peristaltor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
peristaltor) wrote2018-11-09 02:38 pm
peristaltor) wrote2018-11-09 02:38 pm
Entry tags:
When Does This Shit End!?
Just last night, I got a message that literally caused me to howl:
So now I'm going to have to find a device that not only will play Netflix streaming, but that—and this is to me the really crucial element—not suck.
I'm not gauging my suckage on buffer speed, or screen clarity, or any of that tech rot. Rather, I'm judging based on the ease of selecting shows to watch… an area that has been all but completely abandoned by all but the Wii.
Seriously, have you ever tried to search for a title using a Wii?
Point to letter––>Enter!——>Point——>Enter!——>[Repeat as necessary]
By contrast, you know what the alternative is, don't you?
downclikclikclikcliksideclikclikclikclikEnter
…And that was just for the FIRST letter! Keep going to spell out the rest of the fucking name! Say what you will about the Wii, that it's games are all for kids (true), that other game makers had a devil of a time making games (also true); its interface was a dream.
Ah, the interface. Its view into the living space was simply an IR pair sensing the position for the end of the controller pointed at it. All the other crap loaded into it——the attitude sensor and the accelerometer, stuff that allowed you to wield a kendo staff or light saber——that stuff was just fluff compared to the simple point-and-play interaction with the screen.
And they're killing it. Not just for movies, but for all online use:
The article notes the weird: "…given the console’s debut 12 years ago (2006)…, it’s still a household item that’s in regular use around the world."
Which reminds me of my friend and former roommate. We were living in another friend's place back in '90-'91. V. worked at the local K-Mart. He just got a new job, and needed me to call his work and tell them he wasn't coming in for his regular shift.
His new job? Nintendo, here in Puget Sound. The game maker had just released its 16-bit machine the Super Nintendo. Belatedly, the firm learned their Japanese-engineered game console would not work on certain older television sets. Normally, this wouldn't be noticed at all. Japan is famous for its consumers getting the best and brightest. But when they released in the US, they discovered buyers sending their sets back for "repair" because they didn't work… on their TVs.
Many of we Americans were still regularly using sets decades old. People like, for example, me. Seriously. I had inherited grandma's old mahogany Zenith, and shared it for the roommates. Old as it was, it was the best set in the shared housing.
V.'s new job? Installing an adapter in the returned SNES units that would work with '60s tellies. That job led to others. He still works there, now over 25 years later.
Did Nintendo just experience a kinda-repeat of that flash from the archaic past? Did its Wii do too well, so much so that they are going to brick it for all but local use? When they installed the News and Weather functions, I'm sure they didn't think that the WiFi link could be used for movies, because why would they? But it does… and it works beautifully.
So well, in fact, that they don't really want their new toy to do the same thing.
So, you're asking yourself, why is this old sometimes-blogger sniveling so? Why doesn't he join the 21st Century and get another option for search other than the clikclikclik that never ends?
And here, we run smack into the land of NeverNeverNever!
As far as I know, the only other controller option being built and installed in "smart" TVs and newer consoles is voice activation. Sure, some of you have surrendered your privacy already to your cell phone and/or yapping spy tube. Why not add another set of ears to the room?
That isn't me, not at all. Ever since The Wife™ came home shaken to the core when the Shit River's* yapping spy tube interrupted her session with her therapist, we've decided not to be added to the list of cloud-surveilled conversationalists. (Her therapist has since been convinced to unplug the abomination during sessions with patients, if for no other reason than to assure them that their conversations really are private. Good on her!)
For a raft of reasons, I firmly believe it is in our best interest——not as North or South Americans or Europeans or Asians or whatever geographic boundary we find ourselves occupying, but rather more generally, as humans——to push back against the latest business model of not just planned but forced obsolescence, that practice that reduces our perfectly functional equipment to attic or basement or (much worse) land fill. I know, I know; lots of business plans depend on our "upgrading" our junk every few years.
Tough. We need to get tough here and demand, probably through legislation, that we still own stuff, that it can be upgraded and maintained in perpetuity (if possible). If they survive the abuse, there is no reason we can't use the old game consoles to watch movies.
Right now, I'm facing a choice. I really don't know if I want to deal with another twitchy controller. So do I want streaming?
Really, at this point, I don't know.
And that sucks.
*The Shit River is large and reminds many people of poop. There is another thing bearing the same name draining the basin between the Andes and the Pacific in South America.
