The Public Access Weekly: Video killed the radio star
My Twitter feed is currently abuzz with the news that the last remaining VCR manufacturer has given up the ghost and called it quits, which means the CRT television with the built-in VHS slot that I have in my bedroom is officially vintage (...Wait, does this mean I'm a hipster?). But hey, how else am I supposed to play all those sweet video tapes that I scored from Wherehouse Music?
Over in community happenings, there are two quick updates: Firstly, please don't flag comments you don't agree with as abusive. We understand that conversations in the comments can become heated, but just because you're having a disagreement with someone does not make their statements abusive. Things that do count as abusive include name calling, swearing at someone, any kind of threats, and all types of racism/sexism/ any nasty -ism. We keep track of commenters who misuse the flagging feature, as well as those who are actually abusive, and you probably don't want to be on either list.
Secondly, and I've mentioned this more than once before, Public Access is not an SEO or digital marketing site. Let me be clear here: Public Access is a community content site designed for everyone to share their personal stories and experiences with technology. If your only motivation in signing up and posting to Public Access is to promote your business or service, or discuss digital marketing, you are in the wrong place. Similarly, if you put SEO links in your story, they will be removed and your post may be locked with out any warning.
Heads up, we will be putting the smack down on SEO.
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If you are one of the many people who spent their childhoods blowing into NES cartridges so you could beat your little brother's Super Mario scores, then the announcement of a Nintendo Classic Mini with 30 games including The Legend of Zelda is probably music to your 8-bit loving ears.
In "It sounded like a good idea at the time" news, NYC Governor Cuomo announced a five year plan to outfit the city's subway system with WiFI and USB charging ports. Which... doesn't sound at all like a security nightmare. Or a tempting target for vandals. Or an addition that will make it harder to clean subway cars.
If you have an excessive amount of music, games, and 4K video laying around then Seagate has a solution for you via its recently unveiled 10TB hard drive. That is, if you also have $535 laying around to purchase the drive. Commenters are skeptical about putting all their digital data into one hard drive basket, even if it could store roughly 20 million photos, nearly 2 million songs or over 85 million Word documents.
Looking for something to write about? Mull over:
We covered the Keecoo K1, a smartphone designed for women, and called it out for being sexist and technically lacking. A lot of people felt otherwise in the comments. Weigh in: Are 'women-only' products sexist and demeaning? Do they lack the technical specs you'd expect to find in a product? Are we making too damn much out of this? Share your thoughts in a post, using a few examples of such products to support your argument.
There have been some pretty sizable kerfuffles over ethics in gaming journalism, and Warner Bros. paying YouTubers for reviews is not going to help much on that front. The company recently settled with the FTC over paying online influencers, including PewDiePie, for positive YouTube reviews of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. How do you feel about paid content? How do you feel it should be disclosed or highlighted from non-paid content? And how do you, as a savvy internet user, sniff out paid content from the rest?
The Xbox Design Lab allows users to customize their own gamepad by selecting from 15 colors for the controllers body, bumpers and triggers, D-pad, thumbsticks, face, buttons and back panel. Is this just another gimmick like the Moto Maker? Would you pay extra to be able to design your own gamepad? What kind of modularity would really benefit a controller? Bonus: If you have designed a gamepad using the Design Lab, share your creation in your post!
