NBC to offer free episode downloads
Test version to launch in October and be expanded in coming months


Updated: 12:13 p.m. CT Sept 20, 2007

BURBANK, Calif. - NBC will start offering limited free downloads of shows such as "Heroes" and "The Office" as part of its bid to expand the digital distribution of its programs and compete with Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, the network announced Wednesday.

The new service, dubbed "NBC Direct," will allow users to download episodes to computers running Microsoft Windows software for up to a week after the show has aired on television. The file will contain embedded advertising that cannot be skipped.

They get you one way or the other. I'd get the DVD first.


Seven days after the episode's TV debut, the digital file will expire.

The new service will launch in a test version in October and be expanded in coming months to let users subscribe to shows and download them automatically. Upcoming versions to be introduced by year's end will also allow viewers to move the file to a portable viewing device or watch them on a Mac computer.

High-definition shows will eventually be available through peer-to-peer technology, which will speed the download of larger files, NBC said. A special software player with filtering technology will prevent users from playing illegally downloaded videos.

NBC, like many networks, already sells episodes for permanent download and streams them for free on its Web site.

The network is experimenting with a variety of business models and technology to give viewers more options for watching shows.

That goal has become more important since NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., said it would no longer sell TV episodes on iTunes because it wants the ability to sell its shows at a variety of prices instead of the $1.99 standard enforced by Apple.

"With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consumer their favorite entertainment," said Vivi Zigler, executive vice president of NBC Digital Entertainment.

Other programs that will be available at launch include "Life," "Bionic Woman," "30 Rock," "Friday Night Lights," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20887303/

All I watch is My Name is Earl, and that I record anyway. I sure as hell wouldn't pay $2 for most episodes of their shows.

This is an interesting program used with Mozilla Firefox for those of us who post stories from other websites. I'm not sure about it yet but I can see how it might be a plus. It's different from the tabs concept which I really don't care for.

Split Pannel.

Open panel to left, bottom or right (left,middle or right click) with current URL from Split on context menu (right click on page) of the tab's page. Allows you to view see two pages simultaneously for comparison or copying info from one to the other. Can be resized by dragging the bar between the main browser and new panel.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3275

I love the tabs. Maybe that's because I used tabbed worksheet programs for such a long time professionally. Tabs just come naturally to me.

For those on the boards with an interest:

Apple just announced a 26 Oct ship date/availability/sell date for its next major release of its operating system OS X - mac OS X V10.5, named "Leopard." Cost is $129 retail (some resellers and Amazon offer a better price. Hint: if you go through the MacInTouch website (http://www.macintouch.com) link you might get an even better deal (unverified)).

General system requirements are:


* Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor

Minimum system requirements
* 512MB of memory
* DVD drive for installation
* 9GB of available disk space
* Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
* Some features require Apple's .Mac service; fees apply.


If you bought a qualifying Mac from 1 October forward, there is an upgrade program to get you Leopard for only $9.95 shipping and handling.

Russ, what are the supposed advantages?

Speed gains, I hope.

I think there are quite enough "bells and whistles" if you know what I mean.

You may have to define "speed gains". If all you mean is task A takes 10 seconds under Tiger and 9.9 under Leopard, and it is a fully computer functionalized task (no human intervention required), can't say. I haven't seen any benchmarks as yet.

If you are talking of human in the loop tasks, say such as finding that pesky Xmas letter from 1999 that you placed somewhere on the HD (but you've now forgotten its filename or what it looked like, there may be some productivity enhancers to allow you to easily find the right one and ID it. But that's part of those "bells and whistles" you spoke of. Cover Flow interface has expanded from iTunes into many another area. Spaces (think multiple user-defined virtual desktops) and Stacks (think icons with the look of the item itself as the contents of folders placed in the Dock and selectable) may also aid with document and application usage. One I think will have great utility is Weblink. (Let's say you really like the portion of website A that lists stocks or movies or recipes or this week's specials, etc., but it's like five levels down off the main index page. With this tool you create an instant Dashboard widget by selecting that bit from the site and placing it into the Dashboard via Weblink. Instant functioning widget on command - no opening the browser, finding the site and drilling down. 2 clicks and you're there ( 1 click to enter Dashboard, 1 click to open the widget)). Also you can define the way every window looks and feels, each separate or universal. And it stays that way.

