The Spirited Back Nine ...

[RSoxNo1]

Disney is, like 98% of corps in the USA, extremely arrogant.

There are a good dozen people on this site (yes, including you and I) that I'd be talking to about coming aboard. And they have full files on every single one of us (don't need MAGICal tracking bands to do checks on people when you are Disney), but no one reaches out because they truly and delusionally feel they know it all.

And just look at their record profits?!?! They must know what they are doing , right?

Can I get a spot on your imaginary BoD? I'll bring my own chair.

 

[WDW1974]

I honestly don't care about WDAS or Pixar related content, I find it generally all too sickly sweet for myself ... I would rather they save around $100million per animated feature and place that extra money into a money earner for the company like Parks and Resorts. Considering that DM2 and Toy Story 3 did similar numbers WW ... I wish they would spend less.

That is you. Look, I can respect people who are fans of the parks and not animation buffs (my good hillbilly pal @Lee is one), although I am a HUGE fan of animation (Disney and others). But TWDC was built on animation. That is what has been foundation for all else. And it's not really coincidence that when animation is firing on all cylinders that so much else in the company is too.

And your scenario just isn't the way the business is run. Big Hero 6 cost about $165 million to make (give or take $5-10 million). It couldn't be made for $65 million. And if it somehow could, that savings you see wouldn't go into another division. It's like that insurance commercial here in the USA, that's not how any of this works.

 

[Matt7187]

That is you. Look, I can respect people who are fans of the parks and not animation buffs (my good hillbilly pal @Lee is one), although I am a HUGE fan of animation (Disney and others). But TWDC was built on animation. That is what has been foundation for all else. And it's not really coincidence that when animation is firing on all cylinders that so much else in the company is too.

And your scenario just isn't the way the business is run. Big Hero 6 cost about $165 million to make (give or take $5-10 million). It couldn't be made for $65 million. And if it somehow could, that savings you see wouldn't go into another division. It's like that insurance commercial here in the USA, that's not how any of this works.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Truth.

It also worked half the time when I was there a few weeks ago. And when it doesn't, it harms the ride arguably more than Disco Yeti (and I am in NO way advocating what Disney has allowed to happen there). It just has to work or the illusion is blown.

And that's why Coup is NOT at this moment buying DIY Disco Lights at Spencer's Gifts and hammering out the 7+ year repair schedule.

 

[WDW1974]

They're going to be targeting rich foreigners, I assume, who want that Golden Oak thing of being able to say they have a home in Disney World (just about), but don't want to spend the full whack or deal with all the rules that a Golden Oak house would entail, especially if it's just a vacation home to use once in a while, or to rent out to other tourists.

Nope. Again, not enough rich foreigners want to drop three quarters of a million for a 4,200sf house on a lake in the middle of swamp and scrub with no infrastructure (we are FL, we only care about business, not the cost of it to citizens) to use a vacation home.

And Golden Oak ... well, let's just say it isn't all that it appears.

 

[ryan1]

Some builders take a "build it and they will come approach", especially if they are able to buy large chunks of land cheap. There are 2 places in NE FL that did that. They take a while to catch on but once they do it creates a boom around them and it becomes the hot place to live..... or it busts and they are going to take a big loss on the project.

 

[BrianLo]

I hear ya there.

I spent almost two months in Germany (with a week in Paris) last winter and I was fine the entire time until my last weekend when we traveled 300 miles north to Berlin and arrived when it was eight degrees. I hadn't felt cold like that since I was about eight years old. The entire almost four days, it never went above 20, even with sunshine. I couldn't take that kind of cold at all.

You just need warmer winter gear. It's not bothersome cold until it's dipping well below 0.

We had some -40 days last winter though, that was unpleasant. A few years ago in another Canadian city I was living in we have about 4-5 feet of snow over a 48 hour period, also ridiculous for a whole different reason.

I love how a light dusting can bring some of the Southern states to a grinding halt though, it's all just a matter of preparedness... and snow tires.

 

[lazyboy97o]

You just need warmer winter gear. It's not bothersome cold until it's dipping well below 0.

We had some -40 days last winter though, that was unpleasant. A few years ago in another Canadian city I was living in we have about 4-5 feet of snow over a 48 hour period, also ridiculous for a whole different reason.

I love how a light dusting can bring some of the Southern states to a grinding halt though, it's all just a matter of preparedness... and snow tires.

Part of that preparedness is good urban design which is incredibly lacking. There are few alternate routes available when a road is blocked because everything is subdivisions with one entrance and a maze of cul-de-sacs. It is also unreasonable to walk almost anywhere, even a few doors down.

