Why does it automatically follow that the exchange of trust, which is what currency essentially is, between willing participants must involve some self appointed middle man with the power of veto?
Because that's who Slashdotters enthusiastically elect, every time. Self-appointed middlemen.
I suspect the unpopular truth is that we are talking about customers who are not comparable, and that lenders want to charge more for higher risk, which makes perfect business and ethical sense.
No. The unpopular truth is that minorities have been screwed over for hundreds of years by members of the majority scratching each other's backs, regardless of the business or ethical rationale.
Want to keep minorities out of a neighborhood? Only offer them shitty loans, while offering less qualified borrowers who are "one of us" more attractive terms.
Oh, and don't worry about your descendents being ashamed if your behavior. They would rather blame the victim than face the truth about their ancestors and how their "accomplishments" were built on a tilted playing field.
I see. So Facebook wants to keep racial minorities out of neighborhoods by showing specific ads to people based on their estimated income. Because the people who work at Facebook are so racist.
Thanks for explaining that. (Maybe Occam makes disposable razors now? Hmm.)
The patent specifically suggests using inferred income for targeting mortgage offers, which the Wikipedia article notes has been a ripe area for abuse: "Reverse redlining occurs when a lender or insurer targets minority consumers, not to deny them loans or insurance, but rather to charge them more than could be charged to a comparable majority consumer whose business is more sought after"
Why would a "comparable majority consumer"'s business be "more sought after", especially online?
I suspect the unpopular truth is that we are talking about customers who are not comparable, and that lenders want to charge more for higher risk, which makes perfect business and ethical sense.
I must be imagining my now 12 year career, with excellent prospects for all kinds of growth in all kinds of directions. I have done everything from writing SFTP servers embedded in an ISDN modem, to writing web front-end UI code, to web back-end datbase code. I have to tell recruiters I am not interested all the time as I currently have a job. I guess I am going to get fired in 3 years, and there is nothing I can do about it? Oh wait, I don't suck at what I do, I will be employed in 3 years, and in 10 years as well. I must be some freak of nature or something.
(Shhhhh)... no no, he's right, no jobs here. Nothing to see, move along...
That would scare young male geeks into the next time zone (all the while bragging about what they would have done, had they, you know, not been unfortunately called away...).
"Programming is hard and boring compared to a lot of things they could be doing."
Like digging ditches on a road crew? At least programming pays well and is respectable.
Great point.
When my previous job cut down their janitorial service to the point that we were in practice having to empty our own trash, I said that I had no problem with it, but did they really want to pay me programmers rates to take out the trash?
My truck weighs 5,700lbs, or about 3 tons. You probably think that is insane. Maybe it is... but it is my right to own it because I like it...
No, it's your right to own it, because you can afford it, and don't believe in taking any personal responsibility for common resources, even when it would not decrease your quality of life (a more sensible car would actually improve your quality of life, most likely).
Because you want.
And Al Gore wants a huge mansion, because he wants one... so you're all over him too, right?
What's that... no? So it's more of a class and social in-group thing?
I love to code and have been ever since I owned my first computer, but the kids are right. Programming is hard and boring compared to a lot of things they could be doing. So may we can try to help them understand why this hard and boring task is still worth their time. Instead of try to put lipstick on that particular pig.
Most things worth doing have their hard and boring stretches... but when that program works, or that music plays beautifully, or whatever it is just comes together, there is a lot of satisfaction.
Nice. But I'll really believe you when you say something unpopular, like that intelligence is strongly heritable and all the consequences of that, for example.
Not that I'm a materialist, in the end... sure, a love letter "is" just paper and ink, but that's the least interesting thing about it.
IMO, we as a society should instead be pushing issues like: "Why are we so slavishly devoted to the notion that funding for drug discovery must derive from capitalistic market forces"? This seems like the very definition of a problem which should be addressed by spending tax money on antibiotic research.
Yeah, cause that works so well for everything else. Nothing's homier than public housing, healthier than a "free" clinic, or cleaner than a public restroom.
I doubt very much that most people had much in the way of "privacy" through most of history. Your average Joe in a tribe or village... well, his neighbors knew what he was doing, and who with, approximately all of the time.
I happen to like the brief window of modern higher privacy that we had, don't get me wrong... just saying that it was something of an aberration.
Slashdot Mirror
Why does it automatically follow that the exchange of trust, which is what currency essentially is, between willing participants must involve some self appointed middle man with the power of veto?
Because that's who Slashdotters enthusiastically elect, every time. Self-appointed middlemen.
So, tell me again why this guy doesn't think what he's doing falls under any kind of regulatory enforcement?
Probably was hoping that by doing something new, he'd get around it.
Maybe he thinks that the tradeoff between the pros and cons of regulatory enforcement aren't worth it?
The success of the exchanges in New York, New England, Kentucky, California, etc., proves that the law can work.
The successful operation of websites "proves" that government-run health financing works well?
Didn't we just get studies that said youtube and netflix were 50% of the net's traffic?
http://mashable.com/2013/11/12/internet-traffic-downstream/
Was this just a ruse? Is this study wrong? Is there some sort of overlap?
That's 111.5% of some tasty reliable data ya got there!
I can't wait to outsource all my web-surfing to an AI. Then I might be able to actually get some work done !
You've got a good point in that there joke :) If bots do the tedious searching for me, then sure, they have the "majority" of web traffic.
But so what? My car does the "majority" of my driving, depending on how you look at it.
That's how Wall Street can trigger a decade-long economic recession
We're having a (half)-decade long recession because government responded to a recession by opening the floodgates of spending.
