Kurt's Thoughts

Someday, I’m going to write a book about my time with my employer.  My role has given me some amazing opportunities to work with customers that y’all would be really surprised to hear about.  Each of these lines represent stories that I’m gonna write about some day.  I’m gonna keep this as a running list for the day I decide to start really writing this stuff down.

• Novell Users Group
• BB & Google/Microsoft
• Y2K Pagers
• “Pirate away”
• JCB
• Lily’s 95 check
• “Cows”
• DMS – Messaging
• Scientology
• Vertex Ball
• IndyMac Waiting
• Salma Hayek
• Trader Joes
• Brendan Kehoe
• Ralphs
• DirectAccess Palms Springs/Bakersfield
• Technet Saturday
• “I make no margin.”
• John Tesh
• IndyMac Bankruptcy
• Nissan in Denver
• Barbara & Bill
• Steve & Wynn
• “Your mike is on!”
• The tanning bed
• Brad & Hughes
• The last NT4 server
• Bldg 7 – the real story
• Aerogel
• Starlink
• Bob McDowell & receipts
• Drennan & the toilet story
• Mac User Group w/ Apple: “Kurt, Ladies & Gentlemen!”
• Bill @ UCLA
• Bill @ Four Seasons BH
• Brian & uBid
• KROQ
• That time when my laptop got stolen
• Kinko’s Picnic
• Donuts vs Ed Brill
• “Don’t go there, Bill”
• “Dirt”, “Digital Gen…” & “the rectum”
• The Chicago shoe incident
• Tap dancing on stage in San Diego
• Ayala & Apple
• “We just want to put you in a position to be successful.”
• Miami hotdogs
• Richard Jeni
• “WHY CAN’T OUTLOOK DO THIS!?!?!”(Lotus)
• “We need to get off Novell.”
• “My name is Dan. I’m here to solve problems.”
• “Man, she was diggin’ you.”
• “I don’t know what I’m even doing here then.”
• Special thanks credit.
• Carpet pissing
• Active Jam
• Bob McDowell & 2 stories tall
• Young & drunk @ MGS
• “Bah, c’mon in. You’ve paid your dues.”
• Kerry’s Angels
• “I know. You just met me, jackass.”
• My fiancé works at this office! Here’s her card.
• Legal hold
• Hello, I’m from HR.
• See this photo? My girlfriend is from Redmond.
• Price & partnership
• It RAINS in Orlando
• OS/2 is dead
• CUE conference
• Kurt’s got groupies!
• Exchange Client vs Outlook
• “Space Needle is the future”
• “Bombs in my front yard!”
• Becoming & leaving GATS
• W hotel Seattle & the movement activated thermostat
• “We’re from Gulf States!”
• “Whistler: It’s all gone to sh–…”
• Frank & the “User Manager” story
• “Lieberman & a new name”
• Twin Towers: “You better hope it works.”
• The 3… 2… 1… Excel Macro
• “Dude… you’re law enforcement!”
• Warp Drive
• Missing Ojai
• The Compaq VP
• Pissing off the Channel VP
• Roadside bot
• The fastest Teams deployment ever
• “It fell off a truck.”
• Ad Astra
• Aisha Tyler
• JimAll & WMV converter
• Will & Cheri

There’s a niche scenario in which you may start to see blank notifications – notifications on your Band that have no content in them, even though there should be information about an appointment or something.

I have heard (not for certain) that this is caused by a relatively rare memory condition that may be resolved in an update.  (Don’t hold me to this)

I’ve encountered this once & according to what I’ve read, the way to fix this may be one of two ways:

• TURN OFF/ON THE BAND
  Go to Settings & the Power symbol, then “Turn off” your Band, then turn it back on again.
• BURN DOWN THE BATTERY
  Allow the Band to run until the battery runs out completely.  Then recharge it and start it again.

