#also don't say any streaming services that u have to like pay for. i don't have those

[ghostie-gengar]

guyssss my fav anime site is down does anybody know any other sites that aren't kissanime that i can use

[sparrowhero]

have u actually written ‘bakugo is your friend and you teach him how to set up a VPN’ i’d like 2 see it if u have :]

you will be delighted to know how much i think about silly situations like this, love piracy, and hate streaming services

It starts out so simple: studying together in his dorm room. There's a shared TV in the common room at UA but that's been commandeered by some of the other students and Bakugo didn't win the fight to determine what to watch so it's back to his room for studying and he's picking something to put on for background noise.

"Damn it. They took my favorite All Might documentary off of Shitflix. Maybe it's on HBOcrap." You look on in horror as he goes through several different subscription based apps to try and find what it is he's looking for. What the fuck.

"Why don't you just download it?" You ask. "Why don't you just kiss my ass? Don't you think I would have, but it's streaming only, idiot. Can't buy it anywhere."

It's time to explain about the wonderful world of torrenting and virtual private networks to Katsuki Bakugo. "Isn't this shit illegal?" He asks. Of course not; otherwise why would it be advertised so often? You ply him with the added incentives of not getting advertisers being able to use his information to sell him shit and profiting off of his search histories and the like, as well as just the added security.

The downloading thing? Well, All Might probably doesn't make any more money off of views for that thing, so who gives a shit. It's also a way to find old All Might interviews and series that may have been out of print for years so of course he's going to jump on that.

You give him a few pointers about what to choose. He's making a face about having to pay for another service-- but wouldn't he rather shell out a few bucks a month to have something forever rather than be at the beck and call of whatever piece of shit CEO thinks is profitable at the moment? Needless to say, he's down and you hook him up with a reasonably priced VPN, torrent client, and some other anti-virus shit.

He's a smart guy so it's easy to explain to him what to click and what not to click. Katsuki Bakugo can must and will download a movie, or even a PDF of a book.

"But how am I going to get it on the screen, dumbass?" He demands after everything has finished and he remembers he does not want to view on his shitty little laptop screen. "Fullscreen, HDMI cable, and then change the source. You might also be able to just mirror it if the TV's specs are right." You look incredibly smug right now and he kind of hates it, but he also really wants to watch this.

Eventually the rest of the dorm catches on and you may or may not have become the Media Provider. Aizawa makes eye contact with you one evening as you all are using UA's high speed internet to completely and totally legally download something for movie night and gives you a long, judgemental look. You are definitely getting a lecture about this, but what's done is done. It can wait until after the movie.

[topicprinter]

