Worthless bullshit company that somebody has declared to be "worth" 1 Billion or more = Unicorn
No, someone did not just "declare" it was worth that much. They invested real money at that valuation. If a VC invests $50M for 5% ownership, that implies a value of $1B.
It is unlikely that Dropbox is still worth the valuation of its last investment round, and those late stage investors are likely to lose money. But VCs expect to lose money on most of their investments.
So tell me, what if you are the second or third person after shitty diaper person?
You call the company and tell them about the problem.
Look, there are many companies ALREADY DOING THIS. Zipcar, GoCar, and other companies rent cars by the hour, completely unattended. If you really believe that you have discovered some fundamental flaw in their business model, then feel free to short their stock, and then wait for them to go bankrupt, which according to you should happen any minute. Once you have cashed in your shorts, you can come back here, post a picture of your yacht, and say "I told you so".
In the meantime, the world will continue to turn, and they will continue to deal with poop the way they always have: By cleaning it up.
I don't think shutting someone up in a cold hard place is worse than letting them back out to prey on people.
Most people in prison did not "prey" on anyone. There are locked up for non-violent, and often victimless, crimes, such as drug offences, immigration violations, etc.
In America, some states lock up way more people than others, yet they don't have less crime. There is little evidence that imprisoning lots of people makes you safer.
I would much rather have the convicted criminals under lock and key than roaming the streets.
Nearly all prisoners are eventually released. So a prison system that hardens and desocializes them is probably not a good thing.
Family and community contact is one of the best ways to reduce recidivism. It is very short sighted to put up barriers to visitation.
Early in the primaries, prison reform actually looked like it was going to be an election issue. Hillary, Bernie, and John Kasich all spoke out about the problems. Unfortunately, the issue appears to have faded away.
And for the basic person who perhaps hasn't done anything illegal, such as change a child's diaper and leave the soiled diaper on the seat?
They get charged a cleaning fee, and then they are more careful next time.
This is exactly how it works now with short-term car sharing services, such as Zipcar, and GoCar. It is the renter's responsibility to leave the car in an acceptable condition for the next passenger.
As I wrote in another post, they could inadvertantly record kiddie porn as well.
The same is true for every security camera in the world. Yet there are tens of millions of them, including in many taxis. How is this any different? Hint: it isn't.
And if Apple hadn't brought the GUI to the world, we would be arguing this thread over some stupid ass ASCII forum.
Apple didn't invent the GUI. Other companies, including Apollo, had GUIs before Apple. X Windows was available for Unix workstations about the same time the first Mac was sold. What made Apple different was that their computers were affordable, and available to normal people. But that would have happened soon anyway. Amigas with GUIs were available soon after, and were even more affordable. GUIs were an idea whose time had come.
You figure they will have a camera trained on every passengers crotch?
That is unnecessary. The person renting the car is responsible. That is how it already works with rental cars, and with Zipcars, which are pretty much exactly analogous to this situation. This is already established law.
Yes, it is region specific. In America, female voices have traditionally been used for automated announcements, phone menus, etc. So that is what people are used to. In many other countries (including, I believe, Britain and France), these voices have traditionally been male, and a male voice is the default for Siri as well.
I asked this very question a couple months ago in a thread and people insisted there would be smell sensors and cameras so that the car could drive itself somewhere and clean itself before being used again.
Sure. Many public buses already have cameras observing the passengers. Security cameras are also common on elevators. If someone soils or damages a car, the car can drive itself somewhere to be cleaned or repaired. The cost will be billed to the credit card of the passenger who caused the damage, with the camera recording kept as evidence in case they dispute the charge.
Reading is the most important thing anyone can learn to help them with the rest of their lives.
Understanding human relationships is also important. Everything I know about women, I learned from reading about Archie's problems with Betty and Veronica.
You can't be corrupt if everything you do is public.
One of the reasons that few Americans were on the Panama Papers list, was because super PACs and the revolving door patronage system make it easy for American politicians to get rich legally, and our regressive taxes make it easy for them to keep it. Transparency helps, but it is obviously not a panacea.
The whole SD Chargers debacle is another. Why are taxpayers asked to foot the bill to help build a new football stadium just to prevent a mediocre team from leaving?
This has nothing to do with corruption or mismanagement. It is direct democracy. The stadium funding will be decided by direct popular vote on June 7th. If you don't like it, don't vote for it. It is losing in the polls, so you will likely get what you want.
2035? That's far enough in the future for most of today's politicians — except the junior ones — to have retired and/or moved on...
San Diego has term limits, so they will all be gone long by 2035. But with rapidly falling solar panel prices, lots of sunshine, and plenty of rooftops due to suburban sprawl, San Diego should be using mostly renewables by 2035.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, and very few are original. Many patents are frivolous. My company was sued because we had an HTML file on a CDROM, and Acacia Research, a notorious patent troll, had acquired a patent on that.
