What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Bill Maher on Reverse Improvement (1 Viewer)

So funny, and so true.

Watching everybody walk around, I just figured I was a rare technophobe. People are coming to my side on the streamers at least. I constantly complain about them and how it's worse than the video store days to watch a movie, and it became worse than what cable was. Yes, I get it that I can turn on Netflix and watch 100,000 things. Cool. What I can't seem to do is make a list of 10 movies that I want to see and watch those without having 4 different streamers, rent a couple from Amazon, and order a couple through the library.
 
So funny, and so true.

Watching everybody walk around, I just figured I was a rare technophobe. People are coming to my side on the streamers at least. I constantly complain about them and how it's worse than the video store days to watch a movie, and it became worse than what cable was. Yes, I get it that I can turn on Netflix and watch 100,000 things. Cool. What I can't seem to do is make a list of 10 movies that I want to see and watch those without having 4 different streamers, rent a couple from Amazon, and order a couple through the library.

This. I've been in the Shark Pool telling people for years that we should all be praising DirecTV and their package that they used to have. As soon as those owners got a look at their numbers during COVID and as soon as some idiot consumer protection groups sued the NFL because they wanted á la carte games this all came to the fore.

It's only going to get worse. You are going to have to pay to watch big-time games in the future. Maybe not the Super Bowl (they need to keep their anti-trust exemption that is granted by Congress), but they'll seek to maximize revenue any way they can. Of course they will. And maybe we will get the á la carte games these idiots wanted when they sued, but for those of us that watch six games at a time, it'll suck and not be feasible.
 
Last edited:
Yep no doubt about it and now these idiots are taking charge of even more. They want to redesign the entire world and human existence. We seem dumb enough to just go along with it.
 
The concepts in the piece were spot on however the changing channels on YTTV to a different game isn't like that. You can just hold down the select button on your remote and you can toggle between two channels. Just like the "previous" button on DTV. The real problem is if you want to toggle between two streaming services. Then it takes awhile to do. So if every game is split onto 16 different streaming services it will be problematic.
 
The concepts in the piece were spot on however the changing channels on YTTV to a different game isn't like that. You can just hold down the select button on your remote and you can toggle between two channels. Just like the "previous" button on DTV. The real problem is if you want to toggle between two streaming services. Then it takes awhile to do. So if every game is split onto 16 different streaming services it will be problematic.
While I don't like the various streaming issues, I will say that YouTube TV has done a fantastic job with NFL Red Zone and the package. The quad box, the toggling, the ease for fast forwarding and rewinding is very well done and it's a far superior product to the other streamers like Amazon.
 
Saw this tweet the other day that nailed it as well:


"I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results. I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm. I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card. I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place.

I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore."
 
Last edited:
While I don't like the various streaming issues, I will say that YouTube TV has done a fantastic job with NFL Red Zone and the package. The quad box, the toggling, the ease for fast forwarding and rewinding is very well done and it's a far superior product to the other streamers like Amazing.
totally agree. YTTV has surpassed by expectations going in. I enjoyed this season and their coverage. Went very smooth. Amazon on TNF on the other hand is terrible. Pixilated picture that goes in and out of focus for significant stretches at a time is the big issue. Not sure why that is such a problem for them since they have had the game for a few years now. I would think they should be able to fix that. Amazon is the only streaming service that I have that has that issue so I feel safe saying it's their issue and not my set up.
 
While I don't like the various streaming issues, I will say that YouTube TV has done a fantastic job with NFL Red Zone and the package. The quad box, the toggling, the ease for fast forwarding and rewinding is very well done and it's a far superior product to the other streamers like Amazing.
totally agree. YTTV has surpassed by expectations going in. I enjoyed this season and their coverage. Went very smooth. Amazon on TNF on the other hand is terrible. Pixilated picture that goes in and out of focus for significant stretches at a time is the big issue. Not sure why that is such a problem for them since they have had the game for a few years now. I would think they should be able to fix that. Amazon is the only streaming service that I have that has that issue so I feel safe saying it's their issue and not my set up.
I watch most if not all of the singularly TV games (playoff games, TNF, SNF, MNF) on record - usually when the game is about half over. I do this because mostly because my life is now all about time efficiency, but also because I now don't have the patience to watch commercials. So, if I time it right, I can watch a 3 hour game in like an hour and get to the last couple of minutes of the game in live time. On YTTV and DirectTV, this isn't at all on issue as I can fast forward with ease.