The ROI breakeven point for Amazon Prime at the new $99 subscription rate is essentially “10-20 items purchased throughout the year”. (Breakeven is closer to 10 if you value 2-day shipping & closer to 20 if you value standard shipping) Alternatively, if you actually use Amazon Video for entertainment displacing Netflix & you order at least one item, you break even.

It may very well pay for itself fairly quickly depending on how much you order from them. Cost of shipping 2-day is $8-$15 depending on the size/weight of the item(s). Hence the “10 items at 2-day shipping” breakeven threshold. Standard shipping is $4-$8 for items under $35, hence the “20 items…” logic. (Caveat with this is that the items need to be cheap, otherwise shipping would be free & you have to be okay with 7-10 day shipping) Netflix for a year is $79, hence the Amazon Video breakeven logic. Technically, there’s alternative uses that could possibly help validate the $99 spend such as Amazon Kindle lending library or Amazon’s new storage service but I don’t know anyone that finds value in these compared to other services or purchases and it’s consequently hard to establish a concrete value of these benefits.

I generally dislike resorting to government intervention. And I really dislike the LA Times for its one-track, myopic editors. So you can only imagine how important I believe this subject is, that I’d post this article from the LA Times about reinstituting government-mandated vaccinations in school – no exceptions. While you may think it’s a “choice”, this is life & death & your choice affects everyone else’s most helpless citizens, our children. ‪#‎wheatonslaw

The continuing and spreading outbreak of measles traced originally to visitors to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure park revives the questions of who should be held responsible, and how they should be made to pay for the injury and illness they’ve caused.

Here’s one suggestion, offered Thursday by science writer Alex Berezow in a USA Today op-ed: “Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail.” That may be an extreme remedy, but Berezow’s notion that non-vaccinating parents should shoulder the responsibility for their actions is widely shared among legal experts and bioethicists.

Liability could certainly exist if a parent simply chose not to vaccinate his child and a death results.- Bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan

As the Los Angeles Times has documented, California has experienced an alarming increase in “personal belief” exemptions allowing unvaccinated children to attend public and private schools, and a parallel decrease in immunization rates among kindergartners in many communities.

Most alarmingly, the trends often are associated not with low-income neighborhoods, where the cost of a vaccine might be an issue (though less so since the Affordable Care Act mandated that preventive treatments such as vaccines be provided without cost-sharing), but in affluent communities, among ostensibly well-educated parents.

…

• LA TIMES: The Disneyland measles crisis: how to make negligent parents pay
  http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-the-disney-measles-crisis-20150128-column.html 

“The first issue is whether Disneyland can even make the initial demand of its employees. The short answer is YES.”

If you are not living under a rock, you have heard by now that there is a large measles outbreak in the United States that can be linked back to some unvaccinated visitors to Disneyland. Lots of people are angry and concerned and I’ve gotten lots of questions about this outbreak, including what Disneyland can and should be doing to prevent outbreaks like this in the future. After all, a massively popular amusement park, visited by folks from the world over all packed into a relatively small space, is a pretty great place for disease to spread. Among those sickened by measles, were at least five Disneyland employees.

In response to this, Disneyland asked all employees who came into contact with the five sick employees to submit “vaccination records or submit to a blood test that shows they have built immunity to the disease.” And any employees who could not confirm their immunity status were asked to stay home on paid leave. So wait, if Mickey Mouse can’t confirm his immunity, does he have to stay home from work? Can Disneyland even do that? What about Mickey’s rights?

…

• Disneyland Tells Employees: “Get Shots or Stay Home.” What’s the Law Say About That?
  http://thevaccineadvocate.com/2015/02/02/disneyland-tells-employees-get-shots-or-stay-home-whats-the-law-say-about-that/

Anti-vaxxers are free to choose to rely their make-believe rationale against vaccines… and also need not apply to the University of California. ‪#‎GoBruins

As the Disneyland measles outbreak continues to spread, the University of California announced Friday that it would require incoming students to be vaccinated for the measles as well as other diseases.

