Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009
More TV Than I Can Shake a Stick At
Well, a couple of days ago I made the "switch," as such, to digital TV. I purchased a converter box and an antenna and now have them set up and working. Those that have read my blog before may be asking, "Agent George, why would you need that? You have satellite TV." Well, yes, but those who are reading that have satellite know what you get with as far as locals-- the basic set of locals for your market and that's it. Digital subnetworks? Fuggedaboutit. With my new setup, I can now get five different PBS channels and two different versions of most other local stations. I also get a station devoted mostly to playing the weather, though they also air sports and other special programming. In particular, they air the televised baseball games of the local minor league team,the Dayton Dragons and baseball is the only sport I care even remotely about watching.
Of course, my having done this may beg another question-- if I have this, then how about I stop paying the satellite company for locals now? An interesting idea, but if I were to do that, then I could no longer record the new episodes of any of my favorite major network shows such as Medium or 24 onto my DVR. So it looks like I'm stuck paying for now.
Has TV.com Been Supplanted by Wikis?
No, I'm not talking about Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that any moron with a mouse can vandalize. I'm talking about Wiki communities, particularly those on Wikia.com, devoted to one subject. When TV.com first came out as TV Tome, it was new and revolutionary. Never before had there been a model quite like it on the Internet. The Editor system, in particular, was sheer genius. However, I'm beginning to think that TV.com is slowly being supplanted by Wiki communities. For example, let's say I want to know about Tony Almeida. I can go to http://24.wikia.com and type in Tony Almeida in their search and bam! -- I can find out the entire history of character Tony Almeida on 24. Can I do that on TV.com? No, since despite multiple requests, TV.com does not have character guides. Here's another one. Suppose I want to know about how to get 24 on DVD. I can click on the 24 media link on the main page for that Wiki and find out all about DVDs and other media. Can I do that on TV.com? No, because TV.com doesn't have DVD guides. Some other great Wikis include the Muppet Wiki (where you can find more information than you could ever want on shows such as Muppet Babies, Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House and others) , Wookiepedia (the Star Wars Wiki) and the Final Fantasy Wiki. And yesterday, a new Wiki, the PB&J Otter Wiki was started. Within minutes, I began adding info -- screenshots, character info, song pages-- none of which you could ever do on TV.com
Of course, you can link to pages on TV.com from Wikis, though you can't ever link back, thanks to TV.com's asinine "no linking to outside sites" policy. Is it time to maybe just let TV.com do what it wants and become a video portal? Well, maybe, but I love TV.com and will continue to submit for such great shows as The Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen and PB&J Otter. But I will also be spending my time at Wiki communities.
Well, a couple of days ago I made the "switch," as such, to digital TV. I purchased a converter box and an antenna and now have them set up and working. Those that have read my blog before may be asking, "Agent George, why would you need that? You have satellite TV." Well, yes, but those who are reading that have satellite know what you get with as far as locals-- the basic set of locals for your market and that's it. Digital subnetworks? Fuggedaboutit. With my new setup, I can now get five different PBS channels and two different versions of most other local stations. I also get a station devoted mostly to playing the weather, though they also air sports and other special programming. In particular, they air the televised baseball games of the local minor league team,the Dayton Dragons and baseball is the only sport I care even remotely about watching.
Of course, my having done this may beg another question-- if I have this, then how about I stop paying the satellite company for locals now? An interesting idea, but if I were to do that, then I could no longer record the new episodes of any of my favorite major network shows such as Medium or 24 onto my DVR. So it looks like I'm stuck paying for now.
Has TV.com Been Supplanted by Wikis?
No, I'm not talking about Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that any moron with a mouse can vandalize. I'm talking about Wiki communities, particularly those on Wikia.com, devoted to one subject. When TV.com first came out as TV Tome, it was new and revolutionary. Never before had there been a model quite like it on the Internet. The Editor system, in particular, was sheer genius. However, I'm beginning to think that TV.com is slowly being supplanted by Wiki communities. For example, let's say I want to know about Tony Almeida. I can go to http://24.wikia.com and type in Tony Almeida in their search and bam! -- I can find out the entire history of character Tony Almeida on 24. Can I do that on TV.com? No, since despite multiple requests, TV.com does not have character guides. Here's another one. Suppose I want to know about how to get 24 on DVD. I can click on the 24 media link on the main page for that Wiki and find out all about DVDs and other media. Can I do that on TV.com? No, because TV.com doesn't have DVD guides. Some other great Wikis include the Muppet Wiki (where you can find more information than you could ever want on shows such as Muppet Babies, Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House and others) , Wookiepedia (the Star Wars Wiki) and the Final Fantasy Wiki. And yesterday, a new Wiki, the PB&J Otter Wiki was started. Within minutes, I began adding info -- screenshots, character info, song pages-- none of which you could ever do on TV.com
Of course, you can link to pages on TV.com from Wikis, though you can't ever link back, thanks to TV.com's asinine "no linking to outside sites" policy. Is it time to maybe just let TV.com do what it wants and become a video portal? Well, maybe, but I love TV.com and will continue to submit for such great shows as The Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen and PB&J Otter. But I will also be spending my time at Wiki communities.
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Posted Jun 16, 2009 9:21 pm PT
No, *big* difference. For one thing, many Wikia communities require users to register in order to edit. For another thing, because of the smaller, more close-knit nature of Wikia communities and the fact that people on them tend to be highly knowledgeable about the subject matter that's covered, anyone that's a vandal is generally very quickly detected and shut down.
Posted Jun 16, 2009 10:00 pm PT
[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]
Posted Jun 16, 2009 10:00 pm PT
I have cable but don't use it haha...I'm like an old person. 
And I wish I had more time to go visit some other sites about my favorite shows...I'm sure they'd be more in-depth as you say.
And I wish I had more time to go visit some other sites about my favorite shows...I'm sure they'd be more in-depth as you say.
Posted Jun 17, 2009 10:00 pm PT
I like the way you described wikipedia..."the free encyclopedia that any moron with a mouse can vandalize"...my teacher once said he wanted to put wrong information on wikipedia just to see if someone would just study from that site instead of reading the book.
Posted Jun 18, 2009 7:52 pm PT
Your teacher deserves to be beaten to death with a pool cue, GiverSSJ.
'I'll go and vandalise Wikipedia, just to prove a point.'
Apparrently they're letting just any moron become a teacher these days.
'I'll go and vandalise Wikipedia, just to prove a point.'
Apparrently they're letting just any moron become a teacher these days.
Posted Jul 27, 2009 4:25 pm PT
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