Welcome to the Golden Age of User Hostility | Hacker News Reader

Welcome to the Golden Age of User Hostility

theatlantic.com

24 pointspaulpauper20 comments

https://web.archive.org/web/20240411221949/https://www.theat...

This article reminds me of arguments I heard on why letting goggle spy on you is OK: I don't have anything to hide, This pays for the service...

The big problem isn't each specific issue, the big problem is the ever encroaching corporate intrusion into every crevice of our lives.

Without pushback there is no limit. There's the annoying inconvenience of a commercial required to operate your remote control app, but what do you think about a subscription model for braking in semi trucks?

This may seem an extreme example, and it is by intention, but if regulations don't prohibit such charges, and companies can make money by implementing them, wouldn't any "libertarian" say that they should?

Accounting ledgers don't have entries for anything except dollars...

At best that argument only worked if there was informed customer choice, meaning that (a) the customer understood and accepted the contract, and (b) they had a choice of some other non-surveillance device. Neither of those is really true.

I really hate that "you will own nothing and like it" has been assigned to a political 'side'

> subscription model for braking in semi trucks

Not sure why, but this reminds me of the drug Vitoc from the game EVE Online. It's an eternal poison, and if you don't have a constant supply of the proprietary antidote for the rest of your life, you die. This is how they keep slaves with spaceships from escaping.

> wouldn't any "libertarian" say that they should?

Depends on which type of libertarian. You're thinking of right wing libertarians, as they have a very limited and self-serving version of it. Left wing libertarians would likely argue that coercion is the exact opposite of liberty.

Lots of discussion on the patent a few weeks ago:

Roku files patent to inject ads via HDMI

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39936016

I'm happy to keep my dumb 45' TV for as long as I can. Speaking of which, is it still possible to buy a large diagonal dumb TV these days? like 65' or 75'

Just don't plug it

Every TV is just a dumb panel if you don't give it an IP address.

It's only a matter of time before TVs come come with cellular modems, with the network cost paid for by splitting the surveillance dollars with the cell company.

Wahey, an original HN comment! https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+...

I wonder if I can extract the chip and get free internet.

I recently learned that some Google TVs have a “Basic Mode” that removes all the smart crud. https://www.androidcentral.com/new-google-tv-feature-will-le...

I haven’t had a chance to look into it further so I don’t know if it’s any good, but it might be worth looking into. (I’m also curious if anyone here has experience with it)

Roku should go away.

Ironic that a story about user-hostility is login-gated.

I didn't find it to be blocked at all.

Try disabling all javascript and cookies...

paywalls are so common now. annoying

The comment that I was too lazy to make :)

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40015711.

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