The move comes as the nation is dealing with an outbreak of the highly contagious disease that has left more than 100 people ill. The outbreak began at Disneyland in December but has spread since then.”The University of California will require incoming students to be screened for tuberculosis and vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, meningococcus, tetanus and whooping cough, under a plan set to take effect in 2017,” the UC said in a statement.

…

UC will require measles vaccination for incoming students
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-will-require-measles-vaccination-for-incoming-students-20150206-story.html

This rules so hard.

Room Service: “Disneyland Hotel Room Service. How may I assist you?”

Me: “Hello. This is room xxxx. I’d like to order breakfast for tomorrow at 6AM.”

Room Service: “Very good sir. And what would you like to order?”

Me: “I’d like one American Breakfast, scrambled, bacon & white toast, a bowl of oatmeal, a glass of orange juice, a pot of coffee…”

Son-in-background: “I WAN PANNNCAAAAKES! WIT MICKEY MOUUUUUSE! AND BUTTER! AND SYYYYRRRRUP! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!”…

Me: “Um…”

Room Service: “<snicker> Yeaaaah, We heard all that. So one order of Mickey Mouse pancakes… with lots of syrup & butter, yes? Will that be all?”

Me: “<sigh> Yes, thank you.”

Room Service: “Our pleasure, sir.”

Son-in-background: “<bouncing on bed> BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

(This is a “summarization” of what went down.  It didn’t go exactly like this since I only have limited space here but it might as well have because that’s basically how it played out in my mind.)

So my son wanted an ice cream bar at Paradise Pier while we were at Disney’s California Adventure.

The ice cream there is… well… overly frozen from dry ice, weak sauce, and had a ridiculous line in the hot sun to buy it, so I told him that I’d find him some better ice cream elsewhere. He quietly said, “Okay,” then didn’t mention it again.

As we headed to the exit 30min later, I found the Main Street ice cream parlor which was indoor, air conditioned, had a ton of ice cream selections, a table to sit at, and no line at a…ll. So now he’s sitting at the table with a monstrous mint chocolate chip ice cream cone, with ice cream all over his face (Yes, the kind I never got when I was a kid) & I say to him, “See? I remembered! I told you I’d find you some better ice cream, eh?”

He looks at me and says, “Daddy, you’re the BEST Daddy ever.”

I freeze & look at Anne & whisper, “(Did you coach…?)” She smiles & says, “(Nope. All him.)” ‪#‎todaywasagooddayasafather

Which reminds me of this video:

And this one:

————————-

Oh, by the way, in case you noticed that the above photo is as white as a vanilla milkshake in a snowstorm – and I’m not talking about the photo background – check this out:

• Apple’s Plan to Improve Its Diversity
  http://www.diversityinc.com/news/apples-plan-improve-diversity/

Doesn’t seem to be much progress, ‘eh?

A lot has been said about the supposed alternatives available to consumers for getting broadband Internet access.

Which of course is all a bunch of hooey.  There’s a monopoly on high speed Internet access for consumers and the folks holding that monopoly know it.

In spite of all evidence to the contrary (and then some), Comcast insists [PDF] that “the broadband marketplace is more competitive than ever.”

Hippy, dippy, BALONEY.  If there was ever a BETTER example of this – including detailed accounts of how bad un regulated service is amongst the supposed “choices” that consumers have, it’s this article:

• New Homeowner Has To Sell House Because Of Comcast’s Incompetence, Lack Of Competition
  http://consumerist.com/2015/03/25/new-homeowner-has-to-sell-house-because-of-comcasts-incompetence-lack-of-competition/

I can tell you that I theoretically have 4 “choices”:

