" That includes basic HVAC maintenance (seriously change your damn filters). "
This costs money and building maintenance is one of the first things that gets cut when a company is trying to cut costs.
They only take it seriously ( temporarily ) when someone gets sick due to poor maintenance and / or OSHA shows up unannounced because the employees who are forced to work in such conditions get tired of the bullshit from the company.
They're playing with things when they don't fully understand the consequences. I get that's how we learn, but you don't get an undo button with this. You do it wrong and the consequences will be epic.
While we pretty much universally dislike mosquitoes, they do play a part in a larger ecosystem that all we ( as a species ) have managed to do is fuck it up. Disrupt it and you risk a cascading effect which can have consequences far beyond what we can predict or plan for.
It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to start applying similar edits to other species you may not like or wish to modify. ( Say . . . . from a weaponization standpoint . . certain pockets of civilization who carry specific genetic markers or traits )
Pick a genetic trait that only your targeted population carries, select a payload and voila.
Just hope the idiots who start down this path realize any natural mutation of their new toy can pretty much end us as a species in a hurry.:|
Actually, extreme violence and bare skin will see a ' mature ' rating. If you dare cross the line and engage in any sexual conduct, it gets slapped with an ' Adults Only ' rating and no publisher will dare touch it.
Only in the US is it fine to behead or blow up half the actors in a video game / movie, but flash a breast and everyone gets out the pitchforks:|
Once you've become a behemoth of a company who can manipulate popular opinion on a whim, now you're no longer just a company. You're either an ally or an adversary depending on the beliefs of the CEO, or how deep your pocketbook is. The Party in power loves these platforms as long as they are useful to them. Once they're not, we start seeing calls to break them up because of how much influence they wield over the population.
This is why it's dangerous to allow media giants to consolidate. You're putting an awful lot of power into the hands of too few people. In effect, we're letting a very few subtly influence how the majority thinks. I shouldn't have to explain how dangerous that is.
Here in the US, there isn't any neutral news anymore. They're propaganda channels for Team Red or Team Blue. You absolutely cannot watch the news without some sort of political bias inserted somewhere. ( Which is why I quit watching it at all )
So, yes. There are a lot of companies that need to be broken up and forbidden from ever becoming one again. Media companies, Content Provider / Content Delivery, Telecoms, Banks / Investment Houses, etc.
The problem is these same companies wield an awful lot of influence and money over the very people who should be regulating them. ( Why would I break up a company that will help my team win the next election ? )
Which is why they still exist at all in their current form.
This is a risk you run if you underpay your employees as they become easy targets.
An outside source offers any of your employees half of their yearly salary if they'll do them a tiny ' favor ' and of course they're going to find someone who will jump on it.
Especially dangerous for all of your outsourced / offshore employees where you're paying them $20 a day.
Offer one of them $10k and they'll do anything you want.
Think about that when you outsource the positions who have access to critical or sensitive parts of your network.
Not really a big deal unless the only reason you need a " six figure salary " is for bragging rights.
Lemme break it down..
You need to make $160k in San Francisco to enjoy the same purchasing power as you would have in Houston, TX at only ~$80k ( Pick any Salary Calculator online to see the results for yourself )
Here are a few reasons why:
Groceries 31% less Housing 71% less Utilities 4% less Transportation 28% less Health Care 27% less
If someone is truly concerned about raising a family, why would they choose to live in one of THE most expensive places in the US ? ( We can't have a child darling ! We pay $5k a month in rent !:| )
Basically, one needs to choose between their ego and their family. The fact this article even exists tells me all I need to know about what choice they've made.
Protip - You can't have your cake and eat it too. With the exception of the extremely wealthy, most folks will need to choose one or the other.
The US ( and everyone else ) has been altering both modern and historical facts to suit their own agendas since the very beginning. I'm curious why the sudden concern:|
It is because China, unlike the US, takes education a bit more seriously ?
The US hasn't yet figured out that you can't rely on outsourcing to solve all of your problems. ( A good example is relying on Russia to act as Space-Uber to get your astronauts up to the ISS )
When you piss off the country you rely on to make the magic happen, well. . . . you better have a local solution to fall back upon.
Which is why the public education system needs to be overhauled.
