What NOT to eat on a road trip

[Brandon]

Yep. Pretty much every cable channel now is a reality TV or psuedoscience channel that airs programming completely unrelated to its name. Just tonight, history channel was running psuedohistory "who really discovered america" alien stuff, lifetime was airing "The First 48" crime murder show, the military channel had unsolved bible mysteries, natgeo was showing some redneck show, bbc was showing kitchen nightmares.

However, that said, Kitchen Nightmares is a production of the BBC mothership.  Of all the channels listed, this is the only one that actually made any sense with what the channel originally started as.  The others have nothing to do with the original intent of the channel.

[bugo]

MasterCharge (changed to MasterCard in 1979).

Was it that long ago?  I clearly remember seeing Master Charge ads on TV.  I'm not old enough to remember the Bank Americard ads, however.

[bugo]

'72 Monte Carlo

What does your Monte Carlo have in it?

[1995hoo]

Yep. Pretty much every cable channel now is a reality TV or psuedoscience channel that airs programming completely unrelated to its name. Just tonight, history channel was running psuedohistory "who really discovered america" alien stuff, lifetime was airing "The First 48" crime murder show, the military channel had unsolved bible mysteries, natgeo was showing some redneck show, bbc was showing kitchen nightmares.

However, that said, Kitchen Nightmares is a production of the BBC mothership.  Of all the channels listed, this is the only one that actually made any sense with what the channel originally started as.  The others have nothing to do with the original intent of the channel.

Kitchen Nightmares is a good example of the difference between American and European "reality TV." We saw the original British show (which was called Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares) first when we were flipping channels and discovered it on BBC America. It was quite different from the version shown here on FOX. You could actually learn a little bit about restaurant operations from the British version, whereas the American version focuses more on people arguing and screaming profanities. A few of the early American episodes discussed some of the practical aspects of running a restaurant–I recall there was one where the menu was so absurdly complicated that even the waitresses couldn't explain it to customers–but it got away from that.

[J N Winkler]

Of the maybe 25-30 hotels I stay in yearly, maybe 5 per year have workable internet connections. Can't VPN to work? The free internet is worthless. It's a mix of overuse (everyone trying to stream Netflix means I can't get work done) and poor network planning (a wifi access point every three rooms all on the same channel means nobody can talk to any of them). It's to the point where I much prefer hotels with paid internet because it's much more likely to not be terrible.

My hit rate over 2013 has been a little better but the sample is quite small:  one motel in Bentonville with good wifi, another in Kansas City with unreliable wifi (couldn't associate about one-third of the time, speeds all over the place when I could actually get through).  It strikes me that even free hotel wifi used to be a lot more reliable five years ago, before Web-enabled smartphones became ubiquitous and video streaming became Netflix's core business.

I don't really travel in the expectation of being able to make heavy use of the Internet, and in fact I have gone to some trouble to set up VPN, Remote Desktop Connection (using a hack to get it to work on 7 Home Premium), wake-on-LAN, Task Scheduler, and a controller for download scripts so that the downloads I routinely do (mostly from state DOT websites) will occur without supervision when I am on the road.  But I do need to RDP in from time to time to make sure something hasn't fallen over on the PC at home, and it is disappointing when hotel wifi makes this all but impossible.

I usually travel with a stack of books to read.  It is of course an option to take movies, TV shows, etc. on disk for viewing on the road, but I know of no way in which this is both legal and free of tort problems (downloading copyrighted content through torrents etc. is illegal; using a screen recorder with a Netflix subscription is legally questionable and I can't imagine Netflix allows it under their terms of service).

[agentsteel53]

I usually travel with a stack of books to read.  It is of course an option to take movies, TV shows, etc. on disk for viewing on the road, but I know of no way in which this is both legal and free of tort problems (downloading copyrighted content through torrents etc. is illegal; using a screen recorder with a Netflix subscription is legally questionable and I can't imagine Netflix allows it under their terms of service).

I think this falls precisely under the time-shifting subclause of the fair use exemption to copyright.  apart from the torrent question, this was settled in the 1980s as being legal.

[english si]

However, that said, Kitchen Nightmares is a production of the BBC mothership.

No it's not - it's a Channel 4 show. Ditto Peep Show.

However, BBC Worldwide isn't BBC, but a separate company where all the shares are owned by the BBC, and BBC Worldwide is the owner BBC America (and 50% of the UKTV Network, which shows mostly reruns and not all of them are BBC, or even British). Until recently, all it did was buy rerun/foreign rights and air reruns/elsewhere - there's no reason why it couldn't buy the rights for other UK programmes, just as UKTV buys rights off of other channels, including foreign ones.

