ can recommend other media based on your purchases/downloads, but what about things I don’t know I want. Then again, I guess one of the ideas of AppleTV is to end the passive consumption of whatever might be on.

On censorship, is there none on iTunes? I’m sure the shills would jump on any podcast that featured nudity, but I’ve never heard of such a podcast. Whenever I write a review of anything on iTunes there are tips for writing and the use of profanity, racism, etc. is prohibited, but is that enforced? Is there an atomized profanity-checker, or does Apple only check reviews people report? Should porn be allowed on iTunes if there were parental controls that could block it from young users? Would Apple allow that? These aren’t rhetorical questions, I’m asking anyone that might have some insight.

The idea of people enjoying podcasts over the reruns that have been playing for the last few months is not hard to imagine. While I feel sorry for the writers, the strike will help freely available content and AppleTV become very popular, which would shift people from paying for lame content they have no control over to free content they can rate and listen to on their computer, iPod, iPhone. If AppleTV becomes the iPod of set-top boxes for the mainstream, I can’t imagine how much more fresh, creative, free content would be at our fingertips! It reminds me of Radiohead and other groups putting up their music for free while charging a bit more for concerts. If Apple added a “Donate to Podcaster” button, for the first time in a long time, independent content creators could really get their dues.

#46 Moeskido on 01.21.08 at 5:20 pm

Strongly-worded opinions breed backlash, which is why comment threads which venture into politics have become such a predictably shrill ping-pong game. Nobody wants to reconsider long-held beliefs after having invested so much faith and energy in them.

Nifty article, Daniel. But I don’t hold out much hope for the utopian promise of Apple TV’s democratization of consumer entertainment, except insofar as I’ll finally have some sort of non-cable, a la carte method to choose only the tv I want, without paying for hundreds of channels of crap.

Our country’s public education system has deteriorated for far too many decades. Most citizens raised within it haven’t been given the basic critical-thinking skills necessary to process the kind of choice you’re describing. Our nanny federal and local governments now outsource our expertise, because government “can’t perform that function” well enough any more. (I work for one of the companies that benefits from this brave new world.) It makes for a very cushy, ongoing, campaign-partner relationship for corrupt officials at every level, in both parties.

Viet Nam was a mess that the French created, abandoned, and left us to clean up. It was never our fight, until foreign advisors convinced several presidents that it could prove politically valuable, aligning individuals with “patriotism” in the public eye.

Those advisor guys are still around, providing similar wisdom to almost every presidential candidate on either ticket, advocating wars which will kill more innocent civilians. And so we continue to sacrifice the lives of working-class children everywhere, tax revenues disappear into private offshore accounts, the middle class disappears, and budgets for essential public services are cut once again.

#47 nat on 01.21.08 at 5:30 pm

Blad_Rnr said:
“But mixing your liberal politics into the mix is just awful, especially when you distort the past for the sake of taking pot shots at our President who was elected by a majority vote by the Electoral College, twice.”

Ha! A “majority vote BY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE!!”
Gore got the popular vote, made by the…the…POPULACE. If the candidate with the highest popular vote had also gotten the most electoral votes, which has been the case for every president in America’s history, Gore would just be finishing up his second term.

As much as I loathe the current administration, there’s a bittersweet relief from the realization that Bush will NEVER be able to run again. In one year Obama will be in (b/c the Bush/Clinton dynasties are through) and this country will wake from its indifferent slumber of futility.

#48 chotty on 01.21.08 at 5:51 pm

Sadly, what many Leftists like this writer don’t see is that today, John Kennedy would be considered a right-wing hawk by today’s “Liberals”.
Oddly enough, John Kennedy was also the last Democrat with a pair of balls to sit occupy the Oval Office… and you KNOW IT.
*Harry Truman and John Kennedy were LIBERALS.
The kooks today are LEFTISTS and COMMUNISTS.
People like “Dan”are sorely in need of reading some Theodore Dalrymple, the best British Essayist since Orwell:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_2_oh_to_be.html

Take 2 Apple TV is merely what Take 1 should have been…

[It’s easy to dismiss your POV as ignorant when in reality, the main difference between US Dem and US Rep are where they stand on legislating religious/moral issues. That’s pretty sad when you stop to think about it.

Both parties are really right of center on the world stage, and cater to special interests and business as usual rather than espousing a particular political idea, so calling democrats leftist/communist just portrays a rabidly delusional mindset. I mean really, I’m open hearing a variety of opinions on things, but talking point jingoism is a bit too much.

