They went one UI fuckup too far for me, and I tried using outlook.com. I was surprised. I don't know what you need in terms of "tags and intelligent conversation view / management", but you might give it a try and see, it does what I needed in that regard (which might be radically different from you) - it has tags and tag-based views, at least. I'm still fiddling with email forwarding so I'm not 100% sure (I like the way gmail works with vanity domain email forwarding, don't know yet about outlook.com), but at least the UI is simple and inoffensive.
Interesting, I'll check it out, thanks!
By "intelligent conversation view / management" I mean that all the replies / responses to an email are contained in one scrollable (and printable) view sorted by time received, where you can expand / hide any one reply. Last time I looked, nobody else did it as well, with replies from certain people sometimes getting split off from the main conversation, or grouping them by conversation but then requiring you to open up each email in the conversation separately in order to see the content of the response...but admittedly that was some time ago. They could have gotten better at it in the meantime, for sure!
And tags...man, I hated tags when I first switched to GMail, but now I couldn't imagine being restricted to a folder-based org structure again. So yeah, it needs to be able to apply tags by filter, easy to add / remove tags, sort by / view by tags and combinations of tags, etc. Oh, and completely custom tags, not just "Priority", "Office", "Personal", etc. And the ability to archive...very smart, that. If you don't want to delete it, but it doesn't need to be in your inbox either, just hit 'archive'...very well done that.
The premise of this story is that Netflix could have been bought by Blockbuster, and that Blockbuster would then have operated Netflix pretty much as it is operating now. Under this assumption of more dynamic Blockbuster management, they would have been shutting down the retail stores about now anyways, since they are not profitable any more.
In other words, the world would be just like it is now, but with a different brand name on a website. No more or less movies would be available to consumer, and there would be no more or less net jobs.
I can't think of one meaningful thing it would have actually changed.
Mail service in Canada, perhaps?
I will very much miss Blockbuster, not for the renting so much, but for the cheap used DVD / Bluray purchasing options...so many of my movies came from Blockbuster...
Hmm, funny. Both are still going strong up here in the great white north...if you catch them on sales they're actually both pretty competitive.
My last laptop was purchased at Best Buy, and my friend's laptop came from Circuit City (aka Radio Shack) last year. And Circuit City does have slightly different stock than do the big twins (Best Buy and Future Shop), so if you're looking for a specific model, it's definitely worth checking out.
To be honest, I'll admit that a few years ago, I was a frequent user of The Pirate Bay.
Now? For less than $25 a month, I have Amazon Prime Videos, Netflix, and Hulu Plus. They provide me with, more or less, all the video content I really want. (and more than I could ever watch)
Friggin' Yanks...some of us don't have those options, eh? Netflix is okay (I don't mind the Canadian abbreviated content) but the rest? Nope.
Even Google Music and Amazon Music still isn't available north of the 49th...so I am reluctantly forced* to use one Apple service (iTunes) for music, then re-download in mp3 so I can actually play it...
*okay, okay, I could use vpn or Tor to appear to be from the States, but I can't set up a regular credit card with my Canadian billing address to use with them...so there goes the convenience.
Or easier yet, cut the cord to the gmail mothership! There are other webmail products (I'm in the midst of switching to outlook.com). Yahoo and MS may have serve ads, but it's vastly less intrusive than googles omni-present tracking
Tags and intelligent conversation view / management. That's pretty much all that's keeping me there atm: can't find another service that does either as well as the big G, unfortunately.
One more UI fuckup and that's it, I'm gone. Of course, I think I said that two fuckups ago...*sigh*
I don't require my digital copies to play anywhere quite so much, we watch movies on the TV, not the iPad, but I can see how some people might want to do that.
Would be nice to not have to re-purchase content when you change devices, though, wouldn't it? If the format you have doesn't work for your new toy, re-encode!
Music has been through this hassle already, since mp3's have been around since the 90's and people have fought to be able to migrate their collections across multiple devices. Digital video will be facing the same issues very soon here, as it becomes more ubiquitous and viewing devices age out / new formats become standard.
I suspect it will come, 5-10 years from now, we might get DRM free movies and TV shows. I suspect sales will go up and piracy will actually go down, if the prices are reasonable.