I've just seen yet another post about "my outsourced development is possibly screwing me, what can I do", so I thought I'd write down some guidelines about how not to get screwed. I've worked as a developer and CTO in the tech industry for a decade, have used plenty of outsourced developers (both local and offshore) as well as built engineering teams. So here's my advice to not getting screwed.The ContractYou must have a written contract with your developers. No oral agreements, no phone calls, no chats. A proper written contract. You should supply this contract, so that it meets your needs (since you're paying for the service here), rather than using a contract supplied by your outsourced developer, which will suit their needs. Get a lawyer to draft something up, find something on the internet, or even write something yourself - yes, there are traps there, but contracts are only documents which agree something, so even a self-written contract will put you in a far better position than none at all.The contract must specify that ownership in all intellectual property produced immediately transfers to you, or transfers on payment.The contract must allow you to terminate the agreement without any preconditions, and with minimal notice (say, 7 days at most. Try for immediate termination). Never agree to a contract with minimum fees or long termination periods.CodeDo not allow your developer(s) to host the code themselves. Sign up for a GitHub account, and demand that developers use that as their code repository, with regular commits. It's your code, that you're paying for, so you need to have ownership and control of it. If any developer won't agree to this, do not use them. If they're not pushing code at least every 1-2 days, start asking questions.Get a trusted technical friend to look over the work the outsourced dev is doing. Do this in the first few days, and again in the first few weeks. You friend should be able to tell you if the code is being produced to decent levels of quality, or if its absolute rubbish.Break up work into chunks of at most 1-2 days, especially at first. Don't allow your developers to go away for a week, or a month to produce something, and deliver a ton of code at the end of that period. You should be seeing new code almost every day - if this is a problem for your developers, this is a red flag, and you should ask questions.Make sure your developer is using a common language and framework, so that you're not left with something that's difficult to recruit other developers for. For web apps, this means Ruby on Rails, Python + Django, Node.JS or PHP + Laravel. Maybe C# + ASP.NET if you're doing very businessy stuff. For iPhone apps, Swift. For Android, Kotlin or Java. If you're not confident to make this decision yourself, talk to your technical friend, because it's an important one.HostingDon't use the same development company as hosting company. This basically hands control of your business to a third party, and you will be screwed if things go sour. If you're doing a web application, sign up for a Heroku account, and get your developers to deploy to that. Or a Digital Ocean or AWS account, though that's more complicated. If you're doing an iPhone or Android app, then make sure you own the Apple Developer account (or Google equivalent), and you control the app store submission process. At the very worst, find a second contractor to set up your hosting, so there's at least a division of control.Hosting for a web-app should be quite cheap. A basic production web-app setup on Heroku will start at around $200-$300 per month. If you're really desperate for cash, it can be made cheaper, and it will also get more expensive as you grow, but worry about that later. If you're being asked for thousands of dollars a month in "hosting", you're being ripped off - and there are outsourcing companies who do this, because it's easy money from the gullible.Make sure you own and control your domain names. If someone has control of your domains, they control almost everything you do with your business. So buy them yourself, and only give control out for DNS changes etc when you have to - either use something like Cloudflare, which permits sub-accounts to have access, or change your password immediately after your developer has gone in and changed any settings with your account. (Thanks to /u/flt001 for this point, which I had forgotten!)Working with outsourced developersDo a video call with them every day. Yes, every day, even if just for a few minutes. That way you get daily updates, hear about any problems quickly, and can start to build a good relationship. If you're working with a team, do this with the whole team. If they won't agree to this, don't work with them. If they won't do a video call, but only audio, be very suspicious - I once had a situation where we did interviews with a developer, who seemed to be good, but when they substituted another developer to actually do the work, but we only found out after a week because he claimed he couldn't do video calls.If they don't show good progress quickly, get rid of them. Don't accept excuses, you should be seeing code written very quickly. If they take a week to "set up a development environment", get rid of them. If they've only delivered 100 lines of code after a week, get rid of them. If you suspect you're being lied to, get rid of them. Talk to you technical friend here. If they're writing code instead of using a commonly available library, get rid of them (I once had a contractor write a half-assed S3 connector for a Rails project, instead of using a well-tested gem like Paperclip, and try to bill me for the time. That is so unacceptable it defies belief.)Remember to stay in control of the process. You're paying the money, so you control what's going on. You control what's being worked on, and the scope and timelines. These things are related, but do not allow a one-month contract to be turned into a six-month one by the developers - some are very skilled at this sort of thing. Expect to see a continuous stream of deliverables, and if you're not, or the quality isn't up to your expectations, start asking questions. Don't doubt your judgement - if you feel you're being fed bullshit, find a technical friend, or even another outsourced developer to ask questions of, review code, or just to talk to.Finally, don't be afraid to fire your developers. Unless you're doing start-of-the-art stuff like self-driving cars or AI, then developers are pretty replaceable. And if your current developers are not working out, fire them, and find other ones. This is true for individual developers, and for outsourced teams. They need to produce at an adequate speed and quality, and if they don't, get rid of them. If they're not producing work from the first few days, get rid of them. You'll be far better off in the long run. Trust your intuition here.

[tortuga-aak]

The media industry has suddenly become a Game of Thrones-like battle for power

HBO

The media industry is suddenly mulling a flurry of huge deals.

Cord-cutting, streaming and shifting consumer and advertiser preferences have upended the power structure as former giants scramble for relevance long term. 

The stakes are as high as it gets  – who controls content, distribution, advertising and connections with consumers.

