Netflix vs. Hulu Plus: And the Winner is...

If you haven't heard, Netflix recently raised their subscriptions prices (Click Here for details from the Huffington Post). In the past you can get a Blu Ray sent to your home and Unlimited Streaming from $12 a month. This was awesome for me because what ever I couldn't get streaming I got on disc.
This month, Netflix changed their subscription plans. Now unlimited streaming option and the BluRay disc option are $8 a piece. So now that Netflix and Hulu Plus are on equal footing price wise, I sat down on my iPad and played around with both streaming services.
To get the B.S. out of the way Netflix is the winner...for now. Why you my ask?

What Netflix has that Hulu does not have...

• Neflix has no commercials! Hulu has commercials before, during, and after your show or movie.  
• Netflix has more content than Hulu. This may change if Starz does not renew it's contract in February. (Click Here for details from the Huffington Post.) This is where the "for now" comes in. I will come back to that at the end of the blog. Some examples of Netflix exclusive content are:
• Every single Star Trek Series, select DC movies (Batman cartoons, Superman), The entire Marvel Comic Books Cartoon Catalog, BBC shows like Doctor Who and Torchwood, Disney movies like "Toy Story 3" and "Princess and the Frog", weird cult classics like UHF, "Hobo with a Shotgun", and "The Human Centipede"
• All Netflix content can be streamed via App to your iPad and video gam e console. Some content is limited to the web on Hulu Plus.  

Hulu does have some things to toot it's horn about as well:

• Current shows such as Bones, 30 Rock, Teen Wolf, Hell's Kitchen, Jersey Shore, Ugly Betty, Naruto, Tosh.O and Ugly Americans are updated to the latest episodes:
• Hulu has partnerships with Fox, Walt Disney, NBC Universal which keeps these going. 
• You can view clips of shows i.e. SNL skits instead of trying to watch and cycle through an entire episode for. 

As I stated earlier, Netflix is the winner for now because it has more content and no commercials.  Netflix can't renew it's deal with the Starz Network, they are going to lose content like all the Disney movies and BBC shows come February 28th. 

We live in an interesting time. We are seeing less and less Blockbuster stores and more Redbox kiosks popping up. We have Comcast/Xfinity letting you stream selective content as well or you can buy a-la-carte from the iTunes store. There are even rumors that Yahoo is buying Hulu (Click Here For Details from Mashable.com). It will be very interesting to see who wins in the next five years. Let your dollars do the voting. 

Testing Blogsy

I bought a new app to make blogs for the iPad. I'm just messing around. So ignore this post. Nothing important or exciting in the post. Just some random stuff.

I can't wait for X-Men First Class to hit theaters. First few promo images we're weak. But all the trailers seemed really cool. I hope this X-Men installment is a lot better then X3 or Wolverine. Both were ok action movies but we're horrible comic book flicks.

Did you watch the ending of Smallville?

Honestly the last 3 minutes we're ok. Everything else was a big let down. You think after 10 season the writers could of put together a better fight scene between Clark and Darkside.

Empire Today did a great job fixing my bathroom walls.

So one morning I'm taking a shower and all of a sudden the tiles on my bathroom wall fall down on me. Not something I wanted to deal with before I had my morning coffee.

From Bathroom Repair

As you can see the wall was molding and the tiles looked like crap. In the back of my mind I knew this was going to happen cause the tiles were buckling.  At the advice of my good friend & mentor, Dave, I called Empire Carpet. He said he used them and he liked them. I can still remember the jingle from when I was a child. 588-2300 EMPIRE. I found one of their old commercials on YouTube.

I made appointment online for a free consult. Empire came in and gave me a good deal the next day. The installers from Empire came to my house at 11:00 AM today and where out by 4:00 PM. This is what they did step by step.

Step 1: Removed the bad walls

From Bathroom Repair

Step 2-3: Replace bad walls with water proof green board, make shower head higher and fix plumbing

From Bathroom Repair

Step 4-7: Install new wall molding from tub to ceiling. 

Install shower head and handle. Install shower caddy and soap caddy. Install new bowed curtain rod. 