1. Verizon-line DSL (capped at 6Mbps)
   No growth beyond 6Mbps.  Ever.  Meanwhile the rest of the industry is hitting 300Mbps to 1Gbps speeds.  This is a dead technology and the only step beyond this for telecom companies is “fiber” which is not available in most of Los Angeles.
2. HugheNet Satellite (1sec latency, capped at 20GB)
   Besides being pricey, the latency of HughesNet and other satellite based Internet services makes it infeasible for random access streaming video, audio, real-time communications or telephony/VOIP.  Worse yet, it’s consumption capped at 10-20GB/month. 
3. Cellular (2-25Mbps, capped at 5GB)
   Extremely expensive at $50/mo for 5GB/mo, highly variable speeds (I can barely get 2Mb through Verizon XLTE in my location) and capped on consumption to 5Gb per month.
4. Time Warner (15Mbps-300Mbps)
   This is what I chose since it’s the only feasible choice. My issue is that service is irregular.  Sometimes I get 15Mbps and other times I get 70Mbps.  Sometimes in the middle of the day, the connection is DEAD and no amount of calling to Time Warner seems to help.

This is what I mean by NO CHOICE.  If I ever can’t stand it any more with Time Warner’s questionable service, I can never switch.  None of the other service alternatives are in the same realm.

There is no choice.

I can’t geek out more than this:

NASA has discovered another Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star within the habitable zone using the Kepler Space Telescope. Labeled as Kepler-186f, it is about 500 light-years away from us in the Cygnus constellation.

“The habitable zone” has also been referred to as the goldilocks zone. This zone is the region around a star, within which planets with proper atmospheric pressure are capable of supporting liquid water on their surfaces. It is estimated that there are at least 40 billion Earth-sized planets within the Milky Way, but this planet they’ve just discovered is the first Earth-sized planet to be discovered in the goldilocks zone of another nearby star.

Read more at:
http://higherperspective.com/2015/02/another-earth.html

Run OS X 10.10 Yosemite on Surface Pro 3

I just finished a guide on how to install OS X 10.10 Yosemite on the Surface Pro 3. At this time everything but the touch screen, WIFI, and Bluetooth work on it. The machine works great as an OS X machine. Below is the link to the guide.

Run OS X 10.10 on the SP3 Guide

Also there’s a tool for Touch on MacOS that might be useful to some:

• Better Touch Tool for Mac OS X
  http://www.bettertouchtool.net/

And there’s documentation on how to get iMessage working on a Hackintosh config here:

• http://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/
  2wohwn/getting_imessage_working_on_10102_generating/

Saw this post.  Couldn’t agree more:

HARVARD BUSIJNESS REVIEW:
Work-Life Balance: Your Late-Night Emails Are Hurting Your Team
https://hbr.org/2015/03/your-late-night-emails-are-hurting-your-team

Think about the message you’d like to send. Do you intend for your staff to reply to you immediately? Or are you just sending the email because you’re thinking about it at the moment, and want to get it done before you forget? If it’s the former, you’re intentionally chaining your employees to the office 24/7. If it’s the latter, you’re unintentionally chaining your employees to the office 24/7. And this isn’t good for you, your employees, or your company culture. Being connected in off-hours during busy times is the sign of a high-performer. Never disconnecting is a sign of a workaholic. And there is a difference.

Just a side note, learn this trick from Outlook:

• New Email –> File –> Properties –> Select the checkbox “Do not deliver before:”
• Set the time to 8:00AM. Write your email, then send.

The email will sit in your outbox until 8AM and save your directs the terror of having to respond at 1:00AM just to demonstrate their responsiveness.

What a cloak & dagger mess. 

This is one of the things that made me shake my head about the Academy of Magical Arts 8 years ago.  People doing the he-says-she-says blame game dance around club matters – with a lot of people putting a ton of subjective emotion into the fray & few people actually putting up fact.  8 years ago, I ended up putting my membership on hiatus -mostly because I was having money troubles – and forgot all about it.  I rejoined this year only to find that… well, not much has changed.

