Now we know why it's in their best interest to keep the majority of the public in the USofA uneducated.

Propagate religion, downplay education levels, keep the masses complaint. Let just enough people through the doors of higher education to keep the country running and let only a select few from the uppermost crust into the "inner circle". If any of "the educated" starts to rebel against the control too much, label him as a dissident and push them back to the bottom of the ranks where they can't challenge you.

And now you're not only running a country, you're Ruling a country and the people in it.
Let the public know only enough so that they think you are working for them. Most will never take the time to connect the dots further than the first two-to-three steps.

And lets face it most people don't want to look forward, they are comfortable with all that's been provided for them: DVDs, computers, iPhones, HDTV... (thank you to our keepers.)

>> ^blankfist:

Let me try my top 21 predictions for the next decade! A lot of this will be US centric.
1. HDTV dimensions will increased from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160.
2. Screens will be increased to print pixel depths. 300dpi is only the beginning.
3. An affordable, flexible LCD material will change the tech and advertising world. Maybe the material can be cut to fit any size?
4. The war in Iraq will be over. But the occupation will last for decades. Other wars in the Middle East will continue.
5. Sarah Palin will never be President.
6. The US Deficit will grow to a historical high. As the Dollar and the Renminbi compete for world currency a new Cold War will be declared.
7. Top 40 music will suck.
8. The browser will be integrated as part of the OS and no longer treated as just software. Your work software (IDEs, Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.) will be treated as online plug-ins, savable (with versioning) in the cloud.
9. Electricity will be wireless.
10. Reality Shows will be the new sitcom. Again.
11. China's working class will stage small worker union revolts, but the scale and number will be dramatically inflated by the media.
12. Tommy Lee Jones, Adam Ant, Joel Coen, Matt Groening, Bill Clinton, Lorne Michaels, Sam Elliot, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Steve Jobs and Roy Scheider. One of them will probably pass away.
13. Google will acquire Facebook.
14. Apple's stock will drop if Jobs passes away. They'll try to embody the innovate spirit of Jobs, but they'll miss the mark and stick to just updating the current products like iPod, iPhone, Macbooks, etc.
15. There will be an assassination attempt on a Congressman. Congress will pass into law the Vigilant Act that declares DC to "be at war". As a result no civilians except current residents are permitted to enter. Under the Act any type of search and seizure in DC is legal. To counteract the bad press, the America Museum is opened in Virginia.
16. GM will file for bankruptcy.
17. Like the huge increase in gas prices as become part of day for the US, the people will grow accustomed to the high rate of unemployment. Politicians will no longer talk about gas prices or unemployment.
18. Marijuana is legalized in three states. It's legalized for medicinal use in seventeen states.
19. Autism is linked to the artificial sweetener, Aspartame.
20. Most internet enabled TVs and projectors become equipped with a'la carte system of channel ordering. So you only buy what channels you want streamed to your tv.
21. A new phone technology is developed that works a lot like bit torrent. The phone's signal piggy backs off other phones in the area, and the more phones in an area the better the signal. Most people, however, turn this feature off because it's rumored to be a security weakness.


To answer a select few points:

1. I thought 4k displays would be up next? (4096×3072; as a coder I hate widescreens. I need horizontal screen real estate).
3. This will happen sooner than we'd like
7. When did it not?
9. See 3.
Addendum to 21: We will see a surge of private networks, linked by VPNs and shared by friends; mostly done by people trying to run away from all the crass advertisements and data gathering schemes in the net today.

Let me try my top 21 predictions for the next decade! A lot of this will be US centric.

1. HDTV dimensions will increased from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160.

2. Screens will be increased to print pixel depths. 300dpi is only the beginning.

3. An affordable, flexible LCD material will change the tech and advertising world. Maybe the material can be cut to fit any size?

4. The war in Iraq will be over. But the occupation will last for decades. Other wars in the Middle East will continue.

5. Sarah Palin will never be President.

6. The US Deficit will grow to a historical high. As the Dollar and the Renminbi compete for world currency a new Cold War will be declared.

