posted by
janrinok
on Sunday January 18 2015, @04:53PM
from the the-tubes-must-be-nearly-full-by-now dept.
from the the-tubes-must-be-nearly-full-by-now dept.
Ridley Scott is the executive producer for the adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel that's one of 13 new TV shows from Amazon Studios. There's also a video adaptation of The New Yorker magazine, and all 13 pilots are available free online.
Votes of viewers will help decide which ones get picked up for a full season, and Amazon is promising customers that they've assembled "some of the greatest storytellers in the business…with works of novelty and passion."
There's also an hour-long historical Civil War drama filmed on-location in Virginia, plus an adaptation of the popular British series Mad Dog.
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(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Sunday January 18 2015, @05:05PM
So sad to see what a schlockmeister he's become...
He hasn't directed a thing worth watching since Thelma and Louise - and that just barely. His nadir was the 1492 propaganda, and he's stayed in this trough through "Gods and Kings".
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Sunday January 18 2015, @05:29PM
The two most dangerous words in the English language:
It's free!
Is this stuff really free, or an invitation to sell your soul to a walled garden and give up your freedom? I guess it's good that no one else cares about these issues, and I don't care about what they're pushing. We're all happy. When did the world become a dystopia, anyway?
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @07:22PM
When did the world become a dystopia, anyway?
Moments after it was formed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @09:35PM
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday January 19 2015, @11:10AM
an invitation to sell your soul to a walled garden and give up your freedom
Well, yes, they use DRM. I find DRM much less objectionable when it's streaming/subscription than when it's applied to a product which you've "bought", though.
(Not that failing to support Linux is any less annoying when it's subscription, of course.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @02:57AM
Yep. It's free.
(Score: 2) by halcyon1234 on Sunday January 18 2015, @05:43PM
Original Submission [thedailywtf.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @06:08PM
> A site with THREE dashes in its URL? It's astronomically rare for a site with ONE dash in its URL to be of any use. Any more than one dash?
You have a weird way of deciding the value of a website.
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Sunday January 18 2015, @07:06PM
I would rather use screen layout as a way ti figure out which sites are of value.
This site has a horrible layout, with more than half of the space being blank on a desktop screen.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @08:51PM
My default view of pages is similar to what the View; Use Style; No Style setting gives.
(By default, I block all scripts and chintz.)
What I see on that page layout-wise isn't anything in particular to grouse about.
.
Sources of irritation that I notice are
Does the content start at the top of the page?
or
Is the 1st thing on the page a Jump To Content link
(and does that link take you to the actual content)?
This is called Accessibility and for folks e.g. who are blind and who use a screenreader it is very important.
Imagine how irritating it is as your screenreader plows through tons of unrelated crap before getting to what you came to the page to get.
.
Is there a bunch of interstitial crap (ads; self-promotion) inserted into the content?
.
Is the page proper HTML? [w3.org]
If the page is a mess visually, you can bet it was never validated against the standard.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday January 18 2015, @10:42PM
http://fatphil.org/tmp/crappy-website-layout.png
I didn't spend long reading that page, I can assure you - mostly because antialiased letters that are *only 4 pixels high* are unreadable to my weary eyes. What kind of a twat thinks that cascading a font-size of 62.5% from the body downwards is a good idea??!?!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Monday January 19 2015, @07:03PM
I also use NoScript, opened the page just to check what you were talking about and wow it was indeed really bad, not even multiple Ctrl++ helped any (sure it gets larger but even more messy and unusable). That's the worst page I've seen in years, average Geocities sites were better.
However the page looks great in Lynx!! I could even read it if I wanted to :O
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @06:54PM
Amazon's move into entertainment production is interesting. Their model is you pay for Prime 'membership' (which is nominally a discounted shipping program) and you also get full access to their TV shows which are not (legally) available anywhere else. Prime is one of those marketing manipulation programs that works kind of like warehouse "club" stores such as Sam's and Costco - you paid money for it so you feel like you have to "get your money's worth" by shopping at Amazon. Even when Amazon's prices are higher than elsewhere people rationalize purchasing from Amazon by telling themselves it is still cheaper/better-value to buy at Amazon because they've paid for Prime.
It looks like doing their own unique programming is a way for Amazon to convince more people to pay for Prime and thus get sucked into that marketing manipulation. In a sense, this business model not only replaces the traditional television station but also the advertisers who have traditionally paid for commercials during the shows. But in another sense they aren't being replaced so much as Amazon is filling the same niche and becoming a new middleman between viewers and the companies who sell on Amazon, especially Amazon Marketplace sellers.
