Cable for the 21st Century
Jan/100
I was just flipping through all the expanded cable channels I pay for and, out of 100 channels, there is nothing I want to watch. I would really like to see a business model where I could purchase subscriptions to shows instead of channels. I like to watch particular shows, shows that are not on the same channel at the same time, so why do I need to pay for the entire channel’s broadcast 24 hours per day?
I pay around $50 per month for 100 channels. Some of the shows I do watch when I can find them on are House Hunters (HGTV), The Daily Show (Comedy Central), and Comedy Central Presents (Comedy Central). Let’s set an arbitrary price of $5 per season.
So say I could purchase a subscription to the shows I want to watch. That would work out to:
House Hunters – $5
The Daily Show – $5
Comedy Central Presents – $5
For $15 per year, I could have unlimited access to all the 2009 episodes for those shows. I can play any 2009 episode on demand at any time.
I would even put up with commercials. Advertisers would know more about their demographic because the cable company could sell them information on the exact show I’m watching, other shows I’ve subscribed to, my age, location, time of year, and time of day. Advertisers could use that information and show me their most relevant commercials.
Say I’m streaming a House Hunters episode right now. My demographic information would be: January, Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., House Hunters, Wisconsin. They could show commercials for pizza delivery, fitness equipment, mortgage lending, and local businesses.
Purchasing channels a la carte would also be great. I probably watch HGTV and Bravo the most. So let me buy those two channels’ broadcasts for $3 per month and give me every show on demand. I still save money and advertisers will make more money because the demographic information is more accurate.
Why isn’t this available?
Making Bad Photos Look Artistic
Dec/090
I took a pretty poorly light photo I took on my 3MP phone camera and played around with levels, contrast, and Photoshop filters.
The original image.
Some modifications (click for larger image):
The left image is sort of a watercolor/impressionist modification. The middle image is a charcoal/chalk rendering. And the last image reminds me of those Discovery Channel re-enactment shows—“I was attack by mutant sharks and SURVIVED!”
Are your Firefox plugins up-to-date?
Oct/090
Mozilla has launched Plugin Check to determine whether your Firefox plugins are outdated. The page identifies your plugins, checks for the latest version, and provides links to update any outdated plugins.
It’s not a perfect solution, however, as Plugin Check is unable to determine the version of several of my plugins (Office Live, Acrobat, Hulu Desktop, GameTap). I’m sure the service will become more robust with time.
Very handy!
Freestyle BMXer
Oct/090
This guy is really amazing! I love how he uses everyday objects in his environment to pull off all the tricks. The rooftop jump was just….awesome.
Check out his website for more videos and photos.
Make Animated GIFs from YouTube Videos
Oct/090
This site is pretty neat. You can convert 10 seconds of a YouTube video into an animated GIF. Here’s one of my cat Oliver saying “hi” in the morning:
Fun!
Idina
Oct/090
I’m infatuated with this cat’s expression. I see something new every time I look at it. 
Cat Nap
Sep/090
This is a project I did for my Photoshop class. The requirements were to create a photo montage using several images and manipulating blending modes, opacity, layer effects, and layer masks.
I also like this version, which I decided was too simple for the assignment.
Zune HD…Come to Me!
Jun/090
I am so excited for the Zune HD!
I had an 80GB Zune but just recently the lithium battery started to expand and leak inside the case. It made the screen cloudy so it became unuseable. Unfortunately, I was far out of warranty so I couldn’t get it repaired. =(
I want to get another Zune and I was going to buy the 120GB model, but now that I saw the Zune HD, I really want to get that instead. However, Microsoft hasn’t released any information regarding capacity, so I don’t know if it will be near 120GB. They did say it would be a solid state hard drive, so… I suppose it won’t be more than 10 or 20GB.
If that’s the case, I’ll end up going with the Zune 120. I have a huge music collection.
Zune HD isn’t coming out until this fall, and I’d really like to have a Zune again before then, so I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t want to wait all summer and then find out the Zune HD is only going to hold like 10GB. Guess I will scour the blogs for a few more weeks and see if anything develops.
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