May have stated this before, but I am adding to the ammo canister for Hulu vs the Content Providers.
We want our entertainment. We want it when we want it. We want to be able to retrieve it easily. Now the we here I speak of is my family, but I have a funny feeling that many other tech savvy types are very very similar.
Hulu is great, why? Because it has a huge achieve of shows that I have loved from the 80s when I grew up to recently ran shows. I can watch them anywhere if I need. It is great to have this access in my office or on the road. But here is the thing, I DO NOT want to be restricted to a 15 inch or 22 inch screen at home. I have a blessed plasma HDTV in my living room for view media. I want to be in my La-Z-Boy with a beer in hand. Yup, I am the tech savvy joe public type.
So I have cable service but I rarely watch at the times shows are on. Why? Because I am busy. I am a father, a husband and have two businesses. I have a DVR in house. (MythTV if you care to know) I have this DVR record from the cable and from over the air content. Guess what, this DVR has the ability to strip commercials from the shows.
Now on this DVR (a full fledge computer) I have Boxee. Boxee is a god sent to me. Why? Because I can use my remote in my La-Z-Boy to pull up my content on my 42 screen. And guess what, when watching Hulu on through Boxee it is really no different than watching it with Firefox or Internet Explorer or any other browser. When I watch Hulu, the media is full screened, nothing but the media is showing.
But here is the difference. I watch commercials with Hulu delivered through Boxee. Because they are there. I don't mind commercials. Hell, commercials done well and well placed can be fun. I understand commercials help bring around my entertainment. I am ok with that, but please, vary the commercials, make them fun, make them worth my eyes.
But now Boxee has played nice, because Hulu took their ball and went home. Because content providers didn't like that new kid over there playing with the ball? Hey News Corp, NBC/Universal? Are you children that cannot share within reason? Hulu is a nice free to me with limited use of commercials legit way for me to view the entertainment. What I use to view Hulu shouldn't be your concern. Because us geeks, we will always find ways. It is our Standard Operating Procedure.
Right now, since I am the La-Z-Boy type, I can just have my DVR get the shows, have it strip the commercials. Then there is that other way of the Internet, downloading of shows from a non legit source. And I have been told, that normally the non legit sources have the commercials removed too.
The under 40 crowd is quickly becoming an On Demand culture. And it isn't so much that I want something now now now. It is more we want something when we want it. We like to watch a season's worth of TV in a couple weekend from a DVD collection or from a collected season on a DVR. We don't live in a world where we can give up 8 to 11 every night (yes eastern time zone for me) for shows. Sometimes we need to watch shows at 1 am or from 11 to 4 on a Saturday (good replacement for the non sport type.) This is who we are. We are quickly becoming your main demographic. Do not limit us unfairly. We do not forget. But if we do forget, we are creatures of habit. And right now, I am going to be less in the habit of watching content through Hulu. Less eyes on your commercial support.
Here is my suggest for you content providers for the future. Figure out how to use the Internet to deliver your content. Figure out a way to deliver the content in the most simple of methods. Do not worry about how the content in the end is viewed. Because you cannot keep up with the technology, TV to iPod to laptops to netbooks to computers in the kitchen. Make it simple, so simple, no one will want to put the effort into pirating. You want money. You need us to make the money. We want your content. But don't limit us on how we are meant
The unit has been out for 3 months and many people that wanted to play with one have had their hands on one at some time now.
I have been lucky to have one for about a month now, and damn I have to say the unit still has that slick feel to me. I enjoy it greatly. The controls are great for the most part and Nintendo's desire to bring people together to play together has worked well. Goodness sake, my mother can play Wii Sports without much issue and that is an amazement.
But I do see issues with the slickness. One is online play: it isn't there yet. Two is software titles: not enough there yet.
But you know what, I think they are going to have to be solved together. Many of the games that are on the Wii at the moment at just minigame collections or other simple games designed to use the wiimote. With more developers now seeing what the Wii really can do, I think we will see an explosion for the Wii but probably not until Christmas 07. Developers need to break some of the old ideas and work with the new ideas of the Wii.
So I hope that the Wii stay steady and strong for the next 6 months and that means nintendo is going to need to drop a great game a month or so to keep us earlier adopters happy. Once though the rest of the market is working for the Wii, it could be unstoppable even with its limited graphics and horsepower. As I really don't think the pretty graphics are really needed, as much as good game play is.
What the hell has happened to personal responsiblity? Now the Customer service agent may have been gruff,(I haven't been able to read the blog due to it being dotted) but why can't people learn to understand the rules of the field here. They have their rules of deletion. She didn't follow them. They deleted them. They offer a service to retrieve them for a cost. She doesn't want to pay. What is the problem really here.
I think it is time that people in the IT field need to practice more tough love, this doesn't give us the right to be assholes, but computers are everywhere, in every part of life. The average joe needs to do this stuff for himself now. No more hand holding. What is it with the mindset that "oh I can just be clueless about everything, someone will sort it out for me"?
