That's an odd way of looking at things... I'm in the heart of deep red states (Utah and Idaho) and they don't see it that way here. Instead they see a _utility_ (which is what local government should provide) and then direct competition using that utility (which is just good capitalism).
It's no different than the town/state providing roads... and then local businesses setting up shop on those roads to sell you stuff that is delivered via those roads.
We flipped this around in our town. The voters voted to make the local power utility _own_ the fiber and deploy it. So my fiber runs right along my electrical and comes out of my power meter! I pay $30 a month extra on my utilities to be hooked up... and from there I can choose (from 6) an ISP and one of their packages to go with for bandwidth. Now I have gigabit bidirectional for $70/month!
My house is a newer build so it was easy to run the fiber through existing conduit. In other areas of the city they're running it on the poles... and it yet other areas of the city where power cables are buried the power company is taking this as an opportune time to upgrade the existing power cabling. They are digging up the old power cables and laying conduit... and fiber as they go.
It's working well around here (Idaho). There are many small / medium towns doing it this way in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
Municipal fiber is happening - but slowly. I live in a small town (_maybe_ a city) in Idaho and we just started the municipal fiber rollout. I'm typing this now over a 1Gbps bidirectional link for $70/month total.
The next town over from us did it first... and a bunch of towns in northern Utah have gone that way as well.
In my town the electric company (which is a city utility here) actually owns the fiber... it runs right up to your house and out of your electrical meter! You pay for the fiber line as part of your city utility bill: $30.
At that point you can then select any of 6 different ISPs to use. They all have varying speeds and plans. I went with a $40 bidirectional gigabit... because... why not?
Previous to this I was paying out local cable company $110/month for 250Mbps down and 10Mbps up (which I actually considered to be quite good after just moving from the northeast!).
The cable company's days are numbered. It will take a while - they are deeply entrenched in some municipalities - but they will slowly be taken down by fiber...
Iâ(TM)m sure there are some systems that are better than others: but neither of mine have ever done that.
For reference I have a Ford from 2 years ago (radar and camera system) and a brand new Subaru (two camera system). Overall the Fordâ(TM)s system is better (quicker to acquire, etc.) but both are really good.
You obviously haven't tried any of the more advanced systems. They are much more than "toys".
I have two cars that both have adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. While they are not full autonomy... they are _very_ useful. Adaptive cruise control in particular (where you set a desired speed - and a desired follow distance if you come up on another car) is a godsend on long trips. It removes all of the frustration involved with normal cruise control and people going slightly slower than you...
Lane keep assist is similarly great on long trips... just for helping you stay in your lane that little extra bit. It's also good in town where sometimes I might be adjusting the radio or picking up my coffee or something and I feel the slight tug of the system as it makes sure I don't cross over into oncoming traffic.
Both of these systems could make you more "complacent"... but what I find they do is make me more _relaxed_ instead. Instead of worrying over every detail of driving I can relax and enjoy the ride more. I actually find that this leads me to being _more_ alert on long trips because I don't get as tired or road hypnotized.
Anyway - now that I've had a taste of computer assisted driving I definitely want more. A car that could at least drive itself (with me still paying attention) on the highway would be great!
Since they announced its impending death... I have been searching for a replacement and never found one. I tried dozens of apps and webservices... but none of them did what Inbox could do.
The best I've settled on right now is using normal GMail with the "Multiple Inboxes" option and really specific queries set up to fill each Inbox. That gives me 5 "Google Inbox" style inboxes... and then everything else just gets jumbled together.
It works ok - but I assume they'll even remove that option at some point:-(
Netflix has enough original content that I'll keep subscribing Hulu will stay because that's how I do LiveTV and interact with "normal" TV channels (HGTV, etc.) Amazon Prime will continue because I use Amazon Prime anyway (shipping, etc.)
I seriously can't see paying for Disney or Warner though. I currently subscribe to HBO, but it is getting outcompeted by Netflix in the originals area now... so it may not last.
Disney? No way. The few Disney movies I want I'll buy/rent on iTunes...
