>"Personally, I am amazed that this is working for them, but I appear to be in the minority"
+1 to your post and add me to your "minority." I saw all the changes you listed and thought exactly the same things. At least on the DVD site I had some control, on the streaming site, it is a wasteland of annoying scroll bars that tell me almost nothing about what I might want to watch or what is available. No real sorting, no real consideration about my ratings or those of others, no way to really see what is ACTUALLY new. It is beyond frustrating.
I, too, am convinced they are doing all this to:
1) Hide or remove tools from users to keep them "engaged" 2) Make it look like they have more content than they do 3) "Guide" people into accepting what they do have 4) Censor feedback that might lower watching what they do have
>"Now instead of everyone deciding for themselves what two or four stars means, people can just decide whether they liked the movie or not. It's simple. I like that."
I *hate* it. Because there are lots of movies I neither like nor despise... and there are movies I like and movies I really, really like. None of that can be expressed with a "like/hate" or "good/bad" 2-point scale. Plus, somehow, Netflix LEARNED what I liked based on realistic ratings (I rate EVERYTHING I watch). Now how are they going to do that? I will have no scale to know how certain they are I will "like" it or "dislike" it.
How hard is it to rate on a 5 point scale? We do it zillions of times a day at nearly every school in the nation...
5 = A = very best = Absolutely love 4 = B = good = Like it 3 = C = average = OK/Meh/mediocre 2 = D = not good = disliked it more than liked it 1 = F = worst/fail = hated it
Now, if it were a 7, 9, or 13 point scale, I can see why it might be more difficult than it is worth, overall. But really, a 5 point scale is the one that most everyone has used for many years throughout a significant part of their lives. Even if the definition of each rating slid a little here and there, it isn't so varying as to be useless.
Getting rid of reviews is yet another hostile move to the way many of us use Netflix to try and decide what to watch and help others.
>"How about a better approach to healthcare in your country, where you should be able to get life saving treatment for decades without bankrupting you or your dependents...?"
How about a better approach where first almost everyone works, contributes to society, and pays taxes so such a system is financially viable? It is hard to have one without the other, especially when there is already a $21 trillion debt which is increasing at over $2 thousand dollars a second.
>"Does ghosting show a lack of professionalism, or is it simple payback for the way corporations treated job-seekers in the past?"
It is 100% the former. And not just lack of professionalism, but plain rude and childish. It happens where I work all the time. Often much worse- we even HIRE someone and then they don't show to orientation for their first day of work and we never hear from them. Burn those bridges!
>"or simple justice for the behavior of some companies when the balance of power was more on their side?"
Shall I barf now? What, label them as SJWs or something and that makes it OK? Or perhaps two wrongs make a right?
>"By your logic attempted murder isn't a crime because no one was actually harmed."
First, I never said it wouldn't be a crime. Most importantly, you are forgetting an extremely important legal concept- intent. In those cases, the perp INTENDED to do harm.
>"misdemeanour for endangering peoples lives? I think not. If anything what they are proposing sounds too light."
That is super-dramatic. Let's think about typical felonies for a moment:
Murder Rape Kidnapping Robbery Arson Extortion Blackmail Manslaughter Grand larceny
These are ACTUAL harm to people's lives.... mostly intentional violent crimes. Does flying a drone around and having it drift too close to a fire really seem to fit? By your logic- well, you are "endangering people's lives" by speeding, following too closely, jaywalking, drinking alcohol in public, running at a pool, or playing hockey, so those should be felonies? We probably already have too many things mis-categorized as felonies (like simple copyright infringement, some drug possession).
Now, if you flew a drone in a way that ACTUALLY caused harm to someone, perhaps THAT would justify a felony. We don't want to continue a march into a police state.
Yes it does. Because it isn't false advertising. Some of those "fees" are completely arbitrary, so carriers can hide anything they want AND they can raise those anytime because it isn't part of your "plan". With T-Mobile, you know exactly what you are getting and paying and it doesn't change.
>"is "Regulatory Compliance Fee". This is a fee T-Mobile charges me so that _they_ can comply with regulations"
And ALL the carriers did that.... but....
You must be on an old plan still. To my knowledge, all T-Mobile plans for the last couple of years are 100% free of all hidden/separate fees from their claimed price. They made the incredibly bold step to be the ONLY carrier to advertise plans at a dollar amount that simply includes EVERYTHING and does not change. If they advertise a $50 plan, that is what you pay, and nothing more. It is one of the disruptive things T-Mobile has been doing that makes me like them much more than any other carrier.
