Hulu

I have been telling family and friends about this service for a while now but apparently they are not in the loop. Or maybe it is because I really do have no life. Whatever the case I have been performing an unofficial and financially imposed experiment where I don't watch TV. I know that's been done and probably for the same reason (like most starving college kids we can't pay the bill for another week) but I am going to see if I can survive off of online content only because that bill always gets paid...that and food. I am, for the same reason, doing my online content on the cheap, or in the case of Hulu.com, free! Now this experiment will probably last until I get to the upcoming payday, but I may not go back to watching TV.

Granted this is not for everyone. There is a small but growing catalog of films including documentaries, action flicks, drama, comedies, and more available on Hulu. The TV content on Hulu, if recent, is usually a day or several behind live broadcasts on the actual tube. For me that is no big deal. The only show I try to catch every week is Burn Notice and it comes on Hulu the day after airing so I have no qualms. For me the best part of Hulu is catching up on TV. After getting out of the Navy I realized that there was a pop culture hole in my life the corresponded to the four years I spent sailing the seven seas as I cruised around Hulu discovering all kinds of thing's I've missed like Hero's season two (I am going to go back and buy season one when I get paid!) and Firefly, which I saw the movie but never watched the series and The Dresden Files which I never saw before but loved!

Speaking of Firefly, Hulu made a big splash in the whole digital streaming content marketing sceam scean (say that five times fast) with Joss Whedon who created Firefly, Buffy, and Angel, recently released Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog to the masses via Hulu only. There is a version available to purchase online on iTunes and you can still stream it on Hulu but the show which was originally launched as three acts was broadcast online only. There was no TV or movie or strait to DVD option here. The low budget, under an hour musical romantic comedy has generated some huge buzz and is extremely entertaining...especially if you want to see NPH sing! That's right, Neil Patrick Harris (a.k.a Doogie Howser, M.D., the blog father who is available to watch on Hulu) stars as Dr. Horrible. It's a pretty great gig and Whedon's strategy is great. Random people like me bable on endlessly about how this is the wave of the future.

And I really think this is where we are headed. Verizon is pushing out more and more fiber optic cable to more people and AT&T is doing something similar. These connections will actually increase a connection almost ten fold and still have room for live TV streaming simultaneously. Pretty impressive. So jump on the wave and watch something for free...or at least add based. It's a pretty small price to pay to sit through a couple 30 second adds to watch Pitch Black or Battlestar Galactica for free!

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Latest Discoveries Around the Interwebs

I was using HelloTXT to update my status. I don't want to bash HelloTXT, but now I see why there was a whole lot more buzz around Ping.fm on the all glorious interwebs. HelloTXT offers you the ability to update multiple "micro-blogging" and social sites around the web such as Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, Facebook, Myspace, and more. Ping.fm does the same thing. HelloTXT allows you to update your status from a Jabber/Google Talk client, email, and SMS (unless you are with Verizon...) and supposedly integrates with Facebook as an app. I haven't witnessed a working Facebook app, then again, Facebook keeps changing their mind on how apps are supposed to work so who knows.

What sets Ping.fm ahead is that it allows you to do all of this (except SMS as far as I can tel but is easily overcomed by texting the email address they provide you with) as well as set up groups based on your mico-blogging, status updates, and blogging preferences. If you are reading this post then it was sent via Ping.fm (UPDATE: and cleaned up later in Blogger). The best part is it will post this to not only my Blogger account where I do most of my posting, but my Myspace blog will also update. I have a group set up for my status updates so those quick "I'm eating pizza" updates are sent only to those services I choose and the more deep but brief messages to to the micro-blogging services I prefer. On top of these features you can update from more IM clients (Gtalk, Yahoo, Messenger, and AIM) and they have a iGoogle gadget and Facebook application. I didn't have the time to play with the Facebook app but it look functioning which is better the HelloTXT and I will give it a longer try and send a dent with my thoughts. Facebook's new interface is rolling out today and Facebook isn't responding to my clicks. There is also the option to send in not only text but pictures which is hosted on Ping.fm.

It looks like a great start and it's still on beta so I expect a whole lot more features to trickle out. This is going to be my new one stop shop for all my quick updates and maybe even take over for my blog posts. I would love to have more options when posting to blogs. So far it looks like it's standard text and a title only but one can hope a more full featured blog editor will roll out soon.

