Claude Shannon

Every digital device you use operates on a string of ones and zeroes, the binary "yes/no" decision at the foundation of modern computing. It's a concept so fundamental to our modern day that we rarely stop to wonder where it came from. But it's all the work of one man: Claude Shannon, whose fascinating story you've likely never heard.

The name would mean nothing to me, either, if it weren't for this gorgeous little video essay from Delve. Shannon, a mathematician, electronic engineer, and cryptographer, was the first person to understand that any form of data could be transferred in the most basic packets: bits, nothing more than a slew of yes and no toggles. As Delve explains, that idea forever changed the way we communicate.

Shannon's work earned him little fame, but the first principles he theorized make every digital thing we do today possible. As we type, tap, pinch, zoom, dictate, download, message and chat our way through every day, it's hard to imagine what life would be like without his innovations.

[via facebook]

Note: Claude Shannon was written about in the first chapter of Fortune's Formula.

OTA DVRs

Aereo promised a breakthrough service for cord-cutters: the ability to watch and record over-the-air TV without the hassle of an antenna or additional hardware for $8 to $12 a month.

Wednesday's Supreme Court decision against Aereo means the company's current service is effectively illegal. (CBS, the parent company of CNET, is one of the companies that brought the suit against Aereo.) But that doesn't mean that cable cutters are out of options. Over the last year, several compelling over-the-air recording solutions have hit the market, making it easier for cord cutters to supplement streaming video services like Netflix with traditional network television, as long as you get reception.

I've reviewed most of the major over-the-air DVRs and the good news is the options are far better than they've been in the past. Each solution has its strengths and weaknesses, so which one is best for you will largely depend on your budget, viewing habits, and level of tech savvy.

Let's take a look at what's available.

TiVo Roamio: The best, if you're willing to pay

Channel Master DVR+: No-frills recording at a budget price

Nuyvvo Tablo: Innovative option that's best for techies

Simple.TV 2: Improved, but with competition

Other options: Skip the DVR or roll your own (Hauppage HD PVR)

*** [6/7/16 inspired from a scribbled note written who knows how long ago.  I looked at this before but I guess I never wrote about it here in this blog.]

Another option is the Silicon Dust HD Homerun Prime.

It's not an OTA DVR, but is a possible replacement for the DVR from your cable company.  It accepts a cable card.  However it doesn't connect directly to your TV.  It connects to your computer which can be connected to your TV.  Currently works with Windows 7 media center.  Alternatively you can use an XBox 360 as a Windows Media Center Extender to watch on your TV.  I don't know the current compatibility with Windows 10.

The homepage says "QAM - Live US CableTV with DRM Support (CableCARDtm conditional access) streaming Premium cable channels throughout your home."  So maybe you can just connect your cable directly to it?  [Well, the HDHomerun CONNECt apparently can.]

Check out Lon Seidman's youtube videos for more info.

Silicon Dust's OTA DVR product is the HDHomerun CONNECT.

You connect your OTA antenna to it and attach it to your router.  Then any computer on the network can access the signal and play and record TV.  Apparently it supports the Fire TV?

And coming up (hopefully), the HD Homerun DVR which would reduce the need for the convoluted hardware setups (and Windows Media Center).

I recall I saw the HD Homerun mentioned on twit.  Don't think it was this episode.  Or was it this one? (which mentions Clear QAM and tuners with CableCards).  Yeah, I think this is the one.

Android TV

Android TV is one of the myriad new things that Google announced this year at I/O, and the platform is very different from Google’s previous effort with Google TV, a project announced in 2010 and updated continually since but that still hasn’t managed to become a significant part of Google’s lineup.

Google is looking to change all that with Android TV. It’s a brand new platform, designed with simplicity and relevance in mind, with an interface that puts a strong emphasis on content first, and then offers up apps ordered based on your usage patterns and focuses finally on delivering top-quality Android games right to your big screen.

Content, apps and games; that’s it, and it’s a smart move by Google to pare down and focus on the core experiences that matter to TV watchers. Over and over, the company spoke to its new desire to provide the right interface for the right situation on the right device, and Android TV is a great example of that theory put into action, at least based on our early impressions.

It’s similar in many ways to what Amazon has done with the Fire TV, but Google’s interface is better-designed and less confusing, and it probably will have a better time incorporating content sources from third-party providers than will Amazon, thanks to its developer tools and the advantages devs have by building apps that work across Android wherever it happens to appear.

*** [10/29/14]

Google announces its Nexus Player.  It reminds the cordkillers folks of the Amazon Fire TV.

the AND car (Elio)

NEW YORK — Some time next year, a company called Elio Motors claims it will begin building a car in its Louisiana factory that will get 84 miles per gallon on the highway and that will sell for a base price of $6,800.

Yes, $6,800.

It won’t be a tiny little deathtrap, either. It’ll have a five-star crash safety rating. At least, that’s what Elio is promising.

That sounds like the wish-list of someone with zero contact with reality, but Elio Motors executives insist it’s possible thanks to the car’s odd lay-out and the complete lack of any new technology. Yes, these folks actually brag that their car has nothing new on it.

Paul Elio, who founded Elio Motors from the crumbled remains of his auto parts design business, said this car isn’t intended to replace the family car, and by the looks of it, clearly it’s not.

“We want to be an ‘and’ not an ‘or’” he said.

The Elio Motors car — it has no model name and they plan to keep it that way — is a three wheeler. There are two wheels out front, separated from the rest of the body, and one back wheel. The engine — 3 cylinders producing 55 horsepower — rides in the nose driving the front wheels.

The weird three-wheeled shape optimizes aerodynamics by cutting way down on frontal area and giving the car a nearly ideal “teardrop” body. Having only three wheels also allows the Elio car to be, in legal terms, a motorcycle.

That should let the company skate by on much looser safety requirements. But, Elio insists, they don’t plan on taking advantage of that loophole. The car will be tested in regular automobile crash tests and, they insist, it will get top marks.

Elio Motors says it’s keeping prices low and chances for success high by keeping things simple. All the parts are being made by established automotive suppliers. The cars will be built in a factory that used to make Hummer H3s and Chevrolet trucks. Even the manufacturing process has been simplified, company executives say. The cars will be built with no options. Most options will be added on after the car is built.

The Elio reminded me of another car: the now defunct Aptera.

The Aptera was an electric car that also used a three-wheel design. It looked like a private aircraft fuselage that was driving itself to the airport. I drove the Aptera back in 2010. That was after years of starts, stalls as the company tried to actually produce its revolutionary new vehicles.

Then, less than a year after I tested the car, Aptera went down for the final time, never having made it to market.

On the other hand, while the Elio car seems crazy and weird, Tesla seemed like a long shot to me once, too. The fact remains, though, start-ups in the auto business have a tough road ahead of them.

*** [8/16/14]

Phoenix-based Elio plans to start making the cars next fall at a former General Motors plant in Shreveport, Louisiana. Already, more than 27,000 people have reserved one. Elio hopes to make 250,000 cars a year by 2016. That's close to the number Mazda sells in the U.S.

Supreme Court rules against Aereo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that online TV service Aereo Inc, backed by media mogul Barry Diller, violates copyright law by using tiny antennas to provide subscribers with broadcast network content via the Internet.

In a 6-3 ruling seen as important to the future of television for media companies and consumers alike, the court handed a victory to the four major TV broadcasters and cast Aereo’s immediate future into doubt.

The court said the service constitutes a public performance of copyrighted content. For the networks, the victory protects the estimated $3 billion in so-called retransmission fees that broadcasters get from cable and satellite TV systems.

Justice Stephen Breyer said in the majority opinion that the ruling should not spell trouble for cloud-based content services in which personal files - including TV shows and music - are stored remotely on the Internet on servers from companies such as Google Inc , Microsoft Corp , DropBox Inc and Box Inc.

Aereo had argued that cloud services use the Internet in the same way as it does to store and transfer copyrighted content.

The case came before the court when Walt Disney Co's ABC network, CBS Corp, Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc appealed a decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April 2013 that denied their request to shut Aereo down while litigation moves forward.

Aereo, backed by Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, charges users a low monthly fee to stream live broadcasts of TV channels on mobile devices using miniature antennas that the company hosts. Aereo does not pay the broadcasters. It was introduced in 2012.

During oral arguments in the case in April, the Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical about Aereo's position in the copyright dispute with major broadcasters, but several raised concerns about how a ruling against the startup could affect cloud computing services.

Some broadcasters such as CBS Corp had even threatened to cut off their free-to-air broadcast signals or create their own low-cost Internet feeds of the channel were Aereo to win.

[11/21/14] Aereo files bankruptcy

13 pioneers

that forever changed consumers' lives

Apple
Facebook
Google
Netflix
Craigslist
Amazon
Wikipedia
TiVo
Pandora
Square
Magellan
Blackberry
Tesla

No, eBay?

