Netflix Users going Ballistic over account sharing clamp down.

[aenyc]

The bottom line is that governments can not really technically ban VPNs, unless they implement whitelists at the ISP level (I.e you can ONLY connect to a designated list of IP addresses). If that happens, its pretty much de facto dictatorship, ala North Korea. Even in China it is possible to bypass the "Great Firewall" if you know what you are doing. These people are NOT omnipotent (although thats what they want you to think)
Can this happen? If people let them. And it will be sold for "your safety". Dont be sheep.

 

[kendive]

This problem is easily solved if you are a network engineer
I run private VPN server which allows connection and pass through to the internet from a designated, permanent single IP

Same here Pfsense is great. I use my sisters net flux <--- LOL account.

I also have all my IOT devices such as Enphase, Ring, etc on a separate VLAN internet access only and limited.

 

[aenyc]

Same here Pfsense is great. I use my sisters net flux <--- LOL account.

I also have all my IOT devices such as Enphase, Ring, etc on a separate VLAN internet access only and limited.

pfSense and openSense are really amazing free NVA (network virtual appliances). I often call pfSense cheap man's F5 because it probably has 90% of the features

 

[Batvette]

There was a time long ago when netflix was so desperate they allowed ppl to share their accounts even promoted sharing. Before that Netflix use to make promises to never go up on price if signed a contract. They lied so I cancelled them. Think it was ~$5 a month way back then. I have not had netflix since …. Except when they offered free trials and would always cancel before free trial ran out..

i think Netflix allowed and promoted up to 3 or so family shares but been a while since had Netflix. Funny that they want to take it back now.

I liked Sling before they doubled the pricing. ? Greed.

There was a time when Youtube did not have advertising interrupting videos….. then they starting putting videos in. Then youtube offered ad free paid services. The youtube changed to limited paid service with some select ads. It is how youtube pays monetary channels for content vs viewer hits likes and subscriptions.… to various youtube channels. Some of the early monetary YouTubers channel - operators got wealthy.

I think one YouTuber in recent article got ~$54 million a year from youtube.

The Highest-Paid YouTube Stars: MrBeast, Jake Paul And Markiplier Score Massive Paydays

MrBeast is the new No. 1 with record earnings, and Jake Paul ranks second despite past scandals. Here’s how much these celebs raked in.

www.forbes.com

This is what a chinese guitar company offered ppl to show - demo their products on Tiktok No doubt free products SOME OF WHICH ARE CHERRY PICKED FOR BEST QUALITY are given to the ppl doing channel demos which turn around and offer those free demo items as incentives to “like and subscribe.”

Imagine getting paid for having fun = cutting batteries apart…. To review. Why so many ppl have product demo channels on youtube and or other platforms now. Several of those ppl are on these forums. Just modern way of making money. Ever notice youtube does not give viewers option to block channels and then if you leave youtube running it will go to their pushed content which is completely unrelated to initial video…… I watched a video for a guitar review and left it running and it did basic channel steering afterwords to some goofey guy that buys cars that have been sitting for years and drives them home from hundreds of miles away. I can’t stand that “vice grip garage” video guy. Nor Scotty Kilmer another auto channel on youtube. No way to block them. Both started showing up randomly if left on. So if watch youtube video now will just turn it completely off when done. The AI at youtube use to keep us in a particular like type video for auto mode…., now it steers ppl away….. often times to unrelated content do not want to watch. Over and Over. Click - turned off…. I stopped subscribing or liking youtube content because doesn't matter.- youtube ai steers away. They FIXED IT to do that. Google does the same thing for steering with web searches… to buy purchase things.
I will never pay for youtube content. Especially since youtube also Censors Controls and Steers ppl so heavily. I’ve repeatedly asked for option to block some YouTubers content to no avail. Option denied.
The budweiser tranny on tiktok is rather wealthy now. Certainly did not subscribe to it. Nor want to watch the gay content.
same for Twitter stars - steering.

Edit added this is expired now:
View attachment 150908

In a related topic, have you seen those chinese copy guitars? I bought a real gibson les paul in the early 90s when they were cheap, kept it about 20 years. A few years ago my friend was looking on DH gate. They had the identical one, the two pickup black les paul custom with gold hardware, for about $275 with shipping. He ordered it, came in about 3 weeks. I swear it was really hard to tell it wasnt the real thing unless you got into the cavities under the covers. It said made in usa, and if you looked up the serial numbers in a registry they matched one of the real guitars. At that time the real one was $4500. Which is stupid.

