I know and deal with a lot of marketing people every day. People get very confused about what marketing really is... to the point that most don't really know. Marketing primary product is: Marketing
They spend about 95% of their time proving they are worth keeping around. They do things like send free gifts to 100 targets considered to be "Leads" Then, later, when a salesman makes a sale to that person they claim "See? We made that happen!" But if you ask the salesman about the deal he says "I call everyone... every month. They launched a marketing campaign for winter coats in October. Of course they bought one. The free pen had nothing to do with it."
So what did the free pen really do? Allowed marketing to run a report showing a correlation between the pen and the sale, then suggest to management that is was a CAUSE not a correlation.
So now we're going down the same rabbit hole with the internet. Want to fix it? Disprove their nonsense data. Show that this garbage doesn't work. It shouldn't be that hard given the amount of data captured. Pop-up adds generate clicks... but do they generate sales? No... and it took a while for the industry to realize that, but they did.
You have no idea what Libertarianism is... none. You're basically arguing that Republicans, unregulated, would be a terrible idea. Something I agree with. The ideals you suggest are republican ideals, not Libertarian ideals. Republicans have about as much to do with Libertarianism as Democrats have to do with Socialism... as in, they steal some of the more popular ideas, but in reality could care less unless it furthers their ambitions. Dubai is about as polar opposite from what a Libertarian government would be as you can get.
$35 is not a great deal for a phone. Granted, it is cheap. But you can get Chinese smart phones for around $100. Phones just as good as flagship phones for $200. $35 isn't even a good price point for those in poverty. And no GPS? That's just a deal breaker right there. No 3G and no Led is not big deal at all... not even worth mentioning.
Give it a couple more years and you'll be buying smart phones out of vending machines.
It's really too bad the way Valve has screwed the pooch with Steam over the last few years. They literally had The gaming platform for PC all locked up. There was a time where I was desperately hoping they'd have an IPO so I could invest. But they tried to make the store so user friendly to Game controllers... a use case that may very well never become popular... that it's almost useless. Now, the only reason I think they are still relevant is because no one has bothered to try and challenge them. But I think they are 1 clever startup away from losing their position for good.
There are games on steam to this day, that I cannot find... even using Google searches with the site:steampowered.com modifier. I have to go to the damned games external website and use their link to get to the thing I want to buy. I want to buy it and Steams own search doesn't bring it up because their search algorithm is so broken. I try to browse games and it limits what I can browse to a few dozen. Yet, when I go back 2 days later, its the same few dozen... why doesn't it just show me game after game until I've seen them all? There are over 4000 games on Steam!!
And you know... I know what people are going to reply to me with... "You didn't click X!" or "You moron, you have to go to the blah page!" or whatever... I'm sure it's entirely my fault for not knowing how to do it right. But let me tell you something... the biggest moron on the planet can walk into Walmart and leave with less money. That's the key to their success. You cannot enter a Walmart and avoid seeing something you need to buy today. You don't have enough money? No worries there's a god damned bank on premises to give you a loan! It's easy to find something you like, it's easy to get it to the register and its easy to get it to your car.
Why Valve? Why is it so god damned hard to give you my money?!?! I can go on the google play store and spend money with one damned finger! My 4yr old spent $20 on Angry birds slingshots before my wife locked her phone. He couldn't even figure out how to launch a game from your damned app!
I said informed consent. Anyone doing a scientific study knows exactly what that means. The fact that some chose to do previous studies without informed consent is rather shocking. Intentionally manipulating peoples lives and decisions is despicable. I'll never be in marketing for that very reason. But scientists doing it? That's unforgivable. They should be sanctioned by whatever body it is that governs their work.
Having been on the receiving end of a contract written by a company the size of Apple, I can tell you that by "specifications" the contract likely said "...and any other reason that Apple Inc. so chooses..." Companies the size of Apple have so much weight they can literally just bankrupt you.
The contracts I've seen were generally between parts manufacturers and automakers. The lure of all the money from GM or Ford is very enticing. But the contractual agreement you enter in is very precarious.
