Ellipses...

I'm almost out of soda...  The stories around the detention of the undocumented just get darker and darker.  We should be better than this...  My mechanical keyboard is great, but it is also behind dozens of additional typos every day.  Or maybe I shouldn't blame the tool...  The new phone transcribes voicemail.  That's cool.  I hate listening to voicemail...  We have a medical outfit here advertising same day appointments.  I'd venture nobody that worked on that campaign ever tried to get an appointment...  Borrowing money from countries that are the target of tariffs in order to subsidize domestic industry hurt by those tariffs is the definition of biting your nose to spite your face...  Trying to go no brace/no vitamin I today.  The jury is still out...  I am trying to decide were I not watching the news how would I think things were going.  I'm pretty sure I would feel better.  Not sure that would be positive...  Always nice to see old students.  If you're around you should poke your head in...  Things are on the move in the shop.  New scrap rack position after more than a decade...  Pretty sure I can get across what is important about AutoCAD in less than three hours now.  That's probably them improving the program rather than my honing my message.  Although I guess it could be both...  I want to see MI:Fallout in IMAX.  That'll require some planning...  Just finished Company Town.  I think it got less interesting the more I read, but it was still a worthwhile read...  Yesterday I ran an errand that turned out to be confirming I didn't have to run an errand...  They keep saying the the President has a high approval percentage among Republicans, I wonder if there are still as many Republicans as there were a year ago...  I slogged through Shada.  Still haven't found the time to finish Sense8...

I Don't Want Another Streaming Service

Don't get me wrong, I am anxiously awaiting the total demise of cable TV.  That bill is one of the biggest sources of the sand in my gears.  I want to be a cord cutter.  But I am beginning to fear that at the end of the day I will wind up paying more for streaming than I do for cable.  The benefit of cord cutting is supposed to be a financial savings, not just a change in form factor.

I'm also a fan of streaming.  We were Netflix subscribers when it was a DVD by mail service and we were early adopters getting the streaming service on a TV using a WII.  We really make good use of Netflix.  Hours and hours of West Wing and hours and hours of DS9.  We watch a lot of Netflix original programs.  I do sometimes wonder why some things that I think should be on service aren't.  I'd love to watch the Speed Racer I watched growing up.  It's more likely they'll reboot it at this point than pick it up.

Ultraman, Space Giants, Superfriends, Doctor Who, Dave Allen...  Lots of titles that could be on Netflix that aren't.

But Netflix isn't the only game in town, and not the only stream currently in our lives.  We were also early Prime adopters.  And the more expensive Prime becomes the more I really want to love their video streaming service.  With a couple of exceptions I really don't.  Given a choice between Netflix of Prime I will almost certainly boot up Netflix.  That is almost certainly about the interface.  The Prime interface, at least on the Roku, pales in comparison to their competition.  I guess maybe it makes them feel like there are more titles, but the decision to list shows separately by season is really confusing.  Mixing Prime streams I've already paid for with titles they have but I will have to buy in confusing.  I am 99% certain I'm not going to see a title I need to pay for and then decide to buy it rather than watch something I have already paid for.  Mixing both of those with premium streams for HBO and Showtime is even more confusing.  One of the things that bugs me about cable is that it shows you channels you don't have in exactly the same way as things you do have.  Prime has emulated that same annoying practice.  If they cleaned up their interface they might get me to drop Netflix.

We've got streams for all the cable channels.  HBO, PBS, MSNBC, FX, TNT, TBS - all the networks, they all have Roku apps with streaming.  They vary in their utility but have one thing in common: they all make you authenticate with an existing cable subscription.  You can't cord cut, you have to have cable to stream.  Why does it seem so likely that will be the endgame?  Pay for it even if you don't really use it, it will just flip from being cable with supplemental streaming to streaming with supplemental cable, with the cost actually going up.  It'll be just like the landline I have to pay for even though I don't want it because somehow my price goes up if I drop the service.

Have you priced naked internet?  The biggest single requirement for true cord cutting?  When cable companies are the internet providers that isn't going to be a bargain.

We've already looked off Hulu - no Handmaid's Tale for us.  We also haven't existed in an iTunes video ecosystem.  That's probably about being a Roku home rather than an Apple TV home.  I haven't looked too hard at YouTube TV or Sling - and I've been a Sling hardware customer for years.

FWIW I also have, you know, antennas on a couple of our sets.  There are a dozen watchable channels there as long as you don't mind losing the DVR and guide functionality.

This week I saw two announcements that had me perk up only to wind up seeing dollar signs.  First was that DC was going to start up their Young Justice cartoon they abandoned three years ago.  This was a regular watch for me and seeing it was coming back was exciting.  Seeing it is coming back exclusively on the DC streaming service, a service that will be $7.99/month was less exciting.  There was also an announcement that there is going to be another season of Clone Wars.  That was another cartoon I used to watch pretty faithfully.  I would love to get another season.  But that show will air exclusively on the yet to be solidified Disney streaming service - no price yet, but any reason to think it won't be another $7.99/month?

