@ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world

ElectroVagrant

@ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world

Another traveler of the wireways.

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Skavau, to television

Opinion: It's about time a Steam service for TV existed

I know you can buy access to content to some TV shows on the Apple store, Amazon and the Microsoft Store - but these are still subject to geoblocks, not accessible in many countries and only offer a relatively small selection of TV shows anyway (and even then they're subject to this shit.)

Think about how video games have been fundamentally transformed. You can buy the majority of video games on Steam (or just use other similar apps). They're all basically released everywhere on day 1. They're automatically yours forever (until such a potential when Steam goes down - but you can easily extract and secure the files if you worry about that).

The same is not remotely true with TV. I understand that multiple streaming services were obviously going to emerge as TV production expanded. I understand that expecting to be able to watch everything on Netflix for £9.99 a month was never going to be realistic. But alongside these streaming services, a Steam-type client should've emerged allowing people to just buy seasons of content on the services. For people who want to legally keep what they watch, paying something like £5-15 per season (with sales much like Steam). No geoblocks. No restrictions.

I say this because in many cases I have had no choice but to pirate to watch a TV show season. It literally was not available to me through any legal source. I could not digitally buy it, nor was any streaming service accessible to me carrying it. This is now happening to Americans more and more (I am not American) with European series being heavily delayed. The last season of Babylon Berlin released in October. It's carried by Netflix in the USA, who are clearly not interested in acquiring the latest season - and are probably holding the content hostage (or Sky are being obstructive). It's also not accessible in France or many other European countries too.The show has suffered from staggered international releases since it was initially released, essentially throttling its popularity potential (most expensive German series ever made at one point).

As for me? I'm British. I could not, and still can't watch the second season of Balkan Shadows anywhere legally according to Justwatch. Paris Police 1900 season 2 is also still not accessible for me. This is really quite pathetic when you think about music and video games.

ElectroVagrant,

I’m a fan of physical media, but DRM free digital media is a viable alternative imo, so long as folks push for it. The problem is people treating the situation as an all or nothing, DRM-bound digital media or physical media, when there’s a decent middle ground in DRM free media.

ElectroVagrant,

Sometimes, yeah, particularly if it was a copy I let someone borrow but they never returned for this or that reason, or if it was a book I initially read through the library and wanted my own copy (digital or physical) to review whenever.

As of late I’ve been reading more nonfiction though, where one may be more inclined to review them for learning/reference purposes.

ElectroVagrant,

by the Platypus? Yeah, they have a way of dropping knowledge like that.

ElectroVagrant,

Thanks for sharing this oddity!

ElectroVagrant,

Mistaken Identity

Working in a hospital, especially around the ICU and emergency rooms, is rarely dull. There are lulls, and you’re honestly thankful as can be in those moments as it means people are generally okay, steadily recovering, and nobody’s been hurt in some new, bizarre way you genuinely didn’t even think was possible.

One day I found myself roped into helping in the ICU, which wasn’t too unusual, the regulars there needed their time away to recover from the high tension of some of the procedures they frequently dealt with. Really, the biggest part that would put me off from helping was the doctors more than anything. We had some good ones, but every time I found myself helping I seemed to get stuck with some of the more obnoxious ones. Either the ones that were never on time or the ones that were extremely particular about minutiae that was rarely even relevant to the patient’s care, like whether your scrubs were wrinkled or not.

Today was gonna be one of those late doctors, it seemed, as we waited a few minutes past when we were supposed to have begun…Until finally the doctor came in, apologizing and going over everything to make sure all was set and we were on track to start.

As we were about to begin, though, I noticed some of my colleagues looking at each other with strange expressions, hesitant…Which really wasn’t like them. Usually they were happy to get on with everything once the doctor arrived, sometimes anxious depending on what was involved but gradually more comfortable as the doctor reassured them.

The doctor, somewhat perturbed, asked again for their instruments, something we’d all missed hearing in our disorientation. Suddenly the doors opened again, and another doctor came in, apologizing for being so late much like the first, but then confused as much as we were.

“Who the hell is this?”

The first “doctor”, realizing they’d been caught, took it in stride and like so many of the worst doctors around simply shrugged and said, “Oh, sorry, wrong patient,” and simply walked out.

