Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot:
Technical Musings
Technology Topic - Expensive Outings
Even technologists need down-time! There was a lot of discussion, in this virtual but newly-'opened up' world, about the cost of various 'attractions' or 'trips out' - zoos, theme parks, castles, etc. Maybe being in lockdown or self-isolation for something like 18 months has changed memories or the perception of costs, because there was a definite groundswell of opinion that paying almost £100 for a family ticket was a lot of money.
There was a suspicion that there might be some sort of 'cost recovery' going on, to try and get back some of the money 'lost' in the last year and a half. This does seem to be predictable, expected, and normal after a major event, and might even be a contributory part of the recent reported increase in the inflation rate.
Sky News - How one media outlet reported it...
Discussion then turned to the way that there is no longer a single price for anything. It is often possible to get a lower price by joining the organisation that runs the attraction, and paying a yearly 'membership' fee, in return for preferential prices. Or you can buy tickets in advance (but never afterwards!) or as a special bundled deal or a group special offer, or... But it was pointed out that these prices were often not as straightforward as it appeared, because whilst there might be a reduction of entrance fees, other costs, like for example, the cost of parking a car, or of food or souvenirs, might not be discounted. Another factor is that there are often multiple organisations running attractions, and so multiple memberships could be required in order to visit several different venues. Special offers were also mentioned, particularly in the context of other 'membership clubs' like supermarkets and discount cards. And then discussion turned to 'Covid excuses' for poor service, high prices, price increases...
The obvious analogy to the evolving world of TV Streaming was not missed! After a period of enormous expansion driven by the lockdown, what will happen to the cost of streaming subscriptions when they next become due? There are also very distinct similarities with the distribution of TV content across multiple services, so that in order to watch any given programme, it is necessary to have a subscription to all of the streaming services. For anyone raised in the era when TV was effectively free, (except for the TV licence and the cost of the TV itself) then this might seem to be yet another new way of making money from something which used to be free.
This might also be part of a wider change towards making many previously 'one-off' charges into subscription services.
Adobe Photoshop is one example of software that is now available for a yearly charge rather than buying it once, and then using it for as long as the computer supported it. It seems that the path starting with 'purchase', followed by 'free updates', then paid updates', then 'yearly update subscriptions', then to 'yearly subscriptions' is happening for more and more parts of daily life. Some products or services also offer '
lifetime subscriptions'. Some cynics might suggest that this might be referring to the lifetime of the product or service, and not the lifetime of the purchaser - and
here's an example...
One obvious end-point to this trend is a lifetime subscription to air, starting at the moment of conception, and stopping (maybe) at the end of life.
Some companies already sell air... Of course, a future ambitious air-selling company might well try to find ways to try and extend the subscription in either direction. Maybe fertile couples could be charged extra in expectation of a child appearing? Maybe funeral costs could be increased to reflect the use of air by crematoria or burials. Maybe the 'sharp intake of breath' in outrage could be charged for as an extra as well?
Technology Topic - Agile Software Development
'
Waterfall' is an alternative approach to '
Agile' as a development methodology. Waterfall thinking starts out by setting a clear idea of what is required and how to do it, and then works through that, step by step, with everything coming together at the end. In contrast,
Agile breaks the problem down into separate self-contained phases. and the functionality gradually increases as each phase finishes. So if a team was managing a waterfall construction project using agile, does this mean that they might start with the car parking and tourist signage first, and eventually end up turning the water on only as part of the opening ceremony?
There was a lot of discussion about the terminology of Agile: Sprints, Backlogs, Technical Debt, Design Debt, Code Debt, Rework, Scrums, Kanban, and... Grooming. Words have this nasty habit of changing their meaning when you least expect it. So, in some parts of the UK, taking a dog for a walk used to colloquially be called 'dogging', whereas now that term has an altogether different meaning. '
Grooming' has also acquired a meaning far removed from brushing the coat of a dog or horse.
Sometimes words mean what they say: a 'Dirty Patch' is a quick fix that might not be well thought-out, well-tested, or actually fix anything. But finding a reference revealed another interesting topic: layered advertising. You can see it by following
this link for an article on poor patching of software. Yes, that's a landing page advert, followed by an automatic timed jump to another page that is full (very full) of every possible way to put advertising around and inside an article. Actually, maybe you shouldn't click on that link, unless you want to see 'How Not To Do It!".
Media Chat - The Witcher Season 2
What appears to be, at first glance, an innocent query, can lead into a twisty maze of complexity. It goes something approximately like this (
see here for slightly more detail ): The Witcher started out as a book, then a film, then a game, then a TV series (The Hexer), then a game, (where's the graphic novel?), then a film, then a game, and most recently, a TV series on Netflix (the TV series is definitely media
Marmite: some people love it, and some people hate it.). This list is probably wrong - this is a very complex topic. ( More on
Marmite, plus the obligatory
Vegemite explanation/disambiguation... )
Anyway, having established that 'The Witcher' is a tricky subject, there's the Witcher Season 2 TV series on Netflix, which was being promoted on Netflix as this was written. The Witcher of the title is played by Henry Cavill, of recent DC 'Superman' movies fame, sporting long grey hair, contact lenses, and a laconic attitude. Yes, despite appearing very different, and being very different characters, it is the same actor. And as for The Witcher 3, well, that's a video game, or at least, it will be until the third season of the TV series, and then there will be two 'Witcher 3's. As if things weren't complicated enough already.
Other games which made it onto the big screen relatively unscathed:
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