this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
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[–] REEEEvolution@lemmygrad.ml 27 points 4 months ago

The new tech was only cheap to take over the market, once that was done the price went up. What use is a monopoly in capitalism if not to enrich yourself?

[–] bobs_guns@lemmygrad.ml 25 points 4 months ago

Thank goodness for piracy.

[–] PoY@lemmygrad.ml 23 points 4 months ago (3 children)

the cloud is so ridiculously expensive that the company i work at which has a number of early Google employees and is backed by the Google mega rich is now looking to pull away from running everything in the cloud because it is simply untenable. And we're in a goddamned hurry to shift everything to our own equipment in rented data center space before another insane jump in cloud pricing kills us off which is virtually guaranteed

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Why is it very expensive? Monopoly rent practices? Supply-chain constraints? Something else?

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 4 months ago

Its monopoly rent, remember that these industries were propped up by VCs and ran on losses for a long time. So now its time for VCs to make a ROI, thus prices are higher than they should be.

[–] PoY@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 4 months ago

my best guess is monopoly rent... once you've moved all your stuff to the cloud you become dependent on them and they know that

once hundreds and thousands of companies do it the cloud providers gain a lot of leverage

i imagine there are some pretty hefty operating expenses they have to pay as well to operate at such an enormous scale, so their costs don't necessarily decrease when they add more customers

[–] NothingButBits@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 4 months ago

I worked in a company where the dofus clueless CTO decided to transfer half of the data centers to the cloud to cut costs. I've since left the company, but I always knew this would happen.

[–] ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is this true for cloud in general or only for platforms like Google Cloud, AWS, etc. who offer managed services? What if you were using something like Hetzner or OVH where you only get the bare minimum cloud VPS and you have to bootstrap them yourself?

[–] PoY@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 4 months ago

oh i think in general it applies to the big 3, but it may extend to others as well, but i've only seen the insane costs from AWS and GCP personally

[–] CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Download Stremio then google "stremio torrent plugin", install that from the web address, enjoy any show. You're welcome.

[–] Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I migrated my whole media setup to Stremio earlier this year, it is a fantastic bit of software.

I pay a grand total of about 40/year (for RD and an app I use to stream to on different devices). Theoretically could probably swing it for nothing, but 40 USD is well worth the convenience and improved UI. I know people who pay more than that just for one month of streaming subscriptions.

[–] Charlie@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Can I ask what app you use? I currently just hook my steam deck with stremio’s linux app to my TV and it’s clunky.

[–] Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I have a real-debrid account (that’s 30 usd/year) and I use the infuse app (10 usd/year) to access things I’ve synced onto my Apple TV. ATV isn’t the best way to sync stremio content, but it works with this setup and I don’t need to buy any new hardware.

I’ve considered setting up a streaming server at some point, but it works for the time being.

[–] Charlie@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 months ago

Nice, thank you! I currently use RealDebrid and Stremio, looks like Infuse is the missing link I need to get this running on my apple tv. Thank you!

[–] Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 4 months ago

don't pay for shit. get a bike, pirate shit, and just spread your shit around free online clouds like MEGA

[–] Fontasia@feddit.nl 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Everything learnt about emshittification I learnt from that South Park episode where Cartman buys an amusement park.

[–] Imnecomrade@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We went from hype to enshittification. Now let's get ready for the emshittification meta.hyphen, en-dash, em-dash joke

[–] urshanabi@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Oh, what a god one, any other typographic jokes?

[–] Imnecomrade@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 months ago

Meh, it's not a god-tier joke, let alone a good one, just some amusing thought that wanted to escape out of my thought prison.

[–] savoy@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I recently upgraded my home "streaming" setup from an aging RPi3 connected running OSMC off of an NFS share drive from my local server to running Jellyfin directly from the server and connecting to it via the Jellyfin app on my Roku stick

With the crackdown on password sharing, the family accounts are dwindling so the pirating has increased again. Keeping Netflix for now and Shudder as I'm a horror fan, but otherwise everything else is 🏴‍☠️

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

i wonder if setting up your own personal vpn would help with the netflix account thing.

i'm imaging a scenario where you setup your own vpn server and everyone you want to share that account with uses netflix through that vpn server.

[–] savoy@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It would probably work, but the accounts we shared before were Hulu and Disney+, none of which were "my" original accounts. So having to go through the hassle of showing family members VPNs and setting them up wouldn't be worth it compared to just pirating.

The biggest loss to cutting streaming services is mostly discovery of finding some random show/film to watch. If you're going to torrent something, you have to know what you want first. It doesn't bother me much, but it's kind of a bummer when you want to just put something on.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

So having to go through the hassle of showing family members VPNs and setting them up wouldn’t be worth it compared to just pirating.

agreed and it never ceases to amaze me that asking people to double click on an icon on their desktop for a shell/powershell script that will start both the vpn and netflix is just too technical for someone to do even though they do it all the time anyways for their other applications.

... but it’s kind of a bummer when you want to just put something on.

this is a good thing for me; i descend from hardcore couch potatoes and i think that not having access to put something on is the only reason i get to avoid it.

