I’m sure I’ve mentioned that, due to the fact that Charter Cable Is Lame With Lousy DVR Technology, we are living these few months without television. While I long for the days when I can return to DirecTV and TiVo (generation uno, still going strong and remarkably reliable), our household is making do, watching the [...]

In China, and other nations, the government decides what can and cannot be accessed on the Internet. Government censors work very hard to make sure citizens are not exposed to any information that the government deems to be inappropriate. Sure, clever hackers can and do get around the censors, but it’s a bit like whack-a-mole.
Recently, [...]

Dear Hulu,
I don’t have much time today, but wanted to extend an olive branch of sorts. Don’t get me wrong: we still have some fundamental disagreements to work through. For example, I cannot buy into your business model, and I hope you understand why you’re wrong to consider Hulu.com as a rival to your regular [...]

Okay, I really don’t like the ABC video player. As we continue our living-without-cable/satellite/rabbit ears experiment, we’re trying out all the video services being offered by the major players. I’ve grudgingly conceded that Hulu does a good job, though it still has problems.
The CBS Innertube, while cleverly named, was a rank disappointment. Friends have assured [...]

As some you might know, we are sadly (and temporarily) separated from our DirecTV (and TiVo). We had planned to use this separation as a chance to revisit cable, see what was new, and, maybe re-evaluate our television viewing options. Cable failed on every possible level.
While there isn’t much of it to watch, the television [...]

Last week, Leslie Moonves — the man we can’t decide if we love or loathe here — received a 29% pay raise with compensation totaling about $36.8 million. Of course, the headlines were filled with chatter about the fate of well-compensated news anchor Katie Couric, so it’s understandable that most of you missed this news.
CBS [...]

I know this guy who has hundreds of friends on the Facebook. I know another guy who’s trolling for his thousandth friend on the MySpace. I know authors by the score who talk about how many friends they have on this social network or that (LinkedIn geeks, anyone?). Musicians who have built entire careers on [...]

Since I was running short of things to worry about, I turned my attention to fact that today’s youth are not learning something called “executive function”. Far as I can tell, this is child psychologist-speak for what we used to call self-control. Okay, self-control mixed with internal dialogue.
Back in my day — when I organized [...]

I’m having an “argh” moment. Hulu.com long rumored, long in beta, has finally launched. Hurray! The company has lined up most of the majors and has a good library of content (though, 200 premium titles doesn’t really seem like that much; apparently, there’s a good selection of back catalog now and coming online soon). [...]

Bill St. Arnaud says:
. . . My personal interpretation on David’s comments is that cablecos and telcos have entered into a contract with users to provide access to the “Internet”. The Internet is not a product or service developed by exclusively by the cablecos or telcos for use and enjoyment by [...]