The latter really wouldn't surprise me. A service could be making four times the investment in profit and many investors will still push to get a few more cents out of it at any cost.
It was awhile ago but I read that a lot of streaming services don’t make a profit and I can understand the logic. With ads, there is a direct link between a show and it’s profits. The more people watch a show, the more people see the ads, the more a company can charge for ads on that show. Without ads it becomes difficult. It doesn’t matter if 100 people watch or a million, the profits are the same.
I feel it’s inevitable that streaming services are going to go back to ads. It’s the better business model.
Should I shop at the Target, Wal-Mart or the CVS instead?
There are no “local” stores near me. Just massive corporations who treat their employees like shit. Costco is the exception to the treating-their-employees-like-shit rule, but sometimes I don’t need a lifetime supply of an item.
Yeah, those behemoths all share responsibility for killing the mom and pop stores. It’s not impossible to shop around to local variants. But probably the best solution is to learn how to kick the habit that American culture has foisted upon us all of buying endless piles of useless crap.
I cancelled my prime subscription years ago. I occassionally restart it for a month at a time if I need some esoteric hobby thing and I would be forced into paying for shipping or for prime. Then I’ll watch some stuff on their streaming service. Last time I used it, it was awful. Half of the shows were gatekept behind some ad system. And the “Amazon Originals” are all just extraordinarily expensive shows with terrible writing. Uhg. I am making it a point to not have an active prime subscription when Christmas rolls around. We (the collective we, as in, humanity) don’t need more garbage.
Thats a lot of words to ignore the comment you’re replying to.
All those stores sell neccessities as well as junk, so distilling it down to simply not buying junk is reductive and dismissive. If someone needs clothes and Walmart and Target are the only places available, are they supposed to go nude? Additionally, you’re literally ignoring that they said that there are not local options available to them.
Nome of what you said is particularly untrue, it’s just completely ignoring the comment you replied to.
An erratically pricey local grocery, that rents its building (which has a leaky roof, requiring them to move product when it rains)
Dollar General
A farmer’s market that’s open once a week for a few hours before the afternoon heat, a few months a year, if no events have pre-empted it, having an inventory of which about 30% is bulk-bought supermarket produce with the labels (sometimes) removed
A 90 minute drive; no trains, no buses (literally, no buses) to the next largest town
And she lives in a town people drive to, to get food, clothes, medicine, etc.
She gets as much as she can from the local grocer, for whatever that’s worth; the inventory is frequently poor, & about on-par with Dollar General so far as brand-representation, goes. When tourists ask if the store has something, they get pointed to Walmart.
I agree but I can’t really afford to. My local hardware store is great but their prices are higher than big box hardware stores or amazon on many items. For example I replaced an outdoor GFCI outlet that cost $25 local or $18 from big box hardware or amazon. The outlet cover was $10 local or $5 anazon.
It’s the same where I live. Do I shop local and spend 2-5 times more for the item or buy it from lowes or Walmart? The kicker is that it is sometimes even the exact same brand and model item.
this was the last straw? it wasn’t workers peeing in bottles, or businesses being displaced to build warehouses, or tax avoidance, or sweat shop wages for international workers?
to the trolls below, I’m a full time activist, you’re just keyboard warriors
It’s far easier to just not use Amazon than it is to not own a phone or computer.
Yes, it sucks there are no good options to buy an “ethical” phone, but phones are basically a necessity. Instead of shopping from Amazon you can shop from tons of other places.
Yeah, I try to buy stuff from brick and mortar stores. I figure that even if it’s a big box store at least there are actual employees working there who live in my area.
But I can’t even find the kind of underwear I like at any physical store near me. Even online, Amazon seems to be the only place that stocks it.
The same goes for the style of jacket that I prefer. I’ve spent months looking everywhere, and the only place where I've found even an approximation of what I want is Amazon.
I’ve noticed that even in big box stores nowadays the selection is pretty limited. You'll see a wall of racks full of the same item. I don't know if it's supply chain issues or if they've just decided that it's not worth the trouble of trying to stock a variety of items that only appeal to a relatively small number of people.
I went to Home Depot store looking for some (admittedly kinda weird) hardware and after browsing around for a while the store associate told me to buy it on Amazon.
Oh god. You’re one of those people who act like raising kids wasn’t possible without all the modern luxuries. You’d have failed as a parent 30 years ago.
That’s a big leap, from third purchase sippy cup to incompetent parent without modern luxuries.
sounds like you had a traumatic childhood that’s turned you bitter. Was it your Father? Mother? Both? If you can’t tell us, do you have someone you can talk to these things about?
