|
Expanse S06 E01: and now ... I have to wait a week for the next episode. 
The weird thing is that that was how I grew up: terrestrial TV was always episodic - one episode per show per week to fit all shows into a schedule. So why would it bother me now that a streaming service artificially replicates that when it's completely unnecessary? I dunno - but it does! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
modified 10-Dec-21 7:26am.
|
|
|
|
|
It could be worse - I tried watching Star Trek Discovery S4 on PlutoTV, which is free with ads. It's not available on demand; you have to watch it at the prescribed time. If you miss it, tough.
What is this, the early 80s, before we had VCRs?
(In the end, I gave up and bought the series from Amazon.)
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
|
|
|
|
|
Richard Deeming wrote: the early 80s, before we had VCRs?
Isn't that "when we had VCRs"?
I haven't as much as seen any dusty old VCR for at least ten years. I haven't watched a movie on VCR tape for about 20 years. Most of my friends have ditched even their BluRay collections (and obviously DVD and CD as well) and rely exclusively on streaming services.
Every now and then I watch (on my PC, digitized versions of) either old family movies or analog born commercial movies. The image quality is so bad, by today's standards, that it is a pain. I watch them for one of two reasons: Either, they show my family, or the soundtrack has some great music.
|
|
|
|
|
So, sometimes it takes me a while to get around to things ....
Lockdown struck and I decided it was now the ideal time to watch those videos that I still haven't even seen, after 30 years!
So picked a home video I really wanted to keep and put that in to watch before the unused stuff. Machine immediately mangled the tape and semi-digested it to the extent I doubted I could ever get it out, let alone save it.
So, half an hour later, VRC and entire tape collection in the rubbish pile.
I just looked online and I can watch Eric Clapton's 24 Nights in HD on YouTube with better sound but I miss OWNING it, even on video!
|
|
|
|
|
trønderen wrote: Isn't that "when we had VCRs"?
Not in the early 80s, unless your household was particularly rich. 
My comparison was deliberately to a time before you could record a program to watch it later. If the program was broadcast at 9PM, you had to sit and watch it at 9PM. You couldn't record it and watch it the next day.
That's almost unheard-of with streaming services, at least outside of live events. But that's precisely what Pluto have done with Discovery.
trønderen wrote: Most of my friends ... rely exclusively on streaming services.
Which is fine, if you can guarantee that the streaming service will never go out of business; will never remove the film from their collection; will never try to charge you extra to see the film; etc.
Sure, physical DVDs and BluRays won't last forever. But nobody can (legally) come into your home and take them away from you just because the store you bought them from has gone bust.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
|
|
|
|
|
|
Richard Deeming wrote: Not in the early 80s, unless your household was particularly rich
I guess that I am biased. Norway had one single TV channel far into the 80s. That explains why we, at the start of the 1980s had the highest density of VCRs in the world, and probably the highest density of VHS rental shops as well. Our school replaced 16mm educational movies with video movies during the second half of the 1970s.
Another factor pushing VCRs into Norwegian homes starting in the late 1970s: We had extremely tight socalled "moral" restrictions on what could be broadcast. Movies with adults posing in their underwear was off limits. To see movies of that kind, you had to go to a rental shop. So that's what we did. From a moral point of view, the single broadcast channel was like going to church service every Sunday morning and not giving a d*** the rest of the week.
So VHS made us accustomed to both double and triple X. The authorities realized facts, and movie censorship has gone from being one of the most conservative countries in the Western world to one of the most liberal ones. We went from "Life of Brian" going from totally banned to approved for all audiences ...
|
|
|
|
|
By the ‘90s, VCRs were so cheap they were being given away free in Silicon Valley if you bought a laptop.
When my brother bought a laptop at a Fry’s store in San Jose, we were given the free VCR. We told the salesman that we had no use for it and the store could keep it. He argued that if we didn’t take the VCR, it would screw up their inventory system and forced it on us.
We took the VCR and left it in the trash bin just outside the door. The bin wasn’t wide enough for the VCR, carton and all, to drop through and so we just set it on top and walked away!