What am I talking about?  Start with this:

• Hollywood Reporter: “Magic Castle at Center of Family Fight Over Profits”
  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/magic-castle-at-center-family-786996

Now, if you dig up some messages and do your research, you’ll find that Milt Larsen, founder of the Magic Castle wrote this on the topic – sort of a response so to speak:

• Milt Larsen’s Blog #22: “Milt Larsen is not the bad guy!”
  http://miltlarsen.tumblr.com/post/112651600669/blog-22

The relevant portion of the post reads:

“In the March newsletter in Maurice’s report mentions: “Looking at our operating costs, rent approximates $700,000 per year and payments for creative services to Milt Larsen amount to well in excess of $400,000 per year.”   On the AMA books I am being paid that money for “creative services.”  That’s true, but what is the definition of “creative services?” In my book that’s the royalty of 5.5% of the food and beverage sales at the Magic Castle as agreed upon by every Board of Directors since the inception of the club until recently.  It is a fee in payment for my conceiving and physically building a Magic Castle clubhouse at no cost to the AMA, which includes the rooms of antique paneling, chandeliers, bars, art glass windows and ceilings, gimmicks and trademarks.     

This past year the total gross of the AMA was in excess of $12,000,000.   The $400,000 paid to me amounted to 3.33% of that income.  As a writer I am a great believer in the rights of “Intellectual Property.”  Inventors, authors, songwriters, artists, etc. deserve compensation for their work as long as it is enjoyed by future generations.  After spending a half century creating a world famous facility and trademark I can’t tell you how much I am saddened by the fact that Magic Castle name is not to be found anywhere in the club.  This year’s Founder’s Day was all about the founding of the Academy of Magical Arts. As far as that event goes the AMA acts as if the Magic Castle no longer exists. 

…

At the request of the AMA there will be a mediation hearing on April 15^th before a retired judge.  The judge will attempt to resolve the AMA’s position that it should no longer have to abide by the contracts it signed.  Whatever the judge recommends I will support the AMA and continue promoting the art of magic in our various projects under the banner of Magic Castle’s Inc.”

But then, a member of the AMA wrote the following:

• Facebook AMA Group: “Regarding the original agreement” https://www.facebook.com/groups/AcademyofMagicalArts/
  permalink/1585808265036308/?comment_id=1585924155024719

Now, if you’re not a member you won’t be able to read the comment so, here’s the relevant portion:

“…that was not “the agreement going in”, as you so hopefully put it. The agreement has been modified time and again, and the question becomes, when did its modification cease to be fair and reasonable?
I have said it before, Milt, Bill and Irene, deserve our thanks and financial support for their efforts on our behalf, but that must be tempered by financial responsibility on the part of the Board of Directors.
Was the last agreement fair, or was it fiscally imprudent and possibly beset by conflict of interest. That is what must be decided.

Milt was our landlord and our creative building director AND held the trademark. He has stopped being two of these things. Isn’t it appropriate that with less service he should receive less compensation?

[AMA member] feels that 5-7% is the “right number” to pay for a trademark. We only paid 4% for all three things in the past. Why the sudden climb of percent? Is it reasonable for our club? We have a history of not being very successful, needing to be bailed out by the members time and again. Joe Furlow and the BOD have done great work recently for the last few years, so let them continue to make improvements. I expect we will get to use the name Magic Castle for the future, the question is just how much is that worth and can we afford it.”

MY INTERPRETATION:

• AMA’s stance appears to be that:
  • The Milt Larsen contract has been renegotiated regularly
  • The last negotiation resulted in committing too much money to Milt – a 1.5% raise, from 4% to 5.5%. They believe this was a result of a bias by some previous folks on the board, stacking the deck against the overall interests of the club. Can the contract be voided on this point?
  • Milt Larsen’s originally had 3 roles under the previous agreement and now has only 1 but is being paid the same, thus Milt’s payment should be reduced appropriately.
• Milt’s stance appears to be:
  • The AMA Board of Directors signed the agreement – like it or not, they need to legally abide by it.
  • Milt didn’t benefit from this arrangement for years – i.e. made no money – when the Magic Castle failed to turn a profit.  Now that it has, they suddenly want to cut his share.  How is it fair that he share in the “debt” but not the “profit”, esp. now the the Castle is finally making money?
  • The AMA used the Magic Castle trademark for decades when they didn’t have to pay much for it.  Now that they are paying a substantial sum for it, they’re choosing to eliminate it from use.