A buck an episode, 3-5 bucks for a movie, at those prices, I'll just buy everything, and I suspect most people would too.
Add to that list "make it as convenient as iTunes" and yes, I suspect you're right. Parents will give their kids gift cards for Christmas, like they do for iTunes now, and let them manage their own content. Sure, there will be some file swapping, as there is for music now, but a) ready accessibility and b) reasonable price, with some degree of certainty that it will not disappear or get yanked back tomorrow even if you have to change out your entire system, will drive the numbers of purchases up and up. iTunes is starting to see this a bit in their video sales, however you still have to put up with vendor lockdown and lack of transferability (not an option for me, I don't have any iDevices at all much less an overpriced Apple TV box).
Right now, Netflix is kinda the Spotify of the video world, with no real iTunes (or Google Music, or Amazon Music, etc.) equivalent. Not only is this hammering network infrastructure needlessly, it is providing the customers with a very 'meh' experience when they do finally get to see your year-old content on super-squeezed bandwidth.
Yyyyyyyyeahhhh. How's that working out for you? Netflix streaming quality leaves a lot to be desired compared to a high-quality Blu-Ray rip.
Er, even compared to a compressed-to-crap DVD rip, you mean?
Don't get me wrong, Netflix is great for TV shows and older movies, but anything remotely cinematic (i.e., Life of Pi or The Hobbit)? Good luck getting something from Netflix that does it justice, especially during peak viewing hours. Get everybody together to watch them at 3:00 am on a Wednesday, you might be okay...
Could more people be satisfied with current video offerings or are less people finding useful things to download via file sharing?
Or is it something that's not a false dichotomy? An increase in Netflix, YouTube traffic will result in a decrease in the amount of bittorrent traffic in terms of percent, even if absolute usage remains the same. Likewise, a decrease in bittorrent traffic will lead to higher percentages for Netflix and YouTube. That doesn't indicate (or rule out) a relationship between the two (i.e. leaving bittorrent behind for Netflix) except in that it is a relative measure.
Exactly!
Correlation...causation...ah, f$^# it, you know the rest.
The tube sites are full of amateur porn and clips. Now that's many people's preferences. But some people must really like the full length professional stuff.
Are they trying to destroy their business? That's the only reason I can think of for making it harder for people interested in their product to get information about it.
Indeed. In fact, back in the days before Shazam and Soundhound, searching for a particular lyric phrase from that song you liked that you heard over the restaurant speakers was often the only way to find out who/what it was. That was pure profit for the labels, since if I liked the song enough I would buy the whole damn album to get it (yes, this would be pre-iTunes)...
Why don't the copyright-holders publish lyrics for everything on the web themselves? Then they'd kill demand for other lyrics sites and get ad revenues.
Because rent-seeking is more profitable.
Let some other sucker do the heavy lifting, then show up at their digital door with some virtual goons. "Say, this shore is a nice lyrics site you got here...would be a real shame if something were to happen to it..."
Protection^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Licensing income is more stable than ad revenues...
On a side note, when oh when will this damned forum enable <s> </s>, <del> </del>, or <strike> </strike> tags?
There might even be a boom in home catering once the delivery driver cost is factored out.
Excellent thought! I just had a vision of driverless cars all lined up in the drive through lanes as people send their car out to pick up some mid-party munchies...better than having their drunk asses in the drivers seats! Add a remote speaker/mic system, a drop-down shelf/drink tray for the attendant to place the order in, and some form of contact-free payment system: boom! Who cares how long the lines are, since you can keep partying while you wait?
Why would a human pay to insure a car that they're not driving? Either I'm driving, and am accountable for my actions, or the computer is driving, and is accountable for it's actions.
Vandalism and theft. Unless your car looks like this.
As someone pointed out above, hydrophobia is a curiosity of linguistic evolution. Homophobia is a created word intended to manipulate.
As are, I suppose, the words 'racist' and 'sexist'?
The negative connotations associated with the attitude are neatly summarized by this one simple phrase. People who cry about the semantics would not be intrinsically better people if they were called something else, since they would still hold to the same irrationally prejudicial beliefs. A rose by any other name...
