5 of the Now

• The Chemical Brothers - Out of Control
  I could list the entire Chem Bros catalog as 5otn, and it appears I am, bit by bit. Honestly it seems I always have Chem Bros in my 5otn list. More often than not, they get pushed to a later list, so be glad you don't see them here any more than you already do :)


• Telfon Tel Aviv - The Birds
  Spacey, driven, soothing.


• Justice - DVNO
  Look out, the Justice 5otn seal is broken. These guys were everywhere last year. I'm a big Ed Banger records fan, and I can't say they are even in my top 3 on that label, but I dig them. Energy and class.


• Closer Musik - One, Two, Three (Ewan Pearson Remix)
  The perfect music to drink martinis and cook to!


• Vector - Rise
  Probably, more properly known as Vector 13. In any case, groovy stuff.

Hulu Had It

I've recently gotten into Boxee. I've been aware of it for quite some time, but I always thought it required far more mucking to install than it actually does. Boxee is only useful to me on Apple TV. It's interface is decent, but not great. I see no reason to use it while I'm sitting at my computers. While sitting in bed in from of my TV, that's another story.

Hooking your MacBook up to the TV to watch Hulu is doable, but it really isn't a good solution. It requires a bunch of temporary cables. Requires you adjust your power management (or wiggle the mouse every few minutes). Worst of all, it owns your notebook while you are watching TV. You can't DO ANYTHING on your computer while it is attached to the TV.

Boxee on Apple TV is great because it brings you Hulu, CBS, and others in a usable format. Nothing new to hook up. It just works. Control it with a remote instead of a keyboard and mouse. The full Hulu experience is there. You see all of the commercials, you see the branding. It's all there.

So then Hulu's partners go and gets stupid. It isn't Hulu, but rather the content providers. You'd think Hulu, who has built the number one destination video site for legal, full, television episodes wouldn't be dumb enough to slap its users in the face, even when the content providers tell them to. As @peterrojas says, Boxee is no different than a web browser. I say Boxee is actually *better* than a web browser for the content provider. Boxee, especially on Apple TV, is running full screen. Users are likely focused on the TV experience, and aren't jumping into a spreadsheet during the commercials. They're watching them.

Hulu also has the unique ability to know who I am. I'm logged into Boxee. They could work with Boxee to make me logged into Hulu. They'd know who I am. They'd know what I watched. They'd know what commercials they've shown me. This has to have value. This has to be better than forcing me to either not watch their content at all, or go get it from a gray/black market source.

Shutting down Hulu on Boxee will NOT send me back to cable. The sooner Hulu and the content providers learn that, the better.