Why Hulu Plus Isn’t Worth It

Hulu is great, Hulu Plus isn't (Click to enlarge)

I don’t want to send the wrong message here, so to be clear, Hulu as a advertising-supported service is great. I was never sucked into watching shows for seasons at a time until Hulu and its time-shifting video. Between working full-time, volunteering at church, class in the evening, and just having a life, television certainly wasn’t a priority. When Hulu rolled around, I cut the cable and never looked back.

Hulu Plus, just released to the masses, is a $7.99 a month service (still advertising-supported, I might add) which gives you access to high-definition video (when available) and entire catalogs of episodes from select shows. As it stands, Hulu [free] will typically have available the most recent 5 episodes of any given show. On the other hand, subscribing to Hulu Plus gives access to the entire current season of, for example, Lie to Me and in other circumstances, as in the case of Family Guy, Hulu Plus will unleash the entire run of the show for viewing.

So, why is it not worth it? Right now, you can sign up for a free one-week trial of Hulu Plus. Naturally, I signed up for it, but made sure I placed the cancellation date on my calendar lest I be charged. Immediately, I hop on my new Roku XD with the Hulu Plus channel installed to see what magic has been made available. To my dismay, I find only a handful of shows I subscribe to (out of 19 total) are even available. To see exactly what is going on, I hop on a computer to find my queue has a new column showing what is available and where (see picture above).

I’m still completely blown away by the idiocy of blocking Hulu [free] from being viewed on a  Google TV device, or blocking Hulu [free] from Roku’s line of new media players, but to find out that Hulu Plus (the reason for the blocking) doesn’t even allow me to watch most of my favorite shows from my Roku on a TV even AFTER paying them AND after consenting to watching advertisements, just completely kills the deal.

As it stands… Hulu? The best thing to happen to broadcast TV since color television sets. Hulu Plus? Not worth a dime. I’ll continue using PlayOn to stream Hulu [free] to my Roku, thank you very much.

UPDATE (2/11/11): I just received a marketing email from PlayOn claiming you can add PlayOn to the Roku. Instructions here: http://www.playon.tv/devices/roku

Free Holiday / Christmas Music

There’s no other time of the year which is so uniquely identified by entire genres of music than the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. Then, come January 1st we’re sick of hearing it piped in over store P.A. systems and radio stations. With the explosion of online radio, and the plethora of options available, there’s little need to keep Holiday MP3s on your computer anymore just so you can listen to it for a couple of months out of the year only to take it out of the rotation on December 26. Below I list just a few of the best in online radio which offer holiday music selections. In no particular order:

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• Pandora Radio
  • Head over to Pandora and type in the name of your favorite Holiday song, or artist and Pandora will play more music based on the qualities of that song or artist. When you select an artist, and if the option is available, be sure to select the option which includes the word Holiday. For example, when entering “Tran-Siberian Orchestra,” Pandora will suggest “Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Holiday)”. You’ll want to select that Holiday option to ensure Trans-Siberian’s Beethoven performances aren’t included in your mix. Don’t have any song or artist in mind? That’s okay, Pandora has typical genre selections, too.
• AOL Music
  • I haven’t found anything special about AOL Radio other than its fairly large pre-defined selection of genres. During this time of year you’ll find a bunch of Holiday-themed stations including “Oldies Holiday,” “Top Christmas Songs,” and so on.
• Last.fm Radio
  • Last.fm is known for their social approach to music discovery. They provide plugins for most popular media players to keep track and display your music playing habits and, in turn, will make suggestions for other artists you may be interested in based on your habits. Additionally, you can find your friends on Last.fm and influence each other’s recommendations. However, you can skip past all that socializing,  fire up the Last.fm radio, punch in an artist or genre and start listening!
• Grooveshark
  • Grooveshark boasts an impressive library and music on-demand. Normally, I would recommend Grooveshark, however, for the purposes of quickly playing Holiday-themed music, Grooveshark sinks to the bottom. While you can use it for Holiday tunes, it’s just not as easy to get a nicely packaged station with only Holiday music as some other services.
• Slacker Radio
  • Slacker is a good choice for Holiday-themed music because the service offers both artist or song matching and pre-packaged stations for quick selection of desired genres. Just head over to Slacker Radio, click on the Seasonal category, and select your favorite flavor of Holiday

Have a different place to enjoy Holiday radio? Let us know in the comments!