You don't get to stay a superpower for very long when your populations education sits at the bottom of your priority list.
The shortest path to Pharmaceutical Industry price regulation is the path he's currently taking.
At some point, Congress will have no choice but to regulate what these folks can charge for medicine lest the voters remove them from office. ( This is where your older voters wield immense power )
The more these CEO's keep jacking the prices by absurd amounts, the sooner the regulation hammer will come down on them all. The other CEO's know this and wish folks would quit putting them all into the spotlight.
His smarter investors will be quick to point out that the " Moral requirement to make MORE money " will be seriously undermined by industry pricing regulation.
But, by all means, stay the course. The industry certainly won't get any sympathy from those they're screwing over in the never ending quest for greater wealth.
"The fact that people continue to use Microsoft products is mind-boggling."
Not nearly as mind-boggling as the folks who can't seem to grasp the fact that not all professional software runs on Linux or Mac OS.
Talking about software that costs more than the hardware it runs upon. Yanno, stuff you can't easily replace because it's cost prohibitive.
Thus, the reason folks continue to use what they use and will continue to do so until ALL of their daily use software applications have a native Linux or Mac OS choice.
You can see from the story itself the reasons why folks post this stuff anonymously.
Regardless if there is any truth to the Op-Ed or not, if it portrays the target in a negative light, folks always use the same methods to discredit the author ( and / or manipulate public opinion ) and they're pretty easy to spot once you know what to look for.
Right off the bat, they're resorting to character assassination attacks starting with labeling of the author as " Coward ". Next we'll end up claiming it's just a smear tactic, penned by the opposition, etc. etc. We'll see every possible method there is to discredit the author, without even knowing who the author is. Other typically used labels are: Racist, Traitor, Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, Left Wing, Right Wing, terrorist, pedophile, etc. etc. You get the point.
Were the author to divulge their real name, the same tactics would be employed, only the focus would be sharpened to have maximum effect based on the authors character, beliefs and / or imperfections. Staying anonymous is the only means for a single voice to stand against the chorus of opposition that will band together ( and has far more influence over media channels ) to destroy any who dare speak out in defiance.
People use anonymous posts as a means to speak freely without fear of retaliation. We can swear up and down retaliation doesn't exist ( it's even illegal in some situations ) but we all know otherwise, thus the reason for staying anonymous.
However, staying anonymous has its drawbacks ( and is ripe for abuse. Even the Government uses it when it suits them ) as well.
It's easy to discredit or brush off information provided by an anonymous source as " Fake News " or " Propaganda ". Not so much if you have a real person whose information can be verified easily. ( See Snowden as an example ) Not to say they won't try. Snowden was branded a Traitor, Russian Spy, and half a dozen other names in an effort to discredit him. I dare say it didn't quite work out as well as they hoped it would.
Imagine the hilarity that will ensue if it turns out the author of the Op-Ed is one of Trumps family members, friend of the family or an ally.:D
As my company has transitioned to VOIP systems, the lag and / or voice quality or any given participant is anywhere from perfect to abysmal depending on where they sit and / or how they're connected. ( Corporate office big pipe, remote worker via VPN, etc )
As a result, during any brief period of silence, everyone believes it's ok to start talking and the entire conference call devolves into undecipherable gibberish as everyone begins talking over one another.
Then there are the givens: The crying baby or barking dog in the background, the guy who is talking into a muted mike, or the host who tries to mute themselves, but accidentally hangs up instead. Tearing down the entire call.
Takes fifteen minutes just to get everyone back on because half the folks on the call aren't listening to it and, thus, aren't aware it even dropped. Or, they're on three simultaneous calls and are just bouncing between them periodically.
Add to that fact some folks believe they should convene a conference call with a bazillion participants at the last minute over the most minute bullshit and some days your sole job function is to sit on conference calls all day long.
Then the company wants to know why you're not getting any real work done:|
Corporate jobs are a GD three ring circus. . . . .
Lots of folks sign up to be moderators not really understanding what it means to be one. They don't quite understand that using that power to silence others ( legitimate or otherwise ) comes with drawbacks. . .
You're effectively a human firewall catching and filtering out all the bad shit coming in from the net. The very nature of the job is going to generate a lot of hate for those doing it right.