Never could get into Aquamacs... I guess it's because I still use Emacs on Linux (both in X and over ssh) daily so I want my Emacs on my mac to be as Linux-like as possible. That's why I always use: https://emacsformacosx.com/
I was one of the few who really like Google Contributor. It allowed me to give back to the websites I frequent in a really convenient way. I was pretty bummed when they shut it down.
Note: I didn't do it to remove ads (ads don't bother me) I just liked that I could directly compensate the websites I use all day...
It's not always about water quality. Everywhere that I've lived has had "drinkable" water... but for the longest time I still preferred bottled water. Why? Because of convenience.
It's rare for me to sit down in one place and drink a whole glass of water (other than at meals). Even if I'm at home I'm moving all over the place and it's easier to just bring a bottle of water along with me to make sure I drink enough during the day. Also: everytime I would leave the house I would grab a bottle of water to drink while I'm out. Super simple.
But: I didn't like the waste it was generating (even if they go the recycling bin - it's still waste). So, lately I switched to an army of "Contigo" water bottles that I just keep refilled instead. It's a bit more work... but generates MUCH less waste and is definitely less expensive!
I find it hard to care at all... and I'm a heavy data user.
For me, mobile data speeds are MORE than good enough. I can stream high-quality TV, I can stream music I can browse the web as fast as I can on my wifi at home. What more is there to want on a phone?
Now - 5G is interesting for _other_ mobile data uses (like laptop connections). But I seriously couldn't care less less about 5G on my phone.
Even at home I'm struggling to find the need for more bandwidth from my internet service provider. I have 200Mbps... but they offer 1Gbps. Even with two 4k TVs constantly streaming (although not always constantly streaming 4k) I fail to find any fault in 200Mbps. Also, my fiance and I both work at home and I do a lot of data movement for my job - but 200Mbps is STILL tons.
Last month at my house we pulled down around 1.3TB of data (40GB a day)... but I still don't see a need for more than 200Mbps.
So if that's good enough at my house... what in the hell do I need 5G for on my phone?
I'm 30% over my cap: ~1.2TB used on a 900GB cap...
This is mostly video streaming (much of which is 4k)- but both my fiance and I work from home as well and I do use quite a bit a bandwidth for that.
Luckily municipal fiber is rolling out here and my neighborhood is in the initial rollout! So - by January I could have bidirectional Gbit... but I don't know the price of the service just yet....
This also kills me with cell-phones. People will pay ~$1000 for a phone... but refuse to buy $1 apps to use on it. They will go WAY out of their way to find a "free" app that does something similar...
The article says: "turn on the radio or dim the lights or get weather information. But to be revolutionary, they will need to find a greater calling -- a new, breakout application."
Why?
Turning on the radio (playing music generally), dimming/turning on/off lights and getting weather information is all pretty critical to my day. I do every single one of those things every morning (using my Google Home). In addition I also check my calendar...
Why does it _need_ to do more than that? That is perfectly enough to make sure that I will always have one from this point forward...
Agreed - reading these comments I am struck that there must be geeks out there who simply (for whatever reason) do not associate with geeks of the kind found on the show. Then they assume that the geeks on the show are unrealistic and therefore the show is bad.
I can name several of my friends (and myself) that pass as "Sheldon", "Leonard" and even "Howard" at various times (I even have one friend that is incredibly painfully shy that he speaks at an almost inaudible volume level most of the time... until he starts drinking...). No one is one of those characters *all* of the time - but there are aspects of the characters and the situations they get themselves into that are definitely relatable.
BTW: In my estimation the lives of "smart" people are generally worse than "normal" people. It truly is a burden to be smart in this day and age (maybe it always has been?). I am often envious of "normal" people that can go about their lives without as much care as I put into figuring out how to get out of a bathroom without touching anything. Or "normal" people at work who just stroll in and sit for their time and then go home and not overthink every aspect of the problem they are solving. There is literally not any minute of any day that I am not problem solving (either actual problems or perceived). It would be a blessing to be able to just "exist"...
In this too TBBT resonates with me. Those guys don't just "leave work at work"... they are always problem solving (often for some problem they created for themselves!)... which is pretty much how my day goes too.
Actually: TBBT is somewhat of a blessing in that it let me dull my own brain for a while and watch other "smart" people figure out how to deal with life...
You seriously don't know anyone with whiteboards in their houses with equations / etc. on them?
