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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)SP
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2 yr. ago

  • I dunno, the current system seems to be working. Kickstarter-style funding campaigns do happen for media, but I suspect that form of funding is too unstable for the major content producers to rely on.

  • I never claimed pirates were the good guys. The media companies aren't the good guys either, as evidenced by their behavior towards their customers. In this conflict, there are no good guys.

    The customers are the ones that benefit, though. That's the point I'm making.

  • Naw, figures like that are bullshit. They assume that everyone pirating something would buy it, which they wouldn't. And besides, that's not what I'm talking about anyway.

    When Apple came out with iTunes, a good chunk of the media companies refused to play along because they had a better profit margin with physical media. Napster was a thing by then, but the media companies thought they could beat it into the ground with lawsuits and threats. It didn't work. It was an extremely expensive game of whack-a-mole that generated constant bad press.

    Piracy forced them to cooperate with companies like Apple, Pandora, and eventually Netflix to make media accessible and cheap enough that people wouldn't pirate it. The only effective way to fight piracy is make it easier for people to get what they want without having to pirate.

    So next time you watch a prime-time-level TV show at 10AM on a Saturday without having to pay $25 or drive down to the local rental store, remember that pirates are the ones that made that possible.

  • The nice thing about pirates is that they keep the cost of media down. The streaming services we have today wouldn't exist if not for all the rampant piracy of the 90s and 2000s.

  • I dunno. Someone upset over a lost loved one? Take the heart option. Someone honestly trying their best but causing poor consequences? Brain option. Someone being a dick and got caught? Fist option.

    I did let Revalla live, though, but at least I made her fight with me.

  • NPR interview with an NTSB guy I heard a few years back with a bit of googling around (again, years ago). Hence the "IIRC." Snopes has details on why phones themselves aren't dangerous around pumps.

    And it's still a problem - it's just that it's not the phones themselves that cause it. You'll notice that pumps now tell you to stay by the handle and not get back into your car.

  • IIRC, the rate of explosions at gas stations started going up around the time that cell phones were becoming popular. The investigation teams would review camera footage and see people on their phones. So the government changed the mandatory warning stickers on the pumps to include a "do not use your phone while pumping" warning.

    Turns out it wasn't because people were using their phones near the gas pump, but that they were getting back in their cars to play on their phone while the pump was running. They'd build up a static charge by getting in and out of the car, which would arc to the pump handle when they went to hang it up.

    It took a while before they realized what the actual problem was.

  • Jet fuel.

    People seem to have the impression that it's some extremely explosive stuff that has to be handled with the upmost care, but it's just highly refined kerosene. It can be used as a replacement for Diesel fuel in many cases - in fact, U.S. military vehicles can run off either. We put it Toyota Hylux pickups up in northern Greenland because it doesn't gel up like Diesel fuel.