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Does anyone remember what it was like growing up in the 90's when people would pay $100/month for television that was 33% ads? Life was miserable before most of

by jart 5y ago

Does anyone remember what it was like growing up in the 90's when people would pay $100/month for television that was 33% ads? Life was miserable before most of us had Internet access. I think there's simply no comparison. Also does anyone remember what it was like back then trying to sell software? I remember back in 2003 whenever I wrote a piece of software, for every guy who paid me $20 via paypal for it, there'd be ten guys on cracker forums geeking out trying to unravel my protection schemes like a puzzle to be solved. I'm honestly shocked tech has an economy at all considering our industry gives everything away for free. Think about how much leverage industries like health care hold over people's lives, cause bankruptcies, and then compare that to tech products collecting usage analytics. Once again, there's simply on comparison. The tech industry is absolutely the most benevolent force for good these last few decades. And for what it's worth, there's always FOSS which is not only free but maximally respects your privacy even more. Support the people building it. These are all choices we simply didn't have in the past.

bluefirebrand 5y ago
> The tech industry is absolutely the most benevolent force for good these last few decades I'm not sure I agree with that. You might be right, but it is definitely souring as companies get better at turning out daily lives into a consumerist panopticon. It feels like every single piece of tech I might want to buy and bring into my house nowadays wants to spy on me. Or rather is spying on me. A basic tv that I only ever use to play games on, wants to show me advertising. It wants to spy on the games I play and the shows I stream and show me ads. How sick is that? That's certainly not a benevolent good, by any measure. Maybe we're at a crossroads where we could choose to be better, or choose to make more money. I think we passed the crossroad a while back and we're at least partway down the ugly path of tech. Maybe it's not too late to turn back.
thr0wawayf00 5y ago
> The tech industry is absolutely the most benevolent force for good these last few decades. It's hard to agree with that statement knowing that Facebook allowed genocidal rage to fester on its platform, ultimately facilitating the Rohingya genocide[0]. The tech industry may be the most force for good in your life today, but when you take a step back to read about hardware manufacturing in China, state/privately-sponsored social media psyops, the industry's pushback against pro-consumer policy like right-to-repair, etc., etc., it's really hard to take a statement like that seriously. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebo...
- gdfgjhs 5y ago
  While I would love to work for Meta due to engineering challenges & caliber of their engineers but sometimes I wonder if I would be able to sleep at night. Makes me wonder if those engineers who worked for Nazis through IBM felt any remorse later, or if they were able to compartmentalize their work from their personal lives.
kderbyma 5y ago
convenience is not all there is to satisfaction....I feel that you are comparing convenience vs satisfaction. people are not satisfied. they are convenienced.
autoexec 5y ago
I remember when cable first came out and had no ads at all. That was its major selling point besides clear reception without rooftop aerials and rabbit ears. Then ads came showing you what you was going to air later on the same channel, then ads came showing you what would air on other channels, then finally came the ads for cars and laundry powder. Cable TV started out as a great deal, but it became another tech disappointment with animated station logos, spying on what you were watching, and pop-up ads covering 25% of the screen during shows. > Think about how much leverage industries like health care hold over people's lives, cause bankruptcies, and then compare that to tech products collecting usage analytics. Well... healthcare bankrupting sick people is a uniquely American failure, tech being used to spy on everyone allows for far more control over people's lives. Look at china and their "social credit system". America already has it's own version of the same only instead of tracking how good a citizen you are it tracks how good a consumer you are. In china your social credit score could get you banned from trains and planes. In the US your Your consumer credit score determines how companies treat you, what they'll tell you their policies are, what services you get offered and how much you pay for things. The effects of surveillance capitalism on our everyday lives is expanding all the time, but you're not allowed to know about it. You just see the bill from your insurance company, you don't know that you're paying more this year because people in your zip code spent more money at fast food restaurants. You just see the rejection letter from a job you applied to, you don't get to know that the company reviewed your social media accounts and recent spending habits and thought you spent too much money on alcohol. You just get to wait on hold while calling for service, but you aren't allowed to see that you've been moved to the bottom of the queue because they've used your cell phone number to see that you make less money in a year than the other people calling in. Benevolence is not a feature of tech, it's a feature of people and so far they've mostly decided they want to use tech to control you. FOSS is the best hope we have right now, but it's still running on locked down hardware and processors that are controlled by a very small number of companies which have been backdoored and used to collect data on us as well.
gdfgjhs 5y ago
> growing up in the 90's when people would pay $100/month for television that was 33% ads? At the same time, thanks to these ads, I remember spending a lot less time in front of screens compared to current kids/teens.