Somehow, though, the Amazon fast forward and rewind functions are disasters and they drive me insane.
 
This one got a ton of likes.


I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results. I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm. I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card. I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place.

I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore.

Then he followed up with:

Can’t believe I typed that entire rant and forgot to mention I don’t want to leave a 25% tip on the touchscreen.
 
I only watched a little but I have youtube.tv and can easily flip between channels and can see the video as I fast-forward through commercials.
 
Crazy that he couldn’t figure out how to go to the previous channel on yttv. I couldn’t make it through the rest after that.
 
The concepts in the piece were spot on however the changing channels on YTTV to a different game isn't like that. You can just hold down the select button on your remote and you can toggle between two channels. Just like the "previous" button on DTV. The real problem is if you want to toggle between two streaming services. Then it takes awhile to do. So if every game is split onto 16 different streaming services it will be problematic.
That's why Prime is really smart. You can add and pay for some of these other streamers within Prime. Then you don't have to switch between apps. They're the only ones doing that, I believe.
 
Okay, for those of us who don't have Youtube TV, his point works if you consider Amazon Prime for football. Let's say you're watching TNF on Prime and want to channel back to baseball or maybe hockey...it's not so simple. You have to exit out, go to the channel on your TV and then if you want to go back to TNF, you have to log back in. He's absolutely right in this particular case. Also, unless I'm a total moron (guilty as charged) I don't think you can record the game on Amazon with your DVR which sucks.
 
The streaming services are still so much better than cable it’s not even funny. Two clicks from cancelling, I don’t have to rent equipment, etc. It’s not about money, it’s about convenience, but if you aren’t cycling through these services if money is an issue I can’t for the life of me understand why.

People who don’t watch sports subsidized these tv deals for years with those cable fees. The people who actually watch sports ought to be the ones paying for it. If the NFL were smart they’d focus on improving the tv product (minimize ad breaks) and people would gladly pay. The issue is now we have to pay and the ads are overwhelming.
 
I don't think you can record the game on Amazon with your DVR which sucks.
Most of the live sports streaming service that I have watched game will put the game "on demand" after it is completed. I use Fan Duel Sports Network (use to be Bally's) to watch LA Kings games. If I miss the game live I can go find the "replay" of the game in their menu and watch it any time.

I have done that on HULU for live sports as well. I never have tried to watch the TNF game after it is over so I am not sure about what Amazon Prime has for that kind of thing. It seems like you should be able to but maybe they don't "keep" the game for some reason.
 
Okay, for those of us who don't have Youtube TV, his point works if you consider Amazon Prime for football. Let's say you're watching TNF on Prime and want to channel back to baseball or maybe hockey...it's not so simple. You have to exit out, go to the channel on your TV and then if you want to go back to TNF, you have to log back in. He's absolutely right in this particular case. Also, unless I'm a total moron (guilty as charged) I don't think you can record the game on Amazon with your DVR which sucks.
Agreed, but it’s easy to understand why people are sensitive to others misrepresenting something to make a larger point in this day and age
 
Okay, for those of us who don't have Youtube TV, his point works if you consider Amazon Prime for football. Let's say you're watching TNF on Prime and want to channel back to baseball or maybe hockey...it's not so simple. You have to exit out, go to the channel on your TV and then if you want to go back to TNF, you have to log back in. He's absolutely right in this particular case. Also, unless I'm a total moron (guilty as charged) I don't think you can record the game on Amazon with your DVR which sucks.
Agreed, but it’s easy to understand why people are sensitive to others misrepresenting something to make a larger point in this day and age

Eh, it's comedy. You have to stretch at times.
 