[via facebook]

inside the mind of Elon Musk

When Robert Downey Jr. found out that he was going to play Iron Man in the movies, he said, "We need to sit down with Elon Musk."

That's because Musk — colonizer of Mars, transformer of cars, shepherd of solar panels — is the closest thing we've got to a superhero.

Born in South Africa, he sold his first software — a game called Blastar — when he was only 11. He went on to found and sell a startup to Compaq for $300 million in 1999, and parlayed that into a major stake in PayPal, which eBay bought for $1.5 billion in 2002.

With that dough, he got into three world-changing companies: Tesla, SpaceX, and Solar City. And though Tesla and SpaceX nearly went bankrupt, each of the companies is now shifting their industries.

Yet Musk — with his 100-hour workweeks, estimated $11.7 billion net worth, and habit of never taking a note in meetings — remains enigmatic. So we went looking for clues to his vision, goals, and thinking process.

Here's what we found.

[via facebook]

FreeNAS

an operating system that fits on a flash drive (and more)

The Steve Jobs of Toilets

Yoshiaki Fujimori wants to be the Steve Jobs of toilets.

Like iPhones, app-packed commodes are objects of desire in Mr. Fujimori's Japan. The lids lift automatically. The seats heat up. Built-in bidets make cleanup a breeze. Some of them even sync with users' smartphones via Bluetooth so that they can program their preferences and play their favorite music through speakers built into the bowl.

Three-quarters of Japanese homes contain such toilets, most of them made by one of two companies: Toto, Japan's largest maker of so-called sanitary ware, or Lixil Corp, where Mr. Fujimori is the chief executive.

Now Mr. Fujimori is leading a push to bring them to the great unwashed. In May, Lixil plans to add toilets with "integrated bidets" to the lineup of American Standard Brands, which Lixil acquired last year for $542 million, including debt.

While bidets have often served as a byword for Old World debauchery in the U.S., Mr. Fujimori said Americans would welcome bidet-equipped toilets into their homes once they see them sold under a familiar name. Few people realized they needed smartphones until Apple's (AAPL) iPhone came along. So it will be in the U.S. with American Standard's new toilets, Mr. Fujimori said.

"Industry presents iPhone -- industry presents shower toilet," Mr. Fujimori said in an interview at Lixil's headquarters in Tokyo. "We can create the same type of pattern."

Toto and Kohler, a U.S. manufacturer of bathroom fittings, have been selling toilets with bidet functions in the U.S. for several years. Beyond a niche market of Hollywood celebrities and early adopters, however, they feature more prominently in American bathroom humor than American bathrooms. The price, which can range up to more than $5,000 for high-end models -- more than 10 times the price of some conventional toilets -- is only one reason.

In a 2011 appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the actress Whoopi Goldberg called her Toto Washlet "the greatest invention on the face of the earth." Homer Simpson, on the other hand, merely looked bemused when, during a 1999 episode of "The Simpsons" that was set in Japan, a hotel toilet announced: "Welcome. I am honored to accept your waste."

power cord labels

[via facebook]

Windows 8.1

finally decided to upgrade the Windows 8.0 on my notebook
took a while to download
it ran in the background as I was doing other things (didn't even realize it was downloading)

complete installation / it requires you to have a Microsoft account (I used my hotmail account)
now has a new desktop background
a start button on the desktop (which goes to the Metro desktop)
and a power off button near the top right of the Metro screen

OneDrive must now be part of Windows 8.1 as it is being installed automatically

now asks for a password on startup (your Microsoft account)
set it so it logs in automatically

just noticed it boots to the desktop instead of the Metro screen
seemed to take longer to boot up now though (at first anyway)
I also see an option to x out of Metro apps (in addition to dragging them down)

tried accessing some files on OneDrive.  at first it didn't work.  In my case, I tried running editpad, but it errored out because the .ini file wasn't available.  So I clicked on it and it came up in notepad.  I guess that made the .ini file available because editpad worked after that.

I see now I could have right-clicked to make it available offline (which I assume downloads it to the computer).

I also now see that Windows 8.1 requires a password after entering sleep mode
Changed it to not require a password on wakeup

Particle Fever

I suppose I should be interested in this movie.  Maybe it'll come to Netflix or RedBox and I'll can watch it.

In the meantime, you can watch this (which might be just as good or better - it seems really good after watching the first minute or so).

see also The Footprint of God for more on the Higgs boson

[10/6/14] Particle Fever currently streaming on Netflix.  Apparently arrived in July.

Turing Test finally passed

Judges in England were fooled into thinking the computer program they were conversing with was a human on Saturday — making the it the first to pass the 65-year-old Turing Test.        

"Eugene Goostman" is not a 13-year-old boy, but 33 percent of the people who partook in five minute keyboard conversations with the computer program at the Royal Society in London thought it was, according to The University of Reading, which organized the test.

The Turing Test is based on “the father of modern computer science” Alan Turing’s question, “Can Machines Think?”

If a computer is mistaken for a human by more than 30 percent of judges, it passes the test, but no computer has accomplished the feat — until now.

“Eugene” was created in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by software development engineer Vladimir Veselov and software engineer Eugene Demchenko, according to the University of Reading. The computer program was tested along with four others during Saturday night’s event, but was the only one to thoroughly imitate a person.

“Our whole team is very excited with this result,” Veselov said. “Going forward we plan to make Eugene smarter and continue working on improving what we refer to as 'conversation logic.’”

GameGavel

Another place to buy/sell video games.

This guy is selling his world record collection of 11,000+ video games.  Bid is up to $230,000 with 8 days left.

[6/19/14] Last week, Michael Thomasson put his record-setting video game collection up to auction. Thomasson has amassed the largest video game collection in the world, with almost 11,000 unique games. It's now gone to the highest bidder for three-quarter of a million dollars.

Thomasson sold this collection, along with the Guinness World Record he received in 2012, for $750,250. That's about $68 per game. Many of the games in his collection are originals, still in their packaging. He began this collection in 1998. Years of working for a game resale website and managing a gaming store allowed Thomasson to create a unique and impressive collection. Now, someone can proudly display all the titles or resell them individually at a profit.

The auction received over fifty bids, including two from Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey. A bidding war between two users began around the $500,000 mark, increasing the price a quarter of a million dollars in about seven hours.

whose line is it?

When you look at the lines on a utility pole, you may notice there are several sets of lines.

Most of the utility poles on Hawai‘i Island are jointly owned and may carry electric, telephone, and cable TV lines.

As you’ll see in the photo at right, higher voltage electric lines are situated at the very top of the utility pole, with lower voltage lines directly underneath. Telephone and cable lines are located farther down the pole.

P.S. Don't call the phone number in the document as I think the pdf is the Maui edition of the insert and lists the Maui number.

P.P.S.  Ah, here's the Oahu edition.

bing vs. google

I did a search for the following text which was in the Hawaiian Electric insert that they include with the bill

"when you look at the lines on a utility pole, you may notice there are several sets of lines"

when I entered it in bing, I didn't find the document I was looking for

but when I entered it in google, I did

Then I entered it in bingiton and it came out with the result I was looking for.

So why is the result on bing and bingiton different?  Hmm.

Now I started bingiton fresh and entered the search, and bing doesn't have it.  Hmm again.

...  Funny when I enter the search phrase without the w of the when, Bing finds it.  That's because the W in the pdf file is actually a graphic W and not a text w.  So google appears to be smarter.

(But I still use Bing because they give me 15 cents a day to do 30 searches.)

free anti-virus

[10/1/14] Panda tops rankings of anti-virus software

[6/1/14]  I routinely install Microsoft Security Essentials for people's computers.  Because it's free and it's from Microsoft.  So you wouldn't think you could go far wrong.

But is it the best choice out there?  Techlogon.com put the top free anti-virus programs to the test.

The results?  Avast is the winner followed by Avira, AVG, and MSE.

But then they tried ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus.  And liked it better than the other four.

Halt and Catch Fire (Woz likes it)

AMC's Halt and Catch Fire pilot brilliantly depicts the Wild West of the 1980s PC revolution. With Breaking Bad and Mad Men, AMC has proved that it can make extraordinary TV shows out of unexpected topics. The network is taking another such risk with Halt and Catch Fire by setting it in the so-called Silicon Prairie. "We thought there was this great opportunity to tell the story you don't know about computers," show creators Chris Cantwell and Chris Rogers said during a post-screening panel. "I give this show a 10 and that's so rare for me," said Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who hosted a screening of the new show at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, this year.

***

The Verge preview

Wired review

The Google burger

LONDON — It looked like a burger. It smelled like a burger. It tasted, well, almost like a burger.

The first lab-grown beef hamburger was cooked and eaten in London on Monday. “We proved it’s possible,” said scientist Mark Post, who created the cultured minced meat in his lab at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He said his hope is to come up with a new and environmentally friendly way to feed the world.