7. Top 40 music will suck.

8. The browser will be integrated as part of the OS and no longer treated as just software. Your work software (IDEs, Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.) will be treated as online plug-ins, savable (with versioning) in the cloud.

9. Electricity will be wireless.

10. Reality Shows will be the new sitcom. Again.

11. China's working class will stage small worker union revolts, but the scale and number will be dramatically inflated by the media.

12. Tommy Lee Jones, Adam Ant, Joel Coen, Matt Groening, Bill Clinton, Lorne Michaels, Sam Elliot, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Steve Jobs and Roy Scheider. One of them will probably pass away.

13. Google will acquire Facebook.

14. Apple's stock will drop if Jobs passes away. They'll try to embody the innovate spirit of Jobs, but they'll miss the mark and stick to just updating the current products like iPod, iPhone, Macbooks, etc.

15. There will be an assassination attempt on a Congressman. Congress will pass into law the Vigilant Act that declares DC to "be at war". As a result no civilians except current residents are permitted to enter. Under the Act any type of search and seizure in DC is legal. To counteract the bad press, the America Museum is opened in Virginia.

16. GM will file for bankruptcy.

17. Like the huge increase in gas prices as become part of day for the US, the people will grow accustomed to the high rate of unemployment. Politicians will no longer talk about gas prices or unemployment.

18. Marijuana is legalized in three states. It's legalized for medicinal use in seventeen states.

19. Autism is linked to the artificial sweetener, Aspartame.

20. Most internet enabled TVs and projectors become equipped with a'la carte system of channel ordering. So you only buy what channels you want streamed to your tv.

21. A new phone technology is developed that works a lot like bit torrent. The phone's signal piggy backs off other phones in the area, and the more phones in an area the better the signal. Most people, however, turn this feature off because it's rumored to be a security weakness.

>> ^mgittle:
I'm going to open a store. Then on Black Friday, I'm going to offer CRAZY GOOD deals to get hysterical people to line up. When I open my doors and everyone rushes in, that's when I reveal that the entire store is really a rocket ship that launches and flies directly into the sun.


I approve....

Another, slighly more possible solution... Large warehouse type store... Open doors remotely and.... store is completely empty.... no employees, shelves or anything, just 4 steel walls..... close gate behind everyone and don't open it until every other BF sale is over....
For added fun, hide 1 80" HDTV in the store for $10... Sell live feed on Internet and make money back....

Anyhow, I blame the stores for a lot of this as well... Sure, the first time it happened, who could know, but by now it should be expected... Only let 20 people in at a time.. Have police in riot gear with gas standing by... Any madness, lockdown store and end sale....

>> ^Seric:

Yeah, you have to watch out - they dumbed down the subtitles on the US copies quite a lot of the flowery speech is lost. Although it doesn't detract from the film that much.
If you're looking for a half decent bluray player, I'm pretty sure you could pick up second hand ps3 pretty cheap - they can also double up as a media center for you :]
<div><div style="margin: 10px; overflow: auto; width: 80%; float: left; position: relative;" class="convoPiece"> ant said:<img style="margin: 4px 10px 10px; float: left; width: 40px;" src="http://static1.videosift.com/avatars/a/ant-s.jpg" onerror="ph(this)"><div style="position: absolute; margin-left: 52px; padding-top: 1px; font-size: 10px;" class="commentarrow">◄</div><div style="padding: 8px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: 2px; min-height: 30px;" class="nestedComment box">I didn't know it was in the theaters in U.S. Yeah, BR would be nice. Maybe I will wait for that instead, but I don't have a HDTV and BR player yet.
</div></div></div>

Interesting. I wonder if the VHS tape version I saw dumbed down. I only recall visually nice movie, but OK story. As for BR player, I need a HDTV first but that won't happen until my 1996's 20" CRT TV shows problems or die. [grin]

>> ^ant:

I didn't know it was in the theaters in U.S. Yeah, BR would be nice. Maybe I will wait for that instead, but I don't have a HDTV and BR player yet.


