How many subscriptions do you have? Do you remember when you actually owned something? This week, we talk about subscription fatigue and what you can do to keep costs under control.

Hosts: William Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, and Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to

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User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens,

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technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0.

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I am your host Bill Sikkens and joining me,

my co-host Gretchen

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and Bill, welcome to this week's show.

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Hello there.

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Hello.

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Hopefully everybody's

surviving the weather out there.

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I'm understanding

that many parts of the world.

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It's been a little unusual

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from the Arctic blast last week to now,

the West coast is getting hit.

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LA is getting flooded in Sierra Nevada.

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Bill, I understand

is somewhat of an Armageddon right now.

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So stay safe.

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It is cold.

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Now, before we get into anything else,

I got to touch upon the one

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important issue that we have gotten

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the most questions about since last week,

and that is, how did the kiddy fare?

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So last week I had a little incident

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that we had a stray cat

that managed to get into our ducting.

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It's back lines under the house.

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And, that created

a little bit of a problem that required

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getting professionals out to open stuff up

and, try to rescue the little guy.

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And we didn't want anything bad

to happen to him.

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And rest assured, we got him out.

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He is fine.

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The cost of

fixing the heater system is not so much.

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You know, I have that my go fund me.

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Is that not getting.

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But the key to get out of that.

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Get out of it, without a whisker touch.

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So I appreciate all the well-wishes from

everybody, but, yeah, he, he has survived.

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So we made it through that.

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For anything

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new with either of you this week.

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And what?

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Really big painting?

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Yeah. Okay. Big painting.

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I heard something about that.

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So, you'll have to.

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And the Lego thing is still up. Oh.

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It's not. Oh, yeah.

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We did have some questions

about that, too.

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Have you figured it out?

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Well, I got to a spot

where, It's not it's not building.

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Right.

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And I've taken it apart, and, there are.

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I actually had several pieces

actually break,

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and now I'm trying to get new pieces.

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And when I went to the Lego site,

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it only allowed

it just assumed that only one piece broke.

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So I might get, a replace

replacement piece, but

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I might have to go and, like, order

some more of these, and,

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I, I'm not really sure

what I'm going to do.

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I first need the replacement

pieces before I can try and,

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double check my work.

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That makes any sense.

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You'll have to let us know how that goes.

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Because that sounds frustrating.

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It is frustrating, at least.

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Yeah, I, yeah, definitely.

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All right.

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Well, if anybody was looking

really forward to building that too,

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if anybody out there

has run into these kind of problems

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that the user friendly dot go

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and let us know what you did to solve them

because, you know, misery loves company.

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And hopefully there's a solution to this.

I think there is.

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It's probably just fine, you know,

and I'm I'm building the Saturn five

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and the panels look like

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they should be placed onto it

with an even number, you know.

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So it's flat, right? And it's not flat.

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It's like there's like a set missing,

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a layer of tile missing.

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And I don't know what to do about it.

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Or maybe there's

an additional layer there.

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So if anybody has a clue.

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Love to hear it. Yeah, absolutely.

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Let us know

if you use some help on that. But,

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All right.

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Well, with that, let's jump into the news.

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Well, Apple three is 45 years old.

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Yeah.

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So for any of our retro retro

computer fans, including me, the Apple

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three was a computer that came out

to originally replace the Apple two.

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And, that was in 1980.

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So 45 years ago.

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And some of the statistics on

this are interesting.

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I'm going to give this and modern things.

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The introductory price in

today's dollars was $16,960.

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The $30,480,

depending on how it was configured.

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So in $1,980,

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That's an expensive computer.

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Oh, yes it is.

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You know, they sold 75,000 of them.

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And, memory came out with a whopping

128 K Meg

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hey of memory

and could be upgraded to 512 K.

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Yeah.

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So anyway. But there it is, a cool system.

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I have one that I got at a garage sale

a number of years ago,

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and now that I'm thinking about this,

I'm going to have to get it out in

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a couple of weeks.

We are going to be having a guest.

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That was the person that was marketing

that project when it came out.

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We'll have to learn a little bit

about how that worked and how it was.

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And by the way, just for anybody

complain about computer prices

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today,

that price did not include hard drive

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and what was available.

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You can get a whopping five megabyte hard

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So, yeah, those are expensive.

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We're good to go.

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You were good to go.

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I don't think that included the monitor,

either.

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It was capable of artifact color. So,

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you know, I don't

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know how much that cost,

but anyway, a lot.

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Yeah.

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So anyway.

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But 45 years later,

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they're still going for a pretty good

chunk of change on eBay and stuff.

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People love them,

and it is a cool one to play with.

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I would not have wanted

to have to have bought it.

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You real

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well.

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The tech behind the Olympics had speed

cameras, sensors and annoying drones.

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Yes and I

so this is interesting because, you know,

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it makes sense that this is here.

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I would have been surprised

if they hadn't gone this direction,

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but they're setting things up

that are kind of interesting.

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And one of them is the cameras

that they are using

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are capable of 40,000 frames per second.

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And I did verify that number.

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Wow. So that's a fast camera.

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That's a fast camera.

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To give you a little bit of a comparison,

a standard television broadcast

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is usually 30 or 60 frames per second,

depending on what you're doing.

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That varies.

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It's actually 29 point something.

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But anyway, it's around that.

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So when you look at 40,000 frames

per second, I can only imagine how big

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the file would be on a 4K,

feed on something like that.

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Just to begin with, you know, you know,

you look back at this,

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the timekeeper,

which is a Swiss watchmaker,

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which doesn't surprise me at all, called

Omega, has been the official timekeeper

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since 1932, and it's the company

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that's been rolling out the cameras

and doing the different things this year.

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And it's very interesting

because you're getting some details

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from this you wouldn't have had otherwise.