The scene in Riverside Studios in West London, where the event took place, looked like something you might see on a TV cooking show: There was a fake kitchen counter, a tiny sink, a single burner and, of course, a chef — Richard McGeown, who has worked with such culinary stars as Gordon Ramsay.

The five-ounce burger patty — which cost more than $330,000 to produce and was paid for by Google co-founder Sergey Brin — arrived under a silver dome and was promptly put onto a pan to sizzle with a dab of butter and a splash of sunflower oil. The smells that drifted off toward the audience (a few invited journalists and scientists) were subtle but unmistakably meaty.

Next came the tasting. Besides Post, only two people were allowed to have a bite of the test-tube burger: Josh Schonwald, the American author of “The Taste of Tomorrow,” and Hanni Rützler, an Austrian nutritional scientist. Both said the burger tasted “almost” like a conventional one. No one spat the meat out; no one cringed.

Rützler gave the chef an appreciative nod. “It’s close to meat, but it’s not as juicy,” she said. “I was expecting the texture to be more soft. The surface was surprisingly crunchy.” She added: “I would have said if it was disgusting.

Halt and Catch Fire

AMC has been building hype for its upcoming drama Halt and Catch Fire, and today it's letting viewers watch the first episode for free. Starting today and running through May 31st, viewers will be able to watch the episode both on AMC's site and on the network's newly-launched Tumblr page. While the episode will be available through various video on demand services as well, Tumblr is calling the sneak peek the first time it has ever premiered a television show.

Created by the writing team of Christopher Cantwell and Christopher Rogers, Halt and Catch Fire takes place in Texas in 1983, amidst the personal computing revolution. It focuses on a charismatic salesman (Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies) and a brilliant engineer (Scoot McNairy, Argo) as they team up to reverse engineer the IBM PC and change the industry forever. It might not sound like riveting material for a television show at first glance, but we caught an early glimpse of the show at SXSW and found its mix of personal drama and early tech wizardry incredibly intriguing. You can take a look for yourself online right now, but the show will have its official premiere June 1st at 10PM.

Google self-driving car

Google's self-driving car is an ambitious project that hopes to end human error behind the wheel with a very Googley solution: software. The tech titan's robo-cars have logged more than 700,000 hours since it began working on the vehicles in 2009. Google expects to have them ready for public use between 2017 and 2020.

The goal, as Urmson describes it, is to imagine a world where cars are safe. Not only are more than 33,000 people killed annually (PDF) in the US in car crashes, but such accidents are the leading cause of death (PDF) for people under the age of 45.

[judging from some the maniac drivers I see out there, it already sounds safer than a lot of the cars currently on the road]

[via facebook]

[5/27/14] Google X builds a self-driving car from the ground up.

[7/31/14] Driverless cars will be on British roads in just six months time, Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced today.

The Government will allow the first trials of computer-controlled cars to start in January, as part of a move to update the law to allow driverless cars on UK roads.

Ministers have previously admitted that the current Highway Code and rules of the road are inadequate for the new generation of vehicles which pilot themselves.

In June, Google unveiled its computerised ‘hands-free’ self-driving bubble car, which has no steering wheel, brake or accelerator pedals.

Instead, it has buttons for start, pull over and emergency stop and a computer screen showing the planned route.

Google plans to have prototypes ready to test later this summer and says the goal is for the car to ‘shoulder the entire burden of driving’.

In the UK, ministers will look at current road regulations to ensure there is an appropriate way to testing driverless cars.

Roku 2

OK, I'm dissatisfied with the Roku 3's quirks (though I'd probably get used to it after a while), so I went nuts and bought a Roku 2 from Best Buy.  Went nuts, meaning I didn't buy it on sale.  I could have gotten it cheaper online (no sales tax), but I got it at Best Buy so it would be easier to return it.

Anyway, the problems with the Roku 3 (detailed elsewhere) is that youtube captions display partially off the screen.  And the Netflix app doesn't use the system captions and doesn't have a "more like" listing (which the Roku HD aoo has).

The advantages of the Roku 3 is that it's much faster than the HD.  So youtube is more responsive.  And Hulu Plus doesn't lock up when turning on captions.

We'll see if the Roku 2 solves the Roku 3 problems and while keeping the advantages of the HD.

OK, open box.  The form factor looks similar to the Roku 3 (rounded corners) and feels lighter than the Roku 3.  The remote control also feels lighter and has four instant access buttons: MGo, Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster.  Blockbuster seems like an odd choice.  I wonder if the buttons are customizable? (Apparently not.)

The Roku 2 is supposed to use the same power supply as the Roku 3, so I'll just plug it in that way.  It come with composite cables, but I'll just use the ones connected to my TV.

Yep, it definitely is lighter.  Has composite inputs in the back instead of the ethernet port on the Roku 3.  And doesn't have a usb port.

The remote is much lighter than the Roku HD remote and yes (after weighing them) is somewhat lighter than the Roku 3 remote, but doesn't feel that much different (which is why I had to weight them to be sure).

Setup begins.

Please select your language: English

Get ready to stream!  You'll complete guided setup in three simple steps:
connect to your network
get the latest software
activate your Roku

Continue

Just select your wireless network
Enter the network password [the Roku HD remote works, but not the Roku 3]
Connect
taking a while

Can't connect to Roku
Unable to connect to Roku.  Please try again later (error Code 011).  Contact Roku support at roku.com/support

Try again (is the only option given)

This time it worked.

Get the latest software
Now your Roku will get the latest software.  Once the update is installed, it will restart automatically.

Continue

Updating softare
Your Roku will automatically restart once the update is installed

From an internet connected device, go to roku.com/link.  Then enter the code: HGBE

[on computer] Add some channels to your account (on the computer).  Unselect Target Ticket, Blockbuster on Demand, Quello Concerts, Amazon Cloud Player (even though they're all free).

Continue

You're Done!  Happy Streaming

[back to the Roku screen]  Channel update x of 26 (I thought I had only 20 channels installed?)

In the meantime, let's try this Target Ticket promotion (you get 10 free UltraViolet titles).  I suspect though, I'll have a hard time finding 10.   [Here's a list from last year.  Well maybe Johnny English, Space Jam.  I already have Big Trouble In Little China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Italian Job on DVD (and also currently streaming on Netflix)]  I think I'll pass for now.  I'll look later.

OK, got the moving Roku screensaver on (since I've been busy looking at the free movies from Target).

Press OK

Congratulations!  You're done and everything loogs good.  Let's start streaming

The screen shows I have 20 channels (don't know why it was updating 26).  And not in an particular order that I can see.

Settings
Display type is 4:3, change to 16:9
Turn captions to On (from instant replay)

Yep, the Roku 3 remote works only with the Roku 3

Let's try Netflix.

Are you a Netflix Member?  Yes
Enter your Netflix email address  *******@*****.***

Next

Enter your Netflix password *******

Sign in

OK, looks like the old Netflix app with the option to view more like this when you press * and with the Roku subtitles.  I think the Roku 3 video looks nicer on HDMI, but it's OK

1 for 1

Let's try Hulu Plus.  Takes a little while to load

Log in

Please visit www.hulu.com/activate on your computer and enter this code or Log in with your email address and password

[let's try that the computer way]

Log in to hulu.com, enter activation code, activate

Hulu Plus has been activated on your Roku
You can start watching Hulu Plus now

Let's try Cesar 911 Attack Dogs, Resume Episode
turn on captions, turn off autoplay
(not very responsive to remote in doing the above)
let's see if it can play the entire show without locking

still uses their own caption setting (so I still like Apple TV's captions better)

played right through with the captions on without locking up.  So thumbs up.

The Roku 3 is still better as it's more responsive, but the Roku 2 is definitely better than the Roku HD here.

Now for the moment of truth.  YouTube.

Pretty sluggish compared to the Roku 3, but much faster the the Roku HD.

Search for natgeowild, pull up Wonder Horse (and episode of The Incredible Dr. Pol).  Captions play fine.

Last test.  Let me see if the headphone jack works.

Plug in my Panasonic earbuds.  It works.

Sounds a little tinny though.  Let's try the Roku 3 and compare.  Yep, definitely a lot faster than the Roku 2.  Sounds about the same I guess.  Maybe a little higher on the Roku 2?  (had to pair the Roku 2 remote to the Roku 3 in settings before it worked)  I also see a small indicator at the top right when I change the volume.

OK, I guess this is a keeper.

I definitely prefer the speed of the Roku 3 on youtube and hulu, but the Roku 2 solves the youtube caption problem.  Plus it runs the older Netflix app which uses the Roku system captions and has the "more like this" feature that are missing in the new app.  (Now if they upgrade the Netflix app for the Roku 2, then I'm screwed there.)

