CivilianZero

I'm curious how often this has actually occurred in the App Store? I can't think of too many apps that Apple has released that have many competitors. Sure, there are the built in apps (which you can remove) but I certainly haven't seen any lack of To Do or weather apps on the App Store.

This is patently false. Most "streaming only" tv shows do get dvd/blue-ray releases. But this is a bad-faith argument anyway, imagine all the times this has been said about new formats of any kind. Streaming is an option and does not prevent people from owning things and it isn't hurting you so maybe just let the people who want to stream things...stream them?

We're not discussing how a luddite is going to watch a movie at home. That's a completely different discussion. And if you are genuinely worried about privacy or security there are other ways around that that don't involve stealing.

I don't think that follows. I'm technically savvy and am fully capable of torrenting files, but the amount of effort I have to exert to get it done problem free (and the amount I have in the past) means it is not easy or simple. Just because you have the ability to perform an action, even if you find it easy to do, does not mean it is intrinsically easy or simple.

And it definitely is never easier than opening an app on your smart tv/console/etc and clicking play.

I really have to ask: Is everyone in the comments apart of an organized troll? Because I feel like I’ve lost my mind reading most of these comments.

It seems like everyone here thinks torrenting is as easy and simple as using streaming services actually is, and that streaming is as complicated as torrenting actually is.

I used to torrent stuff all the time. Constantly. I have several HDs laying around filled with torrented movies and tv shows. Why? Because I was in college and couldn’t afford them.

The day I started making enough money to just sign up to services and buy copies of the movies I wanted I stopped torrenting forever. It’s easy and I’m not stealing.

This is what happens when management still thinks they can just instill "loyalty" in their employees and we'll happily putt along without raises as they slowly cut more and more benefits and throw more "pizza parties" to compensate.

Apple isn't doing anything to drive development of "free-to-use ad-driven apps that prey on user tracking data...", that would be people being unwilling to pay more than 99 cents for anything and believing subscriptions are a rip off.

Was looking for this to be in the comments somewhere. Thumbs up.

Just a heads up: Facebook already does this. You don't need to have a Facebook account for them to know who you are.

I'm going to start this comment by saying that I don't agree with or approve of most of/anything Facebook has been doing. Security and Privacy are very important to me when it comes to the internet. I don't have a Facebook account.

So now I'd like to point out that the article has a couple mistakes. You don't actually need to provide anything but a phone number to use Facebook Messenger, but not many people know this, it seems. Related to this is a lot of hand-wringing about "oh no this will mean Facebook is watching us in all these apps now". Well, I'll address this in a second. I want to talk about this quote in the article:

"Matching Facebook and Instagram users to their WhatsApp handles could give pause to those who prefer keeping their use of each app compartmentalized."

This is already impossible. WhatsApp and Instagram collect information on you whether you have a Facebook account and whether or not you are logged in if you do have one. They know who are you are (this is the reason why I don't really care how encrypted WhatsApp is, I'm not going to use it). So if this really bothers people, well, I've got some bad news.

This is what always bugs me about recommendations to buy older devices as a solution to all problems. Updates = security.

I used MoviePass when it was a little younger and just a warning to any considering it, there are a lot of hidden restrictions. I know some things could have changed since a couple years ago when I was using it but you were unable to see new movies and some movies would be restricted for their entire theater run.

They also presented it as a monthly service that you could cancel when you were done, but it was actually an annual service that you paid for on a monthly basis and trying to leave before the year was up would cost you. A lot.

There was also some weird business about having to send new cards (they sent you a card you had to use in person at the theater to pay for your ticket) without warning and until you got the new one you were unable to use the service you were paying for. In addition to that, sometimes the cards would just not work. This happened to me on at least 3 occasions.

Also take into consideration, there are some movies you'll want to see in 3d (maybe) or IMAX (more likely) and these are completely excluded. And if you're like me and you like to buy tickets ahead of time with fandango so you can skip lines and be sure the movie you're going to see isn't sold out, using this service means giving up that convenience.

Granted, this is all a much better deal now that it's $10 instead of $30.

If you are so ready to consider speculative fiction as a roadmap or warning of the future, why not consider more thought out examples than Terminator? (which is definitely not "speculative fiction")

What about all the examples of completely useful or benign AI? They surely outnumber examples of "evil" AI but are easily forgotten as it is easier to remember the more sensational examples.

Because all evidence I've seen is either sensationalized and based on emotion: "Oh no! My privacy!"

Or...I haven't seen any evidence there is a noticeable cost to me as a person?

The difference is, imagining that we can turn an existing technology into a smaller, portable, more effective version of itself is not far out of the realm of reality. In fact it would be incredibly naive to believe that won't happen.

