[TheForge] Abana Tape rentals getting OT-ish

[Demon Buddha]

On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 07:47:53 -0600, <xlch58@swbell.net> wrote:

> I am not a big believer in waste either, however, I wouldnt be quick to 
> judge this one yet.

	For some niche application, I am not.  As another source of
	mass pollution and waste, I would, if it turned out to be that.
	Since my previous post there was more talk about plastics that
	were water soluble, but not necessarily connected to these
	disposable disks.  Besides, I can see some serious practical
	problems with water soluble plastics.  Imagine the gooey
	nightmare a box of these might become in places such as Florida
	or Weezi-ana.  Then you have to use "real" plastics to seal them,
	which is more packaging and more waste, perhaps.

	Design engineers are a clever bunch, that is for certain, and I
	applaud their ingenuity.  What is often undeserving of applause
	are the hair-brained machinations of marketing types whose sole
	purpose in life is to create demands where none existed before.
	I'm not opposed to it per se, but their having engineered this
	world's disposable mentality is somethiin I have to confess to
	holding in the greatest contempt.  As a child I spent summers in
	eastern Europe within the Pinko-bloc with grandma.  Hungary was
	a very poor nation compared with the USA and I remember how it
	struck me when I would see granny saving old, very used plastic
	bags for bread and the sort.  It wasn't as flashy as what we have
	here, but they got along just fine and were not nearly as wasteful.

> First, you can copy an ordinary DVD that you rent now before you return 
> it, so no difference.  Second, from an environmental standpoint, you 
> would have to look at the whole lifecycle.  Shipping it back takes 
> resources as well.

	Agreed.  This is data.  Get things a little more connected, and
	eliminate the physical media altogether, a la Tivo.

> The landfills have got to be filling with CD and DVDs now ( thanks to 
> AOL),

	Agreed, and AOL are shitheads for more reasons than that. :)

> so there needs to be a generalized solution developed here anyway from a 
> recycling standpoint.

	I've had this precise conversation with Mike the Treehugger
	(ex-coworker and friend from green-old Oregon).  Such solutions
	will never be instituted until either:

		a: it weill require absolutely NO work on the part of the
		   consumers at large, or

		b: environmental circumstances befall us such that to not
		   undertake such solutions would prove fatal to the species,
		   and I'm not sure that even this would do the trick.

	Option 'a' is probably the only one that will work.  People are 
	collectively insane.  They are diagnosed with lung cancer or emphysema
	and keep right on smoking.  Generally I have found that the proportion
	of people that just don't give a shit is truly astounding. Human nature
	or products of environment?  Who knows?

> For video rentals, the real solution seems to be true view on demand, but 
> as I have worked with that off and on professionally for several years, I 
> don't think there is going to be a true solution anytime soon.

	There is really no technical reason it cannot work.  It's all a matter
	of marketing.  The excuse of "people won't buy it" is pure bulllshit.
	A righteously designed propa... erm, I mean *marketing* campaign could
	have every American eating their own feces, that I assure you of.  If
	they can do that, they can get people to love on-demand.

	It would require some capital investment, to be sure, but that would
	be either made up for in time by sales, or used to some serious
	advantage as a tax loss.  Actually, I bet it would happen both ways.
	Never underestimate the power of clever accounting practices, and
	don't worry about Enron.  That was likely a planned event.
	Note that the company is still in operation and neither of the two
	top men have seen any charges to date.  That's a mite fishy.  But I
	digress, as usual.