You will increase your production capacity by 1000% Here's the money to do that. You will deliver parts on demand, we will not store any parts. If we chose not to use those parts, we do not have to pay you. If we chose to leave this agreement, you have to pay our entire investment back.
What they're basically doing is putting their entire parts chain into its own company, forcing that company to store all of the parts and all of the liability. If they suddenly decide not to go that route anymore, the company and all of the parts dispersers. Because they have to refund your investment, you can ensure that the vast majority of all the assets you invested are returned to you while all of the liability lands on others outside you company. It's all good for the Parent company and all bad for the supplier. The banks lose money, the employees get fired, the owners lose their business.
I've seen agreements like this where the parent company demanded some change that the supplier couldn't pull off as quickly as desired. The parent company owned the tooling, per the contract, and literally pulled it within hours and had it over at some other company. The supplier was bankrupt and laying people off withing 48hrs. That's how asynchronous these deals have become.
And don't think this is just Apple or automotive companies. This is how things are done now. I would not want to own a parts supplier in these times.
Soon even the US will have to accept that this is really happening. Simply saying "God bless us" won't help us - only changing our way of living will.
Your statement is a funny example of how people completely misunderstand the hardcore religious conservative. They are fatalist. They think their lives and the fate of humanity is ALREADY doomed. Global warming, even if it is true, is irrelevant. They will die, and the earth will be struck asunder by evil. Some of us will get saved and go to heaven precisely because "God blessed us" while the rest of us will rot. From their point of view, you're trying to keep a train on the tracks that they know for a fact will hit a brick wall tomorrow anyway.
For those that were unaware, Dubai is an awful place to live. The majority of low wage workers are shipped in from out of the country and are treated as slaves. They've no hope to leave and any question of the system will land you in prison. There are dozens of documentaries on the situation.
Or, you just jail everyone using facial recognition as a pretense. You're assuming this is a real police force. It's not. This is Dubai. It's a monarchy/theocracy and a police state.
It's an early test program. The entire reason that it exists is to see how people use it, whether the UI decisions make sense, and what the designers overlooked. It is not intended for normal use and it is not intended for production environments.
There is no justification for this. The purpose of testing is to collect data about the system itself and how it operates in end user environments; this is collecting information about the end users themselves rather than just the machine, Microsoft has no business collecting that.
No, you're testing. You have no expectation of privacy. This isn't a product they're selling or a service they're offering. If you don't want to be monitored the solution is simple: Don't test.
"Dear Facebook user, Facebook is conducting a study to better understand our users. The study will last 2 weeks and no personally identifying information will be recorded. You will likely not notice any difference to Facebook while it's going on. By helping with this study you will help to improve facebook for everyone! Do you consent to be a part of this study?" Y/N
I think someone doesn't know the definition of "Cold war" Given that this story is about an actual attack, that would lead me to believe this is a "hot" war.
There's a difference between providing information about adoption and saying, in effect, "Hey, life is telling you not to attempt to reproduce." That is offensive.
The only way that makes sense is if you see adoption as a bad thing... or a negative. That's on you... not the doctor.
I'm glad your story turned out well, but if your physician really told you, "It may be that life is giving you a hint." then he was overstepping the bounds of ethical treatment. It's none of his fucking business what you choose, his business is to listen to what you *want*, and tell you what he can *do* for you.
The Dr. Phil homespun bullshit should be grounds for censure from the medical board.
Our well-being was his business. He was completely correct in what he said. This is exactly the sort of discussion fertility doctors should be having. Most of the other families that went with us to Africa had already spent tens of thousands of dollars on pointless and sometime dangerous fertility treatments with disreputable fertility doctors.
After having been through the experience, I'd even say that adoption should be the first choice for reproductively healthy couples. Within a few months your adopted child would be emotionally indistinguishable to you from a birth-child.
The summary does do a very good job of explaining what was going on...
All of these men are involved in the same project... "The Vegas Downtown Project" who's goal seems to be to bring a tech sector to downtown Vegas. Why that would be a good idea is anyone's guess.
