Slashdot Mirror

Do you want some example because you are lazy to look for or you are defending Yelp? Here are a few and they were posted on ./ at different times. Yelp has had a history.

• This is from CBS news early this year.
• From Slashdot 2014 news about a restaurant named Botto Bistro in Redmond, CA that had issue with Yelp. The restaurant did a good job on recording Yelp's activities.
• This one is an old news in 2009. It shows the history of how Yelp never changed.

Does this mean Yelp owners will get arrested for their policies that solicit payment to hide bad reviews?

https://www.eastbayexpress.com...

You mean this?

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/...

February 18, 2009
Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0
Local business owners say Yelp offers to hide negative customer reviews of their businesses on its web site ... for a price.
By Kathleen Richards

"Hi, this is Mike from Yelp," the voice would say. "You've had three hundred visitors to your site this month. You've had a really good response. But you have a few bad ones at the top. I could do something about those."

This wasn't your average sales pitch. At least, not the kind that John, an East Bay restaurateur, was used to. He was familiar with Yelp.com, the popular San Francisco-based web site in which any person can write a review about nearly any business. John's restaurant has more than one hundred reviews, and averages a healthy 3.5-star rating. But when John asked Mike what he could do about his bad reviews, he recalls the sales rep responding: "We can move them. Well, for $299 a month." John couldn't believe what the guy was offering. It seemed wrong.

Better to have cameras than not; maybee...... juries can be played by selective use of cams, excluding other cam footage, and plain old laying a trap for the unwary citizen.

You asked: I read the news. Google for you:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ka...
"But it goes both ways; video – or the lack of it – can also damn officers. Two on the Daytona Beach force lost their jobs after a video mysteriously blanked out in the middle of an encounter with a woman who allegedly hid a bag of cocaine in her mouth; she said the officers knocked her down, shoved a flashlight between her lips and kicked her in the head, but that part of the encounter wasn’t caught on film thanks to one officer failing to turn his camera on and a “malfunction” with the other officer’s camera midway through the arrest. A forensic analysis of the cam showed that the “malfunction” was caused by the officer shutting it down. Chief Chitwood has said the policy there is, “If you turn it off, you’re done.”"

That's Daytona. In Oakland. Mysteriously Shut Off Camera Syndrome doesn't hurt and officer much:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
"OAKLAND, Calif.—Over the last two years, the Oakland Police Department (OPD) has disciplined police officers on 24 occasions for disabling or failing to activate body-worn cameras, newly released public records show. The City of Oakland did not provide any records prior to 2013, and the OPD did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/...
"Hargraves was found to have violated policy by taping over his nametag, and Wong was found to have acted improperly by failing to report the incident to internal affairs and also turning off Hargraves' lapel camera"

http://crooksandliars.com/susi...
"However, the above video, which shows several officers with their body-mounted cameras turned off – a departmental violation - is just the latest example of Oakland police officers not wanting any accountability.The video is also a clear demonstration of just how high tensions are between Oakland police and citizens."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12...
"In other cases it was the absence of video that got the officer in trouble. An officer in Daytona Beach, Fla., was forced to resign after he was caught turning off his camera at critical moments. An Albuquerque officer who shot and killed a woman in April — and whose camera was off at the time — was fired on Monday after being investigated for not complying with department orders that required officers to record all interactions with civilians.

But even when video does exist, it is often not decisive. In the case of Mr. Garner, the Staten Island man who died in July after a police officer put him in a chokehold, a video of the encounter taken with a bystander’s cellphone and viewed millions of times was enough to stir visceral outrage — but not to secure an indictment."

The records show that on November 8, 2013 one officer was terminated after failing to activate his camera. Less than two weeks later, another resigned for improperly removing the camera from his or her uniform. However, most officers received minor discipline in comparison."

Antenna removal:
http://www.latimes.com/local/l...
"os Angele

Yelp has, for the past year or so, garnered a reputation for extorting businesses into paying for advertising on their site.

Yelp's reputation has been garnered over a longer period than the past year or so. E.g., http://www.eastbayexpress.com/...

"The Real Purpose of Oakland's Surveillance Center"
(original article)

China is the most dangerous country in the world today. And the information about how horrible the Chinese, despite them getting MUCH worse given the economic situation, the information flow has been nearly shut down since 2007 timeframe. There were big 60 minutes type exposes in 2007 but since then the Police State has seen that information regarding our forced consumption of Chinese Walmart Plastic with Federal Reserve Notes remains in place.

