Window On Life

Greed is good?

Well, maybe. At least in some circumstances. But right now, in one particular situation, I am inclined to say no, it is not. Perhaps you are being affected by the recent set of negotiations between a cable company and a content provider. For me, it is currently the FOX vs TWC (BrightHouse) negotiations.

There are a couple of things that bother me about all of this. First and foremost, is the thought that FOX wants to charge me (through my cable company) to watch their local television station(s). In my case that would be Fox 35 and My65. These are stations that are being broadcast over the air (OTA) for free, solely supported by advertising revenue. Now where I live, I have never had much luck getting stations via an OTA antenna, thus the main reason why I subscribe to a cable system. I don’t see the reasoning for this, other than they feel slighted because the cable company is potentially making a profit off of their programming. Now maybe a compromise for that would be an agreement that the cable company can only charge their cost for retransmitting the OTA content. Or, the cable company gets to provide their own commercial advertising during those broadcast programs that they are paying for.

My other main concern, and this has been a long suffering situation, is that I am paying for a lot of channels that I do not even watch. Sure, I watch SyFy (stupidest name change I can think of), USA, TNT, Bravo, Food Channel, and others. But I don’t watch QVC, WGN, Hallmark, BET, CMT, VH1, MTV and others. There are some that I watch occasionally, but not that often. So I would often feel that I would possibly like to see what an a’la carte system would look like. I realize that the cable company may be getting a price break for the “package deal”, but I see it more like buying a multi-flavor box of instant oatmeal knowing that I will only eat 2 of the 5 flavors. That is 3 flavors that I have to keep around in hopes that I get a visitor that wants one of the, or I have to throw them out. And the latter option is waste, and paying for channels that I don’t watch is also waste. I don’t have a choice, because nobody that I know of offers an a’la carte channel lineup.

Sure, there are new limited alternatives, like Hulu or Boxee. However they do not get all the programming (Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, etc) and Hulu is now talking about a revenue generation system (pay-per-view). I could also wait until they get released on DVD, but that is not a sure thing.

I don’t know if there are really any “good” solutions. But I do believe that if it is available for free, it should be available on my cable/satellite system.

December 27th, 2009

Sparkly Shiny Crashy News about Hulu Desktop

Well, maybe you were like me and when you saw the post on Digg that Hulu had come out with a desktop app for their video/tv/movie/and such feed service, you thought “Hurray! Gimmeee Gimmmeeee.” So of course late last night I followed the links and downloaded this magic little piece of code onto my Mac. Started playing around with it, and ended up watching the first 2 episodes of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”. Well, lo and behold, at some point I noticed that my Firefox browser was no longer opening. Since it was time to get some shut eye, I figured that I would figure out that mystery later.

So I went about my day unaware that I had a ticking time bomb of frustration awaiting my return from work. So I kept trying to open Firefox. I downloaded the current version (which I was already using) and re-installed it. Still crashing. Hmmm. Thankfully I do have other browser installed, so I didn’t need to resort to booting another machine just to find an answer. I Googled the problem, got directed to a site that had absolutely nothing to do with Mozilla, Firefox, or Hulu. Back to Google. Went a couple of more places that had no help whatsoever, other than to suggest deleting the Hulu Desktop app and it’s associated web plugin. Fine, deleting the app, simple enough, but where do I find the plugin? So I thought, maybe, just maybe, there is something on the Hulu site. And sure enough, buried there in the forums is the topic Firefox Crashes. And in that discussion, a Hulu representative says that the web plugin is not required for the desktop app to work. There is also some discussion from users about the fact that the web plugin does not seem to do anything. Finally, I find someone who says where to find this webs plugin, cause you know I’ve already done searches for anything Hulu related on my machine and could no find it.

As it turns out, on a Mac, there is a place in the Library folder called…..you ready for this……Internet Plugins. Go figure. And sure enough, inside there is a file called “huludesktop.webplugin”. I deleted that files, rebooted just to be safe, and now here I am conversing with you from within Firefox.

Anyway, the app does look nice and does seem to run pretty well. It did get a little laggy when I tried it in Full Screen mode, but that could also have been the speed of my Mac and/or internet connection speed. I do have some problem with the interface, as it does seem to be more geared towards people who use a remote, as opposed to a mouse or trackball. But, I have that similar complaint with my Boxee experience. Between the two apps, I am probably more of a fan of Boxee, because it allows me to add my own content sources, and allows me to run local machine music and video as well. I might give the Hulu Desktop App another try, but I can tell you right now, I will NOT install the web plugin.

Links:
Hulu Desktop
Boxee

May 29th, 2009

Britain’s New Singing Sensation?

If star maker Simon Cowell likes someone, isn’t it obvious they should be performing on stage in front of thousands (or millions) of people?

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

1 comment April 16th, 2009

American Idol

I just have a few thoughts currently about the current season of American Idol. I’m just not into the people. I probably started getting into American Idol in season 3. And there have been some memorable moments in those seasons. When Fantasia sang “Summertime”. When Bo performed a capella. The original styling of Blake Lewis last season. These are the things that I remember about American Idol. I do not see someone that is original like Blake. Perhaps there will yet be a performance like Bo’s or Fantasia’s, but I just don’t see it happening. These performers just are not taking risks. Well, that’s my opinion.

March 5th, 2008

A question pondered, answered.

A question that I have asked myself time and time again, “is John Hodgman from the Daily Show the guy who plays the PC on Apple’s Mac vs PC commercials?” Well, in this exchange on The Daily Show from Comedy Central (as posted on YouTube), I believe that the question is answered, and I can now sleep easier.

December 4th, 2007