>" It describes a system in which an "ambient audio fingerprint or signature" that's inaudible to the human ear could be embedded in broadcast content like a TV ad. When a hypothetical user is watching this ad, the audio fingerprint could trigger their smartphone or another device to turn on its microphone"
How can it "turn the microphone on" if it was already "on" and constantly listening for this audible signal? Thus, the mic was already "on" and analyzing everything, all the time. This is aside from the asinine premise of this whole concept. I am sure we all have a BURNING need for our phones to be listening all the time, burning up the battery, doing god-knows-what in the background, sending personal info to places like Facebook, all so we can watch COMMERCIALS and then get even more automatic COMMERCIALS on our phones and give companies even more metrics about our personal lives, whereabouts, believes, and associations. Oh, man, sign me up now! I will make sure to throw away my DVR in the process, too, so I can watch COMMERCIALS religiously...
What I want are HARDWARE switches for: microphone, cameras, and radios on my devices. Funny how many devices USED to have such things in the past.
+1 This is the only real solution to the problem. Lots of us, me included, are VERY careful to recycle correctly. But no matter what we do, we will never get EVERYONE to do it correctly.
Automation and technology can and should be applied to the problem to help to clean up the stream even more. I have seen some impressive automated "single stream" recycling sorting, but they aren't "smart", they just use physical mechanical methods- magnets, ripple currents, compressed air, flotation, screens, etc. That is a great first pass, but it needs a little more at the end to really finish the process.
There is no SINGLE process that will fix everything, of course. For example, it would be great if manufacturers would not mix materials or at least mix them so tightly in their products.
I wish they would stop "integrating" more and more stuff into Firefox. The whole point of Firefox was to be small and fast and configurable. This is yet another example of something that probably should be an addon. Even if they BUNDLE the addon, at least it gives the option to remove it if wanted or needed for some reason.
>"From a chemical that comes from a plant that does not have any addictive qualities and a person can quit cold turkey if they want to?"
Quite a few people would argue with that statement. Just because something isn't physically addictive doesn't mean it can't create a physiological dependency (an older term for addiction). Semantics aside, it absolutely is an intoxicant and it is quite evident that some people will go to great lengths to get stoned over and over again on pot, even if it costs them their job, their freedom, their finances, and their relationships.
Of course, human nature- just about ANYTHING can lead to such dependency... food, sex, sugar, video games, gambling, surfing, you name it.
Yeah, being "high" can, indeed, be bad in any number of situations when you might need to take a medication... like driving, operating on someone, doing dangerous work, operating machinery, being paid to be productive, making important decisions of directing people, etc.
Being able to take medically-useful components out of marijuana, while suppressing the "high" is a great step forward that can benefit lots of people who otherwise would not be able to take it. It is unfortunate that the ridiculous listing of marijuana as "Schedule 1" makes it so difficult and dogmatic to do useful research and create useful products.
>"Given the very scanty details provided in the article, you seem to be leaping to conclusions."
Well, it is true that the article doesn't reveal much except that it is an IT security method for cloud computing. And something called "air gap" in a security context generally doesn't lend itself to be a weapon or attack method in any way that I can imagine.
>"The coders weren't persuaded their employer should be using its technological might to help the government wage war,"
"Wage war"?
1) We are not talking about a weapon. 2) We aren't even talking about something that attacks or even spies on other countries or citizens, it is a computer security concept. Is better security "bad"? 3) Why would the technology be used to "wage war"? Perhaps it might be to avoid war or lose important information. Is that "bad"? 4) Or even if it could help to win a war [that protects Google, too], if it came to that, is that "bad"? 5) If it enabled more secure "cloud" use by the military and saved tons of money, which means either less taxes or money better spent elsewhere, is that "bad"? 6) Wouldn't some other company develop it instead? 7) Couldn't it have non-military uses to improve security?
It is one thing to stand on morals and principles. But what exactly is gained by anyone in this case?
Enterprise had a weakling for a captain and it drove me mad
I liked most of the characters but had a REALLY hard time swallowing Scott Bakula. Although eventually he started getting into the role and I could deal with it. He sorta reminded me of Chapote on Voyager (my least liked character). One problem is that I kept thinking at any moment he would say "Oh Boy"....
>"In the wake of shocking allegations against Star Trek: Discovery's showrunners"
Discovery? Is that really a thing? I am a huge Trekkie and have not seen a single episode. Their distribution model sucked, and I have heard it is nothing but "PC overkill" combined with total fantasy. Strangely, I don't know ANYONE who has actually watched "Discovery" and when I ask them, they have no interest in doing so, even the Trekkies like me. But....