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Obviously, things like photo finishes,

you know, right down to the millisecond,

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that kind of a thing.

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But you can also use it to analyze

the angle of the skis on a skier.

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You know, the way somebody is running

that kind of a thing.

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And with the AI enabled stuff,

you can look back on it

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and actually have a lot more data

that an ice skater lands.

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Yes, on the ice.

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After doing a jump,

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I, I've actually been watching

the Olympics and I like some of the drones

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that are following

the, the jumpers and the,

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the board,

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the board

riders, you know, that they go up

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and do these flips

and going up off of ramps

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and you almost get the feeling of

like what they're going through.

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It's kind of cool. Yeah.

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And it's amazing.

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And it's just,

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you know, to see where this kind of stuff

going, kind of has come out.

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So popular science covered all of this

in some detail on it, you know,

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some of the other things that come out of

that that I've been looking at here.

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One thing that I thought was interesting

is, the time it took to measure data

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on a rink, translated into an on screen

graphic,

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is less than one tenth of a second,

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I guess, you know?

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So that's,

that's faster than you can blink your eye.

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I so, I don't know,

I guess some of these things

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where they've had problems

of not knowing who won and, you know,

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because there's two close

in that type of a thing are solve.

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I don't know

if there's really a downside to this.

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I mean,

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because it seems like

I'm sure there is somewhere,

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but it seems like

with this type of technology,

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if you were the participant,

you could also use it

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to see how well you did

and where you can improve.

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I would think, you know.

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So, yeah, I would think that maybe

if you're twisting your ankle funny

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and maybe you wouldn't normally see it,

that you would figure it out, you know.

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So one of the other things

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mentioned in the headline

is drones, annoying drones as it was.

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But and you're having this

where these drones

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are following the participants around,

to get different things.

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So ten traditional quadcopters

in more than, two dozen first person

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view drones are constantly

going around the Olympic grounds.

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And, this is something.

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So, you know, if you're performing or a

participant, they're following you around.

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A lot of them.

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Or you can get different angles

and different things and it's,

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they're paparazzi.

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Yeah, they're kind of

like poppers, rats, you know?

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Now these have a little

bit more of a concern because it does

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introduce a level of a potential safety

risk for when they crash.

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This has not happened a lot,

but it has happened.

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And it is also somewhat distracting.

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Some of the participants have reported,

and I can only imagine you have to really.

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But I would think in something like this,

you really have to push everything around

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you out. Anyway, it's another layer

I guess.

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But I don't know if I like that,

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but it's, definitely

something that has created

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a situation here where there's not

the ambiguity that there used to be.

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And a lot of these different lines,

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there's like a high pitch, you know, sound

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when you're watching, like the skiers

go down the hill.

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I wondered what that was at first.

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And then it dawned on me.

It's got to be the drones.

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Yeah, yeah.

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You shut down

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for more than 320 users this week.

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Well, that wouldn't be such a big deal.

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How about 320,000 users this last week?

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I'm sorry.

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No worries. You know, numbers.

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Still thinking about all those drones?

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I'll tell you about 320,000 drones,

probably.

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No. But,

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Oh my goodness.

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Rigors of reporting on this.

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Downdetector has logged

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a lot of people reporting service

interruptions,

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of which yours truly was part of.

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This happened Tuesday evening,

going alone, watching your favorite

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YouTube show.

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Then all of the sudden that came up,

an error has occurred.

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Or, you know what?

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If say, something went wrong

and then all of a sudden, okay, exit,

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try to get back in or you're account's

no longer connected to this device.

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So go through connecting that.

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And when you did that it when something's

something's gone wrong you know.

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So it was definitely a problem.

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They did get it fixed fairly quickly.

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It was just a couple of hours,

that this was happening.

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And Google, who of course owns

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YouTube, has a very good record

of keeping things up.

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But as a company, when there are problems

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with their services,

it creates a lot of impact.

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There was a time recently

that their search engine

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went down for a very short time was,

I think, under a minute or something

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in internet

traffic, dive 75% during that time.

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So it's, you know, definitely,

interesting to look at that.

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If I was to look at this,

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the one concern I would have

is that that is definitely a choke point.

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And if the bad guys

wanted to disable the internet

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and they were able to take out

Google's system, it would certainly

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go a long way in doing that.

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Just because people wouldn't be able

to find anything.

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And a lot of computer users don't know

that there are other search engines.

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Yeah.

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You know, at one time you had

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Yahoo and AltaVista and all these things,

and now there aren't that many.

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Microsoft has Bing.

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And then of course, Google

and there are some others still out there.

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DuckDuckGo is one,

that is used by some people

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a little bit more than others

just because it's more private.

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But the point is, at the end of the day,

it can create a major disruption.

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When something like this happens.

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And I wasn't able to watch my show

about, them,

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they were touring a really cool new

elevator room in England.

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There was an elevator

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that is 100 years old, and I couldn't

watch that for almost 45 minutes.

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You know, this is what I always start

playing, right?

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Yeah. Yes. Okay.

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Oh. Is that a first world problem?

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I would believe so.

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And I think that it might also be

a problem focused on a certain kind

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of people.

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Anyway.

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Well, and another kind of birth day.

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It's the first computer for general use.

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Celebrates its 80th anniversary.

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Yeah. This is this is kind of cool.

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So up in engineering.

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Posted this on Instagram.

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And this week marks

the 80th anniversary of the Eniac.

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Eniac, the first programable

electronic general purpose computer.

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So this was a turning point

and this thing was huge.

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Use vacuum tubes.

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You know,

it took up more space in my house, has,

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consumed a lot of electricity.

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But it was the starting point

of all of this.

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And you know, the idea of being able

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to program something electronic

or that just wasn't a fine.

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Well, and also I thought was interesting

was that the,

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the people that programed it,

they were all women.

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Yeah. Yeah,

that actually that is a very good point.