China tires bad:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118278927863547228.html

The organizing committee of Beijingâ(TM)s Olympic games has promised to investigate charges that official merchandise is being manufactured using child labor.

The PRC Chinese poison dog food:
http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070523/chinese_protein_export_scandal-id-104033.html

The PRC Chinese poison toothpaste:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/us/02toothpaste.html?ex=1181620800&en=d26dab8b2bd85303&ei=5070

The PRC Chinese poison Children's Toys:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070614/thomas_recall_070614/20070614?hub=CTVNewsAt11
http://blogs.eastbayexpress.com/92510/2007/06/thomas_why_hath_thou_forsaken.php

Chinese Seafood Detained for Safety
http://www.topix.com/forum/food/TFSGN6836LFM2QFV7

Melamine put into milk formula, dog food, etc.
http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/got-melamine-53000-chinese-children-did-in-their-milk.html

- Cow milk so inundated with antibiotics you can not make Yogurt from it.

- Pigs force-fed waste water.

- Lard made from separating fats from sewage.

Made in China: tainted food, fake drugs and dodgy paint
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2118920,00.html

China Jails 2 Protestant Church Leaders
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/china-jails-two-protestant-leaders/58150/

The PRC Chinese government has murdered countless people:
"DEATH BY GOVERNMENT: GENOCIDE AND MASS MURDER"
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.TAB1.GIF
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.FIG1.GIF

Given modern industrial process and productivity, I don't even see how using Chinese slave labor saves that much in the face of having to crate up and ship the goods from china to consuming markets.

The bean counters saved maybe 10% at best making product, and now with the price of shipping goods going up due to petrol, they are probably paying more to have it made in China.

The only real reason it may never come back to the US is a host of states (NY, CA) and The Fedzilla / US government that have a long list of anti-business laws making a return to the US difficult.

You want Made in the USA? Tell state and federal congress to stop doing everything to drive up the cost of business compared to China and India (the only two competitors that matter); stop buying Chinese crap where possible.

Slave Labor rented at a PREMIUM with low quality results is still apparently cheaper than coming back her

Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0

For all the biker-putty on the roads, the mortality stats I've seen show that even casual bikers have longer life expectancies, since the odds of getting roadkilled are so much lower than the odds of being killed by heart disease.

There are safer ways to lower your risk of heart disease than riding a bicycle on a busy urban roadway. My good friend Pete was killed last May when a car hit him while crossing an intersection. The car driver was probably driving towards the setting sun with the sunlight shining in his eyes and never saw Pete on his bicycle. Pete used to tell me how much better he felt from the exercise. I now have a different perspective about the health benefits.

I'm all for bicycling. I'm all for exercise. I'm all for reducing unnecessary use of fossil fuels whenever possible. And I'm not particularly in love with automobiles. But driving in urban traffic on a bicycle leaves you vulnerable and seriously under-protected no matter how much safety gear you use.

I gave up riding my motorcycle on the street many years ago when an older woman rear-ended me when I was stopped at a traffic light. I had no idea she was coming up on me until she knocked me to the ground and into the middle of the intersection. Luckily I was able to get up, brush off and get out of the intersection before getting hit by traffic. The woman who hit me apologized, saying she never saw me. Apparently I was not large enough of a target to register in her field of vision.

As a result my advice to riders of bicycles and motorcycles has been this: Do it off-road or only on lightly used, well-lit, straight, non-urban roadways with few intersections if you wish to avoid being killed or injured.

Then how about Berkeley? That's only about 45 miles from Silicon Valley. Apparently, Berkeley High School is considering eliminating its science labs and teaching staff in order to help "struggling students".......

"The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Paul Gibson, an alternate parent representative on the School Governance Council, said that information presented at council meetings suggests that the science labs were largely classes for white students. He said the decision to consider cutting the labs in order to redirect resources to underperforming students was virtually unanimous."

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/berkeley-high-may-cut-out-science-labs/Content?oid=1536705

A lot of people here are talking about H1bs and the cost of education and one person even said the size of our population somehow correlates to a lack of amazing scientific progress. If that's true, India and China should have warp drives already.

Let's stop with the nonsense, especially with regard to immigrant workers.

While some companies do abuse H1bs it's not the cause of the decline of US scientific leadership, not even close! Einstein, Fermi, Godel et al were all foreigners! Please take the immigration debate elsewhere!

