https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1648829114
The Vizio TV that you bought with hard-earned cash has a new feature; Jump Ads. Vizio will first identify what is on your screen and then place interactive banner ads over live TV programs.
LG and Samsung have both redesigned their Smart TV platform to more prominently display ads and highlight content from partners, much like Android TV. Meanwhile, owners of Roku TVs have complained about banner ads on live TV.
Vizio is no stranger to Smart TV ads and the company is now taking it a step further with so-called Jump Ads.
- "Jump Ads represent yet another step in VIZIO's ongoing mission to unify the smart TV experience with features that benefit viewers, content providers and advertisers," said Adam Bergman, VP of sales, Vizio Ads.
Related Stories
If you're looking to buy a TV in 2025, you may be disappointed by the types of advancements TV brands will be prioritizing in the new year. While there's an audience of enthusiasts interested in developments in tech like OLED, QDEL, and [Micro LED], plus other features like transparency and improved audio, that doesn't appear to be what the industry is focused on.
Today's TV selection has a serious dependency on advertisements and user tracking.
[...] One of the most impactful changes to the TV market next year will be Walmart owning Vizio. For Walmart, the deal, which closed on December 3 for approximately $2.3 billion, is about owning the data collection capabilities of Vizio's SmartCast OS.
[...] In 2025, buying a Vizio TV won't just mean buying a TV from a company that's essentially an ad business. It will mean fueling Walmart's ad business. With Walmart also owning Onn and Amazon owning Fire TVs, that means there's one less TV brand that isn't a cog in a retail giant's ever-expanding ad machine.
[...] Further, Walmart has expressed a goal of becoming one of the 10 biggest ad companies, with the ad business notably having higher margins than groceries. It could use Vizio, via more plentiful and/or intrusive ads, to fuel those goals.
And Walmart's TV market share is set to grow in the new year. Paul Gray, research director of consumer electronics and devices at Omdia, told Ars Technica he expects that "the new combined sales (Vizio plus Walmart's white label) will be bigger than the current market leader Samsung."
[...] 'Walmart has told you by buying Vizio that these large retailers need a connected television advertising platform to tie purchases to," Martin told Bloomberg. "That means Target and other large retailers have that reason to buy Roku to tie Roku's connected television ad units to their sales in their retail stores. And by the way, Roku has much higher margins than any retailer.'"
[...] TV brands have become so dependent on ads that some are selling TVs at a loss to push ads. How did we get to the point where TV brands view their hardware as a way to track and sell to viewers? Part of the reason TV OSes are pushing the limits on ads is that many viewers seem willing to accept them, especially in the name of saving money.
[...]Still, analysts agree that even among more expensive TV brands, there has been a shift toward building out ad businesses and OSes over improving hardware features like audio.
"This is a low-margin business, and even in the premium segment, the revenues from ads and data are significant. Also, the sort of consumer who buys a premium TV is likely to be especially interesting to advertisers," Gray said.
[...] In 2025, TVs will continue focusing innovation around software, which has immediate returns via ad sales compared to new hardware, which can take years to develop and catch on with shoppers. For some, this is creating a strong demand for dumb TVs, but unfortunately, there are no immediate signs of that becoming a trend.
As Horner put it, "This is an advertising/e-commerce-driven market, not a consumer-driven market. TV content is just the bait in the trap."
Related articles on SoylentNews:
Facebook Ad Partner Admits to Listening to Your Microphone to You Serve Ads on What You Talk About - 20240904
Prime Video Cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos Support From Ad Tier—and Didn't Tell Subs - 20240217
After Luring Customers With Low Prices, Amazon Stuffs Fire TVs With Ads - 20231112
The Role of TV Ad Content in Viewers' Zapping Behavior - 20220717
It's Still Stupidly, Ridiculously Difficult To Buy A 'Dumb' TV - 20220416
Vizio TVs Are Now Showing Banner Ads Over Live TV - 20220403
TV Advertising's Watershed Moment: It is Finally Becoming More Like Digital - 20200409
Smart TVs Sending Sensitive User Data to Netflix and Facebook - 20190918
Android TV Users are Seeing Ads after Latest Update - 20190404
Taking the Smarts Out of Smart TVs Would Make Them More Expensive - 20190122
Facebook Wants to Hide Secret Inaudible Messages in TV Ads - 20180703
(Score: 5, Insightful) by EJ on Monday April 04 2022, @06:36AM (6 children)
I don't ever activate the network connection on my TV.