I'm not really sure how I feel about it in general. For me personally, I won't touch Prime because I know better than to expose myself to manipulation that I can avoid and I am so super-freaky about privacy that I do not want Amazon to know what, where and when I watch tv. Ironically, piracy is the best option if you want to keep your viewing habits to yourself. I've already watched Transparent without Amazon knowing that I did.
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Monday January 19 2015, @08:33AM
I have Prime but torrented a couple of shows anyway. My Panasonic smart TV and XBMC don't support Amazon Video and I'm not watching them on a computer monitor.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday January 19 2015, @12:37PM
Just upgrade the smart TV firmware and ... Oh wait LOL. Smart TVs suck.
I watch on a roughly $50 roku box. When its obsolete, and its a couple years old and still getting updates unlike a smart TV, I'll get another, probably $40 box.. There are cheaper alternatives.
One problem I have with the DRM argument is I run /bin/ls and /usr/bin/emacs a zillion times, listen to music repeatedly over a long period of time, but I'll never watch a TV show or movie again, one time shot. So its binary, does it work then DRM is fine does it not work then DRM sucks. I'm not saying this is how it should be or has to be, but it is why most of the viewing public doesn't care. I'll never, ever, go back and watch last night's network news.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday January 18 2015, @07:42PM
The adaptation of The Man in the High Castle was quite interesting. Even if it would diverge a lot from the book I think I might still be able to enjoy it from the looks and impression I got from the pilot.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Sunday January 18 2015, @09:22PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @09:56PM
Should it not be available on more or less every Torrent- or streaming site of your choice by now? The legality of that might be iffy, I'm not a lawyer so what do I know. But https://eztv.ch/ [eztv.ch] seems like a solid choice ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @10:12PM
Is Amazon still evil?
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/amazon.html [gnu.org]
I've been using alternatives so long I haven't had reason to switch.
Also the show is called "Mad Dogs" as in the song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 19 2015, @02:09AM
http://www.naturalnews.com/046009_Amazon_Fire_TV_audio_surveillance_perfect_spying_device.html [naturalnews.com]
"Millions of Americans installing 'perfect spying device' in their own living rooms: Amazon Fire TV monitors and records your conversations"
"Amazon.com is building the CIA's new $600 million data center, reports the Financial Times. (1) At the same time Amazon.com is building this massive cloud computing infrastructure for the CIA, the company is also shipping millions of Fire TV set-top devices to customers who are placing them in their private homes. I have one myself, and it's a terrific piece of hardware for delivering Prime video content. In fact, in terms of its usability and specs, it's far superior to Roku or Netflix-capable devices. Fire TV is, hands down, the best set-top video delivery device on the market today.
But there's something about it that always struck me as odd: it has no power button. There's no power button on the remote, and there's no power button on the box. It turns out there's no way to power the device off except for unplugging it.
This is highly unusual and apparently done by design. "It is not necessary to turn off Amazon Fire TV when you are finished using it," says the Amazon.com website. (2) "Your Amazon Fire TV is designed to go into sleep mode after 30 minutes, while continuing to automatically receive important software updates."
Note carefully that this does not say your Fire TV device WILL go into sleep mode after 30 minutes; only that it is "designed" to go into sleep mode after 30 minutes. As lawyers well know, this is a huge difference.
Fire TV devices linked to your identity
So far, you might not be convinced this is anything to write home about, but there's much more to this story. What we know so far is that Amazon.com is building the CIA's new cloud computing data center, and we also know the company's Fire TV devices have no way to be turned off and are being placed in the living rooms of private homes.
What starts to make this really interesting is when you realize these devices are linked to your identity before they're shipped to you.
Ever notice that when you power on your Fire TV device, it already knows who you are? Your entire library of video purchases on Amazon.com is already available, and those purchases are of course linked to your credit card, which is linked to your social security number, which is linked to your identity.
In other words, Amazon.com knows the identity of the owner of every Fire TV box currently sitting in living rooms across America. This mean it can connect everything that happens around that box (including audio monitoring, as you'll see below) to your personal identity.
Fire TV devices listen to your voice and upload audio to Amazon servers
Here's the next piece of this puzzle that may give you pause: There is a built-in microphone on the Fire TV remote.
When you click the search button, your voice is recorded and uploaded to Amazon.com servers where it is analyzed by Amazon cloud computing applications -- the same kind of thing Amazon is building for the CIA -- in order to return search matches to your local TV screen.
Now, I fully realize that most Americans are too gullible and naive to believe their audio recordings get uploaded to Amazon.com servers, so I'm going to quote CNET.com here which published an article earlier this year entitled: "How to delete your Fire TV voice recordings - Amazon stores your recordings on its servers to improve accuracy of voice searches. Here's how you can delete that data." (3)
As this article openly states, "To improve the service and the voice results, however, Amazon records and stores the voice samples associated with your account to its servers."