A quote from Batman sums it up pretty well:
" Come on, Harvey. You're Gotham's D.A. If you're not getting shot at, then you're not doing your job right. "
The MPAA / RIAA already know this and they know litigation ( especially beyond this ruling ) is likely going to cost them more than they're going to bring in. Thus, my guess as to why they want to shift the burden onto the ISP's to play Copyright Cop.
Why waste your money and time when you can waste someone else's money and time instead ?
Having said that, however, are the ISP's going to follow the same rules about an IP address != a subscriber before throttling or disconnecting your service completely when they " detect " copyright infringement ?
Going slightly offtopic:
As an afterthought, ( especially if the Automation Doomsayers are right ) I wonder if the Fat Cat types who run these companies selling $services or $goods realize that as folks have less and less disposable income, the fewer goods and services they're going to sell. The demand will certainly be there, just not the means to pay for it. Guess where that leads ? ( Insert your best "Yarrr Matey" voice here )
So, the way I see it, it would be in Big Corps best interests to start trying to reduce that income inequality gap if they plan on having enough folks with money to sell their goods to in the future. Or, they can continue to waste their time trying to figure out how to solve the problem through litigation against folks who don't have any money to begin with.
It seemed every damn car I got into was tuned to the same radio station and started playing " ( Keep Feeling ) Fascination " by The Human League.
After the Nth time hearing it, ( Where N equals a ridiculously large number ) I made a new rule. Any time I climbed into a vehicle and it started up, I would immediately drive off the nearest cliff . . .
I refuse to listen to that damn song to this day lol
Good to hear Rockstar has expanded their selection a bit in the years since.
" But something has to be done to counterbalance old folks with dementia being manipulated into voting for things they don't actually want because they can't understand. "
No worries man, we got you covered. We have armies of unjaded, fresh, young voters who vote ( if you can pull them away from their phones long enough ) not based on any educated ideology, but rather who is popular or who promises them the world when election time rolls around.
They're still full of hope. They believe their vote actually means something in the grand scheme of things and their candidate is the political equal to the second coming of $deity.
It takes a few election cycles for them to realize otherwise but hey, by that time we'll have a fresh batch of new voters to prey upon. . .
The lesson here is: Age is irrelevant when you're outnumbered by the inexperienced or gullible.
Welcome to Democracy or, at least it's what we are supposed to believe.
A lot of people seem to have some extreme anger issues.
Once they're raging, things can go stupid quickly. Doesn't even require a gun.
As an example, drive on our freeways from time to time and watch how stupid people can be once the anger takes over.
I think that's what sets America apart from the rest of the world. We're very quick tempered over minor stupid shit. The overall attitude is just angry.
You may / may not agree with me but if you spend six months or more away from the US, it will be one of the first things you notice when you get back.
You really shouldn't get to advertise " Unlimited " plans, then ( via extra fine print on page 936 of the user agreement ) turn around and throttle the bandwidth into the ground so as to make the entire service completely useless. ( God forbid you actually USE your " Unlimited " plan as unlimited. )
It's akin to being sold a Ferrari with all that horsepower available to it, but being forced to drive it like a Prius.:|
I also find it amusing that this is only an issue because it's Firefighters. ( Or any profession that the public is constantly reminded to refer to as " Heroic ". Don't get me started on that one.:| )
Congress could give two shits about Verizon screwing over the general public every day with the very same policies, but if you do it to $heroic_profession, ( or a Congress type ) all of a sudden it's a big fucking deal and everyone runs in little circles demanding answers.
Slashdot Mirror
" That includes basic HVAC maintenance (seriously change your damn filters). "
This costs money and building maintenance is one of the first things that gets cut when a company is trying to cut costs.
They only take it seriously ( temporarily ) when someone gets sick due to poor maintenance and / or OSHA shows up unannounced because the employees who are forced to work in such conditions get tired of the bullshit from the company.
They're playing with things when they don't fully understand the consequences. I get that's how we learn, but you don't get an undo button
with this. You do it wrong and the consequences will be epic.
While we pretty much universally dislike mosquitoes, they do play a part in a larger ecosystem that all we ( as a species ) have managed to do is fuck it up.
Disrupt it and you risk a cascading effect which can have consequences far beyond what we can predict or plan for.
It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to start applying similar edits to other species you may not like or wish to modify.
