I dumped them for the same reason. They were actually more than any competitor and upcharged for HD, for dvr, etc.

I went to Sling on Roku and was largely satisfied until the main channels I watched stopped permitting record on first airing (news) for a channel I paid extra. I finally gave up. I download the news program on itunes - audio same day 2 hours later or video next day.

I still use comcast for internet but its really the only game in town.

I stream all of my TV now, no connection and don't run into any speed, quality, or data limits with Comcast. I use about 40% of my limit with what I'd consider average watching.

Having made this leap, I'm amazed at how much I don't miss any of the 'important' things and in hindsight how vapid and passive my tube time had become. Now I just hypnotize myself with machining videos on YouTube and pour a few dollars to actual people via patreon. BTW Add free YouTube premier is a dream. I never have to see the same idiot adverts between interesting points of what ever I'm watching ever again.

I tried Sling and until they started not allowing prime time recording. That entirely defeated the reason to record, for me, which was to skip commercials. I dropped it finally too. I also hated paying extra for a news channel I wanted and it was the same that didn't allow prime time recording. Now I just stream the podcast 1hr later for free.

Dropped Hulu and Netflix after realizing I hardly watched. I have prime but that's mostly for free shipping. My best money spent...YouTube Premium. Not the YouTube TV, just YouTube minus commercials. I get a lot more out of YouTube content any day vs scripted television plus you get free YouTube music which is nice to have when working around the shop. I may pick up HBO go for a few months to watch the new True Detective and a few things, then drop until the new season of WestWorld. IMO the way to go is to remember to cancel these month-to-month subscriptions except when you actually watch them. I can binge a season of new content in a month not pay for the rest.

I looked recently and I'm saving over just under a hundred bucks a month from what I was paying this time last year. I think too, I just don't miss it. I watch less and do other things.

That's what makes it great; that kind of rabbit hole. It's nearly like meeting an interesting stranger. There's also a different experience, especially with a small niche stuff, you get a measure of attachment that your viewing contributes to the success. Its an interesting psychology. I was the same way about some machining videos. Now I'm hooked and won't ever own a bridgeport or a metal lathe.

I'm convinced...this is some shady business and knowledge. For all of the effort presumably to protect your privacy and from prying eyes from illicit activities? Isn't this a family friendly website? I imagine all of that searching to find that detail left its own trail, and like ants following a path to food, came from a lot of other users along that process deigned to support a much wider and more sinister intent, making the Subway card perhaps unintended but never-the-less ironic touch. If I had to guess it's source is as much a codeword as it is an example for others to use. If you didn't consider it at the time, maybe one should consider it now. Super creepy and out of place here IMO.

Paying to steal content is wrong enough you sought an insanely elaborate plan to protect yourself from its liabilities treading in a path worn smooth by some very dark and ill intended predecessors. Wow.

I won't go into detail about what parts of your plan did little to actually hide your activity from prying eyes because it only helps others who do the same. If your innocent and naive to this, consider that what your doing is only marginally different and to what effect?

The part where its used to do something illegal or immoral.

Not sure what that has to do with any of this. We live in the same world. Cash is legal tender. It depends on what you spend it on. Same as the response above.

It makes you hard to find, but not invisible.

Right here. In this quote.

You asked a question. I answered. I was, remember, responding to vanilla's elaborately constructed post on how he steals media content using a subway card and the library. The fact he uses a VPN is immaterial to the point. The point I was hoping to make, that you may have missed or not feel is as important, is that the effort mirrors the effort and is built upon a process that supports a number of illegal activities. I don't think that's appropriate at all, let alone for Pinside.

I don't have any problems with VPN or internet privacy. I didn't say I did, but maybe you think I did?

If you wear gloves, a ski mask, and drive up in an unmarked car in the black of night, still not true.

Do you intend conflate internet privacy with untraceable actions? They can be associated but aren't conditional to either part. Have all the privacy you want. For those that do legitimately for what ever reason, more power too them.

Yep. That guy in the mirror, that's you. I don't have to justify or hide my actions.

