Netflix: It’s an Error

Posted by on September 7, 2011 No comments

Yesterday I posted about Netflix limiting it’s streaming customers to one streaming show at a time. Apparently though, it was an error rather than a crackdown as previously thought.

While I had suspicions that this was some mix up (I hadn’t had the problem at my home) the fact remains that it didn’t surprise me. I now assume that the Netflix service is going to get worse and worse until it’s no better than the Charter Cable that I cancelled so long ago. Netflix may still have the best service of its kind, but it now has an image problem. It’s the service that raises prices on its customers and limits their viewing options.

It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens with the Starz contract negotiations going forward.

Netflix: We’re not cracking down on simultaneous streams — Online Video News.

Backing the Wrong Horse

Posted by on September 6, 2011 No comments

If you’ve been a backer of Netflix, you’ve probably backed the wrong horse. One year ago they looked invincible. I was happily getting one DVD at a time, streaming on my two Roku units and loving life. Flash forward to today and I’ve cancelled the DVD service because of the price hike and now I will be limited to one streaming show at time. You heard that right. If the linked article is correct, and I haven’t done my due diligence in this regard, then it’s the beginning of the end.

Netflix was a service that was truly a good deal. I bought into the streaming service early even when there was little to watch. It got better and better and now apparently they think that they’re untouchable. No one has created a credible alternative at this point. I’ve read that a streaming service will be created and marketed under the Blockbuster brand, but haven’t seen the details yet. I’ve taken a look at the other alternatives and they all leave a lot to be desired. So, what does Netflix do? Bilk the consumer out of more and more money. Shame on you Netflix!

I’ve yet to see this one stream limit manifest itself at my home, but the day it does we’re going to have some seriously sad children. While there is no alternative to the Netflix streaming service right, I’m not going to stand by and be given less and less for the same price I’ve been paying. Seriously, this completely stinks of our local cable company taking away my channels at the same time raising my rate. That was the whole reason I cut the cord in the first place.

Netflix Cracks Down on Sharing: One Stream Per Customer Unless You Pay More | Stop the Cap!.

Why’s my browser so slow?

Posted by on August 30, 2011 No comments

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, Why is my browser so slow?, then this post may shed some light on that. More often than not, when I come across a slow website, the problem ends up being Adobe Flash content. The site is either using Flash to deliver all or a portion of their content. It could be a video, advertisement, drop down lists, really any type of control on the page may be a Flash control. The by-product of that bit of Flash is a really slow website.

Flash is such a problem for computer performance that Apple completely left off support on their mobile products, iPhones and iPod Touches and the iPad and all those products are the better for it.  What’s left is a fast web full of quick loading pages.  In fact, many of competing products, like those running Android, enable flash and have had numerous performance and stability problems because of it.

If you’d like to get rid of looking at Flash, and you should, check out these solutions for the major browsers:

Download.com Adware

Posted by on August 23, 2011 No comments

Dwight Silverman, tech journalist for the Houston Chronicle, has a great column on the latest practices of the Cnet website Download.com. Apparently they are now offering up a custom downloader that takes the place of the program that you were looking to download. The custom downloader will then offer you change your search engine in your browser, change your homepage and install a toolbar. It will also presumably download the program that you wanted, but the damage will have been done.

To make a few extra bucks Cnet has sold out its users to the highest bidder. In the case that I’m seeing on the linked article, Microsoft properties Bing and MSN are the winners. You, on the other hand, are the loser particularly if you download this adware from Cnet.

Cnet used to be a reputable source for information. When I look for reviews on a tech product that I am thinking about purchasing or recommending to someone, Cnet has been a place that I could trust. Likewise, Download.com was a place that I cold send a client or family member to download a freeware or shareware program with great confidence. That’s not the case anymore and I’ll have to evaluate Cnet reviews through a finer filter.

Look for an article soon on safe places to download software that won’t sell you out.

Download.com offers crapware with that program you wanted | TechBlog | a Chron.com blog.

Top 25 Free & Freemium Web Apps for Students

Posted by on August 19, 2011 No comments

School is starting soon or has started already for many colleges and universities. There are so many great resources nowadays for the student that are either free or next to free to assist them in their studies. Whether it’s getting organized, working with fellow students or a free word processor, there’s never been a better time to be a student and not spend a dime on “other” expenses.

Below is a great link with 25 Free or Freemium (free initial service, pay for more features) web application that college students may find useful.

Top 25 Free & Freemium Web Apps for College Students.

While all these services are worthwhile to try out, a couple of these services stand out as ones not to miss.

They are:

  • Dropbox – File synchronizing between computers
  • Google Docs – Online word processor, and spreadsheets with collaborative features
  • Remember The Milk – Manage tasks/to-do lists so nothing gets forgotten
  • Evernote – Save those notes and ideas for later using your computer or mobile device.

Dropbox Makes Sharing Files Easy

Posted by on August 18, 2011 No comments

Transferring files from home to work and back can be a huge pain.  In the past you may have used floppy disks for transferring files back and forth. Then there were ZIP disks. Most recently flash memory USB thumb drives are the thing to move your files from computer to computer. Now there’s something easier.

