mashby

Do you like TV? I mean really like TV. If you do, then if you haven’t checked out TV.com already, you really should. In my opinion, it’s one of the best examples of a community web site I’ve ever seen and it’s so chock full of content that if the idea of a “web community” makes you want to change the channel, there’s still no reason NOT to check it out. TV.com has everything there is to know about your favorite shows in a easy to use format that will have you quickly bookmarking it for future reference.

Before TV.com, there was a site called TVTome.com and it was a great resource for finding out everything there is to know about your favorite shows. Well, it seems that C|Net purchased the company behind TVTome awhile back and on June 1st of this year they relaunched the site as TV.com. At first, I was pretty apprehensive given the fact that some “big corporate entity” took over my once beloved site, but after playing with it a few months, I have to say that it’s better than ever.

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On Friday I had to meet Holly for a late lunch at 3:00pm so that we could go through the “security process” for the CMT Awards. Yes, you read that correctly, Holly and I are going to be part of the Country Music Television Awards tonight. Ok, it’s a small part – a very small part, but for a couple of kids from Baton Rouge, it’s pretty cool to us. We are going to be on the floor right in front of the stage. We have to stand there from 5pm – 10pm, with no chance of sitting (hence the apt nickname “the mosh pit” ), but we’ll probably be on camera throughout the broadcast. How cool is that?

So how did we get this opportunity? Well, Holly’s a member of the “Women in Music Business Association (WMBA)” organization. This group is a fairly connected group and because they work in the industry, and they come across unique opportunities and often pass them along to the group as a whole. This was one of those times. Holly received an e-mail and quickly submitted our names for consideration. We were selected and received an e-mail telling us what we needed to do, where and what the rules are (no cameras, cell phones, etc.).

The first order of business was to show up on Friday to go through “security.” I’m using quotes because it consisted of nothing more than showing your ID to prove you were who you said you were. After that 5 second process, our names were checked off a list and a plastic wristband was attached. We were then told that this wristband was all that we needed to gain admittance on Monday. However, we were not to remove it and if we did we would not be allowed on the floor.

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There’s a new phenomenon happening on the Internet called Broadcatching, which is the act of downloading TV to be viewed on your computer. Some call it the poor man’s Tivo, but whatever you call it, it’s becoming more and more popular. After having discussed this topic with several of my clients and friends, I thought it might be helpful to give a brief overview of just what Broadcatching is and how you too can enjoy this new technology. The best part is that it’s all free!

Disclaimer: Make sure you check with your local, state and countrys laws–In some cases you may be downloading (and uploading) copyrighted material. So far, there hasn’t been a legal case that we know of where broadcast TV networks have stopped or wanted to stop BitTorrent downloads of their shows, but we have heard that pay networks like Showtime, HBO, etc. have sent letters to some individuals for sharing recorded TV. This is all new territory for the most part, and it will be interesting to see what happens and if the TV networks realize that this could be their future distribution chain.
Engadget

The disclaimer above came from an article from Engadget entitled How-To: Broadcatching using RSS + BitTorrent to automatically download TV shows. In the article, they go into great detail regarding using Azureus. Personally I find that client a bit too technical, so I’m going to discuss a much simpler method. That being said, I do recommend reading Engadget’s article because it is an excellent overview of Broadcatching as a whole.

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I admit it, Holly and I are sex addicts. It came on so unexpectedly. At first it seemed like something we could handle, yet slowly but surely we found that we couldn’t get enough of it. Holly would come home from work and we’d lose ourselves for hours at a time. We would go to bed exhausted and wake up bleary eyed and find it hard to go to work. Yet like clockwork, Holly would come home and we’d do it all over again. Well that is until we ran out of episodes. What do you mean, “What am I talking about?” I’m talking about “Sex And The City“. What did YOU think I was talking about? 😉

I’ve been a member of NetFlix for just over a year now and I absolutely love it. It’s allowed me to watch The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and many other shows that I missed by not having HBO. Having been selfish for most of my rentals, I decided to start a series that I thought Holly would like – “Sex And The City”. During it’s heyday, it was quite a popular show, especially with women, so I figured it would be something Holly would enjoy.

