LGBT community

[handymanshandle]

As seen on I-70 in Illinois:
 

Roses are red

My gun is blue

I am safe

How about you?

gunssavelife.com

[Nowak]

1 minute ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Seriously?

Yes.

 

1 minute ago, Bleedingyamato said:

What is with Massachusetts and joke yet serious signs?  lol

It's a way of reaching out to the locals, aaaaaaand also our governor's an avid Star Wars fan.

[handymanshandle]

Just now, Daring said:

Yes.

 

It's a way of reaching out to the locals, aaaaaaand also our governor's an avid Star Wars fan.

I've seen these signs before.

[vanished]

29 minutes ago, wcreek said:

 

I've seen these signs before.

The irony of being right above a bus that does not "got it"

[chrisholland03]

Someone should get @Bleedingyamato a band-aid

 

No more bleeding!

 

 

 

 

 

[comicsansms]

3 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Weird.  ?

The seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth.

[comicsansms]

Flinders Street Train Station

 

 

[iamdarkyoshi]

12 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Flinders Street Train Station

 

 

Oh my god 10/10

 

Wonder how much they get paid to be dead people

[vanished]

42 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

The seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth.

If our orbit was less circular, you could also get seasons simply from the variance in distance to the sun, and in fact we do experience that effect on Earth but it is dwarfed by the effect of the tilt.  Fun fact, we're actually closer in Winter (at least up here).

[captain_to_fire]

I tried singing up for Tidal Hi-Fi free trial under a VPN (US server), it didn't worked. I guess Jay-Z blacklisted VPN IP addresses just like Netflix. 

 

But on the flip side, I was able to sign up for Pandora's ad-subsidized plan but I'm only limited on my PC, can't listen on mobile. Too bad it's only limited to US, Australia, and New Zealand. 

[iamdarkyoshi]

2 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I tried singing up for Tidal Hi-Fi free trial under a VPN (US server), it didn't worked. I guess Jay-Z blacklisted VPN IP addresses just like Netflix. 

 

But on the flip side, I was able to sign up for Pandora's ad-subsidized plan but I'm only limited on my PC, can't listen on mobile. Too bad it's only limited to US, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Use Psiphon on android (grab an old APK)

 

And use a modded version of pandora, you get premium for free

 

I know pandora hasn't blocked psiphon

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, Nicholatian said:

and people wonder why I've avoided streaming services since their inception. Like hell will I ever pay people for music so they can tell me what I can and can't do with it...

I like the convenience of music streaming that's why I'm a paying customer. I can listen to a song I want on demand and I don't even have to download it as long there's a stable internet connection.

 

But I understand why some people don't like paying monthly or annually for music streaming because they'll never own the music. Once the music service shuts down, everything is gone unlike purchasing the music from Amazon or iTunes or even buying a CD. Streaming music for me is kinda like an apartment rental whereas buying music is like owning your own house.

 

10 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Use Psiphon on android (grab an old APK)

 

And use a modded version of pandora, you get premium for free

 

I know pandora hasn't blocked psiphon

I'm fine with the ad subsidized pandora and I don't think that method will work on an iOS device. I might try using my relative's LA address so that I can download the Pandora app from the Apple App Store.

[iamdarkyoshi]

5 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

hope you don't mind going in bareback for that.

 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

[YedZed]

LGBT topic: The Book.

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, YedZed said:

LGBT topic: The Book.

Wat

[captain_to_fire]

9 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

Yeah, in the US, AU, and NZ. Oh, and you can't use a VPN... hope you don't mind going in bareback for that. Can't listen on all of your devices by the way. Because we said so. Subject to change without notice. Some restrictions may apply. See your EULA for details.

That's Pandora's restrictions. Spotify and Apple Music's coverage map is so much bigger. I think the EULA restrictions on online media is made by RIAA and MPAA or streaming services have to pay record labels if they want a certain album or movie available to a certain country.

Spoiler

Apple Music which has a much wider coverage

 

Spotify

 

 

16 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

That's pretty shitty for bandwidth.

Not that much of a problem for me. I have 20 down 20 up fiber internet and Spotify. I can stream 256 kbps track from Apple Music using a 5 mbps down 3G connection without buffering

 

I think Apple Music is 256 kbps AAC whereas Spotify gives me bit rate options: 96 (to save bandwidth and storage), 160, and 320 kbps OGG Vorbis. 

[YedZed]

32 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Wat

1168 pages strong now...

[captain_to_fire]

8 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

Ever heard of radio? It's kinda dominated human culture across the world for most of the 20th and 21st centuries. XM radio exists if you're too good for old fashioned waves. There is no point to signing up for DRM.

Not all phones have FM radio and even if the phone has FM radio, I need to plug in headphones just to serve as antenna. I knew that because my old Galaxy Note 2 (international unlocked version) has it. A traditional FM radio has its own conveniences but not all the time:

1. No on demand listening of a track I want
2. No pause, skip and return options
3. Too much ads 
4. Inconvenient when travelling
5. The likes of TSA  and other transport/travel bodies around the world probably won't allow it especially when it's big.

11 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

They do what they think you should be able to do with it... and why the fuck should you pay for that?

Two reasons why:

1. I can pay for it.
2. The likes of Spotify and/or Apple Music suits my needs. 

 

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, hey_yo_ said:

I like the convenience of music streaming that's why I'm a paying customer. I can listen to a song I want on demand and I don't even have to download it as long there's a stable internet connection.

