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From the Doing hard things post on the Hulu Blog.

Damn. Just damn.

I really liked watching The Daily Show & The Colbert Report on my TV. While those two shows are good, they are the only shows on Comedy Central which interest me. Then you factor in that cable companies do not allow subscribers to pick channels à la carte, so I’d have to double my cable bill just for those shows and maybe 2 other channels (each having no more than 3 shows of interest), I guess I’m done watching this stuff on TV¹.

Plus I only had a single episode left to watch in Journeyman, which it turns out was really good. Though I stick by my initial assesstment of the first episode being a bit slow. Now I wish I’d given that a second chance before I rewatched all of John Doe, which had an interesting premise but really sucked.

¹ At least for now. There is some talk on the XBMC Forums about continuing to work on the XBMC-Hulu plugin to get around Hulu’s changes

Good While It Lasted © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

The side effect of Nautilus working so poorly was I had time to do a little googling.  I’ve heard good things about the Hulu website for watching TV shows I’ve missed.  Thing i I hate sitting at my computer for long periods of time when I’ve got a comfy couch¹ and a much larger TV than computer monitor. So as I said, I started googling and looking for a XBMC/Hulu plugin and I did find one in the XBMC Forums.

Unfortunately the 0.2 release mentioned in the first post of that thread didn’t work so well for me and there were 38 pages in the thread.  I did some more searching and found an article over at LifeHacker.  The article seems to be talking about the same plugin but links to a newer release of it.  I kept looking to see if there were anything else out there and found what appears to be the main site for the plugin, xbmc-hulu.  That last site doesn’t provide a simple download, but you can use subversion to checkout the lastest copy of their plugin.

And that latest version is pure gold, which is to say I’ve not run into a single problem watching any videos via the plugin.  Now I can sit back on the couch and watch Colbert Report, The Daily Show and all sorts of other good stuff that I don’t get with my cable TV package.  If my sinuses clear up and this cold goes away, I could be really happy.

UPDATE: I appear to be getting quite a bit of traffic (for me anyway) on this post, so thanks for stopping by! Also I’ve finally read through the entire 40 pages (at the time of this writing) in the XBMC Forums thread about this plugin.  From reading that thread, there appears to be a lot of confusion on where/how to get the plugin to work.  So for the record, I’m running xbmc-hulu 1.0 (SVN copied checked out on 26 January 2009) on top of T3CH’s 2009-01-25 build of XBMC (rev17349) on an original XBox (softmodded using Mech Assault via ProductWiki’s instructions).

UPDATE: Per the XBMC-Hulu plugin release thread, there is no currently working version of the plugin.

¹ Someday I will have a comfy chair!

XBMC + Hulu = GOLD! © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Monday

• Chuck: The producers/advertisers of this show are obviously targeting something very close to my demographic with this show. The first episode was nothing special, butit did amuse me. I suppose if this show is playing while I want to watch TV, I’ll watch it but it is nothing I would go out of my way to see.
• Heroes: What a disappointment. I really enjoyed last season, but bringing back both of the Petrelli brothers in the season premier when last season’s finale showed them getting nuked cheapened the show immensely. I had been looking forward to this, but now I doubt I’ll be watching it.
• Journeyman: Meh, this looks like a weak remake of Quantum Leap only significantly less interesting. Maybe I was just in the wrong mood, but I gave up watching it 10 minutes in. It was just putting me to sleep.

Tuesday

• NCIS: Yup, I’ll be watching this one all season long again. The season premier didn’t pull off any astounding changes to the show but did show off the writers’ ability to keep giving us what we want. Explosions, murder, mystery and action.
• The Unit: First off whoever came up with the new intro clip to this show should be fired. It’s utterly horrible. That being said, like NCIS this show delivered. While the show is going a lot darker than before and looks like it will be spending this season mostly inside US borders; it looks good and was a solid hour of entertainment this event.

Wednesday

• Bionic Woman: Surprisingly, I was impressed. I expected it to be considerably cheesier and crappier than it turned out to be. I didn’t much care for the main character but it was nice to see some actors from other shows I’ve liked.
• Life: Heh, this was quite a bit of fun to watch this evening. Though the main character was excessively flakey for my taste and I’m not sure I’ll keep watching it given that it’s got the same timeslot as CSI: NY.

