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.

On April 2, 2007, I joined Last.Fm, as means to get an idea to my listening habits when I run iTunes in the background as I surf the net (most of the time, but not all the time, since I also watch TV for the most part of the night). Anyway, I just looked at my stats, and I am SEVEN away from 10,000 plays. My Last.FM Profile

Unfortunately, I haven’t been running, what I use now, Songbird, given my iTunes library is on another machine and I can’t find a easy way to add what I have on my laptop without creating a mass amount of duplicates (since I have at least 2,000 songs on this machine, and am ripping songs as I buy new CDs, and/or buying my tracks and TV shows and stuff only with this machine). I hardly ever listen from a CD nowadays, but I like having the physical CD, especially if I had an unexpected computer failure before getting a chance to back up any new purchases (though I try to back up after every time I purchase from iTunes). BTW, I’m not too far from having 300 CDs. There are several artists, including Tantric, that are gonna have new releases this year, so I’ll be over 300 total before this year is up. Yay!

Now why I like this service (I don’t care for the networking stuff):

The last few tracks I listened to:

1. Eric Clapton – Cocaine — 5/18/09 2:16am
2. Eagles – Hotel California — 5/18/09 2:09am
3. Queen – I Want It All — 5/18/09 2:05am

Most listened to artists in the last week:

• 1 – Lacuna Coil –> 14
• 2 – Tantric –> 8
• 3 – Within Temptation –> 6
• 4 – Breaking Benjamin –> 5
• 4 – Shinedown –> 5

Most Played in Last 6 Months:

• 1 – Tantric –> 153
• 2 – Breaking Benjamin –> 133
• 3 – Lacuna Coil –> 118
• 4 – Queen –> 89
• 5 – Within Temptation –> 82

Most Played in Last Year (top 3):

• 1 – Tantric –> 369
• 2 – Breaking Benjamin –> 303
• 3 – Lacuna Coil –> 226

AND the OVERALL TOP ARTISTS I’ve Listened to (since Apr 2, 2007 on iTunes, Amarok, or Songbird):

• 1 – Breaking Benjamin –> 1,019
• 2 – Collective Soul –> 930
• 3 – Tantric –> 901

Why not mention top tracks in last 6 months:

• 1 – Apocalyptica – I Don’t Care –> 25
• 2 – Tantric – Down and Out –> 24
• 3 – Tantric – Fall Down (Bonus Track) –> 23
• 3 – Queen – Another One Bites the Dust –> 23
• 5 – The Drama Club – Brand New Day (feat. Ben Burnley) –> 21

Last 12 Months:

• 1 – Tantric – The One –> 45
• 2 – Apocalyptica – I Don’t Care –> 38
• 3 – Tantric – Down and Out –> 36
• 4 – Tantric – Love Song –> 35
• 5 – Kansas – Carry on Wayward Son –> 33

And, Overall:

• 1 – Collective Soul – Heavy –> 90
• 2 – Breaking Benjamin – Until The End –> 86
• 2 – Collective Soul – December –> 86
• 4 – Tantric – Down and Out –> 71
• 5 – Collective Soul – Counting the Days –> 70

What do I get from this? It’s just really interesting. I can see overall what bands I take a liking to listening to often, but also, in terms of the last six-twelve months, I really enjoyed Tantric’s ‘The End Begins,’ A LOT! Looking at the last year, there were three Tantric songs in the top five, and about 6 months ago, was the time frame for which I finally got a Queen CD (Greatest Hits, and a few months later, I got Classic Queen, highly recommended).

And, I see the increase of Lacuna Coil as well, which surged with the arrival of their new CD, ‘Shallow Life,’ just last month (awesome, BTW). I hope Breaking Benjamin releases something soon, I need some new tunes, and it shows. (Same goes for Collective Soul).

With something that seemed to pick up with Comcast limiting that amount of data their customers can access on the Internet, at about a 150GB/mo limit. We thought that was tough, now Time Warner is looking at implementing a measly 40GB/mo limit. The whole point these caps is so companies can meter the bandwidth and charge for additional bandwidth (and honestly, make it fairer to those who just check email and maybe visit a site or two). Could make sense, but 40GB/mo for about $55/mo (an even pathetic amount of 5GB/mo for $30/mo)? Seriously? In today’s world, people use a lot of bandwidth, more than they may even realize. Just from streaming videos on YouTube.com or Hulu.com, or downloading their music and movies on iTunes, or from Amazon, NetFlix, etc. Generally surfing the net, with pages filled with pictures, after a while, these things add up. And if you’re like me, they’ll add up fast. [To give you an idea, a full-length movie from iTunes is about 1-1.5GB in size, more if its a LONG movie. So three movie downloads can easily go over that 5GB plan].

