Shorten The Road

Sally Fields got censored for saying ‘god damn’ at the Emmy’s awards show that gave the top honor to ‘The Sopranos’. I will not state the obvious, I’ll just provide you a link to the uncensored speech. Be careful, you may not be able to handle such filth.

New England Patriots = Cheaters!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3014677

How great is the internet; soon after the news broke about the Patriots cheating, the wikipedia page dedicated to Bill Belichick (the Patriots’ coach) was updated to include this blemish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belichick

He has forever tarnished the Patriots’ reputation and their three super bowl wins.

As a Jet fan, I take great joy in these events. I say this knowing that the Patriots would have still beaten the Jets this past weekend. I even realize that the current Jets’ coach, Eric Mangini, once worked for Bill Belichick and may have been involved in some unscrupulous activities while under Bill. But the fact remains, Belichick and the Patriots are a bunch of lousy cheaters!

A new page has been added to my Blog site: Marty’s TV
A link to the page can be found in the ‘Pages’ menu.

I have created an account on MeeVee to track my favorite television shows. Utilizing the tools available on MeeVee and Feedburner, I have created a RSS feed that will dynamically update the page on daily basis. You will see a schedule of my favorite programs for the day. I have also included options for subscribing to to the feed.

Hello Dummy!

I had the honor of seeing Don Rickles this past weekend and at 81, he made me laugh just as hard as any other comic I have ever seen, live or recorded. The average age of the audience – retired. There was a sprinkling of us in our 30’s and even a few in their twenties. Spread the word; younger people should take the opportunity to see this master before he can not do it any longer.

His performance had its spiritual moments. A man his age has seen many friends and family pass before him, including most notably, Frank Sinatra.

God bless you Don! And I wish you many more healthy years of gracing this world with you humor.

NBC Universal and News Corp.’s Online-Video Joint Venture

I recently read an article that states the online-video joint venture of NBC and Fox will challenge YouTube. My question is this; what is the challenge? YouTube provides small streaming video of various clips from home videos to unapproved licensed material. The media companies can provide full-length features on a larger streaming image. The media companies spend some much time and effort suing YouTube, when they should be building an infrastructure to embrace these mainstream technologies and deliver their sought after content.

Currently, many of the media companies are making a handful of their prime-time TV shows available over the internet. My wife and I have watched many episodes via internet. No more setting the Tivo or DVR; much like ‘on-demand’ delivery by the cable systems, we can start and stop these shows at our convenience.

Here is a thought for big media:  Why not require users to sign in to watch the programming. At registration, you can collect demographic information and curtail the advertising appropriately. Keep the breaks to an extreme minimum of 15 to 30 seconds spots no less then 10 minutes apart, but feel free to post ads above or below the feature. Have options for users to get information about their favorite shows and when a new episode is posted, send them an email which could also contain an advertisement.

As a registered user of Joost, I’m impressed with Joost’s ability to provide video utilizing a peer-to-peer TV system and application. Joost takes the time to solicit feedback from their users, including asking about the number of ads and their duration. The biggest drawback for me is that Joost doesn’t offer a lot of the content that I’m interested in. I would love to log in to one place and find my favorite shows like Entourage, Sopranos, Rescue Me, Battlestar Galactica, and 30 Rock (just to name a few). So, if big media doesn’t want to invest in the infrastructure themselves, then they should partner with companies like Joost who have a viable outlet. But provide the shows people want to see! Or they will find other methods to view them.