 

But I understand why some people don't like paying monthly or annually for music streaming because they'll never own the music. Once the music service shuts down, everything is gone unlike purchasing the music from Amazon or iTunes or even buying a CD. Streaming music for me is kinda like an apartment rental whereas buying music is like owning your own house.

 

I'm fine with the ad subsidized pandora and I don't think that method will work on an iOS device. I might try using my relative's LA address so that I can download the Pandora app from the Apple App Store.

Much of my drive, I'm without internet, so locally stored music rules. Also, I'm obsessive enough to try to get a hold of everything I like.

[captain_to_fire]

4 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Much of my drive, I'm without internet, so locally stored music rules. Also, I'm obsessive enough to try to get a hold of everything I like.

Uhm Apple Music and Spotify Premium also allows offline listening.

[PlayStation 2]

If you guys really are arguing about how you like your music served, let one be. Even if you can go into objectiveness, why bother? If one would prefer to stream it rather than have it stored locally, let 'em be. I'm the latter but I don't get on one if they like to stream music.

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, Nicholatian said:

Have you ever questioned why you do the things you do?

 

Without any concept of objectivity, science is bullshit. Facts are now magically opinions, and nobody can think straight about the life that they're living because it's all on auto-pilot and we're not consciously evaluating anywhere near enough of our lives as we ought to for our own benefit.

 

Have you ever questioned why the world constantly seems to be going down the shitter? Or where all of this reason for pessimism comes from? Devaluing reasoning is where it all begins my man.

I question everything, like why I even bother with this forum. Half y'all hate me and the other half have other means to contact me.

[captain_to_fire]

7 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

What I am doing is begging the questions of the reasonability of streaming services in general. This applies to everyone in some way or another. I just want to make that clear here.

Probably the same reason why a lot of people (including myself) pay monthly to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video. From what I understand, renting music can pay more the record label in the long run. 

 

Let's say 100 people bought the same album with 10 tracks from iTunes on a month and that costs $10 and that would be equal to $1000. Thirty percent (~$300) is taken by Apple and the remaining 70% as the record label's gross income on a month from those ten people who bought the album. 

 

Allegedly, Apple Music pays $0.00735 per song stream. So if the same ten people streamed all of those ten tracks from the same album, Apple will pay $0.0735 to the record label for just streaming those ten songs at once. But there's 100 people who streamed the same song so that would be $7.35. But then again, those 100 people listen to the same album more than once in a month. Let's say those 100 people listens to the same album 50 times in a month so that would make it $367.5 in a month for the record label. I think the rationale is that when people buy music, that's it. They just buy it once so for those ten people who bought the album from iTunes, the record label earns only $700 from them and nothing follows. If the other ten who paid for Apple Music is streaming the same album at the same frequency for an entire year, the label can earn up to $4,410 from those one hundred people alone. That's way more than what the record label can own from digital purchases.

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, Nicholatian said:

Why should consumers care about giving record labels more money for the same? If anything, that whole argument is another reason to avoid streaming services... because without Apple Music or whoever pulling a loss, that loss gets passed on to us, the customer. The money has to come from somewhere.

I don't really know what you're trying to prove here already. Also, don't you think it's a little bit hypocritical? 

35 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

I've never been trying to argue with your personal preferences and decisions, and I don't want to. I'm not your parent, I don't really care.

Isn't that what you've been doing?

37 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

Again, I'm using 'you' in the general sense, and that's been the case through this whole discussion. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I really couldn't care less what your specific personal needs are... because I've been trying to explain the complexity of this issue from the start. It's not about you, it's about the streaming services. That doesn't necessarily mean "the streaming services and you" simply because you're involved in discussing it. (emphasis is mine)

 

39 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

The first two are precisely why music has been sold on record, CD, and digitally since it's been possible to do so. You get that with MP3s and such, and what's more, you don't have to buy anything you haven't heard or don't like!

 

Ads on radio is as much of a mixed bag as it is with streaming services. In both cases you can pay to remove them some of the time, and other times there are exceptions, like with charity or educational stations and the like.

You brought up FM radio and why I'm not taking advantage of the free air waves and now you brought up CDs? 

41 minutes ago, Nicholatian said:

It's no more inconvenient than a smartphone is, and you know that. If you don't care to buy a phone with an FM receiver, then you don't care to use free music that's literally flying through the air 24/7. That's not a design fault, that's you not giving a shit. You'd be on your own with that.

You wrote a while ago that you don't want to argue about my personal preferences but this is what you're doing. Most of your responses are mere special pleading to be honest. 

 

[Volbet]

2 hours ago, Nicholatian said:

No service for China or Russia... why? 

Well, China has a complete ban on most Western services, which is also what Spotify ran into in China. 

Basically, Spotify couldn't stream the vast majority of their library due to China's censorship laws, making the service pretty much meaningless.

 

Spotify has also tried to launch in Russia on several occasions. And they have been met with legal issues every time.

Not only were they met with a heavy bureaucracy, but determining who has rights to music in Russia is an exercise in futility. 

Spotify gave up on the Russian market the first time in 2015 due to them not being able to secure the streaming rights to a lot of music. 

This process have supposidly become easier, which is why Spotify was trying to expand into Russia again in 2016.

But the Russian market is already pretty saturated. Not only has Apple Music and Google Play already made their debute, so has the local service Yandex.Music.