The day that solution stops working is the day I pull out my soldering iron.
(Score: 4, Touché) by anubi on Monday April 04 2022, @06:50AM (2 children)
OTA TV is looking better and better.
And, God Forbid! No TV at all is looking better yet!
There are so many things to do besides watching TV!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @12:47PM
What do you get from a glut of TV
A pain in the neck and an IQ of three
Why don't you try simply reading a book
Or could you just not bear to look
You'll get no
You'll get no
You'll get no
You'll get no
You'll get no commercials
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Monday April 04 2022, @03:05PM
You really think there are enough people stupid enough to buy one to make them profitable? Maybe if they're 60 inch 4K TVs for twenty five bucks. Maybe not even then. And I'm getting 20 channels over the air in little Springfield, IL. Twice that many in St. Louis.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Monday April 04 2022, @04:19PM (2 children)
I have a 10 year old tv/monitor that has smart features but I never gave it access to wifi. not once. not even to update its broken firmware, which I work around its bugs.
hopefully we can continue to treat 'tvs' as hdmi display devices without nags. as long as it plays content over hdmi (no sound wanted, that goes to my audio system) I'll buy whatever makes sense at the time, when this one finally gives up.
linux runs on an aging (5 years at least) fanless i5 system with more than good enough onboard (onchip) video. all my 'live' content comes from YT and there are useful ad blockers and YT helpers for firefox that make watching it quite painless and ad-free.
with youtube-dl, I can save files fast and watch them later. still ad-free.
over the air? cable? what's that? lol
shame that I'll never take firmware updates on devices like this, but that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.
hopefully these things dont find free/open networks and do their evil in the background. usually there are not open networks. I almost feel like its worth having a dummy stub open network to just keep it busy, should it find the need to 'want' to connect to an open ssid.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @02:44AM (1 child)
youtube-dl is on it's deathbed. No updates since December of last year.
What you should look into is
yt-dlp:
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp [github.com]
which is actively maintained and probably the best replacement.
Discussion forum for both:
https://old.reddit.com/r/youtubedl/ [reddit.com]
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday April 06 2022, @11:11PM
I type the old name but definitely use the new version that has no throttling.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 5, Informative) by Kell on Monday April 04 2022, @07:29AM (17 children)
I own a nice, non-smart TV. Now, I don't watch free to air TV, but my husband does; mostly we use it to watch videos we own. I hope it lasts a long time to come because I simply won't pay money for a smart TV of any sort. Even if I wouldn't ever actually connect it to a network, I won't reward a company that produces one. One day my TV will die and we will be unable to buy a smart TV; on that day I will buy a large computer monitor or projector. When I can no longer buy a display that does not spy on me or advertise at me, I will return to my books and there I will remain.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bradley13 on Monday April 04 2022, @09:54AM (10 children)
We moved to a projector years ago, and it's worth it in so many ways. First, no annoying "smart" TV features. Second, no TV that you have to look at, even when it's off (the screen rolls up to the ceiling). Third, your picture can be as big as you want - the cost of the projector stays the same. The only complication with a projector is sound: We use a splitter to take the sound off of HDMI and run it into our hifi system, which has speakers located on the wall with the screen.
FWIW, our projector has two inputs: one for cable TV (which comes in on a dumb modem from the cable company), and one for our local content.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday April 04 2022, @11:07AM (5 children)
My in-laws used to run a projector system (10~15 years ago) but gave it up when their projector's bulb blew. The price of a replacement bulb was eye-watering, and they opted for a flatscreen TV instead.
Is the price of projector bulbs still an issue, or has this passed?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by anubi on Monday April 04 2022, @12:25PM
They are coming out with some new 4K laser video projectors that look quite interesting. Quite pricey in the $5K range, but considering their anticipated utility and lifetime, they have piqued my interest.
A big hurdle for me, besides the price, is their power consumption, in the 500 watt range. Same thing that made me delay purchase of a Plasma TV.
If it has to be connected to the internet, I flat do not want it.