UPDATE: I think I will wait until a better Blog editor is out as I am not only have to clean up my horrible grammer but also add links, pictures, and any other rich media by editing the post outside of Ping.fm.

My other discovery today that has been clogging my Gmail account has been ProBlogger's Darren Rowse experiment that has really put a boost on my social interactions out there. I want to shout out to all those who have subscribed to my various social spots and look forward to the discussions! Thanks for the adds. If I didn't add back don't be offended, I either got a bad vibe and already hate you or haven't got around to it and if you haven't, follow the link and check it out.

One last thing I would like to post is a question for the comments as I want to know if my comments are working and that question is this: Is anyone using Hulu.com? I love it and have become obsessed and I know there are many more out there and I wanted to know what your thoughts and opinions were about it. Have you used it? If not, why? If so, what are your impressions?

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com
http://ping.fm/lZTxw

How To Add Star Ratings to your Blogger Blog -- Blogger Buster

Thanks to the amazing blog, Blogger Buster by Amanda, I now have star ratings under every post. I had to manually copy and paste the code into my Blogger template.

Go ahead, rate away and be sure to check out Blogger Buster!

How To Add Star Ratings to your Blogger Blog -- Blogger Buster

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

The best Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux analogy EVER!

Ever tried to explain one operating system to another? Well now you have the best analogy ever:

From VistaNews - Vista vs. Leopard vs. Linux: "Using a Mac is like living in a downtown penthouse. You have everything done for you and it all looks very slick, but you pay a high price. You have a doorman to pamper you and somebody else takes care of the maintenance, but you can't make a lot of changes to the property.

Using Windows is like living in the suburbs. You get more square footage for your dollar but you have to mow your own lawn and when something goes wrong, you have to fix it yourself or pay someone extra to do it. You can make changes to your property but you might have to deal with deed restrictions or city ordinances or homeowner association rules.

Using Linux is like living out in the country. Compared to the other options, property is dirt cheap and you can do whatever you want to it without having to follow codes and get inspections. But you'll probably have to do a lot more of the work yourself and you need a lot of building expertise or else you may get yourself into big trouble and find your house falling down all around you because you didn't do it correctly."

Now get out there and pick your property!

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Flickchart makes me angry...at myself

My begging worked!

My beta invite was quickly accepted after some (slightly) subtle pleading on FriendFeed. After that Flickchart effectively took over my day after I set up my account! I went about pouring through the site and found one thing was the common denominator. This site made me angry. I was angry that I had to choose if Return of the Jedi was better than The Green Mile. How could you ask me such a thing (Return of the Jedi won)? Plus the taunting above each movie poster? Too much to bear. I must love the punishment, though, as I couldn't stop rating films.

Flickchart displays two films for you to choose between. You can click on either movie poster to choose one or select "Haven't seen it" to be presented another film from their large database of flicks. If you don't quite remember the film you can click "Watch Trailer" and see a clip if there is a trailer available. Each time you rate something the chosen flick shows up on the right hand side with a link to buy it on Amazon (just in case you don't already have the Indian Jones trilogy) and the left hand side shows your current Top Twenty All Time Films. Any films you select "Haven't seen it" also shows up on the right hand side, again with a link to Amazon for your capitalistic pleasure. If you need to take a break from rating movies, you can start discussing some of the mash-ups in the 'Discuss' section. There is where you can debate out once and for all who would kicks more ass: Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker (Luke...duh, he has the Force!).

There is the customary basic profile editing features and tucked away in the settings section is the ability for you to have "Seen a movie" or basically put it back into the queue for it to be rated by you.

I did have a couple times when I rated a movie and I would get a...Fail Whale but a much better one about a 1908 Russian Space Impact and I only got it twice. The only other basic surfing complaint is it can be slow sometimes. I was on a T3 and the load times between movie selections was taking an above average amount of time. May have been a momentary problem as at home on DSL it was much snappier. It could have been the ad-blocker as well...not sure. Feature additions that might be nice (I've already asked for some of these and will get around to asking for the rest latter) is a "Neither" button that would allow you to not like either movie displayed. This is just a convenience thing, but I can dream. The ability to post a HTML snippet on my MySpace page (in the films section) or on my blog would be great to let my friends know what I like and I could check out what they are into as well. This could help out the "viralness" the the site as well; see also Facebook app and FriendFeed integration.

