Tag: Tony

Feb072013February 7, 2013February 28, 20132Commentsby Tony Hunt

Stop Cancelling Sci Fi and Fantasy TV Shows Please !!!!

Posted in Randomosity...

Is it odd that I wish I had a very in-depth knowledge of how the inner workings and decision-making in which tv shows aired? I am just seeing some incredibly poor decision making.

I think SciFi appeals to most of us who work in IT. In addition, this crowd (and then some) are among the most wired-in people on the planet. The first to watch tv, the first ones in the theater. Yes…I am talking about those of us that freak out because they feel guilty about missing the midnight showing of opening movies.

That is US.

Now the big question…why the &^%$ do the networks continue to treat our demographic as if we don’t count.

We’re the first ones to run out and buy the sports car we don’t need.
We’re the first ones to jump on the bus for almost any tech you find at CES.
Even more importantly…it’s usually our demographic that continues to develop technologies you use to market your franchises better.

…and you cancel our shows constantly.

I will be honest, this started for me with a tv show a lot of you probably never heard of called Crusade. It was a spin-off from Babylon 5. One of the most successful Sci-Fi dramas ever that wasn’t shut down because of its popularity, it was shut down because the primary audience watching it didn’t watch anything else from TNT. Tell me that isn’t some seriously ass-backwards thinking.

“Hey we have this INCREDIBLE show that has successfully run for five seasons, had TWO movies run on it. But we have to cancel it…these nutjobs that like this show dont like all of our other (lower-rating / less-popular) programming.”

A few years later…they cancel Firefly why? Because ratings were low and the last dying breath of all Star Trek series was ready to debut and they (Fox) couldn’t find another slot for it. HINT…ALL SCI FI TV SHOWS START OUT WITH LOW RATINGS…THEN IN A YEAR THEY MAGICALLY HAVE 4MILLION VIEWERS PER EPISODE.

Yep…this is me being angry. Why? Because in the last few years they cancelled Heroes, Terra Nova, Alphas, Dollhouse, Stargate Universe, Eureka, Sanctuary, The Secret Circle, Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The 4400, Jericho, Jeremiah, Brimstone, Dark Skies, Farscape, Millenium, Moonlight, The Pretender, Roswell, Space: Above and Beyond, Threshold, Touching Evil, Dark Angel, V (the reboot), Caprica, Flash Forward, The Event, Defying Gravity…

That is the SHORT list.

Anyhow, I saw a comparison…the productions costs are next to nothing to do reality shows, versus the production costs for sci-fi…even though SANCTUARY was almost 100% cgi…making the funding relatively easy…they got so popular that they got picked up for tv…and then TV shut them down.

Lame, very lame.

I guess my real point is that you guys making all those big decisions should remember a couple things…the biggest sellers of all time are ALL sci fi and fantasy. And that genre’s primary audience and demographic are the very same people you WANT to engage and keep happy. They are the tech head, the geeks, the Engineers, and the Kids that grow into the greatest Imaginations on the planet. Give us some brain food and entertain us. Give us a reason to be loyal viewers, and quit making us feel like you’re still under the sorely mistaken impression the world still thinks the geeks of today are content to only eat what little crap you’re feeding us.

If you want to see a really depressing list…go HERE.

Yes. Tony is a dork. But I am a dork that loves his sci fiction and fantasy…and hates to see good plots get thrown away…

-Tony


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Jan232013January 23, 2013January 23, 20131Commentby Tony Hunt

Why I cancelled my Spotify Premium Account…

Posted in Randomosity...
tonytow tony hunt gets angsty

Some things just absolutely tick me off.

Unfortunately I too have cancelled my Premium subscription to Spotify for lack of support of the Windows 8 Mobile product.

Here are relevant reasons for my cancellation and outstanding request for more development on the product:

  • I work closely with a lot of incredibly talented mobile developers, and happen to know at least 3 mobile app teams that could have produced a working product for spotify in only a few months and it wouldn’t have cost as much as you’d think.
  • The W8P api was available to companies like Spotify for almost a year prior to the OS release.
  • WP7 had a functional app. Again with no word from the dev or Spotify on why it’s n longer in play, more importantly, I’ve already been told that the WP7 app actually worked on the Dev releases of W8P, but dont have confirmation yet.
  • While I did get a response from Spotify confirming that no W8P product was available at this time, that was all I got, nothing to even remotely try to keep me on as a paying customer.
  • The W8 phone operate on the same essential kernel that the W8 OS runs on. With a very complete api library this makes creating a quality app a no-brainer for anyone with a decent amount of C#/.NET/WinOS background to get done…and get done quickly.

In all the lack of the W8P version of the Spotify app was a big dropping of the ball. I still hope Spotify comes out with an app soon, but once I get engaged with XBox Music I will not likely be quick to switch again.

/endrant

-Tony Hunt


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Apr252012April 25, 2012April 25, 20121Commentby Tony Hunt

Listen to yourselves sometimes…

Posted in Randomosity...

Dear Close-Minded Woman that pissed me off this week,

Perception is reality. 22% of the worlds population believes in Islam. It’s the worship of a single deity, with that deity’s word outlined in the Qur’an, and the teachings of a prophet named Mohammed. I could just as easily compare it to the Bible, God, and Moses just like my buddy did, and be quite satisfied in being correct…at least until we get into a more detailed description of the religion.

SO…maybe…just maybe…the next time someone greets you with a blessing you should be gracious enough not to act like someone just put a hex on you.

There is this knee-jerk reaction people have when engaging religions not their own that is usually uninformed, uneducated, and almost purely instinctual…almost fight or flight. That is explainable. The possibility that one may be right and the other wrong triggers a fight or flight reaction, most of the time verbally where a person spouts off whatever they can come up with in a few seconds and hide behind their faith in the argument…or worse. When in reality (personally I think religion is a horrible burden on spirituality, being now a tool for business and politic), they are both mutually destructive to one another and will continue to teach at least a small portion of their congregation that the other is the evil one.

The only end to this was to remove religious rule, and we did it.

What scares me most is that some people actually think that adapting the US government into any degree of Christian theocracy would actually protect us.

Separation of Church and State protects us. It has allowed our country to flourish where many other nations have fallen or been turned over in civil war nightmares. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….” and Article VI specifies that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

I completely understand feeling threatened by belief systems other than your own. I actually understand the feeling more than most. I just don’t understand the need to attack others beliefs to justify your own. Disproving someone else’s religion doesn’t make you right, it makes you a judge where none is necessary.

-Tony

NO…I am NOT a Muslim. I just cant stand religious bullies.


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