The realize the real root of the problem: culture. We have created a culture that loves to watch celebrities and make money. We have not instilled in our students the value of science education. And this should be seen as the biggest tragedy going into the second decade of the 21st century. People lack basic scientific literacy and they seems to be ok with not understanding a great many things. Just the other day I read about a high school that wanted to cut science labs because too many white students were overachieving while the minority students were not. This should be obvious to anyone with common sense that this is absurd. Taking away resources from achieving students and directed them to non-achieving students won't help anyone. There are a lot of factors why students don't perform well in school, particularly in the math and science fields. But I think the main reason is culture. The under-achieving students haven't had it beaten into them that their education, particularly in science, is invaluable. And while these are often minority students, they are not exclusively so. My grandfather came to this country with a PhD in physics but less than $6.00 in his pocket and no family, but managed to work his way up to solidly middle class with a comfortable life and his kids are in engineering. The idea that education is paramount has been drilled into me from birth and now I'm a graduate physics student and I enjoy doing physics.

So my point is, you must hammer into the psyche of the populace that science and math are not inaccesible and can be quite enjoyable if some hard work is put into study. Not everything is about money and getting the MBA (but yes, increased funding would go a long way to help advance STEM). And even though some companies do probably abuse H1bs, it's not the reason we're lacking and neither is the size of our population (a silly idea in my humble opinion, it's obvious to see why).

So, even thought Tyson makes a weak link between the shooting of Apophis and American science, the point he raises is still a valid one and is a valid concern and requires an honest attempt at a cultural shift as I pointed just mentioned that requires us, especially scientists, to show the population that evolution is fact, the reasons for it, why it's important, and how spectacular learning about it is.

Actually, it was earlier this year in the East Bay Express .

What they're allegedly doing is scummy, but not extortion. Or rather, it's only extortion if Yelp itself is generating the negative reviews. Accepting cash to remove legitimate negative reviews is just slimy.

From the fucking article:

Indeed, Yelp does pay some employees to write reviews of businesses that are solicited for advertising. And in at least one documented instance, a business owner who refused to advertise subsequently received a negative review from a Yelp employee.

I'm sorry, but all men are born with an innate right to defend themselves from others and the government. You government takes away your innate rights. People are born with the right to life, liberty and to pursue their dreams and to property, so long as they do no deprive others of their right to live, liberty and property. All people have the right to speak freely, the internet you are using to try and advocate stripping my rights is far more free than your press, all people have the right to self defense against tyranny and crime, all people have the right against search and seizure without proper warrant, all people have the right to not self incriminate, and the right against double jeopardy, all people have the right to a jury of peers and a public speedy trial, and all people have the right to a punishment that is not cruel or unusual.

I'm sorry your horrible government cant enumerate rights for you. We believe, and have shown, that free people do thrive. Your government executes more people each year than are murdered in the USA, and your government is guilty of killing tens of millions.

Lets have a list of what PROC/China is up to of late:

The PRC Chinese government has murdered countless people:
"DEATH BY GOVERNMENT: GENOCIDE AND MASS MURDER"

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.TAB1.GIF

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.FIG1.GIF

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM

China tires recalled:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/26/business/26tire.php

The organising committee of Beijing's Olympic games has promised to investigate charges that official merchandise is being manufactured using child labour.

The PRC Chinese poison dog food:
http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070523/chinese_protein_export_scandal-id -104033.html

The PRC Chinese poison toothpaste:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/us/02toothpaste.html?ex=1181620800&en=d26dab8b 2bd85303&ei=5070

The PRC Chinese poison Children's Toys:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/chinese-poison-train/15-million-thomas--friends- toys-recalled-due-to-lead-paint-from-china-268658.php
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070614/thomas_recall_07061 4/20070614?hub=CTVNewsAt11
http://blogs.eastbayexpress.com/92510/2007/06/thomas_why_hath_thou_forsaken.php

Chinese Seafood Detained for Safety
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070628/D8Q239O00.html

CNN "The China Syndrome" Special on China's dire problems in keeping food clean:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2007/07/04/vause.china.syndrome.cnn

- Cow milk so inundated with antibiotics you can not make Yogurt from it.

- Pigs force-fed waste water.

- Lard made from separating fats from sewage.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2118920,00.html

China Jails 2 Protestant Church Leaders

A much more complete and informative article appeared in the East Bay Express.

Cal Professor John Ogbu says it's all about attitude.

