Bruce: X your DVD

A recent Bruce Richardson column, on computers/technology:

Game Console?
I have an old ‘component’ set up at my house.  You have probably had one at some time and may still have one.  It contains the amplifier, the DVD player, the video tape player (yikes! Is that dating me), surround sound system, all hooked up to the television.  Recently, my DVD player broke and was beyond repair (those old buttons wouldn’t work anymore).
This year, I replaced my DVD player with an Xbox 360.
I know what you are thinking, because I used to feel the same way:  spend $300.00 for a game console?  I can’t justify spending money to play games!
What you need to know is that these game consoles are really computers. They are very sophisticated computers. They have hard drives, processors, memory and high-speed graphics cards.   What you end up with is a device that will play your DVD movies, CD music discs, download movies from NetFlix, stream radio stations, and, of course, play ‘those’ games.
Your typical DVD player can only play DVDs and CDs that you already own.  Usually you cannot connect your DVD player to the Internet and you can’t play Halo on your DVD player.
In fairness, it is not just Xbox, but Sony and Nintendo, as well.  They used to be just game consoles, but they are now full-fledged computers, are interactive, and you can communicate with other people using the consoles.
The primary purpose of these machines is of course, to play games.  In the interest of keeping your mind and body active, I would encourage you to partake.  What gets the press, are the First Person Shooters (FPS in the trade). These are violent games that take a lot of hand/eye coordination, but they are graphic and may not suit you. And don’t even think about playing Halo online if you are over 30.  The 10-year-olds will clean your clock! The advent of the Wii system has given ‘family’ a place on these systems.  Community centers, retirement homes and the like are getting these systems in droves because they provide exercise and help keep the mind active. For all of you band-wanna-bes, Guitar Hero is a solid 2nd place in popularity and is really fun to play.
Items available from these consoles include Facebook and Twitter and you can buy a controller that includes a small keyboard to enter posts and chat online.
Free streaming radio is available from last.fm. You can ‘tune it’ to hear only the songs you want to listen to.
NetFlix also provides a download and is just like your regular DVD mail system; only you download the movie and play it from your game console.  In addition to NetFlix, they offer Zune which will download HD movies and TV shows.
I don’t really want this to sound like a commercial, but you should get the concept of ‘game console’ out of your head and think about replacing that old DVD player.