From Bathroom Repair

I'm really happy with the job Empire did. The salesman knew what I wanted, stayed within my budget, and wasn't pushy with me. Plus I have 12 months 0% financing on my entire bill. The installers were fast, clean, & efficient. This job would of been a mess If I did this myself. If you need your bathroom walls re-modeled Call Empire Today I recommend them. Now Everyone sing it with me cause If you ever lived in the Chicagoland area and watched TV you know the jingle. 588-2300 EMPIRE!

Happy Valentine's Day... I Just Haven't Met You Yet

I should be bitter about Valentines Day but I'm not. I've had quite a long dry streak. As I watch Michael Buble's music video "Just Haven't Met You Yet" It just kinda feels like my story. Tell you the truth, I see myself singing in the middle of a supermarket aisle just knowing that there will be a story book happy ending because I just haven't meet her yet. So all you single people stay positive, lay back and let life happen or take a proactive approach to finding love. In any case you won't be alone forever.

Do we really need a special day to show some one that we love them? Really every day should be about love. Even if we do need this holiday Why limit it to your partner? Why not show your love to your kids, friends, coworkers, etc?

Am I talking too much? I think I just wanted a reason to post this video because I think it's just the bees knees and is one of my most played songs in iTunes.

As John Lennon and Paul McCartney once sang, "All you need is Love."

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone.

In my constant quest to reach everyone on every social network and save my Sanity

Okay I have 2 blogs (My running blog & My random thoughts), A Twitter account, 2 Facebook Accounts (One personal & one professional), a Google Buzz Account, Picasa Photo Albums, Snapfish photo albums and a You Tube Account. Are you with me so far? I'm always fascinated that people actually want to read about the blister on my toes after a 18 mile run, comment on my new profile picture, hear about my water logged cell phone, and watch me go on a roller coasters.
All this technology gives me a headache sometimes. For some reason I love it. It would be great if everyone just agreed to do this on one website. May be I should just pick one site and stick with it. Then I run into my issues, Twitter is limited to 140 charters, not everyone is on Facebook, I'm sure athletes don't want to here about my day at the cubs game and I'm sure some people don't want to know about my upcoming race in two weeks. Of course there are people (mostly my friends I think) are interested about everything I do. On top of that I don't  want to post in three different places about the same thing some times. AHHHHHH.
So this is what is going on...

• Google Buzz will pick up my twitter feeds, blogs, picasa, & you tube videos. Not Facebook. The downside is anything I post on Google Buzz won't update anything else.
• I have my Twitter updates feed into Facebook.
• I have twitterfeed.com picking up my blogs and sending them to my twitter account as links and Facebook as posts. Here is the issue with this setup. Facebook will receive both updates twice. Once from Twitter feed and Once from Twitter.  I don't have Facebook feed into Twitter because I'm afarid everything will just keep reposting in one big loop bringing down the Internet. 

Again,  I don't know how much longer I can handle all this.  We as a online-worldwide-social media community need to pick one fricken place to do all this. I think Facebook does a okay job, but some of you are stubbern to move away from MySpace. 

Hey, Egg heads at Google ... READ THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH. This will help you win the online social media war. Google Buzz or Google Wave (Another Social online dominance attempt) needs to pick up from other websites and updates those website at the same time. I post something on Facebook it should show up on Buzz. If I post on Buzz I should have the ability to post in any place I want. Google If you make a one stop shop to do all this then you're going to win especially with geeks and nerds like myself. Bloggers, Vloggers and just general webheads, am I right? Hey Google...You can also just buy out Facebook like you did YouTube that might work too. 

Build Me Up Buttercup - Part of my V-Day Theme this weekend

Part of my Valentine's Theme Music List - I just thought the ending of There's Something about Mary was appropriate to some up how I feel about this holiday.

L-O-V-E , performed by Julia Nunes

I watched this video exactly one year ago and I fell in "Love" with this version of Nat King's Cole "L.O.V.E" sung by Julia Nunes. Everyone on facebook is posting how long their relationships have been. Well I have too much LOVE just to give to one person.
29 years - My Family
28.6 years - My Poko Loko / Camp Family
24 years - My childhood amigos since Kindergarten
4 years - My Team in Training Friends