I get Netflix free with my internet and watch a fair bit of stuff, but because I don't live in the US a whole lot of stuff you guys get, I don't because pay TV owns the rights, and I don't want to pay $120 per month for TV.
The other problem they have is that TV shows are not interchangable.
I have been pirating "It's always Sunny in Philadelphia" because I can't see it at all where I live so if they offered me "It seldom rains in Albuquerque" I probably wouldn't be interested.
Spotify and other streaming music services proved that if you give people what they want at a good price, you can almost kill pirating dead.
I agree entirely with you. I didn't know the Italians were at it too, but as a Pacific Islander am fully aware of the destruction being wrought by the Chinese and the Thais (among others).
I am old enough to remember our Government (NZ) impounding a Vietnamese fishing boat, then auctioning it off because of illegal fishing (late 1970's). Although it was a stupid political stunt to boost the popularity of an unpopular government, and to brown-nose the Americans, it did stop the pirates for a while.
We are told that the inshore fishing industry in New Zealand is the most sustainable in the world, but the numbers of rare Hector's dolphins keep falling, and the numbers of Albatross returning to nest on the Otago peninsula is also falling, so it's probably bullshit.
We also have TV advertising by the fishing industry every night telling us how great they are and how they love the environment and would never do any harm to anyone, not even those nice fishies. It's clumsy propaganda just like the Soviet Union used to shove down people's throats but no-one seems to think twice about it.
As far as I'm concerned they're all arseholes and will be first against the wall when I'm named President for Life.
I still don't understand why the answer isn't to start a competing ISP
Good luck getting several hundreds of millions in subsidies from taxpayers, like the incumbents already have.
Let's not pretend there is a market in the ISP industry in the US.
Meanwhile the Antarctic is being sucked dry of everything that swims as quickly as the massive seafood concerns can fish. Lots of it is illegal fishing, and using slave labour.
Also the Pacific is being fished empty, illegally by vast foreign fishing fleets, despite the Pacific nations protests.
In my view commercial fishing is unsustainable long term, and should be outlawed completely.
If you have made it down this far, you will have endured endless shills spouting the same easily debunked talking points, well done.
It strikes me as odd that Comcast would even bother sending its paid trolls to Slashdot, but apparently they do.
I drove to work today in a manual car. It's only 5 years old too.
I bought it so that my son could learn to drive one, but he's a lazy so-and-so and won't learn.
I had the great pleasure of watching Wasim Akram bowl from the fine leg/ Mid on boundary at Eden Park in New Zealand one sunny afternoon when he was at his best.
Being a lefty probably helped, but also being able to bowl a yorker that swung either way at 160 km per hour was a factor too I think.
He seemed to be a good sport too, signing autographs for kids over the fence between his overs.
Are you seriously comparing a US electoral reform debate to Robert Mugabe?
Maybe I'm just getting old, but trolls seem to be getting stupider on Slashdot.
They also teach students to care about nothing but the short-term bottom line and screw long-term side effects...
That's pretty much what I heard from a friend who was sent to do an MBA by her employer. She decided it was valuable education, because it taught her pretty much what not to do, as a manager with ~15 years experience.
I find myself in possession of a few mods points, then I come across this comment, and have no idea what to do:
-1 Troll? No, it's too weird to be a troll
-1 Flamebait? No, too funny to be Flamebait
+1 Insightful? Pardon? Um, no.
I don't blame Slashdot for this, but maybe we need a -1 Weirdo mod (also +1 Weirdo) or -1 Poor Conspiracy Theory maybe.
Anyway, too much ALL CAPS SHOUTING.
As an outsider who occasionally sees various US media, I would say you're already drowning in propaganda.
The most recent example that comes to mind for me is an NFL game I watched last week, which featured some sort of weird parade of soldiers in uniform before the game (I didn't quite catch why they were there, but it looked like they were selling heroism).
At half-time another soldier (Master Sargent someone or other which sounds heroic as well) was given tickets to the Super-Bowl, along with his photogenic family, for some unexplained reason.
I'm assuming the whole exercise cost the army several tens of thousands of dollars, and they were selling the idea that if you (yes, you) join the army and go off to kill a bunch of foreigners, you too can come home a hero.
Ah just like in America where people praise the New York subway system for it's cleanliness and lack of tardiness my dear sir.
The only problem we had travelling by train in the UK was on the privately run South-East service, which was an absolute shit-show.
Pro-tip: Do not try to travel anywhere from Bank station at 5 o'clock during the week.
I raved about how great the London Underground is to my wife's cousin when I was there, and she laughed at me.
"Go to Berlin" she said, "that's a really great train service, cheap fast and clean".
Japan's must be really awesome if it's better than that.
My sister became a Jew as a favour to her new mother-in-law because apparently Judaism comes from the mother, not the father.
Turns out it's quite a lot of work, and she said if she had known how much work it was going to be, she might have thought twice before agreeing to it.
So anyway she popped out a couple of little Red Sea pedestrians and hasn't been back to the synagogue since.
I hope you're not doing that for free, because Hannity and Limbaugh get paid millions for doing what you've just done.
Also, you should learn to fucking spell.
Slashdot Mirror
It will work out fine, Microsoft will give them $150 million, and Steve Jobs will come back.
What a weird place, where businesses need to pay protection money to stay in business.
1461
Then of course, that usurper Henry Tudor claimed the throne and things have gone downhill ever since.
You fucking idiot.
Have a look here, and tell us how the EU is shrinking.