The last thing I want right now is another piece of technology that won't work without me agreeing to business talk, and even if I comply, there is still no real guarantee, backed by the laws of physics, that it will work.
Experience has taught me that a business guarantee, backed by a piece of paper, isn't worth a damn. Often, one has to involve lawsuits, and that can get very risky with all the businesstalk, terms, and conditions one has to agree to, to even see if the thing even works at all.
I insist the retailer demonstrate the thing to me, set it up so I can cast to it, from my phone, using another phone which has no internet, as a wifi hub, to simulate my house intranet.
So far, I have had no retailers that would do such a demonstration and setup training for me .
My money is still in the bank, their smart TV is still in a box in their showroom.
I'm not buying anything until I know what I am getting into.
I am flat not going to have some thing in my house that snoops on me and holds the monies I invested in it as a sunk cost if I fail to obey it. No way. This kind of crap has a negative value to me.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by datapharmer on Monday April 04 2022, @12:30PM
You don't have to worry about it now from a practical standpoint if you get one that uses LEDs.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Monday April 04 2022, @02:53PM
Wide price range, but they can go from $100 to $500 or more.
And a new bulb generally won't bring it back to new image quality. Residue builds up on all of the optics. You could take it apart and clean them, which would help. But the main LCDs degrade and even though I'm a big repair advocate, at that point you're better off buying new (or flat screen).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The_Deacon on Monday April 04 2022, @11:50PM (1 child)
I've used nothing but projectors since about 2004. If you wait until your bulb burns out to buy a replacement, yeah you'll possibly be looking at $300-500 for a bulb. So do what I do: buy a spare bulb along with the projector! When you buy the bulb for an in-production projector, it's usually cheap - I last spent $130 for a spare OE bulb, and nowadays some OE bulbs are around $90. Or I could've bought a cheap clone time-bomb replacement for $38 off AliExpress. Funny thing, since I had a spare, the original bulb never burned out ... I'm sure there's some Murphy's Law corollary for that! 7 years later, over 4000 hours on the bulb, and the original is still going -- it takes about 2x as long to warm up to full brightness now as it did when new, but the picture is great.
Modern projectors have "EcoMode" where they dim the bulb by 20-30%, and that extends the life of the bulb by 100% or more. So if you overprovision on lumens, you can run the projector in EcoMode all the time, and expect a 5000-6000 hour lifespan out of one bulb. Need a 1500-lumen projector? Buy a 2000-lumen unit and a spare bulb, run it in EcoMode, and never worry about the bulb burning out. Bonus: by the time you decide to sell it and upgrade, if the original bulb hasn't given up the ghost, you can sell the projector with a brand-new bulb for top dollar. Or sell the spare bulb by itself for $300-500 or whatever the going rate is at the time.
And don't worry about optics getting dirty inside the projector. Unless you get a crappily-designed one, the optical path on a DLP projector will be 99.999% dust free. You may need to clean the output lenses from time to time, but I've never needed to clean the optics of any of my three projectors over the past 18 years. Once I did get a speck of dust inside my old LCD projector, so it can happen, that's why I left the 0.0001% in there. :) But anecdotally from my experience over 10,000 hours with a single dust speck, you'll be fine.
I love the projector vs the TV. The only annoyance is needing to manage ambient light -- my setup basically requires me to watch movies at night, or install blackout shades. Considering that I work most days, this isn't a problem -- I watch movies at night. But every once in a while, I wish I could watch TV or play games mid-day without it being a hassle. And then I read stories like this, and I am reminded why I don't do "smart" TVs. :) I can manage the hassle instead. Or convince my wife to spring for some blackout shades.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @02:11AM
And this is the problem with projectors. They are good for adults who only watch movies, and nothing else. Most people want to be able to watch TV whenever they want, or they have kids who want to watch it after school, or on weekends, and it's just not acceptable to have a TV that only works at odd hours.
Or you can build a dedicated theater room, which is great if you're a one percenter, but most people need to put their TV in the living room.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mcgrew on Monday April 04 2022, @03:25PM (3 children)
Cable? Unless you live in a reception-free valley, cable is obsolete. It was great in 1980 when it gave you twice as many channels, without snow or ghosts on the screen or static in the sound, for ten bucks. The cable channels either had no commercials, or had them only between shows. There was Music television, now there's Empty-V that only shows stupid reality shows. Discovery, which showed STEM then but now only shows stupid reality shows. There was the History channel that now only shows stupid reality shows.