I will admit that as I get older the whiteboards are fading out from my friends houses... but we all had them (including me) for a time. When we would have mad "hackathons" at each others houses we would fill the whiteboards up with ideas / diagrams / equations and hack into the early morning. For many years I had an entire wall that was basically just a giant whiteboard with stuff like that on it in my office.
Like I said: as I get older they are fading out. Mostly this is a function of better work / life balance with kids / wives coming into the mix we generally only get our whiteboard on at work (where we still have many big ones full of equations / diagrams / etc. that get use daily).
There are definitely many different kinds of geeks and different pockets of geek culture out there. Don't assume that because you didn't witness it that the types of geeks on TBBT don't exist. They DEFINITELY do. Of course it's over the top on TBBT... but the characters are definitely rooted in real-life believability.
What "average guy" on BBT was the hero? Penny? She was often getting bailed out by the "geeks"... and then every now and again she could offer some "normal" insight to clear up a geek problem.
I don't buy this one at all: one of the more interesting things about TBBT is that the geeks largely had to resolve their own issues. Being very geeky myself and knowing many others that fit the stereotypes portrayed on TBBT... I always found it funny to watch them work their way out of the situations they got themselves in... precisely because I could see myself and my friends working it out in a similar way...
For me the thing was that they _weren't_ using gibberish. So "non-science" people can laugh without caring what those terms mean... but "sciency" people can laugh _because_ of the actual words / equations / theorems used. It did well with both crowds (I truly think it's the people that are in-between that didn't appreciate TBBT).
There were _many_ episodes where I would watch with my "non-science" wife and she would laugh at a joke as would I. Then I would pause it and ask what she was laughing about and she would explain that it was the way Penny looked at Leonard or the ridiculousness of the situation... and I would explain that I was laughing because of some physics engineering thing (and explain a bit about it) and I always thought it was interesting that we could both enjoy a show in that way.
TBBT had a lot more going for it than people give it credit for. Good characters, decent writing, funny "science" all thrown together and made just enough over the top to be interesting but not unbelievable.
Many of those who deride TBBT aren't geeky enough to get the geeky jokes - but are geeky enough to be indignant about a show that pokes fun at geeks. This same set of people also has a hard time seeing the stereotypes on the show as being at all realistic because they don't know enough true geeks that fit the stereotypes.
My thoughts on the BBT haters is that they tend to be people who aren't "quite" geeks. They are people who have a bit of geeky-ness to them but aren't truly geeky enough to see the stereotypes portrayed on the show as really being possible in real life.
I consider myself truly geeky - and have, at various times, over the years maintained friendship circles that look almost exactly like the set of people on BBT.
While the show is not _always_ funny - it had more to like than most. Enough so that people in my circles will jokingly call each other (and themselves) "Sheldon", "Leanard" or "Howard" and have a good laugh about it. The characters are over the top - but of course they are, it wouldn't be funny without it!
Now - I haven't watched the last few seasons of BBT (been busy) so maybe its gone downhill - but BBT has stood the test of time and will continue to do so in syndication.
I've read several articles about how Spotify uses a track's "skip rate" (how many people skip it after listening to just a small amount of it) to judge whether to move it from smaller playlists up to bigger playlists - and whether or not to recommend more songs like that to you.
Another crazy example is that Netflix pays attention to the type of _artwork_ (icon) you like to stop on or click. For any given show there are dozens of possible icons... and Netflix serves up the one it thinks will be most enticing to you: https://medium.com/netflix-tec...
This is true "big data" - these services collect every single thing you do so they can tailor the service to you.
Yep and do some research on the Pitch FX system used for telecast and rating umpires: it treats every player differently - they each get their very own customized strike zone.
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That's an odd way of looking at things... I'm in the heart of deep red states (Utah and Idaho) and they don't see it that way here. Instead they see a _utility_ (which is what local government should provide) and then direct competition using that utility (which is just good capitalism).
It's no different than the town/state providing roads... and then local businesses setting up shop on those roads to sell you stuff that is delivered via those roads.
What state are you in?
