Since most of the TV shows are on what appears to be a three-month vacation, now might be a good time to seek Internet alternatives. I got the idea from a story last week in the New York Times about how one of its reporters has gone completely cold-turkey on their cable TV consumption.

It got me thinking about two guys that I know in their 20s that have taken completely different approaches to their digital entertainment consumption. Their approaches illustrate what we have to do to get our TV these days.

J. is single and a DirecTV subscriber, at $95 a month. C. is engaged but doesn’t pay for his TV programming. Like the NYT reporter, he uses his computer to send video to his TV from various Internet sources, using a HDMI to DVI cable. Both are relatively computer savvy guys. Both bought their TVs earlier this spring – this is C.’s first TV since his college days, and did so because he wanted to make it easier for him and his girl friend to watch shows both separately and together. J. has a second TV in his bedroom, and a bigger plasma display in his living room. Both guys have 10 MB cable connections for their Internet service.

C. watches a combination of shows from various Web video sites, such as Hulu and Boxee and some on air TV too. He works in the financial industry, where he has Bloomberg TV streaming to his desktop PC as part of his job. J. works in sales and has some downtime during the work day, where he also watches TV on his PC, but only those Web stations that aren’t blocked by his employer. SpikeTV is his favorite. C. likes the Netflix streaming option, J. hates it – “if I wanted to watch ten-year old movies, I would just find them for free online.”

J. is a big computer gamer and has an Xbox and connects other gaming consoles when his friends bring them by. “The Xbox was difficult to setup to find my digital media,” he told me, much worse the Playstation 3, which easily found and played the majority of his video files that he has downloaded to his PC. It is ironic that a Microsoft gaming console connecting to a Microsoft Windows PC is more difficult to configure than a Sony console connecting to a Windows PC. C. runs on a Mac.

Curiously, the two guys also differ on how they watch movies. J. hasn’t been in a movie theater since 1996, and is proud about that record. Instead, he has downloaded hundreds of movies illegally from a file sharing service, and makes copies of the videos for all of his friends. C. goes to the theaters once every two months but says that it can get expensive, especially at big-city ticket prices.

C. has about 30 GB of music on his PC, most of it illegally downloaded. His last CD was purchased from a store about nine years ago. J. bought his last CD in 1996., and also has several gigabytes of stolen music on his computer. “There is no point in downloading a clip from a legal site,” he told me. “In the time it would take me to listen to the commercial and the first 15 or so seconds, I can find the entire MP3 song online and have it on my hard drive.”

So what can we learn from these two guys? First, going completely free-TV isn’t easy. Some shows aren’t readily available on the Internet. For example, HGTV has exactly 12 shows on Hulu at the moment, which is a very poor sample. Yes, you can find some old shows (C.’s current fave is the vintage Adam 12 series), but your mileage may vary. Yes, they are adding shows all the time, and in some cases you can find the shows on the networks’ own Web sites. I watched a few episodes of FlashFoward on ABC.com, but I had to watch short commercials and click on a button to continue playing the show when the commercials were done.

Second, the system isn’t spousal friendly, at least not for my generation. When I checked to see about my wife’s favorite local TV station, they didn’t have any stream that I could watch from their Web site. HGTV’s Web site is also miserable, making finding a show more of an Easter Egg hunt, and I mean that not in any good way. I know free-TV isn’t ready for my wife yet. C.’s fiancée is happy with their free-TV setup, but it has taken her a while to get used to the arrangement.

Third, while the TV producers and networks are trying mightily to avoid another Napsterization of video, they have yet to succeed. They have experimented with copy protection and that seems to be on the wane, and now concentrated on streaming. Some episodes are available for sale on iTunes.

One thing that is clear is that broadcast networks “must-see TV” is so over. Both guys don’t watch much in the way of sports or news programming. Both watch shows on their schedule, not the networks’.

Finally, the number of add-on devices and gotchas is still mind numbing if you want to deal with the Internet channel. For ABC’s shows, you need to download a player and not use Safari. Netflix has the best and widest streaming support but you’ll need a computer, a supported Blu-Ray DVD player, Xbox or PS3, or their Roku device. Some current shows don’t show up for days or weeks online. Others only have excerpted clips.

Speaking of Roku, I bought mine a month ago and unlike J., am happy with the Netflix choice of those older movies, especially the ones that have been upconverted to HD status. There is little interruption in the video streams, even with a Wifi connection to my network. And Roku continues to add other services, such as Pandora roll-your-own music channels, to make it easier to get content to my living room.