They offered to sort it out for her, for a cost. How were they to know she didn't abandoned the account?
And on the flip side again to my fellow IT grunts. Don't be asses, don't use unneeded technobabble (some is really needed sadly to properly communicate with others about computers though), and f'ing document things. Offer your info and insight to others, let them learn the rules of the field.
They have many reviews, essays and maps of how a style of music came to be. I enjoy being able to look up a song and hunt down what album it was on. They seem to be a one stop answer for most question on music.
They also have sister sites that are for Games and Movies.
What will the Internet bring for religions? We are starting to see more and more information about the 'secondary' religions. What is this going to mean to the primary faiths? Are we looking at witch-hunts in cyberspace?
With all the advances in life and technology, why are we still bound to ways of an empire that 'Blue Screened' 1500 years ago? Why is there still a separation between men and women with the Christian church? This is due to the fact that the first churches were based on the Roman Government hierarchy. How can we continue this when more and more of our lives are in the net where sex doesn't change much? Why is the Christian church based on the Bible, when the actually text was determined by the size of the first books donated for this purpose? Text and scripture were dropped due to the lack of space. Are we not in age where we want all information, we want it now, and we want it free?
Maybe some of these are the reasons for the link between 'Hackers' and Mystics. Maybe it is the idea that opposite are needed in life, the highest technology and the most basic of earth.
These points are just to make you question within your own life and faith. It is said that God is love. God loves all equally. Then why is there so much hate and inequality with churches?
If I remember correctly, Christ was not persecuted for 30 years, just 3 ( the last of his life.) All the bible states is the birth, the magi (at about 3 yrs of life), the temple teaching at 12, then his teaching of the gospel from 30 to 33. Now as Christ being the orginal geek, that fight could go now as many years as he was on this planet. I just personally want to know what happened in the majority of those first 30 years. Why aren't they told to us in the scriptures? What, were they that boring or is there something someone doesn't want us to know?
Slashdot Mirror
It would be wonderful to know who was the players behind this one. Add them to the list of do not buy from in the end.
May have stated this before, but I am adding to the ammo canister for Hulu vs the Content Providers.
We want our entertainment. We want it when we want it. We want to be able to retrieve it easily. Now the we here I speak of is my family, but I have a funny feeling that many other tech savvy types are very very similar.
Hulu is great, why? Because it has a huge achieve of shows that I have loved from the 80s when I grew up to recently ran shows. I can watch them anywhere if I need. It is great to have this access in my office or on the road. But here is the thing, I DO NOT want to be restricted to a 15 inch or 22 inch screen at home. I have a blessed plasma HDTV in my living room for view media. I want to be in my La-Z-Boy with a beer in hand. Yup, I am the tech savvy joe public type.
So I have cable service but I rarely watch at the times shows are on. Why? Because I am busy. I am a father, a husband and have two businesses. I have a DVR in house. (MythTV if you care to know) I have this DVR record from the cable and from over the air content. Guess what, this DVR has the ability to strip commercials from the shows.
Now on this DVR (a full fledge computer) I have Boxee. Boxee is a god sent to me. Why? Because I can use my remote in my La-Z-Boy to pull up my content on my 42 screen. And guess what, when watching Hulu on through Boxee it is really no different than watching it with Firefox or Internet Explorer or any other browser. When I watch Hulu, the media is full screened, nothing but the media is showing.
But here is the difference. I watch commercials with Hulu delivered through Boxee. Because they are there. I don't mind commercials. Hell, commercials done well and well placed can be fun. I understand commercials help bring around my entertainment. I am ok with that, but please, vary the commercials, make them fun, make them worth my eyes.
But now Boxee has played nice, because Hulu took their ball and went home. Because content providers didn't like that new kid over there playing with the ball? Hey News Corp, NBC/Universal? Are you children that cannot share within reason? Hulu is a nice free to me with limited use of commercials legit way for me to view the entertainment. What I use to view Hulu shouldn't be your concern. Because us geeks, we will always find ways. It is our Standard Operating Procedure.
Right now, since I am the La-Z-Boy type, I can just have my DVR get the shows, have it strip the commercials. Then there is that other way of the Internet, downloading of shows from a non legit source. And I have been told, that normally the non legit sources have the commercials removed too.
The under 40 crowd is quickly becoming an On Demand culture. And it isn't so much that I want something now now now. It is more we want something when we want it. We like to watch a season's worth of TV in a couple weekend from a DVD collection or from a collected season on a DVR. We don't live in a world where we can give up 8 to 11 every night (yes eastern time zone for me) for shows. Sometimes we need to watch shows at 1 am or from 11 to 4 on a Saturday (good replacement for the non sport type.) This is who we are. We are quickly becoming your main demographic. Do not limit us unfairly. We do not forget. But if we do forget, we are creatures of habit. And right now, I am going to be less in the habit of watching content through Hulu. Less eyes on your commercial support.