Meanwhile, the Orville came along and THAT became my Star Trek after Enterprise. Enterprise was a bit shaky, but was just getting into its grove when they killed it. Reminded me of the issues with Deep Space 9, until STTNG ended and the writers apparently focused their attention on DS9 and it improved a lot. Anyway, who would have thought "Orville" would have somehow hit the Trek nail on the head??? I am still in disbelief.
I loved the original, REALLY REALLY loved ALL of The Next Generation, loved most of DS9, really loved all of Voyager, loved much of Enterprise, after the awkward start. Most of the original Trek movies were so-so (Wrath of Kahn clearly the best). The Next Generation movies were all quite good. And I really loved the reboot movies. But now it seems Paramount has really lost their way, at least with TV (and especially in combination with CBS).
>"It isn't just cat litter. I also use the plastic bags for all the trash can liners in the house since the City wants all garbage bagged."
+1000 Exactly this.
I have never ONCE had "too many" plastic bags. I reuse every single one of them. Smelly garbage, liners for all my small trashcans. Disposing of things that are wet. Nothing I reuse them for would ANY other type of bag be good for. So I would have to BUY those bags ANYWAY, and then end up:
1) With MORE TOTAL trash than before. 2) With less money. 3) With huge inconvenience because paper bags are too weak and usually have no handles, so I can only carry one at a time.
And not ONCE has an empty bag left my hand or property to float free into the environment. "Solutions" that punish everyone for the acts of a few are not solutions.
Slashdot Mirror
>"Personally, I am amazed that this is working for them, but I appear to be in the minority"
+1 to your post and add me to your "minority." I saw all the changes you listed and thought exactly the same things. At least on the DVD site I had some control, on the streaming site, it is a wasteland of annoying scroll bars that tell me almost nothing about what I might want to watch or what is available. No real sorting, no real consideration about my ratings or those of others, no way to really see what is ACTUALLY new. It is beyond frustrating.
I, too, am convinced they are doing all this to:
1) Hide or remove tools from users to keep them "engaged"
2) Make it look like they have more content than they do
3) "Guide" people into accepting what they do have
4) Censor feedback that might lower watching what they do have
>"Now instead of everyone deciding for themselves what two or four stars means, people can just decide whether they liked the movie or not. It's simple. I like that."
I *hate* it. Because there are lots of movies I neither like nor despise... and there are movies I like and movies I really, really like. None of that can be expressed with a "like/hate" or "good/bad" 2-point scale. Plus, somehow, Netflix LEARNED what I liked based on realistic ratings (I rate EVERYTHING I watch). Now how are they going to do that? I will have no scale to know how certain they are I will "like" it or "dislike" it.
How hard is it to rate on a 5 point scale? We do it zillions of times a day at nearly every school in the nation...
5 = A = very best = Absolutely love
4 = B = good = Like it
3 = C = average = OK/Meh/mediocre
2 = D = not good = disliked it more than liked it
1 = F = worst/fail = hated it
Now, if it were a 7, 9, or 13 point scale, I can see why it might be more difficult than it is worth, overall. But really, a 5 point scale is the one that most everyone has used for many years throughout a significant part of their lives. Even if the definition of each rating slid a little here and there, it isn't so varying as to be useless.
Getting rid of reviews is yet another hostile move to the way many of us use Netflix to try and decide what to watch and help others.
>"How about a better approach to healthcare in your country, where you should be able to get life saving treatment for decades without bankrupting you or your dependents...?"
How about a better approach where first almost everyone works, contributes to society, and pays taxes so such a system is financially viable? It is hard to have one without the other, especially when there is already a $21 trillion debt which is increasing at over $2 thousand dollars a second.
>"Does ghosting show a lack of professionalism, or is it simple payback for the way corporations treated job-seekers in the past?"
It is 100% the former. And not just lack of professionalism, but plain rude and childish. It happens where I work all the time. Often much worse- we even HIRE someone and then they don't show to orientation for their first day of work and we never hear from them. Burn those bridges!
>"or simple justice for the behavior of some companies when the balance of power was more on their side?"
Shall I barf now? What, label them as SJWs or something and that makes it OK? Or perhaps two wrongs make a right?
>"Involuntary Manslaughter is a felony where there was no intent to do harm."
Correct. Felonies are normally severe crimes that actually caused harm *or* they intended to do harm.
