I cut the cord when I was down to 5 *programs* I watched regularly. The "channels" were just those that I would scan when bored in case something was on (IFC, BBC America, AMC, and um, well, not much more than that).
And never mind that much of the Netflix content is good quality too. What I really want to see is a mix of the Netflix from 3 years ago, with lots and lots of back catalog tv shows and movies, with the Netflix produced or subsidizes original content. Ie, I want Stranger Things, Jessica Jones, Mission Impossible, and Star Trek all on the same service.
I am hating this move to exclusive content, it feels too much like those idiotic wars between game console makers where nobody wins.
Disney channel, Disney East, Disney West, Disney Junior, Toon Disney, Disney XD, there are just too damn many Disney channels! All Disney does is turn child actors into broken and dysfunctional adults.
Which is why cable operators and internet companies and media/content owners should be split into separate companies. Treat the cable and fiber as a common carrier. This has worked before when AT&T was broken up, there was competition and the former baby bells and smaller telecomm companies grew and expanded in that environment, such as Verizon and Sprint.
But when the expensive cable is owned by the same company that provides internet and television, there's no fair or viable way to compete against that.
I would not mind if governments (municipal mostly) laid down the cable/fibre themselves and then leased that out. Some hardcore anti government types might claim this is unfair to our corporate overlords, but at the present there is abolutely not a free market to pretend to be defending. This way at least the infrastructure would be owned by the people.
Consider however that there is major support for the Republican party from rural voters. Thus it's in Republican interets to support universal coverage. If they stand up and say "the free market only cares about city folk" they'll lose a lot of votes.
This is related to the old style phone system. In exchange for a monopoly AT&T/Bell was required to provide universal service. This was because the free market refused to serve all customers, but it was in the government's interest to have universal service. Today, the internet and wireless service are being considered essential services even for people who don't live in cities.
The handouts are not to unprofitable companies, the handouts are to anyone willing to provide service where no service exists. If the big players want to step up and provide this service then they can do so.
Failure in what sense? If monetary, then sure maybe that applies, but that's not always an important measurement of failur and it was never the goal of BSD. That's like saying a random person is a failure for not being a billionaire. BSD is the foundation and influencer of so many things that it's a resounding success.
A female doctor adds more to the show. It is good for the art. It is not at all disparaging to men, despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It doesn't break any of the 'lore'. Joanna Lumley was always my favorite Doctor and absolutely fabulous in the role.
Historically on the farm, the family got up before dawn. Society managed to form, grow, and flourish without the need to let children sleep in. I am not a morning person so I don't necessarily like this, but it's the way things were and only because society is relatively wealthy now that I have the luxury to get up later.
I think the "as a parent, it is obvious" approach is bad. Parents these days think that they're experts when they're not. We have idiots thinking that being a mom makes them an expert over scientists when it comes to opposing vaccination. Parents are busy and hassled and so putting the kids in front of a screen gives the parents a chance to catch a breath. Also add in all those people surrounding them shouting that kids need to learn technology and be able to code before high school or else they're doomed to a life of food service.
We have tons of programmers who can't do 11th grade math either. They may have learned it once but when you don't use it you lose it. Keeping grade averages and managing a budget does not need an 11th grade math level (11th grade is algebra 2, trigonometry for the brighter students, geometry for those a bit behind).
Most of that is push to teach to the test, only do the three R's and nothing else, and so forth. The only reason history shows up in some places is because it's mandated by the state or required by colledges.
Society has a whole has become intentionally ignorant, it's not cool to be educated especially in a subject unrelated to the current job. That attitude seems to cross class boundaries as well.
We also devalue teachers these days, both in economics and in social status. It's often been mediocre pay anyway but at least teachers used to have respect. And we seem to be dumping on public schools, insisting that only those with sufficient wealth be allowed a good education and that children need to be protected from interacting with poor children. So public schools are being drained of money, many can't even afford even basic school supplies. And society points the finger of blame at the underpaid teachers and never at the administration or politicians.
Most societies learned how to take the kids with them when they work, do chores, etc. Stay at home moms is a relatively new anomaly which arose for those classes that were wealthy enough that they could afford it, and when they got even wealthier they'd hire poor women to work in the home and raise the children so that the wealthy wemon didn't have to.
They're not necessarily paid "well". People have this mistaken idea that the medical industry is rolling in money, but it's not. Most nurses don't make enough to be the sole breadwinner in the family.
The job itself matters. No amount of stellar management can make up for having to work for someplace that makes business software. At some point you realize that it doesn't help or hurt the world if you do a bad job or not.
By 70s style, I mean that they didn't know about 'const' and were strongly opposed to be asked to use it, and they didn't declare parameters to functions K&R style, and a type cast every line even where obviously not necessary. This wasn't due to packing into a small space, they would write code that ended up larger than necessary (ie, declaring auto variables as uint8_t which takes a bit of extra code on ARM).
Slashdot Mirror
I cut the cord when I was down to 5 *programs* I watched regularly. The "channels" were just those that I would scan when bored in case something was on (IFC, BBC America, AMC, and um, well, not much more than that).
And never mind that much of the Netflix content is good quality too. What I really want to see is a mix of the Netflix from 3 years ago, with lots and lots of back catalog tv shows and movies, with the Netflix produced or subsidizes original content. Ie, I want Stranger Things, Jessica Jones, Mission Impossible, and Star Trek all on the same service.
