Online broadcasters Hulu and TV.com are charging more for commercials online than during traditional network showings. Television advertisers usually pay $20 to $40 per thousand viewers. Hulu charges $60 per thousand viewers for a commercial during online broadcasts of “The Simpsons“. It makes sense given the rise of home digital video recorders that allow viewers to easily skip over all advertising. Online viewers are much more of a captive audience and thus more likely to actually watch the commercial.
 Archive for the 'Internet' CategoryJust when it seemed ‘Iron Man 2′ couldn’t get any better …June 20th, 2009, 3:38 am by Chris "KeL" Adams
If there’s one thing geeks like, it’s two things geeks like combined into one, see Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and pretty much every super-hero team-up in comics. Now we’ve got another to be excited about: Nerd goddess and Attack of the Show co-host, Olivia Munn has announced on her blog that she’ll be joining the cast of 2010’s Iron Man 2. Due to contractual obligations, it remains unclear what her role will be in the film. Regardless of the size of her spot in the movie, it will certainly give fans one more reason to impatiently await next summer. Watch a board game take shape — or help shape itJune 18th, 2009, 12:01 am by Jayson Peters
The game — called SPACE FIGHT! – will eventually be sold as a full-color, softback book and as a PDF — and its creator is even offering employment to artists who can illustrate spaceships for the gamepieces. Vanity thy name is Facebook.June 11th, 2009, 6:44 pm by Chris "KeL" Adams
‘D&D Online’ becomes a free MMOJune 9th, 2009, 11:17 pm by Jayson Peters
Dungeons & Dragons Online is getting a new upgrade this summer — along with a new business model. The “Eberron Unlimited” expansion pack raises the online roleplaying game’s level cap to 20, introduces a new character class and makes subscriptions optional with unlimited free play. Read the rest of this entry » More proof that you can’t please everyone on the internetJune 7th, 2009, 9:18 pm by Chris "KeL" Adams
At E3 last week, Valve announced a sequel to their hugely popular co-op shooter video game “Left 4 Dead.” (Watch the awesome trailer here.) You’d think fans of the game would be pleased to hear about this. You’d be wrong, this being the Internet and all. Within days over 15,000 players had joined an online group to protest the announcement. These fans are worried that LFD2 will take away promised upgrades to the existing game and divide the player base. “Fans” are complaining that there’s going to be a sequel to a game they like… While I’m sympathetic to gamers’ concerns of being fleeced by game manufacturers, this is a bit much for me. Read the rest of this entry » Lost in Space … or just lost?June 7th, 2009, 10:48 am by Jayson Peters
Check this out: At first I kinda thought the older gentleman was supposed to be the scheming and all-too-fay Dr. Zachary Smith as portrayed in the ’60s TV series Lost in Space by the inimitable Jonathan Harris, but his outfit isn’t right — he’s probably supposed to be patriarch John Robinson, as played by Guy Williams. Oh, the pain! The pain! Two questions spring to mind: I wonder who’s in the Robot? And, aren’t family photos awkward enough without laser rifles and spacesuits? And I thought I was the only one who celebrated…June 6th, 2009, 2:32 am by Chris "KeL" Adams
Well played, Google. Well played, indeed. There will be another day, search engine. Mark my words, this isn’t over. Not by a longshot. Time’s up for ‘Doctor Who’ fan Web siteJune 3rd, 2009, 7:32 pm by Jayson PetersOutpost Gallifrey and the Doctor Who Forum, the most popular Doctor Who fan Web site on the Internet, will be closing for good July 31, the site announced in its forums and news page on Tuesday. Not even the robust news page, the only part of the site to be maintained regularly of late, will continue. The only part of the site that will remain operational is the official page of its annual Gallifrey One conventions, which will go on. The next event, Gallifrey One: Blackjack 21, will be in Los Angeles in February 2010. Read the rest of this entry » D&D Insider raising subscription pricesMay 24th, 2009, 8:18 pm by Jayson PetersThe bad news for D&D Insider subscribers is that the cost is going up. The good news is that there’s still time to renew at the current price and get on board for cheap if you haven’t already joined. Read the rest of this entry » Danger Mouse relies on piracy for new albumMay 18th, 2009, 6:14 pm by Chris "KeL" Adams
So he has decided to release a book of photographs which serve as visual accompaniment to the songs and a blank recordable CD labeled “‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’” Since all of the songs on the album are already available on the Internet, if one were so inclined, a do-it-yourself version could be easily made. The album can be listened to for free in its entirety on NPR’s web site. @nerdvana in ‘100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter’May 13th, 2009, 8:21 am by Jayson Peters
So being a geek and a dad, I regularly read GeekDad, a blog at Wired.com dedicated to “raising geek generation 2.0.” The editors and many contributors maintain a tone and style that have influenced me as I ventured into the world of blogging about things like video games and science fiction. (And there’s plenty for you GeekMoms and Geeklets, too.) They were such an inspiration, in fact, that last month when they sought volunteer writers to round out their ranks I considered throwing my hat into the ring. But they got such an overwhelming response that the call for applications was closed before I had a chance to submit mine! Today they have an article by head GeekDad Ken Denmead entitled “100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter.” Intrigued, I clicked through to read more, and discovered that I was already following many of them, with surprising exceptions like Bill Amend of Foxtrot fame and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. These oversights were immediately corrected. But I was delightfully surprised to see my own name (Jayson Peters, “Geek blogger”) and this blog, Nerdvana, sandwiched between Geek Girl Diva (”Geeky blogger and affiliates manager for Entertainment Earth”) and Alison Lunde (”Code monkey and sarcastageek”). Thanks, GeekDads! So there you have it — all the cool people follow Nerdvana on Twitter. And so should you! The Empire strikes back against a resurgent ‘Star Trek’May 12th, 2009, 12:01 am by Jayson Peters
Star Trek may be king of the box office this week, but the Emperor is taking appropriate steps to make sure we know he is still firmly in control of everything else. It’s kinda fake and by no means as entertaining or as polished as the classic Troops, but this fan video shows who emerges unscathed when the Final Frontier runs afoul of the Galaxy Far, Far Away: See also: Gaming slang could make historyMay 11th, 2009, 9:31 pm by Chris "KeL" AdamsVideo games and the Internet have already made huge impacts on modern society and all of our lives. Now it may happen in a new way. Always one of gaming’s most beloved and over-used terms, “noob” is set to become the one millionth word added to the English language. “Noob,” short for “newbie”, is a derisive name applied to anyone less skilled or experienced than yourself. Numerous media outlets are crediting the Global Language Monitor, an organization that tracks such things, with the prediction. According to the GLM, a word become officially recognized when it has been used 25,000 times or more. I’m not exactly sure how they keep track of that, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if they were to look at any number of gaming message forums, that number would be vastly exceeded already. As terrible as this is, I have to be thankful. At least it’s not “lolz“. The Konami code lives onMay 10th, 2009, 3:46 pm by Chris "KeL" Adams
Since the ’80s the code has continued to pop up in a variety of places and, of course, the internet is no exception. Several popular web sites, including Facebook and Digg, have easter eggs that show up on the page when the code is entered. Konamicodesites has a listing of known sites that respond to the code. It’s good to see a staple of gaming’s history has more than 30 lives.
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