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Since apparently nobody really knows what "AI" is:
https://qz.com/1067123/stop-pr...

saying an undefined quantity will accomplish something is a bit of a stretch.

Not sure if you were aware but BlackBerry doesn't do handsets anymore. The KEYone is made by TCL for BlackBerry Mobile. A new company TCL created when they licensed the BlackBerry brand. Now I hear they are resurrecting the Palm brand as well.

We don't have that kind of concentrated land ownership yet but they're working on it.. Say what you will about subdivision, but at least it makes land available to non-$billionaires.

Currently the number of jobs is shrinking

Bullcrap. Productivity growth is stagnant and job losses to automation are mostly not happening. The easy gains in automation of manufacturing are mostly over, and service jobs are proving much harder to automate.

It is fun to hypothesize about robots taking over, and how society is going to adapt to post-scarcity, but that is theoretical conjecture, and not based on the reality of what is actually happening today. The truth is that improvements in automation are happening far too slowly to produce the higher living standards that people have come to expect.

"Bitcoin had been adopted in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, he said."

Really? I find that hard to believe. Let's assume that Bitcoin is a magical, completely scaleable protocol, able to handle an infinite number of transactions every second. (It isn't, and I'll get back to that, but anyway.) In order to be able to use it, you need computers, and you need those computers online to be able to transfer funds. (Unlike, say, cash, where you just hand over a piece of paper, or a metallic disc.) Kenya's electrical supply is rather unreliable. So is Nigeria's and South Africa's. I find it highly unlikely that a country would adopt a currency (whether or not Bitcoin qualifies is beside the point for this comment) that requires infrastructure and resources that they simply do not have.

That's without even looking at the point that the Bitcoin network can handle, at most, seven transactions per second, under ideal conditions. Worldwide. In comparison, Paypal ran about 115 TPS in 2014; Visa, 56,000; and Western Union, 29.

Bluntly: Bitcoin, as it stands, is a complete non starter - not even for a single country, not even if you assume that it will stay solely within that country. An interesting experiment, perhaps, but it quite literally cannot do the things that its proponents claim it can. Not without radically changing its underlying protocol - and even then, there are a whole slew of other problems inherent in its design that I don't see being fixed.

All Netflix users are paying a surcharge to Comcast, and the rules in dispute would not prevent this.

So...Vidangel actually had that option: "One of the most popular filters excises the character Jar Jar Binks from the first three Star Wars films." https://qz.com/645489/a-new-si...

And who can resist the Gowanus Canal secret sauce?

Even walmart is now selling organic produce. I used to shop at whole foods, now I shop at a walmart "neighborhood market." (basically a downsized mostly-grocery store). I'd probably go to Trader Joes and Sprouts if there were any in my town, but otherwise I am pretty happy with quality of produce at walmart. It isn't as upper-crust as whole foods, but for daily staples its plenty good enough.

skyrocketing productivity has had no negative impact on wages or employment.

Productivity is not "skyrocketing". It has stagnated.

When demand for labor goes down it actually _increases_ its value. I know, crazy, right?

Nobody believes that. You are being obtuse. What economists believe (with plenty of evidence) is that rising productivity does NOT reduce demand for labor, it increases it. This is known as Jevon's Paradox, but it really isn't a paradox at all. If you are a factory owner, and you are installing machinery that can double the production of each worker, and double your profits from each worker, would you fire half of them, or hire more?

False. Already existing and operating nuclear plants are expensive and can't compete with modern combined cycle natural gas units nor newer, more efficient renewable energy sources. Many such nuclear units in areas with energy markets are seeking bailouts or shutting down due to lack of ability to compete.
Solar has become the cheapest energy source in the world. The US has lower energy costs than most other countries, so solar isn't the cheapest here yet, but give it time.

If you are butt hurt about the Electoral College then you should be equally butt hurt about the Congress. They are both designed the same way for the same reason.

It's interesting you mention that; they are both incorrectly proportional for the same reason, which is specifically to make them unfair in precisely the way that you believe to be justice. See, the purpose of the electoral college was never to ensure that that populous states couldn't walk away with the election; it was literally to take the vote out of the hands of the people so that they couldn't get carried away. At least, that's what Alexander Hamilton intimates in Federalist Paper No.68.

Harvey Mudd cracked the code. They figured out ways to get more women interested in computers.