 

[Lord_Vader]

Problem is there are TWO flavors of net neutrality,

1 - Techie version, Don't mangle my packets and don't drop packets from services which compete with yours, Under this version companies are free to pay for enhanced QOS, But ISP's are not allowed to put all packets who DONT PAY UP in queue 9999 on the SANDVINE or equivalent system or drop them altogether.

2 - ISP version, They want all content providers to PAY for access to their customers and be 'FREE' to drop packets from competing services or use the SANDVINE to slow them down to the point of uselessness. This is the version which FCC is pushing back on, But pols like it because it allows them to reward their supporters by giving them a role as gatekeeper to the internet and the only argument is how much to charge.

Under this model Comcast would be free for instance to charge Disney for access to their subscriber base, So under this version of 'The Internet' we would see domains vanish as channels do on cable and satellite systems.

The only fix for this is to get ISP's out of the content business and into the transport only business which removes the inherent conflict of interest. Cruz is right for a change on this as the "ISP" version of "net non-neutrality" will indeed break the internet.

There is much more to net neutrality behind the curtain, especially between ISPs and transit providers. One of the major issues going on behind the scenes is that content providers such as You-Tube

Ted Cruz is absolutely wrong.

Under his model, you could be forced by Comcast to pay $10 a month to access this very website.

It's all a way The cable companies you continue to make obscene amounts of money.

The Internet should be classified as a public utility, which is exactly what it is.

This is a giant problem for all of us. And we should all be very concerned and tell the FCC that we support net neutrality oppose the cable companies.

Sort of true... ISPs, including Comcast, AT&T & Verizon have to pay transit providers such as Level 3 to access the content provided by companies like You-Tube or Disney, which are hosted by Level 3 just like cable television today. ISPs end up paying these transit providers because of the old rules of the internet which needs to also be changed or ISP rates will go up, become measured or they are allowed to charge the content providers.

 

[Lee]

That is you. Look, I can respect people who are fans of the parks and not animation buffs (my good hillbilly pal @Lee is one)

True 'dat.
I got no time for the 'toons.

 

[Goofyernmost]

True 'dat.
I got no time for the 'toons.

Ain't nobody got time for dat.

 

[Lord_Vader]

The reality is US ISP's stopped building capacity around the end of the tech bubble 2001-3, Now they are screaming because the new services require basically new buildouts of network capacity which would have been affordable had they kept upgrading and expanding plant and equipment.

Now everything is a decade old and they want to keep showing Wall St their stellar financial performance which largely was achieved through cuts in CAPEX. So now we see caps and 'fast lanes' and BRAVO-SIERRA arguments about how they will no longer be able to afford to build networks.

ISPs are expanding their buildout at an escalating pace, primarily in the core though. Transit links that were 1Gbps in 2004 were upgraded to 10Gbps links in 2008 and 100Gbps links over the past few years. The number of POPs, or peering points is also going up radically but so is the volume of traffic from customers. Many customers might not notice the changes in the core but would if it wasn't being done.

 

[71jason]

I'd agree, but I'd also advise you to take a drive 10 minutes west of Flamingo Crossing to see all the massive construction starting on homes that start at $250,000 and go up to well over $1 million. Where in the (blank) do these real estate developers -- and worse, banks that are financing this -- think their market is??!! Truly.

I don't care if you're one of the few that has a good job at Disney or UNI. You aren't doing well enough to purchase some of the homes I toured a few weeks ago. To be honest, though, they were built better and laid out better than what I saw at Golden Oak.

Well, 6 bedrooms, if 12 CMs split the cost ...

But I agree, there's no market. Celebration sits half empty, the schools overrun by "homeless" kids from 192 hotels. And that area is more convenient to potential high earning jobs than the new developments (not that anywhere in central Florida is generating that much wealth).

 

[Lord_Vader]

We have a lot of examples of ISP's deliberately degrading video and other services which compete with the ISP's own service and getting caught paying a token fine and continuing the practice.

Two US ISP's ClearWire and MadisonRiver deliberately BLOCKED ALL competing VoIP services. The list of abuses continues to grow longer.

No the ISP's need to become a common carrier to protect the internet as we know it today - the advantage there of course is rates will be set by the respective utility regulators which will include maintenance and capital investment and an guaranteed profit on the order of 5-15% and if the ISP's DONT build a promised service the regulators will claw the money back. So promised builds are likely to happen.

ISPs that degrade services of any kind to protect their own service should be boycotted by their customer base. There have been some high profile cases including Comcast using various DPI tools to inject advertising, control certain content, etc. but are the minority right now. Until everyone is on a level playing field and regulations are in place for everyone to follow it is the wild west.