Your casual remark that a “version 2.0 product is what the 1.0 product should have been,” while made in jest, conveys the same kind of shallow shout-thinking that makes it easy to write off the efforts of others while barking up nonsense. - Dan]

#49 Michael Vasovski on 01.21.08 at 5:54 pm

I don’t know how much longer ‘impartial’ will be correct in describing internet content. With HR 1955/S 1955 being so vaguely worded, I wonder how hard it would be to organize a false news story, propagated by the internet, that causes catastrophic results. With enough loss in life or economic damage, the government could be called into action against such ‘violent radicalization’ and begin to suppress all ‘non-sanctioned’ media outlets. They’re now setting up college think tanks on the best ways to do this type of censoring… Make no mistake, the central banks, governments, and military industrial complex have every enticement to make sure you get their version of the news. And if they can make an easy opportunity to silence any naysayers, all the better.

#50 the shadow on 01.21.08 at 6:03 pm

Who knew that so many apple fans were reactionary?

The only story in politics today, in spite of the fevered efforts of their apologists and illusionists, is the Bush administration’s gutting of the Constitution, endless criminal war, pillaging of the public purse, illegal spying on the citizenry, and their open hostility to the Ideals that have made America great. No habeus corpus promised by the Constitution indeed. These are not run of the mill political hacks and criminals, they are radical reshapers of the mechanics and values of the republic. While your critics stay focused on the shiny stuff waved in the periphery, America is morphing into an oligarchy presided over by C students from Yale.

Please continue to make connections between thought and consequences, continue to dig at knuckeheads who blame innocent bystanders for the sins against the republic. Your reward will come in heaven.

By the way, couldn’t agree with you more that the story of MacWorld is Apple TV. I will purchase one soon and turn the 42″ electronic campfire in my living room into a democratic device, choosing of my own volition what media and information entertains the household and informs my world view.

Great article. Your critics can get their tech information from the Australian’s many media outlets.

#51 Michael Vasovski on 01.21.08 at 6:11 pm

PS: To the guy above… Obama; Member of Council on Foreign Relations. Also Clinton, Edwards, Dodd, Richardson. Kucinich; No… Romney, McCain, Giuliani, Thompson; CFR members. Paul; No (Huck also not, but being advised by president of CFR).

#52 UrbanBard on 01.21.08 at 6:22 pm

The only reason I posted is in an attempt to persuade Daniel to leave out the politics out of his technical articles. They are like pissing in the soup. You might like the flavor, but many don’t.

It would have taken a half hour to unpack all the implications of that one sentence. Since, I used to be a Democrat who left when the New Left took over, I know full well Daniel’s position. Mostly, his contentions are either rendered moot by technology like Environmental Stem Cell research or they are Leftist contentions long ago disproved when they were tried and failed in the real world. Or they are Daniel patting himself on the back for having a mixed up world view.

Not that Daniel will argue his position with me. I’ve tried. He tries to slip his propaganda beneath other people’s notice. I know my history better than him and apply the rules of logic to everything. Like most Leftists ideologues, he runs out of argument quickly and has not the intellectual honesty to allow him self to be persuaded when he is in the wrong.

Too bad. I like his technical writings. But, his politics are screwy.

#53 roz on 01.21.08 at 6:24 pm

I really think the appleTV is great now but I would be happier still if I could play a dvd and blueray in it. then I could eliminate a box and save an hdmi port.

I could live without vcr, but no blue ray dvd slot is annoying.

#54 Jesse on 01.21.08 at 6:27 pm

Dan, your charts are mystifying to me.

#55 IntelVet on 01.21.08 at 6:30 pm

Leaving out the “politics” washes out the message, the “Think Different”. Rather than being shrill, it is the crux of what Apple is all about.

It would be like describing the most beautiful woman in the world with simple measurements. The “politics” connect the dots and fill in detail.

Thanks

#56 netytan on 01.21.08 at 6:30 pm

Is Apple going to add Remote Disk to the AppleTV, it seems like it would be a good idea.

If the AppleTV does get Remote Disk then surely it could be used as a DVD player too. That would make a lot of people happy :).

What do you think?

#57 flybynight on 01.21.08 at 6:34 pm

At any rate, Daniel is entitled to his opinion and since this is his site, he can write whatever he damn well pleases. I just personally prefer to separate my tech and political (if I agree or not) news/opinions - due to what you see here in the comments. A great article on what AppleTV will do for entertainment has become a battleground for rival ideologies to slug it out with glee.

And we ignore questions that should be relevant… like when will we see TV show rentals??? You can do it at the video store or NetFlix now, but I’m sure it will take some convincing for the networks to let it happen. If you do like TV shows that are offered on traditional TV/cable channels, renting (DVD or hopefully soon digitally) is the best way to do it.

