<Jedi hand wave> This is not the Jeff Stevenson you’re looking for.
In the past few weeks, I’ve received 3 emails from people who think I’m Jeff Stevenson. Ordinarily, they would be correct. However, they think I’m this Jeff Stevenson. Although working for Google would be great, I am not a technical program manager, and I don’t live in Charleston. Also, I do not need your help with additional recruiting at Google, nor do I wish to review your non-conventional resume, nor do I wish to accept your clearly disingenuous congratulations. In fact, where did you find my email address anyway?
In case my Charleston doppelganger finds this post, I’d be happy to forward your junk mail to you. Some of it is pretty funny! Just leave a note in the comments.
A few posts ago, I made reference to one of my favorite scenes in the movie Joe vs. The Volcano. It’s the scene where a luggage salesman helps Joe select the right luggage for his trip. I don’t know why this scene cracks me up so much, but I suspect it’s because this guy reminds me of me: obscenely passionate about something totally pointless, like good bags.
Recently, I realized that I have been neglecting to use a number of invitations to private beta sites, including:
Hulu - A joint venture between NBC and FOX to stream TV episodes online
BAAGZ - A unique combination of social networking and semantic search
Sandy - An electronic personal assistant that understands emails you send to her and sends you reminders (among other things)
Scrybe - An extremely Web 2.0 approach to calendars, but with unique features like the ability to view your calendar while offline or print a pocket calendar
So I’m making a point to try these sites and write reviews here. Today, I’m reviewing Hulu…
Initially, I’m pretty impressed with Hulu. It seems like a solid user experience paired with a nice technology for streaming video. It’s also nice to have a somewhat wide variety of videos at one site (unlike the NBC, FOX, ABC, and other video streaming sites, which are generally limited to a single network).
First, let’s examine the user experience.
You can browse videos through three methods:
Most popular
Divided by network/studio
Alphabetical listing
This seems like a pretty reasonable set of options to me.
Once you select a show, you’ll see an array of large thumbnails with episode name, number, and length. Once you choose an episode, there’s a few seconds of buffering, then a 5 second ad, and then the episode begins.
The default video size is reasonable. The video controls are visible briefly, and then they hide on the sides. When you mouse over the video, you’ll see video controls on the bottom, and a variety of other controls on the left and right. You can’t scrub through the video, but you do have pretty fine control over where you jump to, and there’s only a moment of buffering before the video starts again. (For reference, I have a relatively slow broadband connection. Your mileage may vary.)
The controls on the left include Share, Embed, Details, and Feedback. Of these, Share and Embed are definitely the most interesting. Share lets you send a link to the video to a friend. But before you send the email, you can drag a couple of sliders to create a custom snippet. When your friend clicks through the email to watch the video, they’ll start out at the beginning of the snippet you created (though the whole episode will be available).
Similarly, you can embed an whole or part episode using custom snippets. I’ve embedded a video snippet below. Notice how, after the snippet plays, you can watch any or all of the episode.
Important Note: The quality of these embedded videos is much worse than the quality when you watch directly on Hulu. Too bad, because it makes them look lame.
The tools on the right side include Full Screen, Pop Out, Lower Lights, and Rate.
Full Screen provides a truly full screen experience, meaning the video extends outside your browser window to take up the entire screen.
Pop Out puts the video in a new window (although you’re limited to a small video size in that window).
Lower Lights puts a semi-transparent gray overlay over the rest of the web page, giving the appearance that it has been dimmed. (This could be much better if it was more like the Divx feature that more literally dims the screen around your video, and which is not limited to the browser window.)
Rate allows you to give the video a rating between 1 and 5 stars.
Beneath the video, and beneath the other episode thumbnails, and then beneath the related video thumbnails, they have tucked away user reviews. This is just a standard place for users to rant about what they like or don’t like. It’s sort of an expected feature for video sites, even though I feel like it ads very little value.
I did notice a couple of problems that indicate to me why it’s still in beta:
The site is pretty good about picking up a video where you left off. Meaning, if you’re half way through Video 1, and you decide to click on a different video, but then go back to Video 1, it will pick up right where you left off. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work under certain circumstances.
The custom video snippet feature I mentioned earlier is a little buggy. If you create multiple snippets from the same video, it doesn’t always update the <embed> code with the correct time codes.
There’s a bit of a usability problem with the video navigation. When the video progress bar is minimized, it spans the entire width of the video, but when it’s fully visible, it only takes up about half the width of the video. So if you’re trying to navigate to a spot in the video when the bar is minimized, but then move your mouse one pixel too high, suddenly your mouse is on the mute button instead of the progress bar. It’s tough to explain, but it gets annoying quickly.