With the right doctor on hand, we had to get right to work rather than interrogate them, but later the doctor and the rest of us tried to figure out who could make such a mistake…And none of us could ever figure out just who the hell that “doctor” was that tried to have us do who knows what to a patient.

ElectroVagrant,

Twirlin’ Travesty

Ol’ Eddy loved him a good sailing trip. Nothing like getting away from the world for awhile and enjoying the tides and, weather blessing, clear skies and a nice, soft warm breeze to make oneself think there’s truly some unending benevolence to the world.

A typical trip never had him straying out into the vaster ocean, as not only was his vessel not really cut out for it, but he never stocked it with any long trips in mind. He’d sailed for some time and knew to keep abreast of the weather and when to head back home when things sounded like they might get to be too much. Failing that, as he much as he took the trips to enjoy some solitude, he wasn’t so averse to others that he hadn’t gotten to know some others at the dock and he made sure someone knew when he was heading out and around when he intended to be back.

After all, one may never know what the ocean has in store for one, and unfortunately for Eddy, it had one sick joke in store for him.

He had done all the routine checks, weather looked to be clear, he’d made sure to let someone know whereabouts and whenabouts he was going and returning, and so he set sail as he always did. However, something caught his eye and made him stray from his route, further than he might have usually gone, but it was such a curious sight he couldn’t help himself.

It was a cloud formation unlike any he’d seen before, and it…Appeared to be drawing up the ocean. He was pretty sure he knew what it was once he realized that, yet he’d never been witness to such a thing before and he couldn’t help but be captivated by it.

He cut his engine, what he thought was far enough away, and just took it in. What a wonder.

And then, a wonder took him in, and he found the loose objects aboard his deck drawn into the air suddenly, and frightened, he tried to grab hold of something, anything, so he wouldn’t be tossed or knocked overboard…But he didn’t need to worry over that, as soon the whole vessel was being drawn into the sky, whirling about as if it was nothing.

That was the last thing he remembered, and next he knew he was somehow back inland, his boat having been wrecked and only his forethought having helped save him…That, and as it would turn out, he’d been spun right back around his original route.

ElectroVagrant,

Fwiw I can see where you’re coming from, but I don’t really understand why/what for. Game Pass isn’t really comparable to Steam or a digital storefront anyway, which already makes the comparison kind of silly. That said, I recognize you were going off the other commenter’s framing in the argument there, so not faulting you for following along with it. I did just the same in my reply before giving it some more thought with this one.

Nevertheless, it is worse in terms of ownership, but that was never its selling point to begin with, so it’s silly to criticize it in that respect, much as it would be to criticize Netflix for not providing ownership of what it gives access to. Also regarding Steam DRM, xcjs covers that nicely in the other reply here.

ElectroVagrant,

Pepper Sauce? I gotta hope there’s some kinda event involving spicy dishes or at least a place serving some nearby, it’s too good to pass up!

ElectroVagrant,

Imagining these words to be something like, “Just keep making it up as you go along”

ElectroVagrant,

I tend to be one of those that doesn’t listen to country (but maybe some folk-esque stuff), who are some artists from then you’ve been listening to that you might suggest?

ElectroVagrant,

I’ve had Cyber Stockholm Syndrome by Rina Sawayama stuck in my head lately, which is kind of fitting.

ElectroVagrant,

E.S. Posthumus

Haven’t listened to them in awhile! I should pick up an album of theirs at some point.

ElectroVagrant,

All of the sites I linked to offer digital downloads of purchased music to play locally, so yes! I specifically sought these out because I prefer to have local files analogous to owning physical media, as I really don’t like perpetually renting media (i.e. subscription services).

ElectroVagrant,

I tried Amazon but I was having trouble finding albums or songs to download specifically. Has to be my mistake since I see it recommended everywhere. Amazon Music is just a streaming service as far as I know?

I don’t use Amazon for music much myself, but last I did, I think the way I found the download options was to search for the albums themselves as if I was trying to buy a physical copy, which much like books and other stuff, will often present a digital purchase option when available.

