I own one of everything, and yet I still haven't found what I want. Every day I'm reminded of my lack of options.
This should scare Apple and Google.
159 karma · joined October 28, 2019
This should scare Apple and Google.
We disagree about what constitutes "properly empowered".
If this was a legal case they would be doing it differently. It's not. They are using their opposition's tactics for generating support that will extend into future elections.
If they find something wrong, then they know what to fix. If not, they pivot.
The outrage over how the audit is being conducting is expected. They want this to be covered by outlets such as NPR.
My first true corporate experience was with big-four Deloitte. The culture there is "up or out". May sound sketchy to outsiders but it was actually a really supportive environment.
Most I ever had was 8. When it got larger than that I had people step up to active leadership roles. Eventually they did the same.
I like buying Amazon Warehouse deals when the item makes sense to me. With larger items I think their quality control is higher, and the saving tend be bigger. The box may arrive super beat-up, but item is just fine.
My motivation is probably less about overall savings, but more about me feeling like I'm doing Amazon a favor. Weird, isn't it? I'm conditioned.
As a tangent: I've also purchased used that ended up being a return of a similar looking, but much less expensive item. So I just re-return it. In this case I assume it was fraud on the original return. With my patterns I doubt Amazon thinks -I- returned them the wrong item. Without customer context their job figuring stuff like that out would be much more difficult.
There's a lot to say about Covid-19. We've learned a lot about it since the start. But objectively, its transmissibility is not what was feared. So the scare tactics about that -today- is wrong.
Covid-19 can be deadly. All people and politicians should have taken it seriously. I don't fault people for being enthusiastic in their political corner, and in the U.S. there were a lot of lines crossed by both sides.
My personal reaction was to be overly cautious. I got it anyway when I started being less strict. And it was nearly as bad as I feared. But I also think governments were wrong to force shutdowns, prevent assembly, etc. It was a misuse, and a spectacle.
High risk people have the option to do what they need to, or to be surrounded by people who advocates for them. (And that right there, I bet, is where you and I will fundamentally disagree). And I respect your disagreement.
Without safe vaccines we'd be having a different conversation. But now is the time to find more answers, spread truth, and be good to one another.
I actually find it a little fascinating that your comment, the first two replies (and mine) all differ tremendously in what we deem important takeaways.
As my doctor puts it "It is definitely a strange bug".
Your facts are old, very old.
Transmissibility has been linked to the nasopharyngeal viral load during onset symptoms. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33296437/] The virus may not be as present in your nasal discharge, or breath. We've also known from the start transmissibility is also definitely not linked to the severity of symptoms.
When you read from articles from the CDC such as [https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-si...] they don't mean all people spread it the same way, just "we have found it spreads commonly in these three ways".
Ironically enough, we traced my positive infection to a non-human animal which sneezed in my face. Within a day I had conjunctivitis (pinkeye). I had non-typical symptoms before severe fatigue set in. I just thought I was going through bad caffeine withdrawal at the time.
Locked inside the house with my spouse and kids for two weeks with symptoms, breathing all over each other, laughing in each others faces, touching the same items, etc.
I only got tested on day 13 when the respiratory and heart symptoms set in. 6 months later I still have some lingering issues. Nobody else in the house or who I associated with ever got it, and they tested every 5 days for a month.
People are predictable. If you can manipulate facts then you can control output. Hence the societal importace of getting real fact-givers again.
The whole "we feel justified lying about the benefits of X and Y because it gets a desired result" only works if you can keep it a secret. Which they won't be able to regarding 2020.
I am involved with phone call centers. I have a lot of numbers. I use phone numbers like others use throwaway catch-all email addresses.
I signed up for the covid vaccine through my family doctor who partners with a hospital. They required registration (no walk ups) and the online form was branded (domain, privacy policy, everything) to the hospital. I used a unique email address and a unique phone number. I'm a curious person.
To confirm the appointment they send you a text. Guess what number the text went to? Not the one I typed in. It was to a unique number that I only used with my Google billing account. (I was using a corporate computer in no way tied to Google.)
I looked into it and the hospital partners with a fourth-party health care scheduling servicer, who then has some sort of partnership with Google cause all I saw was that Google bought a low-percentage stake in the company.
Something tells me the integration between these types of companies and Google is much stronger than the article lets on.
News in the U.S. became entertainment. Facts take a back seat to a strong opinion. If eyes and ears were on real news nobody would have ever cared about what is being shared on Facebook.
