BBC a series of repeats?

I know the TV is now classed as an old-fashioned way of absorbing entertainment. We’re now spending potentially more time on YouTube and Netflix compared to watching traditional TV programming.

However here in the UK we pay a TV licence fee directly to the BBC who is, allegedly, adverts free. The cost of this is around £13 per month, give or take a few pennies. This is double of what we’re paying for Netflix, not insubstantial I thought.

The BBC is a national institution in the UK, many regard them as the best TV in the world, which of course includes their news channel and many radio channels, both national and local. They have done a decent job of introducing BBC iPlayer in order to allow us to catch up on programmes we may have missed and also access some box sets of past series. We have been enjoying Cuckoo right from the start, as we had not seen it previously.

However Netflix is also transmitting many series that originally have appeared on BBC TV, so wondering where the value is now?

My complaint however is that the BBC is starting (maybe I had not noticed before) to repeat programmes that had either been aired the previous day, albeit on a different channel and even a topical news comedy series, which had aired last year.

If we wanted to watch programmes again, surely we can just watch it on the BBC iPlayer app?

[embed]https://twitter.com/stayingaliveuk/status/1108260621106196480[/embed]

Furthermore the BBC is also planning their own streaming service in partnership with ITV (UK commercial channel) called ‘Britbox’. I suspect any box sets that currently are available on the BBC iPlayer will probably transition there and then we’re expected to pay for that as well?

[embed]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47383559[/embed]

Anyway just disappointed with the BBC’s (The Beeb) programming to air repeats.

Michael de Groot

They recognised me!

Hugh MacLeod

Actually they didn’t, but I heard someone say this. They were so surprised that they were stopped on the street when recognised by a complete stranger (stalker).

Is that what we’re looking for?

Plastering our happy face all over the web, so someone will walk up to us and say; ‘Hey, aren’t you the girl/guy who talks rubbish on YouTube?’

Surely not? Surely yes!

Most of us on Social would love to achieve that recognition at some level. It’s an endorsement of all the hard work you’ve been putting in day in and day out, just so that a random person somewhere points at you (I’d be quite scared actually) and shouts out to you that they actually know you. And of course they have no idea who you are, all they’ve seen is an alter ego of you on the web, very likely talking complete non-sense.

Happy spotting!

Michael de Groot

Don’t be Evil

The ‘Don’t be Evil’ motto was coined by Google around 2000 and was dropped by Alphabet in 2015 and replaced by ‘Do the right thing’.

The human brain doesn’t hear the word ‘not’ when used as part of the verb doing. So instead of hearing ‘don’t’ we hear ‘do’.

Don’t believe me? Try it out with a child. I once walked into a party and it was a summer party in the daytime so kids were allowed to attend. One of the kids had a ‘bored moment’ going on.

This young boy was opening and closing the living room door with his full force, making a real noise and potentially damaging the door or maybe the doorframe. His Dad was shouting at him ‘don’t close the door, don’t close the door and he repeated the mantra without success. It was both annoying to the guests and of course the Dad and his son.

So I intervened and simply said; ‘Stop closing the door’.

Guess what? Yes indeed he stopped doing it.

“A smiling Guy Fawkes mask in shadow against a black background” by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

With Google’s motto ‘Don’t be Evil’, of course the internet has been evil and I’m sure there’ve been a lot of ‘evil’ goings on even inside Google.

One such an example is YouTube autoplays, which literally create patterns of addiction in our brains by allowing YouTube (owned by Google) to tell us which video we should be watching next.

And of course because they are queuing up the next video, it will also include those annoying ads, which pre-play and allow to skip or as is often the case these days no option to skip. (YUK!).

YouTube, (Google) prey on our psychology for their own profit, as do many others on the Internet.

Happy browsing!

Michael de Groot

Have You Got The Skills?

Ever since I left college, I've been working on my own skills. Strange isn't it, that once you leave school, college or university you actually start to think about what you will be doing and what skills you need to do that job you want or need. I taught myself computer skills, never ever went on a course to learn how to switch on a computer or operate Microsoft office or even switch to Apple in 2010 (other software suppliers/manufacturers are available).

I am proud to say that I did it all myself. Training in the organisations I worked in, was very slim and most of the time non-existent. And this was because I worked in manufacturing where there just wasn't the funds for expensive training and yet I managed to work myself up to become a board director in a number of these organisations.

So when I attended a conference in Birmingham on skills for the next generation, I was astounded to hear about all the efforts that are being put in place for young learners to get them digitally trained.

There are now thousands of courses available on line for millions of people if they have the hunger to learn.

They are called MOOCS, massive open online courses, which are exploding with great online courses and most of these are FREE.

Coursera is such a site and this is what they say on their website.

Choose from 300+ courses in over 20 categories created by 62 Universities from 16 countries.

Udemy is another one and this is what they say;

Expert instructors have taught over 500,000 students on Udemy, helping them learn everything from programming to photography to design to yoga and more.

Udacity say this, by making high-quality classes affordable and accessible for students across the globe: Udacity is democratizing education.

And then there is Khan Academy and this is what they say;

With a library of over 4,000 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and hundreds of skills to practice, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.

There's TED Education, YouTube Education and I'm sure there are many more that exist and will exist in the future.

There has never ever, never ever, never EVER, EVER, EVER been a better time to learn skills!!

There should be no excuse for learners, teachers, business, and employers everywhere to skill up and get ready for work or develop whilst in work or whilst working on your own.

In the past 3 years, I've not paid for any course, have had to reinvent my business skills and I've done it all online.

Come on everyone get skilled up, you are responsible for your own education, don't expect others to do it for you, you have to create your own luck, but you'll have a better chance of creating it whilst learning new skills and taking responsibility for your own learning.

Wishing you success with your own learning!