Firstly, homophobic is a ridiculous word -- inaccurate as hell. You can be against homosexuality (generally due to religious beliefs) and not have a phobia about it.
Really? Because I think it's accurate as hell if you take the actual literal meaning, that is 'aversion'. It has simply been narrowed to be associated with the word 'fear' in common usage, thanks to the medical professions' habit of tacking '-phobia' onto the end of *every* extreme aversion diagnosis.
Really, did you think that if a material is 'hydrophobic' that means that it is afraid of water? No, it means "Lacking affinity for water; tending to repel and not absorb water; tending not to dissolve in or mix with or be wetted by water". Homophobic people tend to repel and lack affinity for homosexual people, so it's entirely apt.
Perhaps you would prefer 'homopenic" (deficiency of) or "homoleptic" (attacks...wait, that one would mean you had sudden attacks of homosexuality...nevermind.)
Okay, from now on, "homophobes" are "homopenias". Pretty, sounds like a flower...with a very specific shape:) Entirely apt, since most of the homopenics I have met are complete dickheads.
Adobe admitted the hack targeted a backup system that had not been updated, leaving the hacked passwords more vulnerable to brute-force cracking.
Apparently even Adobe has trouble keeping up with updates and patches...what's the matter, get tired of the update server's nagging every couple of weeks?
I'm sure there's some irony to be found in this situation somewhere...
In that case, wouldn't "ransom" or "bounty" have been better? There have been projects like this before. As I recall, there was even one before Kickstarter came and made everyone talk about "crowdfunding" - but it didn't catch on.
"Booty" would be the best. Lots of hobbyists would work for booty...:)
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They went one UI fuckup too far for me, and I tried using outlook.com. I was surprised. I don't know what you need in terms of "tags and intelligent conversation view / management", but you might give it a try and see, it does what I needed in that regard (which might be radically different from you) - it has tags and tag-based views, at least. I'm still fiddling with email forwarding so I'm not 100% sure (I like the way gmail works with vanity domain email forwarding, don't know yet about outlook.com), but at least the UI is simple and inoffensive.
Interesting, I'll check it out, thanks!
By "intelligent conversation view / management" I mean that all the replies / responses to an email are contained in one scrollable (and printable) view sorted by time received, where you can expand / hide any one reply. Last time I looked, nobody else did it as well, with replies from certain people sometimes getting split off from the main conversation, or grouping them by conversation but then requiring you to open up each email in the conversation separately in order to see the content of the response...but admittedly that was some time ago. They could have gotten better at it in the meantime, for sure!
And tags...man, I hated tags when I first switched to GMail, but now I couldn't imagine being restricted to a folder-based org structure again. So yeah, it needs to be able to apply tags by filter, easy to add / remove tags, sort by / view by tags and combinations of tags, etc. Oh, and completely custom tags, not just "Priority", "Office", "Personal", etc. And the ability to archive...very smart, that. If you don't want to delete it, but it doesn't need to be in your inbox either, just hit 'archive'...very well done that.
... but is it reproducible? :p
The premise of this story is that Netflix could have been bought by Blockbuster, and that Blockbuster would then have operated Netflix pretty much as it is operating now. Under this assumption of more dynamic Blockbuster management, they would have been shutting down the retail stores about now anyways, since they are not profitable any more.
In other words, the world would be just like it is now, but with a different brand name on a website. No more or less movies would be available to consumer, and there would be no more or less net jobs.
I can't think of one meaningful thing it would have actually changed.
Mail service in Canada, perhaps?
I will very much miss Blockbuster, not for the renting so much, but for the cheap used DVD / Bluray purchasing options...so many of my movies came from Blockbuster...
Divx was the beginning of the end for CC.
Hmm, funny. Both are still going strong up here in the great white north...if you catch them on sales they're actually both pretty competitive.
My last laptop was purchased at Best Buy, and my friend's laptop came from Circuit City (aka Radio Shack) last year. And Circuit City does have slightly different stock than do the big twins (Best Buy and Future Shop), so if you're looking for a specific model, it's definitely worth checking out.
To be honest, I'll admit that a few years ago, I was a frequent user of The Pirate Bay.
