Looking over this list, we have multinationals like Wayne Enterprises, and lowly coffee shops like the Central Perk, but the one consistent question you should have in the back of your head is: Are they hiring? Now that the economy has gone to hell, hopefully these guys have some job openings

The Best Fictional Companies in TV & Film

Vandelay Industries
The venerable corporate behemoth run by mastermind George Constanza of Seinfeld fame. George was a latex salesman for Vandelay Industries, and Jerry actually ran an entire condom manufacturer out of his 900 square foot apartment in New York City.

Speaker City
In Old School, Vince Vaughn aka Bernard ‘Beanie’ Campbell, owned a number of Speaker City Franchises, and he ran a number of the commercials in the movie as well. It turns out, this supposedly fictional company, is actually a real Canadian electronics retailer.

Dharma Initiative
Jack, John, Kate, Sawyer and the LOST crew are constantly battling with the good/evil Dharma Initiative, which is responsible for any number of mysterious scientific experiments they conduct on this remote island paradise/bermuda’s triangle of an island.

Binford Tools
Host Tim Taylor, of Tool Time fame, promoting Binford everyday at work. Home Improvement the television show was one of the longest running comedies, and was the spawn of Pamela Anderson’s career, as she was the inaugural ‘Binford girl’.

Hudsucker Industries
Back when Paul Newman was still alive and Tim Robbins wasn’t a political radical, Hudsucker industries invented the hula hoop and revolutionized the civilized world. Hudsucker also led to Robbins inevitable demise, but it is one of the great mega-corporations of our fictional world.

Shelbyville Nuclear Power Plant
While not as famous as Springfield’s nuclear power plant, Shelbyville is the neighboring town everyone loves to hate. As Ned Flanders famously shouted at Shelbyville while driving away with their lemon tree, “Yes, eat all of our shorts”.

Acme Corporation
Who can forget the makers of dynamite and really really bouncy springs, and all numbers or seemingly single-use products like Acme. Their entire product line seemed to consist of weapons, that were completely ineffective, used to kill Roadrunners. Still, their design and labeling are design marvels even in today’s standards.

Central Perk
The best damn cup of coffee in New York City, otherwise known as the hangout for the Friends cast. Whether Gunther was constantly fawning over Rachel or one of Phoebe’s memorial performances at the Perk, it is our favorite coffee shop, aside from “The Coffee Shop” in Seinfeld of course.

Wayne Enterprises
Who else could have enough money to build extremely expensive, high performing tools for stopping crime aside from Bruce Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises? Forget that question and remember that Wayne Enterprises is a Worldwide corporation that is involved in Biotech, Steel, Shipping, Shipbuilding, Aerospace, Chemicals, Medical, Electronics, and Entertainment.

Did I miss your favorite fictional company? Let us know in the comments who you think should be on our “all time” list.

Today I was lucky enough to be given an account to Boxee, and now I want to share my wealth with my readers. Boxee is custom software for your Apple TV that lets you watch Hulu, Comedy Central, and Last.fm among others on your HD TV, via Apple TV.

Thanks to a handy guide put together by Gizmodo, you can configure your Apple TV with Boxee in a couple of steps.

So if you want an invite, leave a comment with your email address and I’ll send it your way!

I discovered Mad Men about 4 months ago, after reading some reviews on the top television of 2007.

I wanted to catch up on the best shows of 2007, and heard that Mad Men was a good show to look at. The show was on AMC, and being a network not typically known for original programming, I was a bit skeptical. Watching the show with my girlfriend Stephanie was a little difficult at times, with all of the adultery, but she slowly let the characters grow on her, and now at the end of season 2, she’s in love.

Don Draper Has Got The Money

Like Tony, Don is a baller. He’s a partner at a high-profile advertising agency, and can buy pretty much anything he wants. He is impeccably dressed, owns a Cadillac (just like Tony’s Escalade), and has a nice house, with a hot wife.

Don Has The Power

Don can do whatever he wants at Sterling Cooper. He is essentially the mafia boss at his agency. What he says goes, and he has power over the over Dons in the family (Duck Philips).

Don Draper Has The Women

Although my girlfriend loathes these parts, Don Draper can have any woman he wants. He has a beautiful wife and kids at home, but like Tony, he loves to dance around on her.

However, also like Tony, Don is learning his lesson and seems to be reeling in his philandering and respecting his wife more, which is good to see.

