Who will win the DVD format war

Now we know for certain who will win the high-definition DVD format war, Blu-ray or HD-DVD.

New York Times: In Raw World of Sex Movies, High Definition Could Be a View Too Real

The article (entertaining in its own right) contains this little gem:

The pornographers’ progress with HD may also be somewhat slowed by Sony, one of the main backers of the Blu-ray high-definition disc format. Sony said last week that, in keeping with a longstanding policy, it would not mass-produce pornographic videos on behalf of the movie makers.

The decision has forced pornographers to use the competing HD-DVD format or, in some cases, to find companies other than Sony that can manufacture copies of Blu-ray movies.

The movie makers assert that it is shortsighted of Sony to snub them, given how pornography helps technologies spread.

This is exactly right on. It's like trying to build a new super-high-speed armor-plated helicopter and then refusing on principle to sell any to the Department of Defense.

Also, Blu-ray has a silly name. I believe the VHS vs. Betamax war proved that acronyms have a decisive advantage over phonemes.

"He was delicious."

We knew it'd come in handy eventually.

I always thought this was one of the funniest sketches evar on SNL, and I've quoted it regularly ever since. So when the real news finally broke, I found out by someone quoting it back at ME. Thanks to lafe for tracking down the video... I bow to your superior Google-Video-fu....

James Brown IS Dead

Seriously old-school techno. I've owned this track since it was released, I thought longer ago than 1991, but whatever. In spite of its title/chorus, the lyrics do conclude that James Brown is not actually dead.

There were counter-tracks released by other bands: "James Brown Is Still Alive" and "Who the Fuck is James Brown?" This one had to win the rhetorical argument eventually, though, and on Christmas Day 2006, it finally has.