Infrequent Blog update.

Time for a  infrequent blog update.

I just watched the second episode of  Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (Haganai (はがない)) on FUNimation. It's only streamed in 430p unfortunately and my stream stalled half way through the second episode. I had reload the page and restart the stream to get it going it again. I don't have these problems with The Anime Network and Crunchyroll very often and it's my first occurrence with FUNimation so I hope it's a one time thing. So far the show seems OK. It's a "school" show and I usually like those.

Right now I am mostly viewing shows on Crunchyroll and The Anime Network. Everything from the current season I am following is on Crunchyroll.

I am still trying to get in three episodes of  Anime in a day minimum. and seem to be averaging about that. No regular TV is watched so it's not very hard to do. The rest of my time is spent on the Internet and playing with Amateur Radio though all I am doing is WSPR currently.

I started a yoga class two months ago. I like it. It meets twice a week but I am the only male in the class right now. The classes are small. I can tell I am more flexible already.

SAMBA is no solution. It doesn't 'just work' like NFS for me.

I have been trying to set SAMBA up to serve files read only to a Windows 7 machine from my main Linux desktop. It's been a complete failure. I have NFS working and it shares files to the other Linux machines and it's simple as pie. SAMBA is not simple. It's not easy, it's not working with the tools and knowledge I have. The 'Internet' has been no help. The mailing list I am subscribed to has been silent to my query. I have had a little good luck with one of the moderators on the forum I am subscribed to but that help hasn't led to a system that 'just works' or even kinda works. It's still broken and not doing what I want.

The simple requirement is for a Linux machine to serve some media files read only to a Windows 7 machine. The Windows 7 machine sees the directories on the Linux machine. However it keeps prompting me for a user name and password. A user name and password I have never created. It's never prompeted me to make them and it's not supposed to need either. The SWAT interface and YAST don't offer to mange this in a useful way to me. The 'Internet' offers all the information I don't need and none that simply lays out how to make this work quickly and painlessly like NFS is managed through YAST.

So watching video files served from Linux to my iPad via Air Play on my a Windows 7 computer can't be done. I'ts pissed me off enough to write about it. Broken crap is broken.

FUNimation streaming fail.

I decided to give FUNimations  paid streaming service a try wanting to support the US Anime industry. What I encountered led me to canceled my elite membership almost as soon as I signed up for it.

First off the site is uselessly slow. It seems they insist you allow many third party cookies to be installed on your system and if you don't they throttle the hell out of your connection. Some pages taking minutes to load. There is not any reason a site needs to install third party cookies on your system. None. I don't allow them. I subscribe to Crunchyroll and they do not practice installing third party cookies and my page rendering on their site is blazing fast. Secondly is FUNimation's idea of simulcasting. There is one show in particular I was interested in and they made a big production about their buying the rights to simulcast it. However their idea of simulcasting is 3 weeks and several days after the show actually airs in Japan. That isn't simulcasting. Lastly they displayed advertisements from other companies one being a pop-up/pop-under they got past Google Chrome's block on those on their site even though I was a paying member and was logged in. That kind of sneaky underhandedness.is what you'd expect from some nasty porn site you wandered into. It's really low life. ANN doesn't do that, Other than an advertisement on their main page Crunchyroll doesn't seem to do that. I don't find it acceptable personally.

If you don't mind your system infested in  third party cookies doing who knows what I guess it might be a good deal but it's not worth the dollar more a month they charge over what Crunchyroll gets. The lack of same day streaming is also not useful to me. My recommendation is you give them a pass. I'll continue to by their DVD's and BlueRays but they leave too much to be desired in a streaming service in respect to my privacy. Chruncyroll rules and FUNimation blows.