My Review of Roku XD Player

Automated posting: Originally submitted at Roku

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The new XD steps it up with 1080p HD video quality and extended-range wireless.

Roku XD Player

Does (almost) everything

By Justin from Turlock, CA on 11/16/2010

3out of 5

Pros: Built in Wi-Fi, Easy to use, Ability to add private ch, Easy to set up, Downloadable content, Compact

Cons: Video loading fails, No onoff switch, Inconsistent performance, No DLNA

Best Uses: Living room, Primary TV

Describe Yourself: Power User, Early adopter

The product works well with Netflix, Pandora, and the other channels being added every day. Can’t wait for the Hulu channel to be made available. I’m disappointed that DLNA is not supported yet, and the rumor that when it comes, it won’t be fully supported. I’m also disappointed in the decision to remove the PlayOn channel.

(legalese)

Fun Flowcharts for Geeks

Tech Support Cheat Sheet

Flow chart for Flow Charts

Geek Dating Flowchart

Gadget Buying Flowchart - Should You Get the New...

General Geek Flowchart (not sure what the end result is supposed to be)

Prediction Flowchart for Geek Gifts

Nerd, Dork, Geek, or Boring

Are You a Noob?

Infinite Loop

Verifying Game Files Crash [Steam]

I’m making a note here in the hopes that, perhaps, it will help a frustrated gamer out there, somewhere. The issue at hand occurs when you try to launch Team Fortress 2 (TF2), Half-Life (HL, HL2), or Counter-Strike (CS) (any game connected to Steam that uses the HL2 engine). Steam will launch a small window stating “Verifying Game Files.” Typically, this only takes place after updates to the game, or Steam, if Steam detects any game files have been changed, or if selected to do so manually. The issue occurs, however, on every launch. The process launches, subsequently takes a few seconds to “check” — even though it should take a minute or two — then terminates without launching your desired game. Continue reading »

Looking Back

I have found I’ve fallen a little short of the 365 posts I had hoped to have within the first year or so of site launch. Like I say in the about section, I never meant to do a post a day, or stop at post 365, but I set it as a goal for myself. Maybe I can shoot for 365 within two years launch, a mere 6 months away.

Here’s a few posts and stats I want to “bump:”

Posts: 112
Word Count: 32,444
Comments: 165
Spam comments: 25,195

Approximately 2,600 visits per month, mostly thanks to the post on free church graphics from February and the post on how to CHMOD with Dreamweaver from early last year.

Though not popular, at all, I’ve added about 50 new entries to the post listing where my Flickr photos are used around the web.

A professor of Ethical hacking, networking, and security from CCSF (City College of San Francisco) referenced my post about wardriving with the Android OS in a classroom PowerPoint (here, then ch 8 ) and links to my wardriving results page from the Advanced ethical hacking course web page.

Some Interesting Vacation Finds

Nothing particularly special about these series of photots, just interesting pieces of California I thought to share.

Salinas, CA

A tourist trap situated at the intersection of Highway 101 and 156 is either missing a “u” or an “i”.

The Ugly Truth movie poster

Movie poster for the film “The Ugly Truth.” Can you spot the ugliness here?

Ad in Capitola Mall

This advertisement for the food court in the Capitola Mall uses stock photo featuring a umistakeable cup design. The worst part? There is no In-N-Out in or near this mall!

Stylish yes, but arch support is lacking

I spotted these foot coverings in a shoe shop in downtown Capitola. I assume they’re for show, but I wouldn’t put any money on it.