I will forever be thankful for our fertility doctor. We sat in front of him and he told my wife she could never bare children. She asked "what can you do?" He smiled and said "Given enough hope and money, there's practically no end to what I could do. But there are desperate children all over that need parents. It may be that life is giving you a hint." That line will remain with me for the rest of my life because it rang so true and cut through the bullshit of modern life.
I'd not thought of adopting... and I immediately thought "That will be a hell of a lot less work and my wife wont get fat!!"
I was wrong on both accounts in the end, but, I'm currently the proud father of the best son a father could ever have. Standing on the outside and looking at it you think you could never love an adopted kid the same as you would your own flesh. But I'm here to tell you that you can and will. He is my son. He knows he's adopted and he thinks it's cool. He brags to his friends that "His parents went all the way to Africa for him!"
Anyway, I find it sad that we go to such extreme, untested and dangerous lengths to solve a problem that already has a very simple solution. Adopt, you wont regret it.
Ever noticed every MP3 player on the market can be plugged into your computer and you can browse the music files as if it were an external hard drive? With the sole exception of the iPod? The idiocy of people buying that device still boggles my mind to this day. The iPhones the same way. Why on earth would you buy an inferior device for twice the price with no ability to manage its content on your own?!?!?!
I've only held events in hotels that included Internet for "free" (with the price of the event). Shop for better hotels (no, not more stars, but better service).
According to consumer reports, the cheaper the hotel, the more likely it is they provide free wifi. Wealthier guests are easier to gouge for small things.
"We understand your concern and want to help! Unfortunately due to the technical limitations of... well... reality, we cannot eliminate these photos from existence. But still, we refuse to take part in this invations of your privacy and after much diligence we think we've found a solution to this problem. Hereafter searching for the names of any person found in this lawsuit will result in nothing. The term "Jennifer Lawrence" will be ignored in all searches hereafter as well as every other actress named in this suit. Thank you and happy Googling!"
Have us do? Why do we have to "do" anything? It's not our country. Those are not our people. Us "doing" things is precisely what got the middle east into the mess it's in now.
The majority of the horrible dictators, totalitarian governments and theological insanity that exists in that area of the world is a direct result of our activities there. We've done enough harm, it's time we stopped "helping"
Ok, that I know of Lotus was never on Apple... wasn't that Visicalc?
Anyways... when I was a kid, my father brought home a Commodore Vic20 and said "Son! This is the future!" and told me to figure out how to plug it into the TV. I'll not lie... to me it was a video game machine for years. The command line reminded me of exploring some cave... the directories different tunnels, etc... I was a kid.
But as the computers got better and I eventually found myself on an Apple IIe and a Compaq PC it got more interesting. And what finally made me realize what computers could do was when my dad brought home copies of Lotus and Visicalc. I would sit for hours making spreadsheets with formulas in pale monochrome ASCII. You could change something in one cell and watch all the other cells change in response. Prior to that I had no idea what programming even was... or how variables and functions worked. Those first spreadsheets are what made it all real to me. I thought it was amazing. I put my famillies finances on it. I budgeted my allowance. I made rudimentary war games. Really, Lotus (because I always liked the PC better) is what finally made me realize computers were important, and it was something I wanted to do.
I think the reason the specs aren't increasing much is because the pace of hardware improvements isn't moving as fast as it used to. Nowadays, you pick up an i7 and 16Gb of RAM, your favorite video card, toss an SSD in there and you've basically hit the limit.
All we're getting these days is more cores as the whole gigahertz wars ended 10 years ago.
But, it's not their data. Its from other clinics, hospitals. According to them, they do not know which ones. I've asked numerous times. Yet, every time I go in, it's still there. They want to merge the records and it prompts them to do so, but I refuse to allow it. Is this Epics fault or the clinics? I Don't know. All I know is that the system as a whole refuses to give me enough information to fix it.
Slashdot Mirror
I know and deal with a lot of marketing people every day. People get very confused about what marketing really is... to the point that most don't really know. Marketing primary product is: Marketing
They spend about 95% of their time proving they are worth keeping around. They do things like send free gifts to 100 targets considered to be "Leads" Then, later, when a salesman makes a sale to that person they claim "See? We made that happen!" But if you ask the salesman about the deal he says "I call everyone... every month. They launched a marketing campaign for winter coats in October. Of course they bought one. The free pen had nothing to do with it."