We certainly have come far with free TV — it wasn’t all that long ago that we were using videotapes and buying DVDs, both things that seem so quaint now. Streaming video gets better and better as our Internet pipes improve.

But we still have a long way to go before the Internet can replace the cable DVR. Certainly, Hulu is worth taking a look at and seeing if you can find your favorites and queue them up to watch on your computer. And as Netbooks and used Mac Minis are around $300, there isn’t much friction in having one of them connected to one of your TV outputs. The big remaining issue is having to deal with the various software pieces to try to play the videos.

I have been a long time donor to Kiva.org, a peer microfinance lending site that has been around for several years. When I first heard about it I thought it was an interesting idea and donated some money to fund a few different third-world start up businesses.

Kiva works by hooking up generous folks with microfinance lenders by promoting the individual beneficiaries on their Web site. You get the feeling that your donation is going straight into the pockets of these worthy folks. And you can watch your donation be repaid in painfully small increments as the business owner (usually women) succeeds.

The only trouble is this isn’t quite accurate. The charity does support the individuals pictured on their site, but the timeline for how the funds are actually distributed aren’t correct. The microfinance institutions fund most loans before they are posted on Kiva’s site, so in a sense you are participating in a scheme of sorts.

I got started down this path with a story in the New York Times by Stephanie Strom (sadly, no relation) about posts by David Roodman, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development. Roodman blew the whistle on Kiva about a month ago on his blog, and many others in this space have chimed in. You can view them here.

Since then, the folks at Kiva have done an excellent job at fixing some of the misperceptions about their processes and releasing even more information to understand what they are doing. I believe they are sincere in their efforts and have acted with honor and well-meaning to address Roodman’s complaints.

But I am still somewhat confused, and the more that I have dug deeper into microfinance charities, the less I really know.

Kiva, at your command, will take the money that is repaid and keep it in their ecosystem, allowing you to re-lend your initial stake in $25 increments to new projects. You can also donate the funds to the organization if you are tired of choosing worthy recipients. I have made 8 loans in the past several years, some of them repaid in full, some still owing money. While it is frustrating to know that the inspirational stories aren’t really where my money is going, on the whole I am happy with the outcomes and glad that my minimal funds can make a difference in a few people’s lives.

I am also impressed with the whole Kiva quantitative ecosystem as well. There is a link to KivaPedia, a list of all their lenders and links to their Web sites, and KivaData, an independent Web site by Jon Earles which analyzes Kiva lending data. Neither of these efforts would be possible without Kiva providing data and programming interfaces to access it.

But the more that I thought about what Kiva was doing, the more questions I began to ask:

How about a “Kiva Gold” membership that allowed those of us who have been with the organization through a few loan cycles to bypass all the poster stories and go right to a lender that is delivering quality non-defaulting loans at lower interest rates and running with a low overhead? Wouldn’t it be better if I could direct my funds towards this lender? My thought on this is that if I already have a relationship with a lender thru Kiva and they have repaid my loan (or loans), then why not support them directly? Well, you can’t. Most lenders aren’t set up to take donations, especially in US currency or from US credit cards. They also have no real way to track what you give and what you get back. That is why Kiva is critical.

Plus, there isn’t any easy way to find them using the Kiva search screens, or any of the data analysis sources, at least that I know of. There are other microlending sites such as Wokai.org that show you the interest rates of their lenders (they can do this because they have just two lenders at the moment) and show how it compares with local loan sharks for their potential customers. Some of the interest rates charged by Kiva’s approved lenders are close to 20% a year, which sounds high to those of us in the first world with 5% mortgages but is typical for this audience. Wokai.org only allows three periods to recycle your funds before they take it from you and put into working capital, which I am not sure I like either.

Another choice is Microplace.org, which gives you an actual investment return on your donation, but that isn’t important to me, plus their finances are hidden behind eBay (their owners) so not much in the transparency realm there either. And then there are the big microfinance guns such as Accionusa.org or GrameenFoundation.org — both of which have huge overheads and salaries as a percentage of their programs, which doesn’t thrill me either.

How about better metrics and data for the whole microfinance lending community? There are a few efforts here. For mainstream charities, Guidestar.org allows you to view their most recent IRS 990 reports, where you can exactly how much overhead they have and who gets paid what. There is also a site called MFITransparency, which is beginning to calculate lending and delinquency rates. And Mixmarket.org, which has so much data on lenders that even my operations research trained brain gets overwhelmed. One of the truisms of all this Web 2.0 mashup stuff is that the more data you make accessible, the more people want to analyze things.

