The Demise of Tech TV, or why China is the next global tech powerhouse....

There used to be a neat show on cable called "Tech TV", which catered to geeks of all ages and discussed computer news, hardware and software items of interest to computer people, and more.

The show's been effectively replaced, or perhaps cancelled in favor of, shows about computer gaming. This is interesting and reflects the growing challenges of a computer generation that is more interested in simulated chain saw massacres than programming and technology.

Yes, there are many who like BOTH these things, but forces have converged now that make it unnecessary to know any programming or hardware skills to become an accomplished gamer.
This was NOT the case in the past when the community needed to do more programming, hacking, and hardware modifications to get things going right.

More importantly gaming is more fun and we have a new leisure class that appears not to understand the relationship of work to fun. Exceptions? Of course there are. I think many of the tech elite are doing fine in all respects. HOWEVER who will be the NEW tech elite - the guys who are spending 60 hours per week playing Halo and the rest watching TV? I think things are changing in dangerous ways.

This is more of the stuff discussed in the brilliant "The World is Flat" by Tom Friedman. Noting the seriousness with which Chinese and Indian Engineers take on the challenge of the new global technologies he observes that in China Bill Gates is "Britney Spears". In America? .... Britney Spears is Britney Spears.

...Ooops, we did it again...