I am hating this move to exclusive content, it feels too much like those idiotic wars between game console makers where nobody wins.
Disney channel, Disney East, Disney West, Disney Junior, Toon Disney, Disney XD, there are just too damn many Disney channels! All Disney does is turn child actors into broken and dysfunctional adults.
Which is why cable operators and internet companies and media/content owners should be split into separate companies. Treat the cable and fiber as a common carrier. This has worked before when AT&T was broken up, there was competition and the former baby bells and smaller telecomm companies grew and expanded in that environment, such as Verizon and Sprint.
But when the expensive cable is owned by the same company that provides internet and television, there's no fair or viable way to compete against that.
I would not mind if governments (municipal mostly) laid down the cable/fibre themselves and then leased that out. Some hardcore anti government types might claim this is unfair to our corporate overlords, but at the present there is abolutely not a free market to pretend to be defending. This way at least the infrastructure would be owned by the people.
Consider however that there is major support for the Republican party from rural voters. Thus it's in Republican interets to support universal coverage. If they stand up and say "the free market only cares about city folk" they'll lose a lot of votes.
This is related to the old style phone system. In exchange for a monopoly AT&T/Bell was required to provide universal service. This was because the free market refused to serve all customers, but it was in the government's interest to have universal service. Today, the internet and wireless service are being considered essential services even for people who don't live in cities.
The handouts are not to unprofitable companies, the handouts are to anyone willing to provide service where no service exists. If the big players want to step up and provide this service then they can do so.
Failure in what sense? If monetary, then sure maybe that applies, but that's not always an important measurement of failur and it was never the goal of BSD. That's like saying a random person is a failure for not being a billionaire. BSD is the foundation and influencer of so many things that it's a resounding success.
What's better than email? Not facebook, not texting, not video, so...?
Based on your eating habits, we suggest a sirloin-tofu-banana smoothie with skittles sprinkles.
In the sixties it would have been called Nurse Who? And the Brigadier would have said "quiet please, the men are talking!"
Don't forget Rowan Atkinson regenerating into Joanna Lumley. Though this was done as a joke, the idea was definitely out there for a few decades.
The characters may react differently to the Doctor as a woman because most of the characters are human and grew up with preconceived notions.
Maybe in the past it was politics that insisted a show's lead must always be a man?
A female doctor adds more to the show. It is good for the art. It is not at all disparaging to men, despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It doesn't break any of the 'lore'. Joanna Lumley was always my favorite Doctor and absolutely fabulous in the role.
At least for once I'm ahead of the game.
Don't forget summer school. This was a standard thing when I was growing up.
Historically on the farm, the family got up before dawn. Society managed to form, grow, and flourish without the need to let children sleep in. I am not a morning person so I don't necessarily like this, but it's the way things were and only because society is relatively wealthy now that I have the luxury to get up later.
I think the "as a parent, it is obvious" approach is bad. Parents these days think that they're experts when they're not. We have idiots thinking that being a mom makes them an expert over scientists when it comes to opposing vaccination. Parents are busy and hassled and so putting the kids in front of a screen gives the parents a chance to catch a breath. Also add in all those people surrounding them shouting that kids need to learn technology and be able to code before high school or else they're doomed to a life of food service.
We have tons of programmers who can't do 11th grade math either. They may have learned it once but when you don't use it you lose it. Keeping grade averages and managing a budget does not need an 11th grade math level (11th grade is algebra 2, trigonometry for the brighter students, geometry for those a bit behind).
Most of that is push to teach to the test, only do the three R's and nothing else, and so forth. The only reason history shows up in some places is because it's mandated by the state or required by colledges.
Society has a whole has become intentionally ignorant, it's not cool to be educated especially in a subject unrelated to the current job. That attitude seems to cross class boundaries as well.
We also devalue teachers these days, both in economics and in social status. It's often been mediocre pay anyway but at least teachers used to have respect. And we seem to be dumping on public schools, insisting that only those with sufficient wealth be allowed a good education and that children need to be protected from interacting with poor children. So public schools are being drained of money, many can't even afford even basic school supplies. And society points the finger of blame at the underpaid teachers and never at the administration or politicians.
Most societies learned how to take the kids with them when they work, do chores, etc. Stay at home moms is a relatively new anomaly which arose for those classes that were wealthy enough that they could afford it, and when they got even wealthier they'd hire poor women to work in the home and raise the children so that the wealthy wemon didn't have to.
Of course, I hope most engineers have minored in unrelated subjects. You don't need to be a liberal arts major to study liberal arts.
Some tech jobs. When you say most, you're probably thinking IT support staff or such, or a game company.
They're not necessarily paid "well". People have this mistaken idea that the medical industry is rolling in money, but it's not. Most nurses don't make enough to be the sole breadwinner in the family.
The job itself matters. No amount of stellar management can make up for having to work for someplace that makes business software. At some point you realize that it doesn't help or hurt the world if you do a bad job or not.
By 70s style, I mean that they didn't know about 'const' and were strongly opposed to be asked to use it, and they didn't declare parameters to functions K&R style, and a type cast every line even where obviously not necessary. This wasn't due to packing into a small space, they would write code that ended up larger than necessary (ie, declaring auto variables as uint8_t which takes a bit of extra code on ARM).