Not so easy

For some reason best know to itself my Sky+ HD box decided to record only the second half of Stargate Universe this week.

No problem I thought, I’ll watch it on the much flaunted updated Sky Player that integrates with Windows 7 which was launched on the 19th November. Installation and registration onto my ASRock Nettop went fine and all initially appeared OK…

Sky's Sales Pitch

I log into the system and only see last weeks episode of Stargate Universe which is a real shame as nobody seems to have added this weeks episode yet (other series I have check before have been OK) . Now I’ll have to wait until they update it before I can watch the whole episode. Poot!

Whilst installing Sky Player it I did notice a few other oddities…

Some of the Episode details do not match up to the footage they are linked to, e.g. the present weeks episode of Modern Family actually has the title and synopsys of NEXT weeks episode. I saw the blurb and thought nice! I haven’t seen that one yet only to find it was this weeks which I had already seen! how disappointing :-/

When Installing Sky Player I noticed it said about the capabilities for integration into Windows 7′s Media Centre – there’s even a video of it. However the only info it says on how to actually access it is “Start Media Centre and select Sky Player”. But what if there is no SKY item listed as is the case with mine? it’s really not very helpful.

moving goalposts

I tried to check out the Forums (basically “you sod off and support yourself” so we can save money on any actual decent Support model) and that was  as buggy as hell too. The Posts are erratically displayed all over the place with many parts repeated and the Search box allows you to enter only grayed out text and when you click ‘Search’ it does nothing.

Actually – in the last few mins of writing this post the’re  forums have been taken down. The Link to it has been replaced with a “Register for free” button!

Come on guys! get your act together!

1. Homepage:

The Homepage has a lot to offer by itself. The headings on the homepage are:

Tops at the Box Office: List of Box Office top grossers

Opening this Week: The releases of the week

Coming Soon: The upcoming releases

New on DVD and Blu Ray

Other than these, the trivia section on the Homepage is a lovely addition. Movie/TV quote of the day, Born today and Did you know.

2: IMDb Top 250:

We all movie lovers consider this as the Holy Scroll of movie favourites. The list of the Top 250 movies of all time. I do remember when Dark Knight’s soaring popularity made it an instant hit and how fanboyism votes made it quickly rise to the no.1 spot and dethrone its predecessor GodFather. But it wasn’t for long there. As of now [ Oct 19, 2009 ], the Shawshank Redemption is at the no.1 spot with a total of 449,943 votes and a rating of 9.1, whereas the Dark Knight is at no.9 with 8.8 .

But did you know how the rating is calculated? Here’s the formula:

weighted rating (WR) = (v ÷ (v+m)) × R + (m ÷ (v+m)) × C

where:

• R = average for the movie (mean) = (Rating)
• v = number of votes for the movie = (votes)
• m = minimum votes required to be listed in the Top 250 (currently 1500)
• C = the mean vote across the whole report (currently 6.8)

for the Top 250, only votes from regular voters are considered.

BTW, there’s also a Bottom 100 list.

3. Movie browsing by categories:

By Genre: Action, Sci Fi, Horror, Fantasy, Drama, Comedy etc.

By Year/Decade:

4. Archives:

Award winners down the years.

All Time Box Office winners.

5. Movie details and People profiles:

Not only the movie rankings, but all related information. As in, who is the director of a particular movie. What other movies has he/she done. etc etc.

IMDb also has recorded information of Film personality profiles and a chronicling of their works.

Have I missed out on any other utility of IMDb that we use. Shout it out in the comments. Cheerio!

1. Firefox 3.0 on USB:

Portable Apps bring the Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition. So, now you can take your bookmarks, passwords, history, extension with you. Visit the PortableApps website - Mozilla page to download the browser. It is just 9 MB in size, and after installation it expands to 27 -77 MB. I really don’t know what that * sign, beside the 77MB figure, means on the Download button.
Works fine on Win XP SP2 onwards, Win Vista SP1 and Win 7.

2. My favorite – Sabka favorite – Google Chrome 2 Portable

No installation required. Just unzip the files in the folder and you can get started. To download your copy of Chrome Portable, go to this site [ the site is in German ]. The download link is here. Don’t worry, the software is indeed in English.
All your Chrome goodness are saved on the portable device. User settings such as Web History, Cookies are saved in the ‘Profile’ folder. And Program Settings are saved in ‘Chrome’ folder. Works fine in Win XP SP2 onwards, Win Vista SP1 and Win 7.

3. And finally, Opera10 @USB

Opera USB is actually a private project by an Austrian Web Developer called Markus Obermair. Opera@USB has been certified to be tested by Opera. The portable version of the browser can carry out all the usual functionalities, and stores all the user data in the portable device itself.
Go here to download the USB version. Languages supported are: Deutsche, English and Russian, and there is an International Version as well.
The developer’s webpage suggests the only requirements to install Opera@USB are: a computer with an internet connection, and a USB Flashdrive with about 15MB space left. And oh yeah, it works with every Windows PC. hmmm, not quite sure about ‘EVERY’ Windows PC, but it surely works on WinXP SP2, Win Vista SP1 and Win 7.

P.S. Sorry Linux and Mac users. And oh yeah, talking of browser, I am at work, where I don’t have access to USB drives, nor the admin rights to install Chrome/Firefox. That means I am using IE6. And this is what Tumblr reminds me.

