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User: rsilvergun

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  1. Nope on No Tech Bubble Here, Says CNN: "This Time It's Different." · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The difference here is that Uber has a product. A vile, rent-seeking product built on the corpse of the American Middle Class, but a product nontheless. What companies like Uber and Amazon are doing is bringing the Wal-Mart model to the rest of the workforce. Driving down wages and benefits and skimming off the top of just about every transaction. The money there is huge, especially once you're entrenched. That's why they're valued so high. Real money is in ownership, not petty things like making products and providing services. That stuff's for the plebs.

  2. Always wondered about this on Algorithmic Patenting · · Score: 1

    could I make a program to generate "The song", e.g. a song that had every possible combination of sheet music, and copyright it? Sure, I'd have to exclude some parts, but I'd still end up owning music for the rest of time.

  3. Re:indirect jobs on Oregon Residents Riled Over Virtually Staff-free Data Centers Getting Tax-breaks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Food delivery/shops -> with only 25 jobs and thousands of unemployed I can pay those 25 people subsistence wage. They won't be buying food from restaurants. They can barely feed themselves. Same goes for clothing and entertainment. As for cars, hah! They can walk. Meanwhile we're cutting funding to schools. And besides, once they have kids they're dead weight. I'll just fire 'em and hire more young single people from the local tent city.

    See, once you start racing to the bottom there's no end in sight. And all the trickle down (voodoo) economics in the world won't save you.

  4. Congrats on What To Do After Robots Take Your Job · · Score: 1

    You just discovered Basic Income. Step forward and get your prize.

    That said, I love the idea of rebranding it as a "dividend". You might actually sneak it past the 1% that way. Good luck.

  5. You're forgetting the 60 years of misery on What To Do After Robots Take Your Job · · Score: 1

    that followed the industrial revolution until tech caught up and there was something for people to do again. You're ignoring 2 or 3 lost generations. You're doing this content and safe because you're assuming you'll be dead before the layoffs get to you; and you can't or you're not willing to imagine the same thing happening to your children (or you're a /. meme and you don't have any).

    Here's the thing: We CAN imagine it. All of it. You choose not to.

  6. Um... on The Software Revolution · · Score: 1

    because there isn't enough work to go around, and it's the only way to force hiring and/or better wages. As for France, they didn't really do a 32 hour work week. There were so many exceptions that only a few gov't employees got the benefit. e.g. it didn't work in France because they didn't really try it.

  7. I don't think it's the Woman's responsibility on Two New Male Birth Control Chemicals In Advanced Stages · · Score: 1

    but I know lots and lots of guys who's girlfriend somehow became pregnant while on a pill that's 99.9% effective.

    As for fatherhood: 40 years of declining wages have made fatherhood a tough sell. I grew up around and still know a pretty rough crowd. If you don't make much money and probably never will fatherhood doesn't end well. It's why birth rates in Japan keep falling. Nobody's paying us enough to raise a family...

  8. Wait, Canada has a Military? on Canada's Next-Generation Military Smart Gun Unveiled · · Score: 1

    Like, you mean like for war?

  9. Or how about no jobs? on The Software Revolution · · Score: 1

    What are we gonna do if there are no jobs for the rank & file? We aren't all geniuses ya know? I kept hearing biotech was gonna replace lost manufacturing jobs, but I never once heard anyone say what that meant. It always felt like what you tell the rubes to keep them from getting scared about losing their livelihoods...

  10. I'm I the only one on Smoking Is Even Deadlier Than Previously Thought · · Score: 0

    that finds it odd that we allow companies to sell a substance who's sole purpose is to be addictive? Anyone ever read the Space Merchants? Popsi ring a bell? I can't say I'm in favor of prohibition, but we can just require them to lower nicotine requirements until it's no longer addictive. People don't smoke for the cool, cool flavor. They smoke because it's highly addictive. Last I heard the Amish were growing nicotine free tobacco...

  11. Not so much on Smoking Is Even Deadlier Than Previously Thought · · Score: 1

    We don't spend nearly as much on those programs as the right wing would have you believe. Also, any place with socialized medicine is likely to make up the cost of feeding/sheltering those people from the medical expenses. I suppose here in America where we're happy to let most of them die (as long as they're under 65) there's a cost. But in Australia you'll probably blow a few million per person on Chemo before they drop dead.

  12. What? I don't even on NASA: Increasing Carbon Emissions Risk Megadroughts · · Score: 1

    Will someone explain to me what this troll post means? I can usually figure it out, but it seems like it's just tailor made to piss both sides off at the expense of reason or purpose. Bravo sir! Your post is truly a thing of savage beauty!