Thursday

• Ugly Betty: This show is really more one I watch because my wife likes it and I fiddled around on my computer while it was on. What I caught of it was funny, but not enough to draw me back to the couch to watch it.
• CSI: I had been looking forward to seeing this right up until it was on TV. I don’t know if I was just in a bad mood, but I just didn’t care if the CSI member was going to live through the episode or not. Perhaps I’m getting a bit burned out on all these CSI shows.

Friday

• Moonlight: Cheesy, vampire, detective show. A bit funny, a bit dark and worth watching if you happen to be home on a Friday night.

So there’s my quick thoughts on the premieres I’ve seen so far. Did I miss anything good?

Fall 2007 TV Season Premieres © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Oh and if Molly telling us about a man scarier than the Boogeyman (aka Sylar) was your idea of foreshadowing, then your idea of a pitching machine must be a M1 Abrams battle tank.  I know you want to build up some suspense to get people to come back for the next season, but this was entirely too heavy handed.

On the other hand, dropping Hiro into the past and that scene with Peter talking with his old (and let’s not forget dead patient) were good, interesting hooks.  Just having those bits and not the scary man would have been enough to draw people back.  I just don’t know if those 2 scenes were enough to draw me back next season after the craptacular ending you gave us for this season.

I just don’t know.

Heroes Season Finale © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

@Stephen Y.: As you already found out, the correct answer to last week’s question was the Gutenberg Bible. I have to say I felt really proud of myself with that week’s question as it was the first time since watching the show where I was comfortable enough in my knowledge of the subject that I did not have to research the question before submitting the answer².

@Jorge: Mind you it’s been many weeks since I did challenge #3, but as I recall it’s a matter of which way the wind is blowing (watch the clouds to determine this) and then of timing. For me, I had to wait for the ship to touch the raised chain and start it’s turn. While it was turning, I aimed for the right-hand side of the screen and fired. That allowed me to hit the ship by basically having them sail right into my canonball.

@Everybody else: Keep in mind that I only started watching TH/playing the online game with week 6. My guesses for the final location of the treasure were:

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Library of Congress
4. Lincoln Memorial

As you were warned, my guess were all lame & inaccurate. I guess it is just as well that I didn’t get picked as one of the final 10 contests as the odds would have been against me winning. *shrug* Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.

¹ According to this post on the NBC message boards for Treasure Hunters, the correct final answer was Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
² It didn’t hurt my ego that I also answered that question before my wife did either (also a first since I started watching the show).

NBC’s Treasure Hunters: Finale © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Krystal wrote:

I am having a hard time with the latest Treasure Hunters Challenge…When I pick up the Gold Dabloon (sp?), all I get is either an extra pair of goggles or Laird’s wallet. I took out the business card from the wallet and typed in “Emergency Support” in the Visa “department” line, it says I do not need emergency support at this time. Can you help me??…I’ve been putting Library of Congress also and I haven’t gotten anything like that either :(

As I recall from last night, there were 3 items on the river bed: a wallet, a boot and the doubloon. First, empty your web browser’s cache and then restart your browser. In the IRC channel I had been hanging around on last night, that seemed to clear up most of the really weird stuff. If that doesn’t work make sure you are following my instructions step-by-step. If you get stuff out of order, things may not work right. If you’re still having problems and want more immediate feedback, try going to NBCTreasureHunters.com and following their instructions for connecting to the IRC server & chatroom they are using. It’s a really good resource for getting help with the puzzles. If all that fails, leave a comment on this post with a detailed workflow of what you’ve tried and where you are getting stuck.

sandra r. wrote:

i need help week 8 is there any help for me

on disability need money so bad please help me

Hmm, well there’s the help I spelled out in my solution to challenge #8. There’s the NBCTreasureHunters.com website (and their instructions for getting to an IRC server where you can chat live with other hunters. However, you should keep in mind even if you solve all the puzzles correctly; the official rules state “the Administrator will select ten (10) Winners from all eligible entries in a random drawing.” This means there’s no guarantee you’ll ever get any money from playing along with the NBC Treasure Hunters online game.
Beyond that maybe one of these websites can assist you:

• DisabilityInfo.gov
• Benefits For People With Disabilities
• Disability Resources Monthly Guide to Disability Resources on the Internet

neil wrote:

what is the combination for the final clue? I dont have a printer to do the folding thing.please help! thanks

Check out the footnotes at the bottom of my solution to challenge #8.

rob wrote:

any luck with the 8th challenge, i got the coin and things but when i get back to the boat the seagull knocks the backpack into the water. was not sure if it is something i am doing/or not doing.