Digital TV (and greed) made cable TV obsolete. Now over the air is high definition, 720 and 1080. Cable has few 720 stations and is mostly standard definition. Now the cable channels not only have ads, but advertise at the bottom of the screen while the content is playing!
Cable no longer has any advantage whatever over a $25 rabbit ears, and many disadvantages.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @02:01AM (2 children)
I don't know any cable channels that are still in SD. You might find some reruns of old shows in SD, but they can't do anything about that. The bad part is they mangle the show by cutting half of it off or else by squashing the aspect ratio. Which pretty much makes it unwatchable.
Cable is the only way to get live sports, other than football.
There are at least four music channels now. MTV hasn't shown videos in 25 years, but the other ones do, as well as concerts and music variety shows and even the occasional music education show. TLC and History suck now (Discovery is not so bad) but there are plenty of education channels still. There was H2 for a while and the military channel if you miss the "all Hitler all the time" of classic History Channel. There's Discovery 2 as well and National Geographic.
All that said - I canceled my cable last year and, while I meant to get an antenna setup, I haven't bothered. (I have the antenna, but I can't be bothered to buy the PC tuner for it...) So I just quit watching. It's fine. I had pretty much stopped watching everything but Jeopardy and South Park anyway, and without Alex Trebek...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @02:26AM
You can get an infinite amount of entertainment on YouTube, himovies.to, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @07:05PM
This is true. I really miss baseball. I'm in the TV market of two MLB teams and none of their games are OTA unless they happen to be the one scheduled Fox national "Game of the Week", which means they'd be playing either the Dodgers or the Yankees.
All sports leagues around the world aspire to be like the NFL, but most of them are penny-wise and pound foolish by locking themselves behind paywalls. They want the popularity and revenue stream of the NFL, but they give up fan base growth through ease of access and exposure for short-term profit. Well that, and betting. Eliminate betting from the NFL and it will be down there in popularity with the rest of them.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Night Goat on Monday April 04 2022, @01:31PM (2 children)
I made the jump to smart TVs two or three years ago, and I've got the same feeling about smart TVs as you do. I can't speak for all smart TVs, but my Sony works fine if you just don't connect it to wi-fi. You lose the smartness but still get the benefits of a new TV's technology. In fact, one feature that I use that doesn't require any network connection is the Videos app. I hook my USB storage to the TV and I can play videos off of it. Do some research before fully writing off the smart TVs. Although, going straight to books does sound tempting!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday April 04 2022, @03:31PM (1 child)
Agreed. You can, of course plug a game console into a dumb TV and get many of the advantages of a smart TV, but not all. The built-in channel guide for over the air TV is really handy. And Netflix and Disney have 4K and I'm not sure my PS4 has 4K capability. It's also quite a few extra steps to use the PS4 after selecting the device.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @10:35PM
I generally use a combination of roku, ps3 and raspberry pi running minildna for most of my needs, it works pretty well. It's just annoying that every time I turn it on, there's a menu offering to set up the smart features.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by mcgrew on Monday April 04 2022, @03:14PM (1 child)
Reading comprehension problem? It's only one brand doing this! I didn't want a smart TV when I bought mine [mcgrew.info] and wound up with a smart TV with a brand I hated, but I've come to love it. One good thing about a "smart" TV is you can still plug computers and game consoles in it, and it can play movies stored on my network drive. And it has a Gracenote channel listing, making OTA look like cable, only high definition (cable tops out at 720 with most channels standard def).
Now, if they all follow this insanity, TV can kiss my ass when the one I have dies.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @10:59PM
Yes, you might have one. He was clearly talking about smart TVs in general terms. Try to keep up.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday April 04 2022, @06:37PM
Is the correct answer.
I don't like TV. I spent too much of my childhood unthinkingly watching it and missed out on a lot of life.
When I left home, I went six years without a TV. Eventually I needed to get one to get broadband (cable) internet. The box needed a TV for configuration!
I hate spending money on TVs. We have a borrowed non-smart TV at the moment since our last one broke. Other people in the house wanted Sky TV, so we've got that. I resent paying for it, though. I pay to be served adverts! I watch little TV and when I do it's good topical comedy, documentaries, quality news and the like. I need a good laugh at the end of a hard day, or something genuinely interesting.