>"By your logic attempted murder isn't a crime because no one was actually harmed."
First, I never said it wouldn't be a crime. Most importantly, you are forgetting an extremely important legal concept- intent. In those cases, the perp INTENDED to do harm.
>" Should Attempted murder, Attempted Rape, Attempted Robbery also only be misdemeanours as they didn't happen to hurt anyone too? "
You are forgetting an extremely important concept- intent. In those cases, the perp INTENDED to do harm.
>"misdemeanour for endangering peoples lives? I think not. If anything what they are proposing sounds too light."
That is super-dramatic. Let's think about typical felonies for a moment:
Murder
Rape
Kidnapping
Robbery
Arson
Extortion
Blackmail
Manslaughter
Grand larceny
These are ACTUAL harm to people's lives.... mostly intentional violent crimes. Does flying a drone around and having it drift too close to a fire really seem to fit? By your logic- well, you are "endangering people's lives" by speeding, following too closely, jaywalking, drinking alcohol in public, running at a pool, or playing hockey, so those should be felonies? We probably already have too many things mis-categorized as felonies (like simple copyright infringement, some drug possession).
Now, if you flew a drone in a way that ACTUALLY caused harm to someone, perhaps THAT would justify a felony. We don't want to continue a march into a police state.
>does it really matter if you see them or don't?
Yes it does. Because it isn't false advertising. Some of those "fees" are completely arbitrary, so carriers can hide anything they want AND they can raise those anytime because it isn't part of your "plan". With T-Mobile, you know exactly what you are getting and paying and it doesn't change.
>"is "Regulatory Compliance Fee". This is a fee T-Mobile charges me so that _they_ can comply with regulations"
And ALL the carriers did that.... but....
You must be on an old plan still. To my knowledge, all T-Mobile plans for the last couple of years are 100% free of all hidden/separate fees from their claimed price. They made the incredibly bold step to be the ONLY carrier to advertise plans at a dollar amount that simply includes EVERYTHING and does not change. If they advertise a $50 plan, that is what you pay, and nothing more. It is one of the disruptive things T-Mobile has been doing that makes me like them much more than any other carrier.
And my Palm phones had a mic mute and camera shutter.
And my laptops all had shutters and radio on/off switches.
>"Okay Google"
Indeed. First thing I turned off on my phone.... and hoping it really is off.
>" It describes a system in which an "ambient audio fingerprint or signature" that's inaudible to the human ear could be embedded in broadcast content like a TV ad. When a hypothetical user is watching this ad, the audio fingerprint could trigger their smartphone or another device to turn on its microphone"
How can it "turn the microphone on" if it was already "on" and constantly listening for this audible signal? Thus, the mic was already "on" and analyzing everything, all the time. This is aside from the asinine premise of this whole concept. I am sure we all have a BURNING need for our phones to be listening all the time, burning up the battery, doing god-knows-what in the background, sending personal info to places like Facebook, all so we can watch COMMERCIALS and then get even more automatic COMMERCIALS on our phones and give companies even more metrics about our personal lives, whereabouts, believes, and associations. Oh, man, sign me up now! I will make sure to throw away my DVR in the process, too, so I can watch COMMERCIALS religiously...
What I want are HARDWARE switches for: microphone, cameras, and radios on my devices. Funny how many devices USED to have such things in the past.
+1
This is the only real solution to the problem. Lots of us, me included, are VERY careful to recycle correctly. But no matter what we do, we will never get EVERYONE to do it correctly.
Automation and technology can and should be applied to the problem to help to clean up the stream even more. I have seen some impressive automated "single stream" recycling sorting, but they aren't "smart", they just use physical mechanical methods- magnets, ripple currents, compressed air, flotation, screens, etc. That is a great first pass, but it needs a little more at the end to really finish the process.
There is no SINGLE process that will fix everything, of course. For example, it would be great if manufacturers would not mix materials or at least mix them so tightly in their products.
I wish they would stop "integrating" more and more stuff into Firefox. The whole point of Firefox was to be small and fast and configurable. This is yet another example of something that probably should be an addon. Even if they BUNDLE the addon, at least it gives the option to remove it if wanted or needed for some reason.
>"That's great, but we can't all be liberal arts professors ..."
LOL! Nearly fell out of my chair reading that :)
>"From a chemical that comes from a plant that does not have any addictive qualities and a person can quit cold turkey if they want to?"
