Monthly Archives: June 2010

hulu +, Not the Droids I was looking for

Posted on June 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

I hope for many, hulu + is a huge WIN. For me, in the short term, it’s not.

When I heard the announcement, my first thought was, “ok this is the final nail in Cable’s coffin for our house”

Very quickly though the coffin shrugged the nail off.

What would make hulu + the killer app for me? Not a lot above what they’re offering, but enough that I’ll be waiting before switching our family over.

1. The Archive. That’s a nice feature. Nicole decided to watch Angel, yet currently hulu only has like 1 season, or part of 1 season. So when we find programs we’d like to explore from the beginning, the archive is a good option, assuming the show is in there.

2. We watch a lot of Discovery and History channel, which don’t seem to be available on hulu. Bummer, will have to wait and see if they get that content or if there’s another avenue for it’s consumption.

3. iPad and iPhone apps are awesome (and the quality is insane!), but much like the Netflix app, when I’m in the mood to use those apps is when I’m traveling. hulu and Netflix really should allow the apps to cache content. It’s all DRM protected by the apps, etc, so caching shouldn’t be an issue. Putting in hard restrictions shouldn’t be hard either, like 3 shows, for 2 days, etc. Frankly when I’m at home wanting to watch something I have a really big TV with Netflix and hulu on it, I’m not reaching for my iPad.

Sure if I’m in a hotel room, I could stream content and watch on my iPad, and that’s a valid example and a use I’d likely engage in, but for me, and I assume a lot of other travelers, the bigger need is in the air. Unfortunately I don’t see Frontier adding in flight wifi anytime soon, and when they do it’ll be too expensive. Plus if Wil‘s experience is an indicator, as more and more people start to stream content, inflight wifi is likely to break down. I suspect it’s not that fat of a pipe to begin with.

4. This is kind of a “good to have” it sounds as if hulu plus doesn’t reduce the number of ads I have to see. Don’t get me wrong, i pay for cable, and without TiVo I’d see far more ads than on hulu, but it feels weird to move to a premium model, and not at least reduce the number of ads + users will see. Shoot, just go from 3-4 to 2-3 during a show. Something to make me feel like my $10 is buying something more than archive access.

I think the reason hulu + wasn’t a home run for me is because we’re fairly casual watchers. Access to the archive, while nice isn’t huge for us. We have a small number of shows we watch on hulu and we’re pretty good at watching them before they expire. The lack of caching content for air travel, or say, camping or other off the grid activities, makes hulu + even less interesting. I have a ton of content in the “videos” app on my iPad, it’s available whenever, whereever. hulu + didn’t come close enough to beating that for me.

I hope as they roll the service out, they add some features. I really do want to support hulu and stop paying for cable service, but that doesn’t appear to be today.

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Posted in Business, I am a Consumer, iPhone, Mac, Technology

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Bikes, cars, and pedestrians – Can’t we all get along?

Posted on June 25, 2010 | 2 Comments

I figure as a downtown dweller I have a moderately unique point of view on this. I walk a lot. In the colder months, though it takes longer it’s more comfortable than riding. In the warmer months I ride my bike everywhere. All over downtown. When i leave downtown I drive.

Just last night a drive nearly killed me so he could pull into the parking lot for the rockies game. I was right there, he passed me, then cut me off. As a driver, I’ve had to swerve as I come around a blind corner to face bicyclists who don’t grasp what “shoulder” means and ride in the center of the road. As a pedestrian I’ve been nearly run down on more than one occasion by bikers on the sidewalk. Conversely I’ve been “That” biker 2x. Both in cases where cars parked on the side of the road blocked my view and I thought it was clear to pull out, when it wasn’t. It goes both ways and I get that.

I had heard that DPD was cracking down on sidewalk riding, which in general I completely agree with. The problem, as mentioned in this examiner piece is that the three groups can’t get along. I take to the sidewalks in extreme cases, when the road isn’t wide enough for me to feel safe with the cars. I ride slowly, and try to not disturb the peds.

Jake and I were talking about this a bit a while back, that even when we’re driving, we’re more aware than most drivers we see. Because we’re used to being aware. On our bikes is a true safety matter to know what’s going on around you.

I think Denver is doing an awesome job of making the city more and more bike friendly. New bike lanes north of Broadway are great steps in that direction! I hope motorists try to think a little outside the box though, and I equally hope bikers try to not be so douchey. Yeah as a whole I despise most other bikers.