  13. Not exactly how it works on MegaUpload Programmer Pleads Guilty, Gets a Year In Prison · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You plead guilty because in America we do jury trials, and juries are highly unpredictable. They often rule based on emotions and how they feel. If you're rich you buy a lawyer that's a smooth talker and can confuse the jury. Everyone else just plea bargins. Otherwise you're gambling that the jury will like you. If you lose the gamble than years of mandatory sentencing guidelines will put you away for decades.

  14. I hate the lottery on The Mathematical Case For Buying a Powerball Ticket · · Score: 1

    because it gives the working class a false sense of hope. It's a buffer. A fake safety net that keeps the poor from asking too many questions about things like wealth inequality and declining wages. We do similar things with racism and classes/casts. And before anyone asks, yes, I am comparing racism and the lottery. From the ruling classes standpoint they serve the same purpose. Distractions to keep plebs us from asking for things like stable incomes and health care. Maybe it's not like this in the rest of the world but here in the States luck is considered a skill. Something you worked at and honed. And if you didn't get lucky and win the lottery it means you did something wrong. You're a bad person. That's what the lottery does here. Sure, it's not the only thing. But it's another tool in the 1%'s belt to keep the other 99 in check.

  15. If only there was some way to raise prices on Netflix Now Available In Cuba · · Score: 1

    in order to response to increased demand. Surely the many bartending engineers can devise a scheme.

    While we're on the subject, I know Electrical Engineers doing entry level support ( the IT equivalent of waiting tables ) because offshoring has killed their jobs and they're not mobile (own houses/have kids/etc). The Cuban embargo and the global race to the bottom has probably done more to kill those engineer's careers than Castro ever did.

  16. Re: Some people aren't cut out for some careers... on Silk Road Drug Dealer Pleads Guilty After Federal Sting · · Score: 1

    Sex offenders are expressive as hell to jail. Nonviolent drug offenders otoh are cheap. It's a side effect of our private prisons

  17. Um... on The Man Squatting On Millions of Dollars Worth of Domain Names · · Score: 1

    Are you trying to imply he's doing anything other then rent seeking? If you are you're doing a terrible job at it. How much money is this guy putting up? If the answer isn't "enough to buy his share of partial ownership" then the only thing he brings are the domains he's squatting on. To wit: rent seeking.

  18. It wasn't widely known on Google-Advised Disney Cartoon Aims To Convince Preschool Girls Coding's Cool · · Score: 1

    that it could pay a lot of money. By the time it was offshoring and the H1-B visa program had eroded wages to the point where it wasn't true anymore (save a few math geniuses working for google/wallstreet). So once again it's something you do because you want to, which almost always pays like shit.

  19. You bring up a good point on What Happened To the Photography Industry In 2014? · · Score: 1

    which is expense. The last 30 years hasn't been kind to people's disposable income, and that makes saving money on photos very attractive.

  20. Re:No longer true on What Happened To the Photography Industry In 2014? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here you go. Albeit not my pics.

  21. What world do you live in? on DEA Planned To Monitor Cars Parked At Gun Shows Using License Plate Readers · · Score: 0, Troll

    Guns don't make a populace harder to control, and haven't for some time. A modern military full of trained soldiers can effortlessly contain even the best armed populace. A bunch of gun nuts and their toys don't have the resources to compete with a standing army...

  22. Re:Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? on GeForce GTX 980 and 970 Cards From MSI, EVGA, and Zotac Reviewed · · Score: 1

    I never had the caps go on anything Asus or Gigabyte. It was always the ram corrupting :(.

  23. The Win 10 subscription model on Dell Continues Shipping Fresh Linux Laptops · · Score: 2

    might be boon for Linux. Then again I sucked it down for product activation. Linux still isn't much use for gaming. And it's still a nightmare to write and deploy closed source software on Linux...

  24. Anyone know how Zotac cards hold up? on GeForce GTX 980 and 970 Cards From MSI, EVGA, and Zotac Reviewed · · Score: 1

    EVGA are pretty famous for dying in 12-18 months. Most people buying them don't care since they're gonna upgrade anyway. MSI's reputation isn't much better, but I know a few people who have had good luck. That said even my brother's Gigabyte GTX 260 only lasted 2 years before the RAM burned out. Too much heat. I bought a 660 w/o thinking about it and I'm hoping it doesn't suffer the same fate (since it's more than enough card for my next 5 years of gaming). I just wish I could buy even a mid range card w/o worrying about the thing dying long before the end of it's useful life.

  25. They created it in the States on How, and Why, Apple Overtook Microsoft · · Score: 1

    We were 90% dumb phones until Apple moved in. What they did was open up the APIs and only charge a 30% cut from the vendors (plus a token $100/year fee for developer access). The dev kits for existing "Smart" phones available in the US started at $20k and the split was usually 60/40. There were tonnes of fees along the way too. On top of that Apple pushed for better and better hardware with slimmer profit margins; relying on volume and add on services (e.g. iTunes) to make up the difference.

    Apple didn't create it out of nothing, but they did crack the market wide open.