Satellite vs The Networks January 4, 2009

I’ve been noticing lately that there are many stories online about cable and satellite TV companies fighting for either more money or money at all; as many stations run for free they rely on a provider’s broader audience to sell advertising. Now with the economy in a slump and money not flowing as freely and the usual amount they get paid not being worth as much they are being forced into a situation where they have to ask for more money or money at all from satellite or cable providers.
This is changing in many ways what is available for us on over the air antennas, and with the deadline looming for the analogue to digital switch and 8 million people found to not be ready. Over the air stations are getting nervous of how big of an impact this could have on their viewer base.
Satellite TV and cable providers are getting nervous that paying the stations for what has been free to them before, would add to extra stress for their customers and a rate increase. Lately even Time Warner (a provider well known for rampant rate increase) is getting nervous about raising their rates at all.
The question for most of us is if the economy will affect things so much that we see media companies like these finding a significant number of subscribers. I know for us the television will be the last thing going off if it comes to that. Well depending on if it’s summer time or winder, -20 would be no fun and I know there is no way to enjoy Sponge Bob with frost bite.
There is no doubt though that extras will start seeing a decline, and stations like HBO and Showtime will most likely find that their numbers are significantly dropping by the end of the year. If that is to say Obama isn’t able to wave a magic wand and save us all.

By yetup | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Cable TV, or the Terrorists Win! January 3, 2009

So satellite television is being used in Arab nations to spread extremism or so I hear. It has an entirely different system than we have in the United States. I mean I’m pretty sure the direct TV Baghdad office is something we won’t be seeing for a long time. Although they had a McDonalds open within like the first week of the war so who knows.
In the Arab side of the world anyone can access satellite television to broadcast their own shows, and of course this is of high interest to the radicals trying to recruit kids to wear C4 vests. But the front has been taken to battle from younger charismatic evangelists many not even proper sheiks, to spread the word of piece among the young and old……….especially the young and most vulnerable.
I’m honestly surprised that the United States hasn’t gotten more involved with this. Make a few channels of our own. 24 hour reruns of Will and Grace, that’s enough to make anyone who hates us give up their guns, or maybe make some people pick them up…..who knows.
Anyway, I’m sure after the region has settled in how ever many years that will take there will be a fully enforced FCC style office for each area, after all you can’t just let anyone make their own network, we tried that remember what did we get hmm…….fox broadcasting, lest we forget.
For the time being though this could be just the support we need over there. Moderate Islam is a very peaceful policy, preaching freedom to women’s rights and non-violent stances on issues. It can be fun and funny, entertaining and involved where as fundamentalist Islam is a bit like Opus day from the Da Vinci code right down to the self punishment and die for the church mentality.

By yetup | Posted in satellite tv | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

January 2, 2009

Satellite TV just announced that they’re airing Batman the Dark night in 1080p for their on demand service. They made a press release for the sole purpose of announcing the release, a big deal as companies go, just showing once again the scale of this movie. It’s going to run 6.99 on demand per 24 hours. This flick has blown my doors right off that its impact is still hitting so long after its release that a company would take the time to focus on just one movie.

Blue Ray is pricey and 6.99 is a deal in my book. I personally want to see every last crooked deal of the joker’s facial scars. I was a huge skeptic and still a dedicated Jack Nicolson supporter, but Ledger was amazing, and the movie rocked so hard. I thought the reason everyone was making a stink about his performance was that he died. I was wrong.

