I find it kind of ironic how you complain about downvotes while supporting democracy. I’m not saying whether I agree or disagree with you, I’m not saying either if I think you are right or wrong. But just like in a democracy votes represent the opinion of those who decided to vote. Being right won’t mean you get the votes. You should just accept them and stop complaining about them.

Ha, interesting question, really cool answers all around.

For me, it was many years ago when I went with a friend to visit a common friend that was studying in Vermont (we 3 are from Europe), and using the occasion we went to visit new York as well. One night we went to have a walk around Times Square and took the subway to get there. I was just standing there checking out the map to keep myself busy when this huge black guy wearing an even bigger fur coat that was sitting started talking to me and asking where I was going and if I needed help.

At first I awkwardly said that I didn’t need any help, I was just looking at the map to keep busy. He insisted asking where I was going, to which I answered to have a stroll around times square. He got quite cheerful and said he was going in the same direction and he knew a shortcut. At that point I got a bit suspicious but the guy said changing the train we would get there faster, I confirmed that indeed the other train was going in that direction and he told us to follow him. Despite my suspicion as long as there was plenty of people around I decided to trust him and go with him.

After the change of train he told me he knew another trick about that station, everyone was going to the normal stairs but he told us if we go a bit further we can avoid those stairs. He took us to an escalator that took us into an exit straight at Times square.

In the meantime we started talking with him, he told us he was going that night to have a guy’s night out with his friends and they were going to Atlantic City. He started telling us about his life, he was a music editor, and was married, and loved to help people visiting new York. By the time we got out into the street it felt like we were quite close friends and we stayed there a bit still talking, he was one of the nicest random people I have ever met, we took a photo together and he gave me his contact card in case I ever returned to NY (which I didn’t).

I’ve thought about him ever since and wondered how he was doing. It’s a great memory I have of such a simple random encounter.

Most likely I’m too specific about it, but I see quite some shows mentioned that I’d not really consider underrated or unrecognised. Firefly is one of my all time favourites but not really underrated or unrecognised. Or Fringe, possibly not even From (of which I’ll just say I very much hope they have an ending planned because I don’t want it to end lost like Lost).

Perfect examples of underrated or unrecognised shows are Galavant and Utopia, mentioned by others, they are brilliant.

In a similar direction I’d say Dead Set, a UK show that really surprised me ages ago but never see mentioned. https://imdb.com/title/tt1285482/

Maybe I should include also Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, but that may be a lot less underrated and it’s a minishow only.

It’s either Matrix or Fight Club, I guess it depends on the day

I can’t see anyone mentioning Titan A.E. man I love that movie, the mix of hand drawn animation and CGI was great for the time and I really enjoyed the world building.

What do you mean? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_II_(film)

Ah the false implication that if we don’t pay then things won’t get done. That’s a fallacy. People will always make content, they only stop if they need to work to survive and have no time. If they are paid for creating, they will create even more. If they are paid to create what they are told they won’t be able to create what they would want to.

When content is controlled and a company has the right to decide what and when and how something is created that’s when content and services get worse over time. Disney is a huge money making machine based on monopolistically controlling content, stories, characters… Disney’s services and products will only get worse no matter who pays or doesn’t, despite the love and effort put by the workers, because decisions are made based on corporate greed and maximising revenue. No one but Disney can create a marvel movie, if I would, I’d get sued into oblivion.

The only mental gymnastics are yours.

There is a ton of arguments against supporting these shitty corps milking their customers. However, there is no argument for piracy.

How do you propose to stop supporting Disney? Without eventually hurting the employees of Disney?

Streaming or buying a blueray or paying for a movie ticket (which is prohibitively expensive and can only be done in some occasions when I know I will enjoy it and then they fill you up in ads), it won’t matter, it all supports Disney and their shitty behaviour. I love buying my favourite movies and shows but I don’t want to buy all the movies and shows I want to watch, that’s why streaming is so much better in many ways and set as the main example. Even movies I bought in BR I will end up downloading for the comfort of watching them, I want to watch them on whatever screen I want wherever I want, not when I have a blue ray reader.

And others have already told you, sometimes there’s no legal way to enjoy some content, if some company doesn’t want me to get something, why would I listen to them and not find my own way?

The fact that it all works for you doesn’t mean others don’t want it in a different way.

If your kids want to watch a disney movie they spend their time enjoying it. You need to compensate whoever is providing for that. If they enjoy their time in Disneyland they also need to pay the ticket, eventhough the rides will work without them paying for the ticket.

No, I don’t need to do anything, they don’t set the rules. If my kids enjoy watching a movie but Disney won’t allow them to watch it without first swallowing 30 minutes of ads selling them other stuff you bet your own ass I will find a way to allow them to watch the movie without whatever random shit a corporation comes up with. I want to compensate the workers but I don’t. I pay Disney and they choose how employees are paid. And I won’t do whatever they say just because they “own” the movie. Should I still compensate the employees of Disney and the corporation for I don’t know, watching Fantasia done over 80 years ago? Stop sucking the corporations ass. They are abusing everyone, including their own employees.

If you say we have reasons to stop supporting Disney then you are saying either no one can watch their content or we can watch it the only way it hurts them. There’s no middle ground.

Man you got such a weird hard on for this stance where you keep repeating the same thing over and over without actually providing a valuable argument.

So just in case you are not a bot and actually want the argument explained, here you go:

I want to watch movie A produced by Disney. As you say I have a ton of arguments to not support Disney. So I don’t pay to watch the movie. Now there’s two options left, I never watch the movie or I pirate the movie and watch it. By not watching it the only one that suffers is me, Disney couldn’t give two shits if I watch it or not. By pirating the movie I get the two things I want, to watch the movie and to not support Disney.

By pirating the movie to watch it I am not impeding anyone’s ability to watch it by paying Disney. I’m not taking anyone’s movie, no one loses anything, except Disney who loses the money they want me to pay. All those who participated in making the movie are not losing their salaries, they were already paid for the work by Disney, I’m not stealing their salaries (unless they had a contract with Disney to get some % but I can’t pay them without paying Disney)

Now let’s say I’m a parent, my kids want to watch movie A of Disney, but I don’t want to support Disney, do I punish Disney or do I punish my kids by not watching the movie? Or do I pirate the movie for my kids and still don’t support Disney’s shitty corporate behaviour?

Let’s see if you still don’t see the argument for piracy ffs

I like the idea of the keyboard being offline and the LLM stuff but so far I can’t see a way for multi language input. I’m guessing it’s too early in the alpha state for that but I will keep an eye open for it, it is a promising project. In the meantime I’ll test the heliboard others were mentioning.

Wow thanks! Really need to try that one! Live tv is not my jam tho, I don’t care much for stuff I can’t choose when to watch.

Thanks for the info, I’ll check that DNS proxy. But my issue is not geo blocking itself, I already passed that with VPN but they also require an account with a lot of details in order to watch the content. I have tried creating an account to manage it but without success and it felt too much effort, I’d prefer to find some alternative. Thanks anyway!

Yeah I have a VPN already and recently I’ve been considering changing mail and calendar and storage to proton and have my account there, but didn’t check their VPN service yet.

Without the VPN I couldn’t even get to try the playback, but with VPN I still need a way to circumvent their account requirements.

Snakes on a plane. I still haven’t watched it but I had to get it just for XKCD…

Whiskey tho