I already made the decision to forgo the new Start Trek series exclusively available exclusively on the CBS streaming platform.

The writing is on the wall isn't it?  So you drop cable but keep internet - and they will need to provide more speed and bandwidth because you'll need multiple concurrent streams.  Which will mean that price will inevitably go up.  Then you'll need something from the YouTube or Sling world to pick up a bunch of channels and then Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Disney, DC, CBS, HBO...  I mean you don't need everything, but I have to believe in the end it will be more money.

Hey Amazon, want to disrupt cable bigtime?  Let me authenticate channel apps through Prime.  And clean up your interface.

I Delete a Lot of Posts

I was four graphs into a post today and then I did a ctrl-A delete.  Happens to me a lot these days.  I'll post something on Facebook and then delete it.  I'll post something on Twitter and then delete it.  We've become so polarized that I don't want the exposure anymore.

And then I deleted everything I had to say about that.  Here's a picture of my cat:

He just had his spring haircut (finally) and he has no political opinions at all.

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

Statement from Americans for the Arts in Response to Rejection of Amendment to Cut Funding to NEA, NEH

Stage Directions: Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch offered this statement in response to this afternoon’s House of Representatives vote rejecting an amendment to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities by 15 percent

Posted by David at 7/19/2018 03:33:00 PM

House to Consider Proposal to Cut NEA Funding By 15%

Variety: The House of Representatives may vote on Wednesday on an effort to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities by 15%.

Posted by David at 7/18/2018 12:10:00 PM

Mandalay Bay owner sues victims of Las Vegas mass shooting, claims it has “no liability of any kind”

Salon.com: The corporate owners of Mandalay Bay and the Route 91 Harvest festival venue have filed federal lawsuits against the victims of last year's mass shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas, claiming that MGM Resorts International has zero liability in the deadly Oct. 1 incident.

Posted by David at 7/18/2018 12:10:00 PM

Men Outnumber Female Critics 2-1, Affecting Visibility, Study Finds

Variety: Male film critics outnumbered female critics two to one, an imbalance San Diego State University researcher Martha Lauzen argues can negatively affect the exposure and evaluation of female-led features.

Posted by David at 7/17/2018 09:42:00 PM

For theater community, finding ways to reflect societal diversity onstage is more urgent than ever

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Theater is often at its best and most powerful when it says to those who feel overlooked, misunderstood or invisible: You are seen.

Of course, theater doesn’t always manage to do that — either for audiences or for artists. For a form that can be so welcoming to fresh viewpoints and voices, it also has a traditionalist streak that in some quarters can serve to perpetuate (even unconsciously) dated ideas and attitudes.

Posted by David at 7/16/2018 09:40:00 AM

Thermostat

Sometimes I wonder why the temperature control in our lives isn't better.  For years I've wondered about the hot water in the shower.  It doesn't make sense to me why we can't set a temperature so that you turn on the tap and then nothing comes out until the water is at the temperature you want.  This seems to be well inside the capabilities of our technology.  Mostly it just seems like this doesn't happen because it doesn't happen.

But it could happen, yes?  If it did happen it would seem like many houses would waste a lot less water.  Right now you turn on the tap and then the cold water in the line has to run out the faucet and down the drain until you gauge the warmth - by touching the water - and then you get in the shower.  Alternately I imagine that sometimes people crank up the temp to try to make this happen faster and then wind up getting scalded when they check the temp on their hand.  That's an unfortunate result.

To fix this there would need to be a doubled set of pipes.  You'd need a return from behind the tap that ran back to the hot water heater.  Then there would need to be a thermostatic sensor and a diverter valve right at the tap.  The temp would be set on the sensor and until the water reached the desired temp the water would flow through the diverter and back to the tank.  Once the proper temperature is reached the valve opens and the water comes out the tap, with the first drop being the temp you are looking for.  The system could also have an envelope such that if the temperature got too high the valve would swap again and the overtemp water would recirculate to the tank.

So obviously there's more dollars here in the initial installation.  There's an extra sensor and a valve, and there's an extra run of tubing for every length of hot water tubing.  That's like a 50%+ increase in initial outlay.  With the price of water being where it is right now that is probably a fairly long ROI before you get to a break even.  But you get the convenience, and you waste less water.  It seems like something worth offering as an option anyway.  I don't think I have ever been in a home that works this way.

Lately I've been wondering the same kind of thing about my HVAC system.  The sensor package and the air sources don't seem to be the most efficient here either.  Often, because of the way our house is built we wind up running the air conditioning even though the outside temperature is lower than the inside.  Why does the system have to create cold air when there is available cold air outside?