This one is different you say. Filmfresh lets users purchase Legitimate DivX rips of latest Hollywood releases ranging from the Watchmen to the just released on DVD -17 again. The catch here is that it is not DRM-free, but can be played on all DivX supporting players and Sony PS3 etc. Also there is no expiry date on the downloaded movies. So it is not a rent model, but more like owning a lower Quality rip also without the DVD extras. The cost per movie download is 10$ -13$ which is on the higher side, since DVDs cost just a few bucks more.

Considering all of this, do we see a future for this particular business model? Take this.

Netflix rents out DVDs for $8.99 a month onwards for one-DVD for a month. This is almost a dollar cheaper than the DivX rip to be owned [assuming the user would order just a single DVD per month]. The DivX rip has no DVD extras, and the selection is going to anyway consist of lesser titles which customers want to own and keep as a showpiece in their personal library of titles. For such movies, such as the Matrix or the Star Wars trilogy, a cinema lover would not spend 10$ on a DivX copy, but spend a few bucks more to own the DVD or heck, the Blu-Ray [ which I know is expensive]. But, for a movie to be experimented with, consumers would adopt the renting system from Blockbusters or Netflix, which is far cheaper.

It’s being backed by Sony, Lionsgate, WB, Paramount etc. So it seems this is just not going to die yet. But yes, the pricing model has to be reevaluated to make this actually work. I suggest the service reduces the price to almost half of it- say around 5$ and also offer the entire DVD ripped along with the extras. Plus, the DivX has to be ripped with the best of settings.

Sorry, I can’t still convince myself to see this working. Why would someone pay(such a ridiculously higher price) to own a movie which is at a lower quality than DVD? The pricing has to compensate for all these losses.

Back in the day, we all used phones to communicate. Then Skype came along and changed the world. Sure, there were other systems before it, but Skype had it all sewn up with a neat little package that bundled the hallowed VOIP with a simple interface and of course – It was free!! Later, video was added (that Beta seemed to last forever!) and the whole thing really took off. Skype has always had some big hitters looking over its shoulder with the likes of the goliath Windows Messenger (Currently in its ‘Live’ incarnation) and the Gmail (With its flexibility and low resource usage) to name but a few.

With this in mind the major release of Skype 4.0 was much anticipated… What new wonders can we behold?… Well, I can tell you one thing – if you’re expecting better video you may be sadly disappointed.  :-\

Last week if you’d have asked me what my preferred video calling software was I’d have said Gmail and Skype were pretty much 50/50, this week however it has to be Gmail. The new Skype 4.0 video looks like a nasty police photo-fit or, worse, a deliberately pixelated news item. Yes it gets a little better if you give it a few minutes but the previous video was clearly better (IMHO). They have, however, done a good job with the voice side of things which is undoubtedly smooth, and sure, there are some new whistles and bells to play with (the “Open” or “Open with Video” seems so obvious now) but why would you release an update with worse performance on the one thing everybody stares at???…

Now if only Google could make their video a little more resilient to all those sudden crashes….

It is indeed quite helpful to have all the bunch that matters. Have a look at the second pic after the jump.

Surfing made Easy. Click away all there is!

Have you always wanted to get out of a boring situation where there is your boring auntie to meet and all she can talk about is how her son is making a fortune. That’s when you wanted some friend to call you up and say, “Dude you need to be here”. Friendly crank calls are a big need of the day, be it to escape your boring aunt, your boss or a lousy housewarming party. And in case your friends are too busy to co-operate, no worries anymore.

Get hold of this awesome thing available for FREE. Yes, free. It’s called GetMOOH (Get Me Out Of Here). It’s as simple as this. Fill in your name, your country code, your mobile number, select the time and date when you want the call to come to your phone. Select from a range of voice samples, and you could even practice to the given samples with your preplanned replies.

Read the How it Works section for all the FAQs. Pretty much answers all the questions that would initially arise. For guys in the UK, it’s on BEBO.

How to set up? easy, meezy!! Get a password by entering your email ID, Name, Intl Prefix, and Mobile Number. The password will be then sent as a text message on your mobile. So ensure that the Mobile number is correct. As you get the password, go back to the Main Menu and enter it. You can use this password for all your future crank calls on GetMOOH.  What’s more interesting is the Notes section which has a funny Q&A.

Why is Getmooh free?: Because Google exists.

Bravo!

Does it mean that we can actually breathe a sigh of relief before some other giant (Google) makes the next move? Or has Yahoo got some other plans up its sleeve? Almost 3 months after the initial speculations of Microsoft’s plan of acquisition of Yahoo, and almost a 16 billion $ increase in market value, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer released his statement that it was withdrawing its offer of acquiring Yahoo. And now that the beans have been spilled, speculations are making the rounds.

Of course, most of them surround the Big Goog tying up with Yahoo to do things OpenSource. Also under the radar is the question of how Yahoo’s shares would turn out on Monday when the markets open. And unless there is a huge miracle, the stock-prices are expected to decline drastically. And well, as Techcrunch states in their post here, if Yahoo tanks badly, Microsoft can even be back with a lower bid. Hmm, so we just can’t count out Microsoft out as yet.

Indexed below are the sites which have covered the entire chapter from every possible angle and every possible aspect.

Yahoo Responds: “The distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us”

Breaking: Microsoft Corporation Rescinds Offer For Yahoo Inc

Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo!

Yahoo! Issues Statement in Response to Microsoft

Guessing Yahoo’s Opening Stock Price

OK, so what’s Microsoft’s plan B?

Email From Steve Ballmer To All Microsoft Employees

Ballmer to Yang: How stupid are you?

YHOO and MSFT: Jerry Yang should be fired