Dear Reader,
Over on Avoiding a Goat Rodeo Ive just posted A Businesspersons SOPA Primer. If you are interested in SOPA and want more information give it a read. Its a bit long but there is just so much wrong with the bill that it takes a while to explain it.
Until next time,
I <3 |<
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Dear Reader,
Not that I drink a lot, but when I do, I am usually drinking with my wife, the lovely and talented Kathy. Last summer, I added a new drink to the list that she likes to drink. She does love a good Banana Banshee but that recipe is very high in fat and she’s on this health kick. So I started looking into new drinks.
Kathy loves a good strawberry margarita but again, there is a lot of sugar in margaritas so she doesn’t often drink them. Then a thought hit me, fruit is good, tequila makes everything better, why not mix the two but leave out all the artificial sugar and stuff. So, after spending no small amount of time mixing and matching fruits, I present you with the recipe for Kathy’s current favorite drink.
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Dear Reader,
I use iTunes every now and then to rent a movie for my iTouch; usually when I’m traveling. Last night I rented a movie via my XBox 360 from Microsoft and previously, I’ve rented movies from Amazon’s Unbox from my Tivo. Here is a chart laying out the basics of each of the three options. Below it I’ll discuss my thoughts on them.
| XBox 360 | iTunes | Tivo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Hardware Price |
$349 | $229 | $99 |
| HD | Yes * | Yes | No |
| Monthly Fee | $5 | $0 | $12.95 |
| Movie Price | 480 Points (aprox $6.95) | $.99 – $3.99 | $1.99 – $3.99 |
| Terms | Expires 15 days (24 hrs after you click play) | Expires 30 days (24 hrs after you click play) | Expires 30 days (24 hrs after you click play) |
| Mobile Device | None | iPod family | Windows Based Laptop |
Ok, first my thoughts on each service:
I love my XBox for gaming; I even use it for watching DVDs. However, I don’t see myself renting many movies from them. First, they are the most expensive option, per-movie for new releases. I bought 500 “points” from them for $6.95 and “3:10 to Yuma” was 480. Maybe it’s cheaper if I buy more points at a time but honestly, I hate the whole points system. Why should I buy up a bunch of points and let MS hold onto my money? Microsoft needs to grow up and let adults use currency for our transactions, this isn’t NeoPets. Finally, while rumors abound of being able to download movies to a portable player (Zune, which I don’t have and probably won’t be getting any time soon), Microsoft doesn’t yet have a strategy in place. You watch it on your XBox…period. Honestly, that’s probably fine for a lot of people, but not for me.
Reduce the price of movies, let me rent them using hard currency instead of your company scrip, and let me move them to my portable device.
I am not an Apple fanboi. There are parts of Apple (like their horrid customer service after the sale) that I deplore and makes me wary of purchasing from them. However, I do believe they have got it right this time around. The Apple TV can be added to any entertainment syste for $329. There are no monthly fees for usage and you can download damn near anything to it. I don’t yet have one but I’m a big enough iTunes fan to see the potential here. I have rented movies from iTunes for my iTouch and can say that the experience is painless. I’ve probably bought 5 movies from them and rented 1. It’s always very easy and the price for rentals isn’t bad. The only negative I have is in the licensing but that really applies to everyone so I’ll save it for a special section below.
It’s the winner, hands down. They have cheap hardware, no monthly fees, reasonable prices and a portable device strategy. Really the only downside is the stupid licensing…which I discuss later.
I’ve had a Tivo since they first came out. I currently have 2 and love moving things between them. When Tivo announced their deal with Amazon unbox, I was excited. I’ve now rented 2 movies from them and overall, I am happy with the experience. The downside is unless you catch them on a special deal, you have to pay a monthly fee for your Tivo service. I waited till they put them on special then bought my HD with Lifetime service so I don’t have a monthly fee. (Given my history with Tivo devices, I do actually save money buying the lifetime.) I have 2 problems with Tivo/Unbox though.
You can rent movies and download them to your laptop via Amazon Unbox. This may give some small comfort to travelers. I’ve not tested this though so I don’t know if you can watch the content untethered from the Net. (i.e. in an airplane)
It’s not a reason to buy a Tivo but if you already have one and can live without HD, it’s a good system.