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That is true. Yeah. All right.

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You know, when I was a kid,

I never equated women with computers.

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And so it was like, really?

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Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah.

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And that's actually something

I'm going to do a research on it

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because I know

a little bit of the background,

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not enough to really cover

it correctly right now.

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But the woman that did this, I believe,

was not allowed in college or something.

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And she started doing her own thing

and learned about this.

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So it is actually quite a story

and one worth looking up.

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And I want to make sure

we cover on a future episode.

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But anyway, happy 80 anniversary Nak.

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Glad you were here.

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Star Wars splits the fan base

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with first trailer for Clone Wars sequel.

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Yeah, I believe this is another

first world problem.

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Yeah,

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I don't know.

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Gretchen, you're our Star Wars expert.

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What do you think about this?

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What's your opinion?

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Well,

I kind of got the impression that people

313

are complaining about something

they don't need to complain about.

314

They were unhappy that Maul consistently

looks like he's supposed to it

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when he looked like it through the Clone

Wars.

316

What's wrong with that?

317

Well, if you're asking me to come up

with something wrong with that,

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I don't have an answer

because I don't think I.

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I'm, I'm at a I'm in a loss too.

320

Yeah. And it looks the same.

321

Oh, dear. You know.

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Oh, you know, you know, fluent

you know, storytelling.

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You know, that makes sense. Coordinated.

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Oh, it makes sense how scary.

325

Yeah.

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And then, then there was other complaints.

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Oh, we don't like the artwork.

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What's wrong with the artwork?

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It was really nice, you know, it was fun.

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I think it's definitely something

that people will find something

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to complain about.

Pretty much with anything.

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Having something like the split,

the fan base.

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So I it's, you know, it's interesting.

334

So what this is Star Wars

The Clone Wars a sequel coming up.

335

Maul shot shadow Lord,

which is coming out on April 6th, uses

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a animation style that I guess

some people are concerned about.

337

So, you know, to those people, get a bag,

put it over your head on that date.

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Don't worry about it.

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Exactly.

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Researchers investigate black box

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discovered deep in caves of the Grand

Canyon, thousands of feet below ground.

342

Yeah. So this is an interesting one.

343

TCD reporting on this.

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When I read this headline, I'm

345

thinking they found a black box

below ground that's what I was thinking.

346

But no, watch the forces.

347

I was an ancient aliens, you know, so I.

348

So what they're doing is

349

they're referring to the system below,

350

you know, the Grand Canyon, North Rim

that actually distributes water.

351

So in other words, the water, table

and all of that kind of thing

352

and learning about how it works.

353

That's the black box.

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And what they've done is

they've used, handheld laser

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scanners

to build a first ever 3D map of the caves.

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And what goes on here

is one spring supplies

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all the drinking water for the park.

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So that's the 6 million plus annual guess,

plus the people that work there

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and so on.

360

And the concern is water pollution

because it moves very quickly

361

through the system.

362

It doesn't really filter in the same way

that a lot of ground water does.

363

So this is allowing them to be able

to look at things, get something earlier

364

on, know what's going on, and allowing

a lot of information that could

365

hopefully, you know,

prevent their from being a disaster.

366

Now with the coverups under there,

367

I don't think it's going to help to have

this map.

368

You'll need new maps afterwards

because that will have changed.

369

But there's a caldera under the

Grand River, not in green.

370

What am I thinking of here?

371

I'm using the wrong word

there. Yellowstone.

372

Thank you, thank you.

373

Yeah. Okay. Yellowstone has a caldera.

374

All right, well,

two different national parks.

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Grand Canyon, Yellowstone.

376

What's different?

377

Besides,

you know, three states about 900 miles.

378

And the fact that I can't seem

to think of the right word currently.

379

You know, I'm saying,

you know, my goodness.

380

Although I do have a feeling

381

if the caldera under Yellowstone went off,

it would affect the Grand Canyon.

382

But so that's my my story

that's sticking to it.

383

So there you are.

384

All right.

385

And other news,

Michelin makes special airless tire.

386

Yeah.

Let's move on from that previous one.

387

So, yeah.

388

So this is on Instagram.

389

And, you know, one of the questions

always comes up is when we find a topic

390

through something like Instagram,

you want to check and see if this is real.

391

And spoiler alert we found a few things

that aren't I know it's on the internet.

392

Can you believe it?

393

However, this one is with a few caveats.

394

So what's going on here

395

is Michelin has developed

airless, puncture resistant tires.

396

They call it

the unique puncture proof tire system.

397

Or for Gretchen,

just for you. It's up. This,

398

is what they're using.

399

The branded under upticks.

400

Yeah.

401

They're not widely available yet,

but they are real and have been tested.

402

So it's an airless design, uses

a flexible spoke

403

structure instead of pressurized air,

404

designed to eliminate flies and blowouts

405

and intended to reduce weight

from higher damage.

406

Now, the one thing is this,

407

the dealers aren't going to be able

to sell us nitrogen filled tires anymore.

408

I have yet to figure out

why you'd want that, but,

409

Yeah, you know,

but it changes things, right?

410

So are they truly puncture proof?

411

Well, mostly, I mean, the claim is there,

but they're not indestructible.

412

They do resist quite

well from the testing.

413

Neilsen road punctures,

low leaks, blowouts

414

and certainly pressure related failures

because there isn't air pressure anymore.

415

You know,

416

you're still

going to have things like them wearing out

417

or if there's extreme damage or,

418

you know, severe structural impacts,

that kind of a thing.

419

So puncture proof is largely

420

accurate in everyday terms,

but not absolute.

421

The next question that comes up on

this is the eco friendly claims.

422

Are they legit?

423

Well it depends on how you look at

potential benefits are number one,

424

there's going to be your tires discarded

due to flats, which is actually a big deal

425

with EVs because they're heavier

and go through tires faster.

