Online Steaming Market: Calm Before the Storm
I am not sure about all of you, but I have lost interest in Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime. Currently the only account that I have not closed in the last month was Amazon Prime. Although Amazon does not have much premium content to offer for free to its members yet, I look for in the next couple months their selection to explode. Netflix keeps upsetting its customers with rumors of price increases and by not have the latest shows and movies. Hulu Plus has the latest television shows for the most part, but has a movie selection that is nothing to brag about.
My girlfriend and I have personally just been going to Redbox recently and we are just praying that one of these companies can sign an awesome deal with a movie maker and come out victorious. For the longest time this was a very heated battle, but now it has almost hit a stalemate and nothing that is interesting is happening. I have heard rumors from various sources that Amazon Prime is currently working with the big movie makers to come up with a deal to have new releases on Amazon Prime. This would be excellent, but for Amazon to get a strong position, which I am confident they will, they need to get more support on devices such as Xbox, Wii, and Roku. When it comes down to money and position, Amazon has got it. From what I have read and studied, Amazon has all of the power they need to be the dominating force in online streaming and make Netflix obsolete.
Cyber Security Series: Introduction
Over the next several weeks, every Tuesday I will be posting on my new series 'Cyber Security'. To get started in cyber security there are a few things that you will need. The first will be your own computer that you have permission to use. The second is a restore point for Windows. If you are not sure how to create a restore point please see my tutorial here. It is very possible to make a mistake and break something and it is better to be safe than sorry. You should also have Virtual Machine software of some sort. I will be using Sun Virtual Box since its free and relativly easy to use.
In the next several weeks we will discus a wide variety of topics including:
- Steganography
- IP Addresses and Packets
- Web Anonymity
- Email Headers
- File Recovery (from formatted drives)
- Social Engineering
- Firewalls
- Metasploit
- And any other requested topics...
I am really looking forward to this blogging series and I am sure the we are both going to have a lot of fun!
Amazon’s Kindle Fire: Yes it is Awesome
As I am sure many of you know the Kindle Fire is now released and the thousands of people that preordered the device should have received them or will be getting them soon. The device has a sleek interface and for the price it is hard not to turn a few heads. I have been asked by multiple people wanting to know what to get thier family and friends for Christmas if they should get them the Kindle Fire or the iPad. Personally I think for the price and similar features that I would choose the Kindle Fire, but remember it does have a smaller screen and does not have all the apps that Apple offers, but remember for the
$700 difference the Kindle Fire definatly seems like the best alternative right now.
Right now if you get a Kindle Fire you will have access to 18 million movies, television shows, magazine, books, and music. Amazon also is offering a lot of the more popular iPad apps like Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Facebook, and others. Amazon has embedded its own ultra fast browser into the eReader called Silk, which from friends I have that beta tested this product, they say it is incredible. Amazon also gives you free cloud storage for you Amazon content like ebooks and songs. Amazon Prime members that get a Kindle Fire will also enjoy the unlimited streaming of over 10,000 movies and television shows. I personally think that Amazon Prime is looking like a good investment and whether you get the Fire or not I would at least look into what Prime has to offer.
One thing is for sure it is going to be a hot product this holiday season and I would not be surprised if it tops iPad's sales this Christmas.