From the category archives:

Downloads

Cool Tools – PicLens

by Randy Stewart on December 15, 2006

in Downloads,Features

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This a very simple plugin for Safari that makes full screen slideshows from folders on Flickr and most of the other major photo sites. Nicely implemented and a great use of screen space.

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In the last few months, I’ve become more and more disgruntled with my cable service. The cost is high and I simply don’t watch enough television to justify the price. The video quality is poor and the DVR makes me not want to watch television. The selection of video on demand and movies on the “movie” channels are so poor that we also subscribe to Netflix to supplement our entertainment “needs.”

I looked hard at our television viewing habits and realized that most of the tv programming we watch is freely available over the air. There are some exceptions but by and large our “regularly scheduled programming” comes from the big networks. The value proposition is just not there.

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While we do receive HD signals from our provider and that provider is increasing the amount of HD channels on the network, by and large, HD content comes from the major networks. Standard definition, or SD content is so compressed, legitimate download sources are starting to look better.

Crappy picture, lack of selection and high costs leave me with two options.

  1. I could sit and complain about it.
  2. Or, I could ditch cable.

Given all that, we decided to ditch cable and launch this blog to tell you about it.

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If you’d like to know more about my little experiment, head on over to Ditching Cable, where I’ll be showing folks how easy it is to get rid of your cable subscription. It’s a little raw right now, but I’ll be spending some of my time fixing it up in the next few weeks.

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Links for Tuesday, October 17, 2006

October 17, 2006

PopSugar gets $5mm in funding from SequoiaBlog network for “young, hip women” got a nice kitty from the folks at Sequoia. It looks like PopSugar’s main site has been growing a fair clip on their main blog (see graphic) and are doing a bit more than just blogging with a little bit of social networking [...]

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Links for Wednesday, September 27, 2006

September 27, 2006

Berkeley and Google Video team upNot content to get your lectures via podcast? Now you can watch your prof’s give lectures on Google (as well as talks, symposiums and more). I wonder what this does to attendance? [via eContent Two thumbs down for Amazon UnboxWow... so I never did my review of the service (actually, [...]

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Apple’s Showtime event

September 12, 2006

While Showtime lacked a few expected items, overall, this was a nice big present to current iPod owners and a cue that Apple has nothing to worry about from their competitors. iTunes 7 Includes two of the most requested features automatic cover downloads and gapless playback. New cover browse mode (no secret of why they [...]

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Wednesday Links

August 30, 2006

Page views are obsoleteSome good analysis as to why page views aren’t the best measurement anymore due to Ajax, RSS and Widgets. Interesting read, but no real suggestions for alternatives. YouTube directors ready for post productionThese kids today and their “unedited” and “uncut” videos. They grow up so fast, treasure every moment. Guba thinks money [...]

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Tuesday Links

August 29, 2006

Behind the scenes at TechnoratiHow Technorati works. Battlestar Galactica available on Xbox LiveThe first full length episode available on Xbox Live. A hint of things to come? WordPress.com’s Beginner infoWant to learn WordPress? Here’s a good resource including some videos for starting up a WordPress blog. AOL Music DownloadsYet another Plays for Sure clone, but [...]

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AOL Video: Want to buy a video? Watch an ad first

August 24, 2006

You gotta be kidding me…. If you watch a preview of a movie that you would like to buy, AOL makes you sit through an ad. Great user experience. Wow. What are we selling here? A movie download or Citibank Visa? This is one of the reasons going to the movies sucks. It’s the only [...]

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Thursday Links

August 24, 2006

Apple’s having a bad week… Apple settles with Creative for $100mmI’ve got no real opinion on this other than, it sucks for Apple to lose a UI/Look and Feel case twice, once for each side. Oy. Of course, I’d take Apple’s market share minus $100 million in cash any day. Apple recalls 1.8 million laptop [...]

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Sony acquires video sharing site Grouper for $65mm

August 23, 2006

Here’s a link and comment roundup regarding the purchase. Sony is acquiring Grouper Networks in web-video bid – WSJ “YouTube Inc., which had about 16 million unique visitors last month compared with 542,000 for Grouper, according to comScore Media Metrix, a research company. Grouper says comScore doesn’t measure its traffic accurately and claims its numbers [...]

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Amazon Unbox Video launched?

August 18, 2006

Methinks someone pushed the wrong button at Amazon. Gizmodo Kokogiak.com Here are some pix, click for bigger images. More in my Flickr stream. It looks like the video will work on some portable players, will contain DRM, Mac users need not apply, and you will be able to rent as well as buy. Check it [...]

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Wednesday Links

August 16, 2006

Duran Duran to perform live on Second Life?Wow, washed up rockers can live forever in their Second Life. This is huge! DirecTV ships HD DVRMight be time to start looking at DirecTV again. Have I mentioned how the Comcast DVR is Sucktastic? [via Engadget] Life ExplainedNow here is a video sharing site I can use. [...]

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Monday links

August 14, 2006

New York Times compares Canon’s H10 to Sony’s HC3HD camera smack-down! It’s pretty amazing how quickly these cameras dropped in price. User created games on Xbox 360Looks like MS made it a lot easier to create games for the Xbox. This really opens up 3rd party development for the Xbox to almost anyone who develops [...]

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Monday Links

July 31, 2006

Microsoft Photosynth demo Wow… I never say wow about Microsoft products (unless it’s wow, that’s lame or wow, have you heard of usability?). But this is a very cool 3d photo visualization tool. [via Addicted to Digital Media] Jeff’s Quick Guide to TV on the NetGet your fix here. Comprehensive guide to repurposed television shows [...]

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Moguls of New Media – WSJ

July 31, 2006

WSJ has a great profile of video and audio social media moguls. No surprises here, but Chad Vader sure was fun. While I’m pretty familiar with the world of user created content, I hadn’t ventured into the world of user created games. Fancy Pants Adventure on AddictingGames is the rightful successor to the Super Mario [...]

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Monday links

July 24, 2006

Mergers, wikis and movies, oh my! AMD buys ATIAre any TLA companies starting with “A” safe from this insanity? SocialText goes open source and JotSpot goes 2.0Two wikis enter, one wiki leaves. Will the open source wonder take down its more usable, more expensive foe? Amazon to offer movie downloadsJobs better get their service out [...]

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