Vicious Cycles - A Stop Animation Film

My brother recently sent me this video and reminded me how much we thought it was funny as kids. Turns out that film got me interested (for a while) in stop animation. I created a couple hours of stop animation shorts with my friends and brother. Too bad I don't have that footage any more. Vicious Cycles was created in 1967 by Chuck Menville. Its production value is simple by today's standard but it still is hilarious. ...

August 17, 2017 · 1 min · Aaron

CBS to launch Star Trek series in 2017 for a fee

CBS announced today that a totally new Star Trek series is being planned for launch in 2017. The most interesting part of the news release is that you'll have to buy CBS' streaming service for $5.99/month to gain access to it. It's a bold move for CBS to go to a subscription-only model for a traditionally broadcast-only TV network. I think they would be better off spending the time partnering with one of the streaming providers out there like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. I can't see spending a separate charge for potentially a single show every week. ...

November 2, 2015 · 1 min · Aaron

Cable companies: Please, take my money!

I cut the cord two years ago from cable TV but am interested in using apps for the iPad and Roku to watch live cable TV. I called Time Warner Cable today to ask them if they offered a cable TV package that wouldn't require a physical installation. TL;DR - using the TWC TV apps (iPad, Android tablet, Roku) requires a physical install. My SituationMost of the summer (April - October) I'm not home on the weekends as we have a seasonal spot at a campground about 3 hours away from home. We ended up cutting cable two years ago and don't really miss it for what we used of it. At one time I ran a MythTV server with two tuner cards, and it worked well. I have since moved to two dual-tuner HDHomeRun units with Elgato's EyeTV running on a Mac mini. It works well enough and it allows me to stream and download any recorded content to my iPad/iPhone. I can even watch live remotely and not pay anything extra. ...

December 24, 2013 · 4 min · Aaron