January 18th, 2012 is the day that sites like Reddit will go dark in protest to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) as well as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) that are wondering around in Congress.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

The White House has already chimed in against certain parts of SOPA, realizing the bill would hinder innovation and free speech.

I have decided that the main page to Awesomely-Aloof will be a blackout page, but I had previously placed a banner on this blog, as I’m too lazy to blackout the whole site. Of course, I realize on my part it doesn’t matter, but I’m sure others with small sites are joining in with the larger sites that will definitely make for a very interesting day.

The point of the blackout is to show that if the bill passes, this would be what the Internet would become, lots of nothing.

Some large sites, such as the major search engine, Google, will place a link on its homepage in protest. Wikipedia (the large online encyclopedia) plans to shutdown the English portion of its site for the day.

And, if these bills make it through, the blame would be on the usual suspects: MPAA and RIAA (Movies and Music industry).

The article linked below from BusinessWeek had quotes that say sites like Wikipedia and blogs and Social Networking sites would be unaffected by the bill and shutting down a site as protest is nothing but fear. [Honestly, though, I think tech experts know more about the bill and what it'll do than anyone Congressional politician, and it's the lobbying groups of the movies and music industries that are essentially paying them to say whatever they want them to say]. However, I say, if big companies get their way, what’s to stop future legislation on just blocking foreign site altogether? That’s how I see it, and that’s why it needs to be stopped.

Learn more about the Internet blackout: SOPA STRIKE
Google Plans Home Page Protest

As a Netflix subscriber, with the current $9.99 DVD-streaming combo option that will cease to exist come Sept. 1 to current subscribers, I thought I’ll weigh in on what’s going on.

As most people are aware, Netflix made a streaming only option for 7.99, while increasing to 9.99 for having unlimited streaming and DVDs (1 at a time), last November. Going from 8.99 to 9.99 wasn’t a big deal, I think most people understood as it costs money to send out DVDs (you know, postage). Now, with Netflix set to separate their two services, having the already existing 7.99 streaming only, and adding a 7.99 DVD-only, meaning to have both, you add those together to get the $15.98/mo, which is what current $9.99 subscribers will be paying, starting Sept 1, unless they decide one way or another, or as some people (stupidly) are threatening to do, canceling altogether.

I find canceling to be stupid, as Netflix is by far the best paid streaming option out there. Right now, even the paid Hulu Plus has ads, while Netflix doesn’t. The streaming limits of Netflix is why people liked the DVD option. All the other streaming sites have limitations to what they offer, because it’s all a matter of what licensing rights they can get. It’s not Netflix’s fault that Warner Bros. doesn’t want Netflix to even had the DVDs available until 30 days after release date (I believe same goes with Redbox). It’s not Netflix’s fault that HBO and Showtime don’t want their shows available to stream, even after a season has been released to DVD/Blu-Ray and is available to rent in that form. Though, in our eyes, being able to rent the DVD or Blu-Ray out should be seen as the same as streaming, when it comes to studios, they don’t see it that way.

From their fear that streaming is easier to rip (though, DVDs are easy to rip, but whatever), or they think people won’t subscribe to their premium network if they can just stream it, about eight months after the season ended (I’m using True Blood‘s releases as a guide for that number). Well, same can be said if they can rent it as well, but, whatever.

None of these are Netflix’s fault. And, now, their partnership with Starz could be lessened when the contract is up (I believe in January). Right now, current shows from Starz as a 90-day wait period, as Starz is hoping some people would subscribe for the course of a season to what a show now, versus waiting. If this experience shows that people were okay to wait, it wouldn’t surprise me that Starz doesn’t renew any deal with Netflix.

But, if Netflix can phase the option for DVDs out completely (as it is their goal), then funds could potentially go towards purchasing more (or even better) rights to streaming shows and movies. Of course, don’t expect HBO, as they have their HBO Go service, which is only available to subscribers (and not even all, as I know Time Warner customers don’t get it). Would it be nice to allow people who don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for digital cable (which, I think is at least required to even get premiums, so set-top box fees on top of minimum digital cable, it’s just ridiculous).