The next "TV" I buy will be a computer monitor with no network connection other than the one to the set top box. It will not watch me. It will not listen to me. I don't care as much that it knows what TV channels I watch, but I wish it didn't.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Insightful) by pTamok on Monday April 04 2022, @08:05AM (12 children)
I've just had one of those realizations: the Monty Python SPAM™ sketch is the perfect analogy for Online and TV advertising.
For some reason, my mental categorisations had spam as 'unsolicited commercial email' or 'unsolicited forum posts on irrelevant topics' - text based. But unwanted (video) advertising is just that - spam, as in the sketch. As the sketch says: "I don't want ANY spam!"
For those unfamiliar with the SPAM™ song, Monty Python graciously have an official YouTube channel where it is included: Monty Python - Spam Song (Official Lyric Video) [youtube.com]
Less officially, you can see more of the sketch here: Business Insider: Spam stems from Monty Python sketch [youtube.com]
A sound recording of the full sketch is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrZyZn5nVks [youtube.com]
There is also a subtle point in the sketch: many people point out that the first two menu items read by the waitress do not have SPAM™ in them ( egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon ) . When the wife asks: "Have you got anything without spam?", both the waitress and the husband are so normalized/inured to the presence of SPAM™, they don't offer those possibilities, but only things with lesser, but non-zero, quantities of SPAM™. The concept of being without SPAM™ is unthinkable, which is how advertisers want us to think about advertising.
It's not advertising, it's spam. And it ain't wonderful.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @08:32AM (1 child)
Yes. People have been calling unwanted advertising spam for about 30 years now, because of this. Good of you to catch up.
(Score: 3, Informative) by pTamok on Monday April 04 2022, @09:59AM
Thank you! It's always nice to get encouragement. Anything else to catch up on?
To be clear, I've never had film-, tv-, and online- based advertising categorised as spam in my mental index. And it seems many others don't either as something like uBlock Origin is termed an ad-blocker, not a spam blocker. If you want to stop advertising emails, you look for a spam filter or spam blocker. If you want to stop online advertisements, you look for an ad-blocker, not a spam blocker.
Thank you for your input. I will treat it with all due reverence.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Dr Spin on Monday April 04 2022, @09:18AM (9 children)
For those of you too young to remember the 1950's, the Monty Python sketch was a reference to a prior comedy sketch by Peter Sellers,
featured on his album "The Best of Sellers" from 1958, which, my memory claims, had the legendary "El Morocco Tea Room" cafe sketch in
"Balham, gateway to the South" after the "Toothbrush Holesmanship" feature.
This featured a waitress offering a variety of dishes, either with Spam, or with nothing that could be mistaken for meat. However, the versions on Youtube appear to
have a shortened version of this sketch, remocving references to Spam. I suspect the American Meat Canning Company, or whoever makes Spam, threatened
legal action. As we know, American Industry is totally committed to the abolition of "free speach", as it make life awkword for "Expensive Speach", much favoured by Americans throughout the world.
This was only 2 years after food rationing finished, and Spam was probably the only kind of meat you could buy legally in England during rationing.
Of course, if your Dad knew someone who lived or worked in the country, (my Dad knew how to start a Lanz Bulldog tractor) they might find the
odd grouse lying about (some of them very odd).
I suspect most of the "Jugged hare" we ate in the early 1950's was actually rabbit, but with enough red wine, its hard to tell the difference. Later, there was mixamatosys (sp).
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday April 04 2022, @09:32AM
Is there a link to the Peter Sellers sketch?
I understand that the makers of Spam (Hormel) don't mind the reference to their brand name, Perhaps they think the bad publicity is better than no publicity. I guess Spam is something you like or you don't, like Marmite, so bad publicity won't make much difference.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday April 04 2022, @09:49AM (4 children)
From your description, what appears to be a shortened (no SPAM™ references) audio version is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RTWk9QIKS0, [youtube.com] starting at 3:45
Do you have a link to a script of a longer version?
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Monday April 04 2022, @10:28AM (3 children)
No, and I have searched, but it is deeply embedded in my memory as part of my school life, together with the first time I ever went to Balham, and repairing valve radios to listen to the Goon Show.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by pTamok on Monday April 04 2022, @11:01AM
Unfortunately Denis Norden and Frank Muir are not around to tell us wot they rote.