Did they come up with it independently?
Yes, many people have independently put HTML files on CDROMs. Almost nobody searches patent portfolios looking for ideas to steal. 99% of them are garbage, and the other 1% are indecipherable.
And if so, why would they go through all that effort-duplication instead of checking, what's already been patented, for example?
So, before I copy each file on a CDROM, I am supposed to spend a few days on "research" to see if someone already thought of the "idea" of copying that type of file onto that type of media?
And second, without intellectual property protection, such starting of a company becomes unduly difficult too.
A company producing an actual product can be given different protections from a NPE, since they can show actual damages.
Why, then, are most people so negative on other people selling and buying them? The hated "patent trolls" buy ideas from people, who have them — thus rewarding our colleagues.
The problem is that independent inventors, who patent their inventions, and then enforce those patents, are contributing NOTHING to society. They are just parasites preying on companies that came up with the same idea independently. At my company, we are forbidden to even look at patents, or to talk to someone who claims to have a patent, because that just increases our liability. They can later come back and say we "stole" their idea. They are just blood-sucking parasites and the world would be better off without them.
The belief that "independent inventors" are creating useful innovations, and then licensing them to grateful companies, is nonsense. That almost never happens.
If you want to be a inventor, you should work for (or start) a company that actually produces products.
Slashdot Mirror
5% ownership . . . of what?
Of the company. Which means, among other things, 5% of future profits.
And where's the other $950 Million of that 1 Billion?
Equity.
but what if that $50M is actually the only money I have? In reality, my company is only worth $50M.
No. A company's value is not the same as the cash in their current account. Not at all.
Worthless bullshit company that somebody has declared to be "worth" 1 Billion or more = Unicorn
No, someone did not just "declare" it was worth that much. They invested real money at that valuation. If a VC invests $50M for 5% ownership, that implies a value of $1B.
It is unlikely that Dropbox is still worth the valuation of its last investment round, and those late stage investors are likely to lose money. But VCs expect to lose money on most of their investments.
So tell me, what if you are the second or third person after shitty diaper person?
You call the company and tell them about the problem.
Look, there are many companies ALREADY DOING THIS. Zipcar, GoCar, and other companies rent cars by the hour, completely unattended. If you really believe that you have discovered some fundamental flaw in their business model, then feel free to short their stock, and then wait for them to go bankrupt, which according to you should happen any minute. Once you have cashed in your shorts, you can come back here, post a picture of your yacht, and say "I told you so".
In the meantime, the world will continue to turn, and they will continue to deal with poop the way they always have: By cleaning it up.
Not according to this. Violent felons make up the largest percentage of the prisoners.
Your own citation clearly states that violent offenders are a minority of the prison population.
Can we bring back poll tests?
We don't need to. We already rigged the system so the votes of poor people don't matter.
I don't think shutting someone up in a cold hard place is worse than letting them back out to prey on people.
Most people in prison did not "prey" on anyone. There are locked up for non-violent, and often victimless, crimes, such as drug offences, immigration violations, etc.
In America, some states lock up way more people than others, yet they don't have less crime. There is little evidence that imprisoning lots of people makes you safer.
I would much rather have the convicted criminals under lock and key than roaming the streets.
Nearly all prisoners are eventually released. So a prison system that hardens and desocializes them is probably not a good thing.
Family and community contact is one of the best ways to reduce recidivism. It is very short sighted to put up barriers to visitation.
Early in the primaries, prison reform actually looked like it was going to be an election issue. Hillary, Bernie, and John Kasich all spoke out about the problems. Unfortunately, the issue appears to have faded away.
So, what are you going to do if they book it with a pre-paid credit card and wear a mask?
The same way that existing rental car companies handle it: They refuse to accept pre-paid cards.
And for the basic person who perhaps hasn't done anything illegal, such as change a child's diaper and leave the soiled diaper on the seat?
They get charged a cleaning fee, and then they are more careful next time.
This is exactly how it works now with short-term car sharing services, such as Zipcar, and GoCar. It is the renter's responsibility to leave the car in an acceptable condition for the next passenger.
As under the law with self driveing cars you need to have extra training and other stuff
I use Tesla Autopilot almost everyday. I have had no extra training. What law am I breaking?
As I wrote in another post, they could inadvertantly record kiddie porn as well.
The same is true for every security camera in the world. Yet there are tens of millions of them, including in many taxis. How is this any different? Hint: it isn't.
And if Apple hadn't brought the GUI to the world, we would be arguing this thread over some stupid ass ASCII forum.
