DVD blues

This bit of news is supposed to make me feel good:

Toshiba claimed yesterday to have developed the first DVD that is capable of playing both conventional and high-definition content, in the latest move in the race for the next generation of optical discs. (Read more)

Almost 8 years after I bought my first DVD player, the industry is ready to move on. Okay, they have a transitional machine for folks like me whose movie library is going to be history before you can say "betamax."

In some sense it's weird, having lived through the VHS, LD, VCD (this one doesn't really count) and DVD revolutions. All in one lifetime. Of course, there's more to come.

I mean where music is concerned, I went through vinyl EPs and LPs, cassettes (and cartridges), CDs, skipped MIDIs, and now we're into MP3, and whatever digital soup tech industry barons are serving up. Last night I was in Jusco looking at CD trays and wondering if I ought to get a couple of them. Ethan chipped in saying, "Erm Dad, we're into iPods and downloads now."

Yeah, right.

That's how prophetic Negroponte's Being Digital is - we're moving away from atoms and molecules into a world of bits and bytes. You can read selected bits of his book online here.