Dropbox is a service that gives you a 2GB online storage site. Each computer you install the Dropbox utility on syncs with the online repository. The Dropbox utility also keeps all computers that use the same account synced with the latest version of your files. Anytime you turn on your computer, those files are there and ready for you to use.

Wait! It gets better. You are also able to share your files with others. Just input an email address and Dropbox will make those files available to that person. They don’t have to be Dropbox users themselves. The files are available to them on the Dropbox.com website. They will have to join Dropbox to access the files, but then they get the benefit of the service if they choose to install it on their system.

Wait! Again! There’s more. You now have a personal web server with Dropbox. There is a public folder that you can share files from. Simply copy the files to the Public folder and then copy the public link and share it with the world. The Public folder will not execute server code, though you could use JavaScript along with HTML and CSS to create a nice little site.

There’s even more to the service. And the best part of all this is the price. It’s free for the 2GB service. If you’d like to have more storage then you can upgrade to one of their pay tiers for 50GB or 100GB.

Try Google Plus

Posted by on August 18, 2011 No comments

If you’re interested in trying out Google+ but haven’t been invited yet, fear not.  Use the link below to get in the new Google social network “field trial“.  And when you’re on there, add me to one of your Circles.

http://powurl.com/gplus

Free Anti-Virus for Windows

Posted by on August 8, 2011 No comments

For some unknown reason, my virus protection on at least two computers failed/crashed and refused to start again. On these two computers I was using avast! Antivirus Free. The last time that I checked on it, it was version 5 of the software. The change to a new engine, the latest is version 6, may have been the thing that broke it. Either way, this was an opportunity to check out the landscape of free anti-virus products out there for the home user.

If you’re still using any Norton or McAfee products at home.  Stop!!  Uninstall that software right now and install one of these free alternatives.  Why?  In a word, expired subscriptions.  Most home users get a 90-day trial of one of the commercial antivirus programs on their new Windows-based computer.  When the 90-days is up, there is a nag screen that will tell you that it’s expired, but more often than not the warning gets dismissed and from then on the computer is out of date with the latest virus definitions.  That means you’re at risk of getting a nasty virus.

I’ll let you explore these alternatives on your own, but I have used AVG, avast! and Microsoft antivirus products personally.  They all work and I’ve never had an infection on any computer with these products installed.  The most interesting one of the bunch is the Panda Cloud Antivirus.  The reason being its described as “Light”.  That’s a great thing in an antivirus.  It shouldn’t slow down the system its protecting.  The lighter the better, so this is one I’m going to do some more research on.

So, which one did I pick?  I could have reinstalled avast! and tried that again, but instead I went with Avira this time around.

Let me know your opinion of these free antivirus applications in the comments.

VUDU: The Other Streaming Movie Rental Service

Posted by on July 26, 2011 No comments

I was reminded of the VUDU service today.  VUDU is a streaming service that lets you rent or buy movies and TV shows and streams them to you.  They started out life as a dedicated box you would purchase that had a portion of the movies on their service cached on the internal hard drive.  The movie would start right away and then stream from there.  Nowadays they are strictly a software company.  On your computer you can rent movies for $2 and have access to them for 2 days.  Good deal.

And here’s the best part.  According to their website, you can get movies the same day that they are released on DVD.  No more 28 day Netflix penalty.

And here’s the worst part.  Television shows.  The catalog of available television shows, especially children and family programming is anemic at best.

VUDU is built into numerous web connected devices , Blu-ray players, HDTVs, and the PS3.

So, this seems like a killer combo for streaming content:  Netflix Streaming – $7.99/Mo. and VUDU for new DVD release access, a-la-carte pricing.  I just need a way to get VUDU content on my TV.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see a VUDU channel on my Roku.

 

Success Story: Swift Freight Router Upgrade

Posted by on July 21, 2011 No comments

Recently I was contacted by the owner of Swift Freight, a multi-national corporation that ships products for it’s customer all around the world.  With the rising cost of phone services eating into the bottom line, they decided to install IP phones in three locations.  They purchased and signed up with Phonebooth.com and purchased phones and service for their offices in California, New Jersey and in India.

I was asked to provide a router with Quality of Service (QoS) features to ensure adequate bandwidth for the new IP phones as well as Virtual Private Networking (VPN) for the California office.  Their current router was the venerable Linksys WRT54G.

The options were to either purchase a new router with the required functionality (the phone vendor suggestion) or upgrade their current router with third-party firmware (my recommendation).  From my own use of third-party firmware (DD-WRT) I knew that their router had the capability to fulfill their requirements if it was upgraded.

The client chose to go with my recommendation of the upgraded Linksys router.

The router was taken off-line, upgraded with the DD-WRT firmware and put back in service.  The router was then configured for QoS for the SIP protocol that their new IP phones use.  The VPN service on the router was enabled and configured for two remote employees to access the company internal network.

Phone quality is now guaranteed and the office resources are available to remote workers.