My running commentary on underground internet technology. Topics will include usenet, bittorrent, security & VPN's, open source, and pirate entertainment). Check the technique...
The PC or MAC debate has moved to a whole new level
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Please, please, please watch this. If for no other reason than it's really funny to watch white people with no rhythm try to rap. I laughed out loud.
As a TV cord-cutter, I have gone mostly legit. One of my G+ buddies Keith Wilson , posted an article recently showing the drastic reduction in bittorrent traffic over the course of a decade. His question was, what happened to all the pirates??? I have never believed that content piracy was about a lifestyle or philosophy. It's always been about ease of content acquisition. The classic example is pre-2000 Napster vs post-2010 Spotify. At it's peak, OG Napster was king of the pirate apps and there were virtually no legal alternatives. Today, pirating albums is trivially easy, but the vast majority of music consumers buy from iTunes or stream from Spotify. Why? Because the legal options are abundant and pervasive. Spotify works on my phone, car, home and work with zero friction and benefits like social sharing features, playlists and such. It's taken a while, but TV has reached a similar nexus. Barely five years ago, cord-cutting was synonymous with piracy. One of
So remember how I was telling you all that stuff about the TV studios embracing Hulu (Fox and NBC sponsored the project), and how they had learned from the music industry's crippling Napster debacle? Well, that's only partially true. After a BANNER year, Hulu seems like it's becoming a victim of it's own success. Sometimes it seems like the site is overloaded, and even when using a fast internet connection, shows tend to "hang" for a few seconds while the stream from Hulu's servers catches up. Worse than that, the TV studios have somehow gotten it into their heads that they are losing some of their traditional TV viewers to Hulu. The reason they view this as a "bad thing" all boils down to one simple factor: advertising. Traditional TV advertising is literally the fuel for your favorite shows. Put simply, without commercials there would be no TV programming (PBS and Public Access aside). That is simply the American model. The Brits pay
So, for any new readers that I gain via G+ or wherever, here's a quick FAQ about me. 1. Where are you located and what do you do for a living ? - I'm Atlanta-based and I work in the consumer electronics industry (go figure). I know that anyone who is anyone who blogs about tech needs to live in San Fran or NY, but I figure now is a great time to start bucking that trend. Atlanta is a huge and growing city, all the major tech players have a presence here, tech startups are everywhere, we have 4G LTE coverage from all the carriers, the food is good and the cost of living is cheap. You do the math. 2. Why are you blogging about "underground" tech? - Because there's a gap in the tech media right now. Every other blog is talking about Apple this, or Samsung that. They are reviewing the latest iteration of five-inch black slab of plastic after five-inch black slab of plastic. But very FEW blogs are talking about cord-cutting and how the various programs, prot
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