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So, yesterday, July 15th, was the release date for Act I of three parts of Joss Whedon's new internet show, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Claimed to be prompted during the writer's strike as an innovative next step in the evolution of TV entertainment, the online show, as well as its unique handling, is definitely a curiosity.Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog airs at http://www.drhorrible.com, publishing Act I yesterday, Act II on July 17th, and Act III on July 19th.At midnight on July 20th, the show is removed from free internet viewing and only allowed to be purchased, by iTunes or by DVD release. All their up-to-date information, scheduling, products, and site-status news is published at http://doctorhorrible.net. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has relied solely upon the popularity of Joss Whedon and word spread across the internet by fans for its advertising. For those who don't know, Joss Whedon is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, the Sci-Fi "space western" show Firefly, and Firefly's movie sequel Serenity. Despite this odd method of non-advertising, the show reached a launch-date popularity far beyond any expected, resulting in an immediate crash of the site. The show was quickly moved to a new server, although many users were receiving a "site not found" error throughout the day while waiting for their computers to reset to the new server's IP address. http://doctorhorrible.net published an update about the move, and at some point during the time at which I checked their site yesterday afternoon and again about 4 hours later, they had edited this post to remove a final paragraph addressing how one could force their computer to go to the new IP address right away by changing their computer's HOSTS file. They had mentioned that no one should try it unless they were sure of what they were doing. Well, I wasn't sure of what I was doing, but I'm pretty good with computers and was willing to fiddle with a HOSTS file in something as simple as notepad. So, I went ahead on both my computers (XP and Vista) and added the necessary entry to my HOSTS files: "207.57.78.179 www.drhorrible.com". Hurray, Dr. Horrible video for me!
* EDIT: * Well, the completion of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog left a range of emotions. After progressing past the initial sadness to recognize the necessary tragedy in the character's development to become what he was to become, I have determined that Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is just awesome. Yay! Although there are songs that I would qualify as disappointingly poor quality, or at least high school musical embarrassing, there are more that are really damn good (such as the opposing world view duet with Dr. Horrible and Penny), and overall I love Dr. Horrible. >^_^< Yay!
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