***

Hmm..  I lost the remote connection on my Roku 2 controller.  Switched back to the Roku 2 and it says no roku enhanced remotes paired.

Tried power off and power on.  Nope.

New batteries.  Use Roku HD remote to go to remote pairing.  And after a while it paired up.

Not leaving well enough alone, let's put back the old batteries and see if the problem re-occurs.

Works so far.

Checking the "About" in settings.  It's the Roku player 2720x.  Software version 5.4 - build 3337

[5/19/14]  Apparently Plex is no longer free.  Got this message when accessing Plex on the Roku 2.

Welcome to Plex!

With Plex you can easily stream you videos, music, photos and home movies to your Roku using your Plex Media Server.

To download and install your free Plex Media Server on your computer, visit http://plexapp.com/getplex.

Enjoy Plex free for 30 days, then unlock with a PlexPass subscription or a small one-time-purchase.

[5/20/14] Here's a problem with the Roku captions.  When I played HBO Go, the subtitles were tiny.  It uses the Roku system subtitles and the size was set at default.  When I changed the size to medium, the captions became bigger, but then the lines often overlapped each other.  About the best size on HBO Go is small.  The captions are smaller than I like, making it a little difficult to read, but then at least they don't overlap.  I see the problem was reported on April 26.  At least it was acknowledged.

[5/20/14]  What to do?  Here's my latest thinking.  Swap the Apple TV with the Roku 3 for mom as it gives the best captions for Netflix, Hulu Plus, and HBO Go (so I want it at home).  It's lacking youtube captions and Amazon Instant Video, so keep the Roku 2 for that at home.  Retire the Roku HD as the Roku 2 is similar except for VideoBuzz and maybe Plex.  But now I want to try the Amazon Fire TV to see if it would be a better fit than the Apple TV for me.

[7/18/14] Noticed that Hulu Plus now looks different on the Roku 2.  The format was changed and the subtitles look a lot fatter.  They now use the Roku system captions, but as I said they look fatter.  The up arrow to access the menu no longer works and the Hulu Plus default yellow captions apparently are no longer available.

[7/20/14]  Made it through an entire episode of Dog Whisperer on my Roku HD with subtitles on without the thing locking up.  So maybe they fixed the problem.  But then it autoplayed the next episode.  Don't see any option to turn autoplay off/on.  That option used to appear (along with the caption on/off) when you hit the up arrow.  You can access the caption with the *, but don't see autoplay there.

It's now the opposite of Apple TV, where you can't turn it on.  I guess I should check to see how it looks on my Amazon Fire TV next..

Marco Rubio on climate change

WASHINGTON — Senator Marco Rubio on Sunday said that he was ready to be president, becoming the second potential Republican candidate recently to drop big hints about 2016 as he vies for early attention in a crowded field of maybes.

In a wide-ranging interview on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on ABC, Mr. Rubio, of Florida, also disagreed with accepted scientific wisdom that humans were having an effect on what he called the “always evolving” climate. “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it,” he said. “And I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it, except it will destroy our economy.”

His comments challenged a major scientific report released Tuesday that found the effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, from dry regions where water is becoming more scarce to historically wet regions that are seeing increases in torrential rains.

The report, the National Climate Assessment, stated that the sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the United States in the past century. If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, the scientists said, the warming could conceivably exceed 10 degrees by the end of this century.

“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” they declared.

Asked how big a threat he regarded climate change, Mr. Rubio replied: “Our climate is always changing. And what they have chosen to do is take a handful of decades of research and say that this is now evidence of a longer-term trend that’s directly and almost solely attributable to man-made activities.”

***

Al Gore blames the Koch brothers

***

97 to 3

***

The one Republican (there's always one in the crowd)

WASHINGTON -- You probably have no idea who Jim Rubens is. Nor should you, really. Even the most politically savvy observer would struggle to name every obscure candidate running in a primary for a U.S. Senate seat. And that, certainly, is what Rubens is as he embarks on his long-shot campaign -- obscure.

But Rubens, who is running against former Sen. Scott Brown in the GOP primary in New Hampshire, does hold a remarkable distinction that could –- perhaps, should -– make him a more familiar name. Of the 107 Republicans currently running for Senate as of this week, he is the only one whose website declares that global warming exists and is caused by human activity.

Rubens is used to being non-conventional. He says he was ousted from his role as platform committee chairman for the national Independence Party in a Ross Perot-organized coup in 1992. He started his own political party the next year –- an offshoot of the Independence Party of New York –- and ran for New Hampshire governor in 1998.

But he's hardly a wacko. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in chemistry and made his living investing in high-tech startups, which fed his belief in the importance of scientific research.

Bing Rewards

Bing Rewards is Microsoft's attempt to take some market share away from Google.

The way it works is they give you credits for making Bing searches.  You get 1 credit for every two searches, up to a maximum of 15 credits per day.

Then when you get enough credits, you can redeem the credits for prizes.  Like a month of Hulu Plus or a gift card for Amazon.com, Starbucks, Burger King, etc.  Or you can donate your points to one of several charities.

Today I notice you can get up to 10 additional credits a day for mobile search.  I tried to search from my ipad, but didn't get any mobile search points.  Then I saw a bing app in the App Store and tried that, but that doesn't give me mobile search points either.  Evidently it only works on phones.  (Alas, no iphone or android phone for me.)

[6/29/14] Bing has changed the number of searches to get a credit (for me anyway).  It used to be 1 credit for every 2 searches.  Now it's 1 credit for every 3 searches.  But now they've upped the number of credits you can earn in at day to 30 credits (for my account anyway).  Plus on Monday this month, you can get double credits.  So it's 60 credits today.

But that's 180 searches!  I've been just browsing the top stories and news on bing to get my credits.  But now I have to click through the list several times.

What to do?  Cheat!  I'm trying this bing rewards bot to do the searches for me.  Just enter the number of searches for it to do and the time delay between searches.  The credits don't update when doing the searches, but when I go back to bing after it's done, I see the credits are there.  We'll see how long before bing shuts it down (or neuters its effectiveness).

young blood

(HealthDay News) -- Lending credence to the old saying that there's nothing like young blood, a new study found that the brains of old mice were recharged when they were injected with blood from young mice.

If this approach works in people, it could be used to give a boost to aging brains or lead to new ways to treat Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia, according to researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine.

sidereel and FXNow

Created an account as it was mentioned/recommended on CordKillers episode 5.

What it allows you to (among other things) is keep track of series you're watching.  So you add the series that you're watching and can check off the episodes that you've watched.  That way you know which episodes to watch/not watch next.  Now this is not so important if you're watching on Netflix, but it's handy if you're watching on DVD and can't remember exactly what episode you watched last.

They also have a neat guide to cord cutting and mentioned FXNow.  Going to the website, I see it's another place you can watch movies playing on FXX.  I wonder if that's supported on the iPad app?  Well, I don't see it on the FoxNow app.  But there's a FXNow app in the app store.  Let's install it...  Requires IOS 7.0.

OK, gotta upgrade soon..

I see some of the channels are available on my Oceanic Entertainment On Demand channel, but not all.

Roku 3

Got my Roku 3!

Why did I get it since I already had a Roku HD?  For one thing, even though youtube was recently added to my Roku HD, it was very sluggish especially trying to handle my long playlists.  So it should be more responsive on the Roku 3.

Secondly, Hulu Plus plays poorly on the Roku HD, often hanging up (or at least stalling enough to make me think it hung up).  It seems to me that the problem occurs when turning on the closed caption and you can tell something is wrong when the closed caption is stuck and the video is playing and you can't navigate to the home screen.  Hopefully it will play better on the Roku 3.

One thing nice about the Apple TV is that it plays Hulu Plus well and the captions used are the system captions rather than the internal Hulu Plus captions on the Roku HD.  Another plus for the Apple TV is that the video is better than on the Roku.  (That would be a big plus for many.)

Why not get another Apple TV?  For one thing, their youtube app doesn't support captions.  Secondly, they don't have Amazon Instant Video.  Plus I kind of like the Roku feature of being able to plug headphones into the remote.

So the Roku 3 it is.

I went down to Costco earlier in the week, but the Roku 3 was out.  I wanted to buy it at Costco because they included an HDMI cable and a month of Hulu Plus and it was like $5 off the retail price.  I checked  Best Buy.  They had it, but no HDMI cable, no free Hulu Plus, and it was at the retail price.  I was thinking about Amazon which also matched Costco's price (and without sales tax), but they didn't advertise the HDMI cable or Hulu Plus.  Plus I could more easily return it to Costco if something went wrong.  So I held off.

A couple of days later, it was back at Costco.  But it was a little different.  It was in a cardboard bubble wrap, instead of a box.  And no Hulu Plus, but a $10 offer from MGo.