426

Better efficiency because

you have to worry about the air pressure.

427

They're designed for a longer lifespan

428

and can potentially use more

recycled materials.

429

However, this is still something

that's been studied,

430

so it'll be interesting

to see where it goes.

431

So right now there's prototypes

they're testing.

432

It can't buy them yet.

433

So as soon as you can,

it'll be interesting to see

434

whether this holds up to the claim.

435

Does it talk about whether they're

436

that they're comfortable ride

or is it like being in a wagon.

437

They, you know, I was looking for

that type of data, and it doesn't look

438

like they've either not published it yet

or they're still researching it.

439

Okay, so.

440

Animal

microchip company goes out of business.

441

Yeah. And this one's a bummer. So,

442

what we're talking about here

443

is if you have a pet,

444

a lot of pet owners, pet parents. Will.

445

I like pet parents better than owners.

446

Anyway, will have their pet microchip.

447

So in other words,

they inject a small chip.

448

And if that is lost, it can be scanned

using a scanner like an RFID scanner.

449

And a number comes off.

450

And then what happens is you're able

to take that number, look at it

451

in a database, and be able to find out who

the owner or the parent of the pet.

452

It's, well, a Texas

based company called Save This Life,

453

which has registered microchips for pets

nationwide,

454

has gone out of business

and the database has gone offline.

455

So now all of a sudden, if you see

and you can still scan the numbers,

456

the chips themselves still work.

457

Like trying to look up the data

on who that's connected to you is

458

no longer possible.

459

Well, that's not nice.

460

Yeah.

461

So being that the chips still work,

there's are some steps you can take.

462

Your you probably aren't

going to have to get a new chip,

463

but contact your vet

because they'll know about this.

464

And what they can do is scan the chip

and see if one of the ones you have

465

is effective, and then you can go

and reregister through another site.

466

So you want to double check

the registration, make sure it's accurate.

467

The numbers that come off of the chips

affected are primarily 991.

468

It's not limited to that,

469

but it is definitely something

you want to have checked out.

470

And it's an important point here

because if you microchip your pet

471

and don't register them or

something like this happens,

472

it doesn't matter that they're microchip,

not going to do a whole lot of good

473

because you won't be able

to find the owner.

474

You know.

475

All right.

476

So in our last little

bit here I'm Cyber Hawk going

477

pretty good.

478

You know,

479

you know more than I do.

480

You handle that part of, you know,

I know there's

481

been an update, the first edition, fixing

a few little things, and that's gone out.

482

And, you know, the library of Congress

registrations are done on them,

483

and so far, they're selling.

484

Well, we're talking about an audiobook

version I hear on down the road now.

485

So, you know, and Gretchen,

I think a congratulations to you on this.

486

It's kind of cool to see this and that.

487

It's been successful.

488

I know, hopefully

489

I'm not giving away the farm here

that you've sold over 10,000 copies now.

490

Yeah, and that's not bad.

491

That's really not.

492

Yeah, I think that's something

to be really proud of.

493

So has unveiled villains coming.

494

It's coming along.

495

It's not done yet.

496

I'm still in the rough draft,

497

but we are going to have another another

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498

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499

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500

Or you can go to User Friendly

Dot show and click on our shop page.

501

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502

If you like it.

503

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504

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505

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506

All right.

We are going to go to our break.

507

And after the break we're going

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508

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509

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510

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511

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512

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513

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514

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515

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516

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517

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518

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522

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523

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524

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525

We usually if you want to order,

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526

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527

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528

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529

Check it out.

530

All right.

531

So we're going to have

a little conversation here.

532

And it's about subscriptions.

533

We've talked about this before.

534

And what I'm talking about

535

is how you used to be everything you know

by software by whatever.

536

And now it's like where are we headed?

537

Well, they call it subscription fatigue.

538

When did everything become monthly bill?

539

Gretchen, before we get into

any depth on this, what did this give us?

540

Your 10,000ft thoughts.

541

Are you seeing everything become more?

542

You have to pay for it now. Monthly? Yeah,

543

yeah, yeah, to put it mildly,

544

you. My art

program wants me to pay monthly.

545

Now that I bought it back

when it was still,

546

you know, just non subscription.

547

But even they want me to pay for it

if I get it on my iPad or something.

548

Yeah, yeah.

549

And I've been running

550

and we're going to talk about that

a little bit here in a minute

551

about running into them

changing things and going from there.

552

How many,

553

how many monthly subscriptions you have,

if you had to guess right now, one.

554

Just one. Okay.

555

So you don't have like the television

ones, you have Netflix, I have Netflix,

556

that's all I have. Okay. All right.

So there you go.

557

You would be in the minority

on that. Gretchen, how about you? I am,

558

let's see,

559

I've got Prime and HBO Max,

but that's because,

560

you know, mom, you know, you don't have to

justify why you have the subscriber.

561

Yeah, you can have any you want,

but you're talking about how many got.

562

Yeah.

563

But you see, I don't I, I hate the idea

of throwing money away every month.

564

I find it really annoying.

565

And it screws with my budget,

so it's like,

566

I guess I have to.

567

So I think, well, let's see,

you have HBO Max, Amazon Prime.

568

What about Hulu?

569

No, that's moms okay.

570

But still it's in your household,

you know? Okay.

571

So then we have three.

572

Yeah. And again,

you're in the minority household.

573

That's two.

574

Yeah yeah yeah okay. Yeah.

575

And these numbers are based on households.

576

So typical households now have between

577

10 and 20 subscriptions

across media, software and services.

578

And this is why I'm asking

because if you look at these numbers, it

579

and think about that a little bit,

it is actually quite an expense.

580

Yeah.

581

And you know, and the frustration

comes from something very simple.

582

Once upon a time you bought a thing

and you owned it.