The obvious answer is that women aren't enrolling in computer science in college. It doesn't matter how good your hiring procedures are if women don't choose programming as a career.

Harvey Mudd (university) did some good work on the question. They increased women in their CS program from 10% to nearly 50%. The made several changes, but the main thing they did was change introductory CS classes from being "filter" classes (trying to get rid of all the people who can't do it), into helping classes that help people get over that first bar.

Let's be honest, the first leap into programming can be tough, and this is true for men as well as women. Having the first class be a "filter" class was a bad idea from the beginning.

Netflix doesn't solve anything anymore. In the last 4 years they've lost most of their content. Most of the Martial Arts movies, Mash, most non-B movies.

What you think Netflix has, is what you thought it had years ago. Thats gone. Example, March, 24 2016: Netflix lost 32% of its content in ~2 years.

The CFAA applies immediately or when the defendant (or defendant to be) exceeds the permitted access. This could be also through a cease and desist letter. See Facebook, Inc. v. Power Ventures, Inc., No. 13-17102 (9th Cir. July 12, 2016) https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/d...

You are permitted to grant different people different terms or access. Look at https://qz.com/981029/a-federa...

I'm glad Tim Cook is trying to protect the environment, and that he's trying to avoid using conflict minerals. But I wish he'd stop making things in China, as long as China's government was so repressive. I also wish he wouldn't invest in Chinese companies, or build a "new research and development center" there.

Suppose Xi Jinping repressed only people of a certain race, or only gay people. That would be outrageous discrimination. But since Xi severely limits the freedom of all of his citizens, that's not "discrimination" - it's just "unfortunate". However, it's not unfortunate enough to stop doing business there. (I'm talking about all American companies that do business there, not just Apple.)

I'm very glad to read about the Apple-related manufacturing plants that will be built in India and the US. I hope this is the start of a trend away from manufacturing in China.

And marked to a specific point in time at that: https://qz.com/1040292/bill-gates-retook-the-title-of-the-worlds-richest-man-from-jeff-bezos-after-only-a-few-hours/

Floating, falling
Sweet intoxication
Touch me, trust me
Savor each sensation
Let the dream begin
Let your darker side give in
To the power of the music that I write
The power of the music of the night

https://qz.com/654669/nothing-...

A research team has created software that allows them to control the face of anyone in any video. Using advanced facial recognition, it looks at about 15 seconds of any face in a video and creates a 3D model of that face in real time.

Rather than race, think of it as "culture". It's why first and second generation African immgrants vastly exceed 3+ generation African Americans in terms of economic and scholastic success. American black culture is the issue, not prejudice against blacks in general. Biases against blacks are because of the prevalent US black culture creating the dominant image of what a black person is. We have cultural biases, not racial biases... It's not DNA - it's culture.

The time has come already depending on which country you live in (the US has quite low energy costs compared to many other places):

The renewable energy future will arrive when installing new solar panels is cheaper than a comparable investment in coal, natural gas or other options. If you ask the World Economic Forum (WEF), the day has arrived.

Solar and wind is now the same price or cheaper than new fossil fuel capacity in more than 30 countries, the WEF reported in December (pdf). As prices for solar and wind power continue their precipitous fall, two-thirds of all nations will reach the point known as “grid parity” within a few years, even without subsidies. “Renewable energy has reached a tipping point,” Michael Drexler, who leads infrastructure and development investing at the WEF, said in a statement. “It is not only a commercially viable option, but an outright compelling investment opportunity with long-term, stable, inflation-protected returns.”

Just wrong.
Here's an article from Forbes (that bastion of left, liberal, socialist thinking) which explains how it would cost $200 billion LESS each year than the current system:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/t...

Another from Quartz:
https://qz.com/611644/we-talke...

Won't have batteries, so it won't catch fire.

Samsung can make appliances catch fire even if they have water on board.

This comes just as a new law is being debated that can fine social media platforms $53 million for not removing 70% of illegal speech...

Exactly $53 million you say... and Zuck had $11.5 million in his checking account and just sold some stock.

Hmmm...

I would nominate Kik. Those bastards broke the Internet.

https://qz.com/646467/how-one-programmer-broke-the-internet-by-deleting-a-tiny-piece-of-code/

Although essentially, "going-co-op" might be fine-and-dandy for the *users* of Twitter and probably the shareholders have little to lose at this point, it's essentially gonna be a death spiral of a tech company.

