I guess TV has improved, but (admittedly from the outside, hearing people talk) it appears that there are still just a small handful of high quality shows. Throughout most of commercial TV history there have always been a small handful of high quality shows.
But since I've not seen any of them, this is just speculation based on stuff I hear.
I will admit that my expectation has been that the high quality TV shows are about equivalent to movies these days. Modern movies are generally only high quality if what you enjoy is special-effect-heavy action movies or family-oriented cartoons.
I once knew a shady businessman who behaved in an analogous manner with his own deals. He'd always find a way to get out of responsibilities he contractually agreed to.
I found him interesting because I knew him fairly well and am certain that he never entered a deal with the intention of screwing people over. Yet that was what always happened to one degree or another.
I think that he entered deals with honorable intentions, but lacked the intestinal fortitude needed when his agreements became more than slightly burdensome to him, so he would change color.
I think there's a word for that sort of person: weasel. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the dominant dynamic in these companies as well.
"'Cutting-the-Cord' and 'Free' are NOT synonymous."
Who said they were? Although they can be. I know a number of people (primarily twentysomethings) who cut the cord and replaced their TV viewing with nothing outside of YouTube and such.
The point of cutting the cord is usually not to get something for free, but to stop paying insane amounts of money for stuff you don't even want.
Their goal from day 1 has been very clear, and has never wavered. They correctly view the internet as a threat to their collective control over media distribution.
They don't want to destroy the internet as infrastructure. They want to control the use of the internet as a means of media distribution. They don't really care about how they make that happen or what the fallout would be, so long as it happens.
The point is, it doesn't matter whether or not Christianity or any other belief system is a farce. At least, not to anybody who doesn't share the belief system.
Researchers play along with this extortion racket solely because it's a kind of extortion. Researchers who don't regularly publish in the short list of accepted journals are ones who won't be researchers for very long. Their choice is simple: pay the fees or choose a different career.
I was a Charter customer a long time ago (15 years or so), and I was satisfied with their service. They weren't incredible (but who is?), but they never made me mad.
Re: Compliance with FCC Rules Means Hardware Changes
"So if your router company is now asking you to update your firmware, be very reluctant to say "yes""
True, but it seems to me that people who care about this issue are the ones who install their own firmware to begin with -- and so they wouldn't bother updating the factory firmware anyway.
I know that whenever I buy a new router, the very first thing I do is replace the firmware. Updating the firmware I'm replacing would just be a waste of my time.
Past projects have been taken closed source for non-nefarious reasons (always centered around courting corporations in some form), so it's not automatic.
In this case, though, we're talking about a security product. It's clear to me that the safest course of action is to interpret this move as a kind of canary.
I think the point you're trying to make here is that open source is no security panacea -- and I agree with this point 100%.
That said, closed source is far worse. With closed source, you have exactly no assurance that the code is good. With open source, it is at least possible to get some level of assurance, as imperfect as it may be.
In other words, open source does not automatically equal more secure, but close source does automatically equal reduced security due to the impossibility of confirmation.
Heh. Whenever I am faced with an age question, I try to claim that I'm 200 years old.
This is a habit that carried over from when companies first started showing up on the web. They would routinely require you to fill out demographic data to use their sites. So, as a matter of principle, I'm lie and claim to be some variation of a 200 year old black woman with 30 children.
Re: He missed the point Comcast is trying to make.
If that is actually Comcast's concern, then it can be easily addressed in ways that still allow third party STBs. This is a familiar use case for which there are numerous solutions, both technical and legislative.
That's why it's obvious to me that this isn't Comcast's concern at all. The only concern I can think of that actually makes any sense is that Comcast doesn't want the gravy train of rental fees to dry up.
You don't file ContentID claims. Content ID is the automatic scanner that YouTube runs. When it find matches, it takes action itself. Nobody files claims.
"I can tell you that whilst most Microsoft products have simply got more and more annoying for the last 15 years Visual Studio has actually got better."
As someone who has been using VS daily since it became Visual Studio, I disagree with this. It reached its "peak goodness" a number of year ago, and every release ever since has annoyed me more and more.
I now go out of my way to avoid using it as much as I can.
Probably sensible, depending on who you're applying to. I would never hire someone who has the CIA (or any spy agency) on their resume. They present too large of a security risk.
On the other hand, you should be customizing your resume for whatever company you're apply for a job with anyway -- so you'd probably want to list it in some versions and omit it in others.
On the post: Cable Company CEO Calls TV Business A 'Tragedy Of The Commons' That Ends Badly
Re: Re:
But since I've not seen any of them, this is just speculation based on stuff I hear.
I will admit that my expectation has been that the high quality TV shows are about equivalent to movies these days. Modern movies are generally only high quality if what you enjoy is special-effect-heavy action movies or family-oriented cartoons.
