I guess it’s a sign of the times. With TV shows like “Survivor” and “The Bachelor” espousing the virtues of deceitful behavior and getting big ratings, why should I be surprised that specifications from A/V manufacturers occasionally stretch the truth. I’m not, and they do…and they continue to on an ever more frequent basis. Still, one has to draw the line somewhere.

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

First the good news. Most of this readership is already experiencing it. More choices than ever before, in both hardware and software and at every imaginable price point. The confluence of the digital transition and the advent of high definition optical discs has every manufacture scrambling to get as many offerings under your nose as is humanly possible. The frenzy has undoubtedly launched some new companies (spin-offs) that are simply trying to capitalize on the moment. Opportunity spawns entrepreneurship and as the "dot.com" phenomena taught us in Silicon Valley, there are many more entrepreneurs than there are astute, well thought out business plans. Inevitably, there will be fall out which is Nature's way of saying; "You should have just invested in Yahoo". Survival of the fittest is generally a good thing, except for those holding the bag on non-upgradeable hardware......which gets us to the other side of the coin.  

Just got back from CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. WOW, the strangest one I’ve ever attended. The pre-show hype from CEA (the organization that puts on the show) was that expected attendance was predicted to be 120,000, down from 140,000 last year. A day after the show ended, the spin was “expected final count = 110,000”. A very experienced walker-of-the-aisles, my bet was less than 90,000 – down about 40% from last year. Just another sign of the times I guess. Bumped into lots of familiar faces that were there just to look for jobs. There was an eerie sense that we should all be very afraid of what 2009 will bring to our industry. As usual, I have a different kind of twisted take on this apparent Armageddon. 

Diogenes is my Hero. He was, as you may recall, the little Greek fellow (circa. 400 BC) who, armed with a lantern, went running around searching for the Truth. Reports vary as to his success, but there is little question that his mission would be doublely difficult today - especially if he was confining his search to Big Box Electronics stores and gathering data according to "Sparky", the on-duty salesperson. If there were any teeth at all in the "Truth-in-Advertising" laws, our correctional institutions would be overflowing (even more than they are). All we can do is expose the nonsense from time to time and call "Shenanigans" on specific offenders. This month's column is another modest attempt at the aforementioned whistle-blowing.