583

Yeah. Now you rent access forever.

584

You know.

585

And when it comes down to it,

we're not just paying more.

586

We're losing control.

587

And it really is where this is going.

588

You know,

589

so, you know, 10,000ft view stuff.

590

Why people are frustrated with this

I you know, I think it comes down to

591

like we just said, it used to be

that let's say we'll pick on software.

592

You buy it once, used it for years.

593

I want to pick on QuickBooks here

because I've talked about this before.

594

So I bought it and I use QuickBooks for

I since the 90s, you know.

595

Yeah.

596

All of a sudden I needed to upgrade,

597

because I wanted to do payroll with it

and Oh, well, we don't have a version.

598

You can buy anymore. It's now

a monthly fee, and that's all you can do.

599

And I said, well, I guess I'm not doing

payroll with you. And I didn't.

600

And the version I have is QuickBooks 2020.

601

And yeah, it's out of support now to date,

but I'm not paying monthly

602

because it does everything I need to do,

you know, and then the other problem with

603

this is if you start paying,

you lose access to your data.

604

Yeah. Yeah.

605

You know,

because it's in a, a specific thing and,

606

you know, so it's like I bought it.

607

Why do I still have to pay every month?

608

And I think

609

we're running into this more and more and,

610

you know, subscription creep,

I would say the pennies add up,

611

but we can't do that anymore

because we don't have them.

612

Well, now

call this nickel and dime effect.

613

How about that?

You know, got to the counter right.

614

So individual

615

subscriptions seem cheap

but they stack silently.

616

So basically it comes down to $5 here

$10 there.

617

Oh then suddenly you're getting the amount

of a utility bill.

618

I just remembered my Disney one.

619

That's expensive.

620

Yeah. Okay.

621

So while you're I,

622

and and Gretchen,

I know for you, if you look at the stuff

623

that's, like, paid through for work,

you have office 365.

624

So that's five.

625

The Adobe suite, that's six, you know.

626

Oh. But so but you brought up

that really important point

627

where your files are no longer safe,

628

and it's like you're counting on them

629

to keep your stuff safe

and always make it accessible.

630

Well, before it lived on your computer.

631

And if your internet went down,

632

you could still get to your files

because it was on your computer.

633

Yeah, yeah.

634

So and this is a problem, you know, and

and that's the things that you.

635

Yeah.

636

So think about it from what

you have to manage streaming services,

637

which we talked about,

you just talked about cloud storage,

638

which is what that is at your OneDrive

Google Drive, all that kind of stuff.

639

Software security, smart home services.

640

That's another big point

we're going to get into here in a minute.

641

And what's happening is, is it's

642

creating a situation where you have worse

bundling and feature locking.

643

Now, I compare this to tramlines on car,

which is something I've hated.

644

I want to go in and buy a vehicle

with these features.

645

Well, in order to get that you have to buy

all this other stuff and pay for it.

646

Well, I don't want all that other stuff,

you know?

647

Well, you have to have it.

648

And that's what's happening here.

649

So what they're doing is they're gating

key features behind the subscriptions

650

and removing things that were previously

free, which is a big sign.

651

And you now are required

to account for basic use,

652

even if you don't have a subscription,

you want access to the product,

653

you got to pay for it,

or at least have an account.

654

And it creates a feeling of being trapped,

being up, sold, and,

655

you know, constantly.

656

I mean, they're talking about putting ads

657

in the cab of your cars

on your infotainment systems,

658

and then having to pay

in paying to maintain functionality.

659

I don't know,

why would this create frustration?

660

Because it seems like

the companies are taking this

661

from a standpoint of

we don't know why people don't like it.

662

I just folded my arms. Yes, I.

663

And I, you know, I know and

664

it comes down to just a situation

where you do

665

you do lose control of your situation.

666

And, well, this would explain

667

why so many people are homeless.

668

They're they're they're losing

all their money for a bunch of

669

stupid stuff that they should have been

owning in the first place.

670

And they bought it. It's done with.

671

They use it and they go on with life.

672

But instead you're you're

you're being bled dry like a vampire.

673

Yeah. That's,

you know, stuff more expensive anyway.

674

Just the anyway.

675

But yeah.

676

Then you're they have all these,

677

models that they sell stuff out

that is designed to cost more.

678

On top of that, it really is.

679

And, you know,

and I don't know if subscriptions

680

are directly responsible

for the rise in homelessness,

681

but it certainly is a contributing factor

because of the budget.

682

And you know, so it's

683

I think so

here are some specific examples.

684

Just right out the gate.

685

We already talked about one

and that's Adobe Creative Suite

686

which has become Adobe Creative Cloud.

687

So it's a for example before

you bought Photoshop or whatever, right.

688

Yeah. And you used it for years.

689

All right.

690

Now a monthly subscription is required

and you lose access if you stop paying.

691

So what this comes down to is

I have my file in this proprietary

692

format, Photoshop,

InDesign, premiere, or whatever, right.

693

And if I no longer

want to pay the monthly fee,

694

even if I have the file stored locally,

which, Gretchen, you kind of address

695

this point on that to which

we're going to get to in a minute.

696

But even if you have the file locally,

you still can't open it.

697

It's locked, you know. Yeah.

698

And it's also made very clear

that if you have an old version of, say,

699

Photoshop that won't open your new file

because the format is changed, you know?

700

Yeah, it's, it's creepy.

701

It's it's it's sneaky.

702

It's creepy.

703

It I think it's I think it's bad business.

704

I think so, too.

705

And, you know,

it is one of the reasons we bring up Adobe

706

is because this was the biggest,

the considered to be the biggest

707

turning point

in software history on this bill.

708

Go ahead.

709

Well, I just saying it is a big deal.

710

But Adobe on its own.

711

Yeah. Now

they're actually removing the software.

712

Is it really being a problem

713

there I say that was okay.

