Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The porn industry is in a bind

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 168 posts

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#141

Post by TeMPOraL »

celticninja wrote: post #139
TeMPOraL wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right this moment I'm sitting in an office in the place that represents our hope, a capital of continued progress[0] - Shenzhen, China. Everything Facebook, Google and Microsoft designs gets built here (or nearby) anyway. China has a... quite healthy attitude towards copyright and trade secrets. That is, they don't give a flying fuck here. There was even a term for that, that eludes me at the moment, which described…

a great example of this is the 'hoverboard', the segway without a handle. These were designed and built by chinese factories and right now are being pumped out by a variety of factories with no clear owner or license holder and nobody cares, they are bought, re-branded and re-sold all over the world and due to the nature of the ownership issue retail price is dropping all the time.

I've seen them last week, didn't get a chance to try out yet though. Looks scary without the handle, but the less rational half of me wants to buy one on the spot.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#142

Post by TeMPOraL »

throwaway7767 wrote: post #132
imglorp wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the next big thing after VR will be sexbots, as in, per Philip K Dick, "your basic pleasure model." The pieces are almost all on the shelf and coming together. The hard part of course will be the software, with the motivation of making it an increasingly realistic companion. The Dark Matter series placed an interesting spin on it, where the "entertainment android", in addition to sex, is also specialized for…

Sounds like a great product, but of course, it'll likely offload most of the processing to "the cloud" so the manufacturer can spy on you and sell info on your sexual kinks to the highest bidder. Not that I'm cynical about tech or anything...

You're not cynical, you're being realistic...

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#143

Post by echion »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #50
kragen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I share my specs today with you, you'll share your specs tomorrow with me" This is how Silicon Valley worked, back when the silicon was actually made there. My impression is that Google's obsessive culture of secrecy (necessary because it grew up in an environment where loose lips really did sink ships) is the strongest influence in destroying that culture of information-sharing, although of course NDAs, interface…

> I'm interested to hear about the abuse and impoverishment. Disclaimer: I've only been in China for a week so far, so what I can tell is just what I see (besides what everyone hears in Western media, that is) and it may be biased. Shenzhen is a city of many contrasts. I work in a relatively modern office building and live in a not-totally-crap hotel. I travel to work via taxis which seem to be staffed by poor people…

Last time I visited there were two guys with jackhammers taking up half of the concrete stairway to a McDonald's while it was still packed and busy: no safety equipment or barriers. I lived in Hong Kong for a couple of years. Shenzhen is great, but the air pollution is a holdup for anyone looking to relocate there (or Hong Kong). Otherwise it's a maker's paradise.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#144

Post by denniskane »

I've read most of this thread, and have been feeling increasingly more like Nick Cage's character in 8mm as he followed the trail of clues until he finally got to that guy with the heavy accent who put Steve Buscemi into the woodchipper in Fargo. Ugh. Talk about slippery slopes...

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#145

Post by vacri »

stonogo wrote: post #130
vacri wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OLPC crushed itself. FLOSS fans were clamouring to develop for it, seeing it as a way to bring emerging minds into the OSS mindset. It created a lot of buzz. Then OLPC jumped into bed with Microsoft, and the FLOSS geeks were driven away, with no similar group of developers to replace them. OLPC made a massive miscalculation, and never regained the buzz they had back then.

Microsoft had nothing to do with OLPC's downfall. It had everything to do with failed project management, and at the highest levels, failed leadership. Expectations (on national levels) were not managed correctly, strange omissions in implementation (such as even rudimentary technical support) crippled uptake, and in the end participating nations had to work with volunteers to get anything done. The volunteer effort…

Strange, I remember going to linux conferences, of which the OLPC talks were heavily attended; competitions to win one were heavily patronised; colleagues going for the G1G1 program. There was a ton of interest in this low-cost, open-source laptop project. I remember the "for the children" argument for why they were partnering with Microsoft. The FLOSS community was pretty vocal in asking please don't do this, but OLPC ignored them. The buzz died, and the media moved on as a result. It didn't matter that MS never shipped in great numbers[1]; the damage was done.

It was mismanaged, absolutely, and the proposed MS partnership wasn't the only nail in the coffin. But with my own eyes I've seen a lot more interest than "noise on blogs". With that silly move, OLPC lost a pool of enthusiastic, free developers and media buzz. It also caused the OLPC chief of software to resign.

Given that you disparage the FLOSS complaints as just "noise on blogs", it's clear you didn't read the complaints. It had little to do with dimes moving from OLPC to MS. The issue was OLPC letting MS use them as a conduit to train new users in 'the windows way' - that MS was effectively going to co-opt OLPC as a loss-leader program. How far would OLPC go with MS? Why bother developing when they're so intent on providing XP on a clearly underspecced machine for it? And how could a sluggish OS actually be a decision 'for the kids'? How else would OLPC break their previously loud promises? The license fees really had nothing to do with the FLOSS community largely abandoning interest in the project.