( Say . . . . from a weaponization standpoint . . certain pockets of civilization who carry specific genetic markers or traits )
Pick a genetic trait that only your targeted population carries, select a payload and voila.
Just hope the idiots who start down this path realize any natural mutation of their new toy can pretty much end us as a species in a hurry. :|
Actually, extreme violence and bare skin will see a ' mature ' rating. If you dare cross the line and engage in any sexual conduct, it gets slapped with an ' Adults Only ' rating and no publisher will dare touch it.
Only in the US is it fine to behead or blow up half the actors in a video game / movie, but flash a breast and everyone gets out the pitchforks :|
Being a company isn't the problem.
Once you've become a behemoth of a company who can manipulate popular opinion on a whim, now you're no longer just a company. You're either an ally or an adversary depending on the beliefs of the CEO, or how deep your pocketbook is. The Party in power loves these platforms as long as they are useful to them. Once they're not, we start seeing calls to break them up because of how much influence they wield over the population.
This is why it's dangerous to allow media giants to consolidate. You're putting an awful lot of power into the hands of too few people. In effect, we're letting a very few subtly influence how the majority thinks. I shouldn't have to explain how dangerous that is.
Here in the US, there isn't any neutral news anymore. They're propaganda channels for Team Red or Team Blue. You absolutely cannot watch the news without some sort of political bias inserted somewhere. ( Which is why I quit watching it at all )
So, yes. There are a lot of companies that need to be broken up and forbidden from ever becoming one again. Media companies, Content Provider / Content Delivery, Telecoms, Banks / Investment Houses, etc.
The problem is these same companies wield an awful lot of influence and money over the very people who should be regulating them.
( Why would I break up a company that will help my team win the next election ? )
Which is why they still exist at all in their current form.
This is a risk you run if you underpay your employees as they become easy targets.
An outside source offers any of your employees half of their yearly salary if they'll do them a tiny ' favor ' and of course they're going to find someone who will jump on it.
Especially dangerous for all of your outsourced / offshore employees where you're paying them $20 a day.
Offer one of them $10k and they'll do anything you want.
Think about that when you outsource the positions who have access to critical or sensitive parts of your network.
Not really a big deal unless the only reason you need a " six figure salary " is for bragging rights.
Lemme break it down..
You need to make $160k in San Francisco to enjoy the same purchasing power as you would have in Houston, TX at only ~$80k
( Pick any Salary Calculator online to see the results for yourself )
Here are a few reasons why:
Groceries 31% less
Housing 71% less
Utilities 4% less
Transportation 28% less
Health Care 27% less
If someone is truly concerned about raising a family, why would they choose to live in one of THE most expensive places in the US ? :| )
( We can't have a child darling ! We pay $5k a month in rent !
Basically, one needs to choose between their ego and their family.
The fact this article even exists tells me all I need to know about what choice they've made.
Protip - You can't have your cake and eat it too. With the exception of the extremely wealthy, most folks will need to choose one or the other.
Human memory is too short lived for it to be a long term issue.
Catastrophe today, forgotten soon after once something else gets their attention.
Don't answer your damn phone if you don't recognize the number.
They'll leave a message if it's important.
Problem solved.
are simply afraid of the competition.
The US ( and everyone else ) has been altering both modern and historical facts to suit their own agendas since the very beginning. :|
I'm curious why the sudden concern
Pot. . . meet kettle.
For the vast majority of the human species. . . . Wealth will always trump Morals / Ethics
Early on, Google had delusions about doing the right thing, but money corrupts everything it touches and you see where Google is today.
Imagine where they will be tomorrow :|
It is because China, unlike the US, takes education a bit more seriously ?
The US hasn't yet figured out that you can't rely on outsourcing to solve all of your problems. ( A good example is relying on Russia to act as Space-Uber to get your astronauts up to the ISS )
When you piss off the country you rely on to make the magic happen, well. . . . you better have a local solution to fall back upon.
Which is why the public education system needs to be overhauled.
You don't get to stay a superpower for very long when your populations education sits at the bottom of your priority list.
The shortest path to Pharmaceutical Industry price regulation is the path he's currently taking.
