"there's no good content" == utter hogwash

, Will Kahn-Greene | share this (mastodon)
Note: This is an old post in a blog with a lot of posts over a long span of time. The world has changed, technologies have changed, and I've changed. It's likely this is out of date, the code doesn't work, the ideas haven't aged well, or the ideas were terrible to begin with. Let me know if you think this is something that needs updating.

One of the things I keep reading in comments of various Miro-related reviews is something along the lines of "there's no good content". I think that's utter bunk. There's a lot of good content listed in the Miro Guide. The channel starter packs that we added to the first page when you start up Miro 1.0 make this painfully clear. This doesn't even include all the content that's not even listed in the Miro Guide.

I don't have cable tv anymore because it doesn't make sense to waste my money on it.

I also don't watch a ton of shows with Miro. However, here's the list of shows I do watch (some of them while testing):

  • Ask a Ninja (Add to Miro) - Occasionally there's an annoying show, but mostly I think it's pretty funny. I saw the Recipe For Disaster episode just before a family reunion--couldn't have had better timing. I first discovered Ask a Ninja when one of the NPR programs I listen to periodically (I forget which one it was) had their movie critic off for the week and they played the audio from the Ask a Ninja episode reviewing Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. (Disclaimer: I have ninjas on my business card.)

  • Make Zing :: Blog MAKE Podcast (Add to Miro) - I love this channel. The projects are really interesting and it covers a very wide variety of topics. Dean, my brother and I met Bre at PodCamp Boston 2 and my brother secretly thinks that the t-shirt cannon project was influenced by his story of kids launching potatoes at a river from a cannon in their chimney (long story--very odd).

  • Galacticast (Add to Miro) - I met Casey at PodCamp Boston 2 and after hearing about Galacticast decided to look it up. It's a great show!

  • What you ought to know (Add to Miro) - The shows are almost all under 3 minutes long and they cover a variety of topics. It's thoroughly educational in tiny bite-sized chunks.

  • Wired Science | PBS (Add to Miro) - This is a great general science channel.

  • WebbAlert (Add to Miro) - Morgan Webb and her crew do a really good job of distilling "tech news" down to a 5 to 6 minute program Monday through Thursday. I find watching this saves me the trouble of flipping through the series of blogs I used to flip through.

  • Google Tech Talks (Add to Miro) - Some of the Google Tech Talks aren't wildly interesting to me, but I've learned a lot from the ones I have watched. This channel is based on a Google Video search and so you're going to want to set the Auto-download to OFF. Otherwise it's likely you'll pick up old videos you've already seen.

  • Onion News Network (Add to Miro) - I usually test with ONN because it's fantastic. The "Ninja parade slips through town unnoticed again" episode got a lot of play time on my systems--it makes me smile every time. (Disclaimer: I have ninjas on my business card.)

I think there's a lot of other great content out there both to watch and to participate in.

So to people who shrug Miro and Internet video off because "there's no good content" I say, "Buddy--this is 2007 and you're missing the boat".

What shows do you like and why? Toss your thoughts in the comments.

Updates:

11/16/2007: Fixed a grammar issue and somehow I managed to misspell Galacticast.

Want to comment? Send an email to willkg at bluesock dot org. Include the url for the blog entry in your comment so I have some context as to what you're talking about.