Mike’s Blog

I was listening to sports radio this morning and heard the host apologizing to the listeners for “The Big Bang Theory”, a new CBS comedy about two stereotypical nerd/geniuses who share an apartment across the hall from the building’s newest resident, a very attractive young woman. (The specific quote: “I owe you some digital recording space for that one”.) My wife didn’t care for the show either, but I sort of enjoyed it much like I did Beavis and Butthead - in other words, I know people who are exactly like the two main characters, so I got a kick out of it.

So I wondered: why do so many people despise something I sort of enjoyed? I quickly realized that this show really has a very limited target audience, and I just so happen to fall into it: nerds with a sense of humor. The average person doesn’t get the nerdy references (like the guy wearing the 42 hat), doesn’t identify with the two main characters, doesn’t understand at all why a reasonably hot girl would give two such dorks the time of day, and ultimately couldn’t care less about the show. The average nerd does get the references, but has no ability to laugh at himself or those who are like him - for that matter, no ability to laugh at anything  . Seriously - crack a joke, any joke, and a true nerd will point out the slightest error in spelling, grammar, or logic, thereby sucking all the fun out of it. I wonder if this is a defense mechanism developed after constantly being given wedgies by football players in high school. Anyway, I digress…

So in conclusion, a show that makes its tiny target audience only sort of chuckle is doomed from the get-go. I give it six weeks, and that’s a shame because comedies on broadcast networks are nearly extinct. Yeah, I know there’s plenty of comedy on cable, but the vast majority of those shows seem to be trying to out-shock and out-offend all the rest, and that gets old and juvenile (to me, anyway) in a hurry.

Make me laugh, dangit!

Since buying a new router the other day, I decided to muck around with streaming video from my PC to my Xbox 360. It used to be that you needed a PC running Windows Media Center for this, but as of last fall you could use a Windows XP-based PC with the right software - for example, Windows Media Player 11 or Microsoft’s Zune software. In theory, one could download various TV shows and video clips from the Internet and enjoy playback on a 360.

Except there’s a bit of a drawback: the 360 only understands the Windows Media Video (WMV) file format and codecs. Occasionally, I find myself needing to download a show from the Internet when my somewhat buggy DirecTV DVR messes up, and those aren’t WMV. Furthermore, video conversion is generally a pain.

Enter TVersity. It’s an Xbox 360-compatible media server with the ability to transcode video from almost any format to WMV on the fly. No need to pre-convert anything - I just call up a video via the 360, wait a few seconds, and bam, I’m sitting on my couch and enjoying it on my TV instead of trying to watch it while uncomfortably huddled around my computer monitor.

Combined with this handy DirecTV-Xbox 360 remote hack, watching video files just got a whole lot more painless for me. Huzzah!

Time Warner sues DirecTV over NFL Network ads - Yahoo! News

Hilarious. Apparently, Time Warner doesn’t remember that it’s engaged in a little deceptive advertising itself. Do as I say and not as I do, eh boys?

From nflgetreal.com: Time Warner Cable claims that despite not carrying the NFL Network, “In most areas, Time Warner Cable customers will see more than 100 live NFL games in 2006″.

Really? Let’s do the math, then.

There are 17 weeks in the NFL season. Each week, there are nationally broadcast games on Sunday and Monday nights. On Sunday afternoons, there are two broadcast networks who have two timeslots each - 1pm and 4pm (EST). However, only one network has doubleheader rights for each week. Therefore, the maximum number of games that a cable operator can possibly show in any given week is 5. 5 * 17 = 85.

What about the playoffs, you say? That’s 11 games. 85 + 11 = 96. Still short of 100.

OK, so surely Time Warner’s claim is saved by special weeks, like Thanksgiving and opening weekend. Week 1 had a Thursday night game and an extra Monday night game. There are two games on Thanksgiving. 96 + 4 = 100. What a relief!

But wait! There is no Sunday night game in Week 7 and no Monday night game in Week 17. Subtract 2. Now we’re back down to 98.

So what does this mean? Time Warner can only claim more than 100 games if they count preseason games - and nobody counts preseason for anything meaningful. Or worse yet, it means that Time Warner is claiming the 8 games on Thursdays and Saturdays that the NFL Network is broadcasting - a channel they won’t be carrying on their system.

While it’s only a difference of a couple of games, it’s another example of how Time Warner is fudging the math to deceive its customers. Shameful.

I’d just like to thank you fine, fine folks at TWC for not being interested in negotiating a national contract with the NFL Network.

See, I’d gotten used to having the NFL Network from my old cable company, Adelphia. But when you took over at the end of July and yanked the NFL Network without warning as your first order of business, I took notice. I soon learned that you’d allegedly been trying to negotiate a national deal, unsuccessfully, with the NFL Network for three years despite the fact that so many other TV providers (Adelphia, Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network) didn’t seem to have problems doing so. It quickly became apparent that the real reason you don’t have a deal is because you want to make your subscribers pay extra money for the channel, and the NFL prefers its channel to be part of a more basic package.

So I switched. On August 8th, a SWAT team of DirecTV installers (seriously - three or four guys were at my house, including a supervisor) paid me a visit and put a shiny new dish on the top of my house. Now, not only do I have my NFL Network back, but I also have a better DVR and a couple cool new channels. Boomerang comes to mind - old Hanna-Barbera cartoons 24/7? Yes please. Most importantly, I now have NFL Sunday Ticket, which was the reason I had considered switching in the first place. All I needed was a reason to pull the trigger - and removing the channel I watch more than any other was motivation enough. I get to watch my 49ers once again even though they suck and, as such, probably won’t be on a national broadcast for another 5 years at least. Woot!

Good luck with that little FCC lawsuit, TWC. Your NFL Get Real site was hysterical, by the way. You claim that only the people who want the NFL Network should have to pay for it - but now that you’re getting rid of the network altogether, are you going to lower everyone’s bill? Of course you won’t. Oh, and one other thing - I can get DSL for half the cost of your cable internet. Yeah, it’s much slower, but I don’t really need super high speeds anymore. So don’t screw up my cable too, or I won’t hesitate to pull that trigger either.

Are you ready for some football? Now that I switched to DirecTV, I sure am!

(Some details on the FCC/TWC/NFL romantic triangle can be found right here)