Here is my suggest for you content providers for the future. Figure out how to use the Internet to deliver your content. Figure out a way to deliver the content in the most simple of methods. Do not worry about how the content in the end is viewed. Because you cannot keep up with the technology, TV to iPod to laptops to netbooks to computers in the kitchen. Make it simple, so simple, no one will want to put the effort into pirating. You want money. You need us to make the money. We want your content. But don't limit us on how we are meant
No no, someone at microsoft must be a big star trek dork and believes in that every other release for the average consumer needs to be bad....
3.1 = just had to be there
TMP = Just had to be there
95 = good
Wrath of Khan = New Direction
98 = bad
Search for Spock = Needed to be there for the setup
98SE = good
The Voyage Home = There for comic relief??
ME = bad
The Final Frontier = Oh dear lord was this bad
XP = good
The Undiscovered Country = The one of the best of the old actors/code.
Vista = bad
Generations = Had to be there to drag us kicking and screaming to into something new?
The Parallels are a tad scary in my point of view.
The unit has been out for 3 months and many people that wanted to play with one have had their hands on one at some time now.
I have been lucky to have one for about a month now, and damn I have to say the unit still has that slick feel to me. I enjoy it greatly. The controls are great for the most part and Nintendo's desire to bring people together to play together has worked well. Goodness sake, my mother can play Wii Sports without much issue and that is an amazement.
But I do see issues with the slickness. One is online play: it isn't there yet. Two is software titles: not enough there yet.
But you know what, I think they are going to have to be solved together. Many of the games that are on the Wii at the moment at just minigame collections or other simple games designed to use the wiimote. With more developers now seeing what the Wii really can do, I think we will see an explosion for the Wii but probably not until Christmas 07. Developers need to break some of the old ideas and work with the new ideas of the Wii.
So I hope that the Wii stay steady and strong for the next 6 months and that means nintendo is going to need to drop a great game a month or so to keep us earlier adopters happy. Once though the rest of the market is working for the Wii, it could be unstoppable even with its limited graphics and horsepower. As I really don't think the pretty graphics are really needed, as much as good game play is.
What the hell has happened to personal responsiblity? Now the Customer service agent may have been gruff,(I haven't been able to read the blog due to it being dotted) but why can't people learn to understand the rules of the field here. They have their rules of deletion. She didn't follow them. They deleted them. They offer a service to retrieve them for a cost. She doesn't want to pay. What is the problem really here.
I think it is time that people in the IT field need to practice more tough love, this doesn't give us the right to be assholes, but computers are everywhere, in every part of life. The average joe needs to do this stuff for himself now. No more hand holding. What is it with the mindset that "oh I can just be clueless about everything, someone will sort it out for me"?
They offered to sort it out for her, for a cost. How were they to know she didn't abandoned the account?
And on the flip side again to my fellow IT grunts. Don't be asses, don't use unneeded technobabble (some is really needed sadly to properly communicate with others about computers though), and f'ing document things. Offer your info and insight to others, let them learn the rules of the field.
We all need to learn to be helpful not hapless.
Ok, Captain Angry Pants is going to rest now.
Allmusic.com
They have many reviews, essays and maps of how a style of music came to be. I enjoy being able to look up a song and hunt down what album it was on. They seem to be a one stop answer for most question on music.
They also have sister sites that are for Games and Movies.
Plus I like to support a company in home state.
What will the Internet bring for religions? We are starting to see more and more information about the 'secondary' religions. What is this going to mean to the primary faiths? Are we looking at witch-hunts in cyberspace?
With all the advances in life and technology, why are we still bound to ways of an empire that 'Blue Screened' 1500 years ago? Why is there still a separation between men and women with the Christian church? This is due to the fact that the first churches were based on the Roman Government hierarchy. How can we continue this when more and more of our lives are in the net where sex doesn't change much? Why is the Christian church based on the Bible, when the actually text was determined by the size of the first books donated for this purpose? Text and scripture were dropped due to the lack of space. Are we not in age where we want all information, we want it now, and we want it free?
Maybe some of these are the reasons for the link between 'Hackers' and Mystics. Maybe it is the idea that opposite are needed in life, the highest technology and the most basic of earth.
These points are just to make you question within your own life and faith. It is said that God is love. God loves all equally. Then why is there so much hate and inequality with churches?
If I remember correctly, Christ was not persecuted for 30 years, just 3 ( the last of his life.) All the bible states is the birth, the magi (at about 3 yrs of life), the temple teaching at 12, then his teaching of the gospel from 30 to 33. Now as Christ being the orginal geek, that fight could go now as many years as he was on this planet. I just personally want to know what happened in the majority of those first 30 years. Why aren't they told to us in the scriptures? What, were they that boring or is there something someone doesn't want us to know?