I have to say that I think it could have been much better, and maybe in the next Batman they can just leave him right out of it……..leave Batman right out is what I mean. I couldn’t understand a word he was saying in his fake I’m-sick-calling-into-work voice, and most times all I wanted to see was Heath Ledger doing that weird lip smacky thing he did, and maybe blow up another hospital or two, and skip along outside of it.
But crap for Batman or not the special effects in high def is worth the cost alone. The new Batcycle was so amazingly cool it can’t be put into words. I’m also sitting on needles waiting to see what Philip Seymour Hoffman does with the Penguin. I was so into the idea of Johhny Depp playing the Riddler that I guess I was in denial that they picked Eddie Murphy. In fact I still don’t know if I believe it. The new Penguin will most likely be another Ledger quality performance most likely Hoffman has never played a role he didn’t nail no matter how small, and he’s just been handed one huge role

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Is Nickelodeon God’s Gift to Christmas Shoppers? January 2, 2009

When the war was coming to a close and the dust had settled, the Disney and Nickelodeon bloody ratings battles were over. Nick had come out far on top and Disney took its place in second, with a satellite TV programming schedule of unsuccessful series adaptations to successful movies. Things like Aladdin the series minus Robin Williams (the only reason to watch the movie in the first place) and the Emperor’s New Groove the series (based on a movie that nobody really watched).

At Christmas time every year, the toys that we wanted and had to have were discovered by children through Nickelodeon’s advertising. The reason my parents would ask me, “Do you want the Optimus Prime transformer with transformable trailer that turns into a battle station?” was because I saw it on You Can’t Do That on Television, which came on after Mr. Wizard, and of course, nagged and nagged for it.
Had the deal between Viacom and Time Warner not been reached the effects would be felt for a long time to come. (I have to say, as a satellite TV user, it didn’t affect me, and I’m almost wishing Viacom would have dropped TW. I’ve dealt with their service enough to know they deserve it.) The toy marketing behemoth that is Nick Networks would be significantly slowed leading to a possible scramble by other marketers to pick up the slot, but without the addictive yellow sponge to sell it with.What would you really have, probably crap.
Now don’t get me wrong, as a parent I love PBS sprout, but Teletubbies VS Timmy Turner and it’s no contest. Even with no commercials I’ll still trade for the little boy with fairies. The dollars from Nick aren’t like most networks because Nick is also a studio, productions company, video game manufacturer, record company, marketing company, etc. They have massive amounts of media on their plates, and in no way possible were 13 million happy viewers of Viacom’s channels going to shut up about having no option to view on cable anymore. Time Warner was stupid to even argue the point in the first place.

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How Free Web Hosting Works December 24, 2008

I know what you’re thinking–anything that’s free has a catch. Free web hosting has a few “catches,” but, after you learn about them, you’ll see that they are pretty straight-forward. You’re not going to have to sign up 3 friends or family members or anything like that.

First of all, free web hosting companies typically pay for your site with advertising. For example, if you use Yahoo’s “Geocities” free hosting service, they will display yahoo ads in a column on the side of the screen. You can click on an arrow, and the ads will hide. On GoDaddy.Com, another web hosting provider, they will host your website for free with a leader board banner of ads at the top of the screen. They will also put a GoDaddy ad at the bottom of your pages. These ads are similar in nature to the ones seen with Google’s Adsense program.

Additionally, free web hosting typically has limited functionality. You will not be able to support complicated applications like shopping carts. Most likely, if the free web host even offers a shopping cart, they will charge you for it anyway. The type of features available with free web hosting are usually more than enough for a hobby, wedding, or other non-commerce web site. Most likely, any free web host will have a feature for scrolling marquees, basic counters, simple forms, and uploading pictures and videos.

Because most free web hosting companies do not support you having a dedicated domain name, you will most likely share the domain with thousands of other users. Your web address could be in one of two formats: freewebhost.com/yourname or a sub-domain like your name.freewebhost.com. Because of the set-up of a free domain like this, you will not be able have an e-mail address associated with your web site. Some free web hosting companies do allow you to purchase a dedicated domain name. This will not be free however. You can purchase a domain name for as little as $10. Again, if your site is not geared towards e-commerce and online business, not having a dedicated e-mail address should not be a problem.

Another way free web hosting survives is simply by offering paid web hosting. For example, they will show you a neat feature for your web site. When you go to install it on your site, they will ask you to pay for a web hosting account in order to use the feature. Many of their users start out as free customers and convert rather quickly to paying customers.

By yetup | Posted in hosting | Comments (0)