Insomnic Dreams

Today is Reading Rainbow’s final broadcast. After being on the air for 26 years it has reached the last page and the cover is being closed.

NPR reports that the main reason Reading Rainbow is going off air is that nobody will pay the broadcast rights – but the primary cause of that is not so much a financial reason but a change in how reading is currently being taught. The focus of literacy has shifted to being more about the basics of reading: phonics and spelling. This shift is more about combating literacy in general as opposed to promoting reading as a form of education in itself.

It’s an understandable shift since conceptually it’s imperative to be able to read in order to function in society – but what a loss to those kids who will only know reading as a technical function and not a gateway for learning and imagination.

Reading Rainbow was a big part of introducing new and interesting stories to children and it will surely be missed by me and my fellow bibliophiles.

So now all over the air (OTA) TV broadcasts are in a digital format and you’re wondering what you need to do to watch your stories. Well… to be honest there isn’t much you need to do. It isn’t nearly as complicated as it might all sound.

First of all, if you have cable or dish services you don’t need to do anything at all. Everything will move along the same as always.

The only thing that changes is the OTA reception. In order to get digital OTA you need to have 2 things:

1. An antenna
2. A TV that can translate the HD signal

Lets take care of part of that first issue right off the bat – if you already have an antenna that can receive UHF then you are done. There is no such thing as an HD antenna. All antenna’s work the same – the only difference between antennas is their reception range – which was always true anyways. The HD antenna thing is just a marketing spin to help sell antennas.

If you don’t already have an antenna and you want to receive OTA HD then you’ll probably want to pick one up. A site to check before purchasing is AntennaWeb. They are a non-profit site that helps you find what channels are in your area and what style of antenna might work best for you. Click on the “Choose an Antenna” button and enter your street address and zip code (the rest is up to you but it really needs those two things). Once it gives you your channel listings mark the “Show Digital Stations Only” option to see what HD broadcasts you can expect. The color codes match with standardized antenna ratings to match different distance levels and reception requirements. You can also click on the “View Street Level Map” to see which direction those channels are broadcast to help with orienting your antenna (if necessary).

When it comes time to buy an antenna, I recommend Antennas Direct. They have many models to choose from and a very helpful guide to help you choose what will work for you. Their ratings and information also match well with Antenna Web so you can use them together pretty easily.

Now you need a TV to watch those beautiful HD broadcasts on… or maybe not. If your TV is already HD  compliant (check your manual) then you are all set. If your TV says “HD Ready” then it can show high resolution video but it can’t decode the transmission – you’ll need a tuner. If you are planning on using a Tivo then your tuner is in there – otherwise you’ll need to purchase a tuner.

Now what about if you aren’t ready to buy a new TV and just want to use your old TV with the new DTV signal? No problem. The government is here to help (don’t hear that too often when it comes to technology). What you need is a converter box which will translate the digital broadcast signal into an analog signal.  Luckily you get two $40 coupons to help with that purchase. To get your coupon go to the coupon request site at DTV2009.gov and fill out the information. You’ll get your coupons in the mail in about a week. Once you get the coupon, you can check DTV2009 for a local retailer and compatible models but I found the easiest way is by using Amazon. They have a special page dedicated to the redemption and I was able to pick up one of the top Consumer Reports rated models called the Zinwell ZAT-970A for the low price of zero dollars thanks to the coupon and the free shipping. Once you receive the box you’ll hook the OTA antenna cable to the box and then a cable from the box to your TV and you’ll be all set.

Hopefully this has cleared up some of the HD confusion and not just added to it. If you need more information though, the DTV2009 and AntennaWeb sites are excellent resources without any marketing spin or you post in the comments and I’ll try to help you out. I did get OTA working at my home with mixed TVs and I’m very happy to not be paying a bill for excellent quality broadcast TV (nothing like getting 16:9 widescreen with 5.1 surround on Big Bang Theory).

YouTube is starting to horn in on Hulu’s action by partnering with Sony, CBS, MGM and a few other studios to bring some TV shows and Movies to their streaming video service. The choices are pretty sparse at the moment but there are a few gems like Alf, Married with Children, Cliffhanger, and Starman. One of the studios that have partnered is Bandai so anime fans can pick up some rather recent english dubbed series like Code Geass and Gundam 00.

It’ll be worth checking back on occasion as I’m sure more and more content will be added.

Embedding is obviously disabled for these shows but here is a classic you just can’t pass up: MacGyver Season 1 Episode 1 … Enjoy!

I mentioned the ARC Awards previously and how they are a great place to go to pick up some suggestions for anime to watch.

Well, they just recently released the 2008 Anime Reactor Community Awards.

Here is a quick rundown on some of the winners:

• Best Overall, Best Story, Best Sci-Fi: Kaiba
• Best Romance, Best Drama, Best Slice-of-Life: Clannad
• Best Adventure/Fantasy: Ookami to Koushinryou (Spice and Wolf)

There are some others listed at the site as well as Jury picks – so go check a few of them out if you are interested.

