Arranged Delirium

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve abandoned broadcast television via cable or dish for distribution via Internet. I’m doing this primarily through streaming Netflix and AppleTV. But because of Hulu contributors, their fight with Boxee, and their archaic position that folks shouldn’t watch TV on their TV’s, it’s somewhat difficult to access a limited number of shows.

The solution? A $69 cable from Kanex - simply display your web content on your TV. This had been a bit difficult with Apple’s implementation of the MiniDisplayPort - there were adaptors to HDMI and audio but you needed separate cabling. This resolves all that and puts it into one tandem cable. Not as convenient as simply viewing Hulu content via Boxee, but it does the trick…

As I await the introduction of the Apple tablet I’ve been reading a bit about some of the rumors. This article lists a few common perceptions and the subsequent comments make for interesting reading about how folks might use the product. I never cease to be amazed at how so many make the common fallacy of assuming that everyone will use a tool in exactly the same way…

The inventors of the CCD were awarded the Nobel Prize this week. Here’s some concise coverage from CNN with all the pertinent details. Why do you care? The CCD is the cornerstone of your digital camera and allowed us all to leave the cumbersome, analogue, world of film behind for easier, faster, and better quality digital photography.

Adobe has finally released an update for the Mac version of Photoshop Elements. Version 8 is now shipping and provides a nicely affordable way to edit imagery. You can find a review of the software at Macworld.

Photoshop is simply too expensive - even with an educational discount it’s over $200. Elements has 90% of the features for less than $80 (even lower with the educational discount). Additionally, the auto adjusting toolset of Elements makes it a more easy-to-use product for folks that just want to re-touch their images quickly, and not compose new works of art. It’s supposed to be shipping now, but they’ve missed the date; nonetheless I’d expect it to ship this month. This is a great tool for image editing on Windows as well as Mac, so If you are looking for an inexpensive but good image editing tool regardless of platform: this is it.

I’ve abandoned all broadcast television for good. The process began years ago when I became a disciple of TiVo, and realized that there was no reason why I should ever watch anything at any specific time again. I also realized that I could avoid commercials - which I abhor. (I actually enjoy some commercials - just not during programming.)

More recently however, I’ve eschewed all forms of broadcast TV by ending my DirectTV subscription. Essentially at this point, I get all of my television via Netflix and AppleTV. I was inittially quite surprised at the quality of the performance of video streaming over broadband - it’s very good (especially if you have 3 mbps or better). Netflix also has a robust selection of content available via streaming, so all’s good there. With AppleTV you can run anything you get from iTunes. Add in Boxee and you’ve got access to even more content. (Although no Hulu - which is sad. And stupid.)

In the end, I went from paying about $60/month for DirectTV and Netflix to an $18/month Netflix expense. With that kind of savings I could buy a series each month on iTunes, own the content, and still come out ahead. Of course, I could never watch that much TV - so I stand to save a lot of money. The only real loss is live sports programming; but I haven’t given up hope for finding a solution for watching Ohio State football. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably invest more to buy a Mac Mini and install Plex on it - which would give me added features and content - but it would have cost me more too. Meh.

If you are interested in moving to Internet video and leaving your cable/dish subscription behind, Forbes has published a very readable article on the topic, and I’m more than happy to answer questions if you leave one in the comments section…