If you spend any time on Twitter and follow any media industry people, you'll often come away dizzy, and fairly certain that every media company is buying everyone.

It started a year ago when AT&T announced it had reached an agreement to buy Time Warner. Then things really turned upside down when 21st Century Fox — just three years after trying to buy Time Warner — signaled it wanted to sell some assets to Disney. 

Then on Thursday, it was reported that Comcast might buy some of Fox. Or Verizon might. And of course, President Trump might not allow AT&T to buy Time Warner. The FCC is potentially loosening media ownership rules. Net Neutrality might go away. 

Confused yet? 

When did media become Game of Thrones? 

HBOGO

Media used be an industry that was primarily about content, distribution and advertising. Now, the emergence of deep-pocketed tech giants has changed everything. People are streaming, ditching cable, avoiding live TV, watching shows on mobile, etc. 

"The one take away is that the media industry is facing real pressure," said Rich Greenfield, BTIG media and tech analyst. "You've got cord cutting, ads moving to mobile, etc. None of these companies has been prepared for that."

So all these media machinations are about power and control. These giants want to make as much money as possible, position themselves for the future and prevent rivals from getting into their territory.

"What we’ve noticed is where there’s big change there’s often a lot of M&A," said Terry Kawaja founder and CEO of M&A advisory firm Luma Partners. "In this case, it's motivated by fear, not greed."

What gives you the most power in the future?

"In the pre-web video era, it was all the same for decades. Content was king, distribution was queen," said Toby Chapman, associate partner at strategy consulting firm OC&C. "Then, suddenly people are talking about, is content king any more? In a platform world, is it the relationship with consumer? Or is it the pipes?"

Those questions get at the heart of why everyone in media seems to be rethinking who their friends and enemies are.

Is content still king? Does the company with the best shows and movies (like Disney) have the most power? 

Is distribution where the true power lies? Does the company with cable boxes or broadband pipes in people's homes (like say Comcast) rule?

Is having a direct relationship with the consumer the winning strategy? Amazon is one of America's favorite brands, and Netflix is a favorite with millennials.

Or is it all about the browser or the interface? Maybe delivery mechanisms don't matter, as long as you own the browser (like Google) or the interface (like Facebook).

Or do you need to have everything?

"No matter how big you are, tech and user behavior throws it all off," said Elgin Thompson, managing director at Digital Capital Advisors. "Unless you are the full ecosystem, you're not an emperor. These companies want to be so big they can create their own weather."

It seems that suddenly, Fox has many suitors interested in some of its assets (it's not selling Fox network, Fox News or Fox Sports.) Why?

Walt Disney Animation Studios

The rise of Netflix

You may recall, Disney is planning taking on Netflix with its own streaming service, and it may want to own as much content as possible, so Fox's Studio could be a big help.

Disney already owns Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar. Theoretically, if it gets Fox's content and other TV companies start starving Netflix of their shows, Netflix would have fewer people signing on to binge "Breaking Bad" and would have to live and die on its own shows.

"A lot of people would look at them and say, they've stood alone in that space," said Chapman. "But they may suddenly have very credible competitors. And you’ve also got so many channels who've never been good friends with Netflix." 

Netflix, of course, plans to spend $8 billion on content next year. So don't count them out of anything.

The Verizon playbook

Meanwhile, Verizon is eyeing a deal with Fox, according to the Wall Street Journal. What is it doing?

Like AT&T, all of the wireless giants need to get into new revenue streams, since pretty much everyone in the US who wants a cell phone has one and they keep switching to get better deals.

Verizon has acquired AOL and Yahoo in recent years to challenge Facebook and Google, which remains a brutal task. Meanwhile, it has a very limited footprint in TV, other than Verizon Fios. This gets them in the TV game, theoretically.

What about Comcast?

What about Comcast? Many see this cable company as being in great shape, given that it has such a complete set of assets: NBCUniversal (TV networks, and a studio) and the largest pay TV service in the US. Buying some of Fox could help strengthen them against competitors. One very appealing asset: Sky, which is sort of like Comcast or DirecTV in the UK.

