I don't know if this is a new thing or not, but I was watching my local Fox affiliate this morning, waiting for the Pet of the Day, and an American Idol spot came on.

At the top-right of my screen, little icon started flashing: "Press thumbs-up to record this program!"

Obviously, being that I abhor AI and the AI culture, I didn't press thumbs-up to schedule a recording of AI, but that's the first time I've ever seen that happen. It appears that Fox/Tribune Media has jumped on the TiVo bandwagon and embedded a TiVo-readable signal that triggers an on-screen graphic. Very advanced of them.

Back in college, Dr Metz (I think) told us about how, in the future, we would be able to click our remote controls on items on the screen -- clothing, furniture, food -- and advertising information would automatically be brought up while our live program was paused. We're getting closer to that every day.

Josh Cohen writes for three Wizbang! sites, but makes his home at Multiple Mentality.