Posts filed under 'entertainment'
I have had my Nintendo Wii system for awhile now, and I also signed up for the Netflix streaming to the Wii. I’ve had the disk for the Wii for a little while, but tonight was the first time that I have used it. A couple of things for those that don’t have it, the first time that you use the disk, you will be given a code to register your Wii with Netflix streaming. Not a hard thing to do, but I recommend having a piece of paper and pen/pencil handy so that you can write it down and go to your computer. I was impressed with the quality of the stream even over my wireless setup. I did have an issue that my Wii remote went to sleep during the movie and I was not able to “wake” it up. I eventually took the batteries out and put them back in. I do not know if this is because I turned the remote away from the sensor bar so that the pointer wasn’t on the screen, or if this is a known “issue”. Further use and testing will tell I suppose.
Overall, I would say that if you have a Wii, and a Netflix account (with streaming), you might as well sign-up for the disk. It does not count against your total disks out, and you don’t have to return it. And if you are interested, the movie I watched was Wall-E. Yes, I have only now gotten around to seeing it.
May 9th, 2010
If you wander around the net today, you will probably see some references to “Pi Day” today. So what is it all about? well, if you look at the date for March 14th in numeric format, it is 3.14, which is the beginning of the Pi sequence.
So, how do you celebrate Pi Day? Well, the most obvious would be to have fun with circles, as suggested by Google’s Doodle today.
Google's Doodle for Pi Day
Although there are also some who advocate that we give Pi a rest on Pi Day, and do no math at all. So celebrate how you see fit. For me, I think it will be a Key Lime Pi Day!
See y’all next time.
March 14th, 2010
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
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
A couple of weeks ago I stopped by one of my local theaters to watch the new X-Men movie. Yes, I know, I should have written the review back then. But hey, life gets in the way, you know.
This was the first of what I consider to be the summer blockbusters. And I was not disappointed. I am a fan of the X-Men, and have read numerous issues of the comic book, or graphic novel if you prefer, and thought that I had a good understanding of Wolverine’s origin. But this movie had many surprises for me, and information that I had not seen before. I had no idea how old Logan was and I was not aware of the band of fighters that he was in under Stryker’s command. I really don’t want to get in the habit of giving away too much of the movies that I watch, so I will just say that this movie should be good for any fan of Wolverine.
Now, what about the other aspects of this movie. The acting was good. I believed in the characters, to me they were realistic. Of course that would also have a lot to do with the writing as well, which again, was very good. And of course with a movie like this, you have to be concerned with the special effects. I saw no problems with the effects. I was not able to distinguish between what was a cgi effect, and what was real.
So, with plot twists, good acting, good writing, and good effects, this was a good movie and worth going to see. It will also find it’s way into my DVD collection when it is released. I hope that you enjoy it as well.
May 18th, 2009
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