These are the dumbest two changes the Academy could have possibly made. The "popular" award is meaningless, pandering bullsh*t, while choosing to relegate certain technical awards to commercial breaks is a slap in the face to the unsung few who get to share the spotlight with the stars for one night.
That said, I haven't seen an eruption like this in quite some time from the film community, to the point where the Academy will surely reverse at least one of these decisions. People are IRATE right now and these changes are not going over well at all.
Anyway, as most Oscar threads on this board go, this will quickly devolve into a bunch of people bragging about how long it's been since they've watched/cared about the Oscars, others will let us know that it's a bunch of elite, political BS anyway, so I'm just getting my two cents in before people start showing up in an entertainment board thread to complain about awards given for entertainment.