Hawk’s Babble-Log

I’ve noticed something recently: I don’t use my regular DVD player and my TV.

My Game machine (Windows) provides: Games, Movies, Music, and Internet.

My server (Linux machine) also provides Movies, Music, and Internet, but to a lesser degree Games because there are more developers making games for the Windows platform than for Linux. For example, it was really nice (and surprising) to see Savage 2 run straght away in Linux, right after installation. That was cool. But there is no Call of Duty for Linux (booo!).

More and more, I’m not using my DVD player + my TV; I’m using my computers. I use my game machine to watch movies I’ve got on DVD as well as TV shows on DVD, and also movies I’ve purchased from Amazon Unbox. I actually really like Amazon Unbox. I buy a movie for $15, and it’s always available from their server. This makes it “un-loseable”. I can’t lose it. I can always lose a DVD. However, I can lend a DVD to a friend, or I can take it to a friend’s house and watch it there. It’s tough to do that with Amazon Unbox.

I’ve been buying lots of MP3s from Amazon, especially when I don’t want to buy the whole album. For example, I got Tomoyasu Hotei’s Battle Without Honor or Humanity, and skipped the rest (for the most part).

Then I back up the MP3 file to Amazon’s S3 (Simple Storage Service) using Jungledisk.

I also watch stuff online, from sites such as Hulu.com. There was a way to watch live TV streamed across the internet, but I’ve not researched that recently and don’t much care. It was really crappy quality. So I just buy the TV shows and watch ‘em on my computer.

I don’t even need my regular DVD player and TV anymore. And when I upgrade my monitor, I’ll be able to watch things in hi-def. This seems like a much better investment than a plasma TV. Why? Because my computer can do much, much more than a plasma TV (like hi-def games!).

I’m moving away from the traditional way of watching a movie or a TV show… by not using my TV and instead using my computer.

I’m moving away from the traditional way of listening to music (CD player, tape player, LPs, etc) by using my computer.

I don’t even buy dead-tree books anymore. I buy only books for my Amazon Kindle.

My computers have become the center of all things entertainment in my life. And a big part of this change involves Amazon.com.