Quite a few people would argue with that statement. Just because something isn't physically addictive doesn't mean it can't create a physiological dependency (an older term for addiction). Semantics aside, it absolutely is an intoxicant and it is quite evident that some people will go to great lengths to get stoned over and over again on pot, even if it costs them their job, their freedom, their finances, and their relationships.
Of course, human nature- just about ANYTHING can lead to such dependency... food, sex, sugar, video games, gambling, surfing, you name it.
But listing it as Schedule 1 is just crazy.
>"Euphoria is bad, MMkay?"
Yeah, being "high" can, indeed, be bad in any number of situations when you might need to take a medication... like driving, operating on someone, doing dangerous work, operating machinery, being paid to be productive, making important decisions of directing people, etc.
Being able to take medically-useful components out of marijuana, while suppressing the "high" is a great step forward that can benefit lots of people who otherwise would not be able to take it. It is unfortunate that the ridiculous listing of marijuana as "Schedule 1" makes it so difficult and dogmatic to do useful research and create useful products.
>"Given the very scanty details provided in the article, you seem to be leaping to conclusions."
Well, it is true that the article doesn't reveal much except that it is an IT security method for cloud computing. And something called "air gap" in a security context generally doesn't lend itself to be a weapon or attack method in any way that I can imagine.
>"The coders weren't persuaded their employer should be using its technological might to help the government wage war,"
"Wage war"?
1) We are not talking about a weapon.
2) We aren't even talking about something that attacks or even spies on other countries or citizens, it is a computer security concept. Is better security "bad"?
3) Why would the technology be used to "wage war"? Perhaps it might be to avoid war or lose important information. Is that "bad"?
4) Or even if it could help to win a war [that protects Google, too], if it came to that, is that "bad"?
5) If it enabled more secure "cloud" use by the military and saved tons of money, which means either less taxes or money better spent elsewhere, is that "bad"?
6) Wouldn't some other company develop it instead?
7) Couldn't it have non-military uses to improve security?
It is one thing to stand on morals and principles. But what exactly is gained by anyone in this case?
>"Adobe Is Using AI To Catch Photoshopped Images "
Oh well, I guess that means they can't detect Gimped images, nor any other photoedited images.
Enterprise had a weakling for a captain and it drove me mad
I liked most of the characters but had a REALLY hard time swallowing Scott Bakula. Although eventually he started getting into the role and I could deal with it. He sorta reminded me of Chapote on Voyager (my least liked character). One problem is that I kept thinking at any moment he would say "Oh Boy"....
>"In the wake of shocking allegations against Star Trek: Discovery's showrunners"
Discovery? Is that really a thing? I am a huge Trekkie and have not seen a single episode. Their distribution model sucked, and I have heard it is nothing but "PC overkill" combined with total fantasy. Strangely, I don't know ANYONE who has actually watched "Discovery" and when I ask them, they have no interest in doing so, even the Trekkies like me. But....
Meanwhile, the Orville came along and THAT became my Star Trek after Enterprise. Enterprise was a bit shaky, but was just getting into its grove when they killed it. Reminded me of the issues with Deep Space 9, until STTNG ended and the writers apparently focused their attention on DS9 and it improved a lot. Anyway, who would have thought "Orville" would have somehow hit the Trek nail on the head??? I am still in disbelief.
I loved the original, REALLY REALLY loved ALL of The Next Generation, loved most of DS9, really loved all of Voyager, loved much of Enterprise, after the awkward start. Most of the original Trek movies were so-so (Wrath of Kahn clearly the best). The Next Generation movies were all quite good. And I really loved the reboot movies. But now it seems Paramount has really lost their way, at least with TV (and especially in combination with CBS).
>"Been doing this for 10 years with my Mac+iPhone"
And could do this for 6+ years with any browser on any platform + Android through Airdroid. Not quite exactly the same, but it certainly works.
https://www.airdroid.com/
>"It isn't just cat litter. I also use the plastic bags for all the trash can liners in the house since the City wants all garbage bagged."
+1000 Exactly this.
I have never ONCE had "too many" plastic bags. I reuse every single one of them. Smelly garbage, liners for all my small trashcans. Disposing of things that are wet. Nothing I reuse them for would ANY other type of bag be good for. So I would have to BUY those bags ANYWAY, and then end up:
1) With MORE TOTAL trash than before.
2) With less money.
3) With huge inconvenience because paper bags are too weak and usually have no handles, so I can only carry one at a time.
And not ONCE has an empty bag left my hand or property to float free into the environment. "Solutions" that punish everyone for the acts of a few are not solutions.