Sunday, October 15, 2006

The Real T3 : TVrss, Torrents + Ted Get Married.


um oc
Originally uploaded by benbarren.
I've never really got the torrents working on the Apple wireless network here using Azureus. (is this a common problem or just me being a tech idiot ? - just shows vvslow download speeds, close to zero.. something with ports etc ??) Anyway, This tvRSS/Ted thang which delivers TV shows for you to watch, using the automagic of RSS, is real tempting.

So this week, combined with the trade-off I have a broken windows box which the Apple wireless connects to the PC's modem (because Iprimus + Apple dont talk well last i checked ?) I'm going to get myself some Studio 60 Sorkin.

If TV is for idiots, isn't it great that RSS can dumb itself down ? As Dave Winer defines RSS : "Automated web surfing" - so too tvRSS should be "automated TV watching." TorrentFreak tell you how to do it. Where's my ADSL2 when I need it :| ?

No wonder I love RSS so much ! Imagine Australian TV networks got with it. Especially since the latest Sopranos got moved to Monday midnight (joke) and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is probably not likely to ever get a showing here, let alone the last series of 6 FeetUnder. TV networks here could sell shows that they didnt even program at a watchable time ? Duh.

I was reading last night about the post Skype (founder's) The Venice Project (just a codename but should be the real name) which is going to be fascinating to see what their p2p interpretation of TV will be.

TorrentFreak : "tvRSS just released some extra features that makes it easier to find the latest episodes of your favorite TV-show. They optimized their search options, and support “search based rss feeds”. This makes it easy for anyone to create a personalized TV-torrent feed. This means you can have all your favorite TV-torrents in one feed."

Lifehacker : "While Azureus and Torrent both have built-in RSS parsing and downloading features, Ted is the most user-friendly, simplest solution I've seen for downloading television on a schedule, and since all it does is download the torrent and open it in your favorite BitTorrent client, you can use it in conjunction with most popular BitTorrent clients."

The Venice Project :
"We're working on a project that combines the best things about television with the social power of the internet - a project that gives viewers, advertisers and content owners more choice, control and creativity than ever before."

Janus Friis (the other skype/venice founder) : "It’s simple, really — we are trying to bring together the best of TV with the best of the Internet. We think TV is one of the most powerful, engaging mass medias of all time. People love TV, but they also hate TV. They love the (sometimes…) amazing storytelling, the richness, the quality itself. But they hate the linearness, the lack of choice, the lack of basic things like being able to search. And wholly missing is everything that we are now accustomed to from the Internet: tagging, recommendations, choice, and so on… TV is 507 channels and nothing on and we want to help change that!"

Sarah: Is that a Thunderstick A-200o
Tom: When did you become an expert?
Sarah: I told you about that night in college.
Tom: But you never told me about the hardware.
Sarah: Getting a visual
Tom: We gotta charge this thing
Sarah: That plug won't fit in European outlet.
Tom: I'll make it fit.
Sarah: Don't force it.