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On Monday a nondescript van pulled up in front of my house. What alerted me to its presence was that I heard the sound of a ladder being extended. As I looked out the window I noticed that there was a man climbing the ladder up the pole that houses my Internet connection. I’m connected via a cable modem through Comcast, so my initial opinion was that the next door neighbor was getting high-speed Internet installed at her house. As I made my way back to my desk the thought occurred to me that he could be up to something more “sinister.”

I’ve been very lucky. I haven’t had to pay for basic cable TV for the past 5, or so years. Did I purchase one of the descrambler boxes you read about in your SPAM? No, I acquired my television signal through much more benign methods – I sweet talked the installer. If you don’t have cable TV and you order high speed Internet, they put on a governor that blocks the TV signal and only allows the Internet data to pass. When the installer came to my house close to 4 years ago, and to my apartment 2 years prior to that, I chatted him up and nonchalantly asked if he HAD to install the governor. In both installations, the installer left the governor off. As a result I’ve enjoyed basic cable free of charge. 🙂

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I watch too much TV as it is, but I have been wanting a Tivo for well over a year now. Calvin Parker, of Calivn’s Palm FAQ, turned me onto them, but I’ve simply never taken the plunge and bought one. I like to think it’s the $12.95 monthly service fees that have kept me from buying one, but in reality I think it’s the fear that I’ll never get up from the couch. 🙂

Now that I’ve dipped my toe in the Linux pond, I’m now considering putting together my own Linux box and rolling my own Tivo. Thanks to a Wired article on the subject, I’m considering attempting to install MythTV, which is an OpenSource project that allows you to setup your own digital video recorder. I read this article back in June, but it wasn’t until I saw the Hush Silent Mini-ITX PC that I started giving it some serious thought. There’s a plethora of Mini-ITX cases out there, with all sorts of options and bells and whistles. What appealed to me about the Hush is that is already pre-configured and it’s super quiet, which is perfect if you’re going to have it in your living room.

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By now you’ve no doubt heard about the big kiss between Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on the MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday of this week. In case you haven’t, here’s a quick run down.

For the first number of the evening, Britney and Christina began singing Like A Virgin dressed wedding dress-like attire. Clearly this was an homage to Madonna’s controversial 1985 performance. Part of the way through the song, Madonna comes out in grooms attire, singing her new song Hollywood. After writhing on both of them, she proceeded to give an open mouth kiss to Britney and then one to Christina. You can find stills here and the video here. It was all quite the shocking moment – a mainstay in Madonna’s career. 🙂

All scandalous behavior aside, I mean Madonna is old enough to be their mother, the overwhelming feeling I came away with was that Madonna was passing the skank torch. Madonna’s focus is now more on the spiritual life and on being a mother, not singing and writhing on stage. She’s done the sex thing and now she has matured, so it’s time for the new breed of shock vixens to take the stage. What better way to pass the skank torch than to give a lesbian kiss?

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My television viewing habits have changed a lot this past year. Used to be that I was totally hooked on the Law and Order franchise and a few other shows on the major networks. Now it’s a whole different story, most of my TV viewing is done on cable channels and not on the 3 major networks. The reason is simple – the shows on cable networks is getting better. What I’m finding a little surprising is how my tastes are changing along the way – they are getting a little sexually bipolar.

The first Cable hook to set was 24 on Fox. From the first episode, I knew that I was going to watch every episode and I have. Since then I’m now an avid viewer of The Shield and Nip/Tuck on FX, but more recently, the Discovery Channel has nailed me with a series of hyper-hetero shows, Monster Garage, American Chopper, and Monster House. If that’s not enough, there’s a new show starting on Sunday called American HotRod that could easily be added to my list of faves. So where is the bipolar part come in? I’m glad you asked. 😀

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