#58 gus2000 on 01.21.08 at 6:38 pm

OMG Nat, you’re right! Every US President until now has won both the Electoral College AND the popular vote!

Oh wait, except 1824. And 1876. And 1888. And there were several others that were very close (Nixon won an electoral landslide with less than a 1% popular margin).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Electoral_College

Actually I support the use of the Electoral College, I just despise the “winner-take-all” system that was never intended by the founders.

#59 kent on 01.21.08 at 6:39 pm

Maybe there would not be such a huge number of negative comments about Daniel’s political comments if he would stop characterizing those who differ with his leftist San Francisco worldview as “fascists”. Not a good way to treat your readers. Sadly those with the “San Francisco world view” run the Canadian Human Rights commision, where they use public funds to prosecute writers who “offend” anyone who makes a complaint. If you want to true fascism, or at least totalitarianism, infecting Canada, see http://ezralevant.com/ - where you can watch a government interrogator deciding if a Canadian should be put out of business for exercising free speech. I have not seen this from the “evil” George Bush yet, but maybe some of the enlightened liberal observers on this board can provide hard evidence of something similar in the US. Daniel is determined to piss off any conservative who likes his technical blog. That’s OK. Just don’t look for donations.

#60 mrunderhill on 01.21.08 at 6:54 pm

Jeeez i forgot what i was going to say.

Ah i remember now…my Apple TV arrived today and now i’m just waiting for the HDMI cable.

Then is it just a case of putting on my colours, getting my gun and Viva la revolution?

Seriously though i agree with some of the others who comment here when they ask to keep the politics separate from the techie talk.

#61 WebManWalking on 01.21.08 at 6:54 pm

Apple TV is hardware. Its interface, Front Row, is software. So if you change just the interface, on the same hardware, it’s Front Row 2.0.

As for 1080p, the heart wants what it wants. I’m willing to pay for it. I accept that this implies large file. Apple needs to know that there’s a existing market for electronic delivery of 1080p.

#62 nat on 01.21.08 at 7:08 pm

gus2000 said:
“OMG Nat, you’re right! Every US President until now has won both the Electoral College AND the popular vote!

Oh wait, except 1824. And 1876. And 1888. And there were several others that were very close (Nixon won an electoral landslide with less than a 1% popular margin).”

Thanks for the link, but it doesn’t disprove what I was saying. The examples you brought up were during a time when a number of states didn’t have popular elections that decided the votes of that state’s electors.

I was saying that for every US election in which ALL states had popular elections, no president has ever lost the popular election and then won through the Electoral College. Bush is the only one in history thanks to Florida, in which Bush’s brother was governor at the time.

#63 daniel.lucas on 01.21.08 at 7:08 pm

@ nat

I found your flicking through podcasts idea quite interesting and it got me thinking of how that could be implemented.

The closest I got was bringing up a list of related videos/podcasts, similar to YouTube. Or a Google-style “I’m feeling lucky” button. Of course, related videos wouldn’t be much use if the idea is to explore new and unrelated content, but something along those lines could work.

I have to admit that I’m not very good at exploring new stuff but mainly because there’s so much choice I’m not sure where to start. Then again, when I do come across something new that takes my fancy, I wonder how I didn’t find out about it earlier.

#64 solipsism on 01.21.08 at 7:22 pm

@ netytan (#55),

I don’t think it would be hard to hack the AppleTV’s OS X to auto-mount the optical drive your Mac. They have created the software I’m sure the hackers will put it together.

Leopard’s FrontRow will show a DVD option when one is inserted. I don’t know if the software has been altered or just isn’t activated because there is no DVD player attached to the AppleTV. I guess we’ll see soon.

#65 kent on 01.21.08 at 7:29 pm

Nat,

So we had a close election last time. The system worked and we have a president. We have never had a system based on direct popular vote. The same people who complain about the 2000 election also complain about Ronald Reagan, who won two landslides. George Bush would not have won in 2000 if Tennessee had voted for Al Gore, but they knew him. In 2004 Kerry would have won if North Carolina had voted for him, but they knew John Edwards. The Democrats lost both elections. If you want to engage in what ifs, then just remember John Kennedy only defeated Nixon because of fraudulent votes in Illinois and Texas. Nixon decided not to make an issue of the obvious fraud because he did not want to put the country through a post-election trauma. There’s one difference between the parties.

#66 leifwright on 01.21.08 at 7:34 pm

I disagree with those who want you to keep your political opinions to yourself.

