opinion

“You Can’t Avoid the Raping”

Today, I’m going to go off on a bit of a rant (I know, what else is new?) but I’ll be brief and I bet that many of you will agree with me on this one…

While packing up all of my tools and toys for today’s road trip to Reno for the second Mobile Adult Content Congress, where I’ll be speaking on delivering mobile multimedia, I was in the process of making sure that all of the batteries were charged on my favorite mobile multimedia devices (my Windows-powered Smart Phone and Sony PlayStation Portable) and that each had sufficient examples of mobile porn installed in the event that a little “show and tell” was in order.

Looking at the bewildering array of equipment before me; including two digital cameras, a mini-DV camcorder, the Smart Phone and PSP, I lamented that each required its own type of memory and battery. Sure, my “good” digital SLR can accept a variety of memory types, but it made up for that capability by requiring a costly $500 battery pack (and fancy handgrip for my meaty paws) if I wanted to shoot more than 100 images at any one time…

While I’m not usually the earliest adopter of any new technology, I’m often high enough on the “gimme” curve to have to pay top dollar for most of this stuff; memory cards and battery packs included – and this can represent a substantial ongoing investment, only to have obsolescence leave me drooling over the latest and greatest model on the cover of “Shutterbug.”

And speaking of “battery packs included” have you noticed that these items tend to come with the smallest amount of power and memory possible? Just enough to start the damn thing, but not enough to do anything with it… Such was the case with my PSP which had “only” 32mb out of the box. I say “only” because I remember my first computer hard drive, with its whopping 40mb capacity – my, how things have changed – leaving this all a matter of perspective. Still, it was off to Best Buy last night for a 1 GB memory stick pro duo so that I could upgrade the OS and load some more videos of my naughty wife…

Over the years I’ve easily spent well over a thousand dollars on camera / video batteries and chargers and perhaps even more on memory and storage upgrades. As I grumbled about this softly to myself, memory stick in hand, I went over to the next aisle to collect my step-son who was eyeing a $150 hard drive option for his Nintendo DS. “Don’t you hate always having to buy more power and memory?” I asked. “Yeah,” he replied, “But you can’t avoid the raping…”

Remember this the next time someone asks you “How do you make money online?” and tell them, “It’s all about the upsell!”

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