Personally, I think that a contract’s a contract and the AMA has to abide by it.  If however there’s a term limit on the contract or a clause that says that the AMA can renegotiate it however at some time period, then they’re entitled to do that whether Milt likes it or not. 

And this is where it gets ugly because Milt holds the Magic Castle trademark & largely commands public opinion.  The Board of Directors holds the responsibility of making the Magic Castle a viable business as a commitment to it’s membership.  And this time, it would appear that the board is made up of business men – not “family”.

IN SUMMARY:

This will get resolved, whether anyone likes it or not.  The mediation will make it clear what renegotiation rights the Board has and what leverage Milt has in the AMA’s commitment to him.

I’ve noticed however that the Board has clearly brought an element of accountability to the financials of the AMA.  They’re running it like a serious business (which the Magic Castle is) instead of a club (which the AMA is)  And if the that means getting ugly on topics like this – well, welcome to the real world everyone. 

In business, using everything you’ve got to drive the best deal for the people you represent, is standard operating procedure.  It just is.  If folks don’t like “putting on the big boy pants” and having the Board engage in real business tactics on their behalf, and think that a profitable club is not worth the angst or conflict, then perhaps they shouldn’t have elected this Board of Directors.

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let’s put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:

• U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
• Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000
  (about 1% of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let’s remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.

• Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
• Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
• Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Amount cut from the budget: $385

This came from one of those meme sites.  I hate clickthrough web sites that make you page through every list item so I absorbed this whole list into a single page.

If you’ve ever read “Desperate Networks” or “The War for Late Night”, both by Bill Carter, you’ll want to take a look at this article by New York Magazine.

It’s a fascinating look at what’s happened at NBC News and goes into the tumult that has occurred over the past year involving Brian Williams, Ann Curry, Matt Lauer, and other notables.

Basically, it’s a cautionary tale about what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum.  This is really fascinating stuff.

• NYMAG: (Actually) True War Stories at NBC News
  The Trouble Didn’t Start with Brian Williams
  http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/nbc-news-brian-williams-deborah-turness.html

Do you have a big collection of old standard definition DVDs sitting in boxes collecting dust?

I do.  In fact, I’ve given away more than 250 DVDs just because they took up too much storage space.

Then one day, I discovered VUDU.com and everything changed.  This revolutionary service is a complete “game changer”:  I hate the term “game changer”, but in this case the shoe fits.

WHAT IS VUDU?
It’s an online movie/TV streaming service.  Just like iTunes or Xbox Video or Amazon Video, VUDU sells & streams video content to it’s users.

But it’s different… as in, BETTER.  One of the major differences is it’s “In-Home Disc to Digital” service.

WHAT IS VUDU’S “In-Home Disc to Digital” SERVICE?
The “In-Home Disc to Digital” service (D2D for short) allows you to get access to movies streams on the service by proving your ownership of the physical DVD.

You put the physical DVD movie into your computer’s DVD drive & the D2D service verifies that the disc is an original copy.  For $2, you can get rights to stream the same movie on-demand from VUDU.

UPGRADING TO HD QUALITY
But it’s better than just that.  Remember that your standard definition DVD will get you a SD quality stream of the movie.  For $5, you can get the rights to stream the HD stream.  And if you convert 10 DVDs or more in a single batch, the upgrade-to-HD fee is dropped to $2.50/disc.

And it’s even better than that.  Because if you upgrade to HD, you’ll also get free access to the HDX stream, which is 2x the resolution of a standard HD video stream.