I will say that Kaiba is completely original in its story telling and animation style – so original it may be a bit awkward for some people. If you are confused while watching it – just keep watching, it works itself out.

Also, if you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook you may have seen me mention an anime that was really excellent – that one would be Clannad and its second season Clannad ~After Story~. I highly recommend it as a drama/romance/comedy/fantasy/slice-of-life style story.

If you have any recommendations or comments about the ARC Award winners, shout ‘em out in the comments!

I am sad to say that Patrick McGoohan and Ricardo Montalban have passed away. They will both be missed and their place in geekdom will keep their memory alive for a long, long time.

The Prisoner

Kirk vs Kahn (original)

Kirk vs Kahn (rematch)

As I mentioned in the previous post, I like animation. This includes anime. Anime has become quite a bit more popular over the last few years (thanks in large part to the ease of digital distribution of fansubs and recent pop culture popularity) and some people have asked for recommendations on what to watch. Like any media – there is good stuff and there is bad stuff… similar to summer blockbusters. Luckily, there is one place that tends to pick quite a few of the “good ones” regularly and that is the Anime Reactor Community Awards (ARC Awards).

The ARC Awards are done once a year and it is a community process to narrow down and vote for anime in a number of categories. The biggest category is “Best Anime Overall” which is equatable to the “Best Picture” award at the Oscar’s. The winners get recognition in the form of a banner that is used at AniDB (largest database for Anime – like IMDb is for movies).

Here are the past ARC Award winners for “Best Anime Overall”

• Sekai no Senki II – 2001
• Azumanga Daioh – 2002
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – 2003
• Full Metal Alchemist – 2004
• School Rumble – 2005
• Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu – 2006
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – 2007

A wide variety of genre’s have won the award including drama, action, and comedy. Be sure to check out the results to see the other categories and selections as well as the other nominees.

Now… that covers newer anime but some people want the classics – the ones “everyone know” (at least the ones anime fans refer to just like movie buffs say “you have to see this”). That gets harder. There are obvious classics, but like many classics, sometimes they don’t translate as well to newer audiences. If you are interested in trying some anime… stick to the ones listed above and you’ll probably be happier. If you really become interested, there are lots of places to find those classics I mentioned – and I’ll be happy to recommend a few.

Lastly comes the big debate with anime … subbed or dubbed. This debate is actually true of almost all foreign media and it usually comes down to preference. Subtitles (subbed) give a more accurate translation and representation of the story and you get the original actors voice and intonation as intended, but it can detract from your viewing as you have to focus more on reading. Dubbed is easier to follow and is less distracting from the visuals but you might lose story elements or get awkward lines as the translation is changed to fit speech time.  Older anime that you find on VHS or DVD was plagued by bad dubbing but over the last 7 years or so it has gotten much better and so comes down more to preference (though there are still some dubs that make me cringe).

So there you have it. The basics to get started watching anime. Hopefully this has helped answer some of the basic questions but if you have more, feel free to ask me.

NOTE: Anime can be more adult in nature than the average American cartoon. Anime is marketed in Japan to a wider audience so be sure to check up on a show before getting it for minors to watch. I’ve seen parents get an anime for their kids because it looked cute on the cover only to end up quite distraught when the cute little girl turns out to be a homicidal maniac. I should also mention the same is true for manga; I’ve stopped many a parent from buying a manga title just by having them flip through the pages first – comics and cartoons aren’t just for kids.

I like animation. As such, many friends have recommended Avatar: The Last Airbender to me. I have resisted this in part because I have particular tastes when it comes to animation – Believe me… that’s a whole different post about the advantages and disadvantages of animation as a story telling device versus as a children’s colorful distraction. You can see I have opinions, and I had put Avatar in the later category because of its marketing and presentation by Nickelodeon. Luckily, enough people whose opinion I trusted said I’d like it that I gave it a shot and my only disappointment was that it took so long for me to watch it.

I highly recommend this show even if you aren’t a big fan of animation – though I understand some people just can’t take animation seriously… I feel sorry for them. If you are a fan of good storytelling I think you’ll like this series. It is a bit saccharine at times – it is a cartoon aimed – but it also treats the audience like they have a brain. I’m impressed. I hope more cartoons take this approach.

Also, there wasn’t a single fart joke in the entire series. Not one. No wonder people think it isn’t an American cartoon.

Oh… they are also making a live action movie with M. Night Shyamalan and the original creators working together to make a trilogy (the series is broken up into 3 parts so it makes sense). Hopefully that will work out okay.

Seth McFarlane, the creator of Family Guy and American Dad, is starting an online cartoon comedy site called Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. It’s a new venture with Fox and Google to expand viewership on the Internet. The cartoon shorts will run for free with Google AdSenseadvertising to help pay the bills. There are a couple of teasers up at the moment but the premier will be Wednesday, September 10th.

This is basically a test of an Internet viewing model to see if revenue can be made with online only content. This will be similar to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which was mentioned previously, and has done incredibly well by using a free online model and then selling via iTunes. If more of these online only presentations can be found profitable expect to see more and more online only content.

