HULU: Streaming television shows straight to your desktop. Television Network Supported too! Its Great!

Those who know me well, know that I love video on demand; especially when its free!  That's why I'm so excited about my new discovery (which I'm sure someone else discovered a long time ago).  Check out Hulu.com!

Hulu has tons of free video content featuring a lot of television programming from the 90's through today.  Some of my favorite shows are on there from both NBC and FOX, and other television networks such as FuelTV, BRAVO, G4, FX, SciFi, IGN, and many others.  HULU features 10 to 15 second adverts before each program, and sometimes breaks shows up with a 2nd advert in the middle, but its pretty unobtrusive since its only one commercial at a time, not an entire set.  Check out the link below for a list of the programs they currently offer (most feature entire seasons worth of shows).

I'm in the middle of Season 2 of NEWSRADIO right now.  The video quality is acceptable, even when full-screened on my 22" display.  Sound quality is very good as well, and the flash based video player is virtually error free, though slower computers might have slightly lower frame rates.  I also encounter almost no buffering/ stuttering of video once programs start, (using cable/broadband access).

Check the site out.  I bet you'll find at least one program you'd like to watch.  Here's hoping that Hulu can stay on-line, and that the current level of advertising generates enough revenue to support the bandwidth/ programming costs.  In my estimation, there's probably not enough money per advert to make it profitable yet...and as a user, I'd rather they don't start playing longer commercials or sets of commercials before each show (fingers crossed).

hulu COMPLETE SHOW LISTING.

Selling on eBay: Still a big pain in the butt?

  I've sold quite some product on EBay over the last few years,  -- but honestly --as a somewhat regular user, in the back of my mind the only "impression" I have of the site is that its been an overall bad experience. 

Its not because the experience of communicating with customers, shipping product, or paying the high fee's has worn me out (as you would expect).  The problem is that the site's user-experience/ GUI for selling an individual product on eBay has been so muddled.  The last time I used EBay, I swear it felt like I had to fill in a million fields about the product I wanted to sell, write my own description for the product (even though there were 50 other auctions available for the same product), and navigate through 5 pages before I had my item posted. It literally took me 2 days to post my last auction.

I realize I may be totally exaggerating the details (# of fields/ pages), but that's genuinely the impression I have of eBay after selling over 100 items on the site over the last several years.  Its really kind of sad that I'm paying for such a poor (and time consuming) experience... I want something better! (I'm thinking I'll try CraigsList first.  Its free so it can't hurt.)

I have lots of stuff to sell, but eBay doesn't really make it any easier to sell my stuff..they just are the marketplace for it.  I still have to pack everything and bring it with me..the photos..the descriptions..everything!  I know that there are plenty of happy "powersellers" out there who love eBay..but they are not using the handicapped tools that eBay equips the average user with.  Most of them are paying monthly fees to 3rd party service providers who are providing them with powerful, easy to use tools that make selling on eBay more profitable and simpler.

eBay, are you listening?

I don't want to start an eBay business.. I just want to sell my mp3 player and some other miscellaneous items.  Why the hell is it so hard?

In eBay's defense, I haven't used eBay to sell product in over 6 months, and they might have made some recent improvements (crossing my fingers)

I'm off now to eBay, where I'm going to post a couple items for sale.  Hopefully a more pleasing experience than I remember.