Friday afternoon the IT guy at work grabbed me to help move something. He had just finished hooking up an Xbox 360 to an entertainment center which already included an iPod connection, VCR, DVD, and so on. The amount of cables poking out all of this would make an octopus envious.

Helping move the cabinet back into place against the wall I couldn't help but think to myself, ' Damn. You really do need to be an IT guy to hook all this up.'

As technology "improves'" we end up needing more cables and really do need to read to the Manuel before getting started. So is technology really improving? The picture on my friends new LCD HDTV is phenomenal but we also had to make another trip to the cable company so we could get an HD box, and then had to sit down and figure out how the hell all this goes together.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is defiantly worth it for all of the cool stuff and amazing pictures that we can now get but, can't it be a little easier to figure out?

OF NOTE: 

Oregon State Beavers beat the USC Trojans on Saturday 33-31. Please fell free to have fun with this. Ok, I'll get it started:

Beavers pound the Trojans. Beavers outlast Trojans. Trojans not Up to the task. Trojans fall short to Beavers. Beavers to much for Trojans to handle. Beavers O penetrates Trojans D.

I like this record. I really, really like this record.

Junkie XL, a.k.a. Tom Holkenborg, is back with his fourth record under the Junkie XL name called 'Today'. Junkie XL is also a major producer/remixer of everyone from Elvis to Brittany Spears. His last record Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin was pretty diverse and featured the likes of Saffron, Gary Numan, and Robert Smith on vocals. No such treatment on Junkie XL's latest effort.

'TODAY' starts fair enough with Youthful. A good 10 minute track that incorporates a nice beat with some dashes of an acoustic guitar. Where the album really gets going is with the second track, Mushroom. This song is what Sasha's 'Airdrawndagger' should have sounded like. There's nothing musically amazing about the song but it does stir up emotion and take you places you haven't been in a while. It starts strong and builds into this cool guitar riff and reminds me of a deep blue winter sky with enough of a cool breeze on your face to make you think about going inside but why bother when it's so nice outside.

Alright that sounded gay.

It reminds me of walking around downtown Charleston, SC or Wilmington, NC during the fall.

The title track on the album is a Euro Pop song with another catchy guitar riff. The same can be said for Yesterdays. I've Got a Xerox Copy brings back the dance bit while Such a Tease, Drift Away, Even In This Moment, and We Become One round out the electro ballads on the record. All are good and worth the trouble but probably won't blow you out of the water.

'Today' is what New Order would sound like if it started 2006. I think that is the best description I can give of the Junkie XL's new record. The record is top to bottom good and will be one of the albums I click to first on my new video iPod.

Could it be...a TV network looks at the landscape and makes changes accordingly? NBC Universal, as you may have heard, decided to make some changes. The long and short of it is that they are cutting positions, streamlining and reinvesting into higher growth areas.

 Now the media (which always does a great job of criticizing itself) is jumping on one aspect of the changes announced by NBC Universal. They are more concerned about the fact that NBC will make the 8pm hour more low cost by going away from scripted programs and towards reality-game show type programming than anything else that NBCU announced. The media did not focus on an eye opening statement made by NBC Universal Chairman Bob Wright when he said in the Wall Street Journal, "We can't have new digital expenses and the same analog expenses."

This is the first time I can remember that a person in a position like that has said something like that and meant it. From my own experiences, execs in TV see the digital world coming but always see rising costs and or don't understand it so they keep doing things the way they've been doing it because they're still making money on it. Besides why change? Let the next guy figure it out.

It's beginning to look like the next guy is here.

Now look, for you diehard TV workers out there, TV is not going away. Not broadcast or cable. The fact of the matter is that HD, broadcast quality content for things such as the Super Bowl and American Idol is not going to be available LIVE to the On Demand World anytime soon so relax. However, with more and more distribution channels popping up every quarter some things like local news broadcasts, syndicated programs, and other types of programing are likely to change a great deal if not go away all together.

