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.

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... (?) )

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.

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.)

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...

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

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

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.

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.

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.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18876042

https://online-go.com/docs/about

Online-go.com is made possible by the generous financial support from hundreds of individual site supporters, the guidance and welcome friendly attitudes of the Go community at large, and by a large collection of volunteers that have helped translate Online-Go.com into a multitude of different languages from all over the world.

https://github.com/online-go/online-go.com/

https://github.com/online-go/online-go.com/wiki

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.

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.

https://www.google.com/search?q=things+i+won%27t+work+with

Correspondingly, their licenses should be on the line, as well as liability for malpractice.

Let regulation and tort law take a few of them out. See what happens, then. Maybe even criminal law, as inevitably some patients will die due to lack of proper care.

After its launch, the emphasis seemed to be a decent level of quality, i.e. it will actually be what it says on the tin. The specs we provide, it will conform to.

Which has led me to turn to Anker products in order to get a "known quality."

Has this changed?

When they want you to work extra hours, there's no argument. There's the project and the deadline.

Come a slow day or two, though, or the need to take an hour or three for a personal task (see the doctor, for example), and there's no automatic, corresponding flexibility from them.

Oh, your manager may grant you the time, but it's always at their discretion and a "favor" in return for your "good behavior."

Gee, thanks. :-/

By the way, the positions are "exempt", but there's no hour-by-hour management of associates that requires constant attention. The whole definition of "exempt" is skewed to fix labor costs rather than provide (and pay, at a higher fixed level) for real "management of employees". Hell, often I'm not even directly interfacing with anyone who is non-exempt.

Butts in seats. In my mind, it goes along with the "open space" paradigm. It's not actually about being "efficient"; it's about appearances, and control.

Like the one petty tyrant manager who wouldn't let us upgrade woefully outdated and overly expensive process, because he might lose some headcount. His status and "security" were, in his mind -- and perhaps even correctly -- tied to that headcount.

And... I suppose low cube walls helped to "show it off."

P.S. I actually got along pretty well, including with my management. Perhaps too easy-going.

As I've had time to reflect back upon all this, my resentment has grown and hardened. A LOT of wasted time and energy.

If/when you start feeling this way, look around not just at the ostensible work you have to complete, but at the system and environment in which you are expected to complete it.

Which are the real problems?

Guests need to be offered the question of whether they care to share X data, and guaranteed that a "no" answer will not affect their ability to do business and receive services in the slightest -- nor the price they receive.

Many people scream bloody murder WRT regulation. However, here we have a clear and repeated industry failure -- one with significant knock-on costs and risks.

So, tough. You failed.

I could also cough up a protest on my part against the whole misleading notion of "self-regulation". And point out that in an era of increasing consolidation into brands under very few and very large holding companies, effective competition -- including and with respect to data and security practices -- is largely absent.

P.S. Where data collection is required, standards and aggressive auditing should be funded and enforced.

People in the U.S. generally seem to have no problem with FDA regulation and inspection of meat production. (Not realizing how industry political initiatives continue to stress and periodically threaten this, e.g. inspection budgets.)

Well, it seems we're to the point of needing and FDA for data, or something like.

I say this with trepidation. And any initiative should come with a healthy dose of "audit the auditor", to keep requirements and process transparency to a maximum and minimize the governments' own carve-outs and attempts to siphon off the data whose processing are under inspection.

Back to my accounting days. How do you prevent mistakes, error, and fraud? Well, orthogonal processes with robust cross-checks certainly help.

Society has already decided that "because I can" is not a universally acceptable reason or defense.