Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Bionic Woman Canceled
Story here.
I tried really hard to like this show, but it was pretty clear that no one on the crew had any idea what they wanted to do with this show. I gave it five episodes or so, and after the "Jamie-and-spy-guy-go-to-Paris" episode I threw my hands up and uttered the eight deadly words.
I tried really hard to like this show, but it was pretty clear that no one on the crew had any idea what they wanted to do with this show. I gave it five episodes or so, and after the "Jamie-and-spy-guy-go-to-Paris" episode I threw my hands up and uttered the eight deadly words.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Our Presidential Candidates
The best part about being an independent is that I won't have to roll up my sleeves, hold my nose and vote for one of these tossers until next November. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our presidential candidates:
- An actor auditioning for his greatest role: a man who wants to win his party's presidential nomination
- A shrill, unlikeable harpy
- A likable though inexperienced, political boy-genius who's greatest accomplishment--and audacious hope!--is...running for his party's presidential nomination
- A paternalistic, blow-dried, New England liberal
- A protectionist, blow-dried creep
- A geriatric assault on the First Amedment
- A creepy xenophbe hiding beneath a warm, cuddly grampa-like exterior
- A candidate whose campaign should be known as Arkansas Strikes Back
- A defeatist
- A lunatic
- A space alien
- A nobody
- A has-been
- ...Who?!?
A video.aol.com Rant
So I've been talking up video.aol.com pretty hard. And there's a lot to like. However, I've been using it for a while now, and I feel that this rant is not only inevitable, but justified. So here I go.
The Good
All right, so the good. Video on AOL gives the user access to a fairly large library of video content drawn from Warner Bros, Fox, and NBC. Plus, there's tons of user-submitted clips and shorts. And it's all free and legal. For my part, I've been watching reruns of Babylon 5, having missed it the first time around. Sadly, this about wraps it up for the good.
The Bad
Okay, now onto the items that were the impetus for this post.
First off, it's buggy and in my experience real buggy. Video content is sandwiched between short ads from sponsors (you know, like real TV...), and in my experience you're lucky if the show you were watching loads after the commercial (not at all like real TV...). This is bad for several reasons. First off, it annoys and frustrates the user. An experience that can be described as "annoying" and "frustrating" is not one that the user is likely to want to repeat. Thus, with these glitches, AOL is driving off users who have only begun to access their service. Which leads to bad point number two--what sponsor in their right mind would want to pay good money for an ad that the viewer will only maybe see?
Speaking of the ads, AOL needs to diversify their sponsor base a little. I don't know which is likely to put me in the loony bin first: the SC Johnson guy droning on about how they're a "family company" or the Kohl's "It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delovey..." jingle. Either way, I look forward to the occasional, blessed Verizon ad. How about some targeted advertising, guys? I'm watching Babylon 5 reruns for Pete's sake! I'm not likely to be enthralled by advertisements for Windex, Pledge, or clothing stores.
And now for my second major complaint: the user interface. Granted, AOL's making this and I long ago wrote off AOL's user interface developers as inept; however the absence of features that are commonly available on numerous other video sites is just weak. How about a chapter selection option after opening the video, guys? NBC includes one, and they're partnered with you! At least that would make having to refresh the website after the next chapter never finishes loading following a crappy commercial a little easier to take.
And for crying out loud, work out the full-screen feature. I'm not interested in watching an entire half-hour drama on a player the size of an index card, which I'm sure is why you've included the "full-screen" view to begin with. However, after one chapter finishes the full screen window shouldn't close so that the ad can play and then re-open. Just let the ads play in the full-screen player, ok?
Let me be straight. I like this site and I want it to do well. And my complaints aren't enough to keep me from coming back...yet. However, this site feels like a Beta release and I wish they'd label it as such.
I think that this kind of model has tremendous promise and could be the future of consuming television programming. However, this implementation just isn't cutting it. Hopefully, Fox and NBC is taking notes of the goods and bads with this site and will be making the correct changes when Hulu launches.
The Good
All right, so the good. Video on AOL gives the user access to a fairly large library of video content drawn from Warner Bros, Fox, and NBC. Plus, there's tons of user-submitted clips and shorts. And it's all free and legal. For my part, I've been watching reruns of Babylon 5, having missed it the first time around. Sadly, this about wraps it up for the good.
The Bad
Okay, now onto the items that were the impetus for this post.
First off, it's buggy and in my experience real buggy. Video content is sandwiched between short ads from sponsors (you know, like real TV...), and in my experience you're lucky if the show you were watching loads after the commercial (not at all like real TV...). This is bad for several reasons. First off, it annoys and frustrates the user. An experience that can be described as "annoying" and "frustrating" is not one that the user is likely to want to repeat. Thus, with these glitches, AOL is driving off users who have only begun to access their service. Which leads to bad point number two--what sponsor in their right mind would want to pay good money for an ad that the viewer will only maybe see?
Speaking of the ads, AOL needs to diversify their sponsor base a little. I don't know which is likely to put me in the loony bin first: the SC Johnson guy droning on about how they're a "family company" or the Kohl's "It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delovey..." jingle. Either way, I look forward to the occasional, blessed Verizon ad. How about some targeted advertising, guys? I'm watching Babylon 5 reruns for Pete's sake! I'm not likely to be enthralled by advertisements for Windex, Pledge, or clothing stores.
And now for my second major complaint: the user interface. Granted, AOL's making this and I long ago wrote off AOL's user interface developers as inept; however the absence of features that are commonly available on numerous other video sites is just weak. How about a chapter selection option after opening the video, guys? NBC includes one, and they're partnered with you! At least that would make having to refresh the website after the next chapter never finishes loading following a crappy commercial a little easier to take.
And for crying out loud, work out the full-screen feature. I'm not interested in watching an entire half-hour drama on a player the size of an index card, which I'm sure is why you've included the "full-screen" view to begin with. However, after one chapter finishes the full screen window shouldn't close so that the ad can play and then re-open. Just let the ads play in the full-screen player, ok?
Let me be straight. I like this site and I want it to do well. And my complaints aren't enough to keep me from coming back...yet. However, this site feels like a Beta release and I wish they'd label it as such.
I think that this kind of model has tremendous promise and could be the future of consuming television programming. However, this implementation just isn't cutting it. Hopefully, Fox and NBC is taking notes of the goods and bads with this site and will be making the correct changes when Hulu launches.
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