DanRoM
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I have a Spotify account, but I won't use it to listen to those. I use a dedicated podcast app for that.
The "Things that annoy me" thread
- Thread starter MacGuffin
- Start date
I don't use Spotify and making podcasts exclusive to Spotify does the exact opposite of what Spotify is (I guess) trying to achieve with them. I'm now even less likely to use Spotify for anything, on principle. If I can't get content via my regular Apple Podcasts App (I know that one is evil itself, having its own set of exclusive titles), then I simply won't.
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I only really listen to one podcast at the moment - Smith and Sniff. It's in Spotify and Apple, I mainly use Spotify.
I was looking at the possibility of getting YouTube Premium, to get rid of ads on my phone/TV and to stop having to jump through hoops to block adverts in browsers now they're being more aggressive. I know that's exactly what they want, but I've been considering it for a while.
It comes with YouTube Music, which seems decent but podcasts seem to be a new thing and S&S isn't included. You can upload your own files to YT music apparently and I can download from Patreon but that's a massive ballache. Maybe it'll be added later, if it is I'll consider YT Premium but until then it's not much use to me. Also the bitrate isn't as good...
I was looking at the possibility of getting YouTube Premium, to get rid of ads on my phone/TV and to stop having to jump through hoops to block adverts in browsers now they're being more aggressive. I know that's exactly what they want, but I've been considering it for a while.
It comes with YouTube Music, which seems decent but podcasts seem to be a new thing and S&S isn't included. You can upload your own files to YT music apparently and I can download from Patreon but that's a massive ballache. Maybe it'll be added later, if it is I'll consider YT Premium but until then it's not much use to me. Also the bitrate isn't as good...
which is wild...
because honestly, podcasts have been around for ages. just not as popular as they've been recently, since everybody and their mums started having them with the start of the pandemic. but even from a technical standpoint, aren't podcasts some of the easiest things ever to implement into your client, if you want to? like honestly, they're usually distributed through a bloody RSS feed or something (if they're actual podcasts, not spotify excluuuuusives). Just make the client pull that - maybe slap an "external content" badge on it so people don't complain about shitty download speeds or whatever. but hey, this is google we're talking about, so clearly all that ain't acceptable and it'd be way too easy anyway. also i'm fairly certain that many larger podcast clients come with their own distribution system attached, i.e. apple rehosts all that stuff on their own servers or even gets a direct publish to their platform through some integration thingamajig.
... browsing/searching podcasts however, seems to be a miracle to me. I don't get how that works. at all. with the rehostet stuff, sure, easy enough, but with the indie RSS feed oldschool stuff - probably impossible.
my current subscribe list contains 55 podcasts. maybe 2/3 of those are still active (the rest have "finished") and of the rest I clearly don't listen to every episode, but it should give an idea why i won't just switch to spotify for example (even if without principle blabla), just for one exclusive whatever.
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It surprises me that 'podcast' has stuck for all these years, especially now the iPod is gone. The Kodak/Hoover/Xerox of the 2000s/2010s. I'm not sure what an equivalent name would be.
Dr_Grip
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I know this is the self righteous consumer thread but there is a good business reason for exclusive podcasts - the major labels don't allow exclusive deals for music. Spotify, Apple, anyone makes a side deal with a relevant musician or band for an exclusive album or track? Bam! All major labels pull their whole catalogue in retaliation. And since people expect to have (almost) all mainstream music available on a streaming service, that would be the end of this service.
So spoken word content, podcasts and audiobooks, is the only area where the different services have any opportunity to create a differentiating offer that may compel consumers to prefer them over a competitor.
So spoken word content, podcasts and audiobooks, is the only area where the different services have any opportunity to create a differentiating offer that may compel consumers to prefer them over a competitor.
There’s more to an audio streaming service than the mere catalog of content it offers and I suspect you know that very well. And no, „exklusive spoken word content“ isn’t the only way to differentiate themselves. I’ll admit it’s probably the easiest way to try…
NecroJoe
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Soda can manufacturers seem to have changed how they make the pulltabs, because for the last few months, I've been constantly getting my fingernail caught in a fold-over seam, and I don't recall this ever happening before this recent streak.
NecroJoe
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One of my teachers is literally trying to gaslight me.
2 assignments and a quiz are listed on the syllabus as due Sunday. By Friday night, none of it was published online yet. So I emailed the teacher including the screenshot of the online platform when I tried to access the assignment through a different page:
He writes back, "Are you sure? It looks fine on my end." and I get a notification for the arrival of this email.
22 seconds later I get another notification that this class has a new assignment published.
17 seconds I get another notification that this class has a 2nd new assignment published.
19 seconds later I get another notification that this class has a new quiz published.
Wow, what a fucking coincidence.
2 assignments and a quiz are listed on the syllabus as due Sunday. By Friday night, none of it was published online yet. So I emailed the teacher including the screenshot of the online platform when I tried to access the assignment through a different page:
He writes back, "Are you sure? It looks fine on my end." and I get a notification for the arrival of this email.
22 seconds later I get another notification that this class has a new assignment published.
17 seconds I get another notification that this class has a 2nd new assignment published.
19 seconds later I get another notification that this class has a new quiz published.
Wow, what a fucking coincidence.
NecroJoe
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NooDle
Ik ben niet alleen lekker met kaas!