And I have Time Warner, luckily they haven’t implemented it in my area yet, as they will start a test run in two locations in August: Greensboro, N.C. and Rochester, N.Y. Now they seem to still be working on the details, but in a nutshell, Time Warner may be fearing loss cable subscriptions (as they should, since I had cable, and I hate cable, no matter the company. Satellite is just cheaper with more channels and clearer and ALL digital).

Anyway, back on topic, this loss, could be one reason to the caps. Also, the overage charge seems to be $1 for each additional GB (or $2/GB for their cheaper solution of a slower connection (768kbps) and 1GB cap). And for about $150/mo, it’ll be virtually unlimited (so, if a person has the cable, the digital phone, and the internet (which to me is a bad idea, one fails, well, they all fail since its the same service)). Many people talk of the evil ways of Comcast, but their 250GB cap is less than $50/mo. Hmm?

Time Warner Capping Scheme | DVICE

Oh, and to add on to this stupidity, Wired.Com has an article showing that their earnings and such (they have graphs and everything) makes this whole thing make even LESS sense.

I just spent about two hours or so joining a few fanlistings (I have a long list of those I’m in process of joining, mostly all TV related, of course), while looking for some more to join later. I have this weird system set up, where I have, in my Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar, a folder for Fanlistings Joined, then a Need Join folder. Each one is separated into TV, Movie, Music, Etc, and Fanlistings Joined as the Pending folder (recently joined but not yet approved), and Need Join has the Ready to Join (which I will work on maybe next week, or if I get approved of about 4-5 more soon, I can quickly join and add the buttons to my site).

Of course, my site itself (www.awesomely-aloof.net), has the Joined listings pages separated into very simple categories (I don’t feel like separating them anymore with specifics), so they are just either TV, Movies, Music, Actors/Actresses, or Misc, although, I feel like I’m gonna have to split up the TV one, ’cause it’s getting mighty large. Then the home page has the little icons on the side, which I don’t want to take up the whole thing, but I don’t want to take off any I haven’t been approved of yet, ’cause having them right on the front makes it easier to find initially. I wish I just took the time to set up Enthusiast or something, but that’s more of a whole Collective kind of thing, and right now I only own two fanlistings (one for the band Tantric, the other for the song ‘Until the End’ by Breaking Benjamin, and I use BellaBuffs for those (BTW, feel free to join if you like, you don’t need a website, just an email)), for the most part, I just have an addiction to joining listings (I don’t know why, I just do).

Anyway, I’m keeping this post short, since it’s more of a rambling, and I am tired, ’cause a useful PHP script like Enthusiast would probably make the whole joining easier (and keep up with the codes too, I think, or maybe the CodeSort would have to be added?). I don’t know, don’t care.

So here’s to fanlistings, keeping up with people’s love of whatever is out there.

I haven’t watched the Colbert Report on Comedy Central in a while (mostly during the writer’s strike last winter, and bits and pieces during the election stuff). But last night, I decided to watch it. Great as always (don’t know why I don’t watch everyday), and last night’s ‘Doom Bunker’ segment spoofing the ‘War Room’ on Fox News was downright hilarious (especially when the Transformers came into play, brilliant).

Anyway, the main point was encouraging viewers to continue to vote on the NASA site on a name for Node 3. They have about four that can be voted on (their narrowed down list), but also a field to submit another. Well, Stephen Colbert asks of us to fill in that field for ‘Colbert.’ So if you have free time, why not help NASA in the naming of a module for the Space Station that provides “a spectacular view of both their home planet and their home in space. The cupola’s six rectangular windows and one circular window overhead will show a panoramic view that will be unrivaled by any other spacecraft ever flown. Aside from providing a perfect location to observe and photograph the Earth, the cupola also will contain a robotics workstation, where astronauts will be able to control the station’s giant robotic arm.”

Right now, with the provided names, ‘Serenity,’ is number one with 86% (which I noticed after already submitting Colbert, and is possible geeky entry they probably don’t know of (Firefly everybody, the transport vessel name Serenity). Though, I find it interesting that ‘Enterprise’ isn’t higher on the submitted list, doubt NASA would be able to even do that if it won. Note, the names for Node 1 is ‘Unity,’ and Node 2 is ‘Harmony,’ so the lame names could end with us (Not that ‘Serenity’ is lame, though it is also a name of adult diapers, so…could be butt of jokes, especially after that whole astronaut traveling with adult diapers one thing that happened a while back, but sometimes may make an appearance in jokes.)

So, go to Colbert Nation to go onto the NASA page.

And reason why Colbert would be an appropriate name? Well, he did interview an astronaut on the International Space Station, so there is already NASA love. Check out the video for part 1 of the interview on YouTube: