MS-DOS and the microcomputer port of BASIC!?

I would counter that format requirements will continue to go up as available tech improves, but the truth is that I ***still*** have not bothered with Blu-Ray at all, and even lossy 1/4 HD rips of Doctor Who look pretty good on my high-def projection system, let alone my tiny iPhone screen. As we already have with audio, we're rapidly reaching a point where most consumers simply aren't going to care about fidelity improvements enough to invest in near-future new technologies.

The screen already looks good to me in 720p or 1080i or even 640p (sometimes less). Spending thousands of dollars on something more impressive isn't going to make my 41-year old eyes see it any better.

Which would be simply awful if anybody was forcing you to pay for cable.

It's kind of irrelevant, actually.

You can buy an iPhone for $199 with a 2-year contract that locks you into AT&T anyway, or you can spend something like $600 on a PHONE just so you can jailbreak it and use it with a carrier that won't support visual voicemail and might lose you support from the app store, just so you can run a handful of "unapproved" apps which most people don't care about.

Guess which option nearly everybody is going to take?

We don't. I don't pay a dime for my TV service, but rather get it for free over-the-air (and via Hulu) thanks to ads.

Nobody HAS to pay for cable. Some people CHOOSE to. And they pay less than they would if cable channels had no ads.

If you want to buy ad-free viewing, get a NetFlix account and watch via Instant streaming.

Hooray for consumer choice!

Joke ----------->
Your head.

Yeah, and we've got the Southeastern states. Pretty much makes us even.

Phone calls are nearly obsolete, as far as I'm concerned. I'd say about 75 percent of my voice minutes are occupied by my over-60 parents calling me about stuff. Everybody else in my life usually "talks" to me via texting, e-mail, social networks, etc. when we're not face-to-face.

All customers of everything are purely a source of profit, and the correct price to charge for anything is whatever the market will bear. That is how capitalism works. If you want me to either give something to you or do something for you, you must pay me what I ask in exchange.

Reminds me a bit of this classic strip:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090501.jpg