As do I, but apparently Google podcasts are shutting down.
So now I need to use Apple podcasts instead, which has a shitty interface, etc, and most annoying of all, I'll have to go through everything I heard and "mark as complete" for all of them.
Balls.
First world problem, but also, balls.
Travel is getting hugely annoying. Which sucks if your job is based on it.
Local public transport? Old vehicles and dilapidated infrastructure mean that you always have to factor in an unannounced last-minute cancellation of whatever you intend to take and be prepared for the tram to break down on the way.
Long distance rail? If one of my journeys went as planned, I would have to mark it in my calendar. Thanks to fourteen years of "cars first" transport ministers and an even older (and not necessarily abandoned) harebrained scheme to privatise Germany's railroads, their maintenance is decades behind. The trains themselves are barely capable of doing their jobs and getting any new ones designed, built and approved for service takes ages.
Air travel? Ever since the beancounters achieved 100% dominance of the passenger experience, it has only gone downhill. The Boeing 777 and 787 could be comfortable rides, but there's one seat too many in every row of economy class which means you will get very close to the poor bastard sitting next to you. Even the lovely A350 is slowly going that way with airlines putting ten seats in a row as opposed to the nine for which it was designed.
And the worst thing of all: whenever something goes wrong, i.e. most of the time, it's up to you to invest time and money to put it right. Nobody is responsible and in case they feel responsible, they still don't have the authority to do anything for you. So good luck getting back on your way and kiss your money goodbye.
Local public transport? Old vehicles and dilapidated infrastructure mean that you always have to factor in an unannounced last-minute cancellation of whatever you intend to take and be prepared for the tram to break down on the way.
Long distance rail? If one of my journeys went as planned, I would have to mark it in my calendar. Thanks to fourteen years of "cars first" transport ministers and an even older (and not necessarily abandoned) harebrained scheme to privatise Germany's railroads, their maintenance is decades behind. The trains themselves are barely capable of doing their jobs and getting any new ones designed, built and approved for service takes ages.
Air travel? Ever since the beancounters achieved 100% dominance of the passenger experience, it has only gone downhill. The Boeing 777 and 787 could be comfortable rides, but there's one seat too many in every row of economy class which means you will get very close to the poor bastard sitting next to you. Even the lovely A350 is slowly going that way with airlines putting ten seats in a row as opposed to the nine for which it was designed.
And the worst thing of all: whenever something goes wrong, i.e. most of the time, it's up to you to invest time and money to put it right. Nobody is responsible and in case they feel responsible, they still don't have the authority to do anything for you. So good luck getting back on your way and kiss your money goodbye.
GRtak
Forum Addict
You are nothing more than cattle, squeeze your ass into that narrow seat and be glad that there are rules that mandate seats./sarcasm
I feel you. And I don't want to sound self-righteous or anything, but I think we have it even worse.
Zagreb right now is facing huge issues with shortage of both working trams and drivers. What happened was that, allegedly, some former workers would steal parts from old trams and sell them as scrap metal. Those were often times parts specific to trams in Zagreb (even if most of the trams they took the parts from were ČKD Tatra trams, extremely common in Eastern Europe), meaning the repair is not economically viable.
Zagreb's public transportation company bought 11 used trams from Augsburg, Germany (GT6M by Adtranz), and they were supposed to come some time in October. Newest rumor has it they won't come until early December. That's only trams, buses are yet another (sad) story. There simply isn't enough working buses, nor drivers, for things to function as intended.
The lack of drivers is probably the biggest issue right now, both for trams and buses. All the drivers qualified for the job want to work abroad, where the salaries are higher, and living standard is better. Newcomers don't know the city, so they wouldn't really make for good drivers.
And don't even get me started on the railways. We do have decent vehicles now, but the infrastructure is a throwback to the Yugoslavian era. I can't say anything about airlines, though, as I've never even been on an airplane yet, actually.
That bites.
I hope it gets better because it seems globally as a society, the economic boom post world war 2 is coming back to bite us. In the sense that we all built things, as time continued, kept upgrading equipment, and at some point got comfortable and let shit go. Then suddenly we all went „this is awful, we should fix this!“ and it’s so bad now that alternative plans to take up the slack by repairing a critical piece, means the alternative also needs repair and is in just as bad of shape. Though your city’s issue seems like a post soviet or post 90s war expectation of „ok why haven’t things been improved?“
It’s all stupid because the money is there, but the lack of acting upon it is the issue. Shit or get off the pot.
NecroJoe
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For 10 years, I regularly sourced products from a company called "Coalesse" and even though it's been three years since I've been in that industry, I still continually misspell "coalesce".
I found another device with a USB-C port that doesn't understand power delivery and requires a 5V / USB-A source: gopro 11 (mini).
additional gopro annoyance: videos exported from their god-awful quik app (they want to sell a subscription with that shit, why is it crap?) will not process when uploaded to strava. if i edit them in iOS fotos app and re-save them, they will work fine. wtf.
additional gopro annoyance: videos exported from their god-awful quik app (they want to sell a subscription with that shit, why is it crap?) will not process when uploaded to strava. if i edit them in iOS fotos app and re-save them, they will work fine. wtf.
Perc
Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
How hard can it be to get these things right, one might ask?