So what did the free pen really do? Allowed marketing to run a report showing a correlation between the pen and the sale, then suggest to management that is was a CAUSE not a correlation.
So now we're going down the same rabbit hole with the internet. Want to fix it? Disprove their nonsense data. Show that this garbage doesn't work. It shouldn't be that hard given the amount of data captured. Pop-up adds generate clicks... but do they generate sales? No... and it took a while for the industry to realize that, but they did.
You have no idea what Libertarianism is... none. You're basically arguing that Republicans, unregulated, would be a terrible idea. Something I agree with. The ideals you suggest are republican ideals, not Libertarian ideals. Republicans have about as much to do with Libertarianism as Democrats have to do with Socialism... as in, they steal some of the more popular ideas, but in reality could care less unless it furthers their ambitions. Dubai is about as polar opposite from what a Libertarian government would be as you can get.
US thing... and it's not for emergency services, its for the NSA. :-p
$35 is not a great deal for a phone. Granted, it is cheap. But you can get Chinese smart phones for around $100. Phones just as good as flagship phones for $200. $35 isn't even a good price point for those in poverty. And no GPS? That's just a deal breaker right there. No 3G and no Led is not big deal at all... not even worth mentioning.
Give it a couple more years and you'll be buying smart phones out of vending machines.
It's really too bad the way Valve has screwed the pooch with Steam over the last few years. They literally had The gaming platform for PC all locked up. There was a time where I was desperately hoping they'd have an IPO so I could invest. But they tried to make the store so user friendly to Game controllers... a use case that may very well never become popular... that it's almost useless. Now, the only reason I think they are still relevant is because no one has bothered to try and challenge them. But I think they are 1 clever startup away from losing their position for good.
There are games on steam to this day, that I cannot find... even using Google searches with the site:steampowered.com modifier. I have to go to the damned games external website and use their link to get to the thing I want to buy. I want to buy it and Steams own search doesn't bring it up because their search algorithm is so broken. I try to browse games and it limits what I can browse to a few dozen. Yet, when I go back 2 days later, its the same few dozen... why doesn't it just show me game after game until I've seen them all? There are over 4000 games on Steam!!
And you know... I know what people are going to reply to me with... "You didn't click X!" or "You moron, you have to go to the blah page!" or whatever... I'm sure it's entirely my fault for not knowing how to do it right. But let me tell you something... the biggest moron on the planet can walk into Walmart and leave with less money. That's the key to their success. You cannot enter a Walmart and avoid seeing something you need to buy today. You don't have enough money? No worries there's a god damned bank on premises to give you a loan! It's easy to find something you like, it's easy to get it to the register and its easy to get it to your car.
Why Valve? Why is it so god damned hard to give you my money?!?! I can go on the google play store and spend money with one damned finger! My 4yr old spent $20 on Angry birds slingshots before my wife locked her phone. He couldn't even figure out how to launch a game from your damned app!
I said informed consent. Anyone doing a scientific study knows exactly what that means. The fact that some chose to do previous studies without informed consent is rather shocking. Intentionally manipulating peoples lives and decisions is despicable. I'll never be in marketing for that very reason. But scientists doing it? That's unforgivable. They should be sanctioned by whatever body it is that governs their work.
Having been on the receiving end of a contract written by a company the size of Apple, I can tell you that by "specifications" the contract likely said "...and any other reason that Apple Inc. so chooses..." Companies the size of Apple have so much weight they can literally just bankrupt you.
The contracts I've seen were generally between parts manufacturers and automakers. The lure of all the money from GM or Ford is very enticing. But the contractual agreement you enter in is very precarious.
You will increase your production capacity by 1000% Here's the money to do that.
You will deliver parts on demand, we will not store any parts.
If we chose not to use those parts, we do not have to pay you.
If we chose to leave this agreement, you have to pay our entire investment back.