Ok, here are the things that none of them get right and I wish they would.
Rumor has it that Microsoft and NetFlix may be working on a deal. I don’t see why Microsoft would be interested in this deal as it would kill their rental revenue but if they did, and I could pay my monthly NetFlix fee and have my queue downloaded straight to my XBox, that would rock. They would have to work out the licensing issues as right now I can watch a movie an unlimited number of times and that’s an important feature. This union, if it happened in the right way, may make my XBox the most important piece of equipment in my entertainment system.
I’m dreaming here but the best of all worlds would be for Microsoft to cut a deal with Apple and let me use iTunes on my XBox like I can on my PC. This would totally rock because I get Apple’s pricing, downloads to my iTouch AND my XBox too. There are just too many reasons why this won’t happen (the main one is you can’t fit Jobs’ and Gates’ ego in the same room.) but it would be awesome if it did.
Now that I can rent movies from iTunes, I won’t be buying anymore. Mainly because I can only play them on one of 5 iTunes devices listed on my account. The reason I LIKE DVDs is I can give it to my son, he can take it upstairs and watch it, I can take it over to the neighbors and we can watch it with friends, heck, I can even use Handbreak, rip it and stuff it on my iTouch. This “You have x days to watch it and it expires 24 hours after you press play” is bad. Get rid of it now and I’m much more interested in rentals and downloads.
Downloads and rentals will kill physical media in the next 2-3 years. Most of that is thanks to Apple and Amazon. Overall, I think this is a good thing. However, I’m one of those weird people who can live without the content produced by the major television and movie studios. There has not been a movie produced in the last ten years that was “must see” for me. So if the hardware/software industry is going to keep treating me like a criminal (with abominations like Vista) and the studios are going to keep trying harder and harder to make me pay for their content each and every time I watch it or for each devices I want to watch it on, I’ll just watch less and less of it. There’s enough good stuff being produced out there independently to keep me entertained. However, if you let me watch my content where ever and whenever I want, I’ll keep paying you.
Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
Dear Reader,
A while back a blogger named John wrote a snarky review of my review of Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP. While his review was a bit on the “untrue” side and prompted me to write Just Say No to SEO, his blog was interesting enough to put in my feed reader and follow. Heck, from time to time, I even clicked through and read an entire entry and believe I even commented once.
Sadly, those days are now over. See John feels that just because it is possible for me to block ads from FireFox that I must be a criminal and stealing his content. This, by the way, is the same asinine logic that makes the NAB feel that if we don’t watch each and every commercial in a television show that we are stealing their content. (I’ve got news for you John, for 5 years now, I’ve blocked ads at my router! FireFox, IE, Opera, hell, even Lynx…I don’t read ads unless I want to.)
So yea, by all means please do continue blocking a good chunk of your audience. Maybe, like me they will realize that your content is well, just not that great and move on to things more important…like Lindsy or Paris or even Britteny’s latest escapades. Should you actually produce something compelling enough to warrant an extra 5 seconds of work, we (FireFox users) can always just switch FireFox’s useragent. (yeah, boy, you showed us…)
So thanks John, this is now twice you’ve inspired me to blog and I’m the better for it. Sorry I won’t be reading your blog anymore. Like NBC’s move away from iTunes, the only one you are hurting is yourself. If I can live without NBC’s content, I’m pretty sure I can live without yours.
Just so you know John, I’m not picking on you. I feel the same way about anyone who feels that the content they produce is so damed important that they get to dictate to me how, when or where I consume it. Drop me a line if you drop this idiocy, I’ll add you back into my reader.
Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
p.s. Just say not to crap like this. My current useragent is “o noes, I haz UR blog wif da fox.” when that gets blocked, I’ll get more creative. I encourage every FireFox user (you thievn’ bastards) to change the useragent string. Get creative, have fun with it.
Dear Reader,
There is a great editorial over on iLounge about NBC pulling out of iTunes.
The best line in the whole thing:
You’d have to be stupid, lazy, or really honest to pay 2 bucks for something you can get in higher quality, with no piracy restrictions, and earlier for free.
Go take a read. Feel free to contact NBC and let them know how you feel.
Until Next Time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
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