It goes on to warn readers that "there is no way to opt-out of Amazon's voice storage."
And there you have it: the Fire TV device was engineered from the start to record your voice, upload it to Amazon's servers -- now being expanded to the CIA -- and link those voice recordings to your identity.
Nothing written in this article so far should be debatable in the least: it's all fact, openly admitted by the company itself. Then again, the average Netizen is so clueless about reality that you'll probably see people denying the fact that Fire TV set-top boxes have microphones and the ability to upload voice recordings to Amazon.com. Some will call that a "conspiracy theory" even though it's part of the published specification of the device.
But there's even more to this story that does legitimately qualify as a debatable topic. Let's explore...
The perfect spy devices for monitoring private conversations in your home
How hard would it be for Fire TV devices to monitor and upload your conversations 24/7?
Think about it: Fire TV devices already have the hardware, software and bandwidth to record audio and upload it to Amazon.com. That's part of the spec and functionality of the system. The devices have no power off button to discourage people from turning them off. The devices are already linked to your personal identity via your credit card on file with Amazon, and this is the same company that's now building a massive storage and data center for the CIA, which for some reason now needs massive data storage capacity and the ability to process that data using buildings full of servers.
An article published by MHP Books (4) reveals that Amazon may already be working with the NSA to provide surveillance data on U.S. citizens:
...One mainstream source -- Businessweek -- rather perversely observes that the leaked documents show Dropbox was about to be added to the PRISM program, then goes on to say that "This is a weird one because Dropbox stores its customers' files on Amazon.com's cloud computing service, yet Amazon appears nowhere in the Prism documents." It fails to note that not all the companies suspected of supplying the NSA with info were named in the documents -- that those documents were in fact redacted -- although it does show a modicum of due diligence in asking Amazon if it was participating in the NSA program, and a spokeswoman responds with an apparent two word answer: "Not cooperating."
But are they to be believed? Other non-mainstreamers report bluntly that Amazon was part of PRISM. To still other observers, such as this reader in the Guardian, it seems obvious: "Does this explain the apparent immunity to tax of Apple, Amazon and co?" she asks.
Full details on the PRISM infrastructure exposed by Edward Snowden are described in this Market Oracle article. We've also covered it here on Natural News.
Another article entitled, "Snowden slams Amazon for leaking customer data to the NSA" reveals how former NSA contractor Edward Snowden harshly criticized Amazon.com for allowing intelligence agencies to read everything you browse on Amazon.com, including book titles, movies and more. This is happening due to Amazon.com's failure to implement proper encryption protocols, Snowden explains. (5)
Corporations spying on their own customers is a conspiracy FACT
You can fully expect that many people who are still living in the pre-Snowden era will immediately decry this article as a "conspiracy theory." But doing so only paints a dunce label on their foreheads, because thanks to Snowden, we already know as a matter of record that nearly all the large data companies routinely spy on their own customers and hand over that data to the NSA. Welcome to 1984, three decades later.
Perhaps in 2004, the idea that all your phone calls, emails, credit card transactions, banking activities, web surfing habits and social media posts were monitored by the NSA could be considered kooky and weird. But today, ten years later, all this (and more) is known to be historical fact.
If you don't believe me, listen to the words of former high-level NSA architect William Binney who now warns that "the ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control," according to a headline in The Guardian. (6)
That Guardian article goes on to report:
Binney recently told the German NSA inquiry committee that his former employer had a "totalitarian mentality" that was the "greatest threat" to US society since that country's US Civil War in the 19th century.
The era of mass surveillance has gone from the fringes of public debate to the mainstream, where it belongs... One of Europe's leading web creators, Lena Thiele, presented her stunning series Netwars in London on the threat of cyber warfare. She showed how easy it is for governments and corporations to capture our personal information without us even realising.
That may be exactly what Amazon is doing right now with Fire TV set-top boxes: capturing our personal information without us realizing.
Huge intelligence value of recording your private conversations
Imagine the intelligence value of having 24/7 audio streams of private household conversations that are linked to all the other information Amazon already has on us: book purchasing habits, video viewing habits, shopping behaviors and more. While many people concerned about digital privacy often point to Google's tracking of your search queries, in truth Amazon.com has a far more intimate knowledge of your psyche than Google because Amazon knows what you're buying, watching, reading and consuming.
I'm sure my own Amazon.com purchase history would be a goldmine of data revealing a long history of purchases of laboratory equipment, firearms accessories, rare books and products related to special interest areas such as aviation history and aquaponics. Imagine the value of this information if combined with live audio of someone holding private conversations in their own living room.
With Fire TV, Amazon may have already displaced Google as the internet company that knows more about your psyche than anyone else. And Amazon is the company that's now building the CIA's new cloud computing center.
Gives you something to ponder, doesn't it?