What they're basically doing is putting their entire parts chain into its own company, forcing that company to store all of the parts and all of the liability. If they suddenly decide not to go that route anymore, the company and all of the parts dispersers. Because they have to refund your investment, you can ensure that the vast majority of all the assets you invested are returned to you while all of the liability lands on others outside you company. It's all good for the Parent company and all bad for the supplier. The banks lose money, the employees get fired, the owners lose their business.
I've seen agreements like this where the parent company demanded some change that the supplier couldn't pull off as quickly as desired. The parent company owned the tooling, per the contract, and literally pulled it within hours and had it over at some other company. The supplier was bankrupt and laying people off withing 48hrs. That's how asynchronous these deals have become.
And don't think this is just Apple or automotive companies. This is how things are done now. I would not want to own a parts supplier in these times.
Soon even the US will have to accept that this is really happening. Simply saying "God bless us" won't help us - only changing our way of living will.
Your statement is a funny example of how people completely misunderstand the hardcore religious conservative. They are fatalist. They think their lives and the fate of humanity is ALREADY doomed. Global warming, even if it is true, is irrelevant. They will die, and the earth will be struck asunder by evil. Some of us will get saved and go to heaven precisely because "God blessed us" while the rest of us will rot. From their point of view, you're trying to keep a train on the tracks that they know for a fact will hit a brick wall tomorrow anyway.
For those that were unaware, Dubai is an awful place to live.
The majority of low wage workers are shipped in from out of the country and are treated as slaves. They've no hope to leave and any question of the system will land you in prison. There are dozens of documentaries on the situation.
Vice has a good one: http://www.vice.com/vice-news/...
Caution, it's an auto-play video and it's got a loud intro.
Or, you just jail everyone using facial recognition as a pretense. You're assuming this is a real police force. It's not. This is Dubai. It's a monarchy/theocracy and a police state.
It's an early test program. The entire reason that it exists is to see how people use it, whether the UI decisions make sense, and what the designers overlooked. It is not intended for normal use and it is not intended for production environments.
There is no justification for this. The purpose of testing is to collect data about the system itself and how it operates in end user environments; this is collecting information about the end users themselves rather than just the machine, Microsoft has no business collecting that.
No, you're testing. You have no expectation of privacy. This isn't a product they're selling or a service they're offering. If you don't want to be monitored the solution is simple: Don't test.
Yes, it's very simple:
"Dear Facebook user, Facebook is conducting a study to better understand our users. The study will last 2 weeks and no personally identifying information will be recorded. You will likely not notice any difference to Facebook while it's going on. By helping with this study you will help to improve facebook for everyone! Do you consent to be a part of this study?" Y/N
It's called "informed consent"
Today was saturday... and this morning my 6yr old was watching cartoons.
Granted, it was on youtube... but still.
I think someone doesn't know the definition of "Cold war"
Given that this story is about an actual attack, that would lead me to believe this is a "hot" war.
There's a difference between providing information about adoption and saying, in effect, "Hey, life is telling you not to attempt to reproduce." That is offensive.
The only way that makes sense is if you see adoption as a bad thing... or a negative. That's on you... not the doctor.
I'm glad your story turned out well, but if your physician really told you, "It may be that life is giving you a hint." then he was overstepping the bounds of ethical treatment. It's none of his fucking business what you choose, his business is to listen to what you *want*, and tell you what he can *do* for you.
The Dr. Phil homespun bullshit should be grounds for censure from the medical board.
Our well-being was his business. He was completely correct in what he said. This is exactly the sort of discussion fertility doctors should be having. Most of the other families that went with us to Africa had already spent tens of thousands of dollars on pointless and sometime dangerous fertility treatments with disreputable fertility doctors.
After having been through the experience, I'd even say that adoption should be the first choice for reproductively healthy couples. Within a few months your adopted child would be emotionally indistinguishable to you from a birth-child.
The summary does do a very good job of explaining what was going on...
All of these men are involved in the same project... "The Vegas Downtown Project" who's goal seems to be to bring a tech sector to downtown Vegas. Why that would be a good idea is anyone's guess.
The CEO has stepped down as well. http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/...
The whole thing seems pretty fishy. I don't go to Vegas for a reason...