Check out my solution to challenge #8 starting with step #14.

Tristine wrote:

Hi, can you please help me with the order for the final puzzle? I have the cutout of the star and have entered all the possible combinations that I see (“feather symbol”, sun, door with “c”, hands, book, arrow, other door) and I cannot get it to work. Please help! Thanks!

Check out the footnotes at the bottom of my solution to challenge #8. To be perfectly honest, I had my wife do the cutout thing for me, couldn’t figure it out and relied upon the kind people chatting about the puzzle in the #steeple_media IRC channel on AccessIRC. You might also want to read one of the comments on my post covering my solution to challenge #8.

ben wrote:

how do you arrange the puzzle pieces? it looks right but the fireplace is not opening.

Make sure your pieces on the gameboard are arranged in exactly the same method as shown in the image on my solution to challenge #8 post. If you’re still having problems, try clearing your web browser’s cache, restarting your webrowser and trying again.

NBC’s Treasure Hunters: Additional Questions © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

1. Click on the ladder to head up into the bunk area.
2. Click on the lockers.
3. Click on the middle locker to open it.
4. Take both the net and the goggles.
5. Back out of the bunk area.
6. Click on the door leading to the bridge.
7. Click on the right-hand control panel.
8. Click on the right lever. This should shut off the display and light up the red buttons.
9. Click the 2nd button from the top to sound the ship’s fog horn.
10. Back out of the bridge.
11. Now that the horn has scared off the seagull, click on the toolbox and take the flashlight.
12. Click the water to the side of the ship to go diving. NOTE: You will have to leave your backpack behind, but get to take the net, goggles and flashlight with you.
13. You control the diver with your mouse and there are 3 items on the river bed. I found it easiest to drag swim until directly over the item and then head straight down to get them.
14. Once you have all 3 items, head back to the ship. When you reach the ship, you’ll be automatically placed back on deck. The seagull will also return knocking your backpack into the water.
15. Dive back into the water to retrieve your backpack.
16. Click on the door to go back to the bridge.
17. Click on the right-hand control panel.
18. Click on the levers until the panel on your left lights up.
19. Enter “emergency support” for the department.
20. Click purchase on to get the replacement backpack.²
21. Click submit to send the game the details automatically provided (there does not appear to be anyway to change the settings given).
22. Click submit again to send your Verified by Visa password²
23. Click ok to the message that the replacement will arrive in 0–4 business days.
24. Back out of the bridge to the deck.
25. A helicopter will swoop in and lower a crate to you. Click on the crate.
26. Then the helicopter will take up a hovering position to the left of the ship. Click on the helicopter.
27. Enter “Mexico City“³ and hit submit.
28. In Mexico City, click near the bottom of the game screen. This will display a 15 piece scramble puzzle depicting some Aztec symbols. Solve the puzzle to get your next puzzle piece.
    Letters stand in place of the puzzle pieces while * is the blank square.

    A B C D
    E F G H
    I J K L
    M N O *

    A B C D
    E F G H
    I J K L
    M N * O

    A B C D
    E F G H
    I J K L
    M * N O

    A B C D
    E F G H
    I J K L
    * M N O

    A B C D
    E F G H
    * J K L
    I M N O

    A B C D
    * F G H
    E J K L
    I M N O

    * B C D
    A F G H
    E J K L
    I M N O

    B * C D
    A F G H
    E J K L
    I M N O

    B C * D
    A F G H
    E J K L
    I M N O

    B C D *
    A F G H
    E J K L
    I M N O

    B C D H
    A F G *
    E J K L
    I M N O

    B C D H
    A F G L
    E J K *
    I M N O

    B C D H
    A F G L
    E J K O
    I M N *

29. Then you get a message congratulating you on solving the puzzle and the last of your puzzle pieces floats up from the blank square.

