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I'm a blue-blooded Englishman with red blood.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Don't you mean pink-blooded? 
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<Kenneth Williams mode>
Ooh, Matron!</Kenneth Williams mode>
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I do love those old carry on films, especially the early ones. Wonderfully silly stuff.
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Especially the ones where they got to dress up in silly costumes (Cleo, Screaming, etc).
Irresistible humour.
Hollywood couldn't make movies like that in a million years.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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So a plasma TV I inherited burned out this weekend. It was our primary viewing station (i.e., idiot box) so I replaced it with an 49" LG 4k Smart TV.
You turn it on and it goes through a setup. Aside from local date and time, I aborted the rest. In addition, I didn't give it any sort of connection to the internet.
So - when those attempting to reach out to watch what I do in front of the TV - they'll have no connection. Should keep the listening-in down to more traditional levels.
Kind of an easy solution. Just because you buy a 'smart' device is no need for you restore symmetry to the universe and allow yourself to become stupid.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Makes sense - but it also cuts you off from internet video sources (Netfix, Amazon Prime) as well as from local NAS based video content.
It would probably be simpler just to unplug the router - then nobody can watch what you do online! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Actually not - I have Roku on my sets.
Both TV's are plugged into enegy saving power strips. The TV is main - when I shut it off a bunch of other things are shut off (including the Roku). Power it up and they get their power back. Roku's more channels than the TV, anyway - not just those who paid to have their sight put on my screen.
Of course - if the roku can be persuaded to send a signal to my TV to enable the spy-stuff I'm doomed.
NAS based: I have a media box on one set (Patriot thingee) and a USB port in the LG that plays my movies if I wish. Not via broadcast - but quite good enough.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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FYI: HDMI 1.2+ cables have a data channel in addition to A/V for Consumer Electronic Control features.
If you're not using a 4k set you might be able to find an old HDMI 1.1 somewhere (which has audio support, but not data). Just saying, that'd protect you from a CIA Roku hijack, and hopefully will help feed the paranoia.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Benjamin Disraeli
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Actually, the CIA is never my worry. NSA has been aware of my existence for decades (I even visited their non-existent DC Headquarters).
It's ROKU I'd be most worried about.
[edit]
Actually - now I'm afraid. What if the CIA hacked the ROKU and made me only able to watch "Happy Days" !
[/edit]
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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No no, all wrong. The CIA needs things like SmartTVs. The NSA just knows. They just use quantum matrix resolvers that contain a record of all things that you have, are, and will say and do. They just need to open a record for it to coalesce into reality!
The only way to prevent that sort of surveillance is to only do things that you won't do, which then become things you will do and therefore are included in the predictive matrix, which means that you can't prevent it.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Benjamin Disraeli
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Even without connection, we already know what you watch on your big graphic display.
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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The camera in my bedroom? I know it's there. I make quite a tidy sum for allowing them to look in and gawk in admiration
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: So - when those attempting to reach out to watch what I do in front of the TV - they'll have no connection.
Believe it or not, in the UK we actually have a TV programme dedicated to this very thing - Gogglebox - All 4 
It's difficult to see how TV can get much worse than watching people watching crap on their TV's..
Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Suddenly I realize: UK programs such as "Foyle's War" are for export-only.
. . . and they make you pay an annual fee to own a telly, too?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: and they make you pay an annual fee to own a telly, too?
You can own it for free, but you need to pay a "licence fee" to the BBC to watch anything (even if it's not on the BBC).
It's also a criminal offence to watch TV without a licence..^
Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Brent Jenkins wrote:
It's also a criminal offence to watch TV without a licence..
The "founding fathers" of the US - when breaking away from the UK - apparently showed even more insight than I realized.
Why does anyone stay ? ?
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: Why does anyone stay ? ?
Can't afford to leave - spent everything on TV licences
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W∴ Balboos wrote: Why does anyone stay ? ?
For the National Health Service.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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We've got good beer and Morris dancing 
Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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We've got better beer.
And NO Morris dancing!
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Because Pepsi, Dominos etc don't dictate what opinions we are allowed to express on our TV, or what themes our TV programs can cover. It always amuses me when Americans express incredulity at the license fee but don't understand just how much of what they watch is dictated from and controlled by Coca Cola and Pepsi.
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Beware of that double-edged sword!
Aside from our having PBS (no commercials, public donations support), the same problem with the likes of Pepsi and Dominoes deciding what to sponsor also means they'll cow-tow to the public's norms. Still no nipples and nudity (at least until late at night). Also, we've so many cable stations that whatever you want to see can be seen.
vs.
Your BBC is (de facto) completely government run - so you'll see what they want you to see and think what they want you to think. I doubt Brexit will clear that up very much.
Two glass houses - lots of stones. What would Putin say?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Your argument is based on ignorance (both of the UK and also how much of US TV is controlled by corporations and to what extent) so there isn't any point in addressing it.
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