OK, time to open the box.  Bubble wraps are tricky to open and less clean to open than a box.  I prefer a box because you don't have to rip it apart and can reuse it.  I wound up prying open the cardboard.

The first thing I checked is the power supply.  Though it looks similar to the Roku HD power supply, it's different.  It's a 12V, 1 amp power supply vs. 5V for the Roku HD.  Looking it up, the new power supply works on the Roku 3, Roku 2, Roku 1, and new Roku LT, but not on the older models.

Plug it in.  The Roku 3 is heavier than the Roku HD and requires an HDMI input (the Roku HD also supported composite).  But it has an ethernet port and a USB port which is not on the HD.

The new remote also feels heavier than the old remote and has a tether (so it doesn't fly into the wall when you're swinging it playing games).  The OK button is in a different place.  On the old remote it was in the middle of the cursor pad.  On the new one it's below the cursor pad and in between the instant replay and * buttons.  The old remote doesn't have a replay button, so I guess that's a plus.

OK, the display comes up asking you to select your language.  Select English.

Then it tells you the next three steps on the next screen: connect to your network, get the latest software, activate your roku.  Continue.

Select Wireless (Wi-Fi) or Wired (Ethernet).  I'll select Wireless.

Seven networks were found my network at the top with the best signal - one bar below the max.  Hey, looks like my old remote works too!  That's a bonus.

Enter in my network password.  Unlike the Roku HD, there's no option to hide your password as you're typing it in.  Connect.

Get the latest software.  Continue.  Your Roku will automatically restart once the update is installed.

The Roku logo wiggles when it restarts.  Cute.

Activate your Roku.  For an internet connected devices, go to roku.com/link.  The enter the code YYK4.  I suppose I could do this on my ipad, but let's try my laptop (which is on WiFi).  My laptop must be updating something as it taking a long time for firefox to come up and the hard drive light is flickering.  Wait...

Forget it, let's do it on the iPad.  Do you have a Roku account?  Yes.  Sign in to Roku account.

Then it goes to Add some channels to your account.  There's a lot selected that I don't want, so unselect them.  I'll unselect them all except for Angry Birds Space.  Make sure I'm not getting charged anything (Total $0.00).  Continue.

You're Done!  Happy Streaming.

While your player is updating, take advantage of these great offers:

10 free downloads  Redeem Redbox ticket
Spotify.  Try Spotify Premium for free.
GAIAMTV Free 10-day Trial exclusively for Roku Users!

WTH, 10 free downloads sounds good.  Redeem

it goes to www.targetticket.com/uv-promotion

10 free UltraViolet titles
It's totally free to join - no hidden fees or monthly costs
1.  log-in or sign up for a new Target Ticket account
2.  set up your billing information
3.  link a new or existing UltraViolet account

once you're done... choose 10 free titles

OK maybe later.  Back to the Roku.

Updating channels.  Channel update x of 71.  So I guess it's importing the channels I already have.  I wonder if VideoBuzz and the other unofficial channels like Nowhere TV will get added?

Meanwhile, my laptop is still locked up. CTRL-ALT-DEL to go to task manager, then it goes back to the screen.  Seems OK now?  Restart and see what happens.

Back to the Roku.  Congratulations!  You're done and everything looks good.  Let's start streaming.

I see Nowhere TV, but no VideoBuzz.  And the apps are all out of order.  OK, no problem I'll just reorder them.

Checking Settings, I see Diplay type is set to 720p, which is correct since that's what my plasma TV supports.  Captions are set to instant replay.  Turn them on.  Remote is paired to the Roku.  Time zone is set to Hawaii. About: Roku player 4200X.  Network signal strength: excellent.  Themes: Roku (default).  Screensaver: Bouncing Roku Logo (default).  Change to facebook.  You must link device to Roku.  OK, let's link later.  I see a Twit.TV option.  Let's set it to that for now.  Audio Mode: stereo (the other option is surround sound).  Sound effect volume: medium.

Let's try youtube.  Yep, much faster than on the Roku HD.  Let's test the captions.  Search for natgeowild.  Choose Delta and Dong Dong.  The captions work, but the top line is partially off the top of the screen (and the bottom is partially below the bottom of the screen).  That's disappointing.  Try switch to 1080p.  Nope.  That's a strike.

Let's try Netflix.  Have to sign in.  Interesting.  The keys are in qwerty order.  Where do you want to go?  Netflix or Kids.  Netflix.  The interface is different.  Everybody Love Raymond.  The subtitles look OK, but season 1, episode 4 is stretched out of proportion.  I think Netflix screwed up.  Let's go to episode 7.  Yep, now in 4:3.  The subtitles are in white with no background.  Let's try to change the system settings.  Nope, looks like Netflix app is using their own captions.  Strike 2.  Although the captions aren't bad especially compared to the old captions on the Roku HD Netflix app.  But I like the system captions on the Roku HD for Netflix betters.  So strike two.

The big test is Hulu Plus.  Log in.  Please visit www.hulu.com/activate on your computer and enter this code:  9JD5YHD  Remain on this screen while logging in with this activation code.  Hulu Plus has been activated on your Roku.  You can start watching Hulu Plus now.  Let's try Cesar 911.  Screen goes blank for several seconds as it loads the commercial for EndGame.  It looks like it's using the system captions.  Which is acceptable.  But there's still the odd problem of a block of background showing when there's no text.  Change text color to default.  Nope still yellow.  Let's change color to white.  Nope still yellow.  So it's using their own captions.  Check swing.

Crackle.  Seinfeld.  OK, looks like the system captions as it's white.

OK, let's go to Amazon instant video.  Sign in.  Get Started on Your Roku (the other option is Get Started on the Amazon website).  OK, I'm in.  Looks like they're using their own captions which are kind of small.  Let's try make the system captions bigger.  Hey, too big.  I guess they are using the system captions.  Change from extra large to large.  Still kind of big.  Try medium.  OK, that's about right.  I guess I had it on default earlier.

Nowhere TV.  Nowhere TV 2.7.  This version introduces a new style grid screen.  If you encounter any problems using this screen, please let us know.  If you prefer the old style grids screen, you can switch back to it from the options menu by pressing the * button on your remote.  chris@thenowhereman.com

So let's sum up.

Netflix looks the best on Apple TV, then Roku HD, then Roku 3.
Hulu Plus looks the best on Apple TV, then Roku 3, then Roku HD.
Crackle about the same on all.
Amazon Instant Video.  Roku 3 and Roku HD about the same.  Apple TV not supported.
Youtube.  Roku HD video is actually the best picture as the captions are not off the screen.  Roku 3 app is better than the Apple TV app which doesn't support captions.  Maybe it'll get updated later.

Breaking down by device,

Apple TV: does a good job on Netflix and Hulu Plus, but doesn't support auto-play on Hulu Plus.  The youtube app doesn't support captions and doesn't find some foreign (Korean) videos [like my Return of Superman playlist].  Doesn't support Amazon Instant Video.

Roku 3: does OK on Netflix and Hulu Plus, but the captions are from the app and not customizable.  Supports captions on youtube, but they're top (or bottom) of multi-line captions are partially off the screen.  Amazon Instant Video is supported with system captions.  Plus I kind of like the headphone jack in the remote, which is unique to the Roku 3 and Roku 2 (so far).

Roku HD.  I actually like this better than the Roku 3 for Netflix since it uses the system captions.  Hulu Plus seems to lock up particularly when using captions.  Youtube app is very sluggish, but captions display OK unlike the Roku 3 (oddly).  Amazon Instant Video is OK.

So none of them are perfect, but I guess I'd go with the Roku 3 since it support Amazon Instant Video and youtube is more responsive than the Roku HD.  The big drawback is that the youtube captions are partially off the screen which is somewhat hard to believe.  Let me try it on a 1080p LED screen and see if it's better.

If you want just Netflix and Hulu Plus, I'd go with the Apple TV.  If you want iTunes videos, you pretty much have no choice.  But if you want Amazon Instant Video (free from HitBliss) or Amazon Prime, Apple TV is not an option.  If Roku 3 cleans up the youtube caption problem, then that's the way to go.

Maybe I should try the Amazon Fire TV..  Or wait for the new Google set-top box (Android TV) that's supposed to be coming out.  Or maybe even the Chromecast.

*** 5/5/14

YouTube on Roku update.  Tried plugging in my Roku HD via HDMI, then setting the display to 720p.  Same problem.  Part of the caption is cut off at the bottom (or top) of the screen.  But if you set the display to 16x9, then the captions don't cut off.  Unfortunately there's no 16x9 option on the Roku 3.

OK, maybe it's my TV.  Plugged it into my mom's Samsung 32".  Same thing.  Then the bigger Samsung in the lounge.  Same thing.

I kind of like the headphone jack in the remote, so maybe a Roku 2 might be OK.  It supports composite, so likely has the 16x9 option.  I think I might return the Roku 3.  Plus now I see the Roku 3 is $10 off at the website.  So if I return it to Costco and buy at the website, I'll gain a few bucks.