I don't know what these guys have planned to make money off of this project but my guess (or recommendation) might be that they talk to MovieTickets.com or Fandango and let you but upcoming movie tickets for the new releases. I could also see them doing merchandise and other things to promote films or even tie in with Hulu or Joost to actually watch full length films or clips of your favorites. Netflix integration is on the way according to ReadWriteWeb. I think this site has a whole lot of potential and am excited to see what the future brings for them.

Oh...and if I don't post back here for a while you know I'm over there rating movies!

Flickchart

http://www.flickchart.com

ReadWriteWeb's Take

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/flickchart_your_list_of_best_m.php

Found originally via Coffee and Celluloid

http://coffeeandcelluloid.com/2008/07/14/flickchart-finding-the-best-movies/#

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Brian

http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Flickchart - Hot or Not of Movies

I haven't had the opportunity to use it but this looks like a very interesting concept. Flickchart lets you very simply rate your favorite and not-so-favorite movies by letting you choose between which two movies is the best. It then develops a list of your top favorite movies and lets you discuss your favorites with friends.

Now if they would give me an invite to the beta I could give them a better glowing review...hint...hint...

Flickchart
http://www.flickchart.com

Coffee & Celluloid
http://coffeeandcelluloid.com/2008/07/14/flickchart-finding-the-best-movies/#

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Brian's Latest - Now Mobile by Mofuse

I thought it might be too good to be true but I tried it out and it is not just good, but great! Mofuse dropped the fee for the Pro version of their hosting site and is offering mobile website hosting for everyone for free! Not only that but all you have to do is punch in your web address or RSS feed address and presto, you get your own website for your iPhone or other mobile web capable device. Brian's Latest Mobile is my mobile site which I am still in the process of fixing up. Mofuse imports your feeds and, in the case of using a blog, displays the top feeds as your content. You can also customize the content, add HTML, change the design and colors, upload logos, and more!

Mofuse offers the ability to use your own custom domain name so, for example, visiting http://m.braincase.biz might take you to the mobile version of the BrainCase website (it doesn't...yet) as well as tracking and monitoring, and the ability to monetize your sites mobile web experience.

I am going to keep messing with it for my personal blog and see about rolling it out for the company site if it is promising. Until then, check it out...I think this is going to be huge!

Heads up from Mashable.

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Great weekend! And Hellboy 2 Was Good, Too!

I really had a great birthday weekend! Thanks to Stu and Co for letting us crash the party! My wife and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. Thanks to all those who showed for Hellboy 2. It was great seeing everyone. I liked the movie even though it was rather slow at times. The movie has some very flashy visuals that are absolutely amazing. The troll market scenes reminded me of the first time I watched Star Wars as a kid on VHS (that part where they are in the cantina with all the aliens sipping mojito's) and how it really sucked me into the film. They could have edited out a couple parts that seemed to drag out the film but there were also some gem moments as well. I especially loved when two heart struck hero's had a drunken karioki bit. Absolutely hilarious. The action was very well done. The main bad guy really had some moves. Elves must have been some kung fu masters back in the day.All in all a great time.--Brianhttp://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

This is a test

I have just tried to setup Intense Debate, a replacement for Blogger's commenting system. Hope it works well. Disqus, you tried but I haven't seen any response on when you will find a fix. Hopefully soon. Until then...it's Intense Debate.

Update:

Intense Debate worked wonderfully! It integrated with my blog perfectly! The only thing it took me a second to realize is that the commenting system only shows up in individual posts not on the front page. Maybe Disqus did work after all? It doesn't matter because Intense Debate allows for you to sign up using OpenID and that was the winning ticket! Excellent software!

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Birthday this Saturday

This Saturday is my birthday and we are going to see Hellboy 2 at the Rave at Patton Creek! Come and hang out. Afterward is up in the air at this point (really what bar to go to) but it should be a lot of fun. We will meet about 4pm outside the Rave.Hit Call Me or send me a IM or email for more information.See you there!--Brianhttp://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

New DNS Vulnerability To Watch Out For

Be aware there is a DNS vulnerability out that can really compromise your personal information.

