Never Mind With the Convergence

Oh my fricking lucky stars. I've just been reading up on the copy protection schemes on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs and right now they sound like something I never wish to put into any critical device I own. Meaning my computer. Apparently HD-DVD is slightly worse with a system that requires any disc being played to contain a DRM code, so no home movies or little indies. Both systems use a scheme called 'AACS' where there is a computer in the player that will play a program off the disc, and if the program does not like your player it will either update the copy protection scheme or refuse to play if you've gone and done something like hack your regions or something. It also will be able to revoke the playablity of older content if someone releases a new disc with an updated list of who's not allowed to play. EWWWWWW! And worse it will require periodic updates to the player's And do I really want to put something like that into my computer? I can just see sitting down to watch a movie and find that that while I was watching FOX put something in my computer to prevent me looking at websites they consider pirates or some such. That is a worse case scenario, but I've found with technology worst case happens nine times out of ten.

So as of right now I'm thinking I won't buy a Mac, put it in the living room, and use it as my primary entertainment center. Too many things that could go wrong with that. Well at least one that has either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Well I'm off to the races today for the big DASFA Picnic. 12pm at Walden Ponds in Boulder if you're interested.