#redboxes

[alexf14r]

#nokia #nokia3230 #cmos #oldcmos #lofiphotography #oldphone #старыйтелефон #oldnokia #стараянокия #cmossensor #nokiacolors #nokiaphotography #фотонанокию #alongrailroad #пожелезнойдороге #redboxes #красныеящики #beautifulview #красивыйвид #streetporn #уличнаяфотография #colourfulphotography #цветнаяфотография #phornography #lensculturestreet #alexeyfrolov #алексейфролов (at Санкт-Петербург) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpUssbDIgas/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#nokia #nokia3230 #cmos #oldcmos #lofiphotography #oldphone #старыйтелефон #oldnokia #стараянокия #cmossensor #nokiacolors #nokiaphotography #фотонанокию #alongrailroad #пожелезнойдороге #redboxes #красныеящики #beautifulview #красивыйвид #streetporn #уличнаяфотография #colourfulphotography #цветнаяфотография #phornography #lensculturestreet #alexeyfrolov #алексейфролов

[vounnasi]

#transistor #coughs #redboxer

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The long bezzle

Going to Defcon this weekend? I’m giving a keynote, “An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse,” on Saturday at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

When it comes to the modern world of enshittified, terrible businesses, no addition to your vocabulary is more essential than "bezzle," JK Galbraith's term for "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/09/accounting-gimmicks/#unter

The bezzle is contained by two forces.

First, Stein's Law: "Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop."

Second, Keynes's: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

On the one hand, extremely badly run businesses that strip all the value out of the firm, making things progressively worse for its suppliers, workers and customers will eventually fail (Stein's Law).

On the other hand, as the private equity sector has repeatedly demonstrated, there are all kinds of accounting tricks, subsidies and frauds that can animate a decaying, zombie firm long after its best-before date (Keynes's irrational markets):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

One company that has done an admirable job of balancing on a knife edge between Stein and Keynes is Verizon, a monopoly telecoms firm that has proven that a business can remain large, its products relied upon by millions, its stock actively traded and its market cap buoyant, despite manifest, repeated incompetence and waste on an unimaginable scale.

This week, Verizon shut down Bluejeans, an also-ran videoconferencing service the company bought for $400 million in 2020 as a panic-buy to keep up with Zoom. As they lit that $400 mil on fire, Verizon praised its own vision, calling Bluejeans "an award-winning product that connects our customers around the world, but we have made this decision due to the changing market landscape":

https://9to5google.com/2023/08/08/verizon-bluejeans-shutting-down/

Writing for Techdirt, Karl Bode runs down a partial list of all the unbelievably terrible business decisions Verizon has made without losing investor confidence or going under, in a kind of tribute to Keynes's maxim:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/10/verizon-fails-again-shutters-attempted-zoom-alternative-bluejeans-after-paying-400-million-for-it/

Remember Go90, the "dud" streaming service launched in 2015 and shuttered in 2018? You probably don't, and neither (apparently) do Verizon's shareholders, who lost $1.2 billion on this folly:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/07/02/verizons-sad-attempt-to-woo-millennials-falls-flat-face/

Then there was Verizon's bid to rescue Redbox with a new joint-venture streaming service, Redbox Instant, launched 2012, killed in 2014, $450,000,000 later:

https://variety.com/2014/digital/news/verizon-redbox-to-pull-plug-on-video-streaming-service-1201321484/

Then there was Sugarstring, a tech "news" website where journalists were prohibited from saying nice things about Net Neutrality or surveillance – born 2014, died 2014:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/2/7324063/verizon-kills-off-sugarstring

An app store, started in 2010, killed in 2012:

https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/5/3605618/verizon-apps-store-closing-january-2013

Vcast, 2005-2012, yet another failed streaming service (pray that someday you find someone who loves you as much as Verizon's C-suite loves doomed streaming services):

https://venturebeat.com/media/verizon-vcast-shutting-down/

And the granddaddy of them all, Oath, Verizon's 2017, $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo/AOL, whose name refers to the fact that the company's mismanagement provoked involuntary, protracted swearing from all who witnessed the $4.6 billion write-down the company took a year later:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/12/12/if-youre-surprised-verizons-aol-yahoo-face-plant-you-dont-know-verizon/