The On Demand World of how, when, and where you want your content is only gaining more and more speed. Not only because of technology but also because technology is changing our lives. The Global Information Economy doesn't sleep even if you're only talking about a small market DMA.

So stop criticizing the NBC Universal plan and applaud it. It's not like they're the first to say stuff like this. There's a reason Rupert Murdoch shelled out $650 million for Myspace.com. There's a reason CBS launching online content like Innertube. There's a reason Disney struck a deal with Apple to be on itunes.

The digital train has left the station folks. So either find the next departure time or start walking.

Last year and probably a little before that you could hear the rumblings that turned into a movement of sorts, Google vs Microsoft.  The latest tech war had begun. Once upon a time it was IBM vs Microsoft then Apple vs Microsoft and so on. Now a web based company is taking on the Goliath of Redmond.

David however has just taken a big gamble by buying lawsuit-in-waiting YouTube.

Dallas Mavericks owner and former tech mogul/seller/NBA owner Mark Cuban said that anyone who bought YouTube was a"moron".

Yet Google shelled out a reported $1.65 billion for the year old web site. Good idea? That's up for debate but that supposed $9 + billion Google had in the war chest for the ongoing battle against Microsoft has now gone from
"war chest" to "payback money" for media companies who see YouTube as robber of their content.

Will YouTube get sued? Yes. The questions are who and how soon? I don't think it is wise to be the first company because it opens you up to critics all over the net who can raise a grassroots army to make your life a living hell. This is an opportunity for Google and YouTube. They could win the battle in the court of public opinion but lose in a court of law. But holding the public opinion over the head of the media companies could bring the media companies to the bargaining table.  

In the end this purchase of YouTube by Google is an historic landmark in the Web 2.0 landscape. Video combined with a deep pocketed company who has more know how and hard drive space to take video to the next level. The place where feeble minded media execs into the unemployment line.

Quick recap on the last two weeks:

-Went to Florida for a week for work then came back and went straight to work on the next event. I got done with second event sometime around Monday at noon. At one point I slept 2 out of 50 hours and that was on the plane back to Vegas.

During that time I noticed something, rain.

Living in the south for so many years I’ve been accustom to late afternoon thunderstorms and the multiple days of rain. Since I’ve been in Las Vegas I think it has rained once while I’ve been in town.

Then Friday the 13^th happened.

Leaving work I noticed clouds and it was a little cooler. Since I got home it has rained. It was real heavy Saturday morning and the rain included, (gasp) a thunderstorm.

Granted all I want to do on days like this during this time of year is to curl up on the couch and watch football all day. I guess it’s impressive enough to be here when a storm rolls through because to be honest I didn’t think it ever rained here.

Getting past nature for a minute I am back at home, complete with a new Nevada drivers license and Passport.

I hope to write more in the next few weeks before the next set of hectic weeks.

I read last week in the Wall Street Journal that Major League Soccer (MLS) will allow its clubs to begin selling the front of the jersey to advertisers beginning next season.

I have been advocating this for a while. I think it helps the sport and is a great step for the league to do in order to fall in line with the rest of the soccer world and to attract and keep talented players. Not to mention the fact that it is big money.

What do I mean by big money? Insurance giant AIG bought the front of Manchester Untied jersey’s though 2010 for a mere $25 million. And that isn’t even the all time record. A Libyan oil company shelled out even more to be on the front of Italian Football juggernaut Juventus’s jersey. I am in no way comparing the MLS clubs to Man Utd or Juventus but I think you can see the point.

The league has set a $500,000 floor on the ad space and will not allow hard liquor or Internet casino’s to be their and the commissioner’s office reserves the right to reject others according to the article.

Again I cannot stress how great this is. All the other soccer leagues do it including those in the A League and below which all play in North America. The sad part was the article. It referred to the fact that no other league in the US does it accept for NASCAR. It state though in the same sentence that this is common practice in football leagues around the World.

Speaking of MLS, did you see Brian Ching's goal this weekend?! WOW!