Lets review. buying a third sippy cup, sent you off the handle to reply and talk down to this parent, going so far as to say they cant do it. that’s savage, brutal… why?
if your children are raised, do they live near or far away? Do they keep in contact? or do they treat you like their attacker?
You went without next day delivery, so you must have had a tangible solution to give to your child in need. What did you give them? Love? indifference? a life lesson with a smirk on your face? Sorry kiddo no cup no juice, walk it off? tell us. please.
You keep avoiding my questions. You really got a firm opinion on sippy cups. That is your prerogative. In closing, since i can see this conversation staying on sippy cups and not the root issue. No i didnt have a stroke, this is not AI. is human interaction so foreign to you that you presume its a robot talking to you??? in either case. Enjoy your store bought sippy cups. We lesser parents will buy them online :(
As someone who recently tried the Fairphone 4 out to replace an absolutely dying OnePlus 5 I’ve had for years as well as the guy who uses open source everything/advocates for the same - It’s not a mainstream option at all yet. If they could decouple the software from the hardware better maybe people would be willing to deal with the bugs but eOS and Lineage, while awesome projects I support, don’t play with many “secure” apps at all due to how Google decided to lock them down and that alone is a deal breaker for anyone working where you need access to say…Outlook. Banking apps can have issues (depending on the bank) which while maybe easy to work around for you and I is a huge pain in the ass for most folks who just want their phone to work. Having to jump through hoops to get the Play store on there in the first place is not going to work for anyone who isn’t fully committed to the de-Googled experience. F-Droid is the first thing I install on a new phone but there’s no way it’s going to be my only portal to apps I need.
They are certainly meeting their own set goals, and the hardware while bulky doesn’t feel cheap or anything, so that’s great. I really love how easy it would be to replace most of the phone if/when broken, and the commitment to fair labor practices and control of the supply chain is tremendously commendable. But for a tool most humans rely on for day to day life, the honest truth is neither project is quite there yet to be adopted in the mainstream.
If it sounds like I’m shitting on either of these companies that isn’t my intent at all. I’m following the progress with FP5 and really look forward to seeing the ideas set here grow if they can.
If it sounds like I’m shitting on either of these companies
It does. The style of your argument makes the situation more complicated. No one said mainstream. From the sound of what you’re saying, monopolistic companies hindering compatibility will keep it that way. Apps will have bugs that need to be worked out, that’s just a given. Stating don’t get it because it’s not viable atm just makes this cyclical since there will be no consumer push to work the kinks out or let people learn about alternatives.
I think his point is it's a big ask to ask people to deal with buggy/less feature-rich hardware for a product they use - arguably depend on - every day. It's a valid point bring up.
I never said don’t get it, I was replying about viable alternatives. It’s just not for the majority of the market right now. It sucks, and I’d buy some future Fairphone or equivalent in a heartbeat once I can actually use it as my daily driver phone and not need to carry a second one for business use.
The number of people who think they’ve ordered food delivery “from” a local restaurant, not realizing it was actually made in an UberEats\DoorDash all-in-one “ghost kitchen” located in a nondescript building nearby, vastly exceeds the number of people who’ve heard the term “ghost kitchen”. One of the most well-known local pizza shop’s deliveries, actually come from ghost kitchens, here.
ah yes, the contrarian absolutist here. i don’t wear brands unless they’re second hand, i use the cheapest electronics to suit my needs & use them til they break or can’t be repaired. i make an EFFORT to reduce consumption & about large corporations when i can, what the fuck are you doing to help?
Fortune 500 employees are some of the worst paid and most exploited. See Amazon, Walmart, etc. Even at the white collar level they get paid shit. The old “work for a Fortune 100” bit hasn’t been relevant since the dot-com boom.
How? People used to dream of working for a Fortune 100 company because landing one of those coveted jobs was a way to secure a well paying job with a nice pension. Those days are gone. Now you either make yourself priceless so that everyone is competing for your skills, or you work for a small firm that values your existence and sees you as part of the team. In a large company, with very few exceptions, you are just a disposable cog in the machine.
For context, I know a lot of developers that worked for Amazon. They all left. The mythological $1M devs are paid that to make sure the competition doesn’t have them. They aren’t employees, they are IP.
I think it’s very role dependent. I’ve worked for all sizes of companies and there are shit jobs and shit managers in all of them just as much as good ones.
It’s a little facile to say all those people are disposable cogs, promotions are achievable, new business units, stock options, health insurance etc etc
Landing a job in a top company still does your CV some good.
