Joey Wendt

The problem with a lot of websites that offer help with spyware removal is really a problem with advertising companies that display ads that are relevant to the content of a page.  But when you are on a page with instructions for so and so spyware removal you get ads for the same stuff you are trying to remove from your computer.  I’m not saying everyone makes the mistake of clicking the ads and downloading the bull, but sometimes I wonder how many people do make the mistake.

If you find yourself in a spyware predicament make sure you pay close attention to the links you are clicking and the so called “spyware removal” programs you are running.

I have really been bothered by having to watch ABC shows online through a tunnel, which as of my most recent discovery was pointless.  The problem isn’t with comcast filtering, there is some sort of problem with the ad system they have setup.  Some of the ABC affiliates don’t work correctly and cause the shows to never start playing resulting in either a black screen or the waiting cursor circling round and round.

Assumming you have no other problems, open a new browser window or tab and enter the following URL.

http://fep.abc.go.com/fep/player?src=abccomjs&aff=kjif

That’s it, you should now be able to watch all the ABC.com online shows.  The only difference is the &aff=kjif at the end. Enjoy.

PS: ABC please fix your affiliate system, kthx.

I have had multiple problems that have confused me while all I want to do is go back and rewatch some of the previous episodes of Lost.  First I thought I saved the day because I finally got the new player to work, kind of got it working is a better way to describe it.  If you found this post by searching for ways to make the new player work then you are aware that a lot of people are upset because it just doesn’t simply work like the old one did.  I am not going to guarantee that what worked for me will work for you, but it is worth a shot.  Below is a guide to getting the Move Media player installed correctly.

Installing the Move Media Player – First since most likely you already have the Move Media player installed, you are going to need to uninstall it by going to Add/Remove Programs and uninstalling it.  Once you have it removed, go back to abc.com and go to the full episode player.  If you uninstalled it properly you should once again see the EULA for the online player,  Accept the agreement (or don’t if you don’t accept it), on the next page you will see a “Begin Install” button, click it (make sure you don’t close out the window with the “Begin install” button).  Once you are prompted to Open/Save/Cancel the file choose the Save option, for ease of access save it to your desktop.  Now, right click the file and select properties (it will be MoveMediaPlayer something or whatever you named it), once the dialog is open, click on the “Unblock” button towards the bottom, then “OK”.  Now double click the icon to install, once completed the webpage will detect that it has been installed and you should see a small clip playing if successful.

Edit: This problem resolved.

As I said, this kind of works and if you are scratching your head or calling me stupid here is what went down.  For internet I have Comcast and also a Verizon Wireless USB727 Modem.  On my computer connected via Comcast I followed the above instructions but it didn’t get my ABC player working.  However, with the above instructions it now works fine with my Verizon card.

I am really leaning towards believing that Comcast is filtering my traffic (not like they have been guilty of doing it before or anything).  The reason I think this is because when I turn on my laptop’s wifi and disconnect my verizon card and go to play an episode of lost, it asks me if I want to view in standard quality or HD, choosing either just leads me to a black screen that does nothing.  Turn off the wifi, connect with verizon card, asks me which quality then bam I see an Ad and then enjoy my show but since I only have 5 gigs of data I cant use it to watch videos.

Some good news though, I tried the link through our local ABC affiliate KTBS’s website and I am once again able to watch videos, thank goodness for lack of updated links.  If you want, try it yourself.

I was about to post this but then it hit me to try tunneling through a SSH tunnel.  With my traffic flowing securely though the tunnel I am now able to watch ABC shows with the new player.  Part of me wants to say because the other end of my tunnel is accross the country and so there is a different ABC affilliate which is case with the verizon card in that I see a different ABC affiliate in the window.  Which might lead me to believe some lack of updating on KTBS’s part but that seems highly doubtful that they would have anything to do with ABC.com besides having their stations logo autoembeded based a user’s IP location.  The other part is thinking that by tunneling somehow Comcast cannot filter my encrypted traffic which makes me believe their filtering BAD COMCAST BAD!!!

Edit: This problem resolved.

If you have any thoughts, questions or ideas leave a comment or Contact Me.

Update 10:03:08: I contacted http://twitter.com/comcastcares earlier today via email and the Comcast engineer’s are going to take a look at some things or so I was told, hopefully they will be able to sort it out.  In the meantime, back to tunneling through my webserver…

You may have read my post raving about the Zune Pass, but I made that post after playing with zune for a few hours.  Now that it has been a while and there are a few things I may have not known at the time.

Overall

I have enjoyed my zune pass as much as when I wrote my first impression review.  It has saved me quite a bit of money which I would have normally spent in iTunes or through Amazon which I recently tried when buying Ratatat’s new album (I highly recommend you do too btw).  I have really enjoyed my zune pass over the last couple of months.

DRM Arggg

As you may have assumed or read the music comes with DRM, if it didn’t then everyone would just buy a one month subscription and download every song in existence.  The bad thing that really irks me is the fact that It will not work with my ipod or my iphone whereas itunes and amazon work lovely.  I also tried to burn a cd a few days ago but prompted me to purchase the album before I could burn it.  Normally I only play music with zune when I am at my computer because that is where I am most of the time and also I do not have an actual zune player.  However, mp3s are offered for purchase on some songs while the main format is wma for music included with the pass.

Music Availability

It sort of depends on the artist’s record label whether or not their music is offered with the pass or made available for purchase.  Thankfully my music choice has been a good one considering most of the music I like is already included.  Most music is available and if it isn’t there are thirty second previews too entice you to buy it.  And worst case senario, it flat out isn’t in the zune marketplace.

Videos / TV Shows

There are videos and tv shows, but none that I have seen are included with the zune pass and require you to purchase them to view.  Boo to that.

Zune Software

My experience with the software that you use to download and listen to songs has been good for the most part.  I only have problems when I am running games, then sometimes it lags out a bit trying to sort through all my music.  I have been tempted to just fire up windows media player a few times, but I am just too lazy to add music to the library every time I download something new, also I believe you have to play the song once in zune to properly acquire drm approval etc.

Final Thoughts

If you are strapped for cash or just cheap, the zune pass is the way to go when it comes to enjoying a lot of music and staying out of jail and paying big fines in the process.  If you have an ipod or other apple product, don’t plan on using them .wma files to jam out.  At best we can only hope the itunes subscription rumor is true, which I would most likely switch to immediately.  If you feel I have left anything out worth mentioning or have questions, feel free to contact me or drop a comment.

I have been playing around with the new iTunes 8 Genius features and so far I like it.  With it being referred to as Genius singularly, I got a little confused in the beginning.  Genius playlist and genius recommendations are two different things, kinda.

Genius Playlist

As you’ve probably read on apple’s site and others, genius playlist recommends songs, from your library, that would go together with a single song selection to makeup a genius playlist.  I know I said they are two different things and they are, I just wanted to point out that it only generates the playlist from your library.

Genius Sidebar

Now the sidebar has a few features but I am only here for the recommendations which show up on the bottom.  In the genius sidebar there are 15 song suggestions, but I am picky and I don’t like the genius bar layout.  I want it to look as if I am browsing through a genius playlist or my library in list view, except with all the fresh tunes from the iTunes store.  This is easily fixed by highlighting the song you want to find recommendations for, then in the genius sidebar left click the Recommendations link in the panel or the right arrow.

Genius Sidebar

Now you have a list of one hundred song recommendations from the iTunes store instead of your stale library.

Genius Recommendations List

For a more complete list of iTune’s features visit Apple’s website.  Enjoy.