 

[LeoThomson]

What streaming companies forget is that we use them because they are slightly more convenient than the "free" alternative.

 

[D71]

In a related topic, have you seen those chinese copy guitars? I bought a real gibson les paul in the early 90s when they were cheap, kept it about 20 years. A few years ago my friend was looking on DH gate. They had the identical one, the two pickup black les paul custom with gold hardware, for about $275 with shipping. He ordered it, came in about 3 weeks. I swear it was really hard to tell it wasnt the real thing unless you got into the cavities under the covers. It said made in usa, and if you looked up the serial numbers in a registry they matched one of the real guitars. At that time the real one was $4500. Which is stupid.

I regret not buying up several Gibson guitars when thought they were overpriced..the 2000 era faded models were a bargain.. as you stated they have all gone crazy high now. The Chinese make some very affordable and dare say "guitars on par with American classics." Of course, that is the nature of most things with Chinese where they copy with improvements. Ball end stainless steel frets are nice.

A no name chinese set neck seymour duncan black-out electronics mod - guitar that plays extremely well. I’d say it plays as well as anything on the market and it cost around ~$125 plus more for the mods. The chinese StageRight amps for ~$200 sound fantastic after retubed too. Most ppl play via their computer now. To me just not the same. FireFly from guitar gardens sells some nice chinese guitars under $200. IYV has a really nice PRS copy they sell on Amazon for $150 when on sale….damn good guitar. I recently bought one - worth every penny wished had this one about 40-50 years ago. The amp too. I’ve got boxes of pedals - some of the new chinese are impressive. ?

https://www.amazon.com/IP-350-TBK-Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar/dp/B0107BAFDS/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2VKZ9PY6UQFE9&keywords=Iyv+electric+guitar&qid=1690165525&sprefix=iyv+electric+guitar%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0

Edit almost forgot just turned Netflix on watched a movie called “Ballad of Buster Scruggs.“ Netflix has added a lot of content the new version of lost in space is interesting. The monthly price is lot higher then it use to be.

 

[Batvette]

I love that movie. Same actor stars later in a novie called old henry.
Too bad buster had to die. Bugs bunny reborn as a gunslinger.

Oh BTW the real les paul black beauty custom I had, cost $1700 out the door, with a hard shell case, from guitar center. Played it through a marshall JCM series 50 watt 2x12 combo with a digitech reverb/delay through the effects loop. I finally had that god-tone sound I had been searching for, and the 2x12 combo is perfect so you can get the gain up enough for perfect saturation without pissing off neighbors a block away.
So I stopped buying gear and pushed myself to learn to play. I got quite a bit better but lack natural talent or the mathmatical memory to recall more than a handful of covers at a time, around age 50 I conceded I sucked as bad as I always had and arthritis was seriously setting in on my left thumb from 40 years of playing. The joint was twice its normal size and very painful.
Sold all my gear, (got 500 more for the gibson than i paid for it on ebay. Sold it while it was still at the pawn shop, got the money from paypal to pay it off, then took it to the post office)
Thumb is better, havent picked up a guitar in years except for restringing my buddys guitars since Im pretty tidy with winding.
Heres the thing. I could never learn covers well, (subscribed to guitar player mag for years for the tabs) only feeling I got somewhere by learning to play the instrument. Scales, and where they fell on the fingerboard in relation to each open chord at the nut and where it moves up in barre chords. Had to learn what key the scales were in, then playing an original was possible. I was so stoked when I put on a guns and roses cd and found I could play a lot of slashs leads since they were just Am pentatonic noodling.
My buddy, he puts on Metallica Master of Puppets or Ride the Lightning and plays right along with every note of every song the whole album through, never missing. Fucking amazing.
Yet he cannot show me what a G chord is, could not show me an A minor pentatonic scale to save his life, and Ive never seen him play an original thing of his own. Not three chords.