Net neutrality goes both ways though ISPs and transit providers should be held to the same standard too, transit providers charge ISPs for access to their customer base which means ISPs either charge their customers or lose the margins that enable them to justify growth capital to their shareholders.

 

[Cesar R M]

That would be wonderful, and though it's because I live in the 3rd world of Albuquerque, it's just not feasible in this neighborhood. Further, I cannot imagine it's all that different in other large cities. First problem, heavy internet users know there are not too many truly unlimited wireless plans, rather just a number of 5g plans outside of say Sprint, some grandfathered AT&T deals and maybe some of the other fringe players who are probably leasing tower rights from VZW. If they all start clogging up the 4G bands, you can bet your bootie all the wireless carriers will either A, throttle; B, charge a fee for more data usage to give you "unlimited" or C, both. Further, tower usage and throughput on them is even more dependent on how many people are accessing the data at one time than either cable internet or the old "how close to the switch" are you DSL.
Maybe in a decade it will be feasible, just not today, in most cases, to dump your ISP for you wireless data. Of if you happen to live under a tower in a sparsely populated area.
If I could get this performance at home, I'd dump Centurlink before I hit post reply.
View attachment 73613

(connection to the "international network" is usually capped to 25Mbps for each line. So using bitorrent will always max my 100Mbps line, but youtube can only do 25Mbps)

Used to suffer similar awful service from DSL companies when only TELMEX(prodigy), aka the giant Mexican Telecom monopoly, controlled 99% of the internet.
Thanks god for competition.. I think we're in better shape than some US regions now.

Also, agree with you on the wireless. Wireless is more "finite" due of its frequency limitations.

 

[flynnibus]

And just look at their record profits?!?! They must know what they are doing , right?

o/` everything is awesome! o/`

Well I'm off in 4hrs on my next holiday through FL and the Caribbean. I'll see Mickey, but on the boat and not in the plastic kingdom 4 days plus our cruise.. and not stepping on WDW property at all. Add that to my file

Cya next month!

 

[Longhairbear]

Nope. Again, not enough rich foreigners want to drop three quarters of a million for a 4,200sf house on a lake in the middle of swamp and scrub with no infrastructure (we are FL, we only care about business, not the cost of it to citizens) to use a vacation home.

And Golden Oak ... well, let's just say it isn't all that it appears.

I, for one, would love to hear what you know about Golden Oak.

 

[SirLink]

That is you. Look, I can respect people who are fans of the parks and not animation buffs (my good hillbilly pal @Lee is one), although I am a HUGE fan of animation (Disney and others). But TWDC was built on animation. That is what has been foundation for all else. And it's not really coincidence that when animation is firing on all cylinders that so much else in the company is too.

And your scenario just isn't the way the business is run. Big Hero 6 cost about $165 million to make (give or take $5-10 million). It couldn't be made for $65 million. And if it somehow could, that savings you see wouldn't go into another division. It's like that insurance commercial here in the USA, that's not how any of this works.

Nah my main point and maybe I didn't express myself enough but if Parks & Resorts, Interactive have to keep cutting costs then some of the other divisions can start to trim the fat ... if TWDC cares that much about appeasing Wall Street.

I'm a fan of animation, especially Aardman Animation just not TWDC and maybe it is the way they frame their stories that rub me the whole way with their Disney Ra Ra speeches " Dreams, Wishes, Fantasy" makes me sick ...

But Lasseter ... man I can't stand the guy.

 

[TeriofTerror]

But Lasseter ... man I can't stand the guy.

Dude, Walt's daughter Diane had stated that John Lasseter reminded her more of her father than anyone she had ever met. I don't know how much stronger of an endorsement you can get.

 

[ford91exploder]

There is much more to net neutrality behind the curtain, especially between ISPs and transit providers. One of the major issues going on behind the scenes is that content providers such as You-Tube


Sort of true... ISPs, including Comcast, AT&T & Verizon have to pay transit providers such as Level 3 to access the content provided by companies like You-Tube or Disney, which are hosted by Level 3 just like cable television today. ISPs end up paying these transit providers because of the old rules of the internet which needs to also be changed or ISP rates will go up, become measured or they are allowed to charge the content providers.

Trouble is the price of transit keeps going down, VZ wants to charge customers $10/GB, Right now the price of transit for a 500TB commit is between $0.02-$0.06 per GB so that 250 GB which Comcast marks as your monthly download cap costs between $5 and $15 dollars at most. Transit is even less than that for larger volumes of traffic so the BRAVO-SIERRA argument that bandwidth is expensive is a baldfaced lie.

I've been involved in internet routing for longer than I care to admit to and I've built and managed more than one AS