StefanClaypool.com

I had a long post a few months back ranting against the idea of Hulu going to a pay model. Now I’ve got a little bit of hat-eating to do. The reason is that the new service called Hulu Plus, which costs $9.99 a month and was announced today, does not replace the old service. Hulu.com remains free, with the same content system in place as ever (last 5 episodes are free). It does, however, stay confined to your desktop.

The monthly Hulu Plus fee unlocks back catalogs, meaning that you could theoretically stream any episode of any Hulu series anywhere. I like that arrangement quite a bit, especially since the cornerstone of the system is a new app released for the iPhone and iPad, in addition to upcoming applications for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

The only hitch, I think, is that a lot of people aren’t going to see why they should pay for Hulu Plus. This goes back to web entitlement issues – because everything has been free up until this point, people think they will always be free. I’m not sure how the service will fare, and the potential for a public backlash is there, but I’m more optimistic about it as its being implemented than I was a few months ago.

I’m ready to cancel my cable. Release this thing and let me justify it!

I’ve virtually abandoned Facebook in favor of Twitter. I’ve been thinking about it a little bit lately, and I think there are two things that have caused that, one of which is technological and one of which is philosophical. Neither has anything to do with privacy. I’ve more or less accepted that I live in an age where traditional notions of privacy have been thrown away as part of an agreement with web companies: they give us spectacular online services, and in exchange we give them the information they need to market virtually anything to us. I don’t have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is that as the Facebook platform has grown, it and I have grown apart.

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So please, do not make me subject to your wrath, mighty readers. I know that I said that I’d be blogging about both Frank Zappa and Doctor Who, and I still intend to do so. I’ll get my review of “Absolutely Free” up as soon as possible and continue from there. Who will have to wait a bit – I mailed my Doctor Who DVDs to my girlfriend while she’s interning abroad so that she would have some entertainment when she needs it. So that’s on hold for a bit. But coming.

My schedule has been horribly thrown off these last few weeks following the GMAT. I’m getting it back together – my writing, at least, seems to be back on track – but certain things like blogging have been neglected. I’ll get back to it regularly after the holiday.

Additionally, I am curious about what you readers think about the current look/feel of the site. Do you like the minimalism, or do the people demand their sidebars?

Coming soon: review of “Absolutely Free,” review of Stranger in a Strange Land, commentary on trends in computing and consumption, and possibly a piece on politics. (Yes, n00bs, this was once a fiercely political blog – that is, before I started working in politics.) Stay tuned.

I’ve hit upon a plot twist in my story that, while essential to the telling, will require me to take some extra time to complete this second draft. The challenge I was faced with was creating not only a compelling antagonist, but also strengthening the internal conflict faced by my protagonist. This new twist solves both of those problems, in addition to bringing certain plot elements in the rest of the story into focus.

In retrospect, I feel foolish for not reaching this twist earlier. It was the obvious one, but I neglected it due to my desire to keep certain plot elements a secret until late in the story. By executing the twist and pushing a major revelation forward in the story, I am allowing myself to develop a different type of dramatic tension, while also strengthening my protagonist’s arc. But sometimes I guess you need to realize what’s not working and why before you can accept an alternative approach.

So now the story continues, albeit slowly. My pace has slipped. I devoted a lot of time in recent weeks to the GMAT (with spectacular results), but couldn’t spend much time writing as a result. Now, with a bit more time on my hands, I’ll hopefully get rolling again.

I am an Apple fanboy. I own an iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, iPod, iPod Shuffle, and Apple TV. The iTunes Store is my primary media source, and Safari 5 is my primary web browser. When I visited my girlfriend in California last summer, a pilgrimage to Cupertino was a must. I even own an official Apple t-shirt, which is only sold at the company’s on-campus Cupertino outlet. I’m sold, I’m all in, because I believe that Apple is the company that hits the spot where quality, usability, and aesthetic intersect.

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