So much in the world

So warning ahead of time, the link is not safe for work!!!

Any how, one of the tumblrs I follow posted a <NSFW> link to this </NSFW> and I knew I needed to watch this show.  That is a frame from Season 2 episode 1 of Sherlock.  I looked and guess what season on is on Netflix, if you don't have netflix get a disposable email address and start a free trial, it really isn't that hard.  Any how if you followed the NSFW link above don't let that set your hops too high, the show runs on BBC before the watershed, so typically you won't see the implied nudity but damn it I really enjoy the show.  I've only watched one episode of the first season as I'm waiting for my wife to catch up so we can watch them together.

As for the current season, while it may eventually end up on netflix if you cannot possible wait one second, check out a little program called expat shield.  It will give you a British IP so yo can stream shows from the BBC iplayer.  It seems legit, but if you have any nervousness about installing it, you should check out one of my favorite security softwares on earth Sandboxie.  It lets you install things without letting it really install.  It installs it into a sort of sandboxed part of your computer.  Uninstalls are super quick and it logs all the changes it tried to make to your computer, pretty handy for investigating software.

Anyhow hope you enjoy the show it's really pretty quick-witted, and similar in pacing and theme to the Sherlock Holmes blockbuster movies you've no doubt heard about; just with real British people and it is set in modern day.

More Netflix thoughts

Netflix I just don't understand what planet you are on when you make decisions, but it felt like everyone but Hulu had thrown in the towel on competing (albeit indirectly) with you, and how Amazon is storming in to compete on streaming and Blockbuster is swooping in to offer a vertically integrated experience for the people baffled by your splitting in to a less convenient two websites for your product.

The degree to which this service decided to fuck itself just makes me sick.  I don't know that I can think of a worse handling of a strategy than oh I don't know say HP.  Netflix's stock is down around $127 from it's high of $295more than half of the market cap wiped out by arrogance and as near as I can tell abject stupidity.

Am I still a customer? For a little while, we just don't know what to do.  My wife is going to start the hulu plus trial on the xbox next week to see if it's got some entertainment for her.  She watches tv shows on streaming and has an iPad so this is a decent option for her, we are expecting parents so we will start our Amazon Mom trial here soon which is a free year of Amazon Prime and 30% off diapers (oh sweet jeebus the diapers are coming!)  But all of this comes back to these services where not on my radar before Netflix decided to tear itself apart.  Not even sort of worth overcoming the inertia to look, now they are.  That my friends is a far fall from grace for a company that hardly was on the radar in 2009 and had exploded since then.

I'll let you know where we end up if we end up anywhere, the dvd's by mail is way too convenient and way too many tv shows are only on DVD so we would drop the anemic streaming before the DVD's (especially with the Starz deal going away).

Netflix thoughts

Someone shared the Dear Netflix page in my Facebook stream, and for those of you that cannot read it don't worry I'm going to summarize here shortly.  The gist of this open letter is that Netflix is changing their business model, and the changes themselves could have been swallowed (with one exception) had the company been earnest with what they are doing and upfront about why they where doing it.  This is a company that has enjoyed enormous goodwill from its customers, their growth over the last few years is a testament to how much it users told their friends about how great Netflix was.  You simply cannot buy that mind-share and marketing.  Users loved that it was affordable, and easy to use.  We felt like it was good bang for our buck and we used it, oh did we use it.  When it was just a DVD by mail service it was still miles ahead of Blockbuster.  I basically stopped going there because Netflix was so convenient, you can see the affect that had on Blockbuster in the real world.

I want this to be true

Last night my wife was watching The Pixar Story on Netflix and I could have wanted to gag at all the people that where falling all over themselves about how amazing Steve Jobs is.  Then I have to read on every fucking gadget website about how much of a Genius Steve Jobs is, and how cool all of his stuff is.  So when I saw this on Geeks are Sexy, god I wanted it to be true.  I really, really wish that Sean Connery gave Jobs the kiss off.  I just don't think this passes the bullshit-o-meter test.

Either way I'm fucking James Bond is the best line ever.  I no doubt would use that all the time if I where an actor that played James Bond.  

Digital Product overload

The level of choice in the digital home market space is starting to reach a level, that I have having trouble choosing what path to walk. I have been pretty firmly grounded in the Media Center product family, and happy with that choice. I now run entirely off on one Media Center Pc and Xbox 360 extenders in the home, and have found that experience pretty stable, and acceptable for the wife. There are a great deal of plug-ins for the Media Center that can extend the functionality (The Green Button is great for information about this and everything Media Center related) but watching a video about plug-ins that are coming out for the Popcorn Hour, and seeing some of the Sage-TV extenders go on sale recently makes me wonder if I picked the wrong horse. There are some great things coming out of Non-Microsoft companies, even the Apple TV is starting to look useful with a little hackery ala Boxee. I know that I am moving more towards the Microsoft vision of the connected home with a powerful PC that drives the home media experience on less powerful presentation devices, and a laptops for misc entertainment experience.

Hulu, and online content are changing the options to a large degree, and smaller (surprisingly) powerful devices are looking like they might displace the experience I have bought into all together. If we see Boxee on Xbox360 with out plug-ins like SecondrunTV and better STB style DVR's I may have to rethink the whole living room altogether. That said, I am more than a little excited to try out the NetFlix Streaming, as we may soon give up on Cable all together.