Now? For less than $25 a month, I have Amazon Prime Videos, Netflix, and Hulu Plus. They provide me with, more or less, all the video content I really want. (and more than I could ever watch)
Friggin' Yanks...some of us don't have those options, eh? Netflix is okay (I don't mind the Canadian abbreviated content) but the rest? Nope.
Even Google Music and Amazon Music still isn't available north of the 49th...so I am reluctantly forced* to use one Apple service (iTunes) for music, then re-download in mp3 so I can actually play it...
*okay, okay, I could use vpn or Tor to appear to be from the States, but I can't set up a regular credit card with my Canadian billing address to use with them...so there goes the convenience.
Or easier yet, cut the cord to the gmail mothership! There are other webmail products (I'm in the midst of switching to outlook.com). Yahoo and MS may have serve ads, but it's vastly less intrusive than googles omni-present tracking
Tags and intelligent conversation view / management. That's pretty much all that's keeping me there atm: can't find another service that does either as well as the big G, unfortunately.
One more UI fuckup and that's it, I'm gone. Of course, I think I said that two fuckups ago...*sigh*
I don't require my digital copies to play anywhere quite so much, we watch movies on the TV, not the iPad, but I can see how some people might want to do that.
Would be nice to not have to re-purchase content when you change devices, though, wouldn't it? If the format you have doesn't work for your new toy, re-encode!
Music has been through this hassle already, since mp3's have been around since the 90's and people have fought to be able to migrate their collections across multiple devices. Digital video will be facing the same issues very soon here, as it becomes more ubiquitous and viewing devices age out / new formats become standard.
I suspect it will come, 5-10 years from now, we might get DRM free movies and TV shows. I suspect sales will go up and piracy will actually go down, if the prices are reasonable.
A buck an episode, 3-5 bucks for a movie, at those prices, I'll just buy everything, and I suspect most people would too.
Add to that list "make it as convenient as iTunes" and yes, I suspect you're right. Parents will give their kids gift cards for Christmas, like they do for iTunes now, and let them manage their own content. Sure, there will be some file swapping, as there is for music now, but a) ready accessibility and b) reasonable price, with some degree of certainty that it will not disappear or get yanked back tomorrow even if you have to change out your entire system, will drive the numbers of purchases up and up. iTunes is starting to see this a bit in their video sales, however you still have to put up with vendor lockdown and lack of transferability (not an option for me, I don't have any iDevices at all much less an overpriced Apple TV box).
Right now, Netflix is kinda the Spotify of the video world, with no real iTunes (or Google Music, or Amazon Music, etc.) equivalent. Not only is this hammering network infrastructure needlessly, it is providing the customers with a very 'meh' experience when they do finally get to see your year-old content on super-squeezed bandwidth.
Yyyyyyyyeahhhh. How's that working out for you? Netflix streaming quality leaves a lot to be desired compared to a high-quality Blu-Ray rip.
Er, even compared to a compressed-to-crap DVD rip, you mean?
Don't get me wrong, Netflix is great for TV shows and older movies, but anything remotely cinematic (i.e., Life of Pi or The Hobbit)? Good luck getting something from Netflix that does it justice, especially during peak viewing hours. Get everybody together to watch them at 3:00 am on a Wednesday, you might be okay...
Could more people be satisfied with current video offerings or are less people finding useful things to download via file sharing?
Or is it something that's not a false dichotomy? An increase in Netflix, YouTube traffic will result in a decrease in the amount of bittorrent traffic in terms of percent, even if absolute usage remains the same. Likewise, a decrease in bittorrent traffic will lead to higher percentages for Netflix and YouTube. That doesn't indicate (or rule out) a relationship between the two (i.e. leaving bittorrent behind for Netflix) except in that it is a relative measure.
Exactly!
Correlation...causation...ah, f$^# it, you know the rest.
The tube sites are full of amateur porn and clips. Now that's many people's preferences. But some people must really like the full length professional stuff.
"Hur, hur, h-...Sorry."
-- Caleb the Ripper
Are they trying to destroy their business? That's the only reason I can think of for making it harder for people interested in their product to get information about it.
Indeed. In fact, back in the days before Shazam and Soundhound, searching for a particular lyric phrase from that song you liked that you heard over the restaurant speakers was often the only way to find out who/what it was. That was pure profit for the labels, since if I liked the song enough I would buy the whole damn album to get it (yes, this would be pre-iTunes)...