I have come full circle on Kiva as a result of all this Internet research — meaning that I still like their model, their low overheads, and their high(er) transparency. If Kiva could add a way to search their lenders by interest rate or just bypass the individual stories, that would help.

And that includes the more than 170 apps that produce rude noises, which just goes to show you that developers can write all sorts of, ahem, interesting code.

The news this week that Ford is back in the black, and how they did so without becoming a ward of the US taxpayer, is impressive. Coincidentally, I took a look at two of the company’s latest cars to see what they are doing with installing technology there, and came away with mixed feelings. Yes, they are moving in the right direction, albeit clumsily. And while few people buy a car because of the installed computing features, they are becoming a bigger part of the usage equation as we spend more time commuting and working from our cars.

Ford has two very different computing programs underway, and sadly they are mutually exclusive by design. The latest effort is called Ford Work Solutions, and it is only available on its truck line. The system is based on having a touch screen Windows CE 6.5 inch display in the dash, running a wide variety of software programs including a suite of office apps (but not the real MS Office), LogMeIn, GPS, entertainment controls, and more. Yes, that LogMeIn. It comes with a wide variety of confusing options, including a Bluetooth keyboard, printer, and cellular broadband data modem for Internet connectivity. The ideal target buyer is a building contractor who needs to work from the job site, or a delivery service. You can create documents and print them out in the cab, do a remote control session back to your office to pick up some data, and surf the Web to answer customer queries. The touch screen is a bit clunky, because some of the controls are designed for fingers on the screen rather than on the keyboard, but by and large it seemed well thought out.

But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I was going back to the early days of WebTV, and using technology that was already obsolete before its time found its way into many current hotel rooms. Part of the challenge that car makers have is that by the time a computer is installed in the vehicle, it is out of date. Granted, this is a computer that you don’t have to worry too much about — Ford claims it will withstand brutal environmental conditions — but it still is a Windows CE based device that is closer to my Uverse TV settop box or my mobile phone than the PC that I am using to write this essay.

The in-dash PC comes with a few handy things, though. It has SD card and USB ports right there on the dash so you can import files or connect to external data sources. You can synch up your phone’s contacts and do voice command dialing. It has the GPS display and your audio system controls so you don’t have to hunt around for them. And there is an optional tool tracking software where you can stick RFID tags on your tools and instantly do a census before you leave a job site and make sure you got everything back in the truck before you leave. There is also a vehicle tracking and scheduling software called Crew Chief that one Chicago pizza delivery company is using to match demand with supply, as the trucks have their own baking ovens that can finish the pies and get them piping hot to their customers. That seems to offer the most promise, if you can figure out the options.

Ford has done a mediocre job of getting the word out about Work Solutions. They haven’t any press loaners to try anywhere in the country — I had to find one locally that was being used by one of their corporate dealer trainers.The company Web site has some information, but it doesn’t satisfy anyone who has moderate tech knowledge, and indeed asks more questions than it answers. They could do better and appeal to more IT-minded potential buyers, rather than the big and brawny Joe SixPack contractors. (Actually, the contractor that my interior designer wife currently uses has a pretty sophisticated Web site that tracks his job progress and tasks, but that is story for another essay.) Each truck has to be specially ordered with the computer factory installed, so you can’t just walk in off the lot and drive one home. They aren’t all that expensive as computer options go — the monthly fee for the cellular modem is probably the biggest obstacle just because people don’t normally think their car needs an additional monthly payment for communications. And there are a confusing array of options and add-ons, which is why the dealers need training here. The biggest issue  is that they aren’t available in their sedans. I shouldn’t have to buy a pickup truck, or even their sexy Transit Connects (which you see all over Europe and are just being imported here) to get a measly WinCE PC.

Why not just spend your money on a laptop with a cellular modem and call it a day? You can get a “real” PC with a bigger screen and put whatever apps on it you desire, and still have the connectivity back to your office or Internet access if you need it. The only trouble is that you either have to leave your laptop at risk inside your car or have to tote it around with you. If you are a contractor or a delivery person or someone else constantly on the go, it might make sense to go with the in-dash PC.

What about the other Ford tech package? This is the Sync software that they developed with Microsoft. It is designed for a character-mode display and isn’t a real computer in the sense of even a CE-based device. It can sync up with your cell phone, offer turn by turn navigation instructions (but not a visual display of the landscape), and automatically mute the radio when an incoming call is detected for your cell phone. This is available on most of the newer model cars, and Ford will throw in the navigation package free if you buy other options for Sync. Or so I was led to believe. Again, figuring out all these options is maddening, and why so many of us run screaming from our local car dealers.