I get Netflix free with my internet and watch a fair bit of stuff, but because I don't live in the US a whole lot of stuff you guys get, I don't because pay TV owns the rights, and I don't want to pay $120 per month for TV.
The other problem they have is that TV shows are not interchangable.
I have been pirating "It's always Sunny in Philadelphia" because I can't see it at all where I live so if they offered me "It seldom rains in Albuquerque" I probably wouldn't be interested.
Spotify and other streaming music services proved that if you give people what they want at a good price, you can almost kill pirating dead.
I am old enough to remember our Government (NZ) impounding a Vietnamese fishing boat, then auctioning it off because of illegal fishing (late 1970's). Although it was a stupid political stunt to boost the popularity of an unpopular government, and to brown-nose the Americans, it did stop the pirates for a while.
We are told that the inshore fishing industry in New Zealand is the most sustainable in the world, but the numbers of rare Hector's dolphins keep falling, and the numbers of Albatross returning to nest on the Otago peninsula is also falling, so it's probably bullshit.
We also have TV advertising by the fishing industry every night telling us how great they are and how they love the environment and would never do any harm to anyone, not even those nice fishies. It's clumsy propaganda just like the Soviet Union used to shove down people's throats but no-one seems to think twice about it.
As far as I'm concerned they're all arseholes and will be first against the wall when I'm named President for Life.
I still don't understand why the answer isn't to start a competing ISP
Good luck getting several hundreds of millions in subsidies from taxpayers, like the incumbents already have.
Let's not pretend there is a market in the ISP industry in the US.
Prior to that, the telecom companies could have done all those things -- but they didn't.
Yes. Yes they did.
Unless you wanted to use facetime over your AT&T data plan.
As far as I can see AT&T did exactly what they say they won't do now, in 2012.
Meanwhile the Antarctic is being sucked dry of everything that swims as quickly as the massive seafood concerns can fish.
Lots of it is illegal fishing, and using slave labour.
Also the Pacific is being fished empty, illegally by vast foreign fishing fleets, despite the Pacific nations protests.
In my view commercial fishing is unsustainable long term, and should be outlawed completely.
If you have made it down this far, you will have endured endless shills spouting the same easily debunked talking points, well done.
It strikes me as odd that Comcast would even bother sending its paid trolls to Slashdot, but apparently they do.
Pertwee was the best, that's not an opinion, it's a fact.
Tom Baker was number two, daylight to the rest, although this latest bloke was not too bad.
I drove to work today in a manual car. It's only 5 years old too.
I bought it so that my son could learn to drive one, but he's a lazy so-and-so and won't learn.
I had the great pleasure of watching Wasim Akram bowl from the fine leg/ Mid on boundary at Eden Park in New Zealand one sunny afternoon when he was at his best.
Being a lefty probably helped, but also being able to bowl a yorker that swung either way at 160 km per hour was a factor too I think.
He seemed to be a good sport too, signing autographs for kids over the fence between his overs.
So, an even stupider comparison then. Fair enough.
Are you seriously comparing a US electoral reform debate to Robert Mugabe?
Maybe I'm just getting old, but trolls seem to be getting stupider on Slashdot.
So, he just copied Dr. John's Letters to the Pharmacists then?
They also teach students to care about nothing but the short-term bottom line and screw long-term side effects...
That's pretty much what I heard from a friend who was sent to do an MBA by her employer. She decided it was valuable education, because it taught her pretty much what not to do, as a manager with ~15 years experience.
I find myself in possession of a few mods points, then I come across this comment, and have no idea what to do:
-1 Troll? No, it's too weird to be a troll
-1 Flamebait? No, too funny to be Flamebait
+1 Insightful? Pardon? Um, no. I don't blame Slashdot for this, but maybe we need a -1 Weirdo mod (also +1 Weirdo) or -1 Poor Conspiracy Theory maybe.
Anyway, too much ALL CAPS SHOUTING.
As an outsider who occasionally sees various US media, I would say you're already drowning in propaganda.
The most recent example that comes to mind for me is an NFL game I watched last week, which featured some sort of weird parade of soldiers in uniform before the game (I didn't quite catch why they were there, but it looked like they were selling heroism).
At half-time another soldier (Master Sargent someone or other which sounds heroic as well) was given tickets to the Super-Bowl, along with his photogenic family, for some unexplained reason.
I'm assuming the whole exercise cost the army several tens of thousands of dollars, and they were selling the idea that if you (yes, you) join the army and go off to kill a bunch of foreigners, you too can come home a hero.
Ah just like in America where people praise the New York subway system for it's cleanliness and lack of tardiness my dear sir.
The only problem we had travelling by train in the UK was on the privately run South-East service, which was an absolute shit-show.
Pro-tip: Do not try to travel anywhere from Bank station at 5 o'clock during the week.
I raved about how great the London Underground is to my wife's cousin when I was there, and she laughed at me.
"Go to Berlin" she said, "that's a really great train service, cheap fast and clean".
Japan's must be really awesome if it's better than that.
So can just anyone sign up?
My sister became a Jew as a favour to her new mother-in-law because apparently Judaism comes from the mother, not the father.
Turns out it's quite a lot of work, and she said if she had known how much work it was going to be, she might have thought twice before agreeing to it.
So anyway she popped out a couple of little Red Sea pedestrians and hasn't been back to the synagogue since.
No, no, I understand the argument, fatuous though it may be. I'm just hoping that the industries you're shilling for pay well.
I hope you're not doing that for free, because Hannity and Limbaugh get paid millions for doing what you've just done.
Also, you should learn to fucking spell.