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Monday April 04 2022, @03:29PM (1 child)
"you silly twisted boy"
ah. goons. I have a few tapes on cassette from 40 years ago, or more.
fireball of milton street was one of them.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Monday April 04 2022, @04:27PM
Ah, the Goons.
Have a link to a script. Pure bliss: The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler (Of Bexhill-On-Sea) [thegoonshow.net]
The last line of Seagoon's in the excerpt appeals to me. When the programme was made, the concept of a telephone in someone's breast pocket was completely mad, and therefore funny, especially with the following sound effect. These days, many people routinely carry their (mobile) phones in their breast pocket. As a well known performer of American folk songs warbled, The Times, They Are a-Changin'.
(Score: 3, Funny) by inertnet on Monday April 04 2022, @11:22AM (2 children)
As a child I was attending a drive hunt, when I saw my father aim his gun at a rabbit. The other hunters shouted at him (his hearing was bad because of factory machinery) not to bother, because they saw the rabbit had myxomatosis. That must have been about 55 years ago.
My grandfather was dismissive of the superstitions going around back then. One day, during the war when meat was very hard to come by, he invited his drinking buddies over because he had cooked them a rabbit. After the meal that everybody enjoyed much, he told them that they actually hadn't eaten a rabbit, but that black cat that everybody was so scared of. They all got sick and had to throw up. My grandfather had a weird sense of humor.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday April 04 2022, @12:34PM (1 child)
There's a great story told by the late Jonathan Miller [wikipedia.org]. While studying medicine at university, he went out for an meal with some friends. His dish had a bone in it, but from his knowledge of anatomy, realised it wasn't from the creature described as forming the meat of the dish, but was, in fact, a human distal phalanx. It turned out that the chef had been careless with the cleaver.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @08:05PM
The story may be older than that. Somewhere I've read a story of a traveller in ancient Greece who found a bone in similar circumstances in a hostelry and consulted a table companion who was in fact a noted Greek anatomist. The story didn't identify whose bone it was, so you were left to speculate (chef, guest with unpaid bill, etc.).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @10:56AM (2 children)
Where on earth did they find the amoeba representing 'viewers' for this focus group that reported "yes, while we watch things we are interested in, we want our attention to be stolen by irrelevant subjects".
Ain't nothing an MBA cannot fuck up...
(Score: 4, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday April 04 2022, @07:44PM
You misunderstand. It benefits viewers because they switch off the TV out of frustration, and therefore have more time for more meaningful activities. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @04:22AM
Maybe this clown needs to go work for coca-cola.
Get him into some management seminar about disposal of leftover paint.
Make money by mixing paint into the cola.
It'll taste terrible. The kids will stop drinking it.
Obviously marketing isn't doing the job.
Kids will stop drinking coke. Healthier kids!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Monday April 04 2022, @12:45PM (4 children)
Sigh. Somehow people will keep shelling out money for these things, they will be more than happy to to connect them to their networks, and let them advertise to them, spy on them or whatever else they do.
I'm guessing off switches are illegal now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @02:50PM (3 children)
> I'm guessing off switches are illegal now?
There's always the switch on the power strip...
Or even one of these, https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Grounded-Outlet-Switch/dp/B084H111RR/ [amazon.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pTamok on Monday April 04 2022, @07:46PM (2 children)
>> I'm guessing off switches are illegal now?
> There's always the switch on the power strip...
So far...
..but off on the device often means 'Standby' (for the 'convenience' of not needing to go to the power-strip), and in 'Standby' it can still monitor...
The difference between now and the world described in '1984' is that telescreens were imposed on people in '1984'. Now, people voluntarily buy the equivalent, install 'smart' speakers, and carry monitors, all under the guise of giving advertisers information in exchange for trinkets, buying in to an illusion of control.
A surveillance society where you can be jailed for expressing the wrong thought is not one to aspire to. Embracing/enabling the possible tools of oppression seems...foolhardy.