Yeah, you have to watch out - they dumbed down the subtitles on the US copies quite a lot of the flowery speech is lost. Although it doesn't detract from the film that much.

If you're looking for a half decent bluray player, I'm pretty sure you could pick up second hand ps3 pretty cheap - they can also double up as a media center for you :]

>> ^Seric:

Saw it in the cinema and bought the DVD - this makes me want to get it on bluray :>
<div><div style="margin: 10px; overflow: auto; width: 80%; float: left; position: relative;" class="convoPiece"> ant said:<img style="margin: 4px 10px 10px; float: left; width: 40px;" src="http://static1.videosift.com/avatars/a/ant-s.jpg" onerror="ph(this)"><div style="position: absolute; margin-left: 52px; padding-top: 1px; font-size: 10px;" class="commentarrow">◄</div><div style="padding: 8px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: 2px; min-height: 30px;" class="nestedComment box">I need to rewatch this movie since I saw it on VHS tape.
</div></div></div>

I didn't know it was in the theaters in U.S. Yeah, BR would be nice. Maybe I will wait for that instead, but I don't have a HDTV and BR player yet.

I doubt it... You can only text them to tell them what to do.>> ^mxxcon:

holy crap, it's made by Samsung! does it mean i can buy one of these and hook up to my Samsung HDTV with their proprietary cables?

holy crap, it's made by Samsung! does it mean i can buy one of these and hook up to my Samsung HDTV with their proprietary cables?

"I use an analog to digital antenna converter box." -- How without the converter box and over the air (OTA) with antennae (rabbit ears for me).

Anyways, I have two HDTV tuner cards in my PC (not always on and not recording everything like reality shows) and an old CRT TV+VCR+DTV Pal converter box as a backup.

You should have to look at this <IMG SRC=http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hdtv.png>
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hdtv.png
before you go suggesting retarded things like HD channel especially when YT now is almost 50% HD if you just click the button at the bottom.

Goddamnit Blade Runner, its all your fault for starting this crap!

Although seriously, if I'm watching a movie or TV show these days and they do this crap its an instant WTF GTFO moment for me. Real security cameras are VGA at best (has anyone come across an actual product that uses HDTV grade stuff?) and the definition is laughable to even recognize a face if the person is standing right there in front of it.

The "zoomed out" pictures they show in the clips there are about 4x better definiton than the real thing... I would love it if the stuff here even provided that.

Groovy. Can't wait to see it when Sony have pirated the idea to sell Bravia HDTVs.

I watched that on my entertainment system (Samsung LN52A750, one of the most gorgeous LCD HDTV's ever IMHO, Pioneer VSX-1018AH, Polk dolby 7.1 surround) in 1080p with my reciever on about +25db and it was simply GLORIOUS! The picture was amazing (even the camera on the main tank) and the room was shaking as the shuttle lifted off.

I really felt like I was there. But even then I can only imagine how stunning it must be to watch it live.

edit: BTW, I watched this on CNN. So keep your eyes open for the next (and perhaps last) launch. If you have a solid entertainment system it will blow you away.

I'm sorry, but I've never gotten around to purchasing a fancy HDTV yet, so I'm not able to advise you, unfortunately. I'm at the lower end of the tech-savvy scale when compared to most of my sift brothers and sisters. Wish I could help. Sorry.

But if you ever need a photoshopped picture, I can do a semi-skilled job.

In reply to this comment by JiggaJonson:
JiggaJonson: I recently recieved a new HD monitor and im kind of a stickler about settings
JiggaJonson: but i cant get it just right
dotdude: he got a two week ban in August of 2009 - then he goaded for a permanent one too
dotdude: I may be artsy, but the tech I'm not good at
JiggaJonson: well if i wanted to calibrate my monitor so i have a good contrast/color ratio ??
JiggaJonson: any ideas?
JiggaJonson: i've searched and looked at color bars while adjusting
dotdude: probably better off asking some other folks - check regulars on the Geek channel

can you help?