If you want security and a good pension, then the public sector is probably a better fit.
Very nice! I try to be as green as possible. Being poor contributes to that more than anything else lol.
Can't even remember the last time I've had a classic slab of red meat that wasn't ground already lol. Chicken is so much cheaper. I'm happy to report that dairy will be carbon neutral in the USA by 2050 too. Not separating calves from mom is becoming more and more popular too!
Those all impact others. Nobody gives a shit about others. This impacts them, which is the only thing that matters to pretty much everyone. Look out for #1.
Get bent. You moralizing keyboard pseudo-activitist.
Why aren’t you out right now on a picket line? Why are you wasting time on a forum, instead of helping the homeless? Why aren’t you…
How far are you willing to take your arbitrary purity tests? Instead of supporting someone who is intending to support an action you clearly also support e.g. cancelling Prime, you’re lecturing them why they should have done it sooner. Or why their choice is less moral then yours.
I bet that if Ted Cruz came out tomorrow to be the deciding vote on Medicare For All, and publicly stating his intent to do so, you’d scream about how Dems shouldn’t support any bill that has the support of such a scumbag. Because to you, the purity test is more important than the actual result and impact.
And if you’re not American, then insert whatever relevant politician and issue would be comparable to your county. The point still stands.
Glancing at your comment history makes it pretty obvious that typing out angry comments is the only respite you have from a life where you feel worthless and lack the ability to take control enough to get out of your pit of despair.
Normally, I’d take pity, but I genuinely think the world will get slightly better when you finally stroke out while hammering out yet another mean spirited and pointless comment that adds nothing of value, just like you.
Their points are still valid, being smug doesn’t erase that. And your being an aggressive cunt about it doesn’t further the conversation, it just entrenches people.
It was those things for me, I cancelled Prime years ago and never buy from Amazon (I will browse however and reach out to the seller via their own website)
jokes on them, we shop there infrequently enough (2-3 times a year) that they give us prime for free every time we do. there was one short stretch (few months) about 10 years ago where we paid for it because we had a need for the shipping perk, but we haven't 'paid' for prime in a good 5-6 years and that was for a discounted 'trial'.
recently started another free month, so excuse me, while i go cue-up another movie. gotta use and abuse this one if the next one is gonna be polluted with ads--won't help that 'trial' experience and the conversion chance any next time, either.
I had to upgrade mine probably 2 years ago now. I had nearly maxed out the 12TB I had. Now I have almost 30TB and some breathing room. Granted a lot of that is non-movies/TV but a good chunk of it is.
I have an Asustor Drivestor 2 and a 4tb Seagate NAS HDD. IIRC, it was around $300 total. I’ve only been using it for a few months, but it’s an easily expandable setup if you want to add more storage later!
DHT crawler, or index sites if DHT has too many results
right-click/long-press on magnet URL
copy link
paste magnet link
remove tracker URLs (not needed)
go
enjoy
Hm, 8 steps, is one more than the 7 stages of grief; but I’ll take this over yet-another subscription service that continually degrades in quality for the dollar.
@OldWoodFrame@ZeroCool yeah I will never, Comcast/Xfinity are total scum bags and I would pay extra to never give them money ever again. Unfortunately I am forced to use them for Internet, there’s no way I’m paying for their cable TV programming.
Seedboxes. Download the torrent on someone else's computer, and then directly download it to yours through an encrypted connection. Sorta like a "money-laundering" for pirated content.
I was using torrents for years before I started messing with Usenet. Now I’ve got it set up it’s easy to grab pretty much anything and at higher quality than before.
Honestly still just using Qbittorrent with a VPN; it’s a dream now that fibre is pretty ubiquitous. Mine hit 100MB/S yesterday, a 1.4Gb file takes about 10 seconds
I like something I saw on here awhile ago that was something like " streaming services where only successful because they where slightly more convenient that pirating " for a while I mostly used a couple of streaming services despite most of the apps having really bad interfaces . But my Plex server has been growing in size lately while the streaming services are being cancelled.
My breaking point for paying for something that I could otherwise get for free is convenience. Doesn’t even need to be a lot, I just refuse to pay for a product that artificially more of a hassle than the identical product that I can obtain for free.
It’s not so much that I want a superior product, it’s that I refuse to pay money for an inferior alternative.
My line is ads if I’m paying for something I’m not watching ads . I actually pay for YouTube premium because it’s worth it in my opinion for the amount I use for it and I use YouTube music alot too .
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