I will forever be thankful for our fertility doctor. We sat in front of him and he told my wife she could never bare children. She asked "what can you do?" He smiled and said "Given enough hope and money, there's practically no end to what I could do. But there are desperate children all over that need parents. It may be that life is giving you a hint." That line will remain with me for the rest of my life because it rang so true and cut through the bullshit of modern life.
I'd not thought of adopting... and I immediately thought "That will be a hell of a lot less work and my wife wont get fat!!"
I was wrong on both accounts in the end, but, I'm currently the proud father of the best son a father could ever have. Standing on the outside and looking at it you think you could never love an adopted kid the same as you would your own flesh. But I'm here to tell you that you can and will. He is my son. He knows he's adopted and he thinks it's cool. He brags to his friends that "His parents went all the way to Africa for him!"
Anyway, I find it sad that we go to such extreme, untested and dangerous lengths to solve a problem that already has a very simple solution. Adopt, you wont regret it.
Ever noticed every MP3 player on the market can be plugged into your computer and you can browse the music files as if it were an external hard drive? With the sole exception of the iPod? The idiocy of people buying that device still boggles my mind to this day. The iPhones the same way. Why on earth would you buy an inferior device for twice the price with no ability to manage its content on your own?!?!?!
I've only held events in hotels that included Internet for "free" (with the price of the event). Shop for better hotels (no, not more stars, but better service).
According to consumer reports, the cheaper the hotel, the more likely it is they provide free wifi. Wealthier guests are easier to gouge for small things.
The response from Google:
"We understand your concern and want to help! Unfortunately due to the technical limitations of... well... reality, we cannot eliminate these photos from existence. But still, we refuse to take part in this invations of your privacy and after much diligence we think we've found a solution to this problem. Hereafter searching for the names of any person found in this lawsuit will result in nothing. The term "Jennifer Lawrence" will be ignored in all searches hereafter as well as every other actress named in this suit. Thank you and happy Googling!"
Have us do? Why do we have to "do" anything? It's not our country. Those are not our people. Us "doing" things is precisely what got the middle east into the mess it's in now.
Freely available info on wikipedia should give you an idea of how we go about "helping" in the middle east:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
The majority of the horrible dictators, totalitarian governments and theological insanity that exists in that area of the world is a direct result of our activities there. We've done enough harm, it's time we stopped "helping"
Ok, that I know of Lotus was never on Apple... wasn't that Visicalc?
Anyways... when I was a kid, my father brought home a Commodore Vic20 and said "Son! This is the future!" and told me to figure out how to plug it into the TV. I'll not lie... to me it was a video game machine for years. The command line reminded me of exploring some cave... the directories different tunnels, etc... I was a kid.
But as the computers got better and I eventually found myself on an Apple IIe and a Compaq PC it got more interesting. And what finally made me realize what computers could do was when my dad brought home copies of Lotus and Visicalc. I would sit for hours making spreadsheets with formulas in pale monochrome ASCII. You could change something in one cell and watch all the other cells change in response. Prior to that I had no idea what programming even was... or how variables and functions worked. Those first spreadsheets are what made it all real to me. I thought it was amazing. I put my famillies finances on it. I budgeted my allowance. I made rudimentary war games. Really, Lotus (because I always liked the PC better) is what finally made me realize computers were important, and it was something I wanted to do.
Thanks Lotus!
I think the reason the specs aren't increasing much is because the pace of hardware improvements isn't moving as fast as it used to. Nowadays, you pick up an i7 and 16Gb of RAM, your favorite video card, toss an SSD in there and you've basically hit the limit.
All we're getting these days is more cores as the whole gigahertz wars ended 10 years ago.
Actually, the performance difference between an i3 and an i7 is negligible.
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...
You get 80% of the performance of a $570 i7 if you buy a $125 i3. For $250 you could get a dual processor i3 that was faster than an i7
But, it's not their data. Its from other clinics, hospitals. According to them, they do not know which ones. I've asked numerous times. Yet, every time I go in, it's still there. They want to merge the records and it prompts them to do so, but I refuse to allow it. Is this Epics fault or the clinics? I Don't know. All I know is that the system as a whole refuses to give me enough information to fix it.