pasbesoin

Their library has increasingly sucked. They've changed their UI to be correspondingly undifferentiating, making this change less apparent without actually viewing the content. There's a good reason -- besides "touchscreen/TV interfaces" -- why user comments are gone, and their star ratings.

Speaking of interfaces, it seems the "tile" interface changes are oriented towards those touchscreen/TV formats.

Basically, I think they're enticing people with (some of) their "Netflix Originals". And they have a (now, very) few new or new-to-them A-list films circulating through.

For the rest, they just hope you'll click on something that sounds or looks (from the tile) like it could be good, and then be satisfied -- or at least put up with -- what you get.

That said, other people still seem pretty positive about their streaming offer. When they offer details from their viewing, I just don't agree.

I barely watch anything any more on Netflix streaming. When I do try something new -- especially one of their "Netflix originals" -- I increasingly feel I am being fed the same set of tropes. (E.g. There's only so much dystopia I can take. Especially when it recycles the same plot and dialog points.)

This price bump may be it, for me. I'm too inclined to just keep on keeping on. I don't do "resolutions", but this year, one intention is to stop that.

Besides, I increasingly feel like I'm funding, with my subscriptions, the very people -- and their lawyers -- who keep making things worse and worse.

(Reading the recent reporting that Netflix software engineers average 300K a year hasn't really helped my attitude, either. So, THAT's what I'm paying for... (?) )

Even decades ago, I recall from memory a gorgeous nighttime view of parliament, lit up in gold-ish tones, with an emerald green lighting the bridge underside in the intermediate foreground. I'm pretty sure I have a couple of slides of it, somewhere...

When I see pictures and video now, I wonder how much the view behind me would have changed.

Walking London was a cornucopia of experiences, from being treated by an erstwhile stranger to a great dinner on the backside of Chinatown, to being scammed out of 20 pounds -- and getting off lucky it was only that much.

(After a cold winter in Germany, it was a bit like being let out of the pen -- and into an abnormally gorgeous week of April good weather. Although, in reality, my German friends expressed a closeness, and -- I can actually use the word -- Gemuetlichkeit, that a frenetic London could not entirely substitute.)

--

P.S. This was back when, IIRC, the well-known book had rising to "London on £15 a Day". Or maybe it was £10 -- that sounds right. Anyway, £20 was substantially more than an inexpensive dinner -- or even shared lodging with an English breakfast. Ah, well -- lesson learned, and without physical injury.

A comment on another thread, made about a day after my GP comment, mentioned an influential paper published in, IIRC, 1944 speculating on crystalline storage of complete human genetic information. (I'm assuming this would encompass a pre-double-helix understanding/conception of said data.)

That would tie into Clarke's story well (originally in several forms, that got consolidated into "The City and the Stars" with a 1952 copyright. And he would have been in a position (scientifically active) to have encountered it.

I don't know that any such thing happened. But, it was an interesting coincidence to run across that comment. (Sorry, I don't have it to hand.)

My (big metropolitan) supermarket chain got rid of their loyalty card program.

One explanation I've heard, is that so many people are purchasing with credit/debit cards, that most purchasers are readily identified and purchase history tracking continues unaffected.

And if you purchase with a credit card, one way those businesses bolster their bottom lines is by selling your transaction history -- down to individual items purchased.

It's enough to make one want to go back to cash...

Clarke's "The City and the Stars"

Technologically enabled immortality (in an interesting manner).

Massive, crystalline data storage.

Immersive gaming, including the negative, subsuming aspects of same.

The individual as radical.

The radical as an essential component of long-term planning and viability.

One question, is whether the designation is objective or projective.

There are a lot of "lazy" people "doing the wrong thing", whom closer analysis -- or just actually listening to them -- indicates are actually acting rationally, within their circumstances, and doing the best they can.

In part, the question for me comes down to: Are you going to label? Or are you going to do something about it?

I see and hear a lot of the former. Much less of the latter.