While I don't like the various streaming issues, I will say that YouTube TV has done a fantastic job with NFL Red Zone and the package. The quad box, the toggling, the ease for fast forwarding and rewinding is very well done and it's a far superior product to the other streamers like Amazing.
totally agree. YTTV has surpassed by expectations going in. I enjoyed this season and their coverage. Went very smooth. Amazon on TNF on the other hand is terrible. Pixilated picture that goes in and out of focus for significant stretches at a time is the big issue. Not sure why that is such a problem for them since they have had the game for a few years now. I would think they should be able to fix that. Amazon is the only streaming service that I have that has that issue so I feel safe saying it's their issue and not my set up.
I watch most if not all of the singularly TV games (playoff games, TNF, SNF, MNF) on record - usually when the game is about half over. I do this because mostly because my life is now all about time efficiency, but also because I now don't have the patience to watch commercials. So, if I time it right, I can watch a 3 hour game in like an hour and get to the last couple of minutes of the game in live time. On YTTV and DirectTV, this isn't at all on issue as I can fast forward with ease.

Somehow, though, the Amazon fast forward and rewind functions are disasters and they drive me insane.
Agreed. Fubo might be even worse. I'll go in to watch part of a game, exit to go make dinner (or maybe my kid watches Netflix for a bit while I do something else), but when I go back in and hit "Resume," it almost never picks up where I left off. Sometimes it goes back to the beginning, sometimes halfway in between. It's a mess. To the point where I will just watch sports live now to not have to mess with the DVR feature which is horrible. Exactly the opposite of how I used to be (watched EVERYTHING on delay). I don't miss much from DirecTV, but I do really miss the FF 30 seconds button, as well as the Rewind 10 seconds (I think it was).
 
  • Love
Reactions: Zow
Guardians are offering all games, no local blackouts, for $100 this year. Straight from their own platform. Obviously the NFL can’t do stuff like that, not nearly as many games, but now that the RSN bubble has mostly popped, we’re gonna see teams/leagues get more creative with how they broadcast games and long-term it’ll be a benefit to consumers.
 
but now that the RSN bubble has mostly popped, we’re gonna see teams/leagues get more creative with how they broadcast games and long-term it’ll be a benefit to consumers.

I do worry if that's going to the case. I've feared for a while that the league turns totally pay per view. Or tries to get way more money out of the consumers than they currently do.

Ads used to be enough from the viewer back in the day when games were "free" over the air. But like Maher talks about with commercials on streaming, it seems there's an ever increasing movement for getting more and more. We'll see.
 
but now that the RSN bubble has mostly popped, we’re gonna see teams/leagues get more creative with how they broadcast games and long-term it’ll be a benefit to consumers.

I do worry if that's going to the case. I've feared for a while that the league turns totally pay per view. Or tries to get way more money out of the consumers than they currently do.

Ads used to be enough from the viewer back in the day when games were "free" over the air. But like Maher talks about with commercials on streaming, it seems there's an ever increasing movement for getting more and more. We'll see.
It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out. And when I say long-term, I truly mean long-term - decades. You know how history books can summarize movements and ideas that take 50+ years to play out in one or two short paragraphs? We’re living inside of that paragraph when it comes to the internet, it’s just disruptive in every possible way and it takes time.
 
Reverse improvement! I love it!

My example is......

I work in healthcare. We are dominated by apps, software, 50 passwords that you have to change all the time........us clinical people are not IT experts, and dont want to be. Yet, it seems like the tech world is constantly changing **** to make our lives more difficult........I told an IT guy the other day, who is outsourced to a country where English is not the first language........so I could not understand him......but I digress......I say to him that the levels of security, and verification, and changing of software are literally interfering with delivering patient care......crickets on the other end followed by "I will raise this issue to the next level of our IT team.". At least I think that is what he said....
 
Last edited:
I can feel Bill's pain. My stupid iptv provider which I've had for over 3 years and has been great has switched over to just accepting crypto. I didn't ask for that. I'm not paying with crypto out of principal.
 
Saw this tweet the other day that nailed it as well:


"I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results. I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm. I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card. I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place.