[–] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)

isnt the uber vs taxi slightly misleading. part of the reason why some people dont trust taxis is because some charge per mile, so its cost is fully based on if your driver actually knows where they are going, and doesnt have a rigged meter. Some people would pay for the piece of mind of not playing taxi lottery (and also prevents the situation that a taxi driver does not accept a currency, e.g can happen in Macau)

[–] NothingButBits@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 4 months ago

Also, taxi drivers scam the shit out of tourists.

[–] Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 4 months ago

It is pretty recent that taxis started consistently taking credit cards in my country, I used to have to ask everytime I got in as I don't carry much cash. So the currency issue can definitely be a big problem.

Uber has always been way more expensive than taxis here to the point that they are virtually unheard of. If you say Uber, most people think of the food delivery service, not the car rental.

Apparently the high cost was due to taxi lobbies having a lot of sway.

[–] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 7 points 4 months ago

I don't think people remember how crap taxi services were

[–] Makan@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Honestly, cable is better than streaming and I miss it.

[–] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hell no, I do not miss trying to watch a movie and having every 15 minutes be interrupted by 10 minutes of ads. Plus there really never was anything good to watch.

[–] Makan@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hmmm

But everything is more expensive.

You could just TiVo and watch without ads.

[–] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

How is it more expensive? I pirate everything myself, but even if I got one or two streaming services it would be at most 20-35 dollars. The cheapest cable plans were easily 75+ with any of the good bundles easily going for 125 or more.

The death of cable was a long time coming. A truly awful service. Though the thing that replaced it isn’t much better.

[–] CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Honestly once you've experienced living ad-free you can't go back. I have been pirating for years, using ad blockers for years, and now whenever an ad comes on I get jumpy lol. I even use spicetify on Spotify (I mostly listen to it on PC anyway) to block ads. I haven't watched cable in over a decade. You forget how it actually is pretty quickly. Whenever I see people watching TV and the ad break comes on it feels absolutely endless, and so loud too.

And it's even worse in the US where they have 3 ad breaks during a show. In europe they only do one in the middle of the show. Actually as a kid I was wondering why they had a black screen sometimes in shows and figured it was a 5 second intermission lol.

[–] darkcalling@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 4 months ago

Exactly, once you've experienced it I just don't get how anyone could go back except kicking and screaming but people want their slop I guess?

Cable is garbage. Just straight ad-infested low quality slop that has its production values slashed year over year. Goodness I sound old now but I do think back in the early 2000s when I was growing up that there was better quality and shorter commercials too.

Compare to ad-free service from two streaming services at $20/month each and you're only paying $40 and getting no commercials, no interruptions, no wastes of your time and tons of content on demand on your schedule.

Add to that some sailing knowledge and you don't have to worry about rotating services either.

The only thing I miss as a film nerd is TCM (also commercial free). Oh and PBS sometimes had good stuff though that's not technically a cable channel.

[–] Makan@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Oh, through pirating? Fair.

I just want shit to air on my television at random again.

[–] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Eh, me too, but not for 100+ dollars.

[–] Makan@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 months ago
[–] darkcalling@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I know there's a Plex program that does this, creates simulated channels filled with randomized (or via pre-defined criteria like action movies) channels that you can tune to. Might be something for Jellyfin that's similar. Maybe not exactly what you're after and if you don't have a very large collection it won't work that well but if you have hundreds of movies or shows it could look pretty random.

[–] Makan@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I want it to be more hand-crafted, ig, and less random.

[–] knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Streaming is expensive if you want to watch all the things. Netflix, Amazon, Paramount, HBO, Disney, Apple, and who knows what else I'm missing all have original series and if you want to see something from each service you would have to subscribe to each service.

[–] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

What idiot is using all of those services simultaneously though? At that point you either pirate or choose one or two services to use for the month. You can’t watch them all at once anyway. If you’re buying all of them, then that’s on you at that point.

[–] PoY@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

so many people do this because they sign up for a 3 month trial or whatever and just end up paying for the shit because there's a show or whatever on each service they like so they just keep paying

[–] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It’s a predatory practice, but that feels like it’s more on the consumer at that point. If you blow your money on pointless stuff like that, or forget to cancel your subscriptions, then you are not responsible with your money.

Do people not check their bank statements at the end of the month?

[–] knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 4 months ago

Same goes for cable. Of course you can do the minimum, but then you're missing out on things which are heavily advertised, things your friends are talking about, etc. Of course you don't have to but a lot of people are swayed by that.

[–] FanonFan@hexbear.net 2 points 4 months ago

Well you're also paying the cable company 50-100 for the internet regardless of whether you pirate or stream.

(Or another isp that isn't a cable company but the comparison is funnier this way)

[–] PoY@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 4 months ago

i pay about 400 a year for my piracy tools and services.. which when i say that out loud sounds ridiculous, but it's still far far cheaper than paying for multiple streaming services and/or cable

plus i can watch whatever i want, binging or not commercial free, and i can get games and whatever else thrown in at no additional cost