Cuba's Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify, all without the internet

[craig552uk]

"Most people I spoke to in Cuba work for the state and have zero incentive to deliver anything above the bare minimum. They get paid the same either way. Even the private restaurants lack the fervor of a competitive business, since the economic environment they work in is still completely controlled even if they themselves are private."

Interesting article, but this statement is completely opposed to my own experience. I went to Cuba 4 years ago and nearly everyone I met had something running on the side. One guy said that "everyone has two jobs, they job you're given and the job you love" (he was a tour guide who did photography on the side).

I a country where many (admittedly not all) basic needs are taken care of by the state, the people are able to pursue their own aspirations, as the guy featured in the article has done.

"zero incentive" = neo-liberal bollocks.

[ChicagoBoy11]

>One guy said that "everyone has two jobs, they job you're given and the job you love" (he was a tour guide who did photography on the side).

That is because that's the only way to survive. The top positions in Cuba are those which face foreigners, as there is always a non-trivial chance of receiving dollar-based tips, which are far, far more valuable than the official Cuban currency. When I went to a Cuban resort town, my barman had been trained in Physics in Moscow, and considered himself very fortunate to be in the job he was in.

Cubans are, undoubtedly, some of the most resourceful and entrepreneurial people I've met -- but by necessity. The statement that they have "zero incentive to deliver anything above the bare minimum" is absolutely right, because everyone knows that their well-being will depend on what else they can come up with on the side.

[oska]

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

—Tanenbaum, Andrew S. (1989). Computer Networks.

[nickpsecurity]

A blast from the past. I mailed DVD-R's and flash storage because the price per GB was pretty good. No hackers, either. I later found that this wasn't a unique idea: supercomputing and big corporate players often mailed whole HD's of data to cut cost of WAN links. A trick that it pays to never forget in case one of the benefits appear.

[danteembermage]

Just for fun!

My thought was how about a HFT microwave style network: https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/hft-in-my-ba...

So I checked the distance from the Keys to Havanna: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...

Which turned out to be 2500 meters via this: http://www.hamuniverse.com/lineofsightcalculator.html

It's four times larger than the largest non-skyscraper (a TV tower in North Dakota): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_and_...

So sadly we cannot beam Netflix or anything else to our entrepreneurial hacker Mr. Weekly Packet. Added incentive to fund space elevator research?

[noselasd]

You "only" need about 650m elevation if you place an equally tall tower at both places. Sadly neither Key West nor Havana has any tall mountains nearby either

[nickpsecurity]

https://www.ceragon.com/images/Reasource_Center/Case_Studies...

[comrh]

Repeater boat in international waters?

[nickpsecurity]

I imagine this has implications for the debate where certain people think backdoors and censorship will stop covert communication among criminals or terrorists. Now, we can add to our list of replies, "Hows that working out for Cuba?"

[guard-of-terra]

Then "certain people" are happy - at least they'll make you live in totalitarian dictatorship, it's a good achivement already.

I came to conclusion that those "certain people" just hate everybody and want to harm us, and then hope to escape proposed punishment themself.

Limiting your rights is not a "price to pay" for them, it's their target. Fighting crime and terrorism is just a front-end to get to their real target, namely to humiliate citizens.

[joubert]

I didn't see the article point it out, but earlier this year Netflix started streaming for Cuban customers: https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/getNewsSummary.do?newsId=18...

[noonespecial]

I'd say there is an internet going on here, it just happens to have really, really crappy latency.

[pepijndevos]

Latency or bandwidth, or both? If it's just latency you could still stream things.

[karmakaze]

It's funny he said 'Suits'. Just before that I was thinking Junior looked like the Harvey character on the show.

[transfire]

What media are they using? DVD, tape?

[guard-of-terra]

I wonder why we're still having fans of communism, socialism and otherwise far left people if that's what the best communist states have to offer its population?

I mean, it's pathetic to live like this.

Also invalidates most of French thinkers of XX century.

[beggi]

Communism != socialism. There's much more socialism in the nordic countries then USA for example but they are wealthy, unrestricted internet AND have great socialized healthcare. As with most things it's about finding the right balance rather then choosing one or the other.

[digi_owl]

At the same time the place as better general health care than USA...