So the mighty Dell is closing a desktop factory and laying off thousands.

Does anyone even use a desktop computer anymore? By desk top I am referring to “big box’ casing, keypad, mouse, monitor such as the one that I have sitting in my office. It’s about 2 years old and I rarely use it. Almost everything I do is on my Mac, transferred to a portable hard drive and an online backup service for backup. The only thing I use my desktop for is a secondary backup download of my email.I understand that gamers, Mac people with high graphics needs, office mega purchases are all desktop intensive but are these turning into niche markets?

I was looking at the Best Buy insert in today’s Dallas Morning News as I do every Sunday scanning for new gadgets and such on the market. In looking at the desk top computers, I did not see one priced at more than 1300.00 after their “instant savings”. Here is the one that particularly caught my eye:”Gateway Ultimate Digital Entertainment Desktop” One terabyte hard drive, 3GDR2 memory and a hybrid HD DVD/Blu-ray payer! Also included is a 19 inch HD Widescreen Monitor and an all in one printer. Cost: 1279.00 One year ago you could not even have purchased such a computer because the hybrid HD-DVD/Blu-ray technology was not available. To drive the point home even more, while the prices are falling the cost of a standalone Blu-ray player runs anywhere from 400-1000 dollars. Just to give you a frame of reference, my desktop with a 200 gig hardrive and regular DVD player cost me almost 3k two years ago.

Why have prices dropped so much? There are many reasons, the drop in the costs of storage, processors etc. Everything is commoditized. When a manufacturing component is commoditized, prices tend to drop drastically. Is it also that desktops for consumer use are also going the way of the CD? Are desktops in themselves becoming “commoditized “You would think these cheap prices with great features would drive people to desktop purchases. Three years ago you would see a 4 to one ratio desktop to laptop for sale in electronics inserts, now it is the other way around….I had a specific “niche” need for one, it would never even occur to me to consider a desktop for my next P.C. purchase. Just an observation…

You also have the rapidly advancement of cell phone technology. It seems like every other week, new tech features are being announced that bring our cell phones and PDAs closer to the definition of a “mini-laptop”

It looks like desktop P.C products in the retail consumer arena are going to the way of the dinosaur age. A new age of technology is upon us. Are we approaching the age of “Desktopus Extinctus”?

You see it every day just about every mainstream and tabloid news site. Nothing stays a secret. Just ask Britney Spears……. A piece of information/data put into play will at first flow on its own inertia to its closest intended point, after that watch out! That piece of data is then enters “data pinball”. The flipper hits it and while the intent is to send it in a certain direction, you have no idea where it is going to end up. Each time it hits a “bumper” it is sent off in a whole new direction with new force and inertia. Theoretically this will go on as long as someone “bumpers” or “flips” it again in a whole different direction…….. 

What is ironic is that the data itself will never change form but what finally makes it into the mainstream depending on where it ‘bounces” is never conveys the original message………  Just ask George Karl’s attorney Brett Adams of the law firm of Adams Babner and Gitlitz who sent the owner of the web site FireGeorgeKarl.com (the coach of the Denver Nuggets) his infamous “I will sue you into bankruptcy” email.   When the email finally came to rest on that same website… the message was not that the website was posting anything improper but that Brett Adams was an arrogant jerk…..   I don’t know if he is or not. I have never met him. That is the danger of Data Pinball…..

 The “data pinball” is sent off to hit other bumpers, setting off all new bells and whistles, racking new “data pinball” points for its new owner…..So why do we keep doing such stupid things with our data!

Whether it is emails, photos, text messages etc…… A whole blog could be written about famous people and people who received unwanted “fame” as a direct result of not thinking about this before they hit send on their email, text message or voicemail rant or secret affair rendezvous….. From the highest level of technology down to the good old telephone. Just ask Alec Baldwin……  His data started on good old telephone lines and ended up pinballing all over the world…..     His voicemail visitation rant to his daughter will be on YouTube until YouTube is no more or hell freezes over….Who knows when it will stop if ever……. Embarrassment is just the least of the damage; careers and marriages are ended…. 

We have all done it. I am just as guilty. There have been many times where I sent that text, or email and just seconds after send wished to hell I hadn’t done it…… Too late I now have to assume those texts or emails are stored somewhere just waiting to be pinballed somewhere at some point in time for whatever reason and when least expect it…… Will there be an unknown and timeless price to pay for that instantaneous moment of adrenaline gratification I sought when I hit send and patted myself on the back for letting that person have it…..

Ah yes…… The game of data pinball……. Where’s my quarter……….

So you think that Blu Ray has won the one and only battle it will fight with the victory against HD DVD? Think again…. Round 2 has not yet been fought. There will not be as much at stake as the the battle just fought but it will be fought just the same.  How do I know this battle to be fought? It will be fought because there are more law students than lawyers in this country.

 The next battle will be the class action litigation against HD DVD player manufacturers. The first cannon shot has already been fired by Toshiba with their statement that there will be no refunds offered to those who have purchased soon to be obsolete HD DVD players. No rebates towards purchase of other products, zippo, zilch, nada…… Just a caveat emptor right in the kiester! I can not think of a quicker way to get sued than telling your customers with legitimate complaints to F***k off…… 

Nothing new here though. Without short sighted companies like Toshiba there would be no need for McDonalds coffee case taking Democrat plaintiff’s attorneys. The whole legal system would collapse……So let it be written…. So let it be done……