When you get back to the gameboard, you’ll have a message saying “You have one more puzzle to solve before you receive your final clue.” Ignore that for the moment and click on the selection of puzzle pieces. If you don’t know already, when these pieces are properly aligned they form the national mall in Washington, D.C.⁴ Align the pieces so they look like this

Once you align the puzzle pieces correctly, you’ll be automatically taken back to the gameboard and the back of the fireplace will rise up to reveal a hidden passage. Click the fireplace to continue. Listen to a short blurb from the show’s host about Betsy Ross preferring to use a 5 pointed star because it can be done in a single cut. Click the book in the center of the room and then click to either get the PDF or JPEG version of the image. Print the image⁵, then fold & cut the paper according to the directions on your print out. Examine the print out noting where the symbols appear in relation to the star. Then click the box in the middle of the room and arrange the symbols in the same order as what you see on your print out⁶. Once you’ve lined the symbols up correctly, the box opens and reveals the final clue. After collecting the last clue, you will be taken back to the gameboard where you can make your final guess as to the location of the treasure⁸. Happy hunting!

¹ A good friend’s wife invited me to a surprise party for him to celebrate his new job and his 50th birthday.
² Ok, I’d say this section definitely wasn’t necessary but gave Visa some “decent” advertising. Except that the game requires you to do this to get to the helicopter to get out of here.
³ Capital of the Spanish empire in the Americas when the ships were sunk.
⁴ Yes, I know that one piece does look rather like Florida.
⁵ Yup, you need a printer. Which sucks, but what are you going to do quit now? I think not!
⁶ If you don’t have a printer, then the order of the symbols should be: Sun Door Hands Apron⁷ Shovel Trowel^9
7 I saw a lot of people online calling this an envelope, however it is actually a Masonic apron.
⁸ Sorry, but I’m not going to list my guess here. I want to buy a house and even after taxes $200,000 would help me buy a seriously nice house in my area. :D
⁹As Runyon correctly points out this isn’t a shovel but actually a trowel. Which does make a lot more sense given all of the Masonic symbols and imagery they’ve been using through out the channels.

NBC’s Treasure Hunters: Challenge #8 © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

1. Click in the lower right of the screen to enter the graveyard.
2. In the graveyard, click the tombstone closest, on the right-hand side, to the Rockefeller crypt.
3. When Washington Irving’s tombstone pulls up, click towards the base of the stone on the right, to get the key.
4. Go back to the church.
5. Use the key to open the door.
6. Go into the church.
7. On your right, just below the window, there is a box of matches. Click and take them.
8. Click on the candelabra. Next you have to get all the candles lit, but clicking on one candle will light several of them and can extinguish others. I’m labeling the candles from left to right, starting at the top and working down as A — D/1 — 4. I.e. the candle in the upper left corner would be A1, while the one in the lower right would be D4. Click the candles in this order:
   1. D1
   2. A1
   3. C3
   4. B3
   5. C4
   6. B4

   If that’s not clear enough for you, try reading these instructions over at NBCTreasureHunters.com.

9. Exit the church.
10. Go back into the graveyard and enter Rockefeller’s crypt (the gate should now be open).
11. Inside the crypt.
12. Go right.
13. Jump across the small gap to the globe.
14. On the globe, move your mouse until the key shows: 37° N, 77° W.
15. Click on that location to get the 2nd Generworth Financial Insurance Policy
16. Then go left and down.
17. Then go left and down again.
18. Then right and right again.
19. Then up, slightly to the right and up again.
20. Then right, down, slightly left and down again.
21. Click on the level.
22. Click on the chain to put it in your backpack.
23. Then up, up, left, up, slightly left, up, right, up.
24. Run left, left and jump at the last second. This is the only way to get across the long jump.
25. Left, down, down, left and into the door.
26. Click and take the book.
27. Then return to the globe: up, left, up, right, down, right, right, down, right, down, left, down, left, left, up, right and up.
28. On the globe, move your mouse until the key shows: 42° N, 80° W.
29. Click on your backpack and take out the chain.
30. Click on the back of the pickup truck. Clicking near the top of the tailgate worked for me on my 4th (maybe 5th) time through after closing my browser and starting over from scratch.
31. Once the chain is attached, click the truck again and it will pull the trailer forward revealing a door.
32. Click on the door to open it.
33. Click in the doorway to go inside.
34. Click on the table to zoom in.
35. Click on the table drawer to get this week’s puzzle piece.