I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore."
my debit card got hacked yesterday. got a fraud alert email and text. called the 800 number on my debit card to connect with my credit union and spoke with the most human-like AI i've encountered so far.

almost felt like a real conversation, only with small pauses between each word and heavy use of the phrase "robotic payments" instead of "automated payments" or "recurring payments" when asking if i had any recurring/automated payments that could have newly charged by debit card, causing the fraud alert.

took 10 minutes to get through the AI checklist of questions before i got to a real live, local, human being at my credit union branch.. who walked me through the same questions in about 90 seconds.

corporate loves not having to pay Dolores $12/hr to answer calls. i wonder what their metrics say about how many customers are turned off, or turned away, by not being able to chat with Dolores and work through their issue in 1/10th the amount of time?
 
Reverse improvement! I love it!

My example is......

I work in healthcare. We are not dominated by apps, software, 50 passwords that you have to change all the time........us clinical people are not IT experts, and dont want to be. Yet, it seems like the tech world is constantly changing **** to make our lives more difficult........I told an IT guy the other day, who is outsourced to a country where English is not the first language........so I could not understand him......but I digress......I say to him that the levels of security, and verification, and changing of software are literally interfering with delivering patient care......crickets on the other end followed by "I will raise this issue to the next level of our IT team.". At least I think that is what he said....
99% of this is gov't regulation requirements. Our judicial system is driving that. My dad does this sort of work so I hear about it all the time.
 
i feel like they make it intentionally hard to leave a streaming game and come back so that you are just sort of trapped watching thier crappy ads i feel reasonably confident that if we can have laser beams and land on the moon we can make it so you can jump from game to game in streaming i think its a matter of the man tm not wanting you to be able to take that to the bank brochachos
 
corporate loves not having to pay Dolores $12/hr to answer calls. i wonder what their metrics say about how many customers are turned off, or turned away, by not being able to chat with Dolores and work through their issue in 1/10th the amount of time?


corporate loves not having to pay Dolores $12/hr to answer calls. i wonder what their metrics say about how many customers are turned off, or turned away, by not being able to chat with Dolores and work through their issue in 1/10th the amount of time?

this, This, THIS !! I just went through this yesterday with a n umber of calls I had to make..... "Your call is important to us, please leave a message and we will call you back at OUR earliest convenience. MY "F" ing convenience is when I'M calling you ....... @#&%$@ !!!
 
Watching Curb Your Enthusiasm on MAX recently.....commercials. Just, no. Come on.
Yep. I dropped MAX when they went to commercials. I haven't watched a movie or show on Prime Video since they started commercials. Live sports is the only time I'm willing to put up with commercials. Other than that, I pretty much refuse to watch anything with commercials.
 
corporate loves not having to pay Dolores $12/hr to answer calls. i wonder what their metrics say about how many customers are turned off, or turned away, by not being able to chat with Dolores and work through their issue in 1/10th the amount of time?

Among other reasons, this is one why I pretty much just gave up and decided to be relatively unbanked and sort off the grid. I have a credit union and don’t deal with administrative stuff. A basic checking and savings acc’t. That’s it. Of course, that has drawbacks that should be obvious upon reflection, but I’ve completely given up on interactions with corporate entities over the phone. I don’t matter—but a hundred of me do. And I think it’s way, way more than that. AI just going to make it worse.
 
corporate loves not having to pay Dolores $12/hr to answer calls. i wonder what their metrics say about how many customers are turned off, or turned away, by not being able to chat with Dolores and work through their issue in 1/10th the amount of time?


corporate loves not having to pay Dolores $12/hr to answer calls. i wonder what their metrics say about how many customers are turned off, or turned away, by not being able to chat with Dolores and work through their issue in 1/10th the amount of time?

this, This, THIS !! I just went through this yesterday with a n umber of calls I had to make..... "Your call is important to us, please leave a message and we will call you back at OUR earliest convenience. MY "F" ing convenience is when I'M calling you ....... @#&%$@ !!!
I actually like that feature where they call you back rather than sitting on hold for 30 minutes. :scared:
 
I think my favorite example was when Domino's started advertising their app. That you could use to order Domino's pizza. From your phone.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top