Random Thoughts - 6

Hacking undone.  How to prevent hacking?  Take your system off the Internet.  This is exactly the situation with the 99 active nuclear power plants in the US.  Recent evidence establishes Russian hacking into US nuclear power plants. Among the targets this time, US officials say, the Wolf Creek nuclear plant in Burlington, Kansas.  (This, according to a recent report by NBC news.) But, and finally a wonderful but, the operational platforms of these plants are not hackable because they are off the net.  Perhaps the perps got emails and billing records, but not the plant operations.  Well done.  

Might I suggest the creation of a second Internet channel, one not in any way connected to the main stream.  It should be built from the ground-up with no possibility of a breach built-in. 

Televisions and their commercials.  If you watch a TV show on commercial television, you get commercials about every 7-8 minutes.  The commercials last about three minutes, one after the other.  If it a movie or episode, you endure this.  But if it’s “the news,” you know the next segment may be a repeat or just something off-topic for you.  This is a risk. What some viewers do is flip to another or back up channel.  I do this; maybe you do the same.  However, if the commercial is also a repeat, call it multi-multi-repeat, and you’re just plain sick of it, you will certainly  flip channels and may not come back for quite a while.

Specifically on the commercials, there are a few big advertisers often with frequent players with themes so obnoxious it causes instant channel flipping.  Even more specific, I cite a pair of auto insurance companies, both with apparently unlimited advertising budgets.

This sets up a loss of ratings.  Bad commercials and/or excessive repeats drive out viewers as much as bad programming.

Mute-it!  The alternative solution.  Use the mute button. This is a most powerful tool against commercials. I do not believe it has been widely studied, but I’m certain it is widely applied against those obnoxious commercials. A good study may affect the commercial itself.

Is it possible? One reason the millennials and younger groups have turned away from network and cable TV is possibly because of terrible and endless commercials, though possibly because of terrible programming.   Anyway, they are gone for good. News and sports may be cable's only hope for the future.