Thinking back, we should have dropped it in a Goodwill Store or Salvation Army dumpster.
|
|
|
|
|
trønderen wrote: I haven't as much as seen any dusty old VCR for at least ten years
I gave away the VCR I still had just last weekend - a relative of mine still had old tapes from when her kid was a toddler, and she thought it was a crying shame she couldn't now show them to her grandkids when her VCR died I don't know how long ago.
Mine was working fine the last time I used it, but it had been sitting on a shelf, disconnected from any power outlet, for, I'm sure, at least 10 years.
I know I still have tapes somewhere. Had I bothered to try to find them, I'd have given them to her as well, although I don't have anything that would be of any interest to 4-year olds (and younger).
|
|
|
|
|
Wait for the final episode to be released and then watch them all at once.
I didn't watch Mandalorian season one until season two was about to begin.
|
|
|
|
|
That was the plan, but ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
OriginalGriff wrote: I have to wait a week for the next episode.
I know. I wait for all the episodes to be posted. Often, I'll first rewatch the previous season simply to remind myself of the context.
|
|
|
|
|
Marc Clifton wrote: Often, I'll first rewatch the previous season simply to remind myself of the context.
+1  (at least the last 3 or 4 episodes)
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
I don't think I'll have that problem...I still haven't found the interest to watch the 5th season.
|
|
|
|
|
Like Mr Clifton I don't have a burning need to see it the instant it comes out (I am NOT an Apple fanboi) and will binge them all when season is complete, and yeah I have no compunction about watching the previous season "just to make sure I have the correct context"
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
|
|
|
|
|
From a marketing POV, releasing episodes one per week is the better choice. The schedule builds anticipation and encourages discussion among the viewers, which heightens interest.
When binge watching, the show is over within a day or 3, and then it ends. Everyone has seen it all, so there's no anticipation and little to discuss, except among the diehard fans.
Also, if you binge watch, you're locked into 1 program. If you watch 1 episode, you're more likely to see what else is interesting before and after your viewing. With the services, it's not all about subscriber $$$ -- viewership of individual shows is important as is subscriber retention.
It's all about psychology ....
|
|
|
|
|
I stumbled upon this in my travels today
#ifdef TARGET_CPU_PPC
return __lhbrx(ram, address);
#else /* !TARGET_CPU_PPC */
uint32 x = (uint32) * (uint16 *)(ram + address);
return (x << 8) | (x >> 8);
#endif /* !TARGET_CPU_PPC */
That's one way to date your code. Who still uses power pcs?
This code is 20 years old at least.
Edit: Upon reflection I think this belongs in Weird and Wonderful.
Real programmers use butterflies
|
|
|
|
|
|
I totally understand why they would do it. For awhile the shuttles were running machines with 256kB of RAM, I forget what architecture.
That's not code you want to revisit. That's code that goes through mountains of approval, documentation, testing. It's elephanting expensive to develop, and quite difficult to do correctly.
I haven't watched the video, but I run into a smaller version of the same problem with medical/clinical software.
Real programmers use butterflies
|
|
|
|
|
I don't think I want to see any ifdefs in such software.
|
|
|
|
|
How do you stub missing/incomplete physical components for developing without ifdefs?
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
|
|
|
|
|
That sounds like a bad idea when dealing with the systems indicated.
|
|
|
|
|
It's SOP, it actually allows to build and test the software alongaside the hardware. Otherwise you'd have to wait for all the hardware to be finalized and in production, then start writing the firmware and the software over it... with the potential of discovering integration issues, in that case the hardware must be modified and the software development halted until everything is in production again.
Nope, software starts on its own and everything not yet existing is stubbed. Meanwhile all the development, testing and most importantly validation that can be done without the hardware is done.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
|
|
|
|
|
Which is fine for the early stages of the development of commercial types of software, but when a rocket is about to be launched, that would not be an ideal situation.
|
|
|
|
|
Me too.
Real programmers use butterflies
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