Stock is the currency in which startups pay their rockstars. The exodus has already begun. Many folks who might have some inkling of a new good ideas in the company in a death spiral probably leaves for greener pastures. Keeping or recruiting any rockstars will involve throwing lots of stock (sweat-equity) at them in the hopes that it might go up some day, but someone has to pay to keep the lights on in the meantime (that's the investors taking the risk, for those that think money grows on trees).

Slow growth companies make nice family owned businesses (or a co-op), but in the tech field, it's a death sentence to not be able to attract people with the next big idea. It's like a family-owned farm where the kids go off to make their mark in the big city. Maybe a one loyal son (or daughter), might stick it out, but without fresh blood or fresh ideas, the corporate farm down the road will eventually eat their lunch. Remember, twitter w/o innovation is basically SMS/MMS. In a few years, it's gonna be looking even more long in the tooth (remember twitter w/o pictures and video?). With a co-op we are looking at an IRC like structure (I wonder why more people aren't using IRC mobile clients)...

I agree with you 100%. Moreover, I don't think any such discrimination, that Google is being accused of, should be illegal in a free country.

But they went out for Hillary Clinton — donating not just money, which the entire Silicon Valley did, but engineering/logistics talent too. The ostensible "women's champion" would only have increased the anti-discrimination prosecutions like this against various companies. Something tells me, however, the prosecutors she would've appointed wouldn't be so harsh on and sarcastic of Google...

As long as these laws are on the books at all, the SJW-enablers should be prosecuted under them — until they stop with the enabling...

Maybe not in my lifetime, but it will. Either that or we have some horrible social upheaval like the French Revolution and start from scratch.

An example.

Everybody like the new self-driving car craze? Google's car passed 300,000 miles without an incident, all that? Can't wait to have your car drive your drunk ass home from the bar, or have your car take your elderly mother to the store for you? Sounds 100% good doesn't it?

Check out these two links. Self driving truck delivers beer. There are 3.5 million truck drivers employed in the USA.

Now I ask you. When, and that's not if but when all 3.5 million of these people are unemployed...what are we going to do with them? It's going to happen and nobody is planning for it.

How about some others?

Robots could possibly wipe out 6 million retail jobs.
Agriculture set to lose 1 million jobs to robots
Coal industry set to lose half their workforce inside of 10 years

We're going to have to do something, and soon.

Sorry, express bus hit a pot hole and my finger accidentally hit the submit button. Before I was interrupted...

The developer removed all his packages, including the ever popular pad left function. Who knew that every JavaScript project was dependent on it being available?

https://qz.com/646467/how-one-programmer-broke-the-internet-by-deleting-a-tiny-piece-of-code/

Here, I will explain it to you.

1) Corporate is always looking for ways to pay people less money/get more done with less expense, even when this results in terrible things happening (to other people.)

2) Corporate decides that IT "Just costs too damn much." Decides to do something about it.

3) Corporate notices that there is this potential way to replace those expensive local IT people with very inexpensive foreign IT people, but it has a caveat attached-- they have to try to fill any vacancies their firings create with local workers first.

4) They tell their HR people to create job descriptions that no sensible person would ever consider even close to being realistic, so as to purposefully exclude 100% of the local talent pool. This creates the "shortage!!" they need, so that they can use H1B workers at a fraction of the cost.

5) The country of choice to obtain these workers, India, is notorious(1) for its false academic certifications, and lack of academic ethics. An entire industry(2) springs up to satisfy Corporate America's insatiable desire for cheap replacements for its domestic tech workers. The "tech workers" produced via this process are often of terrible quality, and certainly DO NOT actually meet the absurd resume requirements demanded by HR-- but *DO* meet them on paper, because the certification bodies and subcontractor industries in India fake everything to make this so.

6) These "terrible more often than not" (3) replacements come on board, Corporate ALREADY KNOWS THEY ARE INCOMPETENT, and thus demands that the native workers that are being displaced train these A-holes-- Or they wont get severance pay.(4)

7) This is profoundly effective (In the short term) for Corporate, as they slash the operating budget of IT, which they view as a bloated cost center-- up until they get hacked, or something goes horribly wrong.

8) Meanwhile, the now displaced native workforce is effectively unhirable, because the base pay they need to even afford food and basic utilities, are forced to find new careers. They migrate to other segments of the workforce, taking their skills with them.