AI, on the other hand, is not so simple, and to try to simplify it to that point is not going to create any productive discussion on the reality of AI.

The movies about these kinds of things are made to entertain, not to teach us about AI.

I am calm, but the fact that science fiction entertainment and smart people in real life think AI is a threat is a sign we may have gotten a little carried away in taking notes from entertainment.

If someone would like to provide some evidence of some form of computer intelligence acting maliciously, this would be a different discussion, but the fact is that sort of thing has no basis in reality and so should have no influence on the way we behave and debate in reality.

I think telemarketing is annoying, it's also intrusive and requires effort on my part. Passive advertisement on the internet does not.

Note I am not saying there are not annoying advertisements, but that's an issue of implementation, not the concept of targeted advertising. If anything, Google would know I will never click on an annoying ad if they "invaded my privacy" more than they do now.

Just curious, is there proof insurance companies can or do buy purchase histories? And if so, see other reply about universal healthcare.

Also, not to nitpick, but coffee is not linked to increased risk of heart problems, that's a myth.

I still can't see why I should care if some stranger has my purchase history.

I suppose some people might feel weird letting strangers or anyone know what they buy, but that's an argument for the ability to opt-out, not for filing a complaint with an agency or starting a lawsuit.

No it is not. It is a movie made for entertainment. We are in reality.

It really irks me how much debate and decision-making in technology is based on bias gained from mindless entertainment and not from anything based in reality.

(I am not besmirching the good name of Terminator, that movie is a true classic)

Try as I might, I just can't be bothered to care if someone wants to know what I've been buying so they can show me advertisements relevant to my interests.

But I'm weird, I don't think advertising is inherently evil or annoying.

I think the better question is: Should we really be taking real-life advice from cheesy action movies?

Yeah, only one person in my 8 person class had ever done any coding before. It would've taken me significantly longer than 3 months to get to that point and I don't know if I ever would've understood as much as I do now.

I can tell you all without a doubt, The Iron Yard closing has nothing to do with its performance. Someone bought somebody else and the new people in charge just don't want to spend the money. That's all.

Unfortunately there's nothing to be learned about code-bootcamps from this. I can tell you, however, as someone who recently completed TIY and now has a better job than any of my college-completing friends have, going through TIY was the best decision I ever made.

And you can safely ignore anyone who dismisses the level or quality of what you learn at TIY. I learned how to code and I learned how to continue to learn how to code. That's more than I can say for any of my other learning experiences which were almost completely focused on "passing".

Just because it's their favorite, doesn't mean they do it well. Some of your examples are perfect for a surface look at identity. They focus on how our concept of identity affects our day to day life and how we can manipulate that to help or hurt. Others, like Frozen, really have little to nothing to do with identity and instead are that tired plot of "figuring out who I am" which, yeah that's kind of what identity is but it's not really looking at the concept of identity.

But that's not what GitS is about.

I'm referring to a more philosophical approach, even an abstract one. GitS specifically is looks at identity as a malleable thing. To a "western audience", in the original film, The Major is no longer The Major at the end. Or at least, they'd be reassured by her familiar voice and reassure themselves that it really is still her and they haven't lost their protagonist. "Well, she sounds the same and seems to act the same, must be the same person."

This is again a very surface look at identity. I'm not saying this is bad subject material or even wrong, but it gets very old when every movie throws in you face how deep and interesting they are because they're about "identity" when really they're just about "stuff people do in situations" or applying a rigid concept of identity to some character's struggles.

Other than the "love", you've hit exactly on why I dislike the movie.

I don't care who they cast or recast if they would just get the point of the story, but western media has no concept of how to do a proper narrative about identity and can't accept any story involving technology that isn't bemoaning it and "exposing" how dangerous it is to us and society as a whole.

In other words, western media becomes a drooling idiot when discussing either of these topics.

All the time spent building your network and all the people who would not be moving with you. So...the network and the social part of a social network.

I have an account on both, at the moment (three separate Mastodon instances, actually).

I'm one feature away from making this my main twitter client on my phone: when I save a web app made to run by itself as an alternative or replacement for a native app to my home page, opening it should by default hide the trappings of the web browser.

The constant pop-in/pop-out of the header and footer makes tapping on things just obnoxious enough to make me not want to use it. I know some web apps have removed them, I just don't know why it isn't more common.

Also, it has that little bar at the top to open the site with the app. I feel like that should've been the first thing they got rid of.

Do those people also spend the rest of their time using those things for personal use? Probably not.

And while metaphors are nice, you can't really compare a laptop to a piece of metal attached to a handle.

This 100%. I use a Razer laptop on the regular and as good as the trackpad is (and it's better than a lot of PC trackpads) I still regularly encounter issues with it or just notice little shortcomings everywhere.