***

Looking at CordKillers on the Roku 3.  Turned on automatic captions.  These captions display OK.  Comparing the Roku TV video to the youtube video on my computer, I can see the edges are slightly trimmed on the TV.  I see there's three lines of comments on the TV whereas on the computer there's three and a half.  And I see the C of the CordKillers logo on the bottom left is partly cut off on the TV.  So that's the problem.

[5/17/14]  Here's another thing I prefer the Roku HD to the Roku 3.  On Netflix, when you press the * on the Roku HD controller you get the option to "View more like this".  This option doesn't exist on the Roku 3, as far as I can see.  On the Apple TV, they give a list of "More Like This" at the bottom of the description screen (8 items).  On the computer, you get a scrollable horizontal listing of "more like.." at the bottom of the screen (the number of items varies, I counted 23, 22, 24 items). On the ipad, you get a "More Like" list at the bottom of the screen (non-scrollable list of 5 items).

Decided to hook up both the Roku HD and Roku 3 simultaneously.  (The HD is via composite.)  Comparing the youtube captions.  And here's the problem.  The cut-off captions occur when the HD is set to 720p video.  When I change it to 16x9, the Roku actually displays the captions lower (with the captions at the top of the screen) then when it's set at 720p.  So it's actually a Roku problem.

And now that I have the Roku HD on composite, I can't switch back to 720p.  So apparently the way you set it to 720p with composite cables is to plug it in via HDMI, set it to 720p, then connect via composite.

I think I'm going to return the Roku 3 and get a Roku 2.

[5/17/14]  According to this, it appears you can set the caption appearance from the Netflix settings on the computer and changes will appear on your Roku 3.

[5/18/14] It works!  But I still like the Roku HD captions a little better.  They're a little more customizable and you can do it on the Roku instead of having to go back and forth to the computer.  An annoyance is that the same settings are used for the computer and the Roku 3.  They don't necessarily translate the same to the TV.

[posted to forum, we'll see if I get any response]

And still another quirk on the Roku 3 (or Netflix in general?) is that the captions default to off.  You have to set them on whenever starting a new show.

Hmm..  Maybe this will work (though it was for the Fire TV).   "She told me to turn off the subtitles in Netflix on the PC and let the movie play for 10 minutes, at which time the "off" setting for subtitles would be saved as the default preference. It worked. No more subtitles on the PC, no more subtitles on the Kindles."  So I assume the reverse will work?

[5/18/14] posted the youtube captions problems to forum.  We'll see what response I get.

how smart was Woz?

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of BASIC, Steve Wozniak has written some memories about his first experiences with this popular language—and how he created his own BASIC from scratch for the Apple I and Apple II computers. An incredible feat.

-- via facebook

CordKillers

Apparently HitBliss was having problems with their server last night, as information was really slow to come up (or didn't come up at all for the TV shows / movies.

So I was wondering whether the problem is being reported on their Facebook page or on their twitter page.  Nope.

But the point of this post is that I wondered who the 49 HitBliss was following.

And it looks like 48 is Cord Killers, 47 is Tom Merritt, 46 is Brian Brushwood.  Sound familiar?  Those are the guys from Framerate, the show that was discontinued at Twit.  They're back!

The first post on their blog was December 16, 2013 which was soon after the last Framerate.  They were supposed to email me as they had something to subscribe to on the last Framerate, but I guess I missed it or it never got sent.    Episode Beta 1 was on December 23, 2013.  Beta Episode 2 was December 30, 2013.  And Ep. 1 was January 6, 2014.

Their blog is worth going to as they have an outline of what they talk about on the show (with links).  So you can check the sources and details instead of just mindlessly couch-potatoing (nttawwt).

Their shows are hosted on youtube.

[you can donate to these poor guys here]

Meanwhile HitBliss is still having problems as the application ain't loading the main interface now.  The application doesn't appear locked up though, as I can access the feedback section and click the exit X.  We'll see how long this lasts.

*** [8/13/15] The old framerate shows are no longer on TWIT, but have been archived on youtube.  [I thought I had written about this before but I don't see it now.]  Also at archive.org.

Ubuntu to the rescue

This may sound like sacrilege, but it's not: Ubuntu Linux can be useful even if you’re a hardcore Windows user.

 That's because there’s no way to boot a full Windows system from a USB stick to troubleshoot your PC—well, not without an Enterprise version of Windows and Windows To Go—but anyone can make a free Ubuntu USB drive, CD, or DVD. A Ubuntu live drive can be used as a digital Swiss army knife to troubleshoot all sorts of problems with any PC, whether you need to recover files from a failing computer, diagnose hardware problems, perform a deep virus scan from outside Windows, or even reset a forgotten Windows password.

The Netflix Channel

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Netflix's Internet video service is about to join the programming lineup of three small cable-TV providers in the U.S., a breakthrough that acknowledges the growing popularity of online entertainment.

The agreements with Atlantic Broadband, RCN Telecom Services and Grande Communications gives Netflix's subscription service a channel on the TiVo boxes that the three cable services provide their customers. Netflix will debut on Atlantic and RCN on Monday and then will expand on to Grande's service by end of next month.

Collectively, the three cable-TV services have about 820,000 subscribers scattered through nine states and Washington D.C.

Although that's a small fraction of the cable-TV market, the deals represent another milestone for Netflix Inc. as it tries to make its Internet video service more like premium channels such as HBO and Showtime.

Netflix already had landed spots on the cable-TV boxes of services in England, Denmark and Sweden, but hadn't been able to make similar inroads in the U.S. until now. The company's nearly 36 million U.S. subscribers typically have to buy a separate device, such as video game console or a player from Roku or Apple Inc., if they want to stream video on to their TVs. That method usually requires a separate remote and an additional step to flip over to a different TV input to see the picture.

Now, Netflix will be like any other channel on the cable-TV dial except that it relies on a high-speed Internet connection to deliver its video.

"We think this signals a new generation of cable-TV service of offerings," said David Isenberg, Atlantic's chief marketing and strategy officer. "It's a watershed moment."

He likened what Netflix is doing for Internet video to what HBO did for cable-TV when that service began transmitting through satellites in the early 1970s.

Netflix has been striving to become more HBO-like since it expanded upon its DVD-by-mail service and began offering Internet streaming seven years ago. In the past two years, the Los Gatos, Calif., company has been featuring more original programming, such as the critically acclaimed "House of Cards" and "Orange Is The New Black," to persuade more U.S. subscribers to pay $8 per month for its service.

To help pay for its rising programming costs, Netflix plans to raise its prices by $1 or $2 by July. The higher prices initially will only affect new customers.

HBO, which is owned by Time Warner Inc., views Netflix as such a competitive threat that it has steadfastly refused to licenses its old TV shows, such as "The Sopranos" and "The Wire," to the Internet video service. Those HBO shows instead will be streamed through a rival Internet video service offered through Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime shipping service as part of deal announced earlier this week.

Fan TV

Going beyond the DVR, Oceanic parent company Time Warner Cable is offering Fan TV to subscribers who want to connect their TVs to online sources of programming.

Fan TV offers streaming content from Redbox Instant, Crackle, Target Ticket and the Rhapsody music streaming service, and the company will add more over time.

"Today, discovery is backwards, you're narrowing your options by first picking a device, then an app, then shuffling through a limited content library," said Gilles BianRosa, CEO of Fan TV, in a statement. The small, dome-shaped Fan TV box and palm-sized remote give users the option of live TV, video on demand and streaming services "in one simplified discovery experience," he said.

Time Warner Cable subscribers in Hawaii and 28 other states can pre-order Fan TV for a one-time fee of $99, and the devices will be shipped in June, Fan TV spokes­woman Jeannie Hornung told TheBuzz in an email.

"Fan TV will work with your existing set-top box and on its own," she wrote. "As long as you are a current Time Warner Cable video and broadband subscriber, you can install Fan TV yourself in a matter of minutes. Just connect it to your TV via HDMI cable, plug into the wall for power with the included AC adapter, and connect to WiFi or Ethernet."

Netflix to raise prices

SAN FRANCISCO >> Netflix is preparing to raise its Internet video subscription prices by as much as $2 per month this summer to help pay for more programming such as its popular political drama "House of Cards."

The price increase will be imposed on new customers by July. The company says current U.S. subscribers will continue to pay $8 per month for a "generous time period."

Netflix announced the price increase as part of its first-quarter earnings released Monday.

***

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Video streaming service Netflix Inc reported higher profit that beat Wall Street expectations and said it intends to raise the monthly subscription price for new customers, sending its stock up 6.5 percent in after-hours trading.