NOTE: Some people online have reported having trouble getting and/or using the chain. If this happens to you; it sounds like your only option is to completely exit your browser and try it all over again. I didn’t have any problems getting the chain, but I’m on my 4th maybe 5th time running through the challenge trying to use the chain.

Rumor: According to an IRC channel I was hanging out on; if you enter “the library of congress” (without the quotation marks) as your guess for the location to the final treasure, you will get an entry form to be one of the 10 people going on the final episode. Unfortunately when I tried that myself, all I got was…

*sigh* And $200,000 would buy such a nice house in my area of the country. ;)

NBC’s Treasure Hunters: Challenge #7 © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Anyway, I’ve been following the show for a couple of weeks and I’ve gotten help from the NBC.com forums on solving the weekly puzzles. Since I appear to be slightly ahead of the curve at the moment, below the cut are is my solution to this week’s puzzle. You should only read past the cut if you don’t mind spoiling the puzzle for yourself.

Treasure Hunters: Puzzle #6

1. Click on the globe.
2. Spin the globe until you can see the western seaboard of the continental United States.
3. Hover your mouse around the western seaboard until the dialog box shows 38&#176 North, 119&#176 West. Then click the globe.
4. You’ll arrive in Bodie, California. Click on the doorway to the building on your left.
5. In the saloon, click on the player piano.
6. Click on the fourth piano roll from the left on top of the piano. This will open a secret compartment behind the photo in the upper-right section of the screen.
7. Take the 9 bags of silver and exit the saloon.
8. Click on the doorway of the building to your right.
9. Click to the left and slightly behind the cash register.
10. Take the wagon wheel.
11. Click on the scale.
12. Divide the bags of silver into 3 groups of 3. We’ll call them A, B & C.
13. Weigh Group A vs. Group B.
    • If A < B, then A contains the diluted bag & C contains all silver.
    • If A > B, then B contains the diluted bag & C contains all silver.
    • IF A = B, then C contains the diluted bag.
14. Dump all the bags known to have silver to one side.
15. Divde the group with the diluted bag into 3 individual bags (D, E, F).
16. Weigh D vs. E, leaving F by itself on oneside of the playing area.
    • If D < E, then D is the diluted bag.
    • If D > E, then E is the diluted bag.
    • If D = E, then F is the diluted bag.
17. The cash register should now pop open. Click inside to receive a piece of paper reading:
    

    Names of the dead or missing should be posted on Lotta’s Fountain

18. Exit the general store.
19. Click in the alley between the two buildings.
20. Click on the wagon.
21. Click on your backpack to open it.
22. Click on the wagon wheel to take it out of your backpack.
23. Click on the wagon wheel again to attach it to the wagon.
24. Click on the wagon and type in “San Francisco” without the quotes when it asks you where to go.
25. Click on your backpack to open it.
26. Click on the bags of silver to take them out of your backpack.
27. Click on the bags of silver again to advance to the next stage of the puzzle (did you notice the “will work for treasure sign”?).
28. Click on the button labeled “It’ll cost you”.
29. Watch extremely carefully as the game rotates the cups around, try to keep track of the cup with a treasure bag under it.
30. Once the cups stop moving you must click on the one over the treasure bag. Unfortunately, this is a random process and I cannot tell you which cup it will be under. It took me several tries to get it right (using the restart challenge feature). Good luck!

¹ Sure, it’s random pick after you get the right answer (easily checked out via Google. But if I win, as unlikely as that is to happen, that’s a lot of bills which would instantly vanish.
² Why yes, I really would use big chunks of money like that to pay bills. I’ve got Scottish blood in my veins, what did you expect? *grin*

NBC’s Treasure Hunters © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

If so, you better have your towel with you today! As today, is Towel Day.

For those not familiar, Douglas Adams was one of the funniest writers of our time. He wrote a wonderful series of radio plays which were converted in a a series of books and a TV show and later into a really awful movie. This was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In this, Mr. Adams wrote:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical
value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

After Mr. Adams’s death some lunatics decided to create Towel Day as a tribute to his genius. I only heard about it this year (about a week ago to be more precise) and decided to join in on the fun. And the fact that I’m telecommuting to work today had absolutely nothing to do with that decision. *grin*

Are you a hoopy frood, like me? © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.