|
|
|
|
| Welcome, Guest | Home | Search | Login | Register | |
| Author | The Internet Doesn't Want Readers. It Wants Livestock. (Read 2131 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Bolkonskij
Administrator 2048 MB  Posts: 2070 
|
on: July 24, 2026, 06:23
Quote "Right," he says, "so you go onto a website. Doesn't matter what for. Recipe. News story. Some bloke's opinion on lawnmowers. And before you've read a single word, there's a pop-up. Subscribe to our newsletter. Then a cookie banner the size of a shipping container. 'We value your privacy,' which is corporate for 'we are about to do something to your privacy and we need you to click a button so it's legally your fault.'" Full article here (requires SSL/TLS encryption) Found this an interesting article. Sure, he's exaggerating some points for the purpose of illustration, but I find he is pretty spot on. "Everything wants to be everything". Absolutely. What do you think? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
rbdr
|
4 MB  Posts: 6 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #1 on: July 24, 2026, 21:03
|
100% percent. And this is something I want to keep for any page or product I build: it won’t be any of that. No tracking, no upsells, no hustle culture, just useful software. I do say a reason I love using my system 7 / Mac OS 9 Mac’s is because it’s the only computers I have that aren’t trying to sell me something. And when you see the quality of software we had back then, sometimes it’s hard to see what we gained, or if it’s worth it.
|
68040
|
512 MB Posts: 991 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #2 on: July 27, 2026, 13:32
|
To be frank: We did this to ourselves. People want ever more, for ever less. Our entire Western lifestyle has for decades been based on that notion. Cheap app software, originally written by IT slaves in India and now more and more by AI agents. Switch to EV cars, which are in fact hightech computers on wheels, and have the government subsidize us for doing so. Welfare, migration, warfare. You name it, its all "enjoy now, pay sometime later". In Google's App store people give 1-star ratings, because the app developer was asking for 1 or 2 bucks, for software that took months to develop. Money has to come from somewhere: Our governments finance their popularity with ever growing debt. And web site hosters pay for all their flashy content via advertising. Its like living in Idiocracy: Everybody consumes, almost nobody works and stuff is supposed to pay for itself.
|
rbdr
|
4 MB Posts: 6 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #3 on: July 27, 2026, 14:17
|
I’m not sure it’s as simple as that. I think some of what you say is wholly unrelated. Eg. Gas cars are as computerized as EVs, just more damaging to the environment. Welfare is not in fact enjoy now pay later. I work and pay a sizable amount of taxes in Germany, I worked for years and was happy that people could use my contribution to get out of a tough spot, and was happy to have that safety net when it happened to me. It’s pay now and use. This subsidy of software didn’t just happen because people like convenience, we do. But it has come from an explicit push where investors pour in a lot of money to get folks hooked on something. The economic incentives are designed around this. Many people I know pay for software and would be willing to pay for software. This is a vanishing option. Even Netflix has figured they make more money from ads than subscriptions so they’d Rather push ads on more tiers. A lot of people don’t understand the trade off they’re making, and companies have incentives to not let them know. We trust governments to look out for our best interests, and if a business can’t survive without these scummy techniques maybe they shouldn’t? And if no business can survive, maybe we should take a look at the economic incentives and fix the system instead?
|
68040
|
512 MB Posts: 991 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #4 on: July 28, 2026, 13:02
|
It is *exactly* that (German) obsession with "environment" "social justice" and all those other "let me feel morally superior" kicks that have caused a once prosperous high performing industrial society to fall behind. The whole "cost you nothing" PD software eco-sphere had to wake up to the reality that 99.99% of people do-not-like-to-work-for-free. If it makes you feel good to pay 50+% of taxes to help somebody else "out of a tough spot" that doesn't even know you from Adam, well then you must be part of that 0.01%  I just know from the awful demise of my own mother, how frail that so called "safety net" becomes the moment you lack the agility to take advantage of it the government way. My money, my rules. The government's money, somebody else's rules. Most of humanity operates that way. Its a fairy tale world in which huge corporations offer their services for free. And since most people refuse to pay upfront for stuff they happen to find on the web, they have to pay for it with feeds full of advertising. It-truly-is-that-simple. People understand that tradeoff very well. Corporations are not evil or sneaky or tricky. They just adapt to a consumer who doesn't value his data privacy nearly as much as many leftist advocates would like us believe. "Geiz ist geil", as they say in German To put it bluntly: The Internet of today looks that way, because too many people want something for nothing. Its the basic rule of supply and demand. AI is a prime example for this. It costs a fortune more humongous than most government budgets, to start, operate and supply an AI data center. Not to mention the cost of financing as such. Yet most of us would scuff at the mere notion of paying for OpenAI. After all, isn't "Open" supposed to mean "for free"? So we pay for it all by enduring advertising. That only costs us time and dignity. Both of which we part with all too easy, in a hedonistic society. We all live by this creed and we will die by it.
Last Edit: July 28, 2026, 14:01 by 68040
|
eelco
|
32 MB Posts: 56 System 7 Always
Reply #5 on: August 02, 2026, 20:28
|
Quite the discussion you're having here, but an interesting one. Normally, I try to steer clear of discussion like these, because they tend to escalate so quickly and suddenly, but I shall give it a go. I understand where OP is coming from and I understand the counter argument. Everyone has an opinion, myself included, but it's not a matter of who shouts it loudest. As was said earlier: the money has to come from somewhere, just like the electricity to charge an EV and the soy to produce vegetarian products. Only the sunrise is free, everything else costs money, one way or another. In this sense, not much has changed since currency was invented. It's just the technologies we keep inventing, which accelerate the currency aquisition process
Last Edit: August 02, 2026, 20:57 by eelco
|
68040
|
512 MB Posts: 991 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #6 on: August 10, 2026, 09:04
|
Quote from: eelco As was said earlier: the money has to come from somewhere, just like the electricity to charge an EV and the soy to produce vegetarian products.Thx and I try to stay away from escalators (literally, I prefer the stairs)  I don't say I like advertising and data grabs - I hate 'em. But then again, look at your average EV. That's a data center on wheels these days. Yet most people refuse to pay more for their electric car than what they did for their old fashioned Buick or Volkswagen Beetle. So what is a car manufacturer to do to cover the cost? He makes advertising and data mining deals as far as his marketing department can carry him. That's why some now blast even the owners of luxury vehicles with Disney adds, as soon as the engine is started. I am writing these lines on a computer, that is more powerful than the entire production line of my Texas Instruments in the days of the TI 99/4a combined. But the price of the unit - adjusted for inflation - has stayed roughly the same. Somebody has to cover that humongous difference. Invasive advertising is 1 price we pay for living beyond our means. There are others and the bill will come due shortly.
Last Edit: August 10, 2026, 09:08 by 68040
|
|
Pages: [1]
|
| |||||||
|
© 2021 System7Today.com. |