BBC has started doing extended 40 minute versions of factual, non-scripted comedy shows (QI, Russell Howard's Good News, HIGNFY), replacing the traditional repeat. It's easy to do, as they edit down a good hour or more of material, and fits the hour slot on commercial channels like UKTV, BBC America, etc (and Auntie can just show a 'half hour' programme off a foreign commercial channel to fill their hour - or do a 20min news slot, or whatever). The BBC seems happy to help BBC Worldwide.

[Brandon]

^^ It's difficult to tell on this side of the pond who produces what (as I am sure it is for US productions in the UK).  We're rather happy to have BBC America (and their Doctor Who ratings show it) over here.  However, the lack of commercials in the UK does make for some interesting time slots on US TV.  What was an hour there becomes 75 or 90 minutes here. 

[PHLBOS]

the sign of an old motel is not just "color TV" but also the acceptance of BankAmericard (changed to Visa in 1976) and MasterCharge (changed to MasterCard in 1979).

At a shop not too far from where I work; there's still an old composite MasterCharge/VISA sticker on the door window.  The store in question is still open to this day.

[1995hoo]

Of the maybe 25-30 hotels I stay in yearly, maybe 5 per year have workable internet connections. Can't VPN to work? The free internet is worthless. It's a mix of overuse (everyone trying to stream Netflix means I can't get work done) and poor network planning (a wifi access point every three rooms all on the same channel means nobody can talk to any of them). It's to the point where I much prefer hotels with paid internet because it's much more likely to not be terrible.

My hit rate over 2013 has been a little better but the sample is quite small:  one motel in Bentonville with good wifi, another in Kansas City with unreliable wifi (couldn't associate about one-third of the time, speeds all over the place when I could actually get through).  It strikes me that even free hotel wifi used to be a lot more reliable five years ago, before Web-enabled smartphones became ubiquitous and video streaming became Netflix's core business.

I don't really travel in the expectation of being able to make heavy use of the Internet, and in fact I have gone to some trouble to set up VPN, Remote Desktop Connection (using a hack to get it to work on 7 Home Premium), wake-on-LAN, Task Scheduler, and a controller for download scripts so that the downloads I routinely do (mostly from state DOT websites) will occur without supervision when I am on the road.  But I do need to RDP in from time to time to make sure something hasn't fallen over on the PC at home, and it is disappointing when hotel wifi makes this all but impossible.

I usually travel with a stack of books to read.  It is of course an option to take movies, TV shows, etc. on disk for viewing on the road, but I know of no way in which this is both legal and free of tort problems (downloading copyrighted content through torrents etc. is illegal; using a screen recorder with a Netflix subscription is legally questionable and I can't imagine Netflix allows it under their terms of service).

Another possibility, if you have a tablet, is to download a rental movie in advance using a reliable wi-fi connection and then watch it later, flipping on your cellular data for the purpose of activating the rental when you want to start watching. Ms1995hoo and I have done this a couple of times using my iPad for our trips to Florida. Because the wi-fi at my sister-in-law's house is unreliable, we pick out a movie from the iTunes Store before we leave home to head south, I download it to the iPad as a rental, and we then watch it on the Auto Train. iTunes rentals give you 30 days to begin watching (this is good since we prefer to drive south and take the train on the way back home), and once you begin you have 24 hours to finish. Hence why I turn on the cellular data to activate the rental when we want to start watching–it has to communicate with the iTunes Store to let it know I started watching. But the movie itself is already on the device, so I'm not blowing through my data plan by downloading it over cellular (I did that at home).

I assume there may be some way to do this using other services, such as Netflix, but since we don't belong to any of those I can't comment.

[J N Winkler]

1995hoo--Many thanks for the suggestion.  I did some checking and it seems that while the approach you describe (renting the video as a download for a fixed period) is not currently possible with Netflix, Amazon Prime and Google Play offer it as an option.  For Netflix, in addition to the screen-recording solutions (CamStudio and so on), there is apparently now a PlayLater service which records streams for later playback ($30 annual subscription, comes with a Windows program you have to install, exploits the time-shifting exception), while RTMPDumpHelper still works with Hulu.

[1995hoo]

Glad I could help! We don't belong to Netflix or the others just because we don't watch enough movies for it to make sense. The only reason we have an Apple TV device at home is that my brother-in-law gave it to us for Christmas in 2011 or 2012, although I have to say I like having it even if we barely scratch the surface of what it can do. We just watch so much sports programming (yes, my wife does too; she's a more vocal hockey fan than I am) that we seldom have time for the movies. Hence why the ad hoc approach using the iTunes store works for us, though of course I recognize from the words "Google Play" in your post that you probably have an Android device such that the iTunes approach wouldn't be an option.