If everyone followed the rules a bit more I think all three groups could share the city with fewer problems.

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Posted in Around the Home/Office, community, Denver, Random

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If it looks easy, it’s not

Posted on June 17, 2010 | 3 Comments

It’s weird (both flattering and a little insulting) when people look at what you do, and think, “well if he’s doing it, I can do it” vs. possible partnership, etc.

Sure there’s a part of all of us that wants to do things on our own, or own way. But in business especially I think that’s a kiss of death more often than not.

In particular I’m talking about conferences. I’m pretty good at it. I find interesting people, technical experts, etc and get all together under one roof. It’s a ton of fun, I wake up every day loving it. The actual days of the event, I’m moderately calm and collected, because I have my shit together. I obsess, and freak out up until the first day, after that I’m reasonably sure I’m good to go.

So yeah, the days that people actually see me, I’m happy, I’m talking to people, hanging out an joking. That doesn’t in any way shape or form, mean the 6 or so months leading up to that aren’t full of stress, craziness, and working my ass off.

Yet somehow it’s caused at least a few folks I know of to decide they want in on the action. Fair enough, after all, it’s business.

It’s business!

You don’t go into business without a plan. Heck, the first 360|Flex, wasn’t a business, it was a one off, a completely lark. After that Tom and I realized it was fun and we enjoyed it, and other people seemed to like the event. THEN it became a business. A not profitable business the first few events.

This ain’t the field of dreams!

You can’t just say, “Hey everyone! I just made up a new event, come on out” and expect to be a success. Well if you live in Boulder that seems to work ok, otherwise not really. You have to get people involved, wrangle speakers and sponsors, etc. I’ve seen one event almost implode costing the organizer a buttload of money because it seemed they thought, that just organizing the event was enough. That people would flock from near and far to attend. I’ve also seen a recent event (most likely, sadly I’m the only conference organizer that believes in transparency as far as I know) lose a ton of money because the organizer didn’t realize how much everything costs, didn’t realize how much to charge attendees, etc.

I’m no expert, I don’t intend to stop learning, but I did learn the hard way, what works and what doesn’t. I’m still learning that.

What really irks me about this “problem” is that not only does it impact my business in the short term, people choosing that event over mine (when they’re in the same space) but it hurts consumers/attendees, and even sponsors. They waste their money on what turns out to be a less than awesome event, with little chance of repeating, and are now jaded.

Thankfully I have a history of success now, but still, kinda bums me out.

Oh and if someone tries to tell you conferences are dead, just turn around and walk away. They’re either an online event snake oil peddler, or out of touch with the realities of business and events.

Just sayin.

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Posted in 360Conferences, 360Flex, 360|iDev, Business, community, Conferences, Work

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So the ATT caps don’t affect you huh?

Posted on June 4, 2010 | 1 Comment

I was watching all the tweets about “looks like I only use 400mb so AT&T’s new caps won’t affect me.” earlier this week, and got to thinking.

I’m wondering how much all these folks are considering the future. Not 2044 when we have iPhones in our heads, but a 2 months from now, maybe 3. Clearly AT&T had a plan beyond “Making data plans more affordable and available for all. 98% of our users don’t even use close to 2g” and all. I mean we’ve met AT&T right? When have they done something for their customers, beyond send cease and desist letters when we email them.

So here’s what I’m wondering..

Skype on 3G… how much are we gonna use that? How much will that impact data use? I can see 2gb going fast with a couple business calls a week.

Front facing camera and some sort of iChat for iPhone… Will we get it? Who knows, rumors (again) say yes. How much will video chatting use up your data use?

Backgrounding of Pandora? How much data do you think you’ll use streaming pandora at work every day? On your jog? at the gym? at your desk?

There’s a lot (possibly) coming soon that will hugely impact data usage. Surprised AT&T pre-empted all that with a change in rates?

A change that by next week we’ll have mostly forgotten in the euphoria of a steve-note, new devices, and mac pros, and robot unicorns. AT&T for their cluelessness in dealing with customers, isn’t stupid, and they just roped a ton of schmoes into very restrictive plans.

Take a long the view… it’s a different picture. I’ll be keeping my unlimited plan thank you.

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Posted in 360|iDev, Business, I am a Consumer, iPhone, Mac, Random, Technology

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