9) Morons like the analysts that created the linked article, improperly attribute this rise in general technical affinity in the general labor pool; Assume foolishly that it is because of young workers just being more competent with tech. Nevermind that being a 30-something is NOT old by any stretch, and that this generation is the generation most affected by the mass firings and replacement with H1B visa holders.

10) People like yourself are either disinterested, or listen to the garbage from Corporate America, and come away with very strange ideas of the actual pathology of this problem, and dont understand how "Really inferior H1B workers taking over" and "Very skilled people being systematically excluded" are not mutually exclusive.

1)
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/20/...

2)
https://qz.com/965291/wipro-to...

3)
https://qz.com/965291/wipro-to...

4)
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/0...

Here, I will explain it to you.

1) Corporate is always looking for ways to pay people less money/get more done with less expense, even when this results in terrible things happening (to other people.)

2) Corporate decides that IT "Just costs too damn much." Decides to do something about it.

3) Corporate notices that there is this potential way to replace those expensive local IT people with very inexpensive foreign IT people, but it has a caveat attached-- they have to try to fill any vacancies their firings create with local workers first.

4) They tell their HR people to create job descriptions that no sensible person would ever consider even close to being realistic, so as to purposefully exclude 100% of the local talent pool. This creates the "shortage!!" they need, so that they can use H1B workers at a fraction of the cost.

5) The country of choice to obtain these workers, India, is notorious(1) for its false academic certifications, and lack of academic ethics. An entire industry(2) springs up to satisfy Corporate America's insatiable desire for cheap replacements for its domestic tech workers. The "tech workers" produced via this process are often of terrible quality, and certainly DO NOT actually meet the absurd resume requirements demanded by HR-- but *DO* meet them on paper, because the certification bodies and subcontractor industries in India fake everything to make this so.

6) These "terrible more often than not" (3) replacements come on board, Corporate ALREADY KNOWS THEY ARE INCOMPETENT, and thus demands that the native workers that are being displaced train these A-holes-- Or they wont get severance pay.(4)

7) This is profoundly effective (In the short term) for Corporate, as they slash the operating budget of IT, which they view as a bloated cost center-- up until they get hacked, or something goes horribly wrong.

8) Meanwhile, the now displaced native workforce is effectively unhirable, because the base pay they need to even afford food and basic utilities, are forced to find new careers. They migrate to other segments of the workforce, taking their skills with them.

9) Morons like the analysts that created the linked article, improperly attribute this rise in general technical affinity in the general labor pool; Assume foolishly that it is because of young workers just being more competent with tech. Nevermind that being a 30-something is NOT old by any stretch, and that this generation is the generation most affected by the mass firings and replacement with H1B visa holders.

10) People like yourself are either disinterested, or listen to the garbage from Corporate America, and come away with very strange ideas of the actual pathology of this problem, and dont understand how "Really inferior H1B workers taking over" and "Very skilled people being systematically excluded" are not mutually exclusive.

1)
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/20/...

2)
https://qz.com/965291/wipro-to...

3)
https://qz.com/965291/wipro-to...

4)
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/0...

While very impressive numbers, when you adjust for inflation things look different.

Adjusted for inflation:
- Cisco had a market cap of 758 billion in March 2000.
- GE has a market cap of 816 billion in August 2000
- Microsoft had a market cap of 871 billion in December 1999
- IBM had a market cap of 1.3 trillion in 1967
https://qz.com/335147/apples-m... http://gadgets.ndtv.com/others...

But they all dwarf compared to the Dutch East-India Company (VOC), 1602-1800, the first publicly traded company in the world, which had a market cap of over SEVEN TRILLION inflation-adjusted dollars at its peak.

So, no mention of the startup company (Groundwork) that Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO) created for the Clinton campaign to do exactly the same kind of data analytics?

“There are a lot of people who can write big checks,” Slaby says. “Eric recognizes how the technology he’s been building his whole career can be applied to different spaces. The idea of tech as a force multiplier is something he deeply understands.” https://qz.com/520652/groundwo...

Populist and far-right voters are older, in their forties and above, and generally misinformed.

Actually, le Menchion and le Pen were the leading candidates among young voters in the first round. Those who have never known prosperity are not buying the bullshit anymore.

Maybe Tim Cook is not a sufficiently capable CEO.

