Looking for software to perform a particular function can be tedious sometimes. It’s quite difficult to search for things by function, because the words you might use to describe a complex and specific function are themselves often quite general. Even when you find something that claims to meet your needs, you often have to download and install it before finding out that it’s utter crud and not something you would ever use. I usually end up downloading at least 3 different applications before I find something I can use.

That’s why on the odd occasion that I find a nice piece of software, I keep a hopeful eye out for other software from the same author. I guess that’s what I’m hoping will happen [eventually] with Jujusoft; people might like one application and that will encourage them to experiment with others, which in isolation might not be the sort of thing they would normally look for. It’s a nice theory, anyway.

Freedom from choice

I saw Clive James being interviewed once, and the subject of pay-tv came up. A self-confessed TV addict, he expressed some sadness at the departure of the old model of television viewing, where everyone had the same limited number of stations available [eg: less than 5] to watch. His main concern seemed to be that in spite of the promise of more choice with subscription-based services, the homogeneity of the individual channels comprised (eg 24hr sport/news/cartoon channels) would actuality reduce the quality of the average person’s viewing experience.

Whereas free-to-air television stations will try to mix it up a little and offer something for everyone, pay-tv is delivered as a packages of pre-sorted content. With free-to-air, you might have just finished watching your favourite sport and current affairs program, and then on comes some documentary that you would never normally switch over for, but there it is already starting, and you might go ahead and watch it… And maybe you’ll enjoy it! And maybe it’ll make you think about something which otherwise would never have occurred to you. This is much less likely to happen with pay-tv.

Pay-tv does indeed offer the subscriber more choice in their viewing, but the question remains: Given the choice, how many people will choose to be surprised? How many will choose to learn something new? We are creatures of habit after all.

I was going to make some great point about the internet here, but it seems a bit labored now. Something to do with the sheer amount of choice being a bit daunting sometimes, but I think I have already complained enough about that here anyway. Actually I quite like the internet you know.