nerdrage 's BestNetTech Comments

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  • On the post: Trump’s DC US Attorney Launches “Project Whirlwind” To Investigate Critics For Their Speech

    nerdrage ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2025 @ 09:33am

    Time for the Streisand Effect to kick in. “What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy.” Absolutely true.

  • On the post: History Will Not Treat Those Sleepwalking Through This Crisis Well

    nerdrage ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2025 @ 10:02am

    I vote. In California. Which always goes Democrat. Beyond that, what? Speak? Gather? So what? That changes nothing. What needs to happen is this: any voters who have Republican Congressional representatives need to replace them with Democrats. Once the Dems retake Congress, maybe they can get off their butts and push back against Cheetolini. The problem is voters who vote Republican or not at all. That doesn't describe me.

  • On the post: Utah GOP Lawmaker Pushes Bill That Bans Pride Flags While Allowing Nazi Flags To Be Displayed

    nerdrage ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2025 @ 09:58am

    Why can't pride flags also be part of the educational experience. The gay rights movement is part of history and should be taught along with more ugly and negative things like Nazi Germany and the Confederacy.

  • On the post: The Real ‘Gulf Of America’ Is Between The News Outlets That Cover This Administration

    nerdrage ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2025 @ 09:15am

    Let's keep track of the corporations that spinelessly bend the knee to Trump's egregious bullshit, and those who do not.

  • On the post: Phone Companies Still Suck At Stopping Unwanted Scam Robocalls, Something That Will Get Much Worse Under Trump 2.0

    nerdrage ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2025 @ 02:01pm

    Don't answer calls from anyone not in your contacts list. If it's important, they'll leave a message and a call back number. I've never once had a scammer dare to do that.

  • On the post: No, The People Didn’t Vote For This

    nerdrage ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2025 @ 10:31am

    As a Californian, I'm honestly perplexed at what I can do. I can't yell at my Congresspersons, as they are both Democrats. I can't yell at friends, family and neighbors who voted for Trump because I don't actually know anyone who voted for Trump. If they did, they're doing a good job of hiding it, probably because they know the consequences are to become persona non grata. Whoever these people are who are enabling Trump, they are well outside my personal sphere, and that includes online. Are any Trump supporters here to yell at? Not that I've noticed. If this was the kind of place where Trump voters are, it wouldn't be the kind of place I want to be. As for protesting, that's hilariously useless. Remember the big Gaza protests? Now we have a president who wants to finish the genocide and turn the place into a playground for global elites. Yeah. That worked.

  • On the post: Apple Has To Pull Its “AI” News Synopses Because They Were Routinely Full Of Shit

    nerdrage ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2025 @ 08:21am

    The obvious problem with AI synopses is lack of attribution. Everyone knows not to believe just any old source on the internet. You gotta track it back to the source to see whether it's plausible or more Trumpian Fox News BS. AI synopses just summarize the errant BS on the internet. If that's of any value to anyone.

  • On the post: Users Once Again Annoyed As Netflix Once Again Raises Prices

    nerdrage ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2025 @ 09:51am

    Less and less is being produced on DVD though. If you want something recent that isn't a big Hollywood blockbuster, you may be out of luck.

  • On the post: Users Once Again Annoyed As Netflix Once Again Raises Prices

    nerdrage ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2025 @ 09:49am

    Netflix makes video wallpaper. Crap content churned out on an assembly line with little attention to quality, intended to be half-viewed by someone playing with their phone. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jan/17/not-second-screen-enough-is-netflix-deliberately-dumbing-down-tv-so-people-can-watch-while-scrolling If someone is a video wallpaper subscriber, they'll keep paying Netflix's price hikes because they're not paying attention to their bills anymore than to Netflix. Netflix has figured out the key to success in streaming is to find the right customers, not worry about the right content. They want people who are so inattentive to anything that Netflix can make them pay good money for bad content. Which goes back to that first-mover advantage Netflix had. They entered each territory in the world first and hoovered up all the potential streaming customers. Then the fussy ones churned away and the inattentive zombies stuck around. Now Netflix competitors get to deal with the fussy Netflix-rejector crowd. They actually want good content, which is expensive and hard to make. And that's why streaming seems to work only for Netflix, unless you're Apple and doing something entirely different, not bothering to attract huge numbers of subscribers. Justwatch is one of those sites where you can locate stuff although when I hear about an interesting new show, I usually also hear about the site that made it, so I use justwatch mainly to track movies.

  • On the post: Users Once Again Annoyed As Netflix Once Again Raises Prices

    nerdrage ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2025 @ 09:33am

    churn de la churn churn

    The way to handle this is just to subscribe one service at a time for 1-2 months out of every 12, however long you need to, in order to watch whatever good content they made over the past year. When you've run out of good content, cancel and move on. I'm on Netflix now and struggling to even get to the end of my month because everything I try from them is errant garbage. The way they're all making good content with an eyedropper, I don't think I'll have trouble sticking to my 1-2 month rule. I'll have to start building in time periods where I subscribe to nothing because the rate of production of decent material is just too slow. Netflix is 99% crap now and other than Apple, which seems to be increasing its rate of good content, the others are stagnant or degenerating.