That kind of weirdness is why Im glad I quit. Also the realization that my friends that didnt play, would bluntly say "you suck". But my player friends that were really good, that I hung around hoping Id get better just being around them, always encouraged me.
Theyre being positive, right?
I dont think so. More like having a fan club to stoke their ego. Seriously. Its like youre 10 years old and the neighbor kid can dunk a basketball so you idolize him and let him beat you for years hoping you can dunk too.
Kids grow out of that shit. Apparantly not guitar players.

Edit: if you got that guitar from china not amazon it would have the actual PRS logo and serial numbers!
A few years ago DHGate was coy about logos and copyrights, the listings avoided showing the headstocks.
Looked at em again recently, theyre shameless. I guess the US brands now powerless to touch em

 

[D71]

I’d almost bet money that all these chinese guitars are being made from exotic woods from the Amazon Rain Forest.

If you remember Our Climate Change ppl whined and cried until USA Govt went after Gibson over importing wood from the Amazon Rain Forest. Stopped it. Gibson got heavy fines and seem to remember all that wood was seized and destroyed. I bet China loved that - no competition Then the prices for Gibson - American made went sky high. Back then could buy Gibson faded for around $450 or $600 ….. seen some used faded models other day from ~$1500-$2500. I think Gibson laid ppl off as did Fender after Govt fines and wood seized. Both Gibson and Fender bought up other name brands that import foreign made guitars. Kramer is one for Gibson. Fender has Squier. Even Ibanez went off shore from japan to china or Indonesia Fender had guitars made in Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, and China. The MIM strats were not bad the MIJ were good quality.

Me thinks… the govt had it in for Gibson and bet the chinese clones come in with no problem. Notice old instruments can be seized if you go out of country and re-enter with them. Imagine doing a tour come back and lose your guitars.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/08/31/140090116/why-gibson-guitar-was-raided-by-the-justice-department

Digitech made good stuff got a RP355 modeler from them some of the old pedals are crazy high now.

You are right the chinese Gibson label copies are so good that I will not buy a used or new one.

My left arm was broken near wrist and arthritis set in so bad can barely fret now. Play few licks and done. Still keep trying though.

The Mexicans always amazed me - take a cheap crappy box guitar missing few strings and play it better then most ppl with the best. They couldn’t name a note or chord either self-taught. Always amazed me that some of them had learned what sounds good. ?

 

[Batvette]

I’d almost bet money that all these chinese guitars are being made from exotic woods from the Amazon Rain Forest.

If you remember Our Climate Change ppl whined and cried until USA Govt went after Gibson over importing wood from the Amazon Rain Forest. Stopped it. Gibson got heavy fines and seem to remember all that wood was seized and destroyed. I bet China loved that - no competition Then the prices for Gibson - American made went sky high. Back then could buy Gibson faded for around $450 or $600 ….. seen some used faded models other day from ~$1500-$2500. I think Gibson laid ppl off as did Fender after Govt fines and wood seized. Both Gibson and Fender bought up other name brands that import foreign made guitars. Kramer is one for Gibson. Fender has Squier. Even Ibanez went off shore from japan to china or Indonesia Fender had guitars made in Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, and China. The MIM strats were not bad the MIJ were good quality.

Me thinks… the govt had it in for Gibson and bet the chinese clones come in with no problem. Notice old instruments can be seized if you go out of country and re-enter with them. Imagine doing a tour come back and lose your guitars.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/08/31/140090116/why-gibson-guitar-was-raided-by-the-justice-department

Digitech made good stuff got a RP355 modeler from them some of the old pedals are crazy high now.

You are right the chinese Gibson label copies are so good that I will not buy a used or new one.

My left arm was broken near wrist and arthritis set in so bad can barely fret now. Play few licks and done. Still keep trying though.

The Mexicans always amazed me - take a cheap crappy box guitar missing few strings and play it better then most ppl with the best. They couldn’t name a note or chord either self-taught. Always amazed me that some of them had learned what sounds good. ?

Dont know if you remember that youtuber named scott grove. Think he pulled most of his content and hes in bad health now. But he used to have a ton of videos with a lot of inside info on guitar companies, how they outsourced stuff. All the bullshit terms like tonewood, etc. How Ibanez isnt actually a guitar maker, theyve never made guitars just outsourced them. All the lawsuit guitars.
He still has a channel called groovy music. Gives lessons. He was a prolific collector lives near las vegas.