To see all 316 new features go to http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html#finder

At least they have nice kat names.

Attended the Leopard release party last night at our local Apple Specialist's faciity. They demonstrated OS X 10.5 and had it running on a variety of machines for the interested to play around with. Gotta say if you've got a compatible machine it's a sweet running system with some real innovative and intrigueing features, among them

Time Machine ( an automated back-up system built into the OS that allows you to go back in time to a specific point save and retrieve a specific iteration of a given file or environment),

Cover Flow for file structures (not just music, which lets you view the document or image or movie, etc., without acually having to open an app and then find the file - ensures you get exactly the one you want by content recognition),

Spaces (think preset, user defined virtual desktops),

Screen Sharing (allows for defined control of remote computers on your network via the Internet - demoed in conjunction with Spaces last nite as the tech was briefing us using the presentation running on his other computer in his office in the building and pointing out other features on the Space he had running at the podium - it was seamless in going back and forth - we did not know that was what he was doing until shown.)

All in all a good upgrade - again if you've got the machine (Apples running G4 chips of less than 867MHz speed with at least 512Meg memory and having 9 Gig of HD available will not be allowed to install, no G3s). Basically means if you've got a machine that's about 4 generations old, you're out of luck as far as Leopard is concerned. My house is 50% compatible - 1 will, 1 won't.

Sounds cool. Thanks for the report, Russ.

Auto Back up?

That reminds me.......

We can't begin to correctly guess a world even ten years hence...

Can anyone tell me why Windows media player plays my album's songs out of order? You think it would start with #1.

you may have "shuffle" enabled

Nope. It's weird because it starts in the middle of the album and plays them all.

I don't use playlists but if you open a folder and highlight all the songs and hit play you'd think it'd start at #1.

Alphabetical order? Shortest to longest?

http://www.esato.com/archive/t.php/t-134614,1.html

I can't seem to find any reference to a smart option

I don't really get into the thousands of ways to set your system but I was curious... maybe this helps.
Media Player

I have posts from 6 days ago showing up as new posts. Including my own. The orange squares are on strike.

A couple days ago I downloaded a Trojan thinking I had to update my Macromedia Flash program. It gets you to save the supposed upgrade then takes over your Internet Explorer with something called Security Toolbar 7.1. That keeps telling you you're infected and wants you to order a product. Looking around most anti-virus don't seem to get rid of it easily, but somebody had a good suggestion. Start your comp in safe mode and go back to settings before the attack. Worked for me. The precise instructions can be found elsewhere on the net, but it might be a handy fix for other problems as well. Just go back a couple restore points.

Most trojans I've seen ignore restore points. I use spybot search and destroy. I had one called Ista toolbar and it ripped it out by the roots.

This one was tough. The McAfee staff was still working on it, but this got rid of it. A bunch of sites had complex fixes and downloads, but they looked daunting. Didn't want to mess with the registry. I hardly use IE, but I hated to have that thing around until McAfee had a fix.

Come to think of it I had a couple of trojans where I did have to delete some of the registry.

It were scary.

It pays to have friends that will work for beer. My "IT guy" requires Heineken.

I have one of them. lol. He drinks Milwaukee's Beast. A lot cheaper.

Ick. I'd barf it up on the keyboard. Used to drink that when I was REALLY poor. I called it "the beer that made Milwaukee nauseous".

I had a woman acquaintance once who would drink nothing but. She was not a GF for that and many other good reasons.

That's reason enough. As bad as it was cold, it was ten times as bad warm. I admit I like rather flavorless beer, but beer flavor versus barf flavor I can tell pretty well.

