Yeah, that’s what I was wondering - didn’t they just do this? I cancelled my renewal when they raised it the first time and it doesn’t close out until November. It was $80 a year when I first signed up - it’s now more than double that!
For me, the content is not very compelling / worth $168 a year. Especially when it’s evident that they’re focusing more on cinema releases now than streaming shows. No love lost here.
These companies are still in the mode where they’re pushing out mediocre content and trying to make their money back on nostalgia and merchandising and “background-content”. They’re in competition with each other to get - and maintain - as much /consumer/ attention as possible. I don’t want to speak for everyone else but I think, as /audiences/, we just really want compelling stories that are well written and well acted. As consumers, we should all open our eyes a bit to what we’re actually paying for and stop blinding re-subbing to stuff that’s not really worth it.
You’re a dumpster fire right now, Hollywood. Get your shit together.
The very first time I saw Brady on tv (circa 2000) I was watching whatever it was with my mom and we both presumed he was gay then and there. It was a little interesting just because there were so few evidently gay people on tv at the time in such prominent roles.
But yeah…
“Bisexual — with an open mind!”
seems about right too.
I think (hope) that hundreds of years from now, most of the human species will achieve this higher form of love and acceptance. It’s so silly to not freely love whom you love.
They seem like a lovely family :)
Also… looks like Redditors are starting to flood it here with their uber-insightful commentary.
I’m pansexual.
In doing my research, both with myself and just with the world, I couldn’t say if I was bisexual, because I had to really see what that was, especially because I really have not gotten a chance to act on anything. So, I came to pansexual because — and I know that I’m completely messing up the dictionary meaning — but to me, pan means being able to be attracted to anyone who identifies as gay, straight, bi, transsexual or non-binary. Being able to be attracted across the board. And, I think, at least for me for right now, that is the proper place. I took pan to mean that not only can I be attracted to any of these people or types physically, but I could be attracted to the person that is there.
Reuters also points out that Apple’s research and development spending grew to $22.61 billion during Q3 2023, an increase of $3.12 billion compared to the same quarter last year.
Holy fucking fuck. $22 billion a quarter?!
This just makes me angry that we don’t get to see any of this shit. I’ve been using Apple products for so long and it just feels like nothing has happened with this company aside from the silicon advancements. Nothing that’s relevant to me at least. Mostly what I’m seeing is their choices to make their user interface less intuitive. I don’t care about AI. I care about fixing bugs and responding to years and years of user requests.
I would think that as long as a battery is replaceable, it should suffice to meet environmental requirements.
Specifically regarding the iPhone, with the current battery replacement cost being under $100, I find it difficult to understand this being such an issue where an entire continent needs to make a rule against the design.
But I understand some people just want the ability to fix their own shit without having to bring it in for service. And I know this isn’t just about phones but nearly everything that has a battery.
You can set up a little studio area in your house and start with still life pictures. Search for Danish Still Life Paintings for some ideas - I’m sure there’s plenty of YouTube rabbit holes for more ideas. Or, just take up painting!
Photography is also a great excuse to get out of the house and walk around. Whether it’s street photography or landscape or close up nature photography, there’s always something to take pictures of. Give yourself little assignments - just circles today, just signs, just shadows, etc.
Either way, this is a creative outlet that you can share with others as you progress and get better. Who knows, you might start printing your images and have a gallery showing at a cafe!
The idea that piracy is stealing is so foreign to me.
It’s literally the definition. Do you think pirates were invited on board to take a ship’s volume of goods without compensation? I’m at a loss how you believe the acquisition of something with a price tag on it without paying for it is not theft.
Your Shakespearian example is very clearly theft. If you sit down at a theater and transcribe the entire show then produce the exact same show, you have stolen intellectual property. What example of “copycat movies” are you considering? I’ve never heard of such a thing nor can I comprehend how it might exist. If someone is literally copying the exact same movie, if someone is producing a movie with the exact same script, it’s theft. Intellectual Property is a thing that can be stolen (hint, it’s in the second word).
You’re right in regard to licensing. We no longer purchase a product but a license to consume that product for a period of time. This was established in the DMCA as media moved from physical to digital formats. When you buy a DVD, you purchase the license to view the content on that medium. If you sell or give away that medium, you are transferring that license to the new owner. There’s a company called Kaleidescape that takes all your physical movies and rips them to a local server. You have to sign an agreement that confirms you own a physical copy of that movie and if you give that movie away you must delete the file from your server. So, you can watch the movie however you like on whatever medium you like, provided you’ve paid for and currently hold the rights to that license.
I’d like you to further explain your philosophy of original content being of no value and everything being free.
I genuinely believe that stealing is stealing and anyone justifying it is doing so to not feel guilty about it.
I download things I haven’t paid for. It’s wrong. I can rationalize this because the stuff I’m stealing has already made their money and me enjoying it on my own time likely has zero impact on the content creators. Also, fuck the non-skippable intros and commercials on blurays.
