Meanwhile, the dissertation is rolling again. I’m confident it will get finished this semester. Travelwise, I’ll be going to Edmonton, Canada next week for the Canadian University Press Convention (brrr!). Two weeks after that I’ll be at Texas Tech. Chicago two weeks after that. A trip to St. Louis later in the month. And at the end of the semester, I WILL be in Columbia, S.C. getting a hood!

More updates later. Meanwhile, check out Innovation in College Media for the latest posts.

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When they’re selling cowboy hats in the convenience store for $12.99.

Posted via email from Bryan’s posterous

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The Internet makes it relatively painless to go TV-free, and still get the entertainment and information you want from television programs. This post is an explanation of ways you can legally enjoy most TV products without paying for cable.

For most of the past two years, I have lived without a television. At first, this was out of necessity (I didn’t have one and couldn’t be bothered to shell out money for one). Later, after receiving a second-hand TV from my grandmother, the return to a tv-free lifestyle was one of choice – I couldn’t see shelling out $70/mo. for basic cable.

Since then, I’ve been able to watch most television shows and movies that I’ve wanted to through a variety of sources. Some cost money, others are “free” and advertiser-supported.

The main benefit to using the Internet to view these offerings is the combination of time- and place-shifting. Even though you can time-shift a program using a DVR (like Tivo), you still have to sit in front of the television to enjoy the program.

With a laptop computer and wireless Internet access, you can watch a program from anywhere in your house.

The drawback is that the screen on a computer is not nearly as large as a television screen, so if you’re trying to watch something with your family, you’re going to have a problem. But some newer televisions actually come with VGA connectors, so you could stream the video through your computer onto the tv screen (although the quality would likely suffer).

So how can you watch TV without owning a TV? Here are some services that I’ve used and recommend:

1. Hulu – Hulu has a wide selection of TV shows and movies available for viewing, although the time limit for viewing can sometimes be very short (some of the dramas only have four weeks of back episodes available). They also have The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, usually available before 5 a.m. the morning after air. (UPDATE: Comedy Central no longer puts TDS and TCR on Hulu. They are now available at thedailyshow.com and colbertnation.com respectively) There are some classic sitcoms and dramas available: “Lou Grant,” for instance. The service is mainly advertising supported, but the ads are for a single sponsor, and usually higher-end advertisers, not the Sham-Wow guy.
2. TV.com – TV.com is owned by CBS Interactive, and is therefore a competitor of sorts to Hulu, although it doesn’t have the movies to go along with the TV offerings. If you want your CSI:whatever fix, tv.com is the place to go.
3. Amazon – Amazon has a streaming service that allows you to purchase TV episodes and movies. It streams well, but the costs are a little higher: about $2 per episode. But if you’re into watching old episodes of “the West Wing,” this is probably your best bet.
4. Netflix – Netflix has a two-week trial subscription, with the monthly fee being about $9 after that. I haven’t used the DVD mail order portion yet, but the choices in the streaming video part of the site are pretty decent. Not a lot of recent movies, but some good documentaries and older fare there. I recently watched Bridge Over the River Kwai again.

Obviously, these aren’t the only places to find quality fair on the Internet. You can watch political shows on MSNBC.com, CNN.com, or foxnews.com, depending on your persuasion. There’s also CSPAN, and the assorted network sites. Some people find the advertisements annoying. I don’t. I find the advertising on Internet video sites much less annoying than the standard fare on TV (cough – ShamWow guy – cough).

The main area where you’re likely to fall short is athletics. College and professional sports still haven’t gotten onto the streaming bandwagon as much as they could, and you’ll probably pay dearly for an inferior product. Hopefully that will change soon. (UPDATE: Depending on your Internet provider, you may have access to ESPN3.com, which streams a number of athletic events, including every game from the 2010 World Cup. Also, the NFL, MLB, and NHL have recently begun streaming some live games online, although there is sometimes a cost associated).

Thoughts?

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I’m really glad they’re not spending the $15 per bag fee on B.S. commercials and independent films.

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I’m also watching the financial news and wondering what’s ahead for 2009. It could be an ugly year.

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Will Sullivan points to an Engadget post that Apple’s exclusive deal with AT&T on the iPhone has been extended through 2010. The details actually come from a long USAToday article that amounts to a hagiography of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

The money quote:

The U.S. cellphone market is rapidly approaching “saturation” — meaning everybody who wants a cellphone already has one. To add subscribers, he says, carriers basically have to steal them from each other. That’s where the iPhone could come in handy, he says.

In exchange for its payout, AT&T got a year extension, into 2010, on its exclusive distribution deal with Apple, people familiar with the matter say. Sources asked to not be named because the terms are confidential.

Under the original iPhone contract, Apple had the right to offer the device to other carriers beginning in 2009. If Apple exercised that clause, AT&T would have lost one of its biggest points of leverage with customers — exclusive access to the iPhone. Nailing the extension “is a very big deal,” Entner says.

Stephenson hasn’t apologized for letting the National Security Agency spy on Americans’ Internet usage.

So I guess I’ll have to wait until after 2010 to look into purchasing an iPhone. Or, like my department chair, I’ll keep my cheap Motorola phone and get an iPod touch and rely on wireless for my Internet fix.

This is nothing new. As I said when the first iPhone debuted last year:

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily have a problem switching cell phone carriers, but I despise being forced to do so for a phone which should work with any carrier (a la, landline phones).

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