Worse yet, ISPs aren’t happy with Netflix, which accounts for a good chunk of web traffic in peak hours now. That’s why ISPs experimented and implemented bandwidth caps. This is one reason why we need government regulations to prevent ISPs from jacking up prices while speeds see no improvement. If we can get some good investments into fiber optics in more places, then cable companies will have more competitors, and thus, will have to have lower prices just to compete.

But I’m getting into something else, so back to Netflix. I myself like the DVD option, but like others, I only rent out a DVD about once a week (I work full time, I hardly have time to stream with Netflix). Though I get why Netflix is doing this (phase out DVDs by pushing people to go streaming), I think they could go about it better. If someone makes use of the unlimited DVDs on top of the streaming, then they should essentially pay for the two options (If they squeeze 2 DVDs in a week, that $7.99 a month plan is cheaper than buying from Pay-Per-View (which is about $4 a movie), cheaper than renting from iTunes (again, $4), renting from any Blockbuster or video store that has somehow managed to stay in business (and those require going out and using gas, plus risk of late-fees which apparently plagued people who rented a movie without considering if they had time to watch it that night or couldn’t get it returned in time), and is about that same as the $1 rentals of Redbox ($1 a day, that is, so if you have the movie in your possession for two days before you get to return it, it could add up.

But, if you’re like me, you don’t rent but no more than 4 DVDs a month from Netflix, so, I think it’ll be fair to keep a 9.99 plan with a DVD limit of, say, 2 a month. I think that would be fair.

So, come September 1st, would I drop my DVD side and go streaming only? I don’t know. There is a large streaming library, but, new releases are DVD only and come with wait times as everyone wants to see a new movie. Right now, my DVD Queue has some TV shows not available to stream and aren’t syndicated on any network (I’m watching Night Court now (which I’ve had since Thursday), actually, so I can send it off tomorrow and get a new one Friday (I Am Number Four is next on my list).

I have until September to ponder over it, but for the extra 8 bucks, I would need to squeeze in two a week to justify the increase, which could be possible when hours are cut in the fall (I got Netflix when I was unemployed, and used a lot of it when I got a part time job, but full time, I can afford it better but not using it as much, interesting huh?).

I am the owner of a Playstation 3. I do have an account with the Playstation Network, which recently has been in the news due to an attack on the network that prompted Sony to shut the PSN network down. The last few weeks has been a multitude of news, as everyone’s eyes were on the Royal Wedding (which that overshadowed the serious storm that hit Alabama), and now, with the death of Osama bin Laden, this huge security breach may have yet to reach everyone (though Sony has sent a mass email to customers, but whether all 77 million customers of the PSN, who knows?).

I want to be quick to point out, the last few times I used the Playstation store, it was with funds from a gift card. Plus, I check my account regularly, as everyone should do anyway. When I shop online, or anything in which I may provide a billing/shipping address, phone, and, well, credit card data, I understand risks even if they should have encrypted connections (SSL). My memory of the last time I used a credit card to fund my Playstation Network wallet for use to purchase games and add-ons or TV shows/movies is a bit fuzzy. I want to say that there was a checkbox to allow Sony to store credit card data, if so, I unchecked it. There’s no need for online service to store that sensitive data, unless it’s for regular transactions and is a very trusted company. Even still, one should always be cautious.

Why am I going on like this? Because I don’t have hate towards Sony. Network security can never be 100% secured. There’s no such thing. So while others are saying they are gonna switch to XBOX or whatever, fine. When PSN comes back up, I’ll get my password changed ASAP and continue to use it. People HAVE to remember that nothing is 100%. 99.9%, sure, but never 100%. So, there’s also the chance for the same thing, or something similar to happen within the XBOX network. Not too long ago, there were some “congestion” issues with Amazon servers used for cloud-base computing, causing an outage. Big companies, small companies, it doesn’t matter. If you use a service, at some point, there is gonna be some form of failure. And for the record, I find cloud-computing useful to some degree, but I still prefer things I may need to be stored locally.