714

Can you explain that?

715

They had a, cartooning program

that was used by most cartoonists.

716

I mean, we're talking

big names like Cartoon Network, Disney,

717

a lot of companies, and they are now

removing it from their subscription.

718

So you will no longer be able

to access their program.

719

Like, at all.

720

Exactly that.

721

So, you know, that's another point

I hadn't thought of too,

722

because you have the company discontinue

something,

723

you're you're effectively locked out.

724

You can't get to this stuff.

725

That's so annoying.

726

It's really annoying.

727

And general feedback from the Adobe thing

728

is professionals adapted,

although not willingly.

729

But the other part of it is appeal.

730

You're kind of touching upon this

731

as hobbyists are priced out

or the software goes away,

732

you know, see if the hobbyists go away,

733

then the professionals

eventually will go away

734

because you're not going to have the the

grassroots people who want to be artists

735

going on to learn the software,

to become the professional.

736

You're going to you're going

to slam the door

737

in these people's faces,

and they're going to go away.

738

Yeah. That's perfect.

What about the other part of it?

739

You have a creative person

that's an artist or something, right?

740

And a lot of times,

unfortunately I wish this wasn't so.

741

But those areas people

do not make a lot of money.

742

Nope.

743

And you know, so

744

they're trying to maintain their

their life

745

and they're using some of these tools

to be able to do it.

746

Now all of a sudden you can't get your art

assets unless you cough up money.

747

Or like Bill just said, you can't, period.

748

I mean, you know, I build, you know,

if there's a way to import those files

749

to something else or is it just go

on, it's just going to be gone.

750

Yeah, I'd have a problem with that

big one.

751

I'm sure a lot of people do that.

752

By the way, for anyone listening here,

let us know.

753

User friendly dot show

if you've run into this

754

and what you think about it

because yeah, that's a good point.

755

I didn't think of as way

if you wouldn't have a choice in that. So

756

all right, next one Microsoft Office.

757

And this has been a big one too.

758

Now in all fairness to Microsoft, you

can still buy a one time install a bonus.

759

It does exist, however.

760

Let's just say the ecosystem strongly

pushes you to the subscription model.

761

And you know, to a point where it's

it's like so in your face it,

762

you know, cloud features are locked behind

a reoccurring fee.

763

So what happens with this is with office.

764

Since I think about office 2003,

765

might have been 2007

766

somewhere in that range,

you started having access to online tools

767

so you could go in and say,

I want clip art or,

768

you know, a template for something

or that type of a thing

769

always was included

770

in the subscription or not subscription,

but in the software when you bought it.

771

Yeah.

772

Now all of a sudden that doesn't work

anymore on the old versions.

773

It's not included in the new ones.

774

But if you have the Office

365 subscription, well, it's there.

775

Yeah, yeah.

776

No problem. Right.

777

Okay. You stop paying that monthly fee

778

and, our office

I think is gone in an annual.

779

But you nevertheless,

it's still the same idea.

780

And again, if you buy the one time

use, it's every time you click on

781

something that should be there,

it comes up with an ad.

782

Well, why don't you upgrade right now?

783

Yeah, but I found that the subscription

based word didn't run well.

784

Yeah.

785

When I first tried this many years ago,

it did not run well.

786

And, I ended up going to that.

787

There was another word processing software

that was, open office.

788

So I went to open office.

789

I left Microsoft Word

because I was being forced

790

to this subscription thing

that didn't work right.

791

I would have rather

just bought my miss word,

792

put it on my machine, and been happy.

793

In in the early days of this.

794

And I know what you're talking about.

795

They had and they still have it

a way to use word through your browser.

796

And that's. Yeah,

that's what you ran into.

797

So, it was garbage.

798

Yeah. A lot of people

shared your sentiment on it.

799

I mean, I'll use it once in a while

if I don't have word installed.

800

Any doubt it's something, but it's not.

801

It's a I don't consider it to be user

friendly, you know, plug blog right now.

802

But seriously,

803

it was a situation.

804

It does what you needed to do in a pinch,

but I wouldn't want to use it primarily.

805

So what's happened now?

806

And this is the same thing with Adobe,

807

is when you buy a subscription

to fix that problem,

808

it does install onto your local storage,

just like it always did,

809

but the software is locked.

810

So every time you run it, it goes out

to see if the subscription is active

811

and if it's not,

it won't let you open your software.

812

You know, the question that comes to mind

is, well,

813

what happens

if the internet's not working?

814

Or, you know,

or I'm on my laptop somewhere and,

815

what if you were to go out into the woods

and have it really super quiet

816

and you're a writer and you want to work

on your novel, how can you do that?

817

Yeah.

818

And this is a good question,

you know, and it's something

819

I haven't actually check this out yet.

I haven't been in this position.

820

But I think what I'm going to do

821

and I'll get back with everybody on

what happens with

822

this is I'm going to make sure

my laptop set up

823

with the newest versions

of all this stuff.

824

But I do have subscriptions to. Right.

825

And then I'm going to turn off the Wi-Fi

and see exactly what it goes.

826

I have a feeling

the laptop might just disintegrate

827

into another dimension

when I turn the Wi-Fi off, but we'll see.

828

You know?

829

It's, it's like one of those things.

830

I don't know, though

you might know the answer to this.

831

I know the last time I installed

Windows 11,

832

I had to log into my online account.

833

You know, if you can even install windows,

if you're not on the internet.

834

Yes, you technically can.

835

It's the old call it up and get the key

kind of situation.

836

What I've understood. Wow.

837

But, still paid.

838

Yeah.

839

And it just, you know,

840

and then thinner videos is,

of course, updates all that kind of stuff.

841

And, you know, and I'm not saying

it's a bad thing to be online.

842

There are benefits to that like updates.

843

Right.

844

Security things in a modern

operating system, you almost have to have.

