The next big battle

[nightflier]

If what you state is fact(and I doubt it) then you are talking about something that happened in the 1930's. Can you tell me(without the overwhelming paranoia) how that is relevant today?

No this didn't just happen in the 30's. Walt Disney's overt bigotry and sexism is evident in his output in the 30's yes, but his spying for the FBI and his testifying at the HUAC trials happened in the 50's. Over those 20 some odd years, he enjoyed the status of being Hollywood's number one bigot. In the late 50's he tried to bust unions through rather suspicious means, and ultimately failed, this was a considerable setback for him and some authors say he never quite recovered. But by that time, others in the company were making big decisions. One of the people who made decisions, what von Braun, who also had considerable input in the planning of Disneyland, including the plans for Tomorrowland. Von Braun was never convicted, true, but he also hired another former SS officer, Haber, who was convicted and served several years for performing scientific experiments on POWs and prisoners at Dachau - the kind of gruesome stuff you don't want to think about.

Look people, I'm not making this stuff up, it's part of our history. I realize you'll have to do some digging to find the actual references online: both von Braun and Haber where also used by the US military for their research so this isn't the kind of stuff that's widely published, but it's there if you dig for it.

I realize that playing the Nazi card may seem heavy handed, but my point is simply that for all the evils that lil't is pointing to in the computer industry, he's got some pretty scary skeletons in his own closet. For someone who's wont to call every boday else's kettle, black, that rather hypocritical in my book.

I can tell you this, today I cannot order a laptop or PC without windows.

Boy you really are dumb. Yes you can, here's a whole list of them. And if that's not mainstream enough, you can buy HP and Lenovo computers fully loaded with Linux. Oh, and since I'm talking to a 5-year old, you can also uninstall Windows and install whatever OS you like, lil't.

I can only use Itunes on my ipod. That equals monopoly. Why can't I just load any MP3 I buy or rip directly to my ipod? This is today, TODAY, not 70 years ago.

There's a number of threads here, on this forum describing how to use your own software and your own MP3s on an iPod. Don't insult us.

I am not going to accept it because it is based on paranoia. I asked my kids if they see nazi influences in their Disney movies, and the answer was a resounding NO! I asked my neighbor kids do they see Nazi's in their Disney movie collection, and the answer was a resounding NO! With a paranoia filter in full force, you can see all kinds of conspiracies that you want to see.

You kids? Why don't you ask some experts instead? Look, it's been written about enough. It's just that you don't read anything marginally academic. Let it go already, this is a waste of my time.

This is no excuse. If I had the objections you have about the content, then she would not get it no matter what. So the only thing you are telling me is that you are a bad father AND a hypocrite. You tell your kids about what is wrong with it, then you let them watch it anyway. That makes you nothing more than a spineless HYPOCRITE!!!

So, you would rip the disk out of your kid's hands rather than explain what is wrong with it? Boy that explains volumes.

If you don't like it, don't let them view it HYPOCRITE!

I don't let my kids see the army ads; As soon as I see that crap, I fast forward through it. Oh, wait a minute, "Action not Allowed?" WTF does that mean? Does Disney want to force me and my kids to see this nonsense? Gee, how positively nice of them.... Any more suggestions, lil't?

This is pure paranoia. Do you think your kids look at the movies and see this? I think not HYPOCRITE!

Let's see, if kids see Ariel's proportions, do they think that's normal? Will they grow up expecting that? Gee, there's whole industries banking on it! I wonder if that's just a coincidence? More stupidity from you lil't. As a head honcho at Disney, I would think you'd be more socially responsible about this material targeted at impressionable kids. As I said before, there was a time when this was considered perfectly acceptable too:

Crows Scene from Dumbo

I suppose, you're going to try and tell me this is OK. If you do, then we've got nothing left to discuss. Oh, I'm sure you're going to dismsiss this since the movie came out in 1941, right? Well, let me also remind you that Dumbo is still sold on Amazon.

Once again, the computer industry has no respect for women or people with dark skin, or there would be more of the running computer companies and sitting in the board rooms of them as well. Look in your own backyard, there is enough misalignment there to keep you too busy to notice what happens in Disney movies.

What are you smoking? Or do Asians not count anymore? Oh, I'm sorry, you want to exclude them from the argument like you did with the Japanese programmers? OK, what about Indians (the ones from India, in case you're getting confused)? What about in Latin America? Do those people qualify? At what shade do you draw the line, lil't, a brown paper-bag? How stupid do you want your argument to get? Women? perhaps not in the major corporations, but Women make up a much larger share of the heads of smaller computer companies than you would like to admit. So yes, Linda Fiorentino was handed her walking papers, but that had nothing to do with her being a woman, it had to do with gross improprieties. But there will be other women who will head large corporations too.

