robinadr » TV

Ricky Gervais

Robin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:49:58 +0000

…is a hero.

And, for good measure:

Who Needs the Writers?

Robin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:56:43 +0000

Both Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert have returned on their respective shows, after a 3 month hiatus due to the writers’ guild strike. The biggest change? They’re running solo — no writers.

Having watched a few nights’ worth of the “new” shows, I can’t see a difference. It seems to be the exact, same comedic humor that graced the shows before, only maybe funnier. This, of course, can’t possibly help the writers’ strike, since it shows that hosts like Stewart and Colbert don’t need them.

The Writers’ Guild is unhappy about this, of course, but can you blame Stewart and Colbert? They have to make a living too, and I missed out on my Indecision 2008 coverage thanks to them. Maybe this is how it should have always been… no writers, just the funny host.

Who needs the writers?

German Coast Guard

Robin — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:25:52 +0000

A TV advertisement for Berlitz. Great stuff.

Miro vs. Joost

Robin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:34:15 +0000

Ars Technica has an article up comparing the feature sets of Miro and Joost. The reason for this is because Miro has recently begun a campaign comparing Joost and Miro, but the Ars article seemed to have missed the biggest point.

But Joost’s partnerships with the big boys pick up where Miro leaves off—Joost carries a number of current broadcast shows such as CBS’s fall season of Kid Nation (which several Ars staffers are huge fans of) and NUMB3RS, MTV’s Punk’d series, CNN’s Larry King Live (Miro only carries a Larry King video podcast with the “best” of his interviews for the week), and a selection of full-length films from Paramount.

Uh, I think you missed the biggest feature of Miro: RSS feed-based “TV.”

Whether it’s legal or not, the point is that you can add feeds from a site such as tvRSS (highly recommended, by the way) and get regular programming, on your computer. So, in the end, Miro’s selection is infinitely more vast than Joost’s, because of all the RSS feeds you can add.

Other people pointed this out in the forum topic discussing the article, but it amazes me that Jacqui Cheng, the author of the article, completely ignored this fact when comparing selection.

300 + Family Guy

Robin — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:17:39 +0000

Miro

Robin — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:42:01 +0000

Thanks to an article on CNET, I’ve begun to use Miro, formerly known as the Democracy Player, for all my television viewing. I’m subscribed to quite a few feeds on tvRSS.net, and I’m all set for this fall, when all the new seasons start.

So far Miro’s been decently stable for a “public preview,” with no crashes yet but I swear it eats up memory, because for some reason my computer keeps slowing down after Miro’s been open for quite a while, but I think this may just be my imagination. The interface is nice, and is integrated into the whole Mac OS X feel quite well, considering it’s an XULRunner application. It’s got a few visual bugs here and there, but, once again, it’s only a “public preview.”

I actually don’t have cable service for TV (new house, no cable lines, yet) and I don’t want to have to get a satellite, so I guess it’s internet TV for me.