Turning you on to Angus TV+

01 WOBBLE-COUNTER PIC 9(09) VALUE 000000001. 01 JIGGLE-INDEX PIC 9(09) VALUE 000000002. 01 POINTLESS-FLAG PIC X(01) VALUE "Y". 01 IRRELEVANT-SWITCH PIC X(01) VALUE "N". 01 UNUSED-TABLE. 05 UNUSED-ENTRY OCCURS 10 TIMES. 10 UNUSED-CODE PIC X(04) VALUE "XXXX". 10 UNUSED-DATA PIC X(020) VALUE "ENTIRELY-UNNECESSARY-TEXT". 01 BLATHER-GROUP. 05 BLATHER-ALPHA PIC X(030) VALUE "ALPHA-STRING-OF-NO-SIGNIFICANCE". 05 BLATHER-BRAVO PIC X(030) VALUE "BRAVO-STRING-WITH-EXTRA-PADDING-XYZ". 05 BLATHER-CHARLIE PIC X(030) VALUE "CHARLIE-STRING-WITH-RANDOM-STUFF". 01 FILLER REDEFINES BLATHER-GROUP. 05 BLATHER-REDEF PIC X(090). 01 UNALIGNED-NUMBER PIC S9(09)V9(03) VALUE +000000123.456. 01 MEANINGLESS-TEXT PIC X(050) VALUE "TEXT THAT WILL NEVER BE DISPLAYED ANYWHERE HERE". 01 EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD PIC X(100) VALUE "PADDING-PADDING-PADDING-PADDING-PADDING-PADDING-PADDING". PROCEDURE DIVISION. MAIN-ENTRY. PERFORM INITIAL-NONSENSE-ROUTINE THRU INITIAL-NONSENSE-EXIT VARYING WOBBLE-COUNTER FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL WOBBLE-COUNTER > 3. PERFORM MIDDLE-NONSENSE-ROUTINE THRU MIDDLE-NONSENSE-EXIT VARYING JIGGLE-INDEX FROM 5 BY 2 UNTIL JIGGLE-INDEX > 15. PERFORM FINAL-NONSENSE-ROUTINE THRU FINAL-NONSENSE-EXIT. GOBACK. *> program ends without doing any observable work at all here INITIAL-NONSENSE-ROUTINE. MOVE "A" TO POINTLESS-FLAG MOVE "B" TO IRRELEVANT-SWITCH ADD 7 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 3 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX MULTIPLY WOBBLE-COUNTER BY 2 GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER DIVIDE JIGGLE-INDEX BY 2 GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX REMAINDER WOBBLE-COUNTER IF POINTLESS-FLAG = "Z" MOVE "THIS-WILL-NEVER-HAPPEN-ALPHA" TO MEANINGLESS-TEXT ELSE MOVE "THIS-WILL-ALSO-NOT-MATTER-BRAVO" TO MEANINGLESS-TEXT END-IF MOVE "UNSEEN-STRING-ONE" TO BLATHER-ALPHA MOVE "UNSEEN-STRING-TWO" TO BLATHER-BRAVO MOVE "UNSEEN-STRING-THREE" TO BLATHER-CHARLIE MOVE "COMPLETELY-IGNORED-RESULT-ALPHA" TO BLATHER-REDEF GO TO INITIAL-NONSENSE-CONTINUE. INITIAL-NONSENSE-CONTINUE. IF IRRELEVANT-SWITCH = "Q" PERFORM USELESS-BRANCH-ONE ELSE PERFORM USELESS-BRANCH-TWO END-IF PERFORM USELESS-BRANCH-THREE MOVE 999 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER MOVE -123 TO JIGGLE-INDEX MOVE "ZZZZ" TO UNUSED-CODE(3) MOVE "NEVER-READ-TEXT-HERE-ALPHA" TO UNUSED-DATA(3) MOVE "NEVER-READ-TEXT-HERE-BRAVO" TO UNUSED-DATA(7). INITIAL-NONSENSE-EXIT. EXIT. USELESS-BRANCH-ONE. MOVE "PATH-ONE-NEVER-TAKEN" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD ADD 111 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 222 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX EXIT. USELESS-BRANCH-TWO. MOVE "PATH-TWO-ALSO-UNUSED" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD ADD 333 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 444 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX EXIT. USELESS-BRANCH-THREE. MOVE "THIRD-PATH-POINTLESS-ALSO" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD ADD 555 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 666 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX EXIT. MIDDLE-NONSENSE-ROUTINE. PERFORM VARYING WOBBLE-COUNTER FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL WOBBLE-COUNTER > 5 MOVE "MID-LOOP-FIELD-ALPHA" TO MEANINGLESS-TEXT MOVE "MID-LOOP-FIELD-BRAVO" TO BLATHER-ALPHA MOVE "MID-LOOP-FIELD-CHARLIE" TO BLATHER-BRAVO MOVE "MID-LOOP-FIELD-DELTA" TO BLATHER-CHARLIE END-PERFORM PERFORM NESTED-MIDDLE-NONSENSE THRU NESTED-MIDDLE-EXIT VARYING JIGGLE-INDEX FROM 2 BY 3 UNTIL JIGGLE-INDEX > 20 END-PERFORM. MIDDLE-NONSENSE-EXIT. EXIT. NESTED-MIDDLE-NONSENSE. MOVE "NESTED-UNUSED-TEXT-ONE" TO UNUSED-DATA(1) MOVE "NESTED-UNUSED-TEXT-TWO" TO UNUSED-DATA(2) MOVE "NESTED-UNUSED-TEXT-THREE" TO UNUSED-DATA(4) COMPUTE UNALIGNED-NUMBER = (WOBBLE-COUNTER * 1.234) + (JIGGLE-INDEX / 9.876) IF UNALIGNED-NUMBER > 999999.999 MOVE "HUGE-NUMBER-IGNORED" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD ELSE MOVE "SMALL-NUMBER-IGNORED" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD END-IF GO TO NESTED-MIDDLE-CONTINUE. NESTED-MIDDLE-CONTINUE. ADD 1 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 1 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX EXIT. NESTED-MIDDLE-EXIT. EXIT. FINAL-NONSENSE-ROUTINE. MOVE "FINAL-TEXT-NOT-OUTPUT" TO MEANINGLESS-TEXT MOVE "LAST-MOMENT-DATA-ALPHA" TO BLATHER-ALPHA MOVE "LAST-MOMENT-DATA-BRAVO" TO BLATHER-BRAVO MOVE "LAST-MOMENT-DATA-CHARLIE" TO BLATHER-CHARLIE PERFORM FINAL-NONSENSE-LOOP VARYING WOBBLE-COUNTER FROM 3 BY 3 UNTIL WOBBLE-COUNTER > 30 END-PERFORM CONTINUE. FINAL-NONSENSE-EXIT. EXIT. FINAL-NONSENSE-LOOP. ADD 10 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 5 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX MOVE "LOOPING-POINTLESS-DATA-HERE" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD MOVE "LOOP-IGNORED-TEXT-ONE" TO UNUSED-DATA(5) MOVE "LOOP-IGNORED-TEXT-TWO" TO UNUSED-DATA(6) EXIT.