Unfortunately, Nintendo will suspend all video streaming services on Wii - including the Netflix Channel - after January 30, 2019
So now I'm going to have to find a device that not only will play Netflix streaming, but that—and this is to me the really crucial element—not suck.
I'm not gauging my suckage on buffer speed, or screen clarity, or any of that tech rot. Rather, I'm judging based on the ease of selecting shows to watch… an area that has been all but completely abandoned by all but the Wii.
Seriously, have you ever tried to search for a title using a Wii?
By contrast, you know what the alternative is, don't you?
…And that was just for the FIRST letter! Keep going to spell out the rest of the fucking name! Say what you will about the Wii, that it's games are all for kids (true), that other game makers had a devil of a time making games (also true); its interface was a dream.
Ah, the interface. Its view into the living space was simply an IR pair sensing the position for the end of the controller pointed at it. All the other crap loaded into it——the attitude sensor and the accelerometer, stuff that allowed you to wield a kendo staff or light saber——that stuff was just fluff compared to the simple point-and-play interaction with the screen.
And they're killing it. Not just for movies, but for all online use:
The Wii Shop Channel is set to shut down at the start of the new year as well, which means there will no longer be a way to purchase Virtual Console titles nor WiiWare games there. The Virtual Console is still a feature the Nintendo Switch [The Newest and Shiniest machine they offer] is bereft of, a year after its debut, though fans are still clamoring for its inclusion.
The article notes the weird: "…given the console’s debut 12 years ago (2006)…, it’s still a household item that’s in regular use around the world."
Which reminds me of my friend and former roommate. We were living in another friend's place back in '90-'91. V. worked at the local K-Mart. He just got a new job, and needed me to call his work and tell them he wasn't coming in for his regular shift.
His new job? Nintendo, here in Puget Sound. The game maker had just released its 16-bit machine the Super Nintendo. Belatedly, the firm learned their Japanese-engineered game console would not work on certain older television sets. Normally, this wouldn't be noticed at all. Japan is famous for its consumers getting the best and brightest. But when they released in the US, they discovered buyers sending their sets back for "repair" because they didn't work… on their TVs.
Many of we Americans were still regularly using sets decades old. People like, for example, me. Seriously. I had inherited grandma's old mahogany Zenith, and shared it for the roommates. Old as it was, it was the best set in the shared housing.
V.'s new job? Installing an adapter in the returned SNES units that would work with '60s tellies. That job led to others. He still works there, now over 25 years later.
Did Nintendo just experience a kinda-repeat of that flash from the archaic past? Did its Wii do too well, so much so that they are going to brick it for all but local use? When they installed the News and Weather functions, I'm sure they didn't think that the WiFi link could be used for movies, because why would they? But it does… and it works beautifully.
So well, in fact, that they don't really want their new toy to do the same thing.
So, you're asking yourself, why is this old sometimes-blogger sniveling so? Why doesn't he join the 21st Century and get another option for search other than the clikclikclik that never ends?
And here, we run smack into the land of NeverNeverNever!
As far as I know, the only other controller option being built and installed in "smart" TVs and newer consoles is voice activation. Sure, some of you have surrendered your privacy already to your cell phone and/or yapping spy tube. Why not add another set of ears to the room?
That isn't me, not at all. Ever since The Wife™ came home shaken to the core when the Shit River's* yapping spy tube interrupted her session with her therapist, we've decided not to be added to the list of cloud-surveilled conversationalists. (Her therapist has since been convinced to unplug the abomination during sessions with patients, if for no other reason than to assure them that their conversations really are private. Good on her!)
For a raft of reasons, I firmly believe it is in our best interest——not as North or South Americans or Europeans or Asians or whatever geographic boundary we find ourselves occupying, but rather more generally, as humans——to push back against the latest business model of not just planned but forced obsolescence, that practice that reduces our perfectly functional equipment to attic or basement or (much worse) land fill. I know, I know; lots of business plans depend on our "upgrading" our junk every few years.
Tough. We need to get tough here and demand, probably through legislation, that we still own stuff, that it can be upgraded and maintained in perpetuity (if possible). If they survive the abuse, there is no reason we can't use the old game consoles to watch movies.
Right now, I'm facing a choice. I really don't know if I want to deal with another twitchy controller. So do I want streaming?
Really, at this point, I don't know.
And that sucks.
*The Shit River is large and reminds many people of poop. There is another thing bearing the same name draining the basin between the Andes and the Pacific in South America.