Posts tagged: tech

Dec 09 2008

Pray the Mighty TiVO

I’m just bored and love this show, and in light of why all the once highly rated shows (such as Heroes) have taken a plunge in ratings, well, at least this show is up (probably b/c old people watch CBS and old people tend to be scared of new technologies, such as the TiVO, but anyway), Enjoy…

Oh, and have I mentioned my hate of the outdated Nielsen system, others feel the same way, read article from the SCI-FI WIRE

Dec 02 2008

Exactly What I’v Been Waiting For

Just checking the DVICE blog by SCI-FI.COM like I go everyday (or at least every other day), and one little device caught my attention: The Netgear Digital Entertainer. It’s something like AppleTV or similar to having a Media Center, except, it’s totally not. With AppleTV, you’d be VERY limited to only Mac format files (such as .MOV or .MP4). Media Centers require, well, Windows, so, not very friendly for Mac or Linux OS. Well, that’s about to change.

This little puppy is set to be introduced next January to the CES (a consumer electronics event, basically). And as long as it’s reasonable in price, and hopefully, all the little info on it is true, I am looking forward to it, especially if it will be capable of streaming DRM files, such as TV SHOWS and Movies I legally own through iTunes, yet am subjected to viewing on me tiny little laptop screen (well, I have S-Video out, but it’ll be nicer to have something that can output HD instead).

Read All About it from DVICE.COM

Oct 13 2008

New Amazon Kindle 2

[DVICE.com]

Why buy books when you can use Kindle.  I don’t have one of these yet, but I plan to (when I get the $300 some odd dollars).  Paper books are, after all a waste.  A person generally buys a book, reads it once, and never touches it again (I for one neer feel like reading the same book again).  And what becomes of these books?  Well, there’s Used Books stores, that’s a good option.  Donation to libraries, sure.  But, there are people who just throw them out.  Trees got cut down to become nothing more than waste.  Also, the large amount of space needed to shelve books, just to collect dust.  Well no more.  Amazon released a little gem a while back, and with many positive reviews of it, I eventually thought of getting one myself.  Afterall, buying books in digital Kindle versions is also cheaper, and since there’s no delivering, no waiting.

Now, there’s gonna be an update.  Side buttons are gonna be smaller to minimize accidental page turning.  New navigation through a joystick rather than a scroll wheel.

Source: DVICE.Com

Oct 08 2008

TV Ratings

Used to, there would be shows that had 20-some odd million viewers. They still exist, but there are so few. Why? Increase in DVR and online usage. Many networks, such as NBC, offer full episodes online to stream, for free. Then, there’s DVRs. Advertisers aren’t gonna pay-up for DVR viewings, because people can fast-forward their ads, which would defeat the purpose of them paying for ad-spots to be seen during the airing of a show. If people are skipping them, they are not viewing them, and if they are not viewing them, they aren’t gonna know of the product, and would be least likely to buy. If no one buys the product, the company can’t make any money, therefore, can’t afford to buy those ad-spots, which would keep a show from airing. Without sufficient funds, a network can’t buy episodes of the show to even air (dramas average 2 million an episode, this would include salaries for cast and crew, plus music used).

Yet, despite knowing this, instead of finding new ways to advertise (product-placement could work), they continue to rely on this info, canceling shows based on what I call flawed data. People could get pissed off with this next suggestion, but with digital technologies, there has to be some way to disallow fast-forwarding of certain (say the top advertisers, just to keep it from being too annoying). That more likely wouldn’t work, ’cause people would see it defeat the purpose of having a DVR (though not entirely, ’cause the point of a DVR is to record a show when you’re at work or had to run some errands, so you never miss a show.) I still feel there has to be a way to include counts with DVR usage, as well as online viewings, and one that shouldn’t be difficult, purchases from iTunes and Amazon unBox, as they are bought, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be counted, even if not high of a number.

Another way this data is flawed, is that Nielson Media Research may have a good formula, but I find that you can’t generalize a population, saying that because of the 5,000 or so Nielson boxes out there, that 20% (1,000) are white male in ages 18-49, so that of a majority of those, maybe 25% of that 20% (250), are watching say CSI Thursday nights, that doesn’t necessarily mean that 5% of the population are white male 18-49 (which I’m sure it is much higher than that, but this is an example) that watch CSI. If there is 130 million people watching TV, according to this, 6.5 million male adults 18-49 watched CSI. But what if, the people with the boxes, aren’t very constant with how they view TV, and if they switched out people every so often (which I think I read they did), and the next 5,000 people, what if it was 4% that did, bringing the number down. I can’t really put it into words well, but what I’m basically trying to say, you can’t say that a majority of women in this group watch Desperate Housewives, ’cause, guess what, I’m a female between 18-49, and I don’t watch Desperate Housewives, or Grey’s Anatomy, or Private Practice. No, I watch CSI, and Chuck, and Smallville, Supernatural, those targeted towards men. I don’t fit into any of the generalizations, and there are others that don’t either.

This is why I think, with new technologies out there, there’s no reason that these can’t be more accurate numbers. I am tired of good shows getting canceled based on flawed numbers, aren’t you?

Oct 06 2008

Net Neutrality

It’s been a while since I think I last brough this one site up.  I ran into maybe a year (or two years, tops) ago, but haven’t been to it in a while, thought about it, and decided maybe I’ll mention it.

In a nutshell, this is what Net Neutrality is: the idea of free and open Internet, meaning no blocks, or anything that’ll hinder a person from going to a site of their choice. Big companies want to make it so certain sites come in slower, and the ones (like their sites and sites of their partners) to load faster.

Learn more:
Save the Net

Oct 03 2008

Wacom Bamboo Tablet

Pencil Drawing with Wacom tablet and Corel Painter EssentialsA couple of weeks ago I got the Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, since it’s a pain in the ass to use the touchpad on a laptop, and even though I have a mouse for it, that isn’t easiest to use.  It’s a pretty nifty little device.  I’m still trying to get the hang of it.  Even tried doing some pencil drawings in Coral Painter Essential 4 (comes with it, along with Photoshop Elements 5, the software alone is worth the price ($100).  Anyway, I uploaded the image for all to see.

Maybe I can get a few more done in time, work at it, maybe get good enough I can draw actual people (haha, for some reason I’m doubting this myself, but, that’s why I said “maybe”.)

Anyway, learn more about the Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet from Amazon.com.

Wacom’s Site

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