April 20 was when PSN was shut down, and almost a week later is when Sony said something. That’s what I’m pissed about. As I tried to log-in, so I can watch Netflix, I just couldn’t sign it. I got some “Maintenance” message. They claimed they waited ’til they had more information, but that was their mistake. They should’ve alerted the public that there was an intrusion as soon as they knew. They could’ve put out that they were still investigating, and to check back on their blog for more info as its known, whatever. Even mentioning that, to go with the “Better Safe, Than Sorry” phrase, warn consumers that credit info could’ve been stolen, so they could’ve immediately taken extra precautions with their credit cards.

A lot of “Should’ve, Would’ve, Could’ve,” another thing a lot of companies seem to go through. Also, with PSN down, it wasn’t until yesterday they shut down Sony Online Entertainment, which operates “EverQuest.” Though it’s a separate service, for safety of the public, it probably would’ve been better to take it down. You know, just to be “safe than sorry.”

So, even if you don’t use any Sony service, especially their gaming networks, you still should always be proactive when it comes to YOUR credit account. The real villains here are the hackers, not Sony (except, their delay with news, they really should’ve mentioned it sooner).

If you have a PSN account, you should check your credit card statements (or check online for recent transactions). For more info, visit Playstation Blog for latest news concerning PSN/Qriocity services, Q&A for other questions you may have (they may have been answered), and/or the Knowledge Center with information of what you can do to protect yourself against possibly ID Theft and other info to how you can check your credit.

I would say programming lineup announced, but they neglected actual dates, or even go more into the returning series in July (which I’m assuming, Eureka will be the last half of season four, you know, a year after the first half premiered, like what happened with season three (shame on you Syfy), so basically we’ll be watching the rest of season four when we should actually be watching season 5, which starts filming soon). The press release (you can find here on Blastr), basically mentions a ton of shows set to premiere this summer, as well as a few into fall, plus the Saturday movies, dated into 2012.

Now, the title of this post should hint to how I feel about the new stuff Syfy is going for.

Returning series in the summer include (as mentioned above) Eureka, plus Warehouse 13, and Haven. New scripted series added will be Alphas (ordinary people with abilities again, though it has Ryan Cartwright, who played my favorite intern (Nigel-Murray) on Bones, so I’ll probably still check it out). Where there is one scripted premiere, there are THREE reality premieres coming: Haunted Collector (haunted objects, *yay* -that’s sarcasm BTW) in June, Legend Quest (which I guess is like Destination Truth, but it’s finding relics around the world, which might be interesting, but more appropriate for History Channel, IMO) in July, and Paranormal Witness (team behind Locked Up and Gold Rush Alaska bring a dramatic-documentary series of people who survived paranormal encounters…or something like that) in September.

As you can tell, I myself am a bit furious with 3-1, Reality over Scripted on Syfy. I miss Sci-Fi Channel, even that also had the likes of Wrestling, it’s first dive into unscripted were relevant to the network. I’m not gonna be the person to dismiss series of supernatural and paranormal stuff, saying that’s not sci-fi, since I see it as sci-fi/fantasy, but Syfy now has gone WAY too far. Looking at what’s in development, there are 4 total scripted series versus 10 (yes TEN) unscripted/reality/whatever. One scripted series in development that I hope goes further is Three Inches, since I know that has James Marsters (SPIKE, need I say more). Do we need a docu-series on photography? No. Do we want something with Tommy Lee? Hell no. Do we want a series where people eat with Deepak Chopra? (excuse my French) A big fuckin’ NO. Now, I do watch Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth and Fact or Faked, so I’m not overly closed to them existing, just not in this magnitude, and absolute stupidity. Come on Syfy, you may have taken the “ci” and “i” out and replaced this with “y”s, but this is just ridiculous. They needed to keep Stargate Universe, the one series everyone agreed being sci-fi, thought Eureka I think also fits the bill (a fictional show with scientific stuff), so in a strict sense, Syfy has ONE series once SGU officially ends (note, I do watch all the current scripted shows on the network, but I see why most wouldn’t appeal to the hard-core sci-fi geeks). Now, they have another Battlestar prequel in development, but they’ve seemed to extremely limit themselves with space-action-adventure series.

