I read a fascinating article on CNet featuring Peter Thiel's opinion that tech innovation has stalled. When I first read the headline, I thought this must be yet another crackpot tech journalist that is spouting off some new nonsense. But after reading the article, I agree 100% with his opinions.

He is basically stating that while electronics related tech (Computers, the Internet, etc.) is still expanding at a rapid pace, the rest of the tech world is not. We are still using petroleum based fuel way too much. Space innovation is very slow compared to 40 years ago. Our governments still use ancient processes and 'technology' to get things done, for the most part.

Peter Thiel is postulating that we live in a society that has lost interest in science and technology. I think I agree. And I think I know why.

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As most of you probably know, the Unites States government is having financial problems right now. And to compound the problem, the politicians can't agree on anything to solve these problems. It all comes down to spending and income. No two politicians will agree on how much we should tax the populace, and how we should spend tax revenue. I may have a solution for this.

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There has been a lot of talk lately about Internet Video on Demand services. Everybody seems to talk the most about Netflix. But is Netflix really the best? What about Hulu? And let's not forget Amazon, which has been making a big push lately in this space.

What if you were to cancel your Cable/Satellite subscription today? Could you still watch all your favorite shows? And what about today's popular movies? Can you skip the video rental stores and services and just watch all your favorite movies online? I wanted to answer these questions, so I did a little comparison.

The table is below, but first here are some notes about this data:

• I used Nielsen ratings from last week to pick the top 5 most popular TV Shows from the two categories (Broadcast and Cable). I ignored news shows and one time TV events.
• I used the top box office numbers for the last year to pick the movies. Of course, I only chose movies that aren't still in the theater.
• A lot of the TV shows are available on their publisher's website.
• A lot of these movies are available to own, but I was only interested in rentals.
• For Netflix, I only looked at instant streaming, not DVDs.
• I only looked at services available in the U.S. I don't have access to services available in other countries.

What I Learned

This was a very interesting study. Here are some things I learned:

1. If you want to watch TV shows, Netflix is not your best bet. Hulu and Amazon have a pretty full catalog of current TV shows.
2. If you want to watch recent Movies, Netflix seems to have the most available, but even they don't have many. The movie studios still seem to be holding onto their content to sell in DVD/Blu-ray format.
3. Many TV shows and Movies just are NOT legally available to stream online.

I really hope things change in the near future. I personally love the convenience of instantly streaming TV shows and movies. More and more Americans are buying Internet connected home entertainment devices that come with Netflix/Hulu/Amazon (and others) pre-installed. And people seem to be interested in having a wide catalog of shows to watch instantly. But for now, Hollywood is still behind the times.

I work at Idaho Power (an Electric utility that serves most of southern Idaho.) Our public websites are ColdFusion based, and we have need of a ColdFusion developer! This is a temporary job, so if you are the type that looks for term specific gigs, this job is for you. You would be expected to work here at company headquarters in downtown Boise. The term ends about April of 2013. Boise is a beautiful city, and there are lots of things to do here.

I can't post a direct link to the job, but here's how to find it. Go to the Idaho Power careers site. From that page click on the Information Technology link, and then you'll see the job posting which has this title: "Application Development Analyst Entry – Web (Temporary) (1493)"

Over the last year or so I have become more and more dissatisfied with Netflix. The problem is not their DVD shipping service, I like that. The problem is their instant streaming service. Many tech journalists will tell you that you can cancel your cable/satellite subscription and just use Netflix. But if you do that, you will be missing many things:
1. Sports.
2. Most TV shows that are on air today.

Not to mention that their movie catalog is very small. If you want to instantly stream a movie, I hope you're content with independent and old moldy films. Because that's mostly what you'll get.

As far as TV shows, Netflix only has SOME of the most popular TV shows. Mythbusters? Nope. Chuck? Only one old season. Anything current (like, released last week?) Forget it.

But I've recently been trying to find the movie/show I want on other services besides Netflix. Amazon has a streaming video service, and I found that they have Mythbusters (and yes, even the current in-progress season!) Youtube also has a service that has some of the content you won't find on Netflix. And there is also Hulu and Vudu (not to mention lots of other lesser known services.) And many of those services are pay as you go (meaning, no monthly subscription...you just pay for the shows you watch.)

So I have not yet decided to cancel my Netflix subscription, but I may do that soon. And I am planning to cancel my Cable subscription later this year (after the contract runs out.) These services (and the fact that I don't watch much TV nor many movies these days) make that prospect a lot less scary.

One of the trends I've noticed in the software world is a drive towards simple User Interfaces. I think in general this is a good thing, as often times UIs are cluttered with too many options, which can overwhelm and confuse the user. Apple and Google are famous for their clean simple UIs. But I wonder if you can take UI simplification too far?

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I have been watching the semi-annual 500 fastest super computer list for a while, and each time I look to see how many computers on the list are based on Microsoft Windows. This latest list (released this month) still doesn't show much Windows love. Out of 500 super computers, there are 6 based on Windows. And two of those are partially based on Linux, so really only 4 of the 500 are purely Windows. That is really sad. But why is this happening?

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I often admire Google for many business decisions they make. I was very surprised and pleased when Google decided to shutdown their china business operations instead of bowing to China government pressure to filter Google search results for Chinese searches. More recently, the government of Kazakhstan asked google to make some undesirable changes, and again Google said no. This is all evidence that Google cares more about the greater good than they do about $$. So...Google ALWAYS makes decisions based on the greater good...right?

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Richard Stallman is a tech celebrity who has been on the tech scene for a long time. He is most widely known for his free software activism. Basically, his stance is that ALL software should be free. By free, I don't mean free of charge. I mean free to use/copy/distribute/modify. Stallman basically believes that nobody should "own" software. Once you create a piece of software and release it to the public, it is now owned by the public.

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For those that don't know, I live near Boise Idaho (in a suburb called Kuna). Boise is known as one of the best cities for bike riding on public roads and trails. There is a really long beautiful greenbelt along the Boise river. In the middle of Boise there is a separate city called Garden City. There is a ritzy neighborhood in Garden City that borders a small section of the greenbelt. In 1997 Garden City passed an ordinance banning the riding of bicycles on the section of greenbelt next to this neighborhood.

For the record, I am an occasional bike commuter. Most of the time I drive to work, but on occasion I ride my bike for about half of my 22 mile commute to/from work. Also for the record, I do not ride along the contested section of the greenbelt mentioned above. I do however ride a different section that is open to bikes, and this is always my favorite part of the commute.

Well, for years nobody paid much attention (or even knew about) that 1997 bike ban. But in recent years Garden City has started to enforce this ban. Bikers are given tickets if they are caught riding in this small section of the Treasure Valley's greenbelt. In my opinion, this law that was created to satisfy a snotty neighborhood is overbearing.

Yes I realize that there is the occasional biker that travels too fast around pedestrians. And yes some bikers are downright dangerous with their biking habits. But to punish the entire biking community that would use that part of the greenbelt is extreme, to say the least.

For this reason I am applauding Citezens for an Open Greenbelt who have sued Garden City to overturn this bike ban law. The Judge in the case has allowed the suit to proceed to trial and it will start next February. I will be anxiously watching this trial, as I hope Garden City is put in their place.

I honestly believe there are better ways to deal with the "problem" of troublesome bikers along the greenbelt. I hope this law is overturned, and then our Garden City will be forced to explore alternative methods to satisfy those snotty neighbors.