Couldn't a system be built with inside and outside theremostats?  Something that combines traditional air conditioning with exhaust fans and exterior air inputs.  So if the desired temp inside is below the actual temp inside and it is also below the outside temp the traditional air conditioning runs.  If the desired temp inside is lower than the actual temp inside but it is higher than the outside air, then instead of running the traditional system the unit would draw in outside air and exhaust the warmer air from inside.

This seems like it ought to be less electricity.  You don't have to run the exterior chiller unit in some of the cases.  There is probably a humidity benefit from running the air conditioning that you wouldn't get just using exhaust fans.  The existing system would have a way to dry the air that the other wouldn't.  And there are probably extra mechanical dampers to facilitate bringing in outside air that would be vulnerable to maintenance problems, that's a downside.  But again, this seems to be well inside the capability of our technology - and in this case, doesn't feel a whole lot more expensive at the installation stage - and yet I can't recall ever being in a home that had such technology available.

It would seem like there are environmental reasons to develop both of these systems.  I wonder why it hasn't happened.

If the Dems Can't Win With That...

This morning on Morning Joe there was discussion about how the Republicans are giving the Democrats a great narrative by not really exercising any meaningful over-site of the administration in the wake of the President's inexpiable deference to Putin.  Their conclusion was that if Democrats couldn't win with that arrow in their quiver that they were really in trouble.  This neglects one very important detail.

The Dems did win.

Two of the last three times Republicans won the White House Democrats got more votes.  Talking about how inept the Democratic candidates are assumes that it is a fair fight.  It isn't.

The Electoral College makes votes for President in normally Republican states much more effective than in reliably Democratic states.  On top of that, voter suppression laws in many states tilt the floor under voters' feet undeniably in favor of Republicans.  There doesn't seem to be much likelihood of resolving the former issue, and the latter becomes more and more entrenched as Republicans add voices to the courts.  There are even calls to make the electoral issue more problematic by apportioning the votes by district - a proposal which seems to come up primarily where it will help Republicans.

Speaking of districts, somehow Republicans have the majority of Representatives even though the majority of votes in many states go to Democrats.  A decades long program of gerrymandering has helped to put a (seemingly) permanent slant to the House.  There seemed to be some momentum building to help allay this in the courts, but the current administration appears to have little motivation to pursue that kind of case.  Fixing the districts without the courts means winning the state houses and that is in the grip of the gerrymander too - and the voter suppression.

The only place it might be kind of a fair fight (if you don't think too much about voter suppression) is the US Senate.  Those races are straight up popular votes, no electoral college and no districts.  As it turns out this one is even more depressing.  Since the number of Senators is independent of population, and due to anticipated population trends these votes almost don't matter.  An overwhelming number of Senators will soon be elected by a marked minority of Americans.  Within the near future the majority of the people will live in 8 states, represented by 16 Senators. The remaining minority of the people will be represented by the remaining 84 Senators.  Care to guess which parties dominate which states?  I know the founders were smart, but that can't be what they had in mind.

I really, really hope Joe is right and that the narrative Democrats will have going into the 2018 election is a compelling one, but if they lose we need to remember that it wasn't exactly an even playing field to begin with.

Paper Catalogs

I got an email today asking what ought to be the criteria for determining what catalogs we should keep and which we should pitch.  We're doing like a once a decade clean up in the TD classroom and catalogs are a fairly obvious decluttering target.

So I start to type back: "you can certainly pitch any duplicates, probably anything that looks like it is more than five years old - but put the ones that are going to go into a pile so Kevin and I can see them first so we don't lose something special."  But I stopped myself.  I'm wondering if the answer ought not be different. 

I'm thinking maybe: pitch everything.

The way we do our job has changed, and I think maybe it has left hardcopy catalogs behind.  Going to an industry convention used to include lugging around a bag full of company catalogs, now you shoot a photo of the booth with your phone and do a web search when you go back to work. 

I have a class where I talk about purchasing where I talk about a lot of what could only be considered vestigial technical design resources.  Usually I tell them about the Thomas Register - a hardcopy, 20 odd volume industrial directory where the contact information was as often as not a snailmail address - not even a phone number let alone an email.

Sometimes I tell them about a thing called "The Yellow Pages" and how you had to be savvy about where to look for ads because they wouldn't always turn up where you thought they ought to be.  These days when I encounter a phone book I am usually wondering why the person that left it for me isn't being charged with littering.  There is a high probability that nearly all of my current students have never once cracked a phonebook.

There used to be these thick, spiral bound industry guides like "800 Chicago Production Resource" or some such thing, and annual issues of "Theater Crafts" that was a dedicated industry resource.  I haven't seen an updated version of either of those in a while.  Some of the Penton magazines that come into the school do still do an annual buyers guide, but I think that's more about publishing momentum or ad sales than it is about utility.