At some point, Congress will have no choice but to regulate what these folks can charge for medicine lest the voters remove them from office. ( This is where your older voters wield immense power )
The more these CEO's keep jacking the prices by absurd amounts, the sooner the regulation hammer will come down on them all. The other CEO's know this and wish folks would quit putting them all into the spotlight.
His smarter investors will be quick to point out that the " Moral requirement to make MORE money " will be seriously undermined by industry pricing regulation.
But, by all means, stay the course. The industry certainly won't get any sympathy from those they're screwing over in the never ending quest for greater wealth.
I wonder how Hurricane resistant their design is. . . .
"The fact that people continue to use Microsoft products is mind-boggling."
Not nearly as mind-boggling as the folks who can't seem to grasp the fact that not all professional software runs on Linux or Mac OS.
Talking about software that costs more than the hardware it runs upon. Yanno, stuff you can't easily replace because it's cost prohibitive.
Thus, the reason folks continue to use what they use and will continue to do so until ALL of their daily use software applications have a native Linux or Mac OS choice.
It's really not that difficult.
You can see from the story itself the reasons why folks post this stuff anonymously.
Regardless if there is any truth to the Op-Ed or not, if it portrays the target in a negative light, folks always use the same
methods to discredit the author ( and / or manipulate public opinion ) and they're pretty easy to spot once you know what
to look for.
Right off the bat, they're resorting to character assassination attacks starting with labeling of the author as " Coward ".
Next we'll end up claiming it's just a smear tactic, penned by the opposition, etc. etc. We'll see every possible method
there is to discredit the author, without even knowing who the author is. Other typically used labels are: Racist, Traitor,
Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, Left Wing, Right Wing, terrorist, pedophile, etc. etc. You get the point.
Were the author to divulge their real name, the same tactics would be employed, only the focus would be sharpened to have
maximum effect based on the authors character, beliefs and / or imperfections. Staying anonymous is the only means for
a single voice to stand against the chorus of opposition that will band together ( and has far more influence over media channels )
to destroy any who dare speak out in defiance.
People use anonymous posts as a means to speak freely without fear of retaliation. We can swear up and down retaliation
doesn't exist ( it's even illegal in some situations ) but we all know otherwise, thus the reason for staying anonymous.
However, staying anonymous has its drawbacks ( and is ripe for abuse. Even the Government uses it when it suits them ) as well.
It's easy to discredit or brush off information provided by an anonymous source as " Fake News " or " Propaganda ". Not so
much if you have a real person whose information can be verified easily. ( See Snowden as an example ) Not to say they won't
try. Snowden was branded a Traitor, Russian Spy, and half a dozen other names in an effort to discredit him. I dare say it didn't
quite work out as well as they hoped it would.
Imagine the hilarity that will ensue if it turns out the author of the Op-Ed is one of Trumps family members, friend of the family or an ally. :D
As my company has transitioned to VOIP systems, the lag and / or voice quality or any given participant is anywhere from perfect to
abysmal depending on where they sit and / or how they're connected. ( Corporate office big pipe, remote worker via VPN, etc )
As a result, during any brief period of silence, everyone believes it's ok to start talking and the entire conference call devolves into
undecipherable gibberish as everyone begins talking over one another.
Then there are the givens: The crying baby or barking dog in the background, the guy who is talking into a muted mike, or the host who
tries to mute themselves, but accidentally hangs up instead. Tearing down the entire call.
Takes fifteen minutes just to get everyone back on because half the folks on the call aren't listening to it and, thus, aren't aware it even
dropped. Or, they're on three simultaneous calls and are just bouncing between them periodically.
Add to that fact some folks believe they should convene a conference call with a bazillion participants at the last minute over the most
minute bullshit and some days your sole job function is to sit on conference calls all day long.
Then the company wants to know why you're not getting any real work done :|
Corporate jobs are a GD three ring circus. . . . .
Lots of folks sign up to be moderators not really understanding what it means to be one. They don't quite understand that using that power to silence others ( legitimate or otherwise ) comes with drawbacks. . .
You're effectively a human firewall catching and filtering out all the bad shit coming in from the net. The very nature of the job is going to generate a lot of hate for those doing it right.
A quote from Batman sums it up pretty well:
" Come on, Harvey. You're Gotham's D.A. If you're not getting shot at, then you're not doing your job right. "
Try not to annoy or threaten the very folks you're relying upon for a solution.