Part of what makes RoughlyDrafted a great site is that you look unwaveringly at the issues that get you riled up, which happens to most often be FUD about Apple. Despite that, politics, it seems, occasionally gets you, too, and that’s OK.

After all, this isn’t APPLEroughlyDrafted. It’s RoughlyDrafted. No eschewing of political commentary promised or implied.

Yeah, I happen to be a leftie, too, but I’d support your right to vent even if you were *gasp* a right-winger. Although, come to think of it, you’d probably be using a Dell.

#67 flybynight on 01.21.08 at 7:43 pm

WebManWalking said:
“Apple TV is hardware. Its interface, Front Row, is software. So if you change just the interface, on the same hardware, it’s Front Row 2.0. …”

Actually, Front Row 1.0 existed before AppleTV. AppleTV (Take 1) had the code name “Back Row,” and that rolled out to Leopard users as Front Row 2.0. I suppose you could call AppleTV Take 2 “Front Row 3.0″ but I doubt we will see this interface updated in the desktop version of Front Row. I could be wrong, but on the desktop, you have iTunes, so it seems a little redundant.

As for 1080p, yes there is a market for it, but a lot of obstacles as well. Everything I’ve read leads me to believe that the AppleTV hardware couldn’t handle it. Sure, they could have revised the hardware, but I think giving existing users a free update will make a lot more people happy than offering it only to new buyers. And to have 2 different sets of hardware out there with different resolution options would be a support nightmare - at least when first starting the rental store.

The other issue is file size vs. download time. If they compressed 1080p enough to make reasonable download times (for most people in the US), the quality would not be much/any better than 720p. I think they found a nice balance. 1080p will happen eventually, but for now, this will be good enough for 95% of users.

netytan,
Interesting idea about Remote Disc and AppleTV. Could be interesting, but perhaps too confusing for some consumers. Maybe not. And of course, Apple will have to start shipping Macs with BluRay drives. Is there enough bandwidth on home networks to stream 1080P?

My personal (unrelated) hope is that the iPhone/iPod Touch gains the ability to output to AirTunes (AirPort Express). How cool would that be??? They added that in the new AppleTV, but it don’t see most people using it there. The AppleTV will be right where most people have their good stereo speakers. I suppose for a cheap “whole house audio” solution, it could work if it can output to multiple AirTunes in unison.
Think about it - the iPhone/iPod Touch is the only networkable iTunes device that cannot send audio to AirTunes.

#68 higher ground on 01.21.08 at 7:45 pm

Gee, I can’t wait for Daniel to take on religion!

#69 nat on 01.21.08 at 8:06 pm

daniel.lucas,

I hear what you’re saying. It’s pretty easy to think of systems that can recommend media based on purchases/downloads, but more difficult to think of a way to find random diamonds in the rough.

Your YouTube example reminded me of the rating system. I suppose the best way to find good random gems would be to look at something like YouTube videos listed under the “Popular” heading. I’ve discovered a few interesting sites and bands that way. Digg has to be my favorite site for finding completely random, strangely appealing stuff. Perhaps I should put more faith in iTunes rating system, but at the same time it would recommend me Brittany Spears over Elliott Smith. I guess the problem lies in the type of person that frequents and submits stories to a place like Digg compared to those buying tons of music off iTunes, though that’s not a slam of iTunes users as a whole, just those buying the singles of the top 10 BS pop artists.

Take a look at a site like Neave.tv which features original content from a number of different sources. The videos differ greatly, yet they all seem to go together in a strange way. Fortunately, at least for podcast-lovers like myself, the content is dominated by interesting and creative works like those on neave.tv, rather than the mediocre mainstream crap that always makes it to the top of iTunes’ Top Songs list.

I share your ironic frustration with the endless choices. Yes, there are hundreds of great artists out there, for example, but WHERE DO I BEGIN!! I have a Last.fm account, but I get discouraged when I listen to the music it recommends and it’s just not my kind of stuff, so I discontinue my search. Same with websites. I want to find more sites like RoughlyDrafted that just seem too good to exist!

#70 nat on 01.21.08 at 8:19 pm

kent said:
“So we had a close election last time. The system worked and we have a president. We have never had a system based on direct popular vote.”

The last election was close, but the system did not “work.” The candidate who has the most popular votes has = the candidate who has the most electoral votes.

That changed for the first and only time in US history in 2000 and the fact that Bush’s brother governed the state which gave him, the candidate that held the minority vote the presidency was no coincidence.

As for 2004, yeah Bush won both the popular and electoral votes mainly due to him being the incumbent (incumbents have a much better chance of being reelected for a second term) and swift-boating by his followers.