Yet Greenfield believes Comcast may have to sell NBCU if it wants to make any more big moves, given the Trump administration's objections to the AT&T/Time Warner deal. 

Isn't everyone cutting the cord? 

Millions of people still have cable. There's a lot of money to be rung out of that business over the next few years – and maybe even some untapped potential.

For example, Comcast theoretically knows what you watch and what you do on the web. They could tie that together with data for advertisers and programmers, for example.

And don't forget that even if you cut the cable cord, you're likely to keep the broadband one. Cable TV companies are essentially broadband companies. And that business isn't going away quickly. The company that delivers broadband to your home could always charge cord cutters more. And if Net Neutrality goes away, they could also charge some companies like Netflix a toll to reach consumers. 

A big limit to cable companies' power is that are inherently regional. You can't get Comcast in New York, for example. No one's been able to roll up all these cable companies into a national play. At least not yet.

HBOStill, these companies have the most to lose in an 'over the top' TV future.  As Kawaja explained it, a company like CBS is happy to deliver its network to new distributors like Sling TV or YouTube TV. Even if people cut the cord for skinny bundles or they just pay for CBS All Access to get the new "Star Trek," CBS makes money.

But recently earnings for Comcast and DirecTV showed both losing subscribers faster. "Now everyone is saying, oh shit, it’s on," Kawaja said. "Cord-cutting is suddenly not a college graduate thing. It’s accelerating faster. And the distribution people have the most urgency to move. An OTT world messes with their bundle first and foremost."

Who else should we think about?

Charter Communications: Charter Communication is another big regional pay TV provider (they are the ones who bought Time Warner Cable a few years ago). According to the New York Post, Charter has considered buying the cable TV company Cox Communications or even selling itself to Softbank.

(By the way, watch Softbank in this area. They have lots of money. They're the Iron Bank in this scenario)

Liberty Media: Liberty Media chairman John Malone told CNBC that the company has received four acquisition overtures recently.

Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty ImagesMalone is a legendary media industry investor who's worth billions. As the chairman of Liberty Media could make a big move at any moment. Liberty Media has stakes in SiriusXM, Formula One Racing and the Atlanta Braves. Malone also has a big stake in Discovery Communications. 

Altice: What's an Altice again? Ad tech nerds know them as the company that bought the web video company Teads last year. They acquired Cablevision a few years ago. Now, the stock is tanking, and they could be looking for a savior.

Viacom and Discover/Scripps: These cable programmers used to be among the power players in the TV industry. Now they're suddenly vulnerable. Do they need to find buyers? Greenfield argues that Viacom needs to reunite with CBS (they two companies split a decade ago) "yesterday."

What about selling to someone like Google or Facebook, both of whom want to get into premium content in a big way (and TV advertising). Greenfield says no way. "Tech companies can build, they don't need to buy. Nothing has changed my thinking on that."

A good example is Amazon inking a deal to make an original series centered on "Lord of the Rings." You don't have to own a studio or network to do content, if you can spend a lot of money.

Amazon: It's coming for every industry, so it seems. The billionaire media mogul Malone earlier this week called them "The Death Star," reported CNBC. Though in this case, The White Walkers might be a better analogy, since few know what Amazon really wants to do.

What's Next?

Dave Morgan, CEO of the data-centric TV ad company Simulmedia, sees a flurry of activity.

"Charter could combine with Discovery/Scripps," he said. "Or they could do a deal with Sprint or T-Mobile, since they each will need a scaled partner. Comcast will talk to one or both of those wireless company. As will Dish."

Morgan also predicted that Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google could become sudden buyers. In particular, he predicts Netflix could buy a studio to hedge against Disney. "I think that they will have to, and may want a network for its ability to help them market their programming and maximize its monetization."

The Wild Card

AP Photo/Andrew HarnikTrump and his team are the great unknown. Few thought that the AT&T/Time Warner deal was in trouble. Now it's headed for a court battle.

"Usually logic reigns supreme," said Thompson. "But with Trump, none of this matters. That’s what these guys have to deal with."

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