Theft of others’ creative works (and to an actor their voice is part of their creative work) has been going on via Big Tech for decades now. My first view of it was years ago when Google started stealing books it hadn’t purchased and wasn’t licensed and adding them to public spaces on the internet. I remember the big publishing houses and a lot of authors up in arms, but obviously they weren’t able to truly reverse any of that.

This. Though I left Netflix because the only way family was watching it was via Roku device, and in the last 6 months you had a 2 in 3 chance the Netflix app would lock up on it and none of the “fixes” (reinstall, clear cache, etc., etc., etc., … ) did anything to help.

Even worse, not only would the Netflix app lock itself up, it would lock up the entire Roku device so someone had to be dispatched to unplug, wait, replug the power on the Roku device to restart Roku.

We have so much on the Roku that actually works (Hulu, etc) - why pay monthly for such a crappy app? Family complained for about 2 days and then forgot Netflix even exists.

Lolololol That comment made my day 😆

Currently paying for YouTube ad-free, Netflix ad-free, and Hulu ad-free.

YouTube’s algorithm seems intent on making me look elsewhere for content, as it suggests the same twenty things over and over again, despite the fact that I’ve watched half of them already and ignored the other half for months now. We only keep it because spouse wants it for YouTube music. Me? I’ve wandered off to piped and peertube, mostly.

The Netflix app locks up and crashes the Roku at least once every movie. It used to do this just now and again, but recently it’s so bad I don’t even load it anymore and spouse is THIS CLOSE to being talked into just cancelling it.

Hulu…? Well, it’s ok. I wish it still had a lot of the older stuff, as a lot of the newer stuff is just stupid and/or revolting. Because of the above, we’d probably keep this one and dump the others, based on price and what (mostly spouse) finds useful to watch.

I’m actually checking out other things. Like Hoopla through the local library, eBooks, real books (the local library is free). Spouse and I have also learned to play several different card games, and sometimes we actually interact with each other instead of alpha-wave mind-bending into the electronic hallucination machine on the other side of the living room. We’re also exploring more outdoor activities, like hiking, birding, nature walks, team sports, and so on.

Sometimes, a “bad” thing is just the right thing that needs to happen.

Years ago (before any TVs were “smart”) I bought a high-end, brand new Samsung TV that turned out to be a piece of junk. Samsung wouldn’t honor the warranty, and was just a ass on their customer service (I’ve refused to own or buy anything Samsung, ever since), and a local TV repair guy I paid too much money to couldn’t fix it. So I junked it and bought an off-brand mid-range TV that I’m still using now after maybe 15 years? When it dies, since I refuse to own a “smart” TV (and they are all “smart” now), I’m going to replace it with a big dumb monitor, a little computing box good enough to run streaming services off the web, and a wireless keyboard, -or-, just buy non-smart TVs at garage sales.

You are right. I’ve been browsing sites for PC parts the last several years, just for fun. And it never dawned on me that almost everything on them was trying to sell gaming-relevant components.

Yes, I’ve been buying above-minimum specs for many years now, specifically to make sure the machine will last me another several years, at least.

I’m still waiting for headphone jacks to come back. My ancient iPad has one, and everything since does not. Which means when this one dies I won’t be replacing it (decided I will just use only what my laptop will do).

For my iPhone (which is new enough that it doesn’t have a headphone jack, I limit it to just texts and phone calls, and do everything else from my computer or a cheap little MP3 player.

<sigh> Yes.

I just had a motherboard death recently, and went through the net looking for a replacement that would meet the few requirements I have. Made a spreadsheet of all the one I considered, and in the end I bought the same exact old Dell machine I bought last time. Turns out I made a great decision years ago, and it was still a great decision :)

Even more, now I have a parts computer for when the replacement machine needs something :)

I found this to be true these days, as well. I started building and repairing desktop and laptop machines a long time ago, and I don’t bother building them new anymore due to cost.

Regarding mayo: Due to food allergies I’ve made my own, and it ends up costing about the same or more as what I can buy, and it doesn’t last as long.

Regarding dishcloths: Again, making them doesn’t seem to save anything. However, I did see a pack of 12 washcloths on sale for US $5 awhile back and I bought 2 packs. They were ugly colors (no doubt why they were on sale) but they sit in a drawer in the kitchen and I use and reuse them instead of paper towels, dish cloths, drying cloths, draining, general cleaning, etc. When dirty, I toss in with my regular laundry and have them all over again.