(Score: 3, Informative) by UncleSlacky on Monday April 04 2022, @08:37PM (1 child)
There is a discussion between Winston and one of his neighbours that suggests that at least at one time people bought their own telescreens.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday April 06 2022, @07:39AM
Thank you I had, embarrassingly, forgotten that. It makes the scenario even more apposite to today's situation.
There are echoes of things being made mandatory: 'smart' mobile phones are required to support ;a href\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Mobile_Location":Advanced Mobile location (AML)
The idea of AML is not necessarily bad, but the tools in place to enable it are capable of not-so-benign uses, and while 'smart' phones are, in principle, voluntary to use, the increasing number of services that are difficult or more expensive to use without smartphones makes them a practical requirement, even if not mandated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @01:41PM (2 children)
I wonder what the URL for the ads service is, so I can add it to my Pi-Hole.
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Monday April 04 2022, @08:55PM (1 child)
Why wouldn't you just block all access to the internet from a device that does this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @10:40PM
Yes, or just not set it up in the first place.
(Score: 4, Funny) by hendrikboom on Monday April 04 2022, @01:41PM (5 children)
I have a Google Chromecast attached to my television.
The only thing I use it for is its slide show.
I use the slide show instead of an on/off button.
The on/off button on my TV remote control does not work properly,
but its input select does switch the input to my television.
So I set it to the (very quiet) slide show when I'd otherwise turn the TV off.
If I could figure out how to connect my Linux VLC to the chromecast I'd have another use for it.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday April 04 2022, @08:25PM (4 children)
I've been looking for a Chromecast/Miracast standalone sender too. One that takes component video, VGA, or HDMI, and presents itself as a Miracast or Chromecast source.
As I understand it:
Miracast:
Acts like a wifi hotspot. Uses your wifi hardware to establish a "wireless HDMI cable" between your monitor and phone. Its good for playing local content from the phone, but with the wifi link occupied with this, the phone's Internet hardware is in use, precluding Internet connectivity.
The Miracast source is like a local intranet. No connection to the internet.
Chromecast :
Acts like yet another client that logs onto your router. Your router can switch among it's ports or to the internet.
Because of the ability to access the net, many companies just can't resist the urge to make their stuff demand access to the net for marketing, digital rights enforcement and violation logging.
As well as change the code in your stuff whenever they want to.
If I'm gonna use Chromecast, I want to make sure that the technology continues to function with no connectivity to the web at all ... i.e. running as an intranet.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Tuesday April 05 2022, @08:05AM (3 children)
As far as I know, Google/Alphabet have made it near-on impossible for ordinary folks to enable/activate a Chromecast for use without using the Google Home application, which requires a Google account; or using Chrome on a PC.
Someone has analysed the activation process and produced a bash script
https://gist.github.com/interfect/5f68381d55658d334e2bc4619d796476 [github.com]
(Found via: https://superuser.com/questions/1164607/how-to-set-up-a-chromecast-without-logging-in-to-google-home [superuser.com] , answer by 'interfect')
The superuser.com answer lists the technical steps in the process, which are most likely not easily followed by the average person. It is worth a read.
I fully expect Google to do its best to stop this sort of thing. There are easy techniques that would stop workarounds like this dead in their tracks.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday April 05 2022, @10:12PM
I guess I will have to look for my next TV on Craigslist or neighborhood garage sales. Although my dreams were to buy a big 4K display that was also useful as a monitor and general purpose display, something I could hook my microscope ( it currently has a VGA camera on it ) to.
I work with microcircuits / PCB and sometimes need to show my patron what I am seeing that biases me to a certain opinion.
A MBA gets into the fray, and often renders the whole environment useless in his drive to license/control everything.
Just like what is happening almost everywhere today as they see that the thing that they sell to the customer can still be controlled by them if they can compel the customer to connect it to the net.
A major aerospace company I used to work for did the same thing, when we hired our MBA, to our patron. Obligated our engineers to do nonsensical things, the ethical engineers left, and our patron was left dealing with negotiators, hand-shakers, marketeers, and lawyers. Boeing bought up the remains. Most of our corporate knowledge was lost, but our real estate was still worth something. It's now warehouses where others store imported goods.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday April 05 2022, @11:08PM (1 child)
Thanks for the reply, pTamok !
I was so frustrated a few minutes ago. I was fuming mad that our government grants these big guys rights to do things like this via patent and copyright law.
