Slashdot linked up news that Tivo is changing the way its service works by placing "billboards", or small logos, on the screen while you fast forward past regular commercials.

The "economic sophistication of a gravel trap" slashdotters are reacting with predictable wailing and rending of shirts, complete with calls of apocalypse and pledges to move to the PVR-Canada of MythTV, but this one isn't bothering me too much. First, these "billboards" will be silent. One of my biggest peeves about TV ads is how unbelievably loud they can be compared to the program's volume. Second, they'll be brief, on screen for as little as 4 seconds at a time. Third, none of these companies are non-profit, and I don't mind if they figure out how to make a buck in a way that stays within the bounds of points 1 and 2.

Others with a more leftist "corporations are by definition part of the neo-con/greedy/evil/grand-right-wing conspiracy" bent will, of course, disagree. To which I can only say that while you're shivering away in your open-source MythTV wilderness and wondering why it's broken down for the fifteenth time, I'll be warm and happy using my Tivo, only having to look at silent 4 second "blip-verts" for the convenience.