We flipped this around in our town. The voters voted to make the local power utility _own_ the fiber and deploy it. So my fiber runs right along my electrical and comes out of my power meter! I pay $30 a month extra on my utilities to be hooked up... and from there I can choose (from 6) an ISP and one of their packages to go with for bandwidth. Now I have gigabit bidirectional for $70/month!
My house is a newer build so it was easy to run the fiber through existing conduit. In other areas of the city they're running it on the poles... and it yet other areas of the city where power cables are buried the power company is taking this as an opportune time to upgrade the existing power cabling. They are digging up the old power cables and laying conduit... and fiber as they go.
It's working well around here (Idaho). There are many small / medium towns doing it this way in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
The company behind a lot of this is: https://www.utopiafiber.com/
Municipal fiber is happening - but slowly. I live in a small town (_maybe_ a city) in Idaho and we just started the municipal fiber rollout. I'm typing this now over a 1Gbps bidirectional link for $70/month total.
The next town over from us did it first... and a bunch of towns in northern Utah have gone that way as well.
In my town the electric company (which is a city utility here) actually owns the fiber... it runs right up to your house and out of your electrical meter! You pay for the fiber line as part of your city utility bill: $30.
At that point you can then select any of 6 different ISPs to use. They all have varying speeds and plans. I went with a $40 bidirectional gigabit... because... why not?
Previous to this I was paying out local cable company $110/month for 250Mbps down and 10Mbps up (which I actually considered to be quite good after just moving from the northeast!).
The cable company's days are numbered. It will take a while - they are deeply entrenched in some municipalities - but they will slowly be taken down by fiber...
Iâ(TM)m sure there are some systems that are better than others: but neither of mine have ever done that.
For reference I have a Ford from 2 years ago (radar and camera system) and a brand new Subaru (two camera system). Overall the Fordâ(TM)s system is better (quicker to acquire, etc.) but both are really good.
You obviously haven't tried any of the more advanced systems. They are much more than "toys".
I have two cars that both have adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. While they are not full autonomy... they are _very_ useful. Adaptive cruise control in particular (where you set a desired speed - and a desired follow distance if you come up on another car) is a godsend on long trips. It removes all of the frustration involved with normal cruise control and people going slightly slower than you...
Lane keep assist is similarly great on long trips... just for helping you stay in your lane that little extra bit. It's also good in town where sometimes I might be adjusting the radio or picking up my coffee or something and I feel the slight tug of the system as it makes sure I don't cross over into oncoming traffic.
Both of these systems could make you more "complacent"... but what I find they do is make me more _relaxed_ instead. Instead of worrying over every detail of driving I can relax and enjoy the ride more. I actually find that this leads me to being _more_ alert on long trips because I don't get as tired or road hypnotized.
Anyway - now that I've had a taste of computer assisted driving I definitely want more. A car that could at least drive itself (with me still paying attention) on the highway would be great!
Since they announced its impending death... I have been searching for a replacement and never found one. I tried dozens of apps and webservices... but none of them did what Inbox could do.
The best I've settled on right now is using normal GMail with the "Multiple Inboxes" option and really specific queries set up to fill each Inbox. That gives me 5 "Google Inbox" style inboxes... and then everything else just gets jumbled together.
It works ok - but I assume they'll even remove that option at some point :-(
Has anyone found a better alternative?
Netflix has enough original content that I'll keep subscribing
Hulu will stay because that's how I do LiveTV and interact with "normal" TV channels (HGTV, etc.)
Amazon Prime will continue because I use Amazon Prime anyway (shipping, etc.)
I seriously can't see paying for Disney or Warner though. I currently subscribe to HBO, but it is getting outcompeted by Netflix in the originals area now... so it may not last.
Disney? No way. The few Disney movies I want I'll buy/rent on iTunes...
Never could get into Aquamacs... I guess it's because I still use Emacs on Linux (both in X and over ssh) daily so I want my Emacs on my mac to be as Linux-like as possible. That's why I always use: https://emacsformacosx.com/
Like it says: it's just Emacs... no extra BS...
I was one of the few who really like Google Contributor. It allowed me to give back to the websites I frequent in a really convenient way. I was pretty bummed when they shut it down.
Note: I didn't do it to remove ads (ads don't bother me) I just liked that I could directly compensate the websites I use all day...
