pasbesoin (u/pasbesoin)

pasbesoin commented on Netflix to raise prices by 13% to 18% cnbc.com/2019/01/15/netfl... · Posted by u/jmsflknr

jeffwass · 7 years ago

Has anyone felt that Netflix’s UI has deteriorated massively?

I’ve had it on appleTV for several years. It used to be really easy to browse and find content.

But they’ve completely changed the app and now I feel you either need to know what to specifically look for, or happen to find something in the random “suggestions since you’ve watched X” on the main menu which are a fairly random set of X’s.

They even (as far as I can tell) got rid of the helpful list of alternate suggestions when you select a specific movie.

I don’t understand the need for insane UI’s, do companies feel they must make major UI changes so it looks like they’re not stagnating?

Another theory someone said about their complicated UI is that they perhaps massively reduced the size of the available library, and a convoluted UI hides this fact.

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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.

pasbesoin commented on Netflix Is Raising Prices. Here’s Why nytimes.com/2019/01/15/bu... · Posted by u/artur_makly

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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... (?) )

pasbesoin commented on Field notes: London, England (2018) devonzuegel.com/post/fiel... · Posted by u/Thevet

flurdy · 7 years ago

"The one exception was a brief stint walking around the South Bank, which was full of bland office spaces with little ground-floor retail or neighborhoods"

As indicated in her update elsewhere in her notes, the best waterfront bank in London is the South Bank, and the best way to see the South Bank is to walk along the actual waterfront bank, i.e. along the river.

The northern side of the river is a mess of blocked off stretches and vehicle roads. Whilst the South Bank is a lovely continuous pedestrian stretch with plenty of food places and small parks along it.

I frequently walk from Waterloo station along the bank to either Millennium Bridge, or onwards all the way to the Borough Market by London Bridge. Lovely stretch of the river.

There are some other nice parts of the South Bank, and I can see on her map she walked through the Cut, but I agree apart from the actual waterfront bank the rest is mostly dire.

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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.

pasbesoin commented on Ask HN: Favorite technology predictions in science fiction? · Posted by u/focal

nurettin · 7 years ago

It seems the sci-fi trend for huge data storage back then was "crystals!". So were many of remote viewing devices, alien navigation systems and space fuel.

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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.)

pasbesoin commented on ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ Review wsj.com/articles/the-age-... · Posted by u/Jerry2

clouddrover · 7 years ago

> my concern is more with the government having my data than companies

If the data exists then companies and governments alike will exploit it regardless of who collected it. Your internet usage, your phone records, even your DNA profile if you used a DNA profiling service can all be accessed at will without your knowledge or consent:

https://www.purevpn.com/blog/data-retention-laws-by-countrie...

In an age when your own data can be weaponized against your best interests I think the only sensible strategy is to minimize your data footprint as much as possible. Do not join "loyalty" programs, do not sign up to surveillance platforms like Facebook, do not submit your DNA to DNA databases, pay in cash whenever possible, etc.

You will inevitably be undermined by other people forking over your data to surveillance platforms but you can only do the best you can and hope to persuade as many people as possible to do similarly.

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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...

pasbesoin commented on Creating Languages in Racket (2012) cacm.acm.org/magazines/20... · Posted by u/headalgorithm

equalunique · 7 years ago

Might be my unreliable mobile browser, but this page isn't loading.

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

It's there.

Here's a copy that's in the Wayback Machine (aka archive.org).

https://web.archive.org/web/20190113223131/https://cacm.acm....

pasbesoin commented on Ask HN: Favorite technology predictions in science fiction? · Posted by u/focal

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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.

pasbesoin commented on Ask HN: What is the difference between Burnout/Depression/Laziness/Wrong job? · Posted by u/throwaway130119

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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.

pasbesoin commented on I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi onemileatatime.com/google... · Posted by u/hispanic

iandanforth · 7 years ago

The lede here is somewhat burried:

"From what I’ve since learned, if a card in your Google Pay is stolen, or someone uses your Payments account fraudulently, or anything happens that leads to a security flag being raised, it can lead to your Google Payments account being frozen.

...

If you can’t use Google Payments, you can’t pay for Google Fi

This, fundamentally, is why I can’t suggest anyone use Project Fi anymore.

...

Getting this fixed is actually impossible, and I say that as someone who really, truly, loves solving problems and has made a living off getting phone agents to want to help me.

We have submitted copies of his ID four times, my ID twice, multiple photos of credit cards, and various credit card statements. We’ve talked to agents and supervisors at Google Payments and Google Fi. No one is empowered to do anything, and even a well-intentioned agent doesn’t get the same answer from the “security department” twice.

I’ve since found hundreds of comments and Reddit threads from people having similar experiences, with almost zero positive conclusions.

The only suggestion of a solution we’ve been given is that he abandon both his email address and phone number of the past twenty years and start fresh."

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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.

pasbesoin commented on Turkish Journalist Sentenced to Prison Over Paradise Papers’ Investigation icij.org/investigations/p... · Posted by u/ccnafr

yostrovs · 7 years ago

I was impressed by the concern Turkey had about the journalist Khashoggi. Obviously some journalists are more journalistic than others.

pasbesoin · 7 years ago

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