I am extremely concerned with what I see as the enforced ignorantization of America by our own elected government.
I have relatives in their own family businesses, and they have woes far greater than mine when it comes to losing control of their own stuff and being compelled and bullied over the internet by those who study how laws are made, and of how little importance these law makers see the entrepreneur.
Again, thanks for the info how to work around this issue. I have downloaded it ( while that still works ) .
I feel sad for our kids, who are gonna have to deal with being subordinate to machines.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday April 06 2022, @07:04AM
I hope it works for you!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 04 2022, @01:49PM
Blipverts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a2rh9ahpcA [youtube.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday April 04 2022, @01:55PM (1 child)
Man, are the TV execs determined to kill off TV viewing. My kids already never turn on a TV to watch content. My wife and I only do occasionally and we cut the cord 20 years ago to get away from obnoxious ads.
The Cable TV industry is on life support at this point, and moves like this from hardware manufacturers will accelerate its demise.
It's a particularly stupid move from the TV manufacturers because there is a possible future for TV devices beyond Cable. They could absolutely continue with SmartTVs because somebody somewhere in the TV manufacturing industry has realized that people want to be able to do more flexible things with the devices than plugging in video game consoles. Being able to plug in a thumb drive and play videos off that is a good move. Being able to cast a video directly from a smart phone or laptop is a good move. Being able to market the platform to 3rd party content providers like Netflix or Prime is a good move.
Serving obtrusive, obnoxious ads on top of a program that is already doing that is a stupid, stupid move.
The day it happens to me (I do try hard to avoid devices with such shenanigans) is the day that TV plays frisbee into the electronic waste dump.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mcgrew on Monday April 04 2022, @03:39PM
The Cable TV industry is on life support at this point
They became obsolete when TV went digital. The cheap (<$20) internet services (and the free ones like Pluto) put the final dagger in its heart. Star Wars is Beautiful in 4K, it's standard def on cable.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 2) by Revek on Monday April 04 2022, @09:52PM
Dumb.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday April 04 2022, @11:57PM (1 child)
About 5 years ago, I got a low end, 24" Vizio smart TV, to try out. I don't watch TV myself, except for weather reports when there's a tornado warning on. It's for those family members who are not yet old and wise enough to find it boring and annoying.
The "smart" part sucks. YouTube used to work okay, but you couldn't block any ads, of course. A few years ago, something changed, either at YouTube, or in a automatic firmware update, and YouTube hasn't worked since. No real loss. But for me, it underscored that we are not in sole control of it. Netflix still works, but I am keenly aware that at any time, Vizio could break that feature. That's not the worst. I know it could run a web browser. But they don't want to give their buyers unfettered access to the entire Internet, no, you are carefully restricted to a small selection of commercial video offerings such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. The rampant commercialism sticks in my craw.
The interface is horrible. Painfully slow and tedious to do a search. Have to select letters from a virtual keyboard, using arrow buttons on the remote control.
A new low that they've come up with an interface that's even slower than hunt and peck typing. Should I be grateful they didn't force the user to learn Morse code, so they could use just one button, instead of 4 arrow buttons? Heck, Morse code might be faster.
The TV is prone to locking up just for being left on. Reminds me of Windows 95. Have to unplug it when that happens. I suppose I ought to insert a power strip, but, the outlet isn't all that hard to reach.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2022, @04:46AM
The ones that really scares the hell out of me are apps like Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
I've already had it demonstrated toe numerous times just how unreliable and ephemeral internet businesses are.
I've pulled Grandpa's finger enough!
I do business on the net with very few merchants...mostly Amazon and some industrial suppliers. And my last purchase was brass pipe fittings. I may buy a spectrum analyzer on the web, but definitely not a TV. Even the has-been big names have sold out to the MBA and Marketing leadership types who think reputations are made via advertisements.
(Score: 2) by dltaylor on Tuesday April 05 2022, @08:25PM
I finally had to replace an old 2K monitor/TV. I found a 65" 4K TV (U650CV-UMRD) at Sceptre. They have "smart" TVs, also, but I have enough "smart" gadgets in the system not to need to ad another layer in the display.
The "dumb" ones are at https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.html/ [sceptre.com]
If I thought that the electronics would last several years in storage, I'd buy a couple more as "spares" for if/when this one dies.