It's not always about water quality. Everywhere that I've lived has had "drinkable" water... but for the longest time I still preferred bottled water. Why? Because of convenience.
It's rare for me to sit down in one place and drink a whole glass of water (other than at meals). Even if I'm at home I'm moving all over the place and it's easier to just bring a bottle of water along with me to make sure I drink enough during the day. Also: everytime I would leave the house I would grab a bottle of water to drink while I'm out. Super simple.
But: I didn't like the waste it was generating (even if they go the recycling bin - it's still waste). So, lately I switched to an army of "Contigo" water bottles that I just keep refilled instead. It's a bit more work... but generates MUCH less waste and is definitely less expensive!
Serious question: do you know about the "Live Listen" capability of Airpods?
Here's a good article on it: https://www.imore.com/how-make...
It essentially turns AirPods into hearing boosters.
Check it out and see if it fits your needs. Yeah, you'll have to charge them, but that's pretty painless and the case keeps them charged pretty well.
I find it hard to care at all... and I'm a heavy data user.
For me, mobile data speeds are MORE than good enough. I can stream high-quality TV, I can stream music I can browse the web as fast as I can on my wifi at home. What more is there to want on a phone?
Now - 5G is interesting for _other_ mobile data uses (like laptop connections). But I seriously couldn't care less less about 5G on my phone.
Even at home I'm struggling to find the need for more bandwidth from my internet service provider. I have 200Mbps... but they offer 1Gbps. Even with two 4k TVs constantly streaming (although not always constantly streaming 4k) I fail to find any fault in 200Mbps. Also, my fiance and I both work at home and I do a lot of data movement for my job - but 200Mbps is STILL tons.
Last month at my house we pulled down around 1.3TB of data (40GB a day)... but I still don't see a need for more than 200Mbps.
So if that's good enough at my house... what in the hell do I need 5G for on my phone?
I'm 30% over my cap: ~1.2TB used on a 900GB cap...
This is mostly video streaming (much of which is 4k)- but both my fiance and I work from home as well and I do use quite a bit a bandwidth for that.
Luckily municipal fiber is rolling out here and my neighborhood is in the initial rollout! So - by January I could have bidirectional Gbit... but I don't know the price of the service just yet....
This also kills me with cell-phones. People will pay ~$1000 for a phone... but refuse to buy $1 apps to use on it. They will go WAY out of their way to find a "free" app that does something similar...
I absolutely cannot understand this phenomenon.
The article says: "turn on the radio or dim the lights or get weather information. But to be revolutionary, they will need to find a greater calling -- a new, breakout application."
Why?
Turning on the radio (playing music generally), dimming/turning on/off lights and getting weather information is all pretty critical to my day. I do every single one of those things every morning (using my Google Home). In addition I also check my calendar...
Why does it _need_ to do more than that? That is perfectly enough to make sure that I will always have one from this point forward...
Hah - if you're going to live with a geek - you have to get used to that. Can't completely turn that off :-)
Agreed - reading these comments I am struck that there must be geeks out there who simply (for whatever reason) do not associate with geeks of the kind found on the show. Then they assume that the geeks on the show are unrealistic and therefore the show is bad.
I can name several of my friends (and myself) that pass as "Sheldon", "Leonard" and even "Howard" at various times (I even have one friend that is incredibly painfully shy that he speaks at an almost inaudible volume level most of the time... until he starts drinking...). No one is one of those characters *all* of the time - but there are aspects of the characters and the situations they get themselves into that are definitely relatable.
BTW: In my estimation the lives of "smart" people are generally worse than "normal" people. It truly is a burden to be smart in this day and age (maybe it always has been?). I am often envious of "normal" people that can go about their lives without as much care as I put into figuring out how to get out of a bathroom without touching anything. Or "normal" people at work who just stroll in and sit for their time and then go home and not overthink every aspect of the problem they are solving. There is literally not any minute of any day that I am not problem solving (either actual problems or perceived). It would be a blessing to be able to just "exist"...
In this too TBBT resonates with me. Those guys don't just "leave work at work"... they are always problem solving (often for some problem they created for themselves!)... which is pretty much how my day goes too.
Actually: TBBT is somewhat of a blessing in that it let me dull my own brain for a while and watch other "smart" people figure out how to deal with life...
