Hulu

Illegal downloading scares me. Am I chicken shit, or did I wise up after watching one of my friends get his pants sued off? Regardless, Web sites offering legal downloads are on the rise, so there’s nothing to fear. Major networks and most cable networks have streaming videos on their sites, but Hulu.com brings them all together. The diversity of television content is impressive, but the movie selection leaves a little to be desired. Where else can you find The Rockford Files nestled next to ExoSquad? Silver Spoons and old Ricki Lake episodes? Hulu also has sports, news and complete episodes of some of the hottest shows, including Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and The Office. The content is ad-supported—it’s called capitalism, get over it—but the quality is good, even if it can show a bit of lag at peak hours. No clue what “hulu” means, but it could translate as “Welcome, scaredy-cats. Enjoy some Doogie Howser, M.D. on us.”