Just like in the 1930s. That's how you turn a recession into a long-running malaise. We have historical experience with this.
Well, if Europe doesn't want Scotland. We could use a 51st state. Especially one with such great scotch.
Do they have lots of young healthy people who can't figure out that a small fine is less than a large premium?
Then we definitely need to welcome them into the US, right now!
I suspect the unpopular truth is that we are talking about customers who are not comparable, and that lenders want to charge more for higher risk, which makes perfect business and ethical sense.
No. The unpopular truth is that minorities have been screwed over for hundreds of years by members of the majority scratching each other's backs, regardless of the business or ethical rationale.
Want to keep minorities out of a neighborhood? Only offer them shitty loans, while offering less qualified borrowers who are "one of us" more attractive terms.
Oh, and don't worry about your descendents being ashamed if your behavior. They would rather blame the victim than face the truth about their ancestors and how their "accomplishments" were built on a tilted playing field.
I see. So Facebook wants to keep racial minorities out of neighborhoods by showing specific ads to people based on their estimated income. Because the people who work at Facebook are so racist.
Thanks for explaining that. (Maybe Occam makes disposable razors now? Hmm.)
The patent specifically suggests using inferred income for targeting mortgage offers, which the Wikipedia article notes has been a ripe area for abuse: "Reverse redlining occurs when a lender or insurer targets minority consumers, not to deny them loans or insurance, but rather to charge them more than could be charged to a comparable majority consumer whose business is more sought after"
Why would a "comparable majority consumer"'s business be "more sought after", especially online?
I suspect the unpopular truth is that we are talking about customers who are not comparable, and that lenders want to charge more for higher risk, which makes perfect business and ethical sense.
Really,
I must be imagining my now 12 year career, with excellent prospects for all kinds of growth in all kinds of directions. I have done everything from writing SFTP servers embedded in an ISDN modem, to writing web front-end UI code, to web back-end datbase code. I have to tell recruiters I am not interested all the time as I currently have a job. I guess I am going to get fired in 3 years, and there is nothing I can do about it? Oh wait, I don't suck at what I do, I will be employed in 3 years, and in 10 years as well. I must be some freak of nature or something.
(Shhhhh) ... no no, he's right, no jobs here. Nothing to see, move along ...
A better way to promote programming to kids:
https://www.google.com/search?q=booth+babes&source=lnms&tbm=isch
That would scare young male geeks into the next time zone (all the while bragging about what they would have done, had they, you know, not been unfortunately called away ...).
"Programming is hard and boring compared to a lot of things they could be doing." Like digging ditches on a road crew? At least programming pays well and is respectable.
Great point.
When my previous job cut down their janitorial service to the point that we were in practice having to empty our own trash, I said that I had no problem with it, but did they really want to pay me programmers rates to take out the trash?
My truck weighs 5,700lbs, or about 3 tons. You probably think that is insane. Maybe it is... but it is my right to own it because I like it...
No, it's your right to own it, because you can afford it, and don't believe in taking any personal responsibility for common resources, even when it would not decrease your quality of life (a more sensible car would actually improve your quality of life, most likely).
Because you want.
And Al Gore wants a huge mansion, because he wants one ... so you're all over him too, right?
What's that ... no? So it's more of a class and social in-group thing?
I love to code and have been ever since I owned my first computer, but the kids are right. Programming is hard and boring compared to a lot of things they could be doing. So may we can try to help them understand why this hard and boring task is still worth their time. Instead of try to put lipstick on that particular pig.
Most things worth doing have their hard and boring stretches ... but when that program works, or that music plays beautifully, or whatever it is just comes together, there is a lot of satisfaction.
I was just thinking that too ...
Chill man, just have some yogurt.
Nice. But I'll really believe you when you say something unpopular, like that intelligence is strongly heritable and all the consequences of that, for example.
Not that I'm a materialist, in the end ... sure, a love letter "is" just paper and ink, but that's the least interesting thing about it.
Now that your screen is dominated by huge "apps", I guess you need someplace for notifications ...
Wow ... I wonder who might be in charge of the executive branch? Slashdot is maintaining radio silence on that point.
... oh yes, clearly the brain has to be the only organ not strongly shaped by genetics. 'cause that's so scientific.
The current zombie obsession is loathsome and tiresome.
Gives a new meaning to "get a life".
IMO, we as a society should instead be pushing issues like: "Why are we so slavishly devoted to the notion that funding for drug discovery must derive from capitalistic market forces"? This seems like the very definition of a problem which should be addressed by spending tax money on antibiotic research.
Yeah, cause that works so well for everything else. Nothing's homier than public housing, healthier than a "free" clinic, or cleaner than a public restroom.
"Seymour Papert once had the right idea: you don't teach "programming", you teach structured thinking and analytical problem solving. "
Disagree. When I started programming as a kid 30 years ago BASIC taught ME structured thinking and analytical problem solving.
Mac
Yep.
If you start off too abstracted, you don't get anywhere, teaching-wise.
Yes, BASIC rocks for learning. It's not half bad for many real world purposes, either.
It fails miserably at being an obscure way to limit programming to a guild, though. Hey, maybe those things are not unrelated ...
I doubt very much that most people had much in the way of "privacy" through most of history. Your average Joe in a tribe or village ... well, his neighbors knew what he was doing, and who with, approximately all of the time.
I happen to like the brief window of modern higher privacy that we had, don't get me wrong ... just saying that it was something of an aberration.
Hrm ... wouldn't it still be Better Than Nothing (tm), though?