We're not going to agree. If other's want to wade in that swamp, they'll find your post helpful. I stand by my opinion of its appropriateness. I'm less interested in convincing you, than I am of preventing some other poor soul from walking into those fetid waters thinking its OK and without risks.

Maybe if your ever robbed, you'll use that logic to justify the new owner of your things as legit and in their right. I mean it was on this planet and they're on it too.

No, I ignored it. I already said we're not going to agree, why spend effort on your justification or warped concepts of right and wrong. If it begins or ends with something wrong, what's in the middle doesn't really matter. I think its ironic that you can't seem to see the line and the fireworks example is a literal crossing of the line. Its the LINE that matters. How some people don't see that is beyond me.

The point is simple. Your stealing content. You didn't pay the people who made it, you paid people who stole it and made it easy to steal. You paying the wrong people to what end? None of that is right. Your obviously ok with it, but want to pretend it doesn't have consequences. You don't want those people to have your credit card because you know that it can tie to an illegal action as defined by the law and possibly because you know those types can't be trusted with your information.

They aren't using that process to buy groceries or donate to charity. I won't argue that it can't be used legitimately, but can argue that it largely isn't. Every swamp has clean water running in and out. But in the middle, its swamp.

Me personally, agree. I think your meaning to imply its an untraceable action. I think our concepts of untraceable are different. There are a lot of people in prison today who conducted their illicit activities in cash. I'm not sure it served them as well as they thought at the time.

No. I'm saying when its used for illegal and immoral purposes it is the swamp. If you do legal and appropriate things in the swamp, you are not quantifiable as immoral or illegal. However, when you support a process that is largely used for those types of things, and the originator of that process profits, your adding to the machinery of illicit activity that makes that kind of thing possible. I try to be aware of that, and recognize that any participation, even on the 'legitimate' periphery, may be in part used to bolster and further a mechanism that is doing more harm than good. For that reason I woudln't conduct my business through that venue, no mater the reason. My view, even if unintended, would be enabling them to support illegal activities.

I recognize almost anything can be made and bent to the will of evil and wrong. However being aware and making choices is important to me personally. The other uses of that kind of transaction are so vile and pernicious that they must be avoided by me if at all possible. I want no part of it.

Nothing wrong with that. However the line is if that is legally income and reported as such.

Like I said, we won't agree. To you muddy includes some aspect of right. To me, its clear water or dirty.

That's not what I intended. I did respond, I'm not sure what your missing. We don't agree. You suggest there is morality and right and wrong have a grey area. I disagree. Your examples do not differ or show a change in that concept, but intend to reinforce them. Because our views differ, it only furthers each of our own views in opposite directions. Your fireworks example isn't grey to me, its black and white. Can you buy those things legally there. Yes. Can you take them across state lines, depends. If you do, and its legal, you can't use them, because the state your in deemed it illegal. The part that's legal is always legal. The part that isn't will always no be. Mixing the two doesn't muddy the water, unless you want it to be muddy. I'm not looking for a way to justify that, because I'd stay on my side of the line, or go to the other side of the line, but for me there's no middle.

Even if you steal a loaf of bread because your hungry. Its wrong. It has consequences and impacts real people on both sides. The hungry person has food and can survive, but at what cost. To save pride so to not ask for help, or to find a solution that was more effort? That's not to say anyone should go hungry, only that those choices have consequences. Would I steal bread if I were starving. I don't know. I probably would, if I had asked and exhausted every imaginable way to survive without crossing that line. However I wouldn't think that made it right. I would still feel guilt and shame for that because its wrong.

I hope anyone, including you, get something from this discussion. We don't have to agree to take away something important and meaningful, even if its resolve.

I'm no fan of big business or their conduct, especially when it crosses the line. However our responses are different. Yours was to do something that also crosses the line. Mine was to stop supporting the business.

Its impressive what you did to learn how to cross that line, which is what got my attention originally. I can see now part of it was personal challenge, however it would seem that may have not entered into your thinking. I wonder if that same effort and problem solving would have been better served doing something that didn't cross the line. Granted it might not have included HBO. For me its different. I chose instead to live without it. Do I like that? No not really, but I made a different choice.

PM me if you want to continue the conversation. I hope that answers what you wanted.