Long gone is the standard bar set by the Journalist's Creed [1] in 1914. To quote parts:
"I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust."
"I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible."
"I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best interests of readers; that a single standard of helpful truth and cleanness should prevail for all; that the supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public service."
We have a number of news outlets just this week going back in time and quietly adjusting/censoring their own stories because they got some covid-19 "facts" wrong.
Truth embraces truth. Intelligence clings to intelligence.
We needed the scientific method last year. Many intellectuals were forced to hide in a figurative hole.
Truth is Apple doesn't want competition for their large cut of "advertising/distribution" revenue.
If I develop an app for my existing customers and I want to support their device (Apple in this case) I have to agree to give Apple a 30% cut. Apple wouldn't have provided any direct service here for an unlisted app. I'm willing to host it and provide any merchant and billing support for it. I told my customer how to install my app. Apple's App Store wouldn't be providing any "distribution" services as it were (which as I understand is where historically the 30% rate originated --for that they should be paying for all my hosting and logistics).
I want to pay $100/year for Apple to verify my identity and make sure I'm not malware. That's all. In this universe I really don't even have an interest in using their closed-source compiler, or have to keep up with their programming language, but I do it cause it makes the numbers work.
They definitely consider themselves more than that. They pride themselves in being the farm, to hen, to egg, to plate "lifestyle" service.
Maybe one day they'll start making decent software though.
Apple regularly uses security to justify eliminating choice. Which if you're paying attention isn't always true in every circumstance --so then I'd assert the motivation isn't coming from a place wholesome to the consumer.
Apple says I bought their device so I should follow their patterns. I disagree. Think Different.
Having additional marketplaces available for me doesn't affect you.
It also shows (seemingly regularly) political and religious bias worldwide. [2]
Wikipedia also seems to regularly be a platform of misinformation. Mass purging of sources. And delisting of accurate information. [3] [4] [5] (sources taken at random, too many to list.)
Wikipedia will always have problems, IMO. It's in it's nature. When I was a kid I would read encyclopedias like the other kids would read comics. It's clear to me that it's best to use Wikipedia as a conduit to sources, not as direct reference to fact.
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26871092/
[2] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/wikipedia-culture-war
[3] https://prn.fm/wikipedia-misinformation-prejudice-case-examp...
[4] https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/02/the_wikiped...
[5] https://www.conservapedia.com/Wikipedia_prejudice_and_KAL_00...
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Also reminds me of the day I picked up an xbox one for my team. We were traveling and it was cause for a little change of pace. We were going to play a zombie shoot em up game. They plugged it in, and first thing the damn thing did was run an update that took 30 minutes. We weren't on a great connection, even by 2014 standards.
They ran the game and it forced another update that wanted to download like 20gigs, even when I made a point to grab the disc. Couldn't cancel. I ripped the thing out so quick and launched it as hard as I could. The xbox smashed against the concrete floor and was in pieces. It caught everybody off guard, but it lead to pretty fun night, nonetheless. They had never seen me like that before, or since.
I got a nice plaque from the team a week or two later with the xbox decal and the message "I just want to shoot some fcking zombies!" :)
"Don't be one to your friends, family, coworkers, or especially to our customers". The word is hard to define, but easy to recognize. And you kinda always know when you're being one.
Everyone has been one, and no one feels singled out or blamed. Doesn't let anybody leave feeling like a victim or a victor. Yet left people feeling powerful to call other people out for being one, without resorting to stronger language. That company had comradery; it's too bad it takes more than that.
I own several rental units. Only freestanding homes. I definitely see myself as providing a value add. I fix things when they break, provide landscaping, provide housing to great people with not-great credit. They don't have to worry about a bunch of different utility bills. All value adds. And I take on plenty of risk where lenders don't want to. I don't get compensated all too well for it either. It's a very active way of investing long term, you may not see the value of, but it's definitely there.
I could easily charge 40% more in rent right now, as could many.
Yes it is more efficient for you to buy a new washer. Delivery and haul-away are great upcharges (and worth it IMO). They will then repair and resell your old one at a much higher rate than phones are being reserviced.
I needed a new test phone the other day so I bought a new iPhone 11 at a Verizon store. The salespeople could not wrap their head around my choice because it doesn't support 5g. I gave them some great reasons and they relunctantly took my money.