Poker Perambulation

What does that nice, innocuous blurb — The Experience — mean to you.   Its today’s electric mayhem; it is about smart phone and what was once referred to as a PDA.  They sucked too at least until they morphed into tablet computers.  You say potato; I’ll say tomato.  Wait, that isn’t right either.

OK, up front I’ll admit to hating it all.  Well, who’d guess I’d be negative?   I really don’t like getting had and The Experience is not this great way to do things like most are thinking they experienced.   It is a ball and chain.

The most recent example of marketing taking control of your experience is the Amazon Fire.  The fire is:

• an android device
• made proprietary
• tied to a vendor — Amazon
• a multimedia bonanza

As they go, Amazon isn’t the worst of the worst at this.  In fact they are closer to decent than others.  They are all about economy of scale and willing to share more than the other players in the game.

First came the ether and like Genesis says, “It was without form and void.”  It was a proprietary world of phone with “plans” and abusive contracts.   Like Ma Bell before it, the business plan was angle shooting — pure and simple.  Apple cleverly implemented a similar plan and got away with it because it was a superior implementation.

Google — committed to doing no wrong — actually tried to do that.  Their original idea was their Android phone would be given away with advertising accruing to their operation.   The phones would come unlocked and you could just buy minutes or chose in the marketplace.  That should have brought more competition and greater user options.  But, even a huge entity can be foiled.  Content wasn’t in their hands.  So, the business plan move to the heavily proprietary model that makes up providing content.

I have a Logitech Revue running Google TV.   There is a lot of talk about “cutting the cord” which many are doing.  Economic necessity is the basis for that.  The content is limited and often laughable.  The media conglomerates are not willing to lose an iota of perceived control.  Nowhere is that more obvious than with such devices.  Why do I think this?

Tuesday night I missed a show I normally watch — NCIS.   Bummer, right?  But, I still can watch it. How?

• wait for reruns  (NO!)
• download as a torrent (Don’t tell anyone)
• Try to watch it on Google TV  (Fails)
• Watch it using my computer  (Ads galore unlike that torrent option)

Why can’t I watch it on Google TV with ads that would enrich CBS?   Control and relationships.  Obviously, the ads would appear like they are doing at this very moment as I watch it on my computer.  So, why not with Google TV.   This is the battle in a nutshell.   CBS revenue comes from traditional, over the air broadcasting.  That is a model that been around since I was in grade school.  But, more recently it also comes from partners.  Partners is a euphemism limiting customers while avoiding price fixing charges. You want it; you play with their ball.

Take the example I provide and spread it around.   If it were a cable channel only, you could watch if you paid for cable that had it.  Cable cutters are out.  Amazon and Netflix are out.  Google TV is out unless you can prove you can watch it on cable or just out in some locations.  A few (History is one at the moment) show their shows with ad revenue — a fair deal.

Whether it is Amazon, Google, ad nauseum in the media game.  The experience ownership is at best shared and at worst invasive.  Whether it is my Revue or my computer, the flash player has been modified to give the media company full control and the ability to profile you.

Being profiled is nothing new but has always been open to abuse.  The one we all knew about were the big three credit reporting agencies.  Good credit and buying your home they were a help.  It could be better.  You are gamed but you can game them.   But, all that info is available to a lot of people who aren’t planning to play fair.  But, compared with this new profiling, that was amateur night.  They gathered lots of info about you.  The new companies are making what those credit reporters knew into amateur night.   It is lucrative — very lucrative. They are not going to give that up without a battle.  And they are prepared to go to any extreme not to lose.

We are all, well…  pawns, fish, targets, serf, whatever — take your pick.  We can avoid it but we can control it somewhat.  It is easier to do on a computer but it is impossible with the appliance like those great smart phones and tablets.

I don’t see government helping the situation.  The cash is flowing.  The stakes are great and the new laws coming tilt things farther from our privacy.  The alternative is an old one.  Civil disobedience is a way of saying that your choice is outside the grid.   That is sad but not unusual.  Those with a degree of tech savvy can pull it off.  It will be very annoying but it is an option.  The other option is to play by their rules.  Then, you can look around the table.  Unfortunately, you won’t see the fish.  You can guess why!

ADDENDUM:

I did watch NCIS.  It used the standard player on my computer and modified it.  One of the mods was the inability to pause.  I got a phone call — pause.  The application stopped.  Start over.  I was half way through it.  To get back cost 9 commercials.  Talk about stacking the deck.  Hello torrents! And, it wasn’t my first choice.  It never was my intent.   They just made it go in that direction.

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