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Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

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211–220 of 361 posts

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#211
post #121

If advertising ever intrudes on streaming the way it did on cable, I'll just transition out of watching TV altogether. I don't care near as much about keeping up with the zeitgeist as I used to. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Old? I feel like a dinosaur because I still watch shock DVDs. Still no ads. No DRM. No funky software needed, though, TBH, the bits are encrypted. Not sure how long optical media lasts, but I am hoping these things last a few more decades.

I believe CDs and DVDs used organic compounds for their data layer, which begins physically rotting and destroying the data later

Later disks like M-disc type DVDs and Blu-ray don't use living components and don't really age

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#212

Im enjoying Hulu/Netflix/Prime Video while I can. My kid has grown up in a household without commercials and where you get points for who can hit “skip” the fastest when one does pop up. Commercials were always annoying but when you aren’t used to seeing them then it really hits home that your seeing the exact same commercial for floor wax sixteen times an hour and the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixtee…

You can pay the $10~ per month for premium and get rid of the ads. Many people here on hn complain about the ads but are unwilling to pay to support non ad version at the same time.

I pay for the premium version and there are still some ads.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Growth" is now one of my most hated overused business lingo, after "innovation". Is it too naive to hope that this pandemic will make us collectively question the value of creeds like growth for growth's sake?

To make it precise: growth is the next generation having a greater abundance than the current. If you care about global poverty, disease, famine etc. then you care about growth. Since we do not have levels of abundance which reach everyone even in rich societies, growth is everywhere a concern. To "question its value" is to say: since I have sufficient wealth, that'll do for the planet.

> If you care about global poverty, disease, famine etc. then you care about growth.

I care about diseases being allowed to spread more than they should in the name of growth. This pandemic happened precisely because of greed and the “growth” fetish.

Poverty is skyrocketing now precisely because we didn't bother to stop to set up safeguards in our neverending lust for growth.

I care about our privacy being forcibly penetrated to sell data on our every eye saccade in the name of growth.

I care about every physical and virtual space being bombarded with advertisements during every waking moment in the name of growth.

I care about having every single aspect of human existence from water to companionship, being monetized and curated in the name of growth.

I care about IP franchises being milked to death and their corpses defiled and then their graves exhumed in the name of growth.

I care about the vast biomes being burned down and entire species going extinct in the name of growth.

I care about ethics and morals getting thrown under a steamroller in the name of growth.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#214

I don't pirate because I don't want to pay for content - I pirate because it is the only way I can get a lot of content. I wish there was a global way to subscribe to and pay for content in a market/app-independant way. If you are not in the USA, Canada or UK, your options to pay for the most popular, newest content are very, very limited. And if you are in a very small and/or somewhat impoverished country, forget ab…

I've argued about this numerous times: ISP's need to provide customers with an opt-in p2p license that adds a small fee to their monthly bill. This monthly fee is transferred to a central authority, the ISP does not make any profit from this fee. The license would allow users to torrent whatever content they want. Torrent trackers would be fully legal, their only legal obligation would be keeping track of torrent pop…

In Spain we get the worst version of this. Media organizations (the equivalents to MPAA or RIAA) get a percentage of the price of all storage devices (hard drives, flash memory, anything) that are sold, implying that they might be used for piracy. But it's still illegal to pirate! So we're paying for something we MIGHT do, but we still can't do it.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#215
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make it precise: growth is the next generation having a greater abundance than the current. If you care about global poverty, disease, famine etc. then you care about growth. Since we do not have levels of abundance which reach everyone even in rich societies, growth is everywhere a concern. To "question its value" is to say: since I have sufficient wealth, that'll do for the planet.

Well, let’s optimize for those things then. Right now growth mostly means making the rich richer. Trickle down economics have been discredited for a while. I wish governments would set quality of life targets instead of gdp targets. If you need to grow gdp to get to a better quality of life, fine, but please, let’s all stop spreading the lie that gdp growth inevitably leads to increased quality of life, because often…

[flagged]

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users can still choose not to install native apps. For as long as the web remains free, I’ll happily support newspapers, magazines, YT Premium and Patreon with my dollars, while absolutely not using the apps with ads in them, in favour of using 3 different content blocking extensions in Safari, and Strict privacy mode in Edge with uBlock Origin on desktop. That said, because ads are inserted by third parties, you can…

As long as websites continue letting you access them on mobile without the app…

A lot of them try really hard not to. A reason for the "show desktop-version" setting's popularity. It's really sad that this has to be a thing, and doesen't really remedy the situation, more like a bandaid.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#217
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've argued about this numerous times: ISP's need to provide customers with an opt-in p2p license that adds a small fee to their monthly bill. This monthly fee is transferred to a central authority, the ISP does not make any profit from this fee. The license would allow users to torrent whatever content they want. Torrent trackers would be fully legal, their only legal obligation would be keeping track of torrent pop…

M-m-m... "small fee" for "unlimited access to millions of music/movie/software/game/books entities that can cost billions of dollars". How exactly it should work, again?

I think he/she means per title that you watch. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense yeah.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#218
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Growth" is now one of my most hated overused business lingo, after "innovation". Is it too naive to hope that this pandemic will make us collectively question the value of creeds like growth for growth's sake?

>"Growth" is now one of my most hated overused business lingo, after "innovation". Is it too naive to hope that this pandemic will make us collectively question the value of creeds like growth for growth's sake? The "growth for growth's sake" is a thought-stopping meme. Let's unpack why that's an inaccurate reason for why companies do what they do and also why people who don't even work at those companies also care a…

Shouldn't dividends make up for any slowdown in growth? If I buy a share in Netflix and instead of the share price rising I get instead a dividend payment, I'd be fine with that, right?

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#219
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, let’s optimize for those things then. Right now growth mostly means making the rich richer. Trickle down economics have been discredited for a while. I wish governments would set quality of life targets instead of gdp targets. If you need to grow gdp to get to a better quality of life, fine, but please, let’s all stop spreading the lie that gdp growth inevitably leads to increased quality of life, because often…

[flagged]

> Growth is that continuing.

For how long? Until when?

What is the endgame?

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#220
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's like a creeping cancer that cannot be stopped Billboards are heavily regulated and sparse in New Zealand. It can be stopped, but it takes willpower and hard work.

And a culture that has less respect for private property, for better or for worse. 4 states ban billboards fwiw

The use of your private property should not impede someone else's ability to use theirs. I don't think building airhorns is allowed either, because it really affects others. Or how you can't just build a kilometer high mirror setup that burns your neighborhood down
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