He Is Everything Strivers Want To Be

For any kid coming out of college, they want to look good, get women, and make a lot of money. And Don Draper does all three of these things.

I’m not sure where this Jon Hamm came from, but he is going to be a movie star.

Don Draper and AMC’s Mad Men is the New Sopranos, and the best new series on TV for 2007 and 2008. If you are going to watch any TV show, watch AMC’s Mad Men and buy the series on DVD.

I know what I’m going to be buying people for christmas this year, so be prepared

It’s made to be watched using your TV, using just the Apple remote. You can listen to music from Last.fm (no Grooveshark support??), view lyrics, and check out photos from Flickr.

The installation is also quite simple. You load up the contents of the operating system onto a USB drive, plug it into the box of an Apple TV, and it will load all on its own.

Watch Hulu on Your Apple TV

I don’t actually have the software in hand, currently they’re in private Alpha, but I’ve sent an email to their co-founder Avner, and hopefully will hear back soon.

I currently own a Tivo Series3 HD, but lately I’ve been having trouble finding good TV to watch, so this would be my perfect solution, and without the monthly fee of a Roku box, Apple TV+Hulu is ideal.

What do you guys think? Do you own an Apple TV? Are you happy with it? Are you interested in trying out Boxee as well?

I’m only able to watch about 10 minutes before I delete it, which is really a pity, because I believe in HBO making good shows.

Ali G, and then Little Britain?

The Ali G Show was truly a remarkable show, and it was the preface to the Borat movie. Going on this success, HBO has now released Little Britain, about British people in America all played by a single really ugly man.

This show reminds me of the Tracy Ulman show but not funny. All of the characters are fat, and ugly, where Ulman had great characters like that old Chinese Grandma.

Do yourself a favor, and don’t watch this show, it sucks.

As I shop for the best deal on a TV, I wanted to put together a buyer’s guide for those of you in a similar situation to me. You want to find the best TV, at the best price, with the least amount of sacrifices. Preface this post with the fact that I’ve been selling consumer electronics on eBay for the past 4 years, and I never pay retail on any products I buy, so I consider myself a pretty good source when it comes to deal-hunting.

Set an HDTV Budget

The fist step is setting a TV budget. Are you going to be able to afford a Plasma TV or LCD TV? When decorating a new house, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by big numbers and to assume you should spend $3,000 on a new TV, heck, you’re spending $20,000 on a kitchen, so what’s an extra thousand or so dollars piled on? Ask yourself what’s reasonable to spend on a new TV? I’m aiming to spend less than $1,000, and even at that, I’m hoping to find a 40″ LCD for around $750. Once you have your budget, you’ll better be able to determine what kind of HDTV you’ll be looking for. Depending on your size, here’s a good start:

• 20-30″ LCD – pay no more than $400
• 20-30″ Plasma – not worth it for this size, go for LCD
• 30-40″ LCD 720p – pay no more than $600
• 30-40″ Plasma 720p – not worth it for this size, go for LCD
• 30-40″ LCD 1080p – pay no more than $1000
• 30-40″ Plasma 1080p – not worth it for this size, go for LCD
• 40-50″ LCD 1080p – pay no more than $1400
• 40-50″ Plasma 1080p – pay no more than $1500
• 50-60″ LCD 1080p – pay more than $1700
• 50-60″ Plasma 1080p – pay no more than $2200

For anything above 40″, you should opt for the 1080p. 720p is the current technology, and the gimmick most retailers are using to get you into a big TV, but with old technology. Spending over $1000 on a TV that isn’t 1080p is like throwing money down the drain. Blu-ray (and HD-DVD) all support 1080p, and in a year or so, 720p will begin to be phased out, and you’ll have to start thinking about replacing your huge set, again, so be sure to opt for the newest technology with 1080p on your set.

Do Some HDTV Shopping

Now that you have your budget set, you can start shopping around at your local retailers and find the TV that catches your eye. Take a Sunday and go to all your local retailers: Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Fry’s, etc. on your way in, be sure to grab the weekly sale flyer and see what they have to offer. From store to store, you’ll see similar pricing, and the stores try not to have the same models, purposely, so you can’t price-match anything reliably. When doing your shopping around the stores, try to see what model will suit your living room or bedroom best. Do you want a slimline-LCD or Plasma or are you okay with a full box DLP? Also, look at the mounts the TVs come on — would that look good in your living room or should you look to wall-mount your TV? Also look at the colors and styling, I personally really like the way Samsung looks, and the Vizios also have a nice aesthetic to them (the set pictured above is a Vizio HDTV).