[1] You're wrong about Windows never shipping. Windows-only machines never shipped, but dual-boot Windows machines did.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#146

Post by mindcrime »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #98
rimantas wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, tell me, how often did you install a new os on your smartphone, game console, VR device smart watch in the early 80s?

We wouldn't have smartphones, game consoles, VR devices or smart watches if big companies in the early 80s were pulling the shit they try to do now.

Yes, this is pretty much exactly the point. The "freedom to tinker" we had in the past has played a big role in enabling the things we have now. If we lose that freedom, we'll be reduced to a world where the only innovation comes from big corporations, or possible from academics who are controlled (via purse strings) by those same big corporations.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#147

Post by kragen »

vacri wrote: post #114
chinpokomon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know that OLPC has been crushed, it had never had a capitalistic mission. The shareholders back home aren't demanding a particular volume is met.

OLPC crushed itself. FLOSS fans were clamouring to develop for it, seeing it as a way to bring emerging minds into the OSS mindset. It created a lot of buzz. Then OLPC jumped into bed with Microsoft, and the FLOSS geeks were driven away, with no similar group of developers to replace them. OLPC made a massive miscalculation, and never regained the buzz they had back then.

I agree that OLPC crushed itself, but I think that had more to do with CIA associations (in the minds of possible client nations, even if not in reality) and with the kind of paternalistic "we know what is good for your children" attitude, combined with the "sign up the whole country or we won't sell you a single machine" avoidable problem with adoptability, and plenty of promising what they could never deliver (promises which, unfortunately, were repeated mouth to mouth throughout the FLOSS community). By the time they sold their users down the river to Microsoft, they were already years late and an enormous disappointment.

So, the $100 laptop is real. It just isn't very FLOSS-friendly or made by OLPC. Instead, the mainstream $100 laptop is an Android tablet or cellphone, or maybe an iPad or iPhone. It's Apple and Google's fault that those machines are so user-hostile and dangerous, but it's not their fault that OLPC failed to provide a user-friendly, safe alternative.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#148

Post by jenmcewen »

hugh4 wrote: post #78
jenmcewen wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some performers do use Patreon. But if you want to promote your erotic work, Patreon doesn't accept accounts promoting porn with live actors, only drawn art.

So there's a huge gap in the market for a nsfw patreon? (Porntreon?)

oh yeah, lots of creators use Patreon. Fenoxo, the creator of the text based RPG Trials in Tainted Space (he sells it in MiKandi), uses Patreon and brings in $20K a month. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=121401&u=121401&ty=h

So far it's a great service for adult art and fiction creators. But as with any mainstream service and adult content, you can't ever be sure how long it'll last. Past experience has shown it's a matter of time before adult gets kicked out of the party. I hope that won't be the case with Patreon.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#149

Post by mindcrime »

rdancer wrote: post #97
mindcrime wrote: post #16

Forget about the porn for a minute gang... this is, to me, the key insight in the story: VR and its cousin, “augmented reality,” are controlled by the big corporations. Facebook owns the Oculus Rift. Microsoft built the Hololens. Google does Google Glass. These will treat porn at least like Android treats porn—or maybe even like Glass treated porn when O’Connell unveiled his app. In other words, they won’t allow it t…

If you care about hackability, you can buy a completely open hardware development board for under $100 delivered. That's roughly $45 in 1985 US dollars. Android device makers from China maybe haven't been told about their own inability to pump out clones. Somebody should let them know. A VM instance from Digital Ocean costs $5/month. Go buy a dozen, and install Xenix on all of them. All your platforms up to about 199…

Sure, I'm not saying that there aren't any ways to hack still. And that's especially so in regards to legacy platforms, like the PC. But for newer devices, and for future devices (like, say, VR appliances), it looks like we're taking, or at risk of taking, a big step backwards.

I also acknowledge that if you're willing and able to (find|build|buy) hardware that skates around patent law and the like, then you have more options. And as long as that's a possibility, that's a Good Thing. But I still argue that it's a Bad Thing when major computing platforms become "lock down by default".

OTOH, I don't mean to be all "gloom and doom". Clearly there have been some positive developments over the past few years. The resurgence of the burgeoning DIY/hacker/maker movement, the advent of cheap single-board-computers like Arduino, rPi, BeagleBone, etc., are all good signs. But as they say "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty".

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#150

Post by dongchongyubing »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #62
cinquemb wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also interested to learn more if you come across any answers? Will you post it on your website or something? I feel like I'll miss it if it is posted on HN.

I'm noting down to update both you and 'kragen after I write something up. I might post it on my blog or do a Tell HN; we'll see after I actually have something to write about :). You can also shoot me an e-mail (mine in the profile) so that I know how to notify you directly.

Shenzhen is one of the best city in China. From your standard and perspective , other places seems looks like hell .
Post reply on HN