Anyway, for the shows actually premiering, either I skipped over and missed it, but I didn’t see anything even say what day they would be on. I can assume based on past experiences, that Haven will stay on Friday and premiere shortly after Sanctuary ends its run (it comes back April 15th, which I predicted after the midseason finale as a likely scenario), so with ten episodes of Sanctuary, if we take in account one possible rerun and may at least a week in between, Haven could premiere July 8. So, logically, Alphas could be following footsteps of Being Human and premiere the Monday before that (so July 4, but I’m skeptical now on that, but you never know) and having Eureka and Warehouse 13 pair up, since there Christmas outing did fine, say July 5. I’m doing this for an estimate since Syfy didn’t actually really announce a schedule. The reality crap would fill Wednesday and Thursday, essentially.

Also in the press release, the Saturday B-Movie goodies, but the main part seems to be the fact that the next re-imagining event Neverland where Keira Knightley will be the voice of Tinker Bell. Also cast is Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies as Captain Elizabeth Bonny, Charlie Rowe as Peter Pan, and interestingly have Smee played by Bob Hoskins (who played the character in the 90s movie Hook). It calls it a movie event, I hope it’s a mini-series, so it’s in line with the like of Tin Man and Alice from previous years (which are the only events where Syfy even sees Emmy nominations, and for good reason, they are very good, especially Tin Man).

And Syfy Ventures will have games on Facebook under Syfy Games.

Again, whole article of actually three press releases can be read at Blastr.

[update 3/23/2011: I want to link to this TV.Com article, which highlights each of the series coming out or in development, and rates the sci-fi-ness of the reality slate. Seems a little lenient on some, but for the most part, I agree and had to share the link.]

The story of Clark Kent before the cape will come to an end. We knew this was the last season, now we have a date for the series finale. So mark your calendars for Friday, May 13th, 2011. The CW will broadcast the end as a two-hour event, so Supernatural won’t be on (it’ll air two episodes on May 20th, including the season finale).

This season has been extraordinary. From the 200th episode with the high school reunion and return of James Marsters, to the special appearance of Teri Hatcher playing Lois’s mom, to Oliver Queen announcing to the public that he’s the Green Arrow, to the Vigilante Registration Act, to the death of a hero

Here’s a snippet from the Press Release (Found at TVByTheNumbers):

This final season, Clark attempts to find a balance between saving the world, which becomes even more difficult as the Vigilante Registration Act separates a nation, and spending time with his new fiancée Lois Lane (Erica Durance). Whether it’s donning glasses as a disguise, changing in a phone booth or learning how to fly, this season has put Clark closer to his destiny than ever before. Taking on Darkseid and battling the darkest of his demons, this two-hour event will send Clark soaring towards his birthright to secure his place in history as the world’s greatest protector.

If you haven’t been watching (especially if you used to watch in the past but got out of it (I admit, the 7th and 8th seasons weren’t the best)), there’s still time to get in. This week, Martha Kent (played by the wonderful Annette O’Toole) returns to stand up for the heroes at a pro-vigilante rally and Lionel (John Glover) returns as well. So you’re definitely not gonna wanna miss that. Just check the preview trailer:

Catch the remaining 10 episodes of Smallville, Fridays at 8/7c PM on the CW.

Official Smallville site

This is a quick post to spread the word that the January 28, 2011 winter return of Smallville and Supernatural has been delayed a week, because the CW decided to air encores of tonight’s (Jan. 27) returns of The Vampire Diaries and Nikita. It seems that it’s an effort to allow viewers who for some reason choose to watch the dumbass Idol instead of what they were watching in the fall which ended in the typical midseason cliffhanger (I never understood how viewers don’t watch the conclusion of something, it makes no sense). [EDIT: 1/27/11 9:42pm] Turns out, the reason is that the Thursday night shows are pre-empted in the Chicago and Baltimore markets, therefore the re-air is technically for them.   So, it’ll help them watch it with a second chance airing. Why Friday, though? Especially since they were originally gonna re-air next Wednesday (then again, that’s a stronger Idol day, so never mind). Probably also in terms of getting a second sampling of viewers for the highly promoted series.

Plus, wasn’t Idol supposed to die when that Simon dude left? Why are you people still watching it?

I updated the Countdown Timer to reflect the new dates. So, FEBRUARY 4th

CW Delays Smallville and Supernatural Returns – TVByTheNumbers