Overall, though, I definitely recommend that you sign up for the beta. It strikes me as much more well conceived than either NBC’s or FOX’s TV streaming sites. For sure, Hulu plays to a different audience than iTunes. If you like to own your TV episodes, this won’t help you. But if you’re just looking for a good streaming experience, Hulu is worth looking at.
One of the many joys of having a digital TV recorder on my Mac (EyeTV Hybrid by Elgato) is that I can save the funniest commercials in addition to the best shows. Here’s one I like that aired during an episode of The Office. It’s from FedEx Kinkos.
I finished my 6 month review at Bridge, and it went really well.
After a really, really long meeting (ending at 6:30 pm), I came back to my desk to find a voicemail from Chick-Fil-A. They drew my business card, which means my whole office will get free Chick-Fil-A sandwiches!
I play Jeopardy! via email with some friends from my last job. (One person has a Jeopardy! daily desk calendar and sends out the questions every day. You’re on your honor not to use Google.) This last week, I got every question right, including the Final Jeopardy, which means I won! (This does not happen very often.)
Sarah let me go out after work and buy some toys for my desk at work! I ended up with this sweet set of Magnetix (the smaller version of this set). It’s colorful and it spins, so it should keep my brain stimulated.
This past Friday, as I usually do, I perused the Amazon Friday Sale. One object in particular caught my eye: the “Merry Pet” brand Mansion Wood Pet House. Here’s a picture:
My mind immediately jumped to two reasons why I would never buy this.
1. If I’m going to spend $450 for a pet house, it should make my pet more than just “merry”. It should be the “Ecstatic Pet” Mansion Wood Pet House. Or the “Suddenly Perfectly Well Behaved” Mansion Wood Pet House.
2. I’m generally opposed to Keiko living anywhere that’s nicer than my home. Mainly, I’m worried that Keiko will spend one night in there, learn how to play pinochle, order a glass monocle online, and then come out the next morning telling me what to do. “I say, dear boy, would you mind fetching me that ball?” In my imagination, she comes out looking and sounding like Mr. Peabody.
This morning, I was thinking about bags — like the kind you keep your laptop and notebooks in, not the kind that form under your eyes. To be totally honest, I think about bags more than normal people, so this wasn’t an unusual train of thought for me. Sometimes I feel like I’m that luggage guy from Joe vs. The Volcano…
Luggage Salesman: Have you thought much about luggage, Mr. Banks? Joe Banks: No. Luggage Salesman: It’s the central preoccupation of my life.
[…]
Luggage Salesman: This is our premier steamer trunk, it’s all handmade, only the finest materials. It’s even watertight, tight as a drum. If I had the need, and the wherewithal, Mr. Banks, this would be my trunk of choice. Joe Banks: I’ll take four of them. Luggage Salesman: May you live to be a thousand years old, sir.
As I walked from my parking lot into work, I watched a row of people who all had very different bags. One guy had a shiny black leather case with buckles, the second guy had one of those corporate-issue kevlar bags that comes for free with a corporate-issue laptop, and the third guy had some funny bag that was made out of wood.
In fact, I know the third guy from work. He’s a designer, so it makes sense that he would have a unique bag. That got me to thinking that, if I knew the other two guys, their bag choices would probably make sense also. I have a feeling that, generally speaking, peoples’ bags say a lot about them. And doesn’t that make sense? We all know that people judge by sight, and the first thing you’re often seen with is your bag. It says a lot about the kind of person you are and the work you do.
So what kind of bag do I have? I’m glad you asked.
I have a Tom Bihn bag called the ID. (In fact, it’s the same one in the picture on his website: black/steel/wasabi.) This bag is phenomenal. Honestly, I could write a blog post every day about why I like this bag and why his company appeals to me. But to get a sense, I recommend reading his FAQ page.
I’m not sure what having the ID says about me, except perhaps that I care a lot about bag quality! It’s an extremely sturdy bag, cleanly styled, with a moderate number of pockets. It’s big enough for a laptop, change of clothes, a notebook, and accessories — so it’s great for overnight business trips. But it’s small enough to discourage overloading (e.g. bringing more books than you could reasonably use).
So what kind of bag do you have? And what does it say about you?
Sarah got this video from her mom, and I thought it might be fun to share. It’s a woman named Anita Renfroe singing a compilation of mom-type advice to the William Tell Overture. Enjoy!