The official release can be found here:
http://securosis.com/2008/07/08/dan-kaminsky-discovers-fundamental-issue-in-dns-massive-multivendor-patch-released/

For something that is a bit more user friendly to understand explains it:

just like Web sites being cached by your browser, DNS (Domains
resolving to specific IP addresses) is also cached. From this
vunerability, these "Caching Name Servers" can be easily hacked and
from there, you could have people on, say an entire ISP, going to
whatever site you wanted to. Think phishing, but on a MUCH larger
scale. - Tim Hoeck

Or get a great explanation of how DNS works (and can be evil and good) here:
http://www.scribkin.com/2008/06/13/my-isp-is-a-dns-sellout/

A tool to check your DNS from Dan who found the vulnerability is hosted at:
http://doxpara.com/

And if you use OpenDNS (like I started to a month ago, thanks J. Phil at skribkin) you should not have been affected:
http://blog.opendns.com/2008/07/08/opendns-proven-to-be-the-most-secure-dns/

Thanks to tsudohnimh who started the word on Friend Feed!
http://www.knowthenetwork.com/blog/?p=701

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Brian

http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Welcome Patrick!

This news is a bit dated now but I wanted to welcome Chris Brown's newest addition to his family into the world. Congratulations!

Chris: Thought I'd show you what we've been up to over this way. Stephen is holding Patrick Seth Brown, born 20 Jun 08. 7 lbs, 8 ozs. 20.0" long. Mother and son doing well.

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Brian

http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

July 12th Movie Night and Birthday

Anyone is invited to the celebration of my 25th birthday on July 12th. We will be seeing Hellboy 2 and the time is still TBD. Check back here for times!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Trailer)

Hope to see everyone there!

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Convert MP3's to WMA's on a Mac For Free

Something I found today that is a first (that I have been able to find) for the Mac. I spent a good while hunting down a MP3 to WMA converter for Mac. I know it's pretty obscure but my Verizon phone would only recognize WMA files and I'm cheap. Visit youconvertit.com and try it out. It let's you upload a file and convert it to whatever format you select. I haven't demoed if anyone else needs to convert audio (or a whole bunch more) check it out!

Thanks to makeuseof.com for the initial find and write up.

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Some cheap entertainment

I didn't even have to wait for a package to come in. This made me so happy today at work.

http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

The Day The Earth Stood Still [2008] - OFFICIAL TRAILER (HD)

http://youtube.com/v/xP1NVnLY_vU

I am looking forward to this one!

I Met The Walrus

http://youtube.com/v/jmR0V6s3NKk

Absolutely something everyone needs to watch and heed. Good stuff from John Lennon.

Remote log in

The fact is most of us get board at work. I know I do. The firewall at my place of employment is especially restrictive. So to get around those pesky moments where it blocks a Microsoft forum as an "Adult Website" while researching why the servers are crashing, I turn to my home PC. I know it's not green but my PC at home stay's on all the time. I have it running multiple things (torrents, media server, DVD ripper) and I can't bear for it to be offline and unreachable. I started out forwarding my VNC ports and logging in using that protocol and I still do from time to time. But I got worried that there was no encryption for VNC and I was doing banking and other sensitive things using it.

So I signed up for a LogMeIn account and haven't looked back since. LogMeIn (LMI) is on every computer I own now. It is so effective at providing me with a home remote log in for my Mac's and PC's that is safe and secure and completely done through my web browser. If you need something more advanced they have a paid version but the basic membership is free.

Now from work I can check any website I need to (except YouTube, I don't get any sound) and I find myself offloading a lot of tasks off of my work computer to home when it get's bogged down (I have the fourth best machine in the company and it is still less than two gig's of RAM and slower than hell).

Give it a try.

logmein.com

Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

I want you PepsiStuff

I am a freebie lover. Those who know me know this...if it's free, it's me! So I am asking the interwebs: Send me your PepsiStuff! Every time you drink a Pepsi, keep the cap and email me the code. It will only take a second and you will be supporting a poor veteran living the American dream on this Fourth of July!

bmbufalo [at] gmail [dot] com

Thanks in advance.

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

July 12th Birthday/Movie Night Special Announcement

I am happy to announce that the July 12th movie night corresponds with my birthday this year! Because of this I feel the need to choose the movie night movie! Come celebrate my quarter-century mark at the Rave Motion Picture's at Patton Creek. Stay tuned for the time but expect a early showing. I hope the rest of the day will be spent drunk. Can't wait to see everyone and have a happy Fourth of July!