That's BS about spending 100% of money earned to feed a starving family. There are personal choices to be made as to what money goes where.
For the record, I have spent ~6 weeks at the subsistence level (in my dumb, young 20s with a poor attitude that I'm movin out to another state with no help). I used to sneak into a poorly secured office building to sleep and I knew when the guard would come around and figured out to avoid him. I figured out that hotel bathrooms are the most friendly to use if you enter in the back entrance. I used to eat left over pizza that I found.
The first 2 days you're in a destitute situation suck. You either become a victim or you get out of it.
All I had was a small suitcase. I seized the opportunity to help out moving companies move equipment then I used that to get a job transferring TV cameras and got really lucky as I seemed trustworthy and I got to use the company van. 9 months later, I was able to afford a car.

Our economic system naturally balances itself in such a way that a very sizable portion of the population can never afford to invest.

How so? It's all about education and discipline. Period. All it takes is 1 cent to save. It takes $100 to invest. Put it in an interest bearing savings account, bingo - you've invested.
A 17 year old teenager can earn $100 in a weekend waiting tables.

The following is a true story of motivation that occurred to a teenager I know:

He was told to get a job - whatever job he could get. He became picky, didn't want to do this or that, coming up with excuses for whater justification he needed. He managed to get 4 interviews in 2 weeks that he went to. He obviously projected that he really wasn't interested as it never went past that level.
He wasn't really interested in working and he decided to play a game. He called his mother and told her he got arrested - as a joke. That didn't go over too well.

The day was Wednesday and I was asked to help and offer advice.
I told the mother that he (the teenager) will be working on Monday and that is the attitude she needs to have with him as a parent. Be firm and definite. Monday, he works.
By Monday, he will have to have a job he picks or he will be working as a volunteer at the homeless shelter or nursing home giving baths and washing clothes as I would set it up for him.

He then had a choice to work for free as a volunteer on Monday, join the landscaping work pool near their home on Monday, or get a job on his own accord.
By Saturday, he had 13 interviews, he started a new job on Tuesday and we let him have the Monday off as his attitude changed for the better.

Attitude is everything. It's the cheapest thing that one can change that will have the biggest effect.
The number one reason that employers hire new people to replace old people with bad attitudes is that the new people have healthy attitudes.

Ahem... (Granted, I think they're a good fifty percent legally in the right or so, but this isn't exactly warm and fuzzy.)

This is exactly how this scam works. They busted some people who were doing this at Home Depot around San Francisco (San Leandro and Emeryville, I think, if you want to be specific -- read the article), using a bar code for a really cheap light fixture and putting it on a much more expensive fixture (by $150 or so). They did the same thing with sinks, too. They'd buy like 10 at a time along w/ a ton of legit stuff, then sell the legit stuff to a contractor and return the light fixtures for the higher price. If they couldn't get cash (because they had no receipt) they'd get a gift card and sell that for a slight discount elsewhere. The scam netted them maybe ~$400K over 18 months. Check out the link, it's a pretty interesting story.

I had a co-worker who had laser eye surgery. Afterward, he suffered with vision problems and dryness. Before you go under the laser, check out this article and this site!

It's glasses for me....

I don't want to say that wired.com steals other people's stories. They certainly didn't steal my story this time

But I would like to point out that i wrote a piece about this sort of stuff a while back.

The East Bay Express has a good article written by someone that just explored the Sims Online for a few weeks, basically on assignment. She details some of the scams that are floating around and the problems in the game from a newbie perspective. It's a good read.

In fact, it's the very idea of "pop" not Jazz that is dead. I assure you that jazz is alive and well. A search at East Bay Express (paper for the Easy Bay where we have a vibrant and exciting music scene) for Jazz turns up 8 shows tonight, Rock gets 11. Tommorow Jazz gets 5 while rock only 3, HipHop gets NONE. And you claim Jazz is dead? Why don't you check on this sort of thing before making riduculous claims like that. Like I said, MUSIC IS FRAGMENTED. If you're to lazy to get off your ass and talk the more than 2 of the "young and ignorant" about what they're listening to then you can stay in your rocking chair on your front porch and keep yelling at us kids about how much things were better in your day. Pathetic...

Sometimes it helps to look behind the scenes to find out what makes Tech Support suck...

http://slashdot.org/articles/00/12/05/165241.shtml

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/archive/120100/cover _120100.html

I found it an insightfull read way back when...

YMMv

e.