by jart 5y ago

bluefirebrand 5y ago

> The tech industry is absolutely the most benevolent force for good these last few decades I'm not sure I agree with that. You might be right, but it is definitely souring as companies get better at turning out daily lives into a consumerist panopticon. It feels like every single piece of tech I might want to buy and bring into my house nowadays wants to spy on me. Or rather is spying on me. A basic tv that I only ever use to play games on, wants to show me advertising. It wants to spy on the games I play and the shows I stream and show me ads. How sick is that? That's certainly not a benevolent good, by any measure. Maybe we're at a crossroads where we could choose to be better, or choose to make more money. I think we passed the crossroad a while back and we're at least partway down the ugly path of tech. Maybe it's not too late to turn back.

thr0wawayf00 5y ago

> The tech industry is absolutely the most benevolent force for good these last few decades. It's hard to agree with that statement knowing that Facebook allowed genocidal rage to fester on its platform, ultimately facilitating the Rohingya genocide[0]. The tech industry may be the most force for good in your life today, but when you take a step back to read about hardware manufacturing in China, state/privately-sponsored social media psyops, the industry's pushback against pro-consumer policy like right-to-repair, etc., etc., it's really hard to take a statement like that seriously. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebo...

gdfgjhs 5y ago
While I would love to work for Meta due to engineering challenges & caliber of their engineers but sometimes I wonder if I would be able to sleep at night. Makes me wonder if those engineers who worked for Nazis through IBM felt any remorse later, or if they were able to compartmentalize their work from their personal lives.

kderbyma 5y ago

convenience is not all there is to satisfaction....I feel that you are comparing convenience vs satisfaction. people are not satisfied. they are convenienced.

autoexec 5y ago

I remember when cable first came out and had no ads at all. That was its major selling point besides clear reception without rooftop aerials and rabbit ears. Then ads came showing you what you was going to air later on the same channel, then ads came showing you what would air on other channels, then finally came the ads for cars and laundry powder. Cable TV started out as a great deal, but it became another tech disappointment with animated station logos, spying on what you were watching, and pop-up ads covering 25% of the screen during shows. > Think about how much leverage industries like health care hold over people's lives, cause bankruptcies, and then compare that to tech products collecting usage analytics. Well... healthcare bankrupting sick people is a uniquely American failure, tech being used to spy on everyone allows for far more control over people's lives. Look at china and their "social credit system". America already has it's own version of the same only instead of tracking how good a citizen you are it tracks how good a consumer you are. In china your social credit score could get you banned from trains and planes. In the US your Your consumer credit score determines how companies treat you, what they'll tell you their policies are, what services you get offered and how much you pay for things. The effects of surveillance capitalism on our everyday lives is expanding all the time, but you're not allowed to know about it. You just see the bill from your insurance company, you don't know that you're paying more this year because people in your zip code spent more money at fast food restaurants. You just see the rejection letter from a job you applied to, you don't get to know that the company reviewed your social media accounts and recent spending habits and thought you spent too much money on alcohol. You just get to wait on hold while calling for service, but you aren't allowed to see that you've been moved to the bottom of the queue because they've used your cell phone number to see that you make less money in a year than the other people calling in. Benevolence is not a feature of tech, it's a feature of people and so far they've mostly decided they want to use tech to control you. FOSS is the best hope we have right now, but it's still running on locked down hardware and processors that are controlled by a very small number of companies which have been backdoored and used to collect data on us as well.

gdfgjhs 5y ago

> growing up in the 90's when people would pay $100/month for television that was 33% ads? At the same time, thanks to these ads, I remember spending a lot less time in front of screens compared to current kids/teens.