There is yet another alternative to that clunky DVD (it's so 2007) being queued up …

I just posted an article about how you can download movies directly to your computer from your Netflix account, and I think that is going to be the future.  I am not caught up in the hype over Blu-Ray, but I understand how it can be appealing.  However, with Blu-Ray, you still don't eliminate what think is the single biggest aggravation when renting videos:  what do you do when the rental place is out of the title you want?

Well, according to a story on C|Net this morning, there is a company called Porto Media out of Ireland that is devising a way to make movies available in kiosks through a digital download to a USB storage key.  I'm probably a little over-excited, but this strikes me as the same kind of change Dell, Inc. brought about with their supply chain models.  No longer do you need to worry if a movie is out.  You can get high quality, high resolution video any time you want through a kiosk near you.

Of course, the actual implementation remains to be seen, but think of the possibilities …