Fab Cab

FabCab designs and sells pre-fabricated and kit-built environmentally-friendly homes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

“We launched our company in March and we have had an outpouring of support and interest in our products. We are passionate about designing environments that marry “green” design, design that supports people with a range of ages and abilities and prefab design. Therefore, our environments are designed to be flexible, open and easy to use and live in.”

via Tiny House Blog

Is overpriced traditional TV production doomed?

This quote from CBS president and CEO Les Moovnes really gets to the the core of the matter with regard to traditional broadcast TV vs. online -- the money.

“The problem is, I’m only getting pennies online,” Moonves said. “If too many people shift to online, I’m not going to be able to produce CSI.” The CBS chief noted that each episode of the procedural costs $3 million to produce. “That’s why we’re not on Hulu. And until the model works, we won’t be.” MediaWeek

I don't think there's any stopping the move to online nor do I think ad revenues will increase to the point that they can support $3 million dollar webisodes. Some people *might* be willing to pay a monthly fee for a premium Hulu service but are there enough of them to support shows like CSI?

Of course most "broadcast" TV is actually viewed on cable, a good example of a successful monthly subscription model, which is why the broadcasters have been demanding a bigger slice of that pie:

Fox, Bright House Networks reach rebroadcast agreement

Cable operators are also facing the same production cost issues with their own original programming:

"We taught consumers that they can watch shows of the quality of a Mad Men or The Closer, but they don't have to watch the commercials -- and that's bad," he said. "If we move to where the digital asset is controlled by a centralized headend or by authenticated programming, we should be able to reclaim the commercial inventory, because without that, there won't be more Mad Men, The West Wing or Lost."
Multichannel News

Traditional televised media producers have been steadily moving away from high end production for y ears now which is all too obvious when you consider the amount of low budget reality TV crap they've been pumping out. While it seems that the production values of the past may be disappearing I don't think it means we'll eventually be watching nothing but horrible reality shows.  While the internet appears to be the cause of this dilemma its also part of the solution.  There are now a large and ever increasing number of excellent web tv shows that have modest production values as the Streamys awards illustrate nicely. The online model may never allow for traditional $3 million per episode production values but maybe its time for something new anyway?

Skate Study House - Jet Set Lounge Chair

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SKATE STUDY HOUSE (SSH) is an innovative design concept specializing in recreating popular furniture through the vision of a skateboarder. The movement of a skateboarder constantly changes -- it recreates itself by transcending boundaries and inventing ways to conquer obstacles. It’s constantly about anticipation and adaptation to one’s environment. The same is true for living design. The combination of the two produces a mixture of contemporary lifestyle, art and action sports culture, which is all found in this unique collection.

Music of the Spheres

Solar System Music Box

via Information is Beautiful

Say No to Cuts

Hot for Teachers w/ Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green from Megan Fox

Kombucha on Tap

I've been drinking Lev's Original Kombucha on tap and loving it.  It might or might not have any health benefits but its a great alternative to carbonated high fructose corn syrup water.  The NY Times has an interesting article about it.

The Truth about HDMI cables

More great posters at Wallstats

Bye Bye Greencine

After considerable deliberation -- seriously a month at least -- I have finally decided to cancel my Greencine subscription.  A significant influence on that decision is my recent re-subscription to Netflix to get the Watch Now instant streaming feature which is almost all I need, especially when you add Boxee the mix.  Did I mention Boxee rules? Well it does. Go get it now!  True Greencine does have some foreign and obscure films that Netflix doesn't and some movies that Netflix will never have. But Boxee (with the Boxxxee app installed) has more than enough of the latter, for free no less.  And Greencine was getting slow to ship discs probably because over the years I ended up with a queue top loaded with 50+ movies that were all hard to get.  Still, I had Greencine because they were supposed to have those hard to get movies.

That said, Greencine is an excellent resource with a great staff and community and I will definitely continue to visit their site regularly to read reviews and peruse lists.  I may give Nicheflix a try if Netflix can't satisfy my need for obscure foreign films.

I  have to admit I'm quite curious as to whether every movie I've rented from Greencine over the past 4 years (listed below) is available on Netflix but I haven't gotten around to writing a script to check.  I have been wanting and excuse to play with the Netflix API and I've just started to learn Ruby using this excellent tutorial so this might be, uh,  the proverbial stone that kills two birds.

My GreenCine rental history after the jump...

Wireless Chickens!

Paper Chase : Michigan State prepares to launch wireless chicken study

Worlds Without End : PKD Award

I've decided I'm going to read every PKD award winner and nominee. I've already read a good 20 so I only have about 120 more to go. WWE is a great SF & Fantasy site. I really like the award lists and BookTrakr feature.  The Buy at Amazon links help support the site but I'd really prefer buy the eBook at Barnes& Noble so I can read it on my Android phone.  There should be a browser add-on that finds books on a website and lets you buy them with one click sorta like how Add to Boxee finds videos on a page and adds them to your Boxee queue.  The Barnes and Noble search add-on combined with Context Search is an decent workaroud.

Worlds Without End : PKD Awards

Android Alert : Too many Android phones

Too many Android phones not enough time?

The Android Who Cried Wolf

My new niece Lily

Posted via email from bretlee's posterous

Chicken Thali @ Ruchi - Homestyle South Indian

Posted via email from bretlee's posterous

Netflix streams in 1080p in 2010?

No.

Not that it really matters to me as my HD projector is only 720p but they did previously say they were going to.

1080p streaming not coming to Netflix this year - CNET News

The Web is a Cesspool

If "the web is a cesspool" (Eric Schmidt) is Facebook a country club swimming pool?

The iPad's threat to advertising

Nude Photo Music

New releae from my friends at Nude Photo Music

Like Twitter

"It's like twitter. Except we charge people to use it."

The Tyranny of the Document Metaphor

How Conceptual Metaphors are Stunting Web Innovation

See your neighbor's Netflix queue

A Peek Into Netflix Queues - NYTimes.com

You can't peek any deeper than zip code which would be scary...

Android Alert : Google's very own Google phone

It's here!
Nexus One Phone - Web meets phone.

Too bad existing T-Mo customers like me have to pay $279 instead of $179 and that's only when my current 2 year contract expires.

World’s Smallest Linux Networking Server

XPort Pro from Lantronix

People returning to movie theaters

Theatrical revenue tops movie disc sales in 2009 - 1/4/2010 - Video Business

TV Competition Nowhere

How the Cable Industry Is Colluding to Kill Online TV

TV-Nowhere.pdf

Android Alert : Android for MIPS

MIPS bets big on Google Android systems for the digital home | VentureBeat

Android is coming to your MIPS-based devices -- TV, Blu-Ray player, toaster, etc.

1024x768 still popular?

Some interesting stats in here in particular the ones regarding the viewers playback config...

Indie Video Producers Love Blip & YouTube