The one exception to this, what I would argue is unquestionably “ethical piracy”, is content that’s actually important to the progress of humanity. Things like well researched scientific papers, studies about the humanities, psychology, the affects of technology, mechanization, artificial intelligence, etc. This should never be held behind lock and key. You whining about not having access to How I Met Your Mother is not a valid reason to steal content.
Also, people need to spend more time at their public libraries. If you want free shit, a lot of it is there explicitly for the purpose you all espouse.
Copyright though also protects creators and deems their work valuable. For what reasons might someone write a book or a song if it were of no value? Is your time not worth something?
Prior to the printing press, stories were spread by word of mouth. Every community benefitted from the free exchange of ideas. Why then go through the effort of inventing the printing press? Answer: money, power, influence - progress as you decide it should be.
Today, society is controlled by the whims / stock portfolios of the corporations. Progresses occurs when a major corporation intends to “profit” from of an idea. Ironically, you and I and every other human on this planet have never been more connected yet we might have less power and influence today than a time prior to the Zuckerbergs, the Murdochs, and the Disneys hijacking our ship.
This can quickly turn to a conversation about communism and capitalism. The reality is that we live in a capitalist society and without someone paying someone for their time and investment, there is no opportunity for society as a whole to benefit from their work. Even is someone works full time on a project and puts it out there for the world to enjoy, if they aren’t participating in the algorithm their work will largely go ignored. I say this as someone with a blog who refuses to put ads and google and facebook tracking on my site. If I really wanted to spread my work, I would have to integrate with the machine. But also, don’t steal my shit! Worked hard on it.
the more limited people are, the more ingenious they begin to get
Just another way of saying necessity is the mother of invention. Which I don’t disagree with at all.
I think the opposite has taken place over recent years though - Invention has replaced Necessity.
Smart people have invented “cool” technologies often for the sake of being cool. The spectacle and wizardry of technology can distract us from what’s behind the curtain and from a task that only a human mind can or should unwind. I can’t tell you how many times my boss would tell me to integrate some cool new widget into something then when I asked why he’d say, “cause it’s cool”. Yeah, where’s Google Wave now?
I think taking the leap into unknown technology has been the problem. For me, at least. I wound’t have a career without doing so but at this point, the weight of my choices is building up.
Home automation is something I struggle with. In fact, I’ve worked in the home automation industry since 1998. Ironically, I have nearly zero home automation in my home other than the recent addition of smart bulbs via HomeKit. Maybe my experience with troubleshooting automated technology for over two decades has something to do with my philosophy here.
I have a small home with a handful of lights from Ikea and Voco. As has been my opinion for 25 years, automated lights are one of the single best home improvement investments someone can make in their lives. But now with everything so dependent on Updates, it’s incredibly easy for an iPhone or WAP update to break your app-controlled automated lights. You might need to wait weeks or months for the manufacturer of your lights to push out a firmware update so you can use them as you always have. Or Apple, or Philips, etc., may simply decide they have a better idea to use something that’s contrary to what you and your family is used to.
So, yeah, technology is great but my point is aren’t we too reliant on it? We’re slaves to software and firmware updates with essentially zero recourse other than disable auto-updates on everything we own.
So, I was born in 1976 and nineteen years later I had high speed internet. I do often sit and think about those early days. For me, it was a lot about trying new things and making them work in a fashion that I wanted. I mean, aside from all the AOL chat rooms, Second Life, ICQ, etc. There was a lot of exploration and creativity. It wasn’t very different from Lemmy and Mastodon at the moment, to some degree.
Then came Web 2.0. I was reminiscing about that recently as I went through my old (circa 2007) Twitter account and deleted the dozens and dozens of Connected Apps and Services. Back when Twitter was an SMS service only, you had to use third party apps to connect to it. There were so many awesome apps back then, even before the iOS App Store. Then so many of those apps were bought by Google, Facebook, or Apple and turned into something else or just flat out killed because of the competition. Most of them didn’t make it. RIP PhotoVine.
What’s sad is that our collective creative expression is being used for likes and karma removed on social media (because you can actually get paid while the platform serves ads) rather than creating our own unique communities. It seems like the Fediverse gives some of that power back to us - if we choose to utilize it.
I mean, it’s great that these social platforms exist for people to so-easily create and express themselves but at the same time it’s all so repetitive and click baity / rage baity. The algorithm decides what to show you to keep your attention the longest, not to motivate or inspire you. It’s not super easy to find interesting quirky odd things that make you question the world so social media is creating a warped sense of reality where we all generally like the same things. It’s monotonous. It’s artificial. It’s driven by dopamine and ad revenue. I know it’s not all bad, but a lot of it is. I know there’s lots of weird and quirky and inspiring content out there. But a lot of it is not. The problem is how do we discover this stuff if we don’t already know about it?
What I miss about the early days of the internet is the lack of a handful of megacorps owning and curating everything we experience.