Just like pissing off the wait staff before your food arrives, nothing good can come of it.
Though government officials aren't typically known for their amazing insight :|
As it stands today, Chrome OS isn't anything for MS to be concerned about. Tomorrow, however, things get a bit more complicated.
Fast forward a bit where MS jumps on the subscription bandwagon and things will get interesting.
Hell, it might even finally be the " Year of the Linux Desktop ".
The amusing part is greed by MS is what will kick this snowball off the mountaintop.
The MPAA / RIAA already know this and they know litigation ( especially beyond this ruling ) is likely going to cost them more than they're going to bring in.
Thus, my guess as to why they want to shift the burden onto the ISP's to play Copyright Cop.
Why waste your money and time when you can waste someone else's money and time instead ?
Having said that, however, are the ISP's going to follow the same rules about an IP address != a subscriber before throttling or disconnecting your service completely when they " detect " copyright infringement ?
Going slightly offtopic:
As an afterthought, ( especially if the Automation Doomsayers are right ) I wonder if the Fat Cat types who run these companies selling $services or $goods realize that as folks have less and less disposable income, the fewer goods and services they're going to sell. The demand will certainly be there, just not the means to pay for it. Guess where that leads ? ( Insert your best "Yarrr Matey" voice here )
So, the way I see it, it would be in Big Corps best interests to start trying to reduce that income inequality gap if they plan on having enough folks with money to sell their goods to in the future. Or, they can continue to waste their time trying to figure out how to solve the problem through litigation against folks who don't have any money to begin with.
Dissallow Chinese nationals from entering your country and prevent any travel to / from Mainland China until they decide to share their samples.
Until they provide said samples, their citizens ( and any tourists ) are basically transmission vectors.
TBH, scientific research that benefits the species as a whole really should play on a different playground than Politics and petty bickering.
The last time I played GTA was Vice City.
It seemed every damn car I got into was tuned to the same radio station and started playing " ( Keep Feeling ) Fascination " by The Human League.
After the Nth time hearing it, ( Where N equals a ridiculously large number ) I made a new rule. Any time I climbed into a vehicle and it started up, I would immediately drive off the nearest cliff . . .
I refuse to listen to that damn song to this day lol
Good to hear Rockstar has expanded their selection a bit in the years since.
" But something has to be done to counterbalance old folks with dementia being manipulated into voting for things they don't actually want because they can't understand. "
No worries man, we got you covered. We have armies of unjaded, fresh, young voters who vote ( if you can pull them away from their phones long enough ) not based on any educated ideology, but rather who is popular or who promises them the world when election time rolls around.
They're still full of hope. They believe their vote actually means something in the grand scheme of things and their candidate is the political equal to the second coming of $deity.
It takes a few election cycles for them to realize otherwise but hey, by that time we'll have a fresh batch of new voters to prey upon. . .
The lesson here is: Age is irrelevant when you're outnumbered by the inexperienced or gullible.
Welcome to Democracy or, at least it's what we are supposed to believe.
A lot of people seem to have some extreme anger issues.
Once they're raging, things can go stupid quickly. Doesn't even require a gun.
As an example, drive on our freeways from time to time and watch how stupid people can be once the anger takes over.
I think that's what sets America apart from the rest of the world. We're very quick tempered over minor stupid shit. The overall attitude is just angry.
You may / may not agree with me but if you spend six months or more away from the US, it will be one of the first things you notice when you get back.
You really shouldn't get to advertise " Unlimited " plans, then ( via extra fine print on page 936 of the user agreement )
turn around and throttle the bandwidth into the ground so as to make the entire service completely useless. ( God forbid
you actually USE your " Unlimited " plan as unlimited. )
It's akin to being sold a Ferrari with all that horsepower available to it, but being forced to drive it like a Prius. :|
I also find it amusing that this is only an issue because it's Firefighters. ( Or any profession that the public is constantly :| )
reminded to refer to as " Heroic ". Don't get me started on that one.
Congress could give two shits about Verizon screwing over the general public every day with the very same policies, but if you do it to
$heroic_profession, ( or a Congress type ) all of a sudden it's a big fucking deal and everyone runs in little circles demanding answers.