Net income for the quarter that ended in March reached $53 million, Netflix said on Monday, an increase from $3 million a year earlier. Earnings-per-share came in at 86 cents, topping the average forecast of 83 cents, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Netflix said it added 2.25 million customers to its U.S. streaming business during the quarter, in line with the company's earlier guidance.

The company, in a quarterly letter to shareholders, said it plans to impose "a one or two dollar increase, depending on the country, later this quarter for new members only." It did not name the countries. Existing customers would keep their current price "for a generous time period," it said.

Shares of the company jumped 6.5 percent to $371.26 in after-hours trading, up from their earlier close of $348.49 on Nasdaq.

***

Hmm.  A dollar increase would mean 3 cents a day.  Two dollars would be 6 cents.  Wait, actually more like 7 cents!

***

Meanwhile, Netflix's DVD-by-mail service is slowly dying. Through March, Netflix had 6.7 million DVD customers, a 52 percent drop from 13.9 million just two years ago. Netflix isn't changing its DVD prices, despite rising postal costs.

Netflix's comeback has been propelled by the company's increasing emphasis on exclusive programming such as "House of Cards," an acclaimed series starring Kevin Spacey as a cunning politician with a ruthless plan to become President of the United States. Netflix released all 13 episodes in "House of Cards'" second season on Feb. 14, midway through the first quarter.

Another popular Netflix series, "Orange Is The New Black," is returning with new episodes June 6, toward the final month of the current quarter.

Even with "Orange Is The New Black," Netflix is only expecting to attract 511,000 U.S. subscribers from April through June before prices rise for new customers. That would be down from an increase of 630,000 U.S. subscribers at the same time last year.

Netflix Inc. earned $53 million, or 86 cents per share, during the first three months of the year. That compared to $2.7 million, or 5 cents, last year. The latest quarterly earnings exceeded the average estimate of 81 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue rose 24 percent from last year to $1.3 billion to match analyst projections.

*** 5/9/14

 Netflix is raising its Internet video prices by $1 per month for new customers and giving its current U.S. subscribers a two-year break from the higher rates.

The changes mean anyone signing up for Netflix's video subscription service beginning Friday will pay $9 per month for in the U.S. The old price of $8 per month will continue until May 2016 for Netflix's existing 36 million U.S. subscribers.

Al Gore keeps on ticking

The man who was almost president graced Honolulu with his presence Tuesday and walked us through a "seminar of sustainability."

By turns a university professor, a wry observer, a recovering politician, a joke teller and a Southern preacher, Al Gore fired up an audience of thousands at the Stan Sheriff Center to believe that global warming can be stopped. But it's possible only if each of us does our part.

"Ultimately, we are going to win this thing," he said, one of many statements met with hearty applause.

Gore did not disappoint. Grayer and with less hair, and with a slight paunch filling out his aloha shirt, in voice and mind he sounded as passionate as ever about the environment — a far cry from the inanimate robot label that has stuck to him over the years.

Gore's talk was an updated version of the one he's been giving for years and that he first laid out in his 1992 book "Earth In the Balance." The planet is in trouble because humankind burns too much coal and oil, which is trapping greenhouse gases and raising temperatures.

The consequences grow more obvious by the day: famine, drought, floods, refugees, species extinction, to name just a few. The last few years alone have witnessed unprecedented super storms like Typhon Haiyan in the Philippines and Hurricane Sandy along the Eastern Seaboard.

And Gore brought part of his famous slideshow, powered by a Mac laptop. The pictures and graphs were gorgeous — like the Earth taken from the moon in 1968 — and startling — a Bell Curve showing the number of hotter days over the past 80 years grow alarmingly disproportionate to the number of cooler days and days with average temperatures.

"The way we have to respond to this is going to require a set of changes that are beyond our routine," he said, his voice growing to a shout. "I know that we are capable of that. Our way of life is at stake, our grandchildren are at stake, the future of civilization is at stake."

Gore cited two "game changers" in recent years that will help. The first is the growing realization from even climate-change deniers that something seems to be strange with the weather. The second is the exponential growth in photovoltaic solar panels, driven largely by consumer demand for lower prices.

The "barriers" to doing something about climate change are business and political interests that profit off of fossil fuels — "dirty energy that causes dirty weather." He compared fake science from polluters stating that humans are not to blame for the climate to tobacco companies that used to hire actors to play doctors who denied cigarettes were dangerous.

HitBliss

I got an email ad from Hulu featuring DragonHeart as one of the featured movies.  [I remember watching part of this movie at Circuit City, but didn't know what movie it was.  But I remember a dragon and a red-haired woman.  I finally figured out it was Dina Meyer in the movie DragonHeart.]  Sadly, it wasn't available.  (That might tell you something about Hulu).

Anyway, I checked to see if was available for streaming elsewhere.  Only on Infinity at this time.

Then I checked a few more movies to see if they were available.  I noticed that the Matrix was available at HitBliss, a service I never heard of.  They show movies for free, but in exchange for watching ads.

Maybe I'll try it later, but I don't feel like watching ads at the moment.

In the meantime, here's a review.  And another.  And another.  The Verge.  Mashable.  BitWhich.

Sounds interesting.

***

Hmm.  Apparently you can earn credits on HitBliss then spend them at Amazon Instant Video!  (Then watch on your Roku or whatever.)  Hey maybe I can buy some Cesar 911 episodes.  I'm now tempted to try it.

***

OK, let's try.

Downloaded the app for my ipad, but evidently it requires you to create an account first.

OK, go to my laptop.  Create an account (which requires you name, email address, and password, oddly no double-typing of password for verification -- that's one strike).  After doing that, you're required to download a program. So can't do it strictly from the browser (strike two).

Downloaded and installing the program. Evidently there are two different programs.  One is the store app (HitBliss Store) and the other is the earnings app (HitBliss Earn).  There's an option (at the beginning) to download one or the other, but I see no reason to.

I see you can actually earn cash (as in real money sent to you), but with some stipulation.  Here's the wording in the agreement that most people don't read.

You may use your earnings to make purchases in the HitBliss Retail Store, using the separate Store App if you elect to install it and in accordance with the Store Terms of Use. Using your earnings at the HitBliss Retail Store does not require us to transmit them to any third party, as we own the HitBliss Store.

If you chose to have your earnings mailed to you, we will mail a check within 90 days of your completing the following steps:

1. You send an e-mail to mailmyearnings@hitbliss.com requesting that your earnings be paid to you by a check.

2. The subject line of the e-mail must state your HitBliss Earn account username.

3. The body of the e-mail must indicate: the e-mail address associated with your HitBliss Earn user account; your first and last name; and your address, including, city, state and zip code.

4. Attached to your e-mail should be a scanned copy of your driver’s license or other document verifying your residence.

5. We will then email you an IRS W-9 Form, which you must complete and return to us before we can finish processing your request and send you a check.

After we have processed your request, we will mail you a check for your earnings, less a service fee (currently 2.5% of the earnings amount) for processing your request, postage fees, and any service or transmittal fees charged for payment processing services (collectively, “Service Fees”). We are not liable for any checks lost in the mail or undeliverable for any reason, including due to errors in your contact information. We will mail only to addresses in the United States. You may also request that we apply your earnings, or part of them ($5 minimum), for the purchase of a charitable donation to Prize4Life or another charity of our choosing in the United States. You agree that we may deduct the applicable Service Fees from your HitBliss Earn account when purchasing a charitable donation.

We will regularly monitor your HitBliss Earn account activity. If your HitBliss Earn account has been inactive and you have accumulated unused earnings, we will remind you of your unused balance by e-mail or through the Earn App. If you do not use your balance within 30 days of our notification, we will notify you by e-mail or through the Earn App and offer to mail your unused earnings to you  (less the applicable Service Fees and subject to the steps described above for obtaining a check for the earnings).  If you do not request that your earnings be mailed to you by completing the steps listed above, within 365 days of our notice, we may, at our discretion: (i) suspend your HitBliss Earn account and access to the Earn Services; and (ii) apply your earnings balance for the purchase of a charitable donation to Prize4Life or another charity of our choosing in the United States (less the applicable Service Fees). In purchasing a donation to a charity, we are not acting as your agent or making the purchase on your behalf; we are instead being authorized by you to purchase such a donation. We do not guarantee that you will receive a tax receipt for such donation. Proof of the donation is available upon written request to us. Note that this donation will never exceed the Earn Cap.

HitBliss Earn includes a localized matching engine that, with your express permission, automatically builds your Private Profile for the purposes of personally attracting relevant marketing messages and improving your earning experience. You may also add information to your Private Profile and indicate whether you want to use such information to attract and have marketing messages served to you in your queue. You may modify your Private Profile at any time, through your Earn App.

After installing the Earn App and authorizing use of our localized matching engine, the matching engine will operate continuously on the device to which it was installed. When you enter HitBliss Earn, marketing messages matching your profile will be served to you in your personal message queue.