I just did one for a bud/customer... his was completely down because of "deskbar" and the "security toolbar" that you had(and a couple other "antivirus" and "toolbar" programs:~)... the security toolbar was only a few values... but the "deskbar" was dug in the registry like a tick... several dozen values added... all had to be found and manually deleted... but I got it...

Go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and do a scan... they'll find and delete most of your problems... the ones they can't get rid of, like the above, they'll identify... write down the names... and then...

If you hit the start button and then "run"... type in "regedit"... then the "edit" button and select "find"... type in the name of the offender and search... and after you've deleted it, hit "edit" and select "find next"... keep on till it's gone...

Depending on the troubles, you might want to do this in "safe mode"... it's wise to make a backup of the registry before you start... in case you do something that jacks everything up... hit "file" and "export"... then choose a location to put the registry backup... if you have to reinstall it, hit "file" and "import"... and browse to the file that you saved.

Thanks. Some folks put up step by step instructions. I found the other program it installed, audio-video enhance. I guess that was to make it look like an actual micromedia program. Hopefully McAfee will get on this. I really don't want to have to install a bunch more anti-virus for one stupid program. So far so good.

I avoid all antivirus programs... and cleaners... etc...

Being the conspiracy theorist that I am, I think they create the solutions... but when they need a shot in the arm, they create the problems... and the solutions... and make more money...

I used them quite a bit... several... always, I ended up with more problems than I started with... never caught so many trojans, viruses and keyloggers as I did when I had Norton...

I haven't used any of them for over 2 years... and I've had very few problems... when I do think I have a problem, I clean my tempory internet files and go do a search at Trend Micro... they're free and they're good... I donated $50 to em.

Had Norton and prefer McAfee. Generally I haven't had a lot of problems. This is the first thing it hasn't been set up to handle.

the worst thing i ever got was the chernoble virus thing.

It was weird, I was reinstalling my printer for school, popped the CD that came with the printer into my CD drive and Norton went apesh_t. Well I thought, "surely not" and went and installed it anyway. That damn thing destroyed my computer and I had to completely rebuild it from scratch.

I thought it pretty effed up that the Cannon drivers that came on the CD that came with my computer from Gateway has a really nasty virus on it.

Wow... that's totally out there... the only thing I've heard close to that is the tech that now comes with some CDs/DVDs that implants programs on your computer... I think Sony was the one who's doing it... I'll look...

Yep...

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/14/sony-...ustomer-te.html

Well the real problem as far as I'm concerned was Gateway. Everything in that damn computer had an extra chip that was quite obvious when you looked at any particular component. The modem, everything. I went through it and replaced this and that. When I replaced one part and thought I had it fixed I found out something else wasnt working. In the end I had to buy a new motherboard and that really caused problems for all the other Gateway garbage. The only thing original in that computer is the case and the PSU.

It was quite a daunting task really. I had never done anything like it before and was quite pleased with myself that it worked great when I fired it up and is still running. Not to mentioin everything I put in it was an upgrade. The way these things are these days any clown can snap one together.

My problem is I don't know any clowns. I've done a few power supply changes, but that's as far as it goes. Now I have enough parts to build a couple computers, but it's just so much easier to find a new one on sale.

lol. I've done memory, modems, video cards ... all that plug and play stuff. But I couldn't reinstall windows by myself. The partition thing and the other settings just corn-fused me.

Some things I could do, but I live in fear of doing something stupid. Especially when software is involved. Or hardware conflicts. So far my HP stuff has done pretty well except the PS's. So I buy the best I can afford, and leave it alone until it falls apart.

I have a killer book called "The Hardware Bible' or some such that goes into all that partitioning stuff and all that. It was a lifesaver through all of that stuff. It lists all the DOS commands one might need and all that. This was of course a Windows 98 deal for me.

I just went to Computer Sonics and got the motherboard and like many of them that they sell it came with the processor. I made a mistake and didnt buy a motherboard that would attach to the anchor points in my tower so I had to take it back. This time I brought my old motherboard as well as the video card that I had with me to the store. The guy went over and got a different motherboard off the shelf that when I held it up next to my old one matched up perfect.

