Why won’t they use my browser for downloads, for example through TestCafe? That would also allow downloading premium quality (for subscribers) and so on.
Remember the days when most people who were on the internet could build their own websites? And those were rather unique, sometimes quaint and sincere? And you didn’t need a help from a solar-system-engulfing corporation to accomplish that?
What if I told you that it is still possible? Or, have we as the tech community “succeeded” in making the barrier of entry so much higher?
Consume less = exclude myself from certain kinds of social relationships with other people, show less appreciation to the labor of inventors, engineers and people who make stuff with their hands (appreciation in action, not just in words)?
Everyone is entitled to live the way they prefer (within certain limits), of course! :) But I would want to “consume better” instead of “consuming less”.
Consume things made sustainably, buy quality products made by small/family businesses, purchase more services rather than goods, avoid consuming things made by big corporations under regimes that go against the values I believe in, support technologies that move humanity closer to the future that appears to be “a better future”, etc.. I hope that this does not sound too contrarian and does not offend anybody! Peace and happy New Year to everyone!
So has the Japanese government indeed been struggling (I doubt there are that many things that would make such an organization struggle) or was it just avoiding running after every fashionable technological trend there was? I imagine that other governments have spent hundreds of millions in taxpayers’ money going through generations of quickly-becoming-obsolete tech in the same time.
Are we simply dealing here with different philosophies in regarding what’s important in life?
There’s not that much wrong with Facebook or Instagram. They are what we make them. You won’t have a new kind of community unless you somehow create a new kind of human. Or unless you introduce some kind of requirements for people who wish to enter. But that’s maybe “elitist”, right? :)
I would not necessarily call it “pointless” as in “totally pointless”. The benefits could be: 1) “Trickling down” of new technologies. Development of new production and operation methods that could be used elsewhere. 2) New jobs, taxes, etc. Again there are “schools of thought” (or rather ideological movements) that dislike the idea of economic growth and ignore its positive impact on people’s standards of living. (Agains it’s not an excuse for unsustainability, of course). 3) As applied to transportation, direct increase of productivity (e.g., you are happier because you were able to visit your friends over a weekend). 4) (Probably one of the underrated aspects). Inspiration. More people would go on to become engineers, scientists, etc. Less people will become disappointed in civilization, technological progress and join weird political and ideological movements, etc.