#71 WebManWalking on 01.21.08 at 9:46 pm

Thanks, flybynight. I wasn’t aware that Leopard had already hollered dibs on calling its version of Front Row 2.0, because, as I said earlier, I don’t and won’t have Leopard on my G5. All I knew was, my Apple TV had 1.1 and the Tiger hack talked about downloading 1.3.

P.S.: You might be interested that, in the Washington DC area, the Yellow Pages once listed a computer consulting company called Nocturnal Aviation.

#72 kent on 01.21.08 at 9:50 pm

Nat,

You are confused. Our system chooses by state with electors from each state generally voting for the popular winner in the state. This is how the founders set it up to balance big state and small state influence. Read The Federalist Papers. George Bush won the Florida vote with about 7 recounts. His brother had nothing to do with it. There were strong efforts by the Democrat controlled Palm Beach machine to change the outcome thru the invention of the “chad” issue as a means of disallowing valid Bush votes. Gore did not win any recount.

#73 daniel.lucas on 01.21.08 at 10:24 pm

nat said:

“I want to find more sites like RoughlyDrafted that just seem too good to exist!”

My thoughts exactly. This is the only blog I read on a truly regular basis. I find myself checking the RSS feed several times a day just in case there’s a new article that I can distract myself with instead of doing whatever it is I’m really supposed to be getting on with.

Mind you, the main reason behind that is of course that I’m a true Mac evangelist and I find myself defending them to so many people, so much of the time that I wish I could be as eloquent as Daniel is at explaining just how good they are and why

#74 nat on 01.21.08 at 10:26 pm

kent,

I know how the Electoral College works.

Bush got Florida, but he did not have the popular vote of the US as a whole - that’s the issue.

#75 nat on 01.21.08 at 11:02 pm

daniel.lucas said:
“I’m a true Mac evangelist and I find myself defending them to so many people, so much of the time that I wish I could be as eloquent as Daniel is at explaining just how good they are and why.”

I’m in the same boat. At first, I really enjoyed Macs, but I couldn’t tell the guys in my computer certification technician class, in which I had to diagnose countless Windows problems (both created for our correction and those that happened for no reason other than Windows’ instability) why. I had to deal with this one foreign exchange student everyday who debated me using misinformation that sooo many people have been fed, including myself. I can’t remember when I found RoughlyDrafted, but once I did I swear I spent days reading these articles I kept expecting to be bored by. That’s the difference with Daniel here. He can talk about complicated technical topics I might not even understand in a way that makes logical sense. Our shared political views are the icing, though I do not believe tech and politics or any other facet of one’s life should be or can be segregated.

#76 dicklacara on 01.21.08 at 11:41 pm

I do not mind being lambasted as a “conservative” but being called a Dell user is beyond the pale…

I bought my first computer in 1978, an Apple ][… I have never owned a PC!

Great article, Dan!

#77 Nicky G on 01.21.08 at 11:43 pm

The diatribes of some of this site’s readers are insane. I don’t care how much you identify with conservatism, liberalism, socialism, capitalism, anarchism, you name it. There is a lot of truth to the idea that the two-party system, as far as what it’s evolved to today, is deeply flawed and corrupt and needs major change.

But geez louise — I don’t understand how ANYBODY could look at the Bush administration, the neocons, the vast shredding of the constitution (used to be conservatives loved the constitution?), vast expansion of power in the executive branch, gagging whistle blowers who reveal the extent of high-level corruption in the FBI and other agencies — man, I could go on and on. I just don’t know how ANYONE despite their political leanings could look at what’s going on today and not be SHOCKED and FRIGHTENED by the state that things have come to. It had NOTHING to do with liberalism versus conservatism or anything like that at all, we are talking about a criminal cartel that has deep influence on both parties, is made up of people from different nations, and is fundamentally opposed to the tenets of BOTH conservatism and liberalism. But man, they sure can get away with it so long as they can keep decent folks bickering about completely inane BS!

*sigh*

#78 kent on 01.21.08 at 11:44 pm

Nat,

Since you understand “Bush got Florida” and you understand “how the electoral college works” then you know Bush won the election. If we had a system based on popular vote, Gore would have won. We don’t. And there are reasons for that.

