IT Legends - Tech in Connecticut

So I bought this phone, I kinda like it. I decided what the hey, maybe I’ll check out using it as a USB modem. So far, not bad. Its got the nice wireless EVDO broadband and the modem link works pretty well. I can’t receive calls when I’m linked up, but I can deal with that. I’m using it now to post here. There seems to be an issue with using SSL VPN (via my Astaro Security Gateway), but maybe I have to use a different type of VPN to get that to work with this connection. It does connect, but (more…)

So, what I didn’t know about hulu.com earlier this month is that it’s a joint venture by News Corp (Fox) and NBC. Funny, the hulu.com mission is to deliver premium programming, and since I just love Battlestar Galactica (but wait, isn’t that SciFi? Yes… but NBC owns SciFi) I agree that the programming is indeed premium. What sucks is their delivery. Again, NetFlix takes the cake on viewing, but the selection is limited (even though its growing) and the networks probably won’t let them play current season stuff. Even NBC.com is better, and they own a portion of hulu.com - can’t they get some people together to make some upgrades to the service? Yes, you guessed it, I’m catching up on Battlestar Galactica today. We got rid of paid network programming, either cable or sattelite (tried both) because we’re just not home often and the costs are high for something you rarely watch. I used to watch BSG on iTunes, I even paid the $1.99 per show. But NBC didn’t resign with iTunes because Apple refused to increase costs to $4.99 per show. Go Apple! But now I have Seasons 1-3 in iTunes proprietary format and can’t purchase Season 4 the same way. I should have just bought the DVDs.

I upgraded my laptop’s wireless adapter, thinking that perhaps this could have been part of the problem with hulu.com’s performance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that way. I did notice that the imperfections are seen less when not in full screen - but they are the same imperfections. They are just more visible when in full screen mode. One thing I sincerely dislike about hulu.com is if you take focus away from the browser while in full screen mode and want to type something somewhere else, (more…)

Travis told me about hulu - they had BSG Season 4 Episode 1, too! The video quality was indeed better, but the playback was still a little choppy. NetFlix still has the best online viewing I’ve tested out yet. iTunes has been good to me, too. But both of those are pay-to-view. Maybe the commercial-supported model just isn’t up to par yet - but it should be! I dunno what’s goin’ on with these people.

OK, so I was pretty excited for the premier of Battlestar Gallactica Season 4, I actually purchased all of Seasons 1-3 from iTunes and the mini-series movie thing that started the series’ off. The quality on those is alright. But I just watched the season opener for season 4 off scifi.com and the video was really choppy. At first, I thought maybe it was my old refurb IBM Thinkpad - I have it hooked up to my TV via S-Video cable. But I’m able to watch my NetFlix member videos online fine - no chop. This was choppy! So I decided to check it out on my desktop, dual core, 256 MB video, 2GB RAM… nah, that was choppy too! In the same spots! Man, SciFi needs to learn a couple lessons from NetFlix or even NBC.com (I watch Chuck and Heroes online, too) on how to do this! No ads on the show, though it looked like it was partitioned up and ready for ads. Maybe if they could sell ads to the online viewing they could get better video encoding.

That being said, I enjoyed the episode, just not the experience of watching it online.