It’s hard to get there on the phone now, though, if you don’t already have a name and phone number. You can probably get a name off LinkedIn, but a main phone number for a company probably won’t get you anywhere now since a lot of companies don’t have receptionists anymore. You’re lucky if the phone tree has a dial by name option. I’m glad I’m not in that kind of business anymore.

Do people find changing the roll that much of a hassle?

If it’s on physical disc in one region but not where you live, it might be possible to purchase that disc and ship it to your home. While it might be region-blocked on the disc, there are ways to bypass that with certain disc players or converting them on your computer. The legality of bypassing region-blocking may vary depending on your jurisdiction, but from a technical standpoint it’s certainly possible. It’s probably less legal liability than going straight to piracy (especially compared to the liability from torrenting where they try to claim someone’s engaged in illegal distribution).

(This is more for OP and other readers than the author of the comment I’m replying to)

A classic example being WKRP in Cincinnati which was a relatively low budget sitcom when it was produced. It was shot on videotape instead of film and took advantage of a special licensing rate for music when added to videotaped programs, which let them include a lot more contemporary rock music that would’ve aired on a rock station in the late ’70s. However, the licenses had a limited time allowance so while the show was originally in syndication with that music, by the ’90s it was replaced with similar sounding stock music. Early releases of the show for home media also didn’t have the original songs. Shout Factory put together a box set of the show and went back to the music owners to try to form new licensing deals, but even they couldn’t clear every song.

Music isn’t the only factor; similar issues pop up with all sorts of rights issues and royalties. When shows were made in the ’50s no one really had the idea of reruns and syndication. Before the ’80s there was no real idea of home viewing, and even then in the days of VHS tapes the idea of putting an entire show on tape for home use was pretty out there. Only fitting 1-4 episodes on a tape meant a season alone might take up a whole bookshelf, never mind a full series. It really wasn’t until the 2000s that there was a normal expectation that a show for broadcast would also go into syndication and be sold/rented to home viewers. So a lot of contracts with actors, writers, directors, etc. didn’t cover how royalties would be paid on these newer releases. Sometimes those rights have been sold in the interim as well, so it requires a legal team researching what rights need to be secured and who currently owns them to make sure all the payments are planned. Get it wrong and a rights-holder can sue and might end up taking away all your profit, even making the venture lose money. If you’re going to release an old show, you need to be confident that there’s enough of an audience willing to pay that you can cover all those costs and still make a profit, not to mention the costs of preparing the program to a format suitable for sale/streaming.

Of course, once those copyrights expire, some of those cost concerns go away. We’re only just starting to reach that point with films (anybody want to watch Steamboat Willie?), so in another 30 years or so we’ll probably start seeing more old TV shows. If they’ve survived, of course.

It was so similar I always assumed they still had to pay for rights to the original song

I really need to try to learn Resolve. There just seems to be so much effort required to make a good NLE and such a relatively small market that it’s just not conducive to a robust FOSS project.

Anon is NEET but has a flatmate? Isn’t part of being NEET living with parents?

I used to go through binges of reading the archives; amazing he’s still writing these!

1 hectoliter is 26.4 US gallons according to a handy conversion app I have, which Wikipedia says is equivalent to the UK’s historic wine gallon (because the UK in the past apparently changed the size of a gallon depending on what you were measuring).

I can’t remember when I last rented something from Redbox. I guess I just try to find movies streaming somewhere now since I don’t even have a disc player hooked up to the TV in the living room.

I suspect SpaceX benefited from the closer scrutiny they received from NASA and regulatory agencies, especially after Musk smoked pot on Joe Rogan‘s podcast. I’m sure he would’ve liked to “innovate” more by cutting corners but wasn’t able to because of the scrutiny, so they had to do a better job of dotting their I’s and crossing their T’s. In contrast Boeing has spent several decades trying to convince the government they don’t need close scrutiny because they know what they’re doing. As the builder of some of the 20th century’s best-regarded aircraft and spacecraft, they’d largely been given that lax oversight by the 2010s. We now see the legacy of this, as lax oversight allowed them to cut the corners everyone assumed SpaceX wanted to cut, with hundreds of people dead as a result.

When the Commercial Crew Program was first announced everyone assumed Boeing would easily ace the project and SpaceX would struggle, maybe even fail. Now I’m just hoping we don’t see two more dead courtesy Boeing before the year’s end.

I’m sorry but Chicken Soup for the Soul bought Redbox in 2022?!

I’m sure SpaceX will happily arrange for a rescue mission at Boeing’s expense!

We’ve been trying to find something to get more electrolytes into my daughter who has POTS/dysautonomia. She didn’t like the Gatorade/Powerade classics when we first started learning about/suspecting the condition (too sweet). We’ve tried others like Liquid IV and Drip Drop but she didn’t like those because of the sugar alternatives they use (weird aftertaste). We were going to try LMNT as another recommended option but saw they use stevia and that’s also a no-go. I did notice their website lists a DIY recipe, and I suspect that might be the least expensive way to go. Annoyingly, the recipe is listed using both mass and volume measurements, but I suppose that can be dealt with/converted. If we don’t find a better option for her soon I’m starting to think we’ll just try to make our own from this recipe.

They do make slides shaped like toilet bowls

Get that ADHD diagnosis a lot earlier!

Since those are really both the same company quality will be about the same. That said, parts/maintenance will still likely be more expensive on the Audi than the Volkswagen, if that’s a factor.

The headline is a bit wrong: the tubes don’t seem to be returning, it’s mostly talking about an industry they never left: hospitals. They are fancier now, though.

I’m not optimistic about this. The finance “geniuses” have seen how much money software and electronics companies are making from subscription models and trying to put them into even combustion powered cars. I think it’s BMW that’s already started trying to put heated seats on a subscription model. The equipment’s already in the car but it’s disabled unless you pay them a monthly fee.