As I said, you don't read books. Walt's racism and prejudice is very much alive in the movies of today, and Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince makes a very good case for it, and so do a lot of literary and academic journals on the subject. But since you won't read, then what's the point of carrying this on? We'll see how politically correct your whole conversation will sound in a few years.

Regarding you silly board rooms deflection, yes, at all the big corporations they are mostly old white men. But before you start your childish I-told-you-so dance, let's remember that this is the case in every industry, especially movie studios. Maybe you forgot about all the commentary after Out Of Africa swept the Academy awards and The Color Purple got none? Or how about after Halle and Denzel got their academy awards on the same night, for portraying, yes, very negative roles on screen? This wasn't in the 1940's, either. There is racism and sexism in every industry, so what is your point exactly? That there is also racism and sexism in the corporate hi-tech world? Gee what a revelation.

And for all your hooting and hollering, I point out a small positive point that you also choose to ignore: in smaller companies, I see far more minorities than you would probably feel comfortable with (being used to that all-white Disney culture and all). No it's still not representative of the world population, but then again, I never said that it was, now did I? I have been ready to point out inequality at every level and given that you are so comfortable at Disney, I seriously doubt you would have the same integrity. What exactly are you trying to pin on me, that I somehow haven't been critical of racism and sexism here? What rear-end are you pulling this nonsense from?

FYI, I also said that programmers are more egalitarian. Yes, it's not a field where blacks and women are around every corner, but it's also not a field where this matters much to the rest of the white, Asian, and yes, even Latino programmers (there are surprisingly many Latino programmers around the world - funny how that works, huh?). The fact is, if you can program, the companies that hire don't care what you look like. I'll hire anyone that can do it well, and while there haven't been my blacks and women who have applied with me, I care foremost about their skills. Not exactly the experience applicants have when they show up at Disney's doors, I've been told!

And regarding your ongoing charge that the Chinese are racist, let's pause for a moment and stop with the finger pointing. Is there a country, people, or government that doesn't have this hanging over their heads? Or are you somehow suggesting that Asians are more racist than others? Are you really going to go down that Fu-Manchu-inspired "yellow" fear mongering? Because if you are, then I suggest you stop right there because you are making my case in leaps and bounds: that you really have not progressed beyond the mindset of the 1940's Disney. And since they keep you around, then you're also making my case that they have no problem with your underhanded racism.

Oh, that's right, you're Puerto Rican, so it's not possible for you to be racist, right. Bull, my brother. Being Latino doesn't preclude you from being a racist - I've been to Latin America many times, and I can tell you that is absolute bunk. As a matter of fact, I know a few Puerto Ricans who think pretty poorly of anything coming over from Cuba, Dominica, or heaven forbid, Haiti. Yes, that's right, Puerto Ricans can also be racist, I've seen this first hand. So stop trying to suggest that there's one ethnic group that's more racist than another. It's absolute nonsense, it's insulting, and it proves again that you're a hypocrite.

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Regarding small screens, I just did a video conference call with a programming team in Boston and New York. I was on my 24" computer screen (I presume we are still considering that part of the small screens), and I was video-conferencing with people on cell phones and computer screens. One of the cell phone users was, even, on a train to New Haven. Whether you will to realize this or not, that is the future of cell phones: video. Now I won't tell you than it was good video, but it was usable. Had the call been from Scandinavia, I'm sure it would have been better.

This past weekend we went to the snow. I loaded up the iPod with a documentary about choral reefs (yes, it was a legal download, before you jump down my throat about that too), and the kids watched the whole 2 hours of it in the car on their "small" 10" screens. While I realize most Americans don't sit in the car with their kids for that long, the TV screens I do see in people's cars are usually playing some cartoon-type movie. Now before you go on about your whole small-screens-are-only-for-short-video-clips rant again, did it ever occur to you that the players in cars have a pause & resume button too? It's not necessary to watch the whole thing through in one sitting. Geez, I feel like I'm educating a child about technology....

Oh, I'm sorry, that's only my personal reference, right? Not representative, of course. Well FYI, I didn't see many people who didn't have a SmartPhone at CES, either. What I did see is everyone and their mother wanting to put part of what they experienced there on their SmartPhone, either in video or image form. What I also saw was that after every 3D wow-fest, the reps where ready to let people follow up on the technology with their cell phones.

I was at a local University last week for a presentation and over lunch I saw students everywhere with SmartPhones and laptops. I talked to quite a few students that day and because these issues were on my mind (yes you can pat yourself on the back for that), I asked them about their phones and TVs viewing. And guess what? Not one of them owned a large TV. Even at their parent's house they typically had one large TV and the rest were smaller sets, few of them HD. Meanwhile, they were pretty high-tech in their dorm-rooms switching between screens easily, some wirelessly. Most of them used their phones for 5-6 major functions, but the one thing that stuck in my mind was that they were unanimously fed up with texting - too much work, they said. They would welcome a video-alternative. Now these are tomorrow's business, entertainment, and industry leaders.

I also asked them about what they thought of the rest of the world, and while they all agreed that we were way behind, they had no doubt that we would catch up again. Unlike you, these kids have a much more positive and progressive outlook on technology and the future. They are smart, innovative, and have no problem working with others across the globe. They are far less prejudiced than your typical stuffy Disney exec. They could care less about someone's sexual orientation, marital status, religion or political philosophy. P.S. they have no problems working with Chinese techies, unlike you.

Now just because it was on my mind, I brought up the Nielsen ratings and sales figures (some from these posts - thanks) and asked them about the trends these suggest. Unanimously the students dismissed them as irrelevant. They consider Hollywood and the media giants old relics who just don't get it. While they agree that ripping is stealing, they say you folks don't understand why they do it, either. Let me educate you: your output bores them and before they will spend good money on a movie or song, they want to know that it will be worth it. They hate restrictions on sampling and mashing, they could care less that Transformers is a hugely grossing movie because they were bored with it. They actually care more about acting and performance skills than special effects and light shows. (As a side note, I asked if anyone had a record player, and a few kids actually raised their hands - it was off topic, but curiosity got the better of me).

Well, I can go on, but it reinforces much of what I've already pointed out. All your vaulted sales figures and data still misses a huge part of the picture. They are not a crystal ball into the future, and it's a future that is changing faster than you can collect the data for. Moreover, because phones and laptops are changed out much more often than TVs, this change is happening faster than you realize. Your dogged insistence in focusing on TVs that people keep for years and over-priced theaters, is the reason you're missing the bigger story here.