Eric Siegal wrote These productsare evolving so rapidly, so headlong, that the development of standards in a rational sense, or maybe better to say in a planned manner, just doesn't happen. I recently read an article in The Economist describing an economist's attempt to debug what might be called the VHS/BETA myth, where an inferior standard defeats a superior one out of sheer obtuseness of the consumer This is a minor aside, but may have some relevance to the ongoing dialog about computers, os's, and the internet. Were the vhs/beta wars the result of consumer obtuseness or something else. VHS was the first to introduce a two hour tape, allowing consumers the chance to record a full length movie, or rent one. JVC the developers of VHS offered the standard to any manufacturer for a small fee, while Sony kept Beta their own. VHS became the more affordable standard even though it had, and does, a demonstrably lower resolution than Beta.