Steve Jobs's worst decision was promoting Tim Cook (Nov 2, 2016) "Quote: Why Tim Cook is the new Steve Ballmer".

Remove Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. (Oct 31, 2016) Quote: "Many products are announced in one quarter and released in another quarter."

Destroying companies for ridiculous compensation sure does work up an appetite. She's a poster child for everything wrong with American business today. https://qz.com/741056/the-stun...

They already did a basic income experiment back when Prime Minister Trudeau was called Pierre.

In short... Most everyone kept working or didn't start working as early but stayed in school longer.
Also, hospitalizations went down, particularly for mental health problems.

But if you want a real Twilight Zone mindfuck - look up Nixon's basic income experiment.
Run by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
Granted... they saw it as a way to eliminate social programs instead of to expand them. But even they found that there was no change to "work ethic" - everyone still kept working.
Apparently, being "at or just above the poverty line" is simply not enough for most people.

The commission started its last two-day meeting on April 10. Notably, the Post reports, the commission voted 16-15 not to recommend its renewal

That's right, the commission itself recommended not renewing itself! But fakenews "TRUMP HATES SCIENCE" is what gets posted everywhere.

Tesla "worth" $51 billion? Pfft. Back in the dot bomb bubble days AOL was "worth" $224 billion, now it's under $5 billion. We'll see how Tesla holds up.

https://qz.com/950828/neil-gor...

It'd be weird if they were paying for lawsuits against themselves.

Really I suspect it's another Ty Cobb, wherein an imperfect but average person is made into a monster by those who have deep inkwells and deep grudges.

I wonder when we get to see the new Journolist leaks? I guess they don't call it that any more, but whatever. It's not like it's hard to see what's going on.

What I really wonder is how many of them have figured out how to short Uber?

Making America great again by "encouraging low- and mid-level jobs to go to American workers"? How about "enabling American workers to fill highly qualified positions"?

You are correct, we should stop subsidizing and encouraging degrees in fields where the student has a high chance of unemployment. Why should we encourage someone to take on tens of thousands of dollars of debt for an education art, history or general studies? College Majors Costs

What are you talking about? Miners, factory workers, and truck drivers are already being automated out of jobs. Go look at the fully autonomous 416-ton Komatsu trucks in Australia's iron mines.

Citations: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/08... https://qz.com/738620/birkenst...

"We don't want your merit aka caste system" --USA https://qz.com/889524

$4225/mo × 12mo/y ÷ 52w/y = $975/week.

Good gravy! Think of it this way - if you moved out of the tech bubble area into a normal place, you would effectively get a raise of $3,000/month ($36,000 / year) on housing savings alone. And have a bigger, better house. And no traffic. And cheaper cost of living on everything else you spend money on.

Conservatively, you're easily paying (losing) +45,000 / year just to say you live someplace cool. Hope it's worth it to you.

(I'm the AC that posted that math)

Yes, I understand what premium I'm paying to be surrounded by this much awesomeness, as do many of SF's other effectively "middle class" tech workers (we fit into the top 10% nationwide, but in SF, we're not so special). SF is a rotating door; you either make your big bucks with a startup that takes off or else you enjoy the high life for a few years before getting priced out. I've got about a year left, and I will indeed enjoy it.

As to the "$36,000 / year" that I'm losing ... that assumes a $1,225/mo ($283/wk) rent that retains my current salary, which (if I were to stick to a tech hub city) would requiring moving outside the US. Employers tend to adjust salaries for lowered cost of living, so you can't do the math that way.

"+45,000 / year" is $475/mo, which is $110/wk. The cheapest place listed in TFA is Seoul at $153/wk and the cheapest US techie city's rent is Seattle at $441/wk. Where did you get that number? [Insert joke about Mom's basement here.]

Expel Indian-Americans https://www.petition2congress....
Why http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
And https://qz.com/889524

On the other hand, there's a good argument that the missing comma wasn't an accident.

According to the Quartz article on this, the drivers argued (correctly, in my view) that all the other items in the list were -ing gerunds, e.g. "storing, marketing, packing, ...", and that therefore "distribution" belongs to the pair of "shipment or distribution", and not to the longer list.

In other words, had the intent been to exempt that last item, it would have been written "...marketing, packing for shipment or distributing" with or without the comma.

We don't want your merit. https://qz.com/889524