Netflix. Video on demand over the internet. I finally decided that broadcast TV just wan’t enough. We have FreeView: but there never seems to be a programme that I want to see when I want to see it. And while my smart TV (actually, a Mac mini with a USB tuner) can record TV programmes, and while I have iPlayer as well, and can watch programmes that have been shown, it never quite seems to work.
So I decided to try Netflix.
When I was but a young lecturer in Computing, teaching people about X25, and later the Coloured Book Protocols , the idea of Video on Demand was completely over the top. Getting that sort of data rate was quite unimaginable, and besides, it was seen as terribly wasteful of valuable communications resources. But faster networks, much better compression techniques, and virtually free processing cycles have turned all that on its head (even if the protocols and network are still not very well designed for that sort of thing). But here we are, into the 21st century, with videophones, VoD, though not jet-packs or 15 hour working weeks!
So I watched a Star-Trek movie, with a wee glass of whisky in my hand. Downtime. Necessary from time to time.
But will it work? One could spend all one’s time watching the box of delights. What about creative pursuits, like clarinet, piano, or, indeed, artificial intelligence or spike-based low-level audio interpretation…
Watch this space. Will the next blog entries be about music, or science, or reviews of films?
Lestheprof's Blog 
Leave a Reply