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Technorati Tags: special announcement, birthday, movie night

So short a lifespan...Identi.ca's already having growning pains

That title sound's negative but the open source Twitter is already seeing the famed Fail Whales.  Identi.ca was all the rage on yesterdays tech blogs claiming to be the Twitter killer.  Today brings about timeouts and error messges.In there defense according the there feed on FriendFeed:

I mean goodness, folks. it's open source version 0.4.1 identi.ca and @evan have both been up for nearly 24 hours with something like 3x the number of users expected in the first week. They're doing what looks like a planned or at least anticipated server change. The transparency is amazing. I think the IM stayed up through the change, but there have been DNS propagation issues. Login cookies might not work for a while. - exador23

When you visit the site at http://www.identi.ca it redirects you to http://hewitt.controlezvous.ca.  Registering accounts fail (sometimes and attempting to use OpenID errors out.  So the growing pains begin.  I really hope this service pans out and fixes what we all dislike about Twitter.  I knew I should have signed up for an account yesterday!

--Brianhttp://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Nothing to see here, move along

I have imported all the blog entries from Hoover Movie Crew's Blog. It is looking like the move over will be much less painful than I thought. I don't know if this is in the regular Blogger but in Blogger in Draft you can export and import blog posts in the settings. Excellent feature! Makes life simple.

There should be more improvements as the next few day's pass. I'll get this thing straight eventually.

I love tinkering.

UPDATE: I am sorry about the double entries in the RSS feeds.

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Brian
http://bmbufalo.blogspot.com

Blogger Tip Before Bed

As I wait for the latest patch for Call of Duty 4 I have a quick Blogger tip that is so obvious it hurts.  I was cruising the interwebs wondering "How are these Bloggers adding navigation links and individual pages to their blogs" and began investigating.  Checking out SketchBlog, one of the best designed Blogger blogs I've seen, I noticed that each of his "About Me" and "Wallpaper" sub-pages were actually just posts on his site!  You pro-bloggers are grinding your teeth and screaming "Noob" (to which you would be correct).  But I thought it was relivant to share and so simple I thought it might go unnoticed. 

The process of actually making it happened is simple as well.  Create a couple of blog entries  with or without content (you can add it later and can set the post to an earlier date so it doesn't show up as a recent entry), add a HTML/Text widget to your blog from the layout section and get creative.  I have added a very simple (and incomplete) one to my page.  The HTML is bellow.  I'll finish it up later.  It looks like COD4 is finished downloading.  Enjoy!

<center>
Home<span style="font-weight: bold;"> | </span>Hoover Movie Crew<span style="font-weight: bold;"> | About Me</span>
</center>

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Brian

Blogged with the Flock Browser

New Patch 1.7 for Call of Duty 4

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has a patch available to 1.7 on Infinity Wards website.  I had an option to update through the game itself as a new option appeared on the main menu screen stating "Auto Update" that brought me here:

Minor fixes according to the site but looks like us PC gamers must update as most servers already have by now.

Here is a direct download, although I don't know how long it will last so get it while it's hot! <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/I8hHHYXD46GYeAl97tIXfw?authkey=G0KJyvBDqyI" title="- Uploaded with the Flock Browser - http://www.flock.com">

Blogged with the Flock Browser

I may not be the first but definitely the most astonished...

In my quest to lock down my home computer from prying nephew's whom I co-habitat with, I happened across an article from LifeHacker for a free bit of software from Microsoft that allows you to download and limit access to your PC. I liked and clicked which brought me to this screen:<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gZZRC2yjwBhtRwJtJctDyg?authkey=G0KJyvBDqyI" title="- Uploaded with the Flock Browser - http://www.flock.com">

The thumbnail sucks but I started to download the software in Firefox. It turns out the evil empire is Fox friendly! Who would have guessed? My question is: Is this part of the opening of MS or has this been available for some time and I am just out of the loop?<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gZZRC2yjwBhtRwJtJctDyg?authkey=G0KJyvBDqyI" title="- Uploaded with the Flock Browser - http://www.flock.com">

Blogged with the Flock Browser