Along the same lines, Fox and NBC Universal’s online viewing site Huluwill be releasing many of this season’s premier episodes online either at the time of airing on TV or even a week before the TV broadcast. Check out when your favorite shows will be available online at the Hulu Fall Line-Up. Some of the shows that will air on Hulu a week earlier than the TV broadcast are Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle, Chuck, Life, and 30 Rock. Hulu is also working on international access as well so even if you aren’t in the United States give it a try.

You may have noticed that some of your favorite clips from TV shows are missing from YouTube.  I had a nice list of Family Guy clips that I liked to go back to on occasion for a good chuckle. All my saved Family Guy clips are gone and they are nowhere to be found on YouTube anymore. I did find where they went to though … Hulu.

Hulu is the video site for NBC Universal and News Corp where they host their clips, special videos, full length TV episodes, and full length movies. The TV episodes and movies are presented with limited commercial interruption (usually just one at the beginning and one quick one every half hour for longer episodes or movies) and in good streaming video quality. Signing up for an account will allow you to do much of the common things you’d expect on a video site including creating playlists, keeping track of favorites, and commenting on videos.  An account also allows you to watch age restricted content – which was a bit of a surprise to even have available.

Some of the viewing features are common like full screen or pop-out window, but they also offer a “Lower Lights” option which just dims the surrounding webpage to make the video more prominent. They also allow easy sharing with MySpace, Facebook, Digg, and a few other popular social and bookmark sites and include one trick that isn’t common: scene selection.  You can actually choose the start and end point of what you are sharing.

So what content is available at Hulu? Here’s a list of some of the stations and I think you’ll see quite a bit of content is covered.

• Fox (and all Fox Sports, Fox News, Fox etc)
• FX
• Speed
• Fuel
• National Geographic
• 20th Century Fox
• Fox Searchlight
• NBC
• MSNBC
• CNBC
• Universal Pictures

As you can see, that’s a lot of content to pull from so here’s a few items from their “recently added” listing:

• NBA highlights
• Full NHL game of Stars at Red Wings
• Law and Order excerpts
• Deal or No Deal highlights
• Heroes season 3 trailer
• Last night’s Tonight Show episode
• The latest episode of Bones
• The movies Rob Roy, January Man, and Monty Python’s Meaning of Life
• Behind the scenes of Indiana Jones 4

Of course, those missing Family Guy clips can be found here as well:
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.551690&w=425&h=350&fv=]
I don’t know why that clip cracks me up so much but it does. 

So obviously there is a lot available to watch here and it is Flash based video so will work on all platforms – though the higher quality videos means a little bit longer wait for buffering if you are on a slower internet connection. There is one major restriction – it only works for people in the United States.  There are ways around this little restriction, but for legal reasons they have to restrict access.

Overall, Hulu is a nice video site.  It’s organized well and kept very simple with advertising being very minimal. There is a lot of content and the quality is excellent.  I see no reason not to add this site to your list of favorite time wasters.

It has been a slow weekend in the tech world… not really, but most of it is boring to regular people so I thought I’d spare most of you.

There are few things that have come to mind I thought I’d let you know about.

Apple released a large update to their Leopard operating system.  Lots of fixes and tweaks.  Be sure to run Software Update again after installing because there is a graphics update as well.  Also, open Disk Utility (from Utilities folder in Applications) and run the “Repair Disk Permissions” on your system hard drive.

WHDb.com released an article with the top 50 proprietary programs that drive you crazy and their open source alternatives.  I don’t necessarily agree with some of their “top” picks, but the list is pretty complete. I suggest you check it out when you get a chance.  It is mostly Windows centric, but there are a variety of Apple apps on there as well.

I’ve been using twitter regularly lately and I think I’ve finally settled on a desktop app.  It is called Twhirl and does all the things I liked in the other programs I tried and none of the usual irritations. It will run on Windows and Mac using Adobe AIR (AIR will be coming to Linux soon). If you have a Blackberry, I recommend TwitterBerry. You can find me on twitter here.

Steven Brust has written a short story based in the Firefly world called My Own Kind of Freedom. It is free to download under Creative Commons and it is a nice added episode to the Firefly world.  Yes… the entire crew is in it. It’s a pretty good read and since it’s free you really can’t complain can you? I think it is a worthy addition to the rest of the canon.

Starbucks is leaving T-Mobile and moving to AT&T for their wireless services in their billions of coffee shops.  Current T-Mobile customers will still get 5 years of usage while AT&T broadband customers will have free access to even more wireless locations.  AT&T Cellular customers will be getting the same benefits soon.  Check here for current AT&T wireless hotspots around the world.

It looks like Blu-ray Disc may come out the winner in the HD Disc format wars. Two more big players are backing Blu-ray.  Best Buy and Netflix have both stated that they are backing Blu-ray.  Netflix will no longer refresh their inventory of current HDDVDs and Best Buy will be recommending Blu-ray over HDDVD.  Ars has the details about this latest development in the “format wars”.

As always – if you are looking for distractions, check out My Pownce or the feed to the right. Watch the Delicious bookmarks at the right too as interesting sites I find will end up there as well.

So it wasn’t too boring… was it?