Yet another rewrite of “we didn’t start the fire” incoming.

Liquid.

Starts as proof of concept to get you used to it. Toggle it off, hide it, but it exists. It’s there in the code. Next step is to gradually remove the option to say no. They already tried forcing people to upgrade to Windows 11. They’ll just try harder. It’s too much money for them to ignore.

Biometric is high security against thieves and nosy girlfriends, not kidnappers or cops apparently. You need to be physically present for most of them which means it can’t be done without you knowing. The problem arises when the person who wants access also has access to you.

And this is the straw in which I will instruct Microsoft to suck shit through.

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Not defending corporations but these massive conglomerates usually get so intricate, so messy, that there are people who end up getting a paycheck that genuinely do not get assignments. In other words, getting paid to watch paint dry. So sometimes the comments that look terrible are directed at people who were doing nothing or very nearly nothing and still getting paid for it.

But yes also fuck executives getting x80 the pay of developers.

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I think the only problem with Netflix is that they funnel money into the wrong shows. They’d rather launch 180 new series than fund 18 really good ones. Other companies, like Disney, making new platforms to host their own content definitely hurt Netflix but I think it still has enough value to warrant buying.

I took your comment as idolizing the past and gesturing to a grim future.

You know what’s really strange? That you think not paying YouTube would make it so they could give their creators enough to where they didn’t need to take outside sponsors. Almost like YouTube has limited or even no control over creators having third party sponsors but you still blaming them for it.

This has been a point of discussion for nearly a decade. It’s almost common knowledge YouTube runs at a loss. CDN hosting was approximated to be about 2 billion in 2017, not including what they pay to creators, employees, etc. Their revenue does not cover all of these expenses, meaning there are no profits to announce. They borrow money from their parent company, Alphabet, because they benefit from YouTube by it merely existing under their control. They have an effective monopoly on video hosting and zero meaningful competition.

Thing is, what you’re describing is a logical fallacy. That because things got worse they’re going to continue to get worse. The slippery slope fallacy.

Yes, you used to have dozens and even hundreds of songs that nobody could take away from you. You were your own server. However, now that we have a service like Spotify where you can listen to most of the world’s music, not be required to store it, not have to buy each album, each track, but instead pay $15 and listen to anything, anytime, make nearly unlimited playlists of nearly unlimited tracks… it doesn’t make me miss the old days. I don’t feel nostalgia for the days when my disk walkman skipped because I walked too fast or the headphones on my head were $3 and I couldn’t even hear the lyrics properly. Now we have lossless compression, headphones that would cost thousands just a few years ago being only a couple hundred, devices that don’t skip, don’t lag, don’t buffer, but instead of you fronting the cost all at once you make payment plans. You take for granted the things we dreamt of and demand improvement, not stagnation, and god forbid a decline.

You can still live in the past. Download and store entire discographies from any of the dozens of pirate sites, force them onto your device, then play them as if we still lived in 2009. But the artist doesn’t see a dime for that. The pirate site doesn’t see a nickel. So you either support the people who make things you like in a system you don’t, or you fuck them over to try and stick it to the system itself. Thing is, I think the system will survive even when the things you like, don’t.

Sure, that’s fair critique. Them not implementing the features people turn to third party apps for. Absolutely.

What I can’t make sense of are the people who want control, privacy, content, and not to pay a dime. YouTube could do this better, sure, but let that be the criticism not the mere fact they have the audacity to kick off people who provide nothing and take everything.