#79 kent on 01.21.08 at 11:53 pm

Nicky G

In your listing of “shredding of the constitution” you failed to mention the Clinton’s stealing of 500 FBI files of their political opponents, their fabricating of charges against the Travel Office employees so they could put Harry Thomason in this job ( a jury exonerated all after they spent a life’s fortune defending themselves), their use of NSA spy satellites to listen to John Boehner’s cell phone conversations with other Republicans, and the release last week of Jay Rockefellers memo in 1993 encouraging use of government resources to smear opponents of Hillary’s Soviet health care system, including planting innuendos in the media about opponents “lifestyles”. I guess you just forgot these things, or you are OK with crimes by government committed by Democrats. By the way, your diatribe was pathetically weak or real concrete examples of the supposed shredding of the Constitution by Bush. You are lame.

#80 Nicky G on 01.22.08 at 12:13 am

kent, you are nuts — first of all I am not a fan of the Clintons, but guess what, BILL CLINTON IS NOT OUR PRESIDENT NOW, BUSH IS. And I hate to say it, but the scale of it all is so over the top now, it’s on a level that Bill CLinton can’t compare to. I don’t remember Clinton getting us into a MAJOR WAR with the WRONG COUNTRY. Did we even lose ANY soldiers when we invaded Yugoslavia under Clinton? I didn’t support that war at the time, although in retrospect maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, because now I know how you REALLY mess up a war! Oh and guess what, Bin Laden is still missing, so is the head of the Taliban, but I suppose that’s Billary’s fault? You are a nutball, something about your type must be very susceptible to the charms of fake southern drawl (remember that the Bushes are as Eastern Establishment as any other Power Family in the USA.) I simply do not understand what motivates you, I guess you need something very square to “hate” and for some reason that equals “liberals.” SOme liberals are the same way, they have to hate “conservatives.” Me, I have both liberal and conservative tendencies, don’t tend to support either of the two parties, I just believe in a little thing called the constitution, freedom to do what you want so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, etc. I’m probably closest in some ways to a libertarian, but I do believe there needs to be some government, I mean, you can’t live int he world of today with no government, it just couldn’t work. But people like you HAVE to try to pigeonhole people who don’t agree with you, and because idiots like you happen to be particularly verbal about your insanity, people come to believe they have to put up with it! Guess what, WE DON’T — and just to be ironic we will send the likes of you to the Afghani/Pakistani borderlands, because despite your rantings I think you’d actually fit in quite well with the the type of nutballs who live out there!

#81 kent on 01.22.08 at 12:28 am

NickyG

Unless you missed it we were attacked and 3000 citizens killed on our soil within one day. Our financial center and our capital were directly attacked by Islamic terrorists who receive direct support from regimes including Iraq. The war was voted on by both parties - Bush did not do this on his own. All current candidates have supported the Iraq war - including Hillary, Obama and Edwards. In case you did not know this, you pathetic product of our public education system, soldiers are killed in war. And I dare say you don’t like the military including the soldiers killed. The soldiers aren’t complaining about the war - it’s left wing loons who don’t even let military recruiters on campus. War involves death. So does failure to confront enemies. The World Trade Center was first attacked, you nut job, in 1992, and Clinton treated that attack as a legal case to be solved by Janet Reno. You are so stupid you don’t deserve freedom.

#82 Nicky G on 01.22.08 at 12:32 am

Oh and kent just for you bucko, here are a couple of primary examples of how Bush and his administration has exacerbated the shredding of the constitution:

• Asserting “executive privilege” when it comes to releasing ANY documentation relating to ANYTHING they have been up to, and this extends to the administration’s encouragement of agencies like the EPA to do the same. I doubt any other administration in history has prevented the release of such documents to the extent as the Bush administration.

• The administration’s embrace of executive signing statements, more than all other presidents COMBINED I believe, which essentially assert that they have executive privilege to ignore ANY LAWS THEY WANT TO by virtue of being president!!!

• The administration’s leaking of a major CIA operation’s existence which was fighting anti nuclear weapon proliferation — while not strictly anti-constitutional, I think it can be argued that these actions were BLATANTLY TREASONOUS.

• Using Colin Powell and other high-level members of the administration to spread FABRICATED EVIDENCE to get us into a MAJOR WAR WHICH WE ARE LOSING. Again, you could argue that it was just stupid, or bordering on treasonous, if the intentions were really to benefit OTHER foreign powers, which to my mind seems to be the case.

I could go ON AND ON, and you won’t see me defending the Clintons, that’s for sure! But to say “because the Clintons did/do bad things, the Bush administration is incapable of doing bad things,” well, that’s just pretty much NUTS dude!

#83 kent on 01.22.08 at 12:37 am

NickyG

Your list is a rambling tirade. Where a specific constitutional violations? None listed.

According to you Colin Powell is some sort of puppet who will say what Bush tells him to that Powell thinks is untrue? You trash Powell like that.