Yet those same people would hate to be treated as they insist others be treated.

So, I don't listen to them, too much.

For years, I made myself ill dealing with tremendously distracting and counter-productive open-space work environments. From college onward, I was told -- encultured -- that "this is the future" and that I'd better learn to cope with, err "thrive", in it.

Now, finally, the cultural dialog is turning the corner on this. They really are horrible, not just in terms of personal welfare but also productivity.

So, what really changed? I was "contrary"; well, actually, I wish I had been more so and actually acted against my circumstances.

Now, it turns out, I was "insightful".

Who really failed? The bozos who stuffed us into cattle pens and couldn't even perform decent metrics against their claims, let alone look at the welfare of their employees.

So, "burnout", "depression", "laziness"? Just words.

Find something you enjoy doing. Some place you enjoy living. And stuff the "opinions" about it.

Pre-Google-Fi and into Google Fi, I considered the various "un-appeal-able" account scenarios with Google products, including how they sometimes tied back to loss of access to other Google products including one's Gmail account and basically any access to the baseline Google account at all.

When I signed up for my first Android phone, I created a new Gmail address for it.

When I decided to give Fi a ago -- and get a discount on a Nexus 5x -- I looked at how Fi commandeered any already-connected Google Voice number -- in a one-way process, by the way -- and used a Gmail account that did not have Google Voice set up. And kept my other number active on another carrier, by the way -- I wasn't porting it.

Fi can be pretty good, when it works. Google account management, on the other hand, remains a minefield of irreversible pitfalls.

I might suggest to Google, that they try re-introducing some orthogonality into their accounting structures. But, I'm tired of suggesting things to Google; they've had more than enough time to get -- or buy -- a clue.

Don't mistake political opportunism for ethics or moral fiber. Speaking generally -- not just of this instance.

I was resisting posting my OT question on this thread, but I will, briefly: Is there something like Lichess for Go (the board game)? Similar quality and openness.

A couple of years ago, I spent a good little chunk of time searching something out, and I think I recall seeing a few interesting candidates, but I didn't follow through and don't have those results at hand.

Yep. Like the "pick out a toaster for your 5 years of service" awards.

Seriously -- if you haven't encountered this -- there are businesses that specialize in... "administering" service awards to employees, for other businesses -- typically, for larger corporations, where there's enough volume to make it worth their while.( Or, there were such, the last time I was in such a position.) You, the awardee, get so many "points", and there's a catalog, online now, where you can pick from items "costing" no more than the points you have.

It functions, I guess, not just for anniversaries. Although good luck, for many BigCorp managers, getting any kind of budget for any other kind of "reward".

At least the toaster works reasonably well...

But the whole thing was a pretty soulless experience.

I did also receive one of those company awards, at that company. It was actually pretty low key. Perhaps including because my department had nothing to do with it. I helped smooth out a perpetually bumpy cross-department and cross-division business process.

(I got tired of the hassle, set up a meeting, and walked everyone through the process and their roles and facilitated consensus and agreement about same, including deliverables and schedules. It wasn't part of my job description or authority to do so, but what the hell, and everyone else was tired of the problems, too.)

One day, someone outside my reporting chain showed up with the award. (Maybe it was a division-wide / level award, rather than company-wide.) No ceremony, just thanks. I think I got a couple of hundred bucks and a plaque or certificate or something, too.

It didn't really change the way I operated or my motivation -- what solved the problem, in the first place. But, it was nice to be noticed.

That was also the position where my manager just showed up with pay raises -- despite the company-wide pay freeze.

I got sh-t done. He, and she, responded accordingly.

And the pay raises were appreciated. Substantial, and not a one-off "pat on the back".

By the way, further pertaining to the OP type awards. You can get one, and get canned the following quarter. They often really don't mean much.

P.S. And it can be dangerous if you, the recipient, start to believe they do.

2013 -- for others who also thought they'd heard about this in the past.