Now, you should know that I have rather quirky car buying habits: I have only owned cars for about 25 years, roughtly half my life, and only bought one Big Three American car over that period (my current car was made in Canada and is actually offered by Ford, although I bought the Toyota version). I don’t drive it enough to consider the Work Solutions package even if it were available in a sedan.

While I give Ford credit for trying to add some interesting technology to their vehicles, they have a long way to go before many people will choose to use it. Yet it is noteworthy in that they are attempting to go after a part of the market that the other car makers have ignored: road warriors that want to get work done in their cars, and not just deliver fancy infotainment systems. Now if they could appeal to the nerds they might have a winner.

My stepson told me about this morning’s program that features Regis learning about the Internet. A total scream from the clueless world. Yes, you can pack that little PC with all sorts of information from around the world. It is amazing.

My long-time former PC Magazine colleague Al Poor has begun his own series of video reviews of consumer products on his YouTube channel here. You can find a new Epson photo printer, the Buffalo Terrastation, and other products. Like my WebInformant.tv series, they are sponsored by the vendor and are short, fact-packed five minute pieces.

Chess may be one of the ultimate strategy games, but marketeers can learn a lot from the game, and they don’t even have to know the moves of the pieces.

A few weeks ago we had the Women’s US Chess Championship matches here. They took place a few blocks away from my office at the St. Louis Chess Club, a dandy new spot in the ‘hood that also was the scene of the US Open earlier this year. As part of the festivities welcoming all the chess nerds was an event that I attended at my favorite local art museum, the Kemper on the Washington University campus, where the women chess champs were going to play roulette chess. It was a great evening, a combination of smart women and interesting ideas. What more could this geek want?

At the museum, I got to meet the current, three-time women’s champion, Anna Zatonskih and the woman who invented roulette chess, Jen Shahade. Both are babes, to say the least. This year’s tournament netted Zatonskih a cool $15 grand, the largest purse of a women’s tournament ever. Granted, this isn’t big money for other kinds of contests, but in the world of chess, it is a lot.

I am not a very good chess player, although I learned when I was much younger only to get routinely trounced by my younger brother, who continues to play and even doesn’t need a chess board to keep track of his moves.

While it certainly was fun to meet the women champions, I was more interested in seeing how Shahade has done such a great job branding herself online. Here are just a few links to get your juices flowing:

First off, she wrote a book entitled, Chess Bitch, about the current crop of women chess players. Apart from the brilliant title, it is a great idea for a book. In chess, many players refer to the all-powerful Queen with that moniker, something that I wasn’t aware of. (For those of you that don’t play, while the object of the game is to capture your opponent’s King, the Queen has the most allowed moves on the board.)

Second, she has all these wonderful ideas about how to invigorate chess by making it more like a sport or like poker, ideas that I have to say I find interesting (and play off my earlier column about making science a spectator sport here).

She even wrote a column for the New York Times a few years ago about it (now that is great branding just right there).

Third, she understands that sex sells, and apart from being a very attractive woman, she does things like play chess while spinning a hula hoop and against a naked (sadly) male opponent. These are two separate activities, but all in the interest of getting more attention to the game. She claims the naked chess is better for her to hone her concentration, as well as to ensure the opponent isn’t hiding any assistive electronic devices. Yeah, right. In any event, you can check out her video on her Web site here:

http://www.jennifershahade.com/

Finally, she does a lot of different events, both demonstrating unusual ways to play chess as well as getting inner-city girls excited about the game. Thus, she combines her passion with some solid volunteerism, which as you should know is a great way to spread the word on your brand.

So those of you that are looking for some new ideas, check out some of these links. The combination of video, catchy titles, and stimulating ideas is enough to give you your own ideas on how to brand and market yourself online. Even if you don’t play chess.

There has been a lot of press in the past week or so about a new iPhone App from Pepsi and energy drink Amp, called the Pepsi Amp Up Before Your Score. I tried it out, in the interests of reporting, and can’t see what the fuss is all about. The use case is a single guy on the prowl at a bar, and you pick one of several icons of the woman that you are trying to hit on, to gain insightful conversational banter and nearby destinations. Yes, it is sexist. Yes, it is smarmy. Yes, it doesn’t work well on giving you real-time destination results — searching for nearby ice cream stores in my ‘hood came up with a Ben and Jerry’s franchise that hasn’t been there for years. Is it better than the 9,000 fart apps on the iPhone? Marginally.

Save yourself the trouble of downloading and wasting time with the app. Instead, try these responses to lousy pickup lines from the Car Talk guys here.