The Future, maybe.

My friend at dinner recently: "How are you guys going to survive when everyone has DVR? I never know what movies are playing anymore because, like, I fast forward through everything. And I watch A LOT of TV."

It's a valid question. One I asked to the board when they stopped by in March. Seems to be that a convergance of technologies is going to save us, Internet on the TV, TV on the Internet, all that.

Anyway, here's a video of a stopgap measure that TBS has begun running. A pox on their viewers, but it does the job.

Jeeves is real

A friend showed me an interesting alternative to Google last night. Cha Cha is something of an internet butler service, where you're connected via chat box to an actual human being who does the searching for you. This allows you to watch YouTube or get a snack while they cull the digital profusion for relevant results. While I'm not sure it's totally practical, the idea that someone is out there doing my bidding is a good feeling. And it is useful on some level. While writing this blogpost, my lackey Dorene found me several helpful pages about the history of the Tiffany diamond company. Thanks Dorene!

As a young person twisted by the realities of who else is using the internet, I can only imagine what these poor search guides must deal with. How many times can you possibly be asked to find violent Tony the Tiger slash fiction before you want to move to a fishery in the Maldives?