Look, I realize there's inequality, and there's much work still to be done. I've never defended large corporations who commit crimes and improprieties (just read my other posts), so stop trying to make that stick - it's not working. I've been a vocal critic here and elsewhere of Microsoft, Sony, Apple, HP, and a host of other companies. But your insistence on painting a whole industry with your petty little brush just doesn't work. My company isn't headed by a woman either, but they do make up a majority of the board, which I still think is a far cry from where Disney stands.

And see that's where I think you're the bigger hypocrite: your company has a well documented and long established notoriety in the film industry. That's the folks you claim to work for and that you still defend. Me, on the other hand, speak for my own company, not Google, Microsoft or the other big guys. You just can't get it through your head that you are standing much closer to the odium of your industry's abuses than I am. So stop with calling me a bigger hypocrite, it's just not applicable at all.

************

None of this points to any of these devices as replacements for the television. Selling something does not mean its uses change. A cellphone is still used primarily for making calls, a laptop is still primarily for work, and an ipod's primary use is still music. That has not changed, and you trying to foretell its future uses does not constitute it as fact. It is all in your imagination.

[QUOTE=Sir Terrence the Terrible]For the last time, and listen c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y, now: I never said that small screens will replace televisions. What I have said repeatedly is that they will coexist and grow in market share. Really, lil't, it's not all a black-n-white world out there...

I do not have issues with the Chinese, I have issues with the Chinese government. Do the "Chinese" people set their own policies? No, the Chinese government does. Remember, we are not talking about a democracy here.

What you and so many people just can't get around your heads about China is that the people and the government are not separate like that. Your prejudice against the Chinese government and the Chinese people who steal movies, cannot so simply be extracted from the Chinese people. Until you actually live in China, you may never understand this, and it's sad really, because we'll have to add that to the long list of things you cannot understand. Let me see if I can find an example, oh that's right: it's kind of like the way the Japanese programmers cannot be extracted from the community of programmers throughout the world. Oh, I better stop before your head explodes....

No, it is not so hard to believe that we are not the most technologically advance people in the world, and now you are making my point better than ever. Since we are not the most advance technologically, then you cannot make the same argument for the advancement of technology for this country than you can make for the rest of the world. When compared to the rest of the developed countries, we sit at the bottom at internet speed(which is why downloads still have quite a ways to go to supplant the BR disc)

Not only did I not say it will supplant it, but more to the point, this shows your narrow mindedness all over again: I'm talking about the way things stand globally, and you are still obsessed with looking at only the US market when it suits your argument. Stop it already, it's getting creepy.

we do not use our technology the same way as the rest of the world (which means we do not watch our films on tiny screens), we do not travel like the rest of the world(cars are our primary transportation), and quite frankly the largest LCD and Plasma screens are sold to the US, not Europe or Asia.

This will change. Just because we are so backwards as you say we are, doesn't mean we will stay there. Unlike you, I actually have faith that we will pull ourselves out of this muck. Yet it's Luddites like you who relish in keeping us in the past. Is it just so that you can prove you were right, or are you just treasonous?

In American, the most television sales go to screens 40" and larger(trending more larger each year). In Europe and Asia, the most popular television screens(in terms of overall sales) was between 30 and 40" and that has held steady for years now. The Consumer Electronic Companies still consider the US market as the most important market they have, and they use their home markets as test places for gadgets and equipment they expect to sell to the US. We buy the products that they put the largest markup on, and that is large screen Plasmas and LCD televisions.

Not only is this a perverted model that presumes the consumer is an absolute moron (not true, BTW), but it isn't sustainable. Things are going to change, lil't, as a matter of fact they are already.

I am not railing against small screens

Yes you are.

Small screens are good for what they do, and that is for viewing short videos and the occasional TV program while on the go.

Just because that's the case in your little world, does not make it so globally. Even considering that the US is the largest consumer market, that doesn't mean it will be so in the near future. Consider of the projections for the Chinese and Indian consumer market, oh that's right you can't, it's too "vague" and "out there."

But there is no trend that ANYONE can see that points to smaller screens as a device one looks at movies on.

Of course, if all you're fixated on is digital movie sales. This tired argument is really getting old.

Let's consider this. The top selling phone in Europe is the Motorola Razr V3. It has a super large 2.2 inch 176 x 220 pixel 64K color TFT display. The best selling phone is Asia is the Nokia E71 with a huge 2.36" size screen with 320x240 pixels, hardly HD resolution. These are the phones the majority of the populace are buying, and these are hardly phones worth looking at Avatar on. You'll probably get decent 3D if you use two per eye!

I never said they needed to be HD - actually, I said the exact opposite. While HD will be the standard some day, for now, video on small screens doesn't need to be HD. Are you just trying to find a new line of argumentation where there was none? Stop wasting my time. And while we're at it, stop being such a hypocrite, it weakens your argument.