All Fire TV devices are one update away from being activated as spy devices
I fully realize there may be many skeptics who can't possibly fathom the idea of Amazon.com spying on them in their own living rooms. Then again, there are still people who believe that concrete-and-steel buildings collapse like a perfect demolition job following a few small office fires. Go figure.
But consider this: Even if Fire TV boxes aren't currently being used to spy on you, they could be activated as spy devices with a simple software update.
And guess what? Those software updates are automatic and selective. In other words, Amazon.com could turn on spying functions for certain selected Fire TV boxes belonging to certain people the NSA or CIA wanted to monitor.
The updates happen quietly, in the background, without your knowledge. One day you wake up and your Fire TV box is suddenly monitoring everything you say, without your knowledge, right in your own living room.
Anyone who thinks this isn't possible is living in a world of delusion. Corporations routinely spy on their own customers and turn over that data to the NSA or CIA. The more realistic question is: why wouldn't Amazon already be doing this?
Simple solution: UNPLUG!
Fortunately, there's a simple solution to all this: UNPLUG it!
In fact, the mantra "Unplug" might be the perfect word for the greatest wisdom of our time. If you don't want to be spied on, unplug from the grid: don't shop at Amazon.com, don't run search queries on Google, don't use email, don't use credit cards and don't install spy devices in your own living room.
By simply unplugging these devices, you deny them the stream of electrons they need to spy on you. That's their Achilles Heel: they all need electricity, and YOU control the electricity.
Personally, I love using Fire TV, but I now unplug it when I'm not watching something. This not only protects my privacy from Amazon snoops, it also seems to make the device function a lot better by rebooting it each time.
If you have a Fire TV device, unplug it when you're not using it. You'll save a small amount of electricity, but more importantly you might also save your privacy from the prying eyes at Amazon, the NSA and the CIA, all of which are aggressively expanding their monitoring and surveillance of Americans."
Natural News Network © 2014
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday January 19 2015, @03:01AM
You should worry more about the 30+ million kinects in the wild.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday January 19 2015, @12:53PM
1) This isn't their first rodeo, this is season two of the "vote for the winner" gameplan. From the first season my kids are mesmerized by the Annebots show and I think its pretty good. I am kind of worried with the whole "forget history" aspect, which probably implies all of season 1 is dead (and maybe about to be deleted permanently or for 90 years or whatever?). I suppose better to go out on a high note after one decent season than to grind out schlock until the Anyway, season 1 didn't entirely suck so I'll have high hopes for season 2.
2) Pay CLOSE attention to the content. Looks like the 80s or 90s network prime time lineups. Where's the reality TV game/drama shows? Wheres the political agitprop / newsmagazines? Wheres the "extreme blue collar labor" shows? Wheres the sports? Everything that makes modern TV suck and completely unwatchable seems to be missing. Notice all the astroturfing and propagandizing about "cutting the cord" always revolves around solely discussing price and neophilia and sticking it to the company, and the astroturfing contracts forbid ever discussing the CONTENT! Given a choice of a drama about the civil war on demand, an action/thriller about nazis on demand, or every freaking cable channel broadcasting the same hillbilly handfishin and toddlers in tiaras, I think the reason why people are running away from the networks isn't the price.
I don't understand the financials. I could pay thousands a year for the cable experience and with some premium channels the content is almost as good and there's a little more content but who has the time to watch TV anyway. Or a hundred a year for the prime shipping, and this is a free bolt on, added years after I signed up for prime shipping. The astroturfing mantra is "quality TV costs millions" so how are they paying for this?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @01:08AM
How are they paying for it? Currently by operating the content sales piece at a loss, effectively making it a marketing expense.
But the trick is, Prime (both shipping and video content) has high fixed costs but potentially very low marginal costs. Loading one more package on the next UPS, FedEx or USPS flight with slack capacity can be negotiated down to a very low cost. Similar concept for one more streaming user, particularly when you have geographically distributed data centers which can be overspecced because you have an infrastructure for selling your slack capacity.
Amazon is still in an aggressive growth phase. What's interesting about them compared to say Google is that they have a stronger focus on making sure that every new product or service they roll out builds on existing strengths. If they keep growing this way, their infrastructure will give them a cost advantage versus WalMart and they'll have a large enough customer base to negotiate with their suppliers at the level that WalMart does. If Amazon gets enough people into Prime, they'll be in a position to take over a large chunk of retail, with Walmart, K-Mart, Target and Best Buy being the losers.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday January 20 2015, @01:34PM
Amazon expansion - you can't choose any competitor because they got bought up and you will be using Amazon products and services regardless of your wishes once you took the free bait. In other words.. resistance is futile and you will be buying into Amazon.
They seem to go on the horizontal integration... beware!