845

That makes sense.

846

Yeah, yeah.

847

It's just, you know,

and people have pushed back on this.

848

At one point Microsoft was talking

about making windows subscription based.

849

Yeah.

850

So I don't know what

that would completely entitle,

851

but it would seem like

the way this is done is

852

if you stop paying your subscription,

you simply couldn't turn the computer on,

853

you know,

854

that enough people push back on that

they haven't done it.

855

That doesn't mean they're not, because I

was thinking I was going to have to go out

856

and get a horse and a cart and get a farm

so I could feed my horse,

857

you know, and you know,

that's what you're going towards.

858

I'll tell you. It's,

859

it's one of the things, you know,

and it does create problems to it.

860

You know, the next part of this

is obviously streaming services and when,

861

when that started out, Netflix

was the cheap cable replacement, sort of.

862

You got Netflix,

you can watch the on demand,

863

they had a pretty good library of things

and they were seven, eight bucks a month.

864

Now, Bill,

you said you don't have Netflix.

865

You know what? It is a month now.

866

17 okay.

867

So that's two and a half times

something like that.

868

Now, is that the one without ads

or is that without ads?

869

But it's only for like three TVs.

870

It's the lowest grade. Yeah.

871

And for a company, the CEO once made

the statement that sharing

872

your password is the, you know,

biggest form of love you could have. Or.

873

I'm not quoting that. Exactly right.

But that's what they said.

874

They certainly have changed

their definition of love.

875

You know, with the, with all of that.

876

So, you know, at one time that was great.

877

And then they started coming out with the

what they call over-the-top services

878

that were like your cable,

where it had the different channels,

879

if you will, on a list,

and you could get to them.

880

But it was,

you know, got to you by the internet.

881

And now we have, you know, really

what's come down to fragmentation Netflix,

882

Disney Plus, Hulu Max, Paramount Plus,

Apple TV plus, blah, blah, blah, you know,

883

and all that kind of stuff.

884

And on a positive, if you take the time

to control all of this, you can subscribe

885

to one for a month, binge watch, turn it

off, subscribe to another one for a month.

886

The problem is, is about 80% of

the population doesn't do that.

887

We have lives and it is hard to sit down

and think about about that.

888

So it's almost like we escape cable

and then accidentally rebuilt it

889

and are spending more than we did

when we had cable, you know.

890

Yeah, yeah.

891

And it's really hard for my mother,

you know, as a senior,

892

she still remembers having the dial.

893

And we only had 4 or 3 channels.

894

And and it's like it made sense to her.

895

And a lot of this stuff

doesn't make sense to her.

896

And it's really it's hard.

897

It's, it's.

898

And the thing of it is, is that's really

I mean, you literally had channels,

899

you know, you were tuning a thing.

900

And, another topic we're going to be doing

later this year, and we've touched upon

901

this earlier, is that they want to start

encrypting over-the-air broadcasts.

902

And, this is another huge

sore point for a lot of reasons.

903

But what's happened here now

is, in addition to the fact that you need

904

completely different equipment

than what your mom would be used to using,

905

there's no such thing, as far as I know,

is anything like a channel selector.

906

On any of the modern stuff, it's

all menu driven and that type of thing,

907

which is hard for people

that are not good at using the computer.

908

I want to sit down and watch TV.

909

But before I could, you know,

910

pull the on button, set the volume

and go to a channel or a given time.

911

And now it doesn't work like that.

912

And I don't know what to do.

913

And while there are certainly advantages

to being able to watch on demand,

914

it shouldn't, in my opinion, be

replacing the way that you used to do it.

915

Like it? It's,

916

you know, and and then on top of that key

917

frustration that comes in is content

is constantly moving between platforms.

918

So what is on one platform

today is now on another one

919

that you might not have access

to. You know? Exactly.

920

So you have to subscribe

921

to multiple services simultaneously

to get what you had ten years ago.

922

That was one, you know, and

923

what are the other.

924

Oh, I was going to say.

925

And it's like, then

not all of the equipment works the same.

926

We have a Samsung TV and a Panasonic,

927

and we have fire sticks.

928

Fire stick likes

the Samsung does not like the Panasonic.

929

And weird stuff

constantly happens on that Panasonic.

930

And it's like, oh

931

and it's you know, it's and it's pushing

the development of equipment.

932

We're gonna get to the some minute.

933

But I want to upgrade my living room TV

to a, you know, 4K, OLED.

934

And, I was at Best Buy and I asked,

935

I'd like to see a 4K, OLED TV

that's not a smart TV.

936

And the guy looked at me

like I had asked for an indecent act.

937

I mean, it was the weirdest thing.

938

He doesn't respond and he's like, just

standing there going, you want what now?

939

I said, I want it where I have an input

and then I can decide

940

what goes into that input.

941

I will use a smart TV.

942

In my case, I usually use fire TV, but

I want control and my current television.

943

You turn it on, it's an LG

and you can do that of course,

944

but it goes through all of its stuff

and like you say, it doesn't work

945

the same way as the other TVs

in the house because of it,

946

you know?

947

So some of my smaller sets that I have in

the bedrooms are smart TVs

948

with that built in.

949

But the problem that I'm noticing with

that now is they're slowing down

950

because you can't upgrade the module

in at the controls.

951

That, and as they make

952

the program more complicated, you know,

so there's problems with that.

953

Yeah.

954

And you know, and one of the other

big ones that's happened from this

955

and I think it's to

hopefully teach them a lesson

956

a little bit is streaming when it came out

pretty much solved.

957

Not 100% of it.

958

Pretty much solved the problem

with piracy.

959

So, you know, you pay five bucks a month,

have access to Spotify or something.

960

You can listen to whatever you want.

961

People aren't as inclined to try to

download illegal tracks, and all of that,

962

and they watch television.

