So I sit down at my computer after 3 days of work, and find lots of news.

Writers strike is over
A deal has been struck and the strike is basically over. AP has some answers for the most important question, When do we get our post strike TV Shows? Well they suggest that the major shows will be back for a short spring season. The remainders are probably going to wait for the Fall. So hopefully Heroes will be back in a month or so.

HD DVD is dead
Ars Sums up the HD DVD news pretty well.

Net flicks sent me an email. They are no longer going to support HD DVD. They will stop replacing HD DVD titles, and no longer get new ones. This is really crappy. I thought even if it takes another year for Blu-ray players to get the capabilities HD DVD players had since day one, I would still be able to rent HD DVDs.

And in other HiDef movie news, Best Buy is going to suggest Blu-ray to all it's customers. They will still sell all the HD DVD movies and players (for this week), but they will be pushing Blu-ray to un-decided people. Best Buy is the King of home electronics. Their Blu-ray backing will with one hand shift the sales ratios dramatically.

5+ years ago I worked at by local Best Buy. For about 6 months. I was not a good fit. There are two ways of selling. Mindsets really. One is make sure the customer leaves the store with everything they need to. The second is Make sure the customer leaves the store with everything we need them to.

Every store on the planet is selling things to make money. The most efficacy way to make money is to make sure people buy the items that make you the most money. Now in the case of Best Buy, that is not CDs, DVDs, TV's, or Computers. The highest profit margins come from service plans and subscriptions. That's followed closely by cables, batteries, and other peripherals.

During my short time there, there were many questionable things going on. Nothing serous, just questionable. My manager routinely lied to sell extra batteries telling people that the battery included with the camera would only last an hour or so. We were also pushed to use our own ID's to sign up for credit cards. The worst of which was informing people of the false procedure of signing up everyone who bought a computer for internet service, telling them that if they don't want it, they can just cancel it when they get home.

Yes I absolutely believe that other stores were much worse. Be careful out there people.