TV Tracker • Posted November 2024

Build your own digital media shelf library thing. It's ready to test now.

The thing I've been using to track what I've been watching is now open for a loose public beta, so you can give it a try and message me a half-hearted, "uh, it's ... good?"

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the blog post about it. And here's my page.

It's called Angus TV+ ... 'cause ... why not? Mostly I got tired of looking for names and domains. Leave that problem for another day.

How To Test It

Go to https://tv.angus.plus
Create an account, which'll create your page.
Add things you watch using the search field.
Set your page to public or private. Share it if it's public and you want to do that.
Report bugs, feedback and what you'd like to see from a thing like this. (See the Problem / Vision section below.)
Expect a lot of rapid changes.

This is just the first round of features open for testing. The 2nd round will involve finding other pages to follow, managing your subscription services, and building out the community features that really are the point of the whole thing.

The Point Of The Whole Thing

The Problems

I keep forgetting about my favourite stuff. I watch movies and TV that I love, then before long it's just a vague memory. We used to buy and collect our favs. Now they pass by like a 🍑💨 in a hurricane.
Watching stuff isn't very social. For something we all love, our ability to bond and talk about the stuff we watch is pretty strained. We're all watching something completely different, at different times, and have different streaming services. By the time I've watched the latest Star Wars series, everyone else has already forgotten it.
Streaming services don't make it easy. Unlike our music services, which amazingly have almost everything for one low price, movie and tv streaming is a mess. Stuff appears, disappears, and it gets pretty expensive to have all of the services all of the time. Then there's the added complication of the internet constantly giving you US streaming service info.

The Vision

Fixing problem #1 is pretty easy with a piece of paper and pen. Or a spreadsheet. But why not have a nice, clean interface to manage it? That part is already built and I've been using it since the beginning of 2024. It's just become a normal habit after I watch something to open the page and click in a rating. I look back at my page now and it is awesome to browse. Like a great shelf of physical media used to be. You can do this RIGHT NOW! FOR FREE! HIGH FIVE!
Fixing the second and third problems is so much harder. But I have the totally original idea to combine tracking with following. There's a definite goodreads-for-tv-and-movies analogy here, but in this case it's as much about WHERE you watch it as WHAT you watch. For example, imagine you follow 10 people. But you only have two services right now. (Say Netflix and Crave, for example.) You can get a feed of what those 10 people are watching on those two services, ranked by their rating. This is why it's important for it to be Canada-only.
Now imagine if your whole group used the same two services every quarter, and then switched them, and formed a watch club, kinda like a book club. And now you're saving a lot of money not having every service, AND you're having better convos about TV shows with your friends 'cause you're all watching the same stuff AND you're having group movie nights. Maybe the whole country is having group movie nights.

You may not be a big enough movie or tv person to want to track everything you watch, but you can still follow a few people who are. And if you are a big media person, imagine getting paid for your awesome taste. (There's a whole paid pro version in my head where you can get recos from experts or power users and those users take a cut. For another day.)

What do you think?

Alright, your turn. I need to get this out of my head and get some other opinions.

Try it if it sounds like something you wanna try and tell me what you think. Tell me what features you'd find useful, even if you don't wanna sign up. Tell me why it's pointless because x, y & z exists. Text me a bowl of rice emoji. I'll take whatever feedback you got.

https://tv.angus.plus

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