It looks like the internet I grew-up with, if “web 2.0” hadn’t screwed it all up before large hi-resolution screens became common. It’s everything since then that’s flippin’ weird.

India would be on my top-3-shortlist of countries that would have me worried if their government had any success at stamping-out piracy. I could swear most of my downloads have English and Hindi or Bengali for audio/subs with little-else, and it would be soooo much more if I downloaded CAMRips…

When I started on windows, and even with the textual pseudo-GUI’s of DOS, once you got it working you could customize the hell out of everything(or it didn’t pretend otherwise), and it would just continue to work until something physically broke or I broke somethin; with a tweak I would generally just undo and get back to it.

Windows is nothing like that now. My phone is more customizable, smooth, enjoyable and stable than Windows(OOBE, anyways). Its arguably better at things like, idk, working with scanners, which Windows insists are dark magic only the manufacturers can help you with(TWAIN was literally cleaner, and still is, when you can lift the hood to find it); I’m not saying its all-that-weird to need a driver - what’s weird is refusing to look for an entire device-category until a third-party app tells you how, when EVERYTHING ELSE is basically plug-and-play, including the printing functions of networked copiers or fax machines.

Rant from this-specific-day’s bullshit at work aside, my first experiences were with an Amiga and some Apple ii’s, OS2Warp was an experience that barely struck me as much-different than what I was used-to, and I’ve messed-around with Macs as much as much as anyone.

What’s weird isn’t moving away from Windows, basically the most overtly Black Mirror-esque OS of what’s out there today. What’s weird is how hung-up people are on it.

Every brain-controlling or addicting substance or species on Futurama has more to offer; Windows, like facebook, is trying to be the ads injected-into dreams. Who the hell wants that?

I could swear Roxy’s face was more distinct from Megumin’s, and what’s with that exaggeratedly sad expression? … but what do I know?

Yes, banning super-intelligence that doesn’t justifiably hate us is an amazingly great idea.

I mean, you made me look at it again myself, as the multi-part rar files on Usenet are still very much a thing. The allowable “article” sizes for binary content are larger than for text articles, but still too small for video or high-quality audio.

Pirated media(images, movies, ebooks, ROMs) uses binary posts, not text. There are different limits and retention policies for binary versus text articles, and most Usenet servers, particularly cheap or free ones, don’t host a lot of the categories a pirate would want at all.

Please don’t imply that all Usenet providers facilitate piracy.

Magical times before my own on Usenet.

Exactly this. I don’t need 1080P or 4k mp4 rips with 10bit audio, and I definitely don’t have the storage for it, but when that’s all that is seeding, its usually quicker to just download it and re-encode.

Downloading large files from Usenet was paid pretty early on. If the core functionality of Usenet is now paid, this is news to me.

For your second point, its not at all uncommon for previously-legit sites to go malicious. Age alone means nothing, nor does reputation after a few years.

Oh, I’m fully aware. It just boggles the mind how the same tired outlook has endured for decades now.

If I wanted to READ ai “snark”, I would spend more time on facebook, or go back to reddit. How hard could it be to slap a battery and 4G/5G modem on a google home or alexa? Eiter of which would be easier to run on a phone or tablet, which also includes speakers.

How do these morons that can’t match the convenience of existing privacy nightmares, or even DIY stuff, continue to get VC funding?

You had me, until the second-half of your last sentence. Its more like we can’t rely on perfectly rational systems, because we don’t comply, neither perfectly nor rationally.

These projects collaborate and copy each-other’s work way more than you would think. When one stagnates, others pick up the slack, and when one pulls ahead, the others increase their efforts to catch-up. More potential solutions for the same problems is a good thing.

Two of my kids are working-age with their own debit cards, and have their amazon accounts linked to mine. My MIL’s credit card is attached to my account, so anything she wants to order, she just sends me a link. My wife just straight-up has all my logins when it comes to spending money.

… All that, and paying for it once is easier to explain/deal with versus every order having to be >$35 . It’s a pain to get my wife to actually order things she wants/needs as it is.

Basically, I would rather stop dealing with that company entirely, for ethical reasons, than put more thought into my dealings with them with each transaction.

I pirate what’s any good that I cannot find legally for streaming, as well as educational stuff that I want available should I and/or my family find ourselves without internet access.

Sometimes I’ll go so far as to pirate things that I cannot find without ads(even with premiums*), but mostly if it’ll let me see the first few minutes before playing an ad, I just live with it.

* The only reason I still have Amazon Prime is for the free shipping. I pay extra for no ads. I pay extra for HiDive. There appear to be things available on Prime with HiDive that aren’t available on just Prime or just HiDive. Magically, those shows(Ranma 1/2, for example) have ads. WTF?

None of these companies have ethics. Why should you get hung-up in ethics for a victimless crime?

Sending telemetry where? My phone? My server?

Filing for Bankruptcy would potentially allow them to stay in business, even potentially recouping losses or turning a profit(in the form of continuing to pay executive salaries - the executives likely being the owners). They could sell off various assets and keep that money - assets like the contracts they have with talents who would likely be better off without those contracts in-force. Why would anyone, particularly talent they owe money to; want to help them with that?

They don’t deserve to stay in business and should absolutely have their corporate assets seized in the most inconvenient ways possible. Hopefully some of the owners or executives have left their personal assets exposed to liability somehow.

Exactly.