I/O: Tech Introvert - Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut...

November 8, 2009

Note to Self- Avoid Financial Times

Nice. Forced registration is a great way to guarantee most readers will get their news elsewhere. I don't care if it's free, it's yet another login and extra steps I don't want/need.

Loading mentions Retweet

Filed under // Financial Times

Comments [0]

November 5, 2009

So Ends My Yearly Affair with Netflix

Over the past 5 years or so, I've signed up and cancelled my Netflix account 3 times. It's usually been for the same basic reason- I just don't watch DVDs very often. I want to, but it never really pans out that way. There is just too much other stuff in my life to do/read/watch/play. But this time I was sucked in by another emerging phenomenon- online streaming. The ability to fire up any movie or TV show on my laptop, Xbox360 or networked DVD player it's exactly what I've been wanting for years. So I was pretty psyched when I signed up a few months ago. Initially I was not disappointed; Netflix has done a great job with its online streaming. It works incredibly well. But after spending some time flipping through movies, i noticed a disturbing trend. There was nothing I wanted to watch.

I'd say 75% of the content I wanted to see was not available to stream online (DVD only). Netflix does a great job getting DVDs out within a day or two, but that's not my style. I want to click and watch. If I realize my judgement was clouded by nostalgia and Emergency! is really a dumb show, I want to be able to change my mind without a 3-day mail swap. That's what "Instant" means, and that's what I thought Netflix "Watch Instantly" should mean.

In all fairness to Netflix, we've still got a ways to go before the dream of "watch anything instantly" comes true. The frustrating thing is the technology and demand are there, but something (copyright law? legal red tape? pure greed?) is keeping the content locked up. Services like Hulu and YouTube are trying, but even they suffer from the same problems. They typically offer only crappy movies and a limited number of TV shows that people actually want to see. Example- Season 1 of 21 Jump Street is on Hulu, but Mad Men is not. The selection improves on the non-subscription side as Amazon and iTunes have a much better selection, but the cost is prohibitively expensive. $60 for a season pass to The Office? That's 1 season (20-ish episodes) of 1 program? Are you out of your mind? This causes everyone but only the most hardcore fans to put their wallets away.

I still have hope for Netflix. Subscription services are the future as horrifically expensive pay-per-view dies a slow death. Networks + movie studios are beginning to understand this, so it's just a matter of time. Maybe next year.

Loading mentions Retweet

Comments [0]

November 4, 2009

I Just Paid for Something That's Free

I love Lastpass. It's become a mission critical piece of software for me. I use it several times a day, everyday. It's installed on every machine I have- I even use the bookmarklets on my iPhone. Best of all, it's free.

But not for me. Today I paid for it.

Why would I pay for something I can get for free? It's not the benefits of a premium subscription. Those are rather limited to a couple of enhanced security features I'll never use and an iPhone app that kind of sucks.

No, I decided to cough up the dough because the people at Lastpass have created a kickass product. Not only that, but they continue to crank out cutting-egde features like Google Chrome support, Windows application support, etc. Lastpass has made such a great product, and i rely so heavily on it, that I actually feel guilty NOT paying them for it. It's one of the extraordinarily few products I can honestly say that about.

That's really saying something about their software. What free product/ service would you openly pay for, given the option?

Loading mentions Retweet

Filed under // LastPass

Comments [0]

November 2, 2009

Sunset over Waltham,MA

Loading mentions Retweet

Filed under // Massachusetts Sunset Waltham

Comments [0]

October 16, 2009

Mint.com: Online Budgeting is Useless Without the Online Part

Shouldn't this guy be on the phone with Citizens Bank right now?

While I wait an astonishing 2+ months...

Wait a minute let's read that again. 2 months. Mint's service for one of the largest banks in the Northeast has been unavailable for 2 months. Holy shit how has this not made the tech news yet? Better yet, how have there not been firings (plural)?

While I wait a mind-blowing 2 months for connectivity issues to be resolved between Mint and Citizens Bank, I've been hanging out with Quicken. People seem to hate Quicken, but their customer support is incredibly responsive and their account connectivity has been rock solid. That's about to change as come this spring, there will be nowhere to hide from Mint's horrifically unstable data provider-

Although many are concerned about the fate of Mint, it sounds as though most of the changes will be happening to Quicken’s 1.4 million online users. They will be moved to Mint in the spring, said Mr. Patzer, who will oversee the transition.

source

On paper this lines up perfectly. Mint- great features, crappy data provider + support. Quicken- crappy features, great data provider + support. Come this spring a Voltron of online banking awesomeness should assemble before our very eyes. As long as Mr. Patzer doesn't blow it...or allow Intuit to screw it up.

Loading mentions Retweet

Filed under // Mint mint.com

Comments [0]

October 10, 2009