I see some talk in Q about big tech providing shitty products, so thought I would bring that discussion here as it holds my interest.

Full disclosure: I consider myself "a Capitalist", but not a blind Libertarian type, but more of a Hamiltonian Conservative type who knows the need, indeed the desire, for a Federal Government, but one that provide torque for growth ( infrastructure spending ) over welfare programs with no mechanisms bridging people out of poverty. Self described Southern Conservative Democrat - one who values the environment and workers/middle class ( over the very poor favored by my liberal Democratic counterparts commonly found in North Eastern USA and California ).

So it appears to me our current Capitalist equation is: build a brand on providing value, then become massively successful monopoly, then cut costs eroding your product for your customers. A tangent thread to this are companies with a brand/reputation are bought by outside investors ( or not ) and then cut costs eroding their product/service into shit and then when they've lost enough customers they "we hear you" and make some changes addressing the worst/common negative reviews. Here's something you can hear: don't fuck your customers over, how's that for a marketing strategy.

I agree wholeheartedly with Sciborg2, big tech is delivering dogshit products/services. These trillion dollar companies amaze me, their code is crap. This list is a quick touch on the technological crap we're fed.

• Facebook is a shitshow ( why the fuck doesn't text search work in the comments? wtf, most basic easy part of programming, something mastered in early 90's ).
• eBay too, can't text search your order history ( that simple capability would drive repeat sales ) and the draconian process of conflict resolution is stupid - they've lost more business to forum private auctions simply because they haven't learned the "mall marketing" strategy, which is you WANT foot traffic. So what if some transactions are completed outside the site, you want the human fuss, you want all transactions to go through your site regardless if some are completed offsite. So stupid.
• Google is pure dogshit - and the now-shit search algorithms is just the beginning, the archive feature in gmail is fucking stupid.

All of these companies are begging for disruptors to come along and kick the shit out of them and so they push for legislation to protect them ( crony capitalism ).

So while, yes, I support the right to property and liberty to live our lives the way we want to, but our current capitalistic reality in the USA is a race to the bottom, a perpetual cycle of cool innovation and value matures into a monopoly who can then only increase profits by perennially cutting costs in the name of "efficiency" ( read: dogshit ). So yes, I see us living in Dogshit Capitalism. Not sure what to do about it as long as we continue to support Government-business corruption, which is not a conspiracy theory, but so common a reality we simply don't see it and accept it.

I'm gonna check this out - something I've been mulling over for a while now - but not being a scholar of Rome, it was just idle speculation, but here's a read that might back up what I've been suspecting all along, that when a society becomes so successful ( economically, at least ) with no significant foreign threats, the citizenry turns on themselves.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lessons-decline-democracy-from-ruined-roman-republic-180970711/?fbclid=IwAR0go81fCFiB-4c7wwxVUPK_QS7J-PtNCXpm0Vl-Kpj4vgW5pgD93zZ8j88

Quote from: TaoHorror on May 11, 2020, 01:35:39 pm

I assumed they had, will be going into this thing disappointed learning they didn't 

Curious as to your thoughts. I just couldn't get into it Devs, prolly stopped a third into the first episode. Admittedly I feel I'm just not in the life-space to think deeply about my TV...

I likely can't start it for a while, maybe in June, but you can count on me to post my review

Quote from: BeardFischer-Koff on May 03, 2020, 10:09:45 pm

I heard about a new show, "Devs", streaming on Hulu, or "FX on Hulu", directed by Alex Garland ("Ex Machina", "Annihilation") that revolves around the determinism/free will question. Anyone aware of it?

Yeah, good show, well worth watching.

I've not, I'll check it out, sounds intriguing.

Ah I'll have to check it out, even though I am a bit puzzled why - as one of the five people on Earth qualified to talk about free will - I wasn't consulted...

I assumed they had, will be going into this thing disappointed learning they didn't 

Homeland

Big fan of this show, I was sad a first couple years back when they announced the end of the show, but now seeing the series end, I realize it was time for it to go. Not that it's bad, I like the last season and the ending, but it's gone far enough.

Pretty fucking spoiler here, you've been warned

Dispatches From Elsewhere

So, I didn’t want to like this, but I do. Haven’t finished it yet, so there’s still time for it to become a piece of shit - don’t give up hope, right? Man, that was out of character for me to be so skeptical, but here we are. But look, an actor from How I Met Your Mother is bound to be shite ( Harris as exception, that cat is amazing, but alas he is not in this show, it’s someone else ).

Ok – so this dabbles in the waters of ( Philosophy? Psychology? Sociology? Conspiracy? Self-Help? ) and so far it’s descent. They’re doing a pretty good job of weaving interesting humans, psychology, sociology, cult, and corporate invention and convention, but pulling this all off nicely as bullshit, not taking this too seriously and a genuine interesting mystery all at the same time. A light-hearted take on some heavy themes – so far. So where is this all going? Simply a therapeutic exercise? Something fun to jolt people out of their routines? A rich sadist who loves fucking with people? A conspiracy? Or simple nonsense? It can be any/all of these things as it’s going in all of these directions in equal measure. It’s good writing as too convenient clue discovery has been kept to a minimum, but I concede I would likely miss many of what our characters discover, but it’s not of the fantastic, so we can buy into it ( the memory palace exercise not withstanding ). I'll update when I finish it.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

So, head and shoulders better than that piece of shit The Hateful Eight, but that's a really low bar to clear. I guess I'll put this in Spoiler, but you don't have to waste your time watching this. A mishmash of excellent directing with poor writing. Tarantino's evolution has been bizarre, guess that's fitting given how he comes across in public. His directing skills appears to be as good as they've ever been, but his writing has gone into the toilet. Another alternate history with ( I think ) a beautiful capture of what it was really like in late 60's Hollywood with real and fictional characters mixed in fictional events/endings. So the "history" of this is very good with tiny textures that tickle like seeing people's dirty feet up on theater seats, but that's what it was like back then, there was a lot of bare-footing going on and while now the sight of that is ugly, back then it was normal ( I grew up in the 70's, we weren't so dainty, even many of the rich weren't ). The big problem is the movie is just boring. Too much of it is historical texture, not enough gas. A story/production is as good as it's weakest component, so this was a long slog watching this thing. He weaves the story with apparently unrelated events/unconnected characters, but he simply did so much better with Pulp Fiction than he's doing now.