[and a whole lot of more lawyer-speak]  OK, Agree and install.  Apparently the app (or the installer) is from Project Concord.  Ah, that was its previous name.

OK, I see an icon on the desktop and app started automatically after install.

Sign in.

Looks like a pretty slick interface.  There's three main sections/actions to do.

(1) Looking for something specific?  Search for it here?

(2)  Once you've picked what to watch, earn cash to buy it here.

(3)  Browse for your favorite movie or TV show.

Evidently it lets you browse through the Amazon catalog, at least partially, as I see some movies/shows sub-labelled with Amazon.com.  Actually almost all of them are.

Let's see if I can find Cesar 911.

Looking at Reality section, I see It's Me or the Dog.  But don't see Dog Whisperer or Cesar 911.  Let's do a search.

Dog Whisperer doesn't come up.  No Dogs in the City.  No Cesar 911.   Shucks.

Looking the movies, I see most of them are available for $2.99 for a 24-hour rental.

More search, no Monk.

Ah, here's one I might want. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  It's $1.99 to purchase on Amazon.com.

I see Iron Man and Iron Man 2, but not Iron Man 3.  Thor and Thor: The Dark World are both on there.  Thor is a $2.99 rental, while Thor: The Dark World is $4.99.

No Man of Steel.

For the Amazon purchases, I see the message "Use your HitBliss earned-cash to buy an Amazon.com GiftCard to rent this title on Amazon Instant Video".  So I'm wondering if you can buy a gift card to rent or buy anything at Amazon?  I wonder how they check?

Well, let's earn some credits.

Three steps.

1.  Go here to earn cash (HitBliss Earn)
2.  Personalize and earn faster (Trust Level)
3.  Check your account balance here

You start at Trust Level 1.  10 points to next level.  Higher trust levels enable faster earning with fewer interruptions.  Increase your trust level by paying close attention to ads.

Click HitBliss Earn.  First the 60 second tour.

You can pick three personalization options.

Earn Slower
Earn Faster
Earn Fastest.

Let's go fastest!

Asks for your age, gender, income level, education, children's age.  Click finish.

And you have to pay attention.  (No leaving, switching tasks, etc.)

Let's start earning.

Visit our sponsors to keep HitBliss running!
Browse ads and watch them out of order.
Your earnings accumulate as you pay attention.

First an Aflac ad.  When I Alt-tabbed to write this, the ad stopped.  Pretty smart.

Watched about four ads and hand to click or press return a couple of times so they could make sure I was there.  Now at Trust Level 2!

A few more ads and return presses and I'm at Level 3!

Up to 20 keypresses and Level 4.

Let's see how much I have earned.  Hey up to $3.48.  Enough to buy something.

OK, let's try buying Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, the pilot episode.  It goes to a Link Account window and asks you to log in to Amazon.com.  A wheel spins while it tries to link the account.

Link apparently successful as a message comes up that Amazon might charge you a sales tax (though "to the best of our knowledge, you might come from a state that doesn't charge a sales tax on video rentals.  However it is possible that Amazon might start charging the tax in the future.).  I agree.

Confirm your purchase.  Cash balance $3.48.  Amazon.com Gift Card purchase.  Balance $1.49.  Confirm.  Wheel turns some more.

Congratulations!  You have purchased a $1.99 Amazon.com Gift Card to buy Marvel's Agents of SHIELD (Season 1) - Pilot on Amazon.c...  Access the title on Amazon.com   Watch Now or Close

Let's go to Firefox and Amazon.com to see what happened.  Checking my account, I see it in my Video Library.  In face I see several videos in there that I didn't know (or forgot that I had).  Lexx Season 1.  The Batman Season 1.  Learn Along with Sesame Street Season 1.  Argo: Declassified [HD].  Good Day to Die Hard, A: Extended Preview [HD], House Season 4.

Now I wonder if I can watch on on my iPad and/or Roku?

OK, I guess that answers the question.  I can't just buy anything.  Only titles accessible through HitBliss.

Let's earn more.  Darn, wasn't paying attention and didn't press enter in time.  My trust level dropped to 2.  Again.  Now back on 1.  But at least it doesn't erase the money earned.  Now up over $2!

OK, let's see if I can watch the video on my iPad.

Install Amazon Instant Video from the App Store.
Sign in.
Click on the Library icon at the bottom.
There it is!
And I can stream it to the Apple TV.  Pretty cool.
Even the subtitles work.

***

go back to watching ads.  back to level 4!

You've watched all available ads.  We'll now show you ads that you may have skipped in the past.  Resume.

You've reached the end of the ad queue.  Reload ads.

A few more watches.  You've earned the maximum balance!  You can earn more after you spend some of your earnings.  OK

I now have a balance of $6.00.  Cool.

Let's buy something.  I'll buy episode 7, season 10 of South Park. That's the one with Cesar Millan.

Exit app on iPad.  Then go back in.  There it is.  Shucks, no captions.  I'll live.

***

Trying out the HitBliss app on the iPad.  Works about the same as on the PC as far as earnings.  But it appears you can't buy movies or TV shows from the app, you have to do it from the computer.

***

Went home and ran Amazon Instant Video on my Roku.  Yep, it's there in my Library.  Looks good.  And the captions look better than on Hulu Plus.  Looks like they're using the Roku captions.

***

Install HitBliss on my home computer.  Purchased MAOS, episode 1.

What else is there?  Hey, NCIS.  Which isn't on Netflix or Hulu.  I see the Season 10 recap is free.  So I can buy that from the website.  OK, let's go for season 1, episode 1.  Got this message

With this purchase, you will reach your weekly limit of 4 Amazon movies or TV episodes.  After this purchase, you'll be able to buy again on April 15 at 1:00 AM.  OK, so there is a limit.  And I guess you'd better buy your 4 before the week is up..

Let's earn back that $1.99.  Watched one ad.  Balance up to $4.27.  So it's like 26 cents per ad.  Let's round it off to 25 cents.  So you need 4 ads for $1.00.  The max $6.00 would be 24 ads.  At 30 seconds per ad, that comes out to 12 minutes.

Yep, three more commercials, up to $5.01.  And am now on trust level 5.

***

I notice the HitBliss Profile Builder runs on startup as I can see the icon in the system tray.  I don't see an option to prevent it from starting.  If you're uncomfortable with it running, you can go to msconfig or use ccleaner to prevent it from starting up.

But even if it doesn't run on startup, it'll run when then application is started and will stay in the background even when the application is exited.  So you have to exit both separately.  (Right-click on the "b" icon in the system tray and choose exit.

***

When I went to rent a movie, it asked me for credit card information.  It asks this even though you have a HitBliss balance enough to pay for the rental.  This is because some vendors want the item to use a credit card (for nonsensical reason).  So your credit card won't get charged.  But HitBliss offers you the choice of using their own credit card if you don't want to use yours.

*** [4/14/14 palindrome week]

Now I see that the weekly limit of 4 movies and/or TV shows applies to Amazon.com shows.  You can buy more than that for HitBliss shows.  They don't have that many TV shows, but there's quite a number of movies available.  Currently there are 414 HitBliss movies and 53 HitBliss TV shows.  Of course, each TV show has another of episodes, so there's probably more HitBliss TV episodes than HitBliss movies.

***

Browsing.  I see there's all the Harry Potter movies.  The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The Matrix Trilogy.  The four Indiana Jones movies.  The three Jurassic Park movies.  Only the first Back to the Future movie.  No Star Wars.  Only the Star Trek movie from 2009.

*** [4/15/14]

The latest version of HitBliss automatically downloaded upon running it this afternoon.  There's some new TV shows that I hadn't seen in there before.  There are now 549 TV series and 2492 movies.  Wow, imagine if you had to buy all the DVDs!

*** [5/9/14]

In the past few months, we at HitBliss have been working behind the scenes to collaborate with large entertainment services to make our service bigger and better. We have now reached the point where we need to put our beta on hold in order to complete the work on joining forces with these partners. We anticipate that this hiatus will take a few months.

In the meantime, you can request that your earned-cash balance be disbursed as an Amazon.com Gift Card. The instructions will be sent to the e-mail address associated with your account.

That’s about all we can say publicly for now. But when all our work is done, we think you’ll be very happy with the result. We really appreciate your patience and look forward to coming back to you soon – bigger and better!

[we'll see how long it takes to get my Amazon gift card, if ever.  Can't complain.  Got 8 episodes of Marvel's Agents of Shield, 3 episodes of Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, 2 episodes of NCIS, 2 episodes of The Mentalist, and 1 episode of South Park (though I can now get it now on Hulu Plus anyway).  So that's 16 episodes for "free")]

[our long facebook thread on hitbliss and other items]

*** [3/31/15 - via searching for HitBliss on twitter]  Everything We Know About The Future of HitBliss