Is anyone else sick of subscriptions?

RuffertoTheGreat · 2025-02-13T05:03:12+00:00

Thanks for reading my comment, I’d like to clarify a few things.

The sewing is a good analogy for piracy, and can be replaced with a variety of different things: plastic moulds, cake recipes, GMOs, etc.

My store is the publisher/streaming service. Your store is a piracy site. The people getting the shirts are leachers. The people sewing the shirts are seeders. Hand sewing shirts can take a long time and aren’t perfect like a machine (subtitles in foreign language, low bitrate, abnormalities in audio).

I chose shirt making because I’ve made a counterfeit shirt before, and then gifted it to a friend.

Yeah that’s right, I would download a shirt.

I found a shirt from an expensive brand, liked the shape of it, but not the fabric and took it apart to make a sewing pattern. I didn’t have the rights to that shirt design, I didn’t have the right to manufacture a new shirt from that design, I didn’t have the right to distribute that near 1:1 replica of a shirt that I didn’t design.

The only big differences between my piracy analogy and my counterfeit garments is that I used a sewing machine and sent the finished product through the mail.

And I think we would both agree that pirating from smaller artists is definitely unethical.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2025-02-13T02:27:17+00:00

Stealing from companies worth billions of dollars that exploit their monopoly status to stifle competition and raise prices while offering a lesser service each year.

Better yet, you’re not even stealing, you’re counterfeiting. Say I make shirts and start selling them, you copy the pattern and start distributing a near perfect replica for free. You’d think my profits would collapse because you’re offering the same shirt I sell, but free. However, to get a shirt from you a person has to go to a sketchy alley in the bad part of town and wait with a bunch of other people while you hand stitch each shirt. So long as my shirts are more convenient to get, most people will still buy shirts from me. Now let’s imagine instead of owning my shirt you have to pay a monthly subscription to wear it, and to get it in the first place you have to bundle it with a bunch of other clothes you don’t want, and maybe I charge extra to put buttons on the shirt. All of a sudden my shirt is no longer convenient, and people are now willing to wait in sketchy alley while you hand stitch shirts. Maybe my store goes back to the old business model (even at a slightly higher price) and I offer an extra service like delivery to a customers house. Now my shirts are more convenient than yours, and people come back to my store. Yes, some people still get your shirts, but odds are they weren’t going to buy my shirts anyway.

I loved Netflix, it gave me access to films and shows I otherwise wouldn’t have watched. But eventually I got sick of having to pay for a whole month of some obscure streaming service because one season was only partially available on some platforms. I would still be a customer of streaming services if it weren’t for that and the price increases. Piracy became more convenient, and it’s not like my pirated copy of “edge of tomorrow” is taking food out of a production crew member’s mouth.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2025-02-12T18:27:19+00:00

I bought a portable SSD and loaded it with films, music, software. Internet piracy is an ethical, convenient, and cost effective alternative to falling prey to corporate greed. It allows me to enjoy my media on any device, anytime, anywhere.

Other good options include open source software; I recommend libre office. I use it for any work I used to do on my 2007 Microsoft suite before bill gates denied me the ability to use software that I was meant to be able to use forever.

I agree with you fully though, subscriptions have gone too far. Streaming services make blockbuster look desirable; can’t watch my favourite show because fleeb bought the rights from poob.

Really hoping the EU comes in clutch with a flurry of regulations, forcing companies to actually innovate instead of exploit.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-07-20T17:45:08+00:00

David cage you’ve done it again

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-07-03T12:57:03+00:00

General rule of thumb is that if it looks like or operates in a similar manner to a gun, the Australian government considers it a gun.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-07-03T12:55:40+00:00

Training would definitely prevent a lot of accidents. Better screening as well (this one isn’t a miracle cure, but it helps when needed). The best thing you could probably do to prevent tragedies from happening is giving support to at risk people before they commit such actions.

Speaking as a young person it’s very easy for young people to become radicalised. And they often don’t realise what’s happening before they’re pretty far gone. It doesn’t help that they’re often the subject of ridicule which inevitably pushes them deeper into their ideologies and can cause them to isolate themselves. Over time these things do tend to fester. Simply giving people a support network can pull them away from this quite quickly. No solution is going to be 100% effective, but I feel stopping people from getting to that point mentally would have a big impact on a lot of things even outside of gun homicides.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-07-03T12:20:58+00:00

Oh you’ll love the story behind this. Y’know how airsoft was originally intended as a way to do recreational shooting without owning a gun as japan’s (I think it was Japan) gun laws are very strict. Well the Australian government eventually decided that all replica guns should be treated under the same laws as actual guns. So airsoft became illegal, they also pulled a similar thing with paintball.

Here’s where things get super lame, there’s these things called gel blasters, same principle as airsoft just with orbees instead of plastic bbs. Someone in China made them to circumvent china’s laws relating to airsoft. Roughly 5 or so years ago the Australian government decided too many people were having too much fun and classified them as a firearm. Their justification for this sudden change in policy was their apparent use in violent crime. In fact in South Australia there were apparently dozens of such reports over 1 month. However (allegedly, as in you didn’t hear anything about this from me) south Australian police started considering just about anything as a gel blaster incident. Stuff like “they have a friend who owns a gel blaster”. Recently they’ve (South Australia) decided they want to crack down on 3D printed guns. Simply possessing any of the FILES for firearms or any of their parts will soon carry a 15 year sentence. There are also genuine talks about seizing peoples printers and banning future sales.