Why don't the copyright-holders publish lyrics for everything on the web themselves? Then they'd kill demand for other lyrics sites and get ad revenues.
Because rent-seeking is more profitable.
Let some other sucker do the heavy lifting, then show up at their digital door with some virtual goons. "Say, this shore is a nice lyrics site you got here...would be a real shame if something were to happen to it..."
Protection^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Licensing income is more stable than ad revenues...
On a side note, when oh when will this damned forum enable <s> </s>, <del> </del>, or <strike> </strike> tags?
...anyone know where I can snag a copy of their 'curriculum'? :P
I didn't see the rootkit. Whare's that hiding?
Ah well, they have to keep some mystery in the relationship after all...
There might even be a boom in home catering once the delivery driver cost is factored out.
Excellent thought! I just had a vision of driverless cars all lined up in the drive through lanes as people send their car out to pick up some mid-party munchies...better than having their drunk asses in the drivers seats! Add a remote speaker/mic system, a drop-down shelf/drink tray for the attendant to place the order in, and some form of contact-free payment system: boom! Who cares how long the lines are, since you can keep partying while you wait?
Why would a human pay to insure a car that they're not driving? Either I'm driving, and am accountable for my actions, or the computer is driving, and is accountable for it's actions.
Vandalism and theft. Unless your car looks like this.
Car insurance would still exist. Robot cars won't stop vandalism.
I beg to differ.
That's super of them, to give the modders a head start like that!
Yes, Really.
As someone pointed out above, hydrophobia is a curiosity of linguistic evolution. Homophobia is a created word intended to manipulate.
As are, I suppose, the words 'racist' and 'sexist'?
The negative connotations associated with the attitude are neatly summarized by this one simple phrase. People who cry about the semantics would not be intrinsically better people if they were called something else, since they would still hold to the same irrationally prejudicial beliefs. A rose by any other name...
Firstly, homophobic is a ridiculous word -- inaccurate as hell. You can be against homosexuality (generally due to religious beliefs) and not have a phobia about it.
Really? Because I think it's accurate as hell if you take the actual literal meaning, that is 'aversion'. It has simply been narrowed to be associated with the word 'fear' in common usage, thanks to the medical professions' habit of tacking '-phobia' onto the end of *every* extreme aversion diagnosis.
Really, did you think that if a material is 'hydrophobic' that means that it is afraid of water? No, it means "Lacking affinity for water; tending to repel and not absorb water; tending not to dissolve in or mix with or be wetted by water". Homophobic people tend to repel and lack affinity for homosexual people, so it's entirely apt.
Perhaps you would prefer 'homopenic" (deficiency of) or "homoleptic" (attacks...wait, that one would mean you had sudden attacks of homosexuality...nevermind.)
Okay, from now on, "homophobes" are "homopenias". Pretty, sounds like a flower...with a very specific shape :) Entirely apt, since most of the homopenics I have met are complete dickheads.
Graboids could have migrated to Texas.
But that can't be! Kevin Bacon killed them all in the end...oh, wait...
Adobe admitted the hack targeted a backup system that had not been updated, leaving the hacked passwords more vulnerable to brute-force cracking.
Apparently even Adobe has trouble keeping up with updates and patches...what's the matter, get tired of the update server's nagging every couple of weeks?
I'm sure there's some irony to be found in this situation somewhere...
In that case, wouldn't "ransom" or "bounty" have been better? There have been projects like this before. As I recall, there was even one before Kickstarter came and made everyone talk about "crowdfunding" - but it didn't catch on.
"Booty" would be the best. Lots of hobbyists would work for booty...:)
Existing categories include Cooking, Art & Music, Computers & Electronics, Education & Careers, Fashion & Beauty, Fitness & Nutrition, Health, and Home & Garden.
I can see it now...7 out of every 10 Computers & Electronics 'experts' will require remote access to your computer to help 'troubleshoot' the problem.
"Hello, I'm calling from Microsoft, it appears that you have a virus on your computer..."
The summary is slightly miss-leading.
And where is it leading this hapless miss? To a handy haystack, perhaps? :o)