  • On the post: Analysts Think America’s Two Biggest And Shittiest Cable Giants (Comcast, Charter) Could Merge Under Trump 2.0

    nerdrage ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2025 @ 09:28am

    Nope, competition is the way to go. We need more competition not less. When Comcrap tried to jack up my rates, I threatened to switch to T-Mobile 5G and they brought it back down and slunk away with their tail between their legs. The kicker is: I can't get T-Mobile at my house but they don't know that. In a well functioning system, I wouldn't need to play such silly games. It's fun to see them slink away but also a waste of my time.

  • On the post: Prepare For A Whole Bunch Of Pointless, Harmful Mergers In Streaming By Media Executives All Out Of Original Ideas

    nerdrage ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2025 @ 12:05pm

    Netflix will be one of those big five companies. The others will be Amazon, Apple, Disney and probably Warners. The Ellisons will try hard to shove Paramount in there too but the odds are against them. Comcast needs to exit content. Sony can keep making theatrical movies if they please but the failure of their Marvel based movies calls that into question. And that's the whole field. There won't be any "TV stations," those are going away like cable. If you want a discount on getting two services, you're in luck because all these platforms will become bundle-happy. It's a great way for them to increase their sales vs letting people just churn thru them one at a time. That's actually a better deal than a bundle ever will be. Why pay anything for two services when you can only watch one at a time anyway? You could say the same about ad tiers, which are a worse deal for customers so the companies push them hard.

  • On the post: Prepare For A Whole Bunch Of Pointless, Harmful Mergers In Streaming By Media Executives All Out Of Original Ideas

    nerdrage ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2025 @ 12:00pm

    The content owners in the case of sports are the sports leagues. They are insanely greedy. Releasing their content to all platforms means they make less because there isn't that juicy exclusivity premium. The leagues want to pit the platforms against each other to drive up the fees they get as high as possible. Then the platforms drive up their prices to the moon and jam in as much advertising as possible. I am so glad I'm not a sports fan. The obvious inevitable outcome here is: sports will belong to a few tech behemoth companies which will then charge extortionate rates for ad-glutted tiers and of course there will be no such thing as an ad free tier for sports. DVDs have less than nothing to do with sports. Unlike other forms of entertainment, sports must be watched live and that knocks out the whole DVD concept.

  • On the post: Prepare For A Whole Bunch Of Pointless, Harmful Mergers In Streaming By Media Executives All Out Of Original Ideas

    nerdrage ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2025 @ 11:56am

    It's been obvious to me where this was all headed. Just look at customer behavior. They favor the very biggest platforms. It might have been 4 or 5 per household years ago but as the prices increase, the tolerance for multiple services decrease. A lot of people apparently get Netflix and use it as video wallpaper, not caring much about what specifically they leave on the TV all day. Others seek out specific content but that just means a one month subscription, you don't need to stick around. Amazon, Netflix, Disney/Hulu are safe; Apple will do whatever they like; Max might be safe. The roster is full up at that point. If the Ellisons have some magic formula to save Paramount, they sure haven't said what it is. I think they'll waste billions on an ego-driven exercise in futility but it'll be an entertaining spectacle anyway. For the most part, the rest are goners. Comcast needs to get out of content entirely, they've lost. Some small fry like Shudder can survive off the specialty market. Sports is a different animal entirely because it hinges on sports rights that none of these companies own but need to compete over. I think sports will belong to Amazon, Apple, Google and to some extent Netflix. The biggest, richest companies will win all the bidding wars so how could it turn out any other way?

  • On the post: The Good, The Bad, And The Stupid In Meta’s New Content Moderation Policies

    nerdrage ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2025 @ 09:15am

    tl;dr version

    Everyone stop using social media now. It's not going to improve. It's becoming a hopeless cesspit for good. Leave the Nazis to their Nazi bar.

  • On the post: Trump FCC Commissioners, Cable Lobby, Use Lazy Soup And Coffee Metaphors To Defend Shitty Broadband Usage Caps

    nerdrage ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2024 @ 08:23am

    The Republicans are wreaking havoc with everyone's sarcasm detector. Good thing you included the pizzeria or I would have been fooled too.

  • On the post: Net Neutrality Is Dead As A Doornail Under Trump 2.0

    nerdrage ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2024 @ 09:01am

    And immigrants. Don't forget the immigrants.

  • On the post: Streaming TV Enshittification Will Continue Until Morale Improves

    nerdrage ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2024 @ 09:07am

    None of the streaming services are "premium" enough to keep me interested for more than a month or two out of every 12 so that's all I give them. Put them all together, and it's not even 12 months so sometimes I just watch Hoopla and Kanopy and read a book.

  • On the post: Study: 76% Of U.S. Residents Want Government To Do Something About Soaring Broadband Prices

    nerdrage ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2024 @ 09:51am

    regulate broadband as a monopoly

    Just put broadband under PUC control so that companies can't just jack up rates without getting approval (and showing that they have high consumer ratings ha ha that'll be the day).

  • On the post: Study: 76% Of U.S. Residents Want Government To Do Something About Soaring Broadband Prices

    nerdrage ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2024 @ 09:22am

    you must be kidding

    In what universe would 320 million people all agree to answer any question at all? Therefore there can be no polling. Well let's just give up! You don't understand statistics so please do shut up.

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