The Digital Home

Ever since I played my first video game, the thought of losing or dying was awful. After all, who really wants to spend a half-hour making their way through a dangerous dungeon only to die at the end and be forced to retrace their steps to get to the boss battle?

In fact, I disliked dying in games so much, I would often find it easier to walk away and do something else rather than risk the health of my controller after losing such an important battle. And while I would venture to say many would agree with my assertion, one study claims it's actually quite the opposite.

According to a study performed by a number of researchers in Helsinki, Finland, gamers actually like to die in games and actually prefer that over killing other enemies.

Ever since Microsoft released Vista to the masses, most people knew just how bad the operating system was. Instead of offering the kind of functionality already found on Linux or Mac OS X and the stability that we had come to welcome in XP, Vista was nothing more than a beta release on day one, and very few improvements have been made to change that.

To make matters worse, most companies and individuals are more than happy to keep XP running, and even Apple has been able to capitalize somewhat on the issues people have had with Microsoft's latest operating system.

Obviously realizing that there is some trouble afoot, Microsoft on Thursday announced price cuts on its most expensive versions of Vista and said those discounts will range from 20 percent to 48 percent. Ironically, those discounts are designed to coincide with the release of Vista Service Pack 1, which according to Microsoft, will usher in a slew of security fixes and improvements that should make the Vista experience much better.

And while I applaud Microsoft for finally dropping the price on its ill-fated software, the price drop looks more like a PR move than something that will have an impact on consumers and, most importantly, shows just how much trouble this company is in with Windows.

Over the past decade, video game popularity has grown at an exponential rate. Instead of being the niche market that only a select few cared about, the industry is now worth billions of dollars and has become mainstream.

But as that has happened, video game developers like EA and Take-Two Interactive have become far more business-savvy and done their part in ensuring that they can maximize shareholder value and create an environment where video games are an extremely profitable product.

In the process, the video game industry has been damaged by a slew of mergers and acquisitions and in the process, some of the most profitable genres (first-person shooters and sports games, for example) have been copied and refreshed so many times over that gaming has quickly become derivative and bereft of innovation.

And although the main culprit for the lack of innovation is obviously the Almighty Dollar, another culprit is lurking in the shadows and quietly damaging the foundation of gaming as we know it--acquisitions.

Even though Microsoft has single-handedly made itself look dumb on numerous occasions over the past decade, the company has tried its best to change public perception and look like the good guy, while attempting to denigrate the impact major tech companies have had on the world.

And yet, Microsoft never seems to be able to get it right. It's as if Bill Gates sent a memo to employees back in 1995 and said, "Ladies and gentleman, as you know, we like to make ourselves look dumb from time to time. With that in mind, please say whatever comes to mind whenever you'd like and you will certainly enjoy a promotion, raise and corner office. Good day."

Aside from Ballmer's multitude of idiotic comments on topics ranging from the iPhone to Linux, another person has joined the party and has done his part to propel Microsoft into the realm of laughable.

Historically, no company in the tech industry has performed nearly as well as Apple at creating an immense amount of anticipation for its products. After all, do we really care when Sony releases its next HDTV or Dell announces a refresh to its notebook line?

And while every other company in the world gets a free pass when they quietly refresh a product line, Apple doesn't. Why is that, you ask? Simple really -- Steve Jobs has created one of the most fantastic promotion campaigns the world has ever seen and Apple is easily the very best at "selling" a product before it's even available in stores.

But lately, Apple has tried something different. Instead of amazing us with fantastic new designs (aside from the MacBook Air) and extremely important updates, the company has followed a plan where it would quietly announce a new update each Tuesday. Just over the past month, Apple has dropped the price of its iPod Shuffle, announced the release of the Apple TV Take 2 and today, refreshed its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.

And while some may be happy to see Apple doing just that, I can't help but wonder why anyone cares. Beyond that, what happened to innovation and groundbreaking updates? Has Steve Jobs and company slowed down the innovation to focus on something else?

Was the fix in?

(Credit: CNET)

When the format war was finally brought to a close, almost everyone was happy to see that we'll only need to watch one format try to survive in the Digital Age instead of two.

And while most of us were sad to see Toshiba throw in the towel and admit that it made a mistake with HD DVD, some were wondering how the house of cards crashed so swiftly. Some said it was due to the departure of some of HD DVD's retailers and rental services, some said it was poor internal operations and still others said it was due to the fact that movie studios simply had enough of the war.

But what if all of those assertions are false? What if all of those companies knew that an undercurrent continuously undermined the growth of HD DVD and helped Blu-ray cement itself as the winner?

What if Toshiba and Sony worked together to kill HD DVD?

Go count your billions and get out of the way!

(Credit: Yahoo)

Dear Jerry,

Whew, things aren't going so well lately, huh? First, the company you founded and love was being pushed into turmoil by some executives, like your old buddy Semel, who had no idea how to run an organization. And then, to add insult to injury, you found a company that was marked with issues, like over-spending and too many acquisitions that caused your beloved organization to become a bloated mess.

But then, you took over and promised your shareholders and employees a new culture and a new Yahoo that would change the Internet and adapt far better to the changing needs of your customer base.

And while you succeeded in reducing expenditures and changed the culture of Yahoo by putting it on the right track with an open source initiative with your mobile products and a vastly improved home page, something much larger than even you came along and spoiled your party. And it's that organization -- Microsoft -- that will lead to your downfall unless you realize that not even you can save the company you founded.

It's time to move over, buddy.

Have you ever wanted to play fantasy baseball, but never got around to it? Are you a fantasy baseball professional and you know exactly what it takes to take my team out?

Either way, I'm looking for you! If you're interested in joining The Digital Home Fantasy Baseball league, let me know!

So far, we have eight owners ready and willing to play and I'm looking for more.

If you think you want to play and you think you can beat my team -- The Bronx Bombers -- drop me a line at CNETdigitalhome AT Gmail.com (email link is to the right in my bio too) as soon as possible.

I look forward to taking you down, er, playing with you this season.

-Don