You seriously don't know anyone with whiteboards in their houses with equations / etc. on them?
I will admit that as I get older the whiteboards are fading out from my friends houses... but we all had them (including me) for a time. When we would have mad "hackathons" at each others houses we would fill the whiteboards up with ideas / diagrams / equations and hack into the early morning. For many years I had an entire wall that was basically just a giant whiteboard with stuff like that on it in my office.
Like I said: as I get older they are fading out. Mostly this is a function of better work / life balance with kids / wives coming into the mix we generally only get our whiteboard on at work (where we still have many big ones full of equations / diagrams / etc. that get use daily).
There are definitely many different kinds of geeks and different pockets of geek culture out there. Don't assume that because you didn't witness it that the types of geeks on TBBT don't exist. They DEFINITELY do. Of course it's over the top on TBBT... but the characters are definitely rooted in real-life believability.
"the average guy can be the hero"
What "average guy" on BBT was the hero? Penny? She was often getting bailed out by the "geeks"... and then every now and again she could offer some "normal" insight to clear up a geek problem.
I don't buy this one at all: one of the more interesting things about TBBT is that the geeks largely had to resolve their own issues. Being very geeky myself and knowing many others that fit the stereotypes portrayed on TBBT... I always found it funny to watch them work their way out of the situations they got themselves in... precisely because I could see myself and my friends working it out in a similar way...
For me the thing was that they _weren't_ using gibberish. So "non-science" people can laugh without caring what those terms mean... but "sciency" people can laugh _because_ of the actual words / equations / theorems used. It did well with both crowds (I truly think it's the people that are in-between that didn't appreciate TBBT).
There were _many_ episodes where I would watch with my "non-science" wife and she would laugh at a joke as would I. Then I would pause it and ask what she was laughing about and she would explain that it was the way Penny looked at Leonard or the ridiculousness of the situation... and I would explain that I was laughing because of some physics engineering thing (and explain a bit about it) and I always thought it was interesting that we could both enjoy a show in that way.
TBBT had a lot more going for it than people give it credit for. Good characters, decent writing, funny "science" all thrown together and made just enough over the top to be interesting but not unbelievable.
I agree with this.
Many of those who deride TBBT aren't geeky enough to get the geeky jokes - but are geeky enough to be indignant about a show that pokes fun at geeks. This same set of people also has a hard time seeing the stereotypes on the show as being at all realistic because they don't know enough true geeks that fit the stereotypes.
Definitely a good summary.
My thoughts on the BBT haters is that they tend to be people who aren't "quite" geeks. They are people who have a bit of geeky-ness to them but aren't truly geeky enough to see the stereotypes portrayed on the show as really being possible in real life.
I consider myself truly geeky - and have, at various times, over the years maintained friendship circles that look almost exactly like the set of people on BBT.
While the show is not _always_ funny - it had more to like than most. Enough so that people in my circles will jokingly call each other (and themselves) "Sheldon", "Leanard" or "Howard" and have a good laugh about it. The characters are over the top - but of course they are, it wouldn't be funny without it!
Now - I haven't watched the last few seasons of BBT (been busy) so maybe its gone downhill - but BBT has stood the test of time and will continue to do so in syndication.
TigerPlish has this right - plus streaming services DO use the fact that you stopped after 15 minutes.
For instance, check out this article about why "Everything Sucks" was cancelled by Netflix: https://www.businessinsider.co...
I've read several articles about how Spotify uses a track's "skip rate" (how many people skip it after listening to just a small amount of it) to judge whether to move it from smaller playlists up to bigger playlists - and whether or not to recommend more songs like that to you.
Another crazy example is that Netflix pays attention to the type of _artwork_ (icon) you like to stop on or click. For any given show there are dozens of possible icons... and Netflix serves up the one it thinks will be most enticing to you: https://medium.com/netflix-tec...
This is true "big data" - these services collect every single thing you do so they can tailor the service to you.
Yep and do some research on the Pitch FX system used for telecast and rating umpires: it treats every player differently - they each get their very own customized strike zone.
Title says it all - Tennis has done it for many years... and it's been hugely successful. No reason why baseball can't do the same...