TiVo and privacy

Great, another way for a corporation to use what should be private data. Glad to see they aren't as smart as they think.

When you sign up for the Tivo service you are made fully aware that they may monitor what you watch. It's no different than the Neilsen rating service, if you agree to hook up a box to your TV you agree to let corporations know what you watch. If I felt what I watched needed to be some secret, I'd just not have a DVR.

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So you are one of those guys who says "I've got nothing to hide" and lets corporations pretty much do what they want as long as you sign underneath the 5 pages of fine print or click a button that says "I Agree" (by the way, where's the button that says "I Don't Agree But Have No Choice and Don't Want to Read Through the Five Screens Informing Me of Exactly How I'm Being Screwed"). More power to you, dude, good luck with that, especially if you or your kids need health insurance 20 years down the road. TiVo's little game is harmless enough, but there's plenty going on out there that isn't. But of course, like you say, the consumer always has the choice - just don't buy the product. Great solution. If cars were sold with GPS tracking devices sending data back to the dealership, so that Ford or GM could "better serve you," would you be okay with that too? Or would you support effective government regulation, like we have in so many other areas of our lives?

Dial Idol (dialidol.com) is much closer to the mark. They measure busy signals and David Archuleta has been consistently number 1.

This weeks predictions:

http://www.dialidol.com/asp/predictions/Predictions.asp

How long till you pay different rates for content depending how often you skip commercials, or till commercials are targeted individually based on what you skip?

Which one, Simon or Randy? Or did you TiVo late-night Cinemax?

TiVo and privacy

Great, another way for a corporation to use what should be private data. Glad to see they aren't as smart as they think.

When you sign up for the Tivo service you are made fully aware that they may monitor what you watch. It's no different than the Neilsen rating service, if you agree to hook up a box to your TV you agree to let corporations know what you watch. If I felt what I watched needed to be some secret, I'd just not have a DVR.

limp dick like him have to smile at a naked woman. He would probably be whining "make it go away"

...eliminating Michael, who has looks, personality, and talent, and leaving the inferior Sayesha still in the game. I really marvel at what made that injustice come about.

Two of the women most richly deserve to get booted off ASAP, and one of them is the dreadful Kristy. Well, I suppose they need singers, talent free or not, who lug around a set of tits to attract male viewers.

I'll keep watching as long as David Cook is still on, but I have a horrible feeling the final two are going to be the little trained monkey and some woman.

:p

Unfair! Unfair! Unfair! This show is RIGGED!

I'm amazed that the producers of American Idol seem to have gone out of their way to pick failed musicians for this year's "competition." The top 8 finalists (and a good many of the top 50) were all professionals who failed to make a dent in the industry, not the undiscovered "talent" that the show claims to search out.

• Carly Hennesey Smithson - one of the biggest bombs in recent record industry history. In 2001, MCA (where she first met Randy Jackson) spent $2.2 million on her, her record, Ultimate High, sold less than 400 copies worldwide (not a typo).
• Michael Johns - twice flopped in Australia, with two different bands (both of which he used as springboards in an attempt to start a solo career).
• Syesha Mercado - Was a contestant on ABC's song and dance talent show The One(a fact expunged from ABC's website and her wikipedia article); she has done commercials for Ford and her father was a Motown backup singer.
• David Archuletta - won Star Search at age 12, way back in 2004; he has sung for AI producers and contestants in two separate back-stage parties (Seasons 1 & 4) and has appeared on the CBS Early Show to promote his album releases.
• Jason Castro - Co-starred as the love interest in the 2006 MTV drama-mentury Cheyenne.
• Kristy Lee Cook - Signed by Arista in 2001, with a deal that included touring with and video appearances by Britney Spears.
• Brooke White - released an album, Songs From the Attic, in 2006 and has, at least opened for country singer Phil Vassar.
• David Cook - professional musician who fronted the Creed-like Axium and played bass and sang backup vocals for The Midwest Kings; released an album in 2006 entitled, Analog Heart.

To borrow a line from the horrible Aliens vs. Predator movies: No Matter Who Wins, We Lose, for we'll have to suffer through their dreadful "music" on Top 40 radio for years.

Great, another way for a corporation to use what should be private data. Glad to see they aren't as smart as they think.

Michael Johns would still be around if he could have hit the high notes on Dream On, but then again, who can, other than Steven Tyler in his prime? Johns actually sang it better than the current Steven Tyler - check out recent videos on YouTube.

Try again next time.

Please let's go back to reading books.

Usually by this time in the season, I've gotten sucked into American Idol, I've picked my favorites and I've vowed to buy their CDs whether they win or not.

I've never bought a CD released by an American Idol winner, or runner up, yet. Once the excitement of the contest is over, I lose all interest.

And this year I haven't gotten into it at all.