JCPhoenix

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So much weirdness. The box fans inserted into the walls. On Pic 38, the shower faucets are outside of the shower itself. All the ceiling fans. The "conference room" or perhaps church space. In Pic 28, using the carpet as "wallpaper," and similarly in 29, the carpet for the top surface of the half wall. Using PVC pipes as handrails on stairs or in the closets and hanger bars. And it looks like the vehicle in the garage might actually be a hearse!

Good find!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

When I was a high school, I had a friend who lived in a very similar house, sans siding mania. My friends and I were there to pick up our friend, but we ended up going inside for like 10min. The house was super long and just had so many room and doors. Didn't get the grand tour or anything. As far as I knew, there were only like 5 or 6 in their family: 2 parents and 3 or 4 kids. But I think other family members lived there, too. It'd be too big for one family, and there was enough stuff that made it look like relatives lived there as well.

I remember thinking, "How do you not get lost in here?" And, "Was this always a house, or was it like a converted apartment or boarding house, like for assisted living?" I never asked because I didn't want to embarrass my friend. The rest of us lived in SFHs or duplexes. Didn't want to put them on the spot or anything.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

My parents were the ones who pointed me to the high seas. I was a kid (12-13yo) when Napster came out. Being the family geek, they told me to look into it since they heard about it on the news and wanted free music (early case of the Streissand Effect before it was termed as such). So I did. And we got free music. Even asked them to get me a CD burner for my birthday after that and they did.

As a kid on the earlier days of the Internet, I came across all sorts of ways to get free stuff. Games and Music at first, especially game cracks/warez. Then once torrents came on the scene, movies and shows.

I actually don't pirate much anymore. Rarely pirate music since I've had Spotify for like 10+yrs now. Same with games since Steam and all the other digital storefronts have so many sales. I still pirate emulator ROMs once in a blue moon. Movies/shows would be where I pirate the most (though like once a month if that), even though I have Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll. Even between those 4, I can't find everything I want to watch.

But yeah, 99% of the time, I just don't want to pay for things. The other 1% is that I can't pay for something (mainly in the emulators/ROMs space). That's all.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I don't pirate very often anymore, but when I do, I use whatever computer I happen to be on. I just turn on a VPN and bind the torrenting client to the VPN only. This is how I've torrented for years, since the late 2000s. I've gotten a couple strikes from my ISP several years ago, but that was before I had a commercial VPN. Otherwise, I've no issues.

What are the potential security upsides of doing it on a VM/container or a dedicated machine? I can imagine some performance upsides, but that's about it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

That's a bot, right? That can't be real.

I've met plenty of idiots. Some days, I'm probably one of them. But I don't think I've ever come across someone who's pro anti-piracy. Usually people are just neutral about it. Even the most law-abiding people I know, when I've told them I can download movies for free, are like "Oh, are you able to get this movie for me? Thanks!"

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think pirating educational materials is less morally bad than pirating entertainment.

College textbooks, for example, are insanely expensive. I once paid like $300 for a single chemistry book. I never made that mistake again. Not because I pirated; I just started buying used or past editions. It's not like chemistry for a 100 level class is cutting edge stuff. It's the same ideas and knowledge we've had for decades or a hundred or hundreds of years. It's all public knowledge at this point.

But you may need the book to do readings and assignments. So if you can't afford the book, even used or past editions, then it makes sense to turn to piracy. I would sometimes grab the library reference copy of a textbook and just go crazy with a copy machine. That might technically still be piracy.

Entertainment, on the other hand, isn't really required at all. So to me, that's worse.

That all said, 99% of the stuff I've pirated is entertainment. My immorality is only bounded by the size of my SSDs!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Eh, the tech-illiterate come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Same. Beehaw is my main, but I also have a Kbin account (which I know is technically different), and then a LW account, which I almost never sign into.

Even my Mastodon account is separate. It's fine this way. I don't need everything on one account. With a password manager, it's not like I have to remember passwords anyway.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

I have a lifetime subscription for Windscribe, so I've just been using that with no issues for years. I've recommended it to some other friends and they've been fine.

I also pay for Proton services, so I have ProtonVPN, but I've yet to try it for torrenting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Gotcha, apologies for the misread!

Honestly, I was surprised too. I guess given how ubiquitous movies and television are, it never really occurred to me that it could be a hobby. And I bet most people don't think of it as a hobby, either. When I think of a hobby related to TV/Movies, I think more like "film snobs" (for lack of a better term). Maybe people who watch the AFI 100 or whatever and know all about film and cinematography. But not people just watching TV like anyone else. But by definition, it's a hobby. It's "a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation."

For my coworker, she's single and childless. So she has tons of time to watch movies and shows outside of work. I'm the same, but I devote it mainly towards gaming. Though I could certainly stand to devote less time to my hobby. Or pick up some new ones at least!

Hope you'll be able to find some more time to watch the movies and show you want!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Movies and TV are some peoples' hobbies. I have a co-worker who used to spend $300/mo on a cable bill because she had all the movie channels and stuff. She watched tons of movies and shows. At first I thought she was weird for watching so much TV, but then I thought about how much gaming I do, and realized "Oh, that's just her hobby like gaming is mine." Granted, I'm not spending $300/mo on gaming, but people do tend to spend money on hobbies. Sometimes even more than $300/mo.

Anyway, I've been letting her use my Netflix account -- surprisingly neither of us have seen anything from Netflix about it -- for the last several years. She recently (finally) got a Smart TV so she cancelled her crazy-ass cable package and I think pays for YouTube TV now. I'm sure she's watching just as much as TV and movies as ever, but at least she's saving some money.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

This is the third time I've seen this referenced. I looked this up and now I feed stupider for having read anything about it.

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