[Beowulf] Sidebar: Vista Rant

[Jim Lux]

At 01:28 PM 7/18/2007, Joe Landman wrote:


>>Here's the breakdown... hours per person per year
>>for year 2004
>>Filmed Entertainment:
>>Cable and Satellite TV  1010
>
>Whoa... 1010 hours?
>
>Thats 11.5% of a day, every day, watching cable tv ...  3 hours.

That's quite plausible (sad, but plausible)


>>Broadcast TV 782
>
>8.9% of the day watching broadcast TV (2.1 hours)
>
>>Consumer Internet 189
>
>I wonder what this means ...

I think that's seeing filmed entertainment via internet (youtube and the like)

>>Home Video 78
>>Box Office 13 (e.g. movies and live theater)
>>Interactive TV 3
>>Subtotal 2075
>
>Uh... I must be wayyyyy behind in my entertainment quota.  Will the 
>entertainment police stop by and force me to watch Oprah?



>>Other
>>Broadcast and satellite radio: 1035
>
>Er... Another 3 hours per day.

Easy, if you have a commute or listen to background music.


>>Recorded music 180
>>Daily Newspapers 169
>>Consumer Magazines 118  (obviously, this doesn't include reading Trans ACM)
>>Consumer Books  107
>>Video Games     71  (which seems low to me, but perhaps its 
>>strangely defined)
>>Subtotal 1680
>>These were summarized in a presentation I got a few years back, but 
>>they're based on data (in part) from a source like this:
>>http://www.mpaa.org/USEntertinmentIndustryMarketStats.pdf
>>which has 2006 numbers..
>
>ummmm  someone (mpaa cough cough) is *seriously* overestimating some things.
>
>>Take a look at slide #49
>>
>>Now, clearly, these numbers are used as marketing stuff for filmed 
>>entertainment, so they're going to try and show as much film and as
>
>Yeah....

But of course...


>Ok, I am just caught up with how wrong their data seems.  I have 
>internet radio on in the background while I code/think... does that 
>make it 16 hours a day I consume things?

Sure enough, it does.  Thank you for doing your part to keep the average up.


>Am I alone in thinking these numbers are screwy?  Or I am so far 
>behind in my own self-entertainment quota that a month long vacation 
>is mandated with a force fed diet of DRM protected movies, radio, ...


I would venture to guess that the average list member is not 
representative of the average media consumer.  Consider, for 
instance, that 100 odd hours per year reading books.  I probably 
spend half that in the bookstore and library just deciding which books to read.

And, of course, all those nights when I curl up with RGB's clustering 
handbook in front of the fire with the cat on my lap don't count, 
because that's not really a "consumer book".


But you're right, you're not pulling your weight in keeping the 
entertainment industry going.  Since I am a former participant in 
that industry, I can only say that I think you need to get cracking 
and start consuming entertainment media.



James Lux, P.E.
Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group
Flight Communications Systems Section
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
tel: (818)354-2075
fax: (818)393-6875