Verizon isn't just bad at being a phone company that does non-phone-company things – it's incredibly bad at being a phone company, too. As Bode points out, Verizon's only real competency is in capturing its regulators at the FCC:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/05/02/new-verizon-video-blatantly-lies-about-whats-happening-to-net-neutrality/

And sucking up massive public subsidies from rubes in the state houses of New York:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/03/14/new-york-city-sues-verizon-fiber-optic-bait-switch/

New Jersey:

https://www.techdirt.com/2014/04/25/verizon-knows-youre-sucker-takes-taxpayer-subsidies-broadband-doesnt-deliver-lobbies-to-drop-requirements/

and Pennsylvania:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/06/15/verizon-gets-wrist-slap-years-neglecting-broadband-networks-new-jersey-pennsylvania/

Despite all this, and vast unfunded liabilities – like remediating the population-destroying lead in their cables – they remain solvent:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/verizon-sued-by-investors-over-lead-cables-environmental-statements-2023-08-02/

Verizon has remained irrational longer than any short seller could remain solvent.

Short-sellers – who bet against companies and get paid when their stock prices go down – get a bad rap: billionaire shorts were the villains of the Gamestop squeeze, accused of running negative PR campaigns against beloved businesses to drive them under and pay their bets off:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/30/meme-stocks/#stockstonks

But shorts can do the lord's work. Writing for Bloomberg, Kathy Burton tells the story of Nate Anderson, whose Hindenburg Research has cost some of the world's wealthiest people over $99 billion by publishing investigative reports on their balance-sheet shell-games just this year:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-06/how-much-did-hindenburg-make-from-shorting-adani-dorsey-icahn

Anderson started off trying to earn a living as a SEC whistleblower, identifying financial shenanigans and collecting the bounties on offer, but that didn't pan out. So he turned his forensic research skills to preparing mediagenic, viral reports on the scams underpinning the financial boasts of giant companies…after taking a short position in them.

This year, Anderson's targets have included Carl Icahn, whose company lost $17b in market cap after Anderson accused it of overvaluing its assets. He went after the world's fourth-richest man, Gautam Adani, accusing him of "accounting fraud and stock manipulation," wiping out 34% of his net worth. He took on Jack Dorsey, whose payment processor Square renamed itself Block and went all in on the cryptocurrency bezzle, lopping 16% off its share price.

Burton points out that Anderson's upside for these massive bloodletting was comparatively modest. A perfectly timed exit from the $17b Icahn report would have netted $56m. What's more, Anderson faces legal threats and worse – one short seller was attacked by a man wearing brass-knuckles, an attack attributed to her short activism.

Shorts are lauded as one of capitalism's self-correcting mechanisms, and Hindenberg certainly has taken some big, successful swings at some of the great bezzles of our time. But as Verizon shows, shorts alone can't discipline a market where profits and investor confidence are totally decoupled from competence or providing a decent product or service.

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/10/smartest-guys-in-the-room/#can-you-hear-me-now

#pluralistic #verizon #yahoo #tumblr #bluejeans #aol #vcast #redbox #go90 #short sellers #hindenberg research #block #icahn #carl icahn #jack dorsey #square #nate anderson #gautam adani #adani group #icahn enterprises

[wasteful-barbie]

I can smell the pizza rolls cooking in the oven now…

#vintage #nostaglic #1990s nostalgia #2000s #early 2000s #2000s nostalgia #nostalgic #Redbox #red box movies #pizza rolls #90s movies #throwback #Y2K #y2kcore #y2k aesthetic

[kanerallels]

Holy KRIFF have y'all SEEN how many streaming services The Chosen is available on???

#some of them you need a subscription #but other than that it's free. on every platform #except redbox where it's ONE CENT #i seriously cannot think of one other show that's available on this many platforms #let alone FOR FREE #the chosen #the chosen tv series

[h4lcyonism]

just finished watching the jl x rwby movie and as somebody who was apprehensive of the idea of the crossover at first, i can say that i thoroughly enjoyed it!! i have a draft with all my in-depth thoughts throughout the movie that i’ll post on tuesday, so please support the official release through amazon prime video if you can!!

