Comments by "TJ Marx" (@tjmarx) on "Technology Connections" channel.

  1. Why do I need to take the disc back to the store when the recycle bin the local council has provided since the 90s accepts optical discs for recycling? I can just put it in the bin at home and there is no convenience nor environmental penalty. Online video was starting to take off in a big way in 2005, Google didn't try to compete with streaming video start-up YouTube, lose to them then buy them out for some stupid amount of money in 2006 for nothing. Netflix at this same time was already offering to stream those movies you wanted to rent to you instead of sending you the disc, and even offered your subscription cheaper if you wanted streaming only. The Xbox 360, launched originally in 2005 allowed owners to rent and stream movies directly from the console and the predecessor to Ultra Violet also came out around this time allowing you to rent a digital time limited copy of a movie directly from the studio. It should then be no surprise that 2 years later when Flexplay tried to relaunch themselves in 2008 they failed. The industry had moved on, optical discs were going away from the mainstream and the business traveller who for some reason wasn't using in room hotel rentals probably was trendy enough to be on streaming video. If Flexplay had released in 1999 we would have seen a completely different future for the company. It wasn't environmentalism that made them fail, they were just too late to the party.
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  2. Crazy that it's 2019 and you're talking about window unit air conditioners. They're hard to come by in Australia now, unless you want to buy second hand your options are either install a split system (not ducting) or get a portable unit.
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