963

And with the way things are going

now, cost and everything else,

964

piracy is becoming a big problem again.

965

And yeah, I think they kind of,

you know, stepped on their own foot

966

with this

because obviously that's going to happen.

967

And, one of the other big things is

a lot of people have gotten

968

used to no commercials.

969

Now they're putting them back in

and that's a problem.

970

So, you know,

971

but, yeah, like YouTube or as I call it,

Ads Tube.

972

Yeah. That's true.

973

You know. Exactly.

974

I have YouTube premium

just because I can't stand that.

975

But it's, you know, another subscription,

by the way.

976

You know, and we talked about cloud

storage, OneDrive, all that stuff.

977

It's actually causing them to ship devices

with smaller

978

hard drives because they expect you

to use the cloud storage.

979

So we're seeing that go that way.

980

And the big controversial one,

we've talked about this before,

981

but we get asked questions about all

the way is subscription features in cards,

982

heated seats behind paywalls, remote start

subscriptions, advanced driver

983

features locked monthly on stuff

that's hardware that's already installed.

984

You bet you pay for it when you buy it

anyway.

985

So you're, you know, double charged and,

986

you know, Volkswagen

has this thing on their ID4,

987

which is the one number, one slowest

988

selling, SUV in the country right

now, according to Car Edge.

989

And there's stuff on there

like if you want

990

the engine to run at full capability,

that's a monthly cost.

991

So it will reduce the horsepower,

992

or the output, unless you pay for the,

you know, whatever it is.

993

I mean, think about it this way.

994

You buy your toaster

995

and now you have to pay monthly

to be able to unlock the bagel setting.

996

Yeah, that's like stupid.

997

It. Yes, it is.

998

It absolutely.

999

I, I just is somebody who's worked on cars

for most of her life.

00:46:52,776 --> 00:46:55,779

I can't understand how this stuff.

00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:57,114

Yeah, yeah.

00:46:57,114 --> 00:46:58,882

When is that.

00:46:58,882 --> 00:46:59,583

Why why yeah.

00:46:59,583 --> 00:47:02,186

Well they don't,

but the car companies want to make money.

00:47:02,186 --> 00:47:03,487

Yeah, that's too good.

00:47:03,487 --> 00:47:04,922

They're really being stupid.

00:47:04,922 --> 00:47:07,925

They're going to end up paying the price

at some point.

00:47:07,925 --> 00:47:10,360

Yeah. It just it's,

00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:11,428

you know, it's one of those things.

00:47:11,428 --> 00:47:13,831

So what can you do about it?

00:47:13,831 --> 00:47:15,365

We all get jetpacks

00:47:16,934 --> 00:47:18,001

okay I agree with that.

00:47:18,001 --> 00:47:20,871

And I don't think the jetpack company

should charge a subscription if you want.

00:47:20,871 --> 00:47:22,706

You know, if you want to go more than ten

00:47:22,706 --> 00:47:24,741

feet off the ground,

then you have to pay a monthly fee.

00:47:24,741 --> 00:47:26,577

I yeah, the gravity wouldn't do that.

00:47:26,577 --> 00:47:30,380

But you know, I could see something like

that being suggested on others.

00:47:31,548 --> 00:47:33,951

Oh you know subscriptions fatigue okay.

00:47:33,951 --> 00:47:34,484

What do you do.

00:47:34,484 --> 00:47:37,187

You have to actively

audit your subscriptions,

00:47:37,187 --> 00:47:39,990

see if you can still find one time

purchase alternatives.

00:47:39,990 --> 00:47:42,993

In other words, go to eBay

and buy a used copy of QuickBooks.

00:47:42,993 --> 00:47:44,394

That's a license.

00:47:44,394 --> 00:47:45,495

It's not going to have

the latest greatest,

00:47:45,495 --> 00:47:48,498

but it might do what you

you don't need it to do.

00:47:49,766 --> 00:47:52,069

Return to physical media when you can.

00:47:52,069 --> 00:47:56,673

You know, it's, it's

one of those type of things. You.

00:47:57,140 --> 00:47:58,008

I have been

00:47:58,008 --> 00:48:01,178

on a love hate relationship with this,

and I'm back to loving my physical media.

00:48:01,845 --> 00:48:04,848

Now that I figured out a way that I can

distribute it through my home system.

00:48:05,649 --> 00:48:10,454

You know, it's it's like you're actually

in possession of things, you know?

00:48:10,454 --> 00:48:13,490

And regulators are beginning

to look at this too.

00:48:13,557 --> 00:48:17,261

Dark patterns, hard to cancel

subscriptions, auto renewal practices.

00:48:17,261 --> 00:48:21,098

Amazon just got hit with a settlement

00:48:21,098 --> 00:48:24,101

for this

for the way they were marketing Prime.

00:48:24,401 --> 00:48:28,038

And, you know, as with most class action

settlements,

00:48:28,038 --> 00:48:31,074

if you want, you got a, you know, coupon

for a free taco or something.

00:48:31,074 --> 00:48:34,077

That was a little more than that,

but it feels like that, you know,

00:48:34,411 --> 00:48:36,346

and at the end of the day,

00:48:36,346 --> 00:48:39,850

it did hit them

because, you know, it was a lot of money.

00:48:39,850 --> 00:48:43,287

Now with Amazon, it's probably,

you know, just another day at work.

00:48:43,287 --> 00:48:48,292

But nevertheless, there is starting to be

some crackdown on all of this.

00:48:48,959 --> 00:48:52,362

And, you know, I don't know

if Venus economy is starting to collide

00:48:52,362 --> 00:48:56,366

with the ownership economy

and the tension is only going to grow.

00:48:56,967 --> 00:49:00,304

And with that, until next week without

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00:49:00,304 --> 00:49:02,272

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00:49:11,915 --> 00:49:13,550

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