I can remember getting my first Grainger catalog and somehow finagling my first McMaster-Carr catalog.  I used to spend some time every month or so filling out a document request card from "Hydraulics & Pneumatics" magazine so I could get more catalogs.  I couldn't have done my job without catalogs from Outwater and McNichols.

The web pretty much ended all that, yes?  Maybe pitch everything.

Ellipses...

The saving grace of this post a day thing is that Wednesdays are Ellipses...  Three different people in my feeds today crapped on reputable news sources.  The other guys are winning...  I had to light up the old laptop to restore my new phone, so I am getting all TANBI retro and writing this post with it.  Next I'll use the iPad2...  It is possible I was a little bit rough grading my first batch of precollege assignments...  Another kid from Woodland Hills got shot.  I think that's 14 this year.  It should be a bigger story...  Today the boy's camp went to the carpet slide park.  Earlier this year he'd been there for a birthday and another kid broke her arm.  Apparently several parents told that story at drop off and freaked out all the counselors...  The news is so depressing I can't find things to talk about in the news...  The neighbors finally cut their lawn, for the first time this year, in mid-July.  They've actually been living in California and are just getting caught up...  If you believe for even a second that POTUS misspoke you are in some kind of willful disbelief...  I'm looking for someone to take a bunch of LPs off my hands.  If you know anyone that collects please send them my way...  Making the statement that maybe the US shouldn't come to the aid of other NATO countries is pretty scary...  The large chili at Wendy's is 300 calories.  That's important information if you are doing a 5:2 fast...  Mandalay Bay is suing the shooting victims.  We live in a strange country...  I got in a Facebook spat today about the President donating his salary.  I kind of feel like it is ultimately an empty gesture...  Jupiter has 12 more moons.  My son learns about a very different world than I did... 

Couple of Things

I'm writing emails to Pat Toomey's office on a pretty regular basis these days.  I mean probably not enough to get me on some kind of a watch list, but way, way more than I ever have before.  I don't often write to Casey or to Mike Doyle, but Senator Toomey gets more email from me than most people I know.  Every time I send in an email his office sends me, what I hope is an automated, response with a "Thank you for writing" header, absolutely no body text, and an attached image of his signature.  I'm not sure if it is his intent but what I get from that is "I didn't read it, and if I had I wouldn't care."

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Mrs. TANBI and I upgraded our phones the other day.  For a while I thought I had found a really slick way to get this done.  I discovered I could get new phones for miles.  Unfortunately that turned out to be a rabbit hole of striking dimension.  The issue was that the miles shopping site didn't list compatible carriers.  At one point a CSR for the miles shopping program told me I had to talk to a rep at the vendor's online store and that she could give me their number - which she did - giving me an 800 number with 8 digits.  Sometimes talking to people on the phone you just want to shout, something like "THAT ISN'T A PHONE NUMBER!!!"  Anyway, the new phones are nice, and I am still looking for something to buy with miles.

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The missus is away on a girls sleepover and I am alone with the boy.  Tonight I asked him what he would like to do for dinner and after some initial indecision he offered "You know where we haven't been in a while?"  Which seems like a fairly sophisticated construction for a four year old, followed by "Hokkaido."  He went on to say that he would enjoy a dinner of crab legs.  It is possible that we've created a little bit of a monster.  Turns out to have been a good decision, they comped him,  That won't last forever, but while it does it is a pretty good dinner deal.

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It isn't their fault, but now whenever I go into any health care provider I am comparing them to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.  Most of them don't compare all that favorably.  That might be their fault.  It is really disconcerting to know that there is an organization that understands how to do something well and yet that knowledge doesn't filter out to others providing the same services.  I guess maybe the assessment isn't fair.  When I went it took me out of the context of my life, which made scheduling SNAFUs unlikely, and I didn't really come in the front door.  But maybe that's the way it should be.

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The Sense8 finale movie has been available on Netflix for like a month now and I haven't watched it.  I brought it up on the screen the other night only to discover it is two and a half hours long.  That's more time than fits into my TV life right now in a single, uninterrupted sitting and it seems like that's how I want to watch this particular show.  I think that my delay is indicative of what contributed to the show being cancelled.  But it doesn't seem fair that if they remove the urgency to watch by putting all the episodes on a streaming service indefinitely that a show can be cancelled because not enough people are watching.  There's a lot to watch.  I've got things to do.  I'll get to it eventually

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

Dancer Preserves The Work Of Black Choreographers, In One Video At A Time

NPR: When she was in her 20s, dancer Gesel Mason started emailing black choreographers she admired, asking them to create a solo for her. To her surprise, many of them said yes.

"I did not know I was making my life's work when I started it," she says. "I was just really interested in dancing with some choreographers."

Posted by David at 7/09/2018 12:20:00 PM