Start Your Online Deal Hunting

Finding the best deal comes from a lot of experiencing searching coupon sites and forums and doing your research. There are a number of online forums where people discuss finding the best TV deals, how to save money on extended-warranty and the best specifications to look for in a TV. Additionally, to help sweeten the deal, there are a number of coupon sites that constantly update with coupons for your favorite online and brick and mortar retailers. When doing this online shopping, I’ve found it’s best to backup any deal online by checking the TV out in the actual store. The picture you see in person can never be described by someone on a forum, so I like to take the most precautions possible before making a big purchase like this. Here are a collection of the best online deal websites:

Slickdeals
Find the best deals and coupons for today’s top internet retailers! We also have a comprehensive list of coupons for you to use at online shops. This site is very similar to FatWallet, all of the members tend to use both sites so be sure to check Fatwallet and vice-versa for the latest deals.

FatWallet
The latest and greatest online coupons at hundreds of stores. Earn cash back while you shop! Look in the “hot deals” section, you’ll find all of the hottest deals and how to find them.

Ben’s Bargains
BensBargains.net brings you the best coverage of hot deals, coupons, free after rebate, shopping bargains on a 24x7x365 schedule.

With all these sites, the best technique is to search for what you’re looking for to get an idea of what’s going on in the market. So say I’m looking for a 40″+ LCD, I type in “40 LCD 1080p” into Fatwallet, and then organize the search results by date, as deals can dry up very quickly, and acting fast on these sales is essential. Also, another rule for finding the best deal: never call. If there’s an item on clearance, and you call Best Buy, they’ll say, “nope, we’re out of stock,” and then they’ll promptly buy the item and sell it on eBay, so if it’s a good deal, show up in the store, never, never call.

Research The Best HDTVs

Selected the best LCD or Plasma HDTV? Now you have to do your research. The online deal forums have some great members, and they definitely know what they’re talking about, but before you take their word for it, you should do your own research. Cheap Plasmas are known for not being able to display “true-black,” and Plasmas are also known for having burn-in. To ensure your set isn’t a lemon, you’ll want to read user reviews and see what the current owners of your future TV have to say. Also, you’ll want to research the best settings for the TV. These high-end Plasmas and LCDs have so many features, you’ll need to program it before you get the perfect settings. Here are some of the best TV gurus and online forums to research Plasma and LCD TVs:

AVS Forum
This is a discussion forum dedicated to Home Theater and the products used. This is one of the premier directories for TV discussions. They have all of the settings on the newest TVs, can tell you that the random Japanese manufacturer produces the same sets for Sony that they do for Vizio, etc.

High Def Forum
Focuses on high definition technology, with topic threads including camcorders, TVs, DVDs, cameras, players, recorders, and receivers. These guys have all the information on the best set-top box, Tivo HD DVR, best satellite service gives you the best HD, etc.

HDTVoice
HDTVoice is the premiere hdtv discussion chat talk forum! They have a great newbie guide for those of you in my similar situation, with absolutely no idea where to start

Get Your Cash and Buy Your TV

Now that you have all of your information, you should be ready to go out and buy that amazing new LCD or Plasma HDTV to call your own. It’s essential that you are ready to make a split-second decision when you come across a great deal. After spending a couple weeks researching prices, you should be able to spot a great deal instantly, and when you see that deal, you have to snatch it up. There are a lot of savvy consumers out there, and they won’t flinch when they see a good deal. When you find that great deal and make your purchase decision, you won’t have any buyer’s remorse when you get home because you know you found the best deal available, and with all of your extra cash, you can upgrade your home theatre with speakers, DVDs, Blu-ray players, etc. and for that, you’ll have to wait until my next buyer’s guide for the REST of your home theatre

First I looked on Amazon’s Unbox, nope, not there

Then to iTunes, and, sure enough, it was there, but it was $1.99

At that price, I felt like I wanted more value, as I could have easily watched the episode last night, for free, so I went to a third route

ABC had proclaimed that it was showing LOST and other shows on-demand for free on their site. Turns out, it isn’t bull shit — they had LOST, and in FULL HD !

So now as I watch the episode in full-streaming, at a really high speed, I am really quite pleased. I have to watch a couple of commercials, but I could care less; the video is great quality, it’s a high-speed connection, and it’s on-demand.

Thanks ABC.