Well, ya screw the motherboard inside the tower where it goes, the processor goes in an obvious place on the MB and it only goes in one way. For me it was PCI slots (or whatever) and the modem, video card, and sound card just snapped in. The wiring was a concern but there wasnt really that much of it. Having taken the old on apart I pretty much new where it needed to go and how. There was only a couple minor snafu's with that (wire being almost too short or needed an adaptor).

Really, for having never done anything even remotely like it before, it was relatively simple and didnt take all that long. I am sort of good with tools and really paranoid about such things and try to totally do my homework for such a thing.

I have a All-in-wonder video card... so I can watch TV on my computer... it also has a remote control...

Early on, when I was first learning... I was playing chess with some dude on the "Zone"... he was pissed because I was winning... he told me he was going to mess up my computer... indeed that he already had, while we were playing... he claimed that's why I won... he told me it'd be messed up on my next reboot... and indeed it was... he got all the way down to my motherboard bios and jacked it...

Heh, sometime later... I was conversing with some guy who claimed to be a techy/intelligence dude in a chat room... he was going on about how he could jack up my computer... said he could open my CD tray and offer me a cupholder... lol... I was getting pretty freaked out... then my mouse goes crazy... the pointer is going everywhere but where I want it to... and so I'm trying to shut it down... but I can't get to the start button...

I go apeshit and start unplugging the wires(I was really freaked out by the camera:~)... hardboot big time...

I calmed down... then put it all back together and brought it back up... it seemed fine... then my boy comes over and asks what's going on?... I tell him about some jackass jacking with my computer... then the mouse goes crazy again... the boy says, "wow, he's still doing it!"...

I goes apeshits again... unplugged everything in a frantic hysteria...

Then I noticed that the boy was having a hard time controlling himself... trying not to laugh... annoying little chit thinks it's funny... grrr...

He keeps hanging around and this goes on at least one more time... I'm not sure...

Then he lets me know that he's holding the remote behind his back... and he's the one jacking with it...

ARRRRGH!!!! I almost lost it... but ended up laughing hilariously with him... basically relieved... but he got me BIG TIME!

That's good. I did that to all my friends when I got my DVD player. They'd put the disc in stand up and I'd hit eject. The look on their face was priceless. I'd say "come on". They figured it out after 2 or 3 times. (and me laughing)

New phone.


Just to refresh your memory, this shiny new multimedia successor to the VX8600 has a 2.0-megapixel camera, a music player, a video recorder, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, EV-DO, and access to all the Verizon V Cast goodies like V Cast Video and V Cast Music. It'll cost you $179.99 after a two-year service agreement and a $50 rebate.

http://crave.cnet.com/8300-1_105-1-0.html?keyword=LG+VX8700

I find it amazing how much tech they can put in these little packages. Got mine for $79

I'm lucky to afford my tracfone for "free" after paying $100 for a year and 400 minutes. After the year it's $5 a month with no minutes or $10 a month with 50 minutes. Plenty of time for me since I use it like a pager and mostly talk from land lines.

I have one line for the girlfriend and no landline. A couple of years ago I'm going through downtown Peoria on a Saturdey night and had my battery explode right at main street. Standing there looking stupid I asked the first guy who came by if he had a phone. He did and I was rescued. The next day I got a cell phone. If it would have been the girlfriend out on the highway it could have been bad.

Of course she didn't get the same phone as me. She didn't care. Hers was free.

Generally women talk more, so they need a better deal. I was just talking to the mail carrier about it. One carrier she subs for is always on the phone. It's how they know her. If I didn't need a landline for the dsl I might go to only a cell phone.

I have a nice camera but don't carry it around with me. With this phone it's like having another camera that'll fit into my front pocket. It's got a decent resolution so I won't be missing any of those beautiful sunsets. That and when I'm fishing I can catch and release.

I have a 137 cds loaded on my pc. I would like a list of them. Is there any way I can copy the titles so I can print it out?

easy on a mac

pc I'd take a screenshot