#i rented the movie through redbox but apparently the movie doesn’t show up on there anymore?? 😭 #rwby #justice league x rwby: superheroes and huntsmen pt 1 #emma.txt

[theminimal]

Garfield Cowboy

#redbubbleshop #graphic design #fashion #menswear #street style #typography #art #artists on tumblr #design #business #redbubble #redbox #garfield the movie #garfield and friends #garfield and odie #cat #cats of tumblr #cute animals #kitty #kitties #kittens #kitty cat #cowboy

[princessisnikki]

So many memories of having little money to my name, getting myself a 1$ movie as a treat.

I miss the old days. I hate new technology hate the way our new world works. I hate inflation.

I wish to go back to simpler times.

#weirdcore #nostalgia #redbox #obsolete #00s tech #sad thoughts #world is changing #midwest #rural america #dvds #dvd rental #00s nostalgia

[pcktknife]

blockbuster video was more than a movie rental shop it was like a father to me

#i mourn her everyday bro #redbox too red box was like a sister #that ones still around but we dont use it anymore 😔 #kae.txt

[diazly]

will have to pause making gifs and whatnot bc my dad just got an email from mediacom even tho i take precautions and whatnot idk im just nervy so anyway sorry folks

#IM NOT TRYNA GO TO JAIL #also having to explain to my father that i download 911 episodes was uhhhhhhh fun #but whatever he used to burn Cds from redbox back in the day i get it from him #corinne talks

[pastelalleycat]

#i've seen a surprising amount in my lifetime #curious to know if you guys have too! #poll #polls #redbox #mint's posts 💛

[mifunebooty]

Gonna nap but the movie on TV is the Tom hardy capone movie and as always the mf can do a great ass accent, the old man makeup is all latex and oh my God it's Matt Dillon

#cherry says #MATT DILLON HOW THE FUCK ARE YA what are u doing in a redbox entertainment movie youre matt dillon u were in the outsiders

[rubyneo]

anyway gonna check out my local redboxes and see if they have the movie already and watch it tomorrow if they do

#cj.txt #renting a movie thru redbox is so 2007 i love it

[raeloganthesonic06fangirl]

So in my little rural town, the next town over actually, which is ten miles away, got some new shops built because a famous country music star that happens to have her hometown be that one ((not saying who because that would tell you where I live)) had put in a new personal restaurant that brought in new tourists and the revenue is funding a total town makeover, and we got a Starbucks and Arby's now

So, anyway, our neighbor, who is also our good friend, was very excited about a local Arby's because it's like her favorite place and it just had the grand opening yesterday, so she ran to town this morning and came back to knock on our door to give Mom and I both a Classic Roast Beef sandwich because she wanted to share and let me say that it was very a good sandwich because that thing was piled high with the meat like they do in the commercials

Brand new fast food places really hit different. 😁

#The new starbucks was nice too #They ran out of half the menu before I got there the other day so I just had an iced pumpkin spice latte with banana pecan walnut bread #But it was nice and also I figured we'd be limited on choices anyway because we're out in rural nowhere #My town has a pop of 440+ and the next town that's kinda connected is 3k+ #We're very out in the middle of nowhere but I like it #The dollar general across the street from my house has a RedBox so I can rent movies and the gas station makes great pizza #I just wish the bugs weren't so bitey

[h4lcyonism]

there’s a redbox at the end of my neighborhood 👀 gonna try to go sometime today or tomorrow so i can pick up jl x rwby early

#plus the redbox renting price is only $4 while the only option on amazon is buying it for $20 😭 #rwby #justice league x rwby: superheroes and huntsmen pt 1 #emma.txt

[remnants]

i don't talk about her a lot but catwoman means the world to me.

#tomi.txt #catwoman 2004 was my first superhero movie #my dad got it out the redbox at the market just for me and i loved it 💖