Since you are concerned about leaks of security information I suppose you would like to see prosecutions of the New York Times for leaking details of the financial tracking system used by our government to track terrorist finances - all within the law. Their leak destroyed a tool used by the US Govt to protect real citizens. You don’t care about such details - or you are too stupid to know these things.

#84 Nicky G on 01.22.08 at 12:38 am

kent, you have revealed yourself as nothing more than an internet troll with too much time on his/her hands — nobody could possibly be as dumb as you, I just refuse to believe it. There are plenty of people in the military at very high levels who are against the war, they told Bush the only way to win it is to send in a few hundred thousand troops at least, and you know what, he fired them! Either you are just wasting everyone’s time pretending you’re a freak, or you really are way more crazy than I can imagine, which is scary but not worth too much of my time. FOr the record, there is NO CONNECTION between Iraq & Al Qaida and repeating it over and over DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE. Iraq HAD NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, saying it over and over DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE. Believe you me, I was VERY affected by 9-11, and I support going after anyone who had any level of involvement at all, to the fullest extend possible. BUT OOPS WE KIND OF LET AFGHANISTAN GO, BECAUSE WE WERE TOO BUSY FIGHTING THE WRONG WAR IN IRAQ! D’OH!!!! SO don’t try to label me in any way you IDIOT, I will call you out as such, and you will NOT be able to pigeonhole me into a corner as much as you would like to! Thank GOD in a few years I am convinced history will ask “WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH THOSE PEOPLE WHO SUPPORTED THAT LEVEL OF INSANITY?!?!” I don’t want to straight up call you a NAZI, but I will say, the last 7 years or so have taught a lot of us how something like the holocaust could have occurred — there are always a bunch of STUPID CHUMPS who will eat up ANY OLD BULLSHIT if it allows them to reinforce their own BIGOTRY, HATRED, and STUPIDITY.

#85 kent on 01.22.08 at 12:41 am

By the way, this started not because I said Bush or other Republicans were incapable of mistakes. An intelligent conversation could include a long laundry list of the administrations mistakes. This pathetic discusssion began with the naming of our administration as “fascist”. This type of name calling by morons who haven’t a clue about what fascism is what destroys dialog. So until you can engage in debate without labeling your opponent as fascist then don’t be surprised if you receive a few names back - you big dope.

#86 dicklacara on 01.22.08 at 12:43 am

Ahh… the Nazi card… so it ends…

#87 kent on 01.22.08 at 12:47 am

NickyG

Since you are so knowledgeable about Iraq, perhaps you can explain how the prior administration (Clinton) had a stated policy of regime change toward Iraq based on their WMD. And how the intelligence agencies of all UK, Germany and France all supported this. And, of course, knowing this, and knowing of the documented interactions between Iraq and Al Queda and the attack we had already endured and the civilian losses we had already incurred, you would have been OK with the risk. Oh yeah, and both parties voted by a lopsided margin to give the authority to remove Saddam. But you know better. What an ass.

#88 Nicky G on 01.22.08 at 12:58 am

Dude, I can’t continue to chat with someone online who is an obvious loony, it’s over. I hope some sensible people out there can read what you’re saying and realize “man, that is kind of crazy” and maybe be convinced to vote later this year, and speak out against equally crazy stuff when they here it spouted and nobody calls it out for what it is. You are nuts, thank THANK GOD I think a lot of people are catching on and it will be a while before such a level of craziness is allowed to happen again.

Oh and by the way, I hope you love reaping what you’ve allowed to be sown, when Obama or Hillary has all the executive power the Bush administration invoked uncontestedly for the executive branch — or did you think that only neocons were going to get elected from now on? Yeah that’s right, you’ll be crying about how Hillary “destroyed the Constitution” the first time she invokes the same privileges Bush and his fellow dweebs have been invoking for years now. “WAAAAAH WAAAAH” you’ll whine, and we’ll all laugh at you.

#89 kent on 01.22.08 at 1:07 am

Believe me, when Hillary is in office there will be true constitutional issues - she believes she owns the revenues of oil companies, believes they and drug companies are evil, believes she can nationalize industry, believes she owns your income, and in the words of her husband, “loaths the military”. We get the government we deserve and it looks like we deserve the govt of Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, Monica Lewinsky, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, etc. Don’t get in Hillary’s way or she will treat you as she is treating Barak Obama - the uppity black guy that both Clinton’s are lying about left and right to win the primary.

