thimbronion: It appears that just as California funds the eastern wind ICBMs, the USG funds Chinese biological weapons development.
thimbronion: Record for dumbest empire?
BingoBoingo: Could be, it really could be
thimbronion: Luckiest + dumbest
BingoBoingo: Well, up until the Soviets fell, there was some pressure constraining the dumb. After that first Gulf War... The feelings of invulnerability seem to have cut all restraints off of the stupid.
thimbronion: It has taken me a long time to really believe how short term everyone thinks here. But I'm there. I believe it now. Makes so many things so much clearer.
BingoBoingo: It's just amazing how short the horizon has been
BingoBoingo: So I've got a fairly big blog post baking. I've been dipping my toes into the world of livestreaming as a way to break at least one walled garden and get attention.
BingoBoingo: I've gone on camera a couple times, introduced myself as "Editor in Chief of the Montevideo Standard, Uruguay's premier English Language newspaper by default", and then I do a deadpan act.
thimbronion: Very cool. Look forward to seeing it.
thimbronion: I used to do podcasts in my 20s.
BingoBoingo: I have low expectations for it, but seeing how few live people are on the written internet... I figure a rather radical turn is in order
thimbronion: There are many people nowadays who, although they don't consume audio/visual content and prefer to read since it's faster, produce such content because people don't fucking read.
BingoBoingo: I'm going to try to play the two off of each other and on the streams play deadpan into the absurdity of I started a new paper as things stopped happening in the world.
thimbronion: lol
BingoBoingo: The big concern in the mid term is whether or not any of the streaming platforms survive, because that's kinda expensive for them to do.
thimbronion: Yes. It looks like msm+platforms are currently attempting mass suicide.
BingoBoingo: And I'm certaintly not big enough to try pulling all the infrastructure weight to stream myself live on the internet.
BingoBoingo: It's just shocking though how... lacking the streaming tools are compared to IRC
thimbronion: There is the Bitchute concept - some kind of web based bittorrent thing. Not sure how well it actually works in terms of costs on the back end.
thimbronion: Also doesn't do livestreaming.
BingoBoingo: So far my audience has mostly been expat curious folks from the US who didn't make it out and asian girls that dance on cam for hours.
thimbronion: brendafez?
BingoBoingo: Nah, she's Argentine. I haven't actually done any crossover yet from Republican refugees to the fruit of the social engineering campaign
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: if yer serious re streamisms, i can broker 10G/s (and for only slightly moar than piz rack cost, lol)
BingoBoingo: asciilifeform: Big problem is CDN and cach'ing because the streaming thing doesn't seem to work well if you only have one person streaming
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: yer unlikely to outcompete 'youtube' & co w/ such a setup, but could easily serve few 100 folx simult.
BingoBoingo: I don't know how much credit I should give the numbers the platform displayed, but in bored shut-in world... the demand side is heavier than that.
asciilifeform: afaik the central problem is that no one knows how to make that sort of thing +ev, rather than that one cannot buy enuff bw
BingoBoingo: And trying to get enough bandwidth while minimizing cost... things get complex
asciilifeform: ( it aint as if loltube has ever been +ev, once you discount its direct hose to the money printer 'go brr' )
BingoBoingo: The big mystery is what the firehose tries to prop on over the next few months
thimbronion: I know of one video streamer who has a relationship with a video streaming service that he reports to be profitable (it's a subscription service).
asciilifeform: imho not mega-mystery. the well-connected plebe-mass panem et circenses (tm)(r)
thimbronion: Does about hour long videos that people tend to watch all the way through.
asciilifeform: thimbronion: they're 'profitable' until the censors decide to 'make example' and 'demonetize'
asciilifeform: then suddenly oops not profit
thimbronion: This is someone who has been already demonitized on youtube and kicked off twatter.
asciilifeform: thimbronion: so where's he hosted nao ?
asciilifeform: ( and wai the others not there ? )
thimbronion: Which is likely why he hasn't shared the name of the company provideing the infrastructure
thimbronion: Although I'm sure this could be discovered with a little investigating.
thimbronion: asciilifeform: there are others there - but I have no idea who, or where it's hosted physically. Guy is based in Italy.
asciilifeform: again, the tricky bit aint finding physical hosting & bw. just about anyone can do that. rather, the connection to the money hose, is what loltube etc bait folx with.
asciilifeform: afaik the 'small youtubes' are 100% funded by 'venture capital', i.e. temporary connections to the printer hose; and regularly go bust (the hose has a tendency to fray)
BingoBoingo: I think you seriously underestimate how many Indian guys want to date dancing asian girls
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: i'm willing to believe that they 'want'. problem is that they collectively sum to cost of yer lunch.
thimbronion: asciilifeform: I've no idea who his cc processor is - not paypal. Find whoever processes porn cc tx.
asciilifeform: thimbronion: did i wake up in parallel universe where bitcoin never invented ?
thimbronion: lol. No you woke up in the one in which it was invented. This guy is another one.
BingoBoingo: asciilifeform: Sure, but without them padding the viewer numbers...
thimbronion: BingoBoingo: I have some idea how the cam thing works, and the number of addicts involved and the kind of money they spend.
BingoBoingo: It definitely looks like derealization central
thimbronion: The cam girls dance, some ugly chix man multiple chatrooms, do fake private chats with clients.
thimbronion: They live in camgirl houses
asciilifeform: thimbronion: vertically-integrated ? i.e. the server operators houses'em ?
thimbronion: asciilifeform: yes
thimbronion: asciilifeform: has to deal with catfights, etc.
BingoBoingo: On this particular platform, what the girls do is sell snapchat for "gifts" which is their "money without feeling like money" payment scheme
thimbronion: asciilifeform: this was in eastern europe.
asciilifeform: seems then that it's a biz for a mp-like expert, rather than 'set up www, profit!111' low-tech experiment.
BingoBoingo: asciilifeform: One of the reasons the US doesn't much figure into it.
thimbronion: Afaik us girls are too expensive to be competitive.
BingoBoingo: They also usually don't do anything
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: i'd even wait to burn usg passport before so much as working as floor sweeper in such a thing.
thimbronion: I wonder what they'll do until college restarts, if it does.
BingoBoingo: Lots of black girls that seem to have come over from stripping during the lockdown streaming their ceiling or using camera angles that just really suck for video
BingoBoingo: Lots of white college age girls just taking shots on camera for hours and getting wasted
thimbronion: asciilifeform: seems the owner of camgirl op agrees with you - got out of the business and operates casinos.
asciilifeform: casino at least dun require keeping a herd of moos around
BingoBoingo: Oh, it does
asciilifeform: why?
asciilifeform: i was assuming subj was a mechanized casino, rather than vegas-style
BingoBoingo: Ah
BingoBoingo back in a bit
feedbot: http://mvdstandard.net/2020/04/west-texas-intermediate-price-falls-below-zero/ << The Montevideo Standard -- West Texas Intermediate Price Falls Below Zero