I was in Las Vegas (by coincidence) at the same time as The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), this is a huge conference with over 150,000 attending (compare with around 40,000 that overwhelm San Francisco for Oracle Open World) so I did meet a few people attending it. In my far from scientific survey, based on who I chatted to in a bar or overheard in taxi lines, flat panel displays were all the rage. The 2009 analog TV switch off in the US is to the TV manufacturers what the millennium bug was to COBOL programmers – a big chance to cash in. This is despite the fact that the 80% of US viewers who have cable or satellite will be unaffected.
I can imagine the conversation now – “Honey, we need a new TV anyway because they’re switching to digital; so we may as well get this 52″ flat screen, a blu-ray and a surround sound system”. You can be the TV manufacturers won’t be in a rush to point out that you don’t need to worry
Does the software industry also encourage this type of thing? I would say in the Enterprise space is really doesn’t work, CEO focus on ROI and look at TOI. Oracle has made it clear with it’s Applications Unlimited messaging that it doesn’t want to rush anyone to upgrade, it will support the acquired products as long as customers want to use it. Of course there is a big difference, Oracle can earn money from supporting you on an old application version and if you are forced to upgrade you may go to a competitor’s product – so we don’t want to push you if you’re happy with what you have got, we want the relationship to continue. Once you’ve bought a TV though that is generally the end of your relationship with the manufacturer.
One other interesting note from Las Vegas was that the Adult Video Awards was on at the end of the week, was it an accident that they scheduled these two events in the same week? I’m sure many geeks were happy to have two different types of silicon/e to get excited about.
Enterprise Applications by David Haimes 
It’s always time for a new TV.
I think the coincidence was to give the geeks something to watch on their brand-new giant TVs.
Oh, and I think you mean silicone (vs. silicon), still funny though.
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Dave,
Useless you getting a big screen TV until you stop mentioning Oracle in every blog. All you will end up are 60″ Legal Entity bugs splattered across your screen when you realise that you can hook your laptop up to it.
When I was your age a stick and hoop was all the rage for enjoyment. Mind they may have made a come back at Vegas by the sounds of the latter part of the week
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@Jake silcon/e is probably what I mean.
@Mr Taylor – nice to hear from you, Oracle has not been the same since you left us.
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I just want to know why you have been listening into conversations in my house?
Although the switch to HD was not the source of the conversation in my house. It went like this — “hey honey, the baby is going to be crawling soon, maybe we should clear up some floor space and get a flat screen on the wall…..”.
For the record I fell for this completely b/c it was for “the benefit of the baby”. In the end the joke is on us, as the nice flat-screen HD is used to watch Dora the Explorer and Backyardigans, both shows the clearly require a high resolution experience ….
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Meg – the thought of a Dora big screen HD experience is a little scary to me, my 3 year old would love it.
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