NO PROPRIETARY “LOCK IN”
Never fear – you’ll never be locked in to VUDU.  When you obtain the rights to the online stream of a movie on VUDU, those rights go into an independent catalog called “Ultraviolet” (located at UVVU.COM) which is funded by a consortium of movie publishers including Paramount, Warner Bros, 21st Century Fox, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Dreamworks, Lionsgate, MGM, The Weinstein Company, Relativity… basically every major & most minor Motion Picture Studios… except Walt Disney Company. (More on that later)

If you decide to try a different streaming service, you have your choice of any number of other services that support Ultraviolet, including CinemaNow, Flixster, blinkbox, Cineplex Entertainment, & JB Hi-fi.  This means your entire Ultraviolet movie catalog that you amassed on VUDU is also available on, say Flixster.

That’s right.  You can switch services anytime you like.  Or use multiple services at the same time.  This is hugely important because unlike Apple’s iTunes, if you don’t like one service’s web site or support, you can just up and LEAVE without fear of losing your content.

BTW: ULTRAVIOLET SERVICES DO IN FACT DIFFER
Don’t think that there aren’t differences between services that support UV.  Just because they all deposit your rights into a central database doesn’t mean they don’t differentiate themselves. 

For example: (And this is just my own experience & opinion)

• VUDU.com – Flawless user experience.  Everything works smoothly from sign up to playback.  It easily has the most device support as well with VUDU ‘playback software’ for Xbox 360/One, Playstation 3/4, iOS/Android.  But supported in the United States ONLY.
• FLIXSTER.COM – Marginal user experience.  Things tend to freeze or not work on the web site some times.  It has near parity device support with VUDU but also supports some devices like Amazon Fire TV and Windows Phone that VUDU doesn’t.  Supported Internationally in most countries.

Again, you can use both services with your UV catalog of movie rights.  VUDU for XBox One streaming, Flixster for Windows Phone streaming.  VUDU for use in the United States.  Flixster for outside the US.  etc.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Assuming that you’ve signed up for an account on both VUDU (VUDU.com) as well as Ultraviolet (UVVU.com) and linked the together, which is part of the VUDU registration process:

1. Download the VUDU To Go application.
2. Click the “Disc to Digital” option tab in the application.
3. Insert a disc.
4. Pick your quality (SD or HD).
5. Repeat step 3 for another disc.
6. Complete the checkout process.

WHY VUDU & ULTRAVIOLET?
There’s a lot of reasons why VUDU & Ultraviolet make a lot more sense than other services like Apple iTunes, Amazon Video, or even Xbox Video.

• Players are freely available on Windows, MacOS, iPad, Android, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3  & 4
• Owned movies are downloadable for offline playback at either SD, HD, or HDX (2x HD) resolution
• The stream auto-throttles to accommodate for varying network conditions & bandwidth, giving you SD over slower 750kbps links and HDX for 4.5mbps+ connections.
• Licenses are stored in an independent Ultraviolet database – therefore there is no lock in to VUDU or any specific provider.  Users can move to Flixster, CinemaNow, or any other service that connects to the Ultraviolet database at http://uvvu.com.
• Rights/access to Ultraviolet content is forever; i.e. “in perpetuity”.  This is distinctly different from iTunes, Xbox Video, Amazon, etc. where the user usually has a limited “15 year license” to the content.
• VUDU connects to DisneyMoviesAnywhere as well as Ultraviolet to provide a SINGLE visual catalog of your VUDU purchased content, your Ultraviolet movie catalog, and your Disney Movies Anywhere catalog – all from one page.

There is virtually no downside to using VUDU & Ultraviolet.  You can leave VUDU anytime you want and your Ultraviolet catalog will follow you to any other service that connects to UVVU.  You can access the content via live streams from any major device/platform.  You can download the content for offline playback at either SD or HD. 

To start converting your dusty DVD collection to on-demand digital streaming, go to:

• VUDU In-home Disc-to-Digital
  http://www.vudu.com/in_home_disc_to_digital.html