I stopped using it because it just felt way clunkier to deal with, which was even before they got into music streaming if memory serves (or at least, before they had prioritized it).

ElectroVagrant,

I dunno which may be easiest, but if you’d like to know some of your options, this Wikipedia page may be a good place to start.

ElectroVagrant,

To be clear, when referring to a reasonably good product, which iteration of their attempts are you describing?

ElectroVagrant, (edited )

We’re not in /c/technology nor a tech themed instance, it’s a showerthought post (so the vibe should be casual), maybe learn to read a room?

Edit:
Also, it’s not as if I was speaking authoritatively, I was speaking to my experiences and I was upfront about the limits of my knowledge. Instead of bothering to constructively correct me, you flatly went, “Yeah, no.” and your entire entry into the convo was pretty condescending for no apparent reason.

ElectroVagrant,

Fwiw I was aware of a number of those, hence why in the OP I mention: “and few really good competitors.” That wasn’t to suggest there were few total competitors, only that there were few really good competitors, which I think is generally the case any time you have a large number of, well, anything tbh.

May be rather dismissive, but it’s not a new observation by any means.

ElectroVagrant,

Huh, did a look around and I’m kind of surprised to find that there isn’t even a very active Elder Scrolls community (at least that’s federated with world) given the popularity of the series.

For the time being you may want to try asking in general games/video games communities that allow for it, e.g. !games, as it looks to allow for non-news posts & no rule against posts about specific games. Also for anyone curious, a few of the existing Elder Scrolls communities may be found here:

!elderscrolls
!elderscrolls
!tes

As OP noted though, none of these are terribly active at the moment.

ElectroVagrant,

Lightning’s always super fun to watch! I’d maybe recommend muting the video as one watches since the audio gets distorted on slowdown & is a little annoying, but the video itself is pretty solid.

Was cool seeing how one of the lightning strikes almost looked as if it was bolting upward from the horizon to the clouds instead of vice versa.

ElectroVagrant,

Oh whoa, TIL! Also I was pretty sure it wasn’t your video, the recommendation was just for anyone else that might pop by to watch. Probably coulda phrased that better.

ElectroVagrant,

Err, I think you’ve misunderstood where I was coming from in writing this. There was no biker that annoyed me & inspired this. Instead it was another post to a biking community here asking for advice on riding in cities, & I knew this wouldn’t be right for that thread. This was meant more as snark towards obnoxious drivers & encouraging bikers to be mildly annoying to them.

The SLPT is because this puts the biker at risk due to shitty/obnoxious drivers by being less situationally aware and inciting their road rage at the mildest inconvenience.

ElectroVagrant,

Ah, yeah, so that’s mainly an issue with my paraphrase not adequately capturing the context.

The context of that point was in relation to the video’s highlighting of how it can be both a little weird and detrimental to listen only to other men about how to be appealing to women, and to think that they know better than women about what women themselves may want. A lot of the video is referencing and trying to push back against the whole pick-up artist, be a manly man, how to woo the ladies kind of advice and incel venting floating around some online spaces. In trying to paraphrase that I dropped that context and phrased it more firmly than the video did, so that was my bad, as it wasn’t saying only behave as your partner might want, but to try to recognize what it is they do like about you as you are and appreciate that, even if you may not understand it. E.g. liking when you’re being silly despite that going against some views of what men are “supposed” to be like, i.e. “stoic & serious”.

This is why I also had the second point paraphrased as that’s a big part of the balance to the first. You definitely don’t want to bend over backwards and go against who you are to whoever you’re trying to attract, and that’s emphasized in the video, especially towards the end where I paraphrased the second part from. The video’s conclusion is basically, “Don’t fall for people telling you they have the absolute answers to how to get with other people, and ultimately, just be yourself. If you have a negative view of yourself, focus on picking up hobbies or learning some skills and improving yourself so that you can learn more about yourself, like yourself more, & feel better about being you.”

In other words, a variation of the old advice of, people won’t like you if you don’t like you, or something like that.

ElectroVagrant,

I’m legally obligated to upvote and comment on ReBoot.

ElectroVagrant,

Oh wow, literally shrinking them! What devices do they work in these days? I’m guessing you have something that can play them.

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