Apple didn't invent the GUI. Other companies, including Apollo, had GUIs before Apple. X Windows was available for Unix workstations about the same time the first Mac was sold. What made Apple different was that their computers were affordable, and available to normal people. But that would have happened soon anyway. Amigas with GUIs were available soon after, and were even more affordable. GUIs were an idea whose time had come.
You figure they will have a camera trained on every passengers crotch?
That is unnecessary. The person renting the car is responsible. That is how it already works with rental cars, and with Zipcars, which are pretty much exactly analogous to this situation. This is already established law.
on other people's ipwnes Siri is always male.
Is that a region specific thing?
Yes, it is region specific. In America, female voices have traditionally been used for automated announcements, phone menus, etc. So that is what people are used to. In many other countries (including, I believe, Britain and France), these voices have traditionally been male, and a male voice is the default for Siri as well.
I asked this very question a couple months ago in a thread and people insisted there would be smell sensors and cameras so that the car could drive itself somewhere and clean itself before being used again.
Sure. Many public buses already have cameras observing the passengers. Security cameras are also common on elevators. If someone soils or damages a car, the car can drive itself somewhere to be cleaned or repaired. The cost will be billed to the credit card of the passenger who caused the damage, with the camera recording kept as evidence in case they dispute the charge.
These neighborhoods are poorly served and over-charged by local retailers.
Then why don't the people living in these neighborhoods open competing shops, and drive the bad retailers out of business while making a nice profit?
It is silly that the politicians prioritized this as a way to "help the poor". Here is a handy checklist to help them prioritize better:
Priorities for helping the poor:
1. Jobs
2. Decent education
3. Affordable housing
4. Unleaded drinking water
Not a priority:
1. Expensive same-day delivery for junk that they don't need and can't afford.
Reading is the most important thing anyone can learn to help them with the rest of their lives.
Understanding human relationships is also important. Everything I know about women, I learned from reading about Archie's problems with Betty and Veronica.
how does a slight increase in males mean "cell phones do not cause [correlate] with cancer."
Neither TFA nor the researchers make the claim that "cell phones don't cause cancer". That was made up by whoever wrote the Slashdot summary.
You can't be corrupt if everything you do is public.
One of the reasons that few Americans were on the Panama Papers list, was because super PACs and the revolving door patronage system make it easy for American politicians to get rich legally, and our regressive taxes make it easy for them to keep it. Transparency helps, but it is obviously not a panacea.
The whole SD Chargers debacle is another. Why are taxpayers asked to foot the bill to help build a new football stadium just to prevent a mediocre team from leaving?
This has nothing to do with corruption or mismanagement. It is direct democracy. The stadium funding will be decided by direct popular vote on June 7th. If you don't like it, don't vote for it. It is losing in the polls, so you will likely get what you want.
2035? That's far enough in the future for most of today's politicians — except the junior ones — to have retired and/or moved on...
San Diego has term limits, so they will all be gone long by 2035. But with rapidly falling solar panel prices, lots of sunshine, and plenty of rooftops due to suburban sprawl, San Diego should be using mostly renewables by 2035.
Of course, they contribute — their ideas.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, and very few are original. Many patents are frivolous. My company was sued because we had an HTML file on a CDROM, and Acacia Research, a notorious patent troll, had acquired a patent on that.
Did they come up with it independently?
Yes, many people have independently put HTML files on CDROMs. Almost nobody searches patent portfolios looking for ideas to steal. 99% of them are garbage, and the other 1% are indecipherable.
And if so, why would they go through all that effort-duplication instead of checking, what's already been patented, for example?
So, before I copy each file on a CDROM, I am supposed to spend a few days on "research" to see if someone already thought of the "idea" of copying that type of file onto that type of media?
And second, without intellectual property protection, such starting of a company becomes unduly difficult too.
A company producing an actual product can be given different protections from a NPE, since they can show actual damages.
Who the fuck are you to deny people the right to operate as independent entrepreneurs?
Patent trolls are not "entrepreneurs". Entrepreneurs are the people they prey on.
Why, then, are most people so negative on other people selling and buying them? The hated "patent trolls" buy ideas from people, who have them — thus rewarding our colleagues.
The problem is that independent inventors, who patent their inventions, and then enforce those patents, are contributing NOTHING to society. They are just parasites preying on companies that came up with the same idea independently. At my company, we are forbidden to even look at patents, or to talk to someone who claims to have a patent, because that just increases our liability. They can later come back and say we "stole" their idea. They are just blood-sucking parasites and the world would be better off without them.
The belief that "independent inventors" are creating useful innovations, and then licensing them to grateful companies, is nonsense. That almost never happens.
If you want to be a inventor, you should work for (or start) a company that actually produces products.