On the post: Cable Company CEO Calls TV Business A 'Tragedy Of The Commons' That Ends Badly
Re:
On the post: Add Philadelphia To The Long List Of Cities That Think Verizon Ripped Them Off On Fiber Promises
Re: Re:
I found him interesting because I knew him fairly well and am certain that he never entered a deal with the intention of screwing people over. Yet that was what always happened to one degree or another.
I think that he entered deals with honorable intentions, but lacked the intestinal fortitude needed when his agreements became more than slightly burdensome to him, so he would change color.
I think there's a word for that sort of person: weasel. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the dominant dynamic in these companies as well.
On the post: Cable Company CEO Calls TV Business A 'Tragedy Of The Commons' That Ends Badly
Re: Illusion of 'Free'
Who said they were? Although they can be. I know a number of people (primarily twentysomethings) who cut the cord and replaced their TV viewing with nothing outside of YouTube and such.
The point of cutting the cord is usually not to get something for free, but to stop paying insane amounts of money for stuff you don't even want.
On the post: A Dozen Bad Ideas That Were Raised At The Copyright Office's DMCA Roundtables
Re:
They don't want to destroy the internet as infrastructure. They want to control the use of the internet as a means of media distribution. They don't really care about how they make that happen or what the fallout would be, so long as it happens.
On the post: NYU Sues YouTube For Reposting Video After Video Poster Sent DMCA Counternotice
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
The only thing that matters is how people behave.
On the post: Sci-Hub, The Repository Of 'Infringing' Academic Papers Now Available Via Telegram
Re: Exactly what it says on the tin. No, wait...
On the post: Cable Lobbying Group Claims More Competition Would Hurt Consumers
Re: Re:
On the post: NYU Sues YouTube For Reposting Video After Video Poster Sent DMCA Counternotice
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
This is a message that I wish more people would take to heart.
On the post: Earnhardt Family Fighting Over Whether One Earnhardt Son Can Use His Own Last Name
Re:
On the post: Bad News: Two-Factor Authentication Pioneer YubiKey Drops Open Source PGP For Proprietary Version
Re:
On the post: How Java's Inherent Verboseness May Mess Up Fair Use For APIs
Re: Re: Re: Re: Java "weakness"
You have no idea how lucky you are. I wish I could avoid Java.
On the post: Despite New FCC Rules, Linksys, Asus Say They'll Still Support Third Party Router Firmware
Re: Compliance with FCC Rules Means Hardware Changes
True, but it seems to me that people who care about this issue are the ones who install their own firmware to begin with -- and so they wouldn't bother updating the factory firmware anyway.
I know that whenever I buy a new router, the very first thing I do is replace the firmware. Updating the firmware I'm replacing would just be a waste of my time.
On the post: Bad News: Two-Factor Authentication Pioneer YubiKey Drops Open Source PGP For Proprietary Version
Re: Canary
In this case, though, we're talking about a security product. It's clear to me that the safest course of action is to interpret this move as a kind of canary.
On the post: Bad News: Two-Factor Authentication Pioneer YubiKey Drops Open Source PGP For Proprietary Version
Re: Re: Showstopper
That said, closed source is far worse. With closed source, you have exactly no assurance that the code is good. With open source, it is at least possible to get some level of assurance, as imperfect as it may be.
In other words, open source does not automatically equal more secure, but close source does automatically equal reduced security due to the impossibility of confirmation.
On the post: Court Strikes Down Louisiana's Attempt To Regulate Online Content 'For The Children'
Re:
This is a habit that carried over from when companies first started showing up on the web. They would routinely require you to fill out demographic data to use their sites. So, as a matter of principle, I'm lie and claim to be some variation of a 200 year old black woman with 30 children.
On the post: Comcast Now Trying To Claim That Delivering Just TV To Third-Party Set Top Boxes 'Not Feasible'
Re: He missed the point Comcast is trying to make.
That's why it's obvious to me that this isn't Comcast's concern at all. The only concern I can think of that actually makes any sense is that Comcast doesn't want the gravy train of rental fees to dry up.
On the post: NYU Sues YouTube For Reposting Video After Video Poster Sent DMCA Counternotice
Re:
On the post: How Java's Inherent Verboseness May Mess Up Fair Use For APIs
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Java "weakness"
As someone who has been using VS daily since it became Visual Studio, I disagree with this. It reached its "peak goodness" a number of year ago, and every release ever since has annoyed me more and more.
I now go out of my way to avoid using it as much as I can.
On the post: CIA Inspector General Claims It Accidentally Deleted CIA Torture Report After Being Asked To Retain It
Re: what a joke of an agency.
On the other hand, you should be customizing your resume for whatever company you're apply for a job with anyway -- so you'd probably want to list it in some versions and omit it in others.
Next >>