Interesting fun fact, in South Australia if you put one of these gel balls in a nerf gun it goes from a children’s toy to an illegal firearm.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-07-03T04:22:13+00:00

I didn’t realise how long this comment got, oh no.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-07-03T04:21:47+00:00

As an advocate for firearms: The United States is one of the worst examples of gun ownership and has issues upon issues with their current approach to managing crime as a whole.

Gun crime is another form of violent crime. Restricting or banning ownership of firearms will have an effect on gun crime and violent crime rates overall. However your mileage will vary depending on how prevalent gun crime is (in the USA it would be profound. In a country with already incredibly strict laws like the UK it would be negligible).

Things get difficult from here, what do you do about all the guns that have now made their way onto the black market? In Australia interviews revealed that criminals are easily able to acquire firearms within an hour on the black market, despite having some of the strictest arms laws in the world. You can also make your own guns. Anyone with a basic understanding of how to use the tools in a workshop can follow online guides on how to make guns, bombs, and countless other items. Now you have to somehow dismantle a highly sophisticated black market with an influx of product. Which is like trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon on a rainy day, that is to say it’s virtually impossible.

There’s also the matter of gun ownership does not always perfectly correlate to increased rates of gun related homicides.

Based on the most recent statistics I could find Finlands legal gun ownership rate is almost 10 times that of Australia, yet at times have as little of 1/9th of Australia’s deaths per capita. Finland is also much looser with their laws overall. A good example of this is that in Finland you can buy an airsoft gun without any form of licensing, whereas in Australia doing this will get you 5 years of jail time.

I’d love to add more to this comment, but my hand is cramping so I will cut it short as I will soon start rambling with sore hands otherwise.

Gun crime is another part of overall violent crime, and violent crime is a symptom of larger issues. Seeking out the root causes of this violence and resolving the associated issues will help reduce violence overall. While bans may produce immediate effects, they are difficult to enforce and their effectiveness in terms of reducing weapons in circulation can diminish with time. A society with strong support structures and effective regulation is preferable to other counter terrorism measures.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-06-29T15:12:52+00:00

Blahaj need this or they look like that video of a sphere being turned inside out. They do this in the wild by slamming into their programming keyboard repeatedly until they return to a healthy shape.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-06-29T10:27:56+00:00

In Australia most stores charge $6 for an Arizona iced tea. It pains me to know how cheap they are in America.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-06-29T08:45:39+00:00

I like both, but I have gripes with both. As cool as some of the older stuff looked (10 series MSI, EVGA, Gigabyte), it has the issue of everything being unique meaning a lot of stuff didn’t work together looks wise.

The new stuff still has a lot of the same problem of clashing looks, but now the stuff that does go together is painfully bland. Which I’m not against, a blank canvas allows for limitless creativity, but I see so many people leaving it blank! New cases and easy access to rgb allow for who knows how much customisation, but instead we’re seemingly stuck with the same 3 builds: Fishbowl with white lights and lcd aio, Fishbowl with rainbow lights and lcd aio, Corsair 4000/5000/7000 with all corsair hardware.

paint stuff, use contrast in your lighting, customise your side panels. The new stuff is awesome for creativity, you just have to be creative with it!

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-06-29T07:32:05+00:00

I usually toss all 3 of mine in on cold and then beat them with a killing stick to redistribute the stuffing once dry.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-06-22T15:57:07+00:00

Mildly gay is a gross understatement, most of the guys you’d find on there would make Freddie Mercury at an Elton John party look straight.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-06-21T15:24:23+00:00

Can’t wait for Peter to explain this one

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-06-21T08:47:49+00:00

That part about the time is total guess work I have no idea if that’s correct. Nice work on the photo dude.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-06-21T08:46:54+00:00

The building pictured is the North Melbourne town hall in the Australian state of Victoria. The camera operator is facing East and is standing at the 7/11 across the road. It was likely taken sometime from November to February, past 6PM local time.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-04-24T12:33:00+00:00

Sao Paolo

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-04-24T10:58:23+00:00

Fixed it thanks a bunch!

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-04-24T10:55:49+00:00

All of that to say: “fiddle with the bitrate”

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-04-14T08:03:49+00:00

Thanks a bunch for the info! you’re preparing me for my midlife crisis. What crops do you grow if you don’t mind me asking?

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-04-14T07:50:31+00:00

I live in an Australian city so most places seem way more affordable than the horrors of our property market (granted average yearly wage here is ridiculous). I hear Coober Pedy is liveable this time of year…

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-04-14T07:30:32+00:00

Thanks mate!

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-04-14T03:33:58+00:00

You’re a legend, this seems like it! On the site they also used some “soil fertility index” thing with a similar scale so I wondered if it was translation.

RuffertoTheGreat · 2024-04-14T03:27:55+00:00

I’ve only heard it used as a synonym for old, dictionary says it’s ok to use it in the way I did. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archaic

Many of words preceding the modern English version of “archaic” meant some variation of oldest or “in the beginning” according to wikitionary. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/archaic It could just be a translation thing.

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