This happened to Borderlands in SF. Bookstores operate on such low margins that an increase in worker pay to livable levels in expensive markets puts the bookstore into the red (costing more to operate than it brings in) the owner had a community meeting to announce that the store was closing. Someone asked “what it would take to stay open and can we just give you that?” Borderlands now has a great membership program with neat incentives and invitations to private events. It was so successful that the owner took the bold step of buying a building since future rent increases were the next big threat.
Perhaps a viable business model could be hybrid solution where mobile carriers partner to create LTE and 5G towers with Starlink uplinks. This would make it easier for carriers to deploy towers in remote locations. It’s my understanding that the primary challenge for deploying towers in underserved areas is lack of existing infrastructure for uplink. Call me crazy, but if you could solar power the ground station you could plop them anywhere on earth.
I work in robotics automation. The industry is poised for massive improvements in orchestration efficiency. Robotics currently does not take advantage of several known and trusted technologies. That alone will be huge. If we count the automation of driving jobs and efficiency improvements due to machine learning, I’d say the number is low.
High technology jobs that you can only get if you went to college and got a technical degree. Which is disproportionately available to families who are already wealthy. Meaning the working class gets hollowed out, the rich and powerful get more rich and powerful and the unemployment and related addiction crisis get even worse. Yay! Brave new future.
Yeah, Apple is not currently the shining example of the people I want in charge of our bright new autonomous future. Then again if it’s that or Google maybe they’re not so bad.
“People don’t want [this thing millions of people use, around which entire industries exist. And which is the only effective way of assessing a restaurant you’ve never been to personally.]”
If I could reach through the internet right now I would.
There’s a thing called yelp sort. It’s on by default. They refuse to say how it works so it can work any way they like. The sales person marks the restaurant as ”owner didn’t pay” the top reviews get removed from yelp sort and the star calculation. The negative reviews get prioritized, the top positive reviews get ignored, hidden or just plain buried. The business goes from four and a half stars to three and a half stars. (I’m sure the actual name of the flag more deniable)
Business drops noticeably. Sales person calls back a week later.
This practice has been documented at least five times in the press. Yelp is a know extortionist company. I’d love to see a hactivist or disgruntled sales person publish the code or screen shots.
Yelp’s own practices violate its terms of service. Therefore under their own rules their service must be terminated. Wonder how that would play in court.
Maybe build something cool on Raspberry Pi?
Facial or object recognition, or google makes a cardboard AI kit so you can build a voice controlled digital assistant.
Or a pi robot kit, or pi handheld gaming systems.
I love these because it shows kids the technology of the future is not locked up in an ivory tower, it is available to anyone who wants to give it a shot.
Why are they trying to delay his extradition to Sweden? That’s the best place for him. Good medical care, strictly compassionate care of prisoners. I can think of no other place I’d rather be incarcerated.
Perhaps you could explore some humanist groups in your area. There’s nothing special about the religious ideology that means it’s the only one that can create community. Keep in mind that when you leave your religious ideology behind you don’t have no ideology, you have a new ideology. There are surely people out there who have adopted a similar ideology.
I worked twenty hours a week in what ended up being my career. I gained valuable work experience that landed me a job immediately when I graduated. I could have done better in school if I’d had the luxury to devote myself fully, but the work experience was invaluable.