Sorry I didn’t get this to you yesterday, but we were actually traveling, and then when I tried to log into the doctorhorrible.com website to watch Act 1 of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the site was continually down. Very frustrating. So after messing around with that for an hour or two, I just went to iTunes and purchased the whole thing for $3.99 (it was $1.99 per Act and I know I’m gonna want them all). Its so worth it, if the first installment is anything to go by.
I loved it!! So my advice to you is to forget dealing with trying to watch for free. Just go buy it. You’re gonna want to anyway. I just bought it last night and I’ve probably only seen it like a dozen times, is all.
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I know I keep going on and on about Dr. Horrible, but I’m just so excited about a new Whedon project and Dollhouse is still in the future. First of all, here’s a link to the official myspace. But more importantly, the dates are here!!!! I’m so amazingly thrilled about this, I can’t stand it. The first part will air on Tuesday, July 15, the second part on Thursday, July 17, and the third part on Saturday, July 19. All three parts will remain up until Sunday, July 20. All to be viewed free! After that, Dr. Horrible will be available for download.
In honor of the dates being revealed, I’m going to repost some of what Joss had to say over at Whedonesque.
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Forgotten?
I hope not.
I know it’s been a long time. I also know some people are going to think my reasons for not writing are total crap. I think I should let you know what they are though.
I quit smoking, and I did it in what is probably the worst possible way, cold turkey. That phrase makes no sense. I like turkey, even if it’s cold. I didn’t like quitting cigarettes. I went through some horrible withdrawal, then I got sick.
I’ve had a craptacular month, but I’m getting back into things. Now I’m doing it all without nicotine. That is extremely weird.
Priorities
When my schedule started to return I had to prioritize, since I’m trying to do several blogs at once. Thanks to certain posting requirements on another blog, that meant I had to focus solely on it until I could get back into the swing of things. Either that or drop that blog completely, which I didn’t want to do.
Now that I’m learning to write without smoking I’ll be posting here again.
I wish I had a cigarette.
I like Facebook, or at least I did like Facebook. Things are changing over there. Those changes aren’t always for the better. You might have noticed this yourself.
Take the apps for example.
Have you seen something like that? If you like the quizzes and such, I bet you have. A lot of the apps that do that won’t even give you your results unless you invite friends to add the app. That’s just wrong. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now.
I like Internet quizzes and I enjoyed those kinds of apps, but this just bugs me. All I want to do is waste a little bit of time and have fun. I go through and answer the stupid questions that have nothing to do with the topic. Then I get a ransom note. “Give us the names of your friends so we can show them our ads or you’ll never know what kind of breakfast cereal you are.” Does that seem right?
Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind seeing the invite screen if I can skip it and get my results. That makes sense. They’re giving you a chance to share your wasted time with your friends. That’s what friends are for, at least on social networks. It’s pretty cool to be able to compare your results with your friends. It is not cool to hold your friends, or your results, hostage. That would be like Google turning over their search results to the advertisers. “You can’t see the results for ‘Bionic Woman Sucks’ until you click on 10 ads.” Yahoo! would love to see that.
Facebook needs to make some changes or a lot of people are going to be leaving. This is annoying. People don’t join social networks to be annoyed.
Except for Myspace.
I don’t know if you’re aware of what Google has been doing since October. If not here’s a short version.
Google decided to hide the Page Ranks of sites that made paid posts and linked without using the non-standard “nofollow” tag. They didn’t do this to all the sites that they could have, just the ones least likely to cause them trouble.
What does that mean?
It means FanaticSpace.com suffered a penalty. I’ve been honest about making paid posts to try and pay for expenses on the site. That’s just not enough for Google, even though their own guidelines tell you to write for people and not search engines.
Can it be fixed?
I’ve thought about this for a long time. Should I add “nofollow” to the paid links and ask Google to reconsider? Should I just accept the penalty and continue as if nothing happened?
I came to the conclusion that I need to comply with Google’s demands. No matter how much I dislike it, I can’t fight Google. They’ve got too many people brainwashed into believing it’s about search results. If I try to fight it, I’ll wind up like the guy from the picture up top.
I’ve added “nofollow” to all the paid links. I’ve also filed for reconsideration.
Now I just have to go to sleep and await the mercy of the pod people Google.
How I Got Sucked In
The first time I saw the commercial for the Creation Station from Rip Roar Media I immediately thought “Video Podcast”. It looked like it would be the perfect starter kit. Camera, green screen and software all included. Even if it only worked half as well as it claimed to, it would be a bargain basement video casting solution.
The price even seemed reasonable, ranging from $79 to $100 depending on where I looked. I did a little looking into other options for chroma keying, the Creation Station’s main selling point. This kit looked even better. Chroma key equipment can be expensive.
When I was Christmas shopping with my girlfriend we saw the Creation Station at Wal-Mart. It was marked down to $35. This should have sent up a few red flags, but I figured it was marked down because it wasn’t selling well and they were trying to unload their stock. I didn’t ask myself why they were trying so hard to unload that stock. I couldn’t resist a bargain like that and agreed to let my girlfriend buy it as a Christmas present for me.
I was planning to write a review of the Creation Station, with a few tips and a video made with the kit. There is a reason this post doesn’t have that video.
The Creation Station Does Not Work
I wasn’t expecting much, but the Creation Station couldn’t even live up to my lowest standards. I did expect it to work, even if it didn’t work well. Instead of a review here’s a list of reasons not to buy the Creation Station.
Cheap Camera. The camera is as cheap as they could possibly make it. You’re much better off buying a cheap webcam for around $20-$25.
Tripod Is Useless. The little plastic tripod included in the kit is so poorly made it can barely support the camera. Forget adjusting it. The materials and construction are so cheap it doesn’t even work.
Software Does Not Work. I tried for hours to get it to work. It kept crashing any time I tried to use it. I did find a solution to the crashing. I updated a .dll file and that fixed the crash problem. It wasn’t enough to fix the software itself. It’s still incredibly horrible.
Green Screen Is Split. I thought this was odd from the beginning. Any time I saw a description for the Creation Station it said it contained a green screen measuring 9.8 x 6 feet. What it really contains is two green screens that have velcro on them. This is bad. Even a cursory search into chroma keying will tell you that the screen needs to be smooth and well lit. A line down the middle of the screen where the pieces are stuck together is a very bad thing.
Verdict
Don’t buy the Creation Station. It’s garbage. I’ve seen the price drop as low as $15 at Walmart.com before it was removed completely. It’s not even worth that much. A trip to a fabric store will get you a much better green screen for $15, and that’s the only functional part of the Creation Station.
I’m still looking into an affordable way to make a video podcast. I’ll let you know if I find something good.
Sorry I didn’t get this to you yesterday, but we were actually traveling, and then when I tried to log into the doctorhorrible.com website to watch Act 1 of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the site was continually down. Very frustrating. So after messing around with that for an hour or two, I just went to iTunes and purchased the whole thing for $3.99 (it was $1.99 per Act and I know I’m gonna want them all). Its so worth it, if the first installment is anything to go by. 
