Re: Heat Death of the Internet

On Fri, 3 May 2024, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

On Thu, 2 May 2024, Ben Collver wrote:

>
You want to order from a local restaurant, but you need to download a
third-party delivery app, even though you plan to pick it up
yourself. The prices and menu on the app are different to what you

>
For app only restaurants I don't go to them, because I don't have a
smartphone. I have my favourite restaurants and there I can either call
to order, or order through their web site from my laptop.

>
I've never ordered from a restaurant online, I expect it's a big
city thing (in Australia, at least). I just searched for a local
place that does pizzas some nights and they don't even have a
website (there's a Facebook page, of course). I went to a fish and
chip place in a city a few years ago that was cash-only.

Maybe. I do have a plan, at some point in my life, to move to a smaller city. Not yet, but maybe once I do, I might experience the same thing with a bit of luck. ;)

Here I find youtube and local public tv channels online to be good
sources. But this is an interesting point. Sometimes I think about if a
campaign to rescue old dvd:s and blueray:s would be successful? The idea
is to ask people to send me dvd:s and bluerays they no longer want and
build up a library. Where I live it is legal to lend out dvd:s as long
as its for private use and no money is involved. Imagine an Alexandria
of old dvd:s and bluerays which people could borrow, rip, and return.
Would anyone be interested?

>
Scratched discs would be your enemy here. Old DVDs find their way
to second hand stores which sell them for very little money, but
usually a good percentage of them are scratched to unwatchability.
Renting DVDs always had more risk than renting VHS tapes due to
scratched discs, even though they usually had disc polishing
machines which they might use to some effect after you went back
to the store and complained. I don't think video DVDs and audio
CDs were fit for the purpose of replacing tape in the first place,
and the rapid adoption of streaming and P2P downloads is the cost
that the old media industry paid for that. Much to the benefit of
ISPs and the new internet media companies like Amazon and Google.

You do have a point about scratches. When it comes to CD:s I know an audiophile who swears by them. Some love their LP:s, some their CD:s, and I read that casettes are making a comeback.
To my ears (pun intended) it almost seems like it is no longer about the audio, but instead some kind of nostalgic childhood feeling that "overrides" the pure audio to persuade the person that _this is it_.