#90 s00p3rd00d on 01.22.08 at 1:15 am

Kent -

Unfortunately you are misinformed with regard to the 2000 election. Don’t feel bad, you aren’t alone, as our friends in the so-called liberal media have ensured. A recount in Florida never occurred. It would have if the Supreme Court hadn’t short-circuited the Constitutional process in order to declare Mr. Bush President. By the way, chads are, and always have been, an issue with punch card voting systems and have nothing to do with Palm Beach. You’re thinking of the butterfly ballot, a completely unrelated issue that exacerbated the Florida voting problems.

As for your Clinton conspiracies … I don’t even know where to start. What is it about Bill and Hillary that get Republicans so worked up? As a certified far-leftist, I can assure you that the Clinton are, to my disappointment, standard moderate-liberal corporate Democrats - not the crazed socialists you fear (and I long for). But I guess that’s the point, eh? You declare the Clintons (who are slightly left of Nixon) Communist and you shift the “center” way over to the right, leaving no room for socialism (Western European or otherwise).

Bringing it back for Daniel … Microsoft, much like the “GOP” and its Authoritarian foot soldiers, are in the business of smothering alternatives in order to prevent honest, open and fair comparisons.

#91 UrbanBard on 01.22.08 at 1:24 am

Nicky G, I have some disagreements to your statements. I doubt of their accuracy. Many Leftist contentions about the Bush adminstration have been disproved. You must not have gotten the memo. It is not my responsibility to support your contentions; it is yours. Let me look at you examples:

1. It is often routine for the papers of an administration to held for twenty years to avoid embarrassment. I understand that the Clinton papers have been held up until after the 2008 election. This practice is nowhere in the constitution, but is merely a presidential custom. How this shreds the constitution, I don’t know.

2. Executive signing statements are instructions to the executive branch on how to implement a law. Such statements are necessary because not even Congress knows what is in these bulls. Since Executive signing statements are Constitutional, how is more or less of them harming anything?

BTW, the declaring a law unConstitutional is not a prerogative of just the judiciary. The Constitution indicates that all branches have that power. It’s called checks and balance.

3. Armatige, not anyone in the White House, told Novak all about Valerie Plame. Armitage was in the State Department and was known to be antiwar. The bureucracy is so huge that disaffected bureucrats can thwart the White House’s plans. The President did not have to out Plame since she had alredy been outted six years before. Her husband, Joe Wilson, was a liar as the Senate select Intellegence Committee proved.

There were hearings on this. If any laws could be proven to be broken, then Fitzgerald would have indicted the person. I must assume that this was a tempest in a teapot.

4. I dispute this contention entirely. It is a Leftist tissue of lies. America was already at war and had be since Saddam Hussein broke in 1995 his cease fire agreement in UN Resolution 687. Nothing was done in the mean time because the country was waiting for a Republican president to be elected. Clinton got congress to authorize the Iraqi Liberation act, but he appropriated no money, nor moved any troop to the Iraq border.

Nor are we losing the war in Iraq. The proof is that there is no news out of Iraq these days. This is typical Leftist ignorance.

You have been listening too long to the Mainstream Media. You are gullible and are swallowing their lies and spin without question.

#92 UrbanBard on 01.22.08 at 1:33 am

This is exactly why I wish Daniel would stop putting Political material in his technical articles. Not only is it that he is in error, but it prompts people to reply. It is not as though anyone here will likely change their minds, so why stir this up this fuss?

So, why did I reply? I did so as a public service. To quote Edmond Burke, “All that is necessary for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.” So, I reply to blatant errors and political propaganda.

#93 Nicky G on 01.22.08 at 1:33 am

UrbanBard, just calling me a liberal does not make it so, sorry to disappoint you. And I’m sorry dude, if you can’t look at the Bush administration and say to yourself “criminal stooges” I simply don’t know what your problem is. Sometimes I guess things that are SO OBVIOUS are actually oblivious to some people, it’s funny how it works that way. But hey, call me a liberal if you want, even though I don’t believe most of what I read in the “liberal media” (HAHAHAHAH what a ridiculous notion!) and have many opinions that are contrary to socialistic policies. I guess also that folks with simple minds can’t understand how sometimes some things can’t be black or white, but might be shades of grey, and that maybe BOTH parties have major problems and the main thing that needs to be fixed is the system itself. No, I guess “conservatives” (whatever that means) can do no wrong, and only the Clintons and their communist stooges (yeah, right) are the ones capable of doing anything untoward. Sure, if that’s how your simplistic mind needs to understand things, so be it.

#94 Nicky G on 01.22.08 at 1:39 am

OK UrbanBard, only you can correct other people’s lies, but everyone else should listen to you and bow. Yes, BOW DOWN TO URBANBARD, ONLY HE IS RIGHT. Give