I’m speaking mainly of the distrust against the public having access for fear that we’d abuse it and not give them a cut. We can’t have access to these things now, but we used to. Regardless of form, regardless of piracy.

It’s more of a move to restrict ownership when you make a purchase, that has a farther reach than just games. I could see this being applied to cars, houses, etc. In that you only rent a license, and don’t actually own anything. I see this as just a first step, and the logic they use to justify it doesn’t make sense.

We used to rent these games from Blockbuster Video! On DVD when we had DVD burners and little to no drm! How did it suddenly not become acceptable?

I bought a cheap Vizio, and never connected it or let it connect to anything. All it does is power on, and go to HDMI-1. My pc it connects to does everything else.

If you’re concerned about privacy on your tv, I would recommend migrating away from Roku as well.

It died in my area when they dropped the amount of spawn nodes to the point where you couldn’t really walk around. You had to drive pretty far at that point, and that kill let most people’s enthusiasm.

I don’t know if it was complaints by local businesses or what, but after that I never saw large groups walking around again.

I have a great business idea - sell a roku-like device for half the price and a .99 cent subscription fee. Then when I’ve captured the market I force them to accept draconian new terms that cost way more or I brick the device. By then it’s too late and I can suck all the money out of it from the people that can’t switch.

And if they don’t like it? Too bad; they signed away their rights to sue.

It’s a foolproof plan! As long as I don’t get shot in the street but justifiably angry customers.

Why would a TV need an update? What’s changed that would require updating to continue to display the signal it’s getting?

I have a Vizio that isn’t connected to the Internet and it’s essentially a computer monitor for my htpc that I control.

If it ever forces me to update I’m getting rid of it.

My real concern is that in 10 years, my htpc loophole will be closed and they’ll datamine me anyway and force me into subscriptions regardless.

I’d be interested in knowing how you’ve got more experience and knowledge about EVs, if you could share. There’s a lot of misinformation out there but I’m open to hearing about your credentials. We always hear about “gasoline powered cars putting X tons of pollution into the air” but no one I’ve heard mentions replacing the batteries on an EV. I don’t think the general public really even thinks about it. I’d love to know more.

Back in 2010 my friend group and I tried. Google kept changing their chat programs and we’d keep having to migrate or change what we did. Eventually we went to discord and it was at least stable.

We tried, Google. We tried. I won’t go back.

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Google Talk, Google Chat, Google Huddle… Some of them even integrated with Gmail.

Seems like a dumb idea to try again, when already established chat systems that won’t vanish in a year exist.

To be fair, they also did a Borders Rewards program that didn’t cost anything. They didn’t change the prices of the books, but they gave them huge discounts. Which meant the 40-50% of can’t from Borders cut. And they pushed them HARD. Everyone had coupons. It was thought that this would get them loyalty over Barnes and Noble. It took maybe a full quarter for them to realize and backtrack the huge discounts, but it was too late. People used them for the coupons, and then bought everything else online or at Barnes and Noble. It was a fast track to profit loss.

Source: I worked there before the Amazon partnership, and after the board admitted they needed to walk back the rewards.

Amateurs making key decisions.

Really, the fact that they still have working adblockers makes it faster. Sitting through a minute of ads is way more noticable than a second or two of delay.

And the reason they work still is because they empower the users to use it how they want, instead of how corporate can monetize them.

They could restructure executive pay and be more profitable. Throwing ads in it seems like the lazy way to turn a profit, but it IS Google and that IS what they do.

GreenList and RedList might also work, but I agree there’s nothing more clear to what you’re blocking or allowing than a BlockList and AllowList. As clunky as it sounds at first.

Idk, it makes sense to me. ISPs, utilities, cell phone providers are all guilty of this. I don’t want to read fine print for these sorts of transactions.

What would you rather the FTC tackle?

Yes, that helps quite a bit! Thank you!

I don’t really like the Pocket feature, either. It’s nice to know there’s a version without that.

I’ve just heard about librewolf in this developing thread, but I’ve no idea what sets it apart from Firefox. What does it do that Firefox doesn’t?

Edit: your link says it focuses on the same thing Firefox does, to my knowledge, so I’m wondering if there’s something Firefox neglects? Or is it just to keep the field diverse? Which is also good.