I've thought about joining Amazon Prime from time to time but have never done so because our book purchases are 95% Kindle downloads, and when we do order actual books they almost always come within two days even when I select "FREE Super Saver Shipping." For me it's hard to justify paying for the Prime service under those circumstances. But if I were in the scenario you describe I might reconsider it.

The other movie app I have on my iPad is something called "Flixster" and I have it because I bought the extended edition of the first Hobbit movie on Blu-ray and it came with a code for a free HD download through this Flixster thing. I got the download and put it on my iPad so we could watch it on our most recent Florida trip, but we wound up not watching it because my wife preferred something shorter (we watched a hockey movie instead). I ought to explore to see if I can use Flixster with AirPlay to stream the download via the Apple TV....while I have the Blu-ray disc, the Blu-ray player isn't hooked up right now (due to lack of space and lack of a free HDMI port) and I'm not even sure where I put it when I put it away!

[realjd]

Glad I could help! We don't belong to Netflix or the others just because we don't watch enough movies for it to make sense. The only reason we have an Apple TV device at home is that my brother-in-law gave it to us for Christmas in 2011 or 2012, although I have to say I like having it even if we barely scratch the surface of what it can do. We just watch so much sports programming (yes, my wife does too; she's a more vocal hockey fan than I am) that we seldom have time for the movies. Hence why the ad hoc approach using the iTunes store works for us, though of course I recognize from the words "Google Play" in your post that you probably have an Android device such that the iTunes approach wouldn't be an option.

I've thought about joining Amazon Prime from time to time but have never done so because our book purchases are 95% Kindle downloads, and when we do order actual books they almost always come within two days even when I select "FREE Super Saver Shipping." For me it's hard to justify paying for the Prime service under those circumstances. But if I were in the scenario you describe I might reconsider it.

The other movie app I have on my iPad is something called "Flixster" and I have it because I bought the extended edition of the first Hobbit movie on Blu-ray and it came with a code for a free HD download through this Flixster thing. I got the download and put it on my iPad so we could watch it on our most recent Florida trip, but we wound up not watching it because my wife preferred something shorter (we watched a hockey movie instead). I ought to explore to see if I can use Flixster with AirPlay to stream the download via the Apple TV....while I have the Blu-ray disc, the Blu-ray player isn't hooked up right now (due to lack of space and lack of a free HDMI port) and I'm not even sure where I put it when I put it away!

I've had Amazon Prime for years and never buy paper books. They sell practically everything. I treat it like a Walmart that I don't have to drive to. Everything from paper towels to video games to cat food, Amazon prime can get it to you in 2 days for a lower price than you can get locally, or $4 if you need it overnight. Almost all of our non-food shopping is on Amazon. Hell, I've even bought furniture from them.

It's especially great at Christmas. I can buy presents and have them shipped for free directly to the recipient. For a couple of dollars, Amazon will even gift wrap them.

[vdeane]

I occasionally use the shipping bonus of Amazon Prime, but mostly I have it for the unlimited streaming of Star Trek and Doctor Who.  I've read you can rent some kindle books for free and now each month they have a list of four new releases and you can pick to get one for free in advance of the publication date (for kindle).

It doesn't hurt that I have an Amazon Student membership from when I was in college (they don't seem to care that I've since graduated), since it gives me half off the cost of prime.

[1995hoo]

Thread bumped because I saw this product at the grocery store today. I think this qualifies not just as something not to eat on a road trip, but as something not to eat EVER, period, based on its name.....well, maybe unless you're female.

[US71]

Thread bumped because I saw this product at the grocery store today. I think this qualifies not just as something not to eat on a road trip, but as something not to eat EVER, period, based on its name.....well, maybe unless you're female.

Are you saying it's fowl?

[hbelkins]

Does it taste like chicken?

[Tom958]

Sigh.

Some of us are old enough to remember seeing the B-52s perform Rock Lobster on SNL, way too many years ago.

At least one of us saw the B-52's play for free in Piedmont Park right before their first album came out. Before they started playing, the female band members twirled batons to a tape of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin.'"

[vdeane]

Thread bumped because I saw this product at the grocery store today. I think this qualifies not just as something not to eat on a road trip, but as something not to eat EVER, period, based on its name.....well, maybe unless you're female.

Is the cock soup mix popular at sausage fests?

[Thing 342]

]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60_oMY5ULIw&list=UUxt9Pvye-9x_AIcb1UtmF1Q]

Anything in this video, but at 5:07 specifically...

[Arkansastravelguy]

What a derailed thread. Chili cheese burritos Wendy's chili or habanero salsa are poor choices.

[US71]

What a derailed thread. Chili cheese burritos Wendy's chili or habanero salsa are poor choices.

Most Chinese food is a no-no for me. Also poor quality pizza