Serpentine

I get the concept. It's easy to glimpse how an increasingly wired world may work. One example involves watching a regular television screen. First, in the middle of the last century, we got television through the air. Eventually, cable allowed more channels to be delivered into our houses. Even more recently, our programming has been splashing down via a satellite dish on the roof.

The underpinning has already changed. Television is nothing more than viewable files nowadays. They can be easily sent along the same pathway as email and web pages. Of course there's a lot more data in video. There's even a higher amount in high-definition video. That's why I'm more likely to watch ten minute segments of specialized programming than normal fare. The satellite is going to have to remain an expense for a lot longer, I fear.



I do get some some chunks of programming via the Internet. Most of the video is subscribed and automatically downloaded via tversity media server software. I play mostly HD files from my hard drive and through my PlayStation 3.

For example, I can keep up on computer happenings via CNET's Buzz Out Loud. I can watch lions and all sorts of creatures via Earth-Touch. NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs send out periodic space news. At the moment, I am about to view some HD news via the Washington Post.

Eventually, there will be unimaginably-wide access to global, on-demand programming on any subject one desires. You will be what you watch. There will be no excuse for simply viewing 'what's on'.