Posts by skeptical i 1017 posts • joined 30 Aug 2007
re: pay to receive incoming calls
Back in the early- to mid-1990s, at least in my corner of the universe (Murka), when cellphones were still juuuuust becoming more affordable for the great unwashed, most plans required the caller to pay for each call but there were variants that required the recipient to pay. This, I hear, was used by sales people (real estate, for example) who wanted no obstacles between them and potential customers (I suppose 800-/toll free numbers would be the land-line equivalent). Not an option I'd ever choose (spam calls are bad enough but paying for the "privilege"? no thanks) but some people did. That said, I'm surprised that carriers still offer this plan at all, unless the only options are caller pays per-call or recipient pays per-call, and there is no unlimited (or "unlimited") usage plan.
re: almost identical to 2018
I noticed this too and my first thought, being on the Merkin side of the pond, was that the pattern was somehow election-related -- lots of domain registrations early in the year as the field of candidates goes out campaigning, then as primaries take their toll registration dips until we have presumed nominees and the concordant spike of "voteforXYZ" variants. Dunno if this is true for UK (or even for Murka).
re: "Banjo makes machine-learning-based software that ... raises alerts if spots anything interesting, such as an in-progress crime"
Or a black man jogging through a white neighborhood? Heaven help him if he's wearing a hoodie too.
That matter aside (serious as it is), do we really need Another Ring to Surveille Them All under the fig leaf of "fighting crime"?
My current experience with a Windows 10 laptop (oy vey) leads me to believe that Microsoft's MO seems to be: cross a bunch of idea/concept streams at various stages of viability/usefulness and hope something coheres. Perhaps someone more clever than I can work 'Microsoft' into 'Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man' ('Sta-Cruft Bloatwallow Man'? sorry) better than I can.
Nice to know at least one state has laws on its books to protect (some) employee rights. However, what about "right to work" (i.e., "right to get fired for any reason, or no reason at all") states? It is shameful that many municipalities have fallen all over themselves to attract Amazon't "jobs" when the company clearly has no desire to treat workers with any modicum of respect or decency, and more shameful that these municipalities seem to think that throwing their residents into a meat grinder is the best they can do for their citizens who need jobs. Perhaps if Amazon't customers were billed for the full cost (including decent employee wages, benefits, and being treated like a valued part of the company success instead of like a disposable robot) of having their tat delivered to their doors, there would be more awareness (and, one hopes, concern if not outrage) but as long as customers demand cheap cheap cheap now now now, the true cost has to be paid somewhere, and stockholders prefer that employees pick up the tab.
If I were cynical, I'd guess that they will send patrols out, armed with the device, to detect "Covid carriers" and haul them to "hospital" for "treatment", where "Covid carriers" = "people who are causing ... problems", "hospital" = "undisclosed location", and "treatment" = "extreme unpleasantness". They said on teevee to the whole country that the things work, mostly sort of, and who among the populace will raise a hand to question people with firearms and a humour deficiency? First they came for my LGBTQ neighbors, then they came for ....
re: "Perhaps they need to spend less time on actively preventing things working"
Yes. This. I am appalled at the number of official and government websites that will not do a single thing without javascript, the latest greatest browser whiz-bangery, and so on. One would think that everyone on any device, browser, operating system should be able to access basic health/safety information. Sure, some pages may require special stuff (e.g., applying for unemployment (and/or whatever) will require the doo-dads to ensure secure encrypted connections) but that should be the exception to information accessibility and not the rule.
re: "associate" = employee, I think they mean "associate" in the Johnny Mobster sense ("These gentlemen? They are my 'associates', and they'd like a word with you") and protecting unseen hands. If anyone wants to mis-infer that Amazon gives more than a handful of Advil's worth of concern for the wellbeing of their employees, better for the company.
Curious how well Everclear, Bacardi 151, and other high-octane spirits are selling. "Also works as a hand sanitizer!"* might not be to everyone's taste but why waste a good crisis?
* I heard that someone tried to promote a brand of vodka for home-made hand sanitizer, but alas that brand (tasty, I hear) was only 40% and not effective for that use.
If I were cynical, I would wonder if this were a plot to goose some sectors of the economy (the panic-industrial complex?), and/or put another brick in the surveillance state wall (quarantines! tracking people who may be sick! think of the child-, er, grandmas!).
Also, I really really hope someone is making provisions for the scut-workers who are being asked to stay home from work if they feel ill, yet are not given paid sick days. Unfortunately, most landlords and utility companies still want to be paid, now, whether tenant/customer is sick or not.
I heard an interview in Iowa just before the Iowa Circ-, er, Caucus took place, and one of the participants, a small farmer, said something to the effect of he did not like Trump but did not want socialism. As I understand it, there are a lot of government programs available to help farmers* so I was a bit confused about how this gent defined "socialism" and why he wanted no part of it. Perhaps it, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder?
* Not that I have a problem with this, mind; the folks who feed us are higher up the list of those deserving of government largesse (along with doctors who serve rural and other underserved communities abd teachers). Certainly higher up than telcos and their self-serving boards and officers.
... between Welsh and English dialects: in English the inflection goes down at the end of a sentence, but the Welsh are excitable and so the inflection goes up. Handy tidbit for this left-pond'ian. Peace unto him, his family, and his loved ones.
Agree with your points, Malcolm, thank you. Apologies for not having been paying close attention to the trade/ tariff war, but do we have any ideas how the game table has changed, say, from before either Trump's or China's first "move" and now? My /guess/ is that while there have been notable changes here and there it "balances out" overall, but again, my attention has been elsewhere.
re: "$738bn you poor fools, from YOUR [taxpayers'] money!"
I'm sure someone of the Space Force supporters will claim that the huge amounts of money being shovelled at Raytheon, McDonnell-Douglas, and other "usual suspects" defense contractors will create an additional job or two somewhere, either through direct hiring (add more receptionists and public relations flacks) or indirect spend (those new hires to take lunch somewhere, right? Maybe the diner next door will add more waitstaff to keep up with the crush, right?). Pay no attention to the stock holders, brokers, and traders behind the curtain.
Set it on fire. ------>
re: "Pedestrians are stupider than sheep, and certainly by and large don't respect designated crossings." Hmmm, while many pedestrians (and drivers) may be dumb as dirt, most pedestrians in my observation and experience are acting like pedestrians on streets designed for cars. Streets that only have signals or "proper crosswalks" every quarter mile (forcing wheelchair users, pram pushers, and other pedestrians to go out of their way to cross at a signal then double back to their destinations), have shite or no sidewalks or proper lighting, encourage car speed by design (multiple wide lanes, median separation), have "free right" turns that don't require vehicles to even slow down to make right turns at intersections, and so on. It is not clear, given the utter lack of appropriate, safe, and convenient pedestrian facilities in many areas, what pedestrians should do other than do the best they can in a hostile environment. It would be helpful if more drivers were aware that they are only one class of road users -- i.e., not the only road users -- and showed a modicum of care.
I would really like to believe that someone had intended to make ARSENAL the full acronym ("amraam remote support equipment, nodes, and logistics" or something) but went out for a coffee break partway through only to return to find the document had been taken as-is up the food chain by a superior officer. That said, it would not surprise me that 'arse' would go right over their heads, as they tend to be oblivious and clueless on other matters (e.g., dumping PFAS into local water supplies, flying deafeningly loud aircraft over residential areas, and so on).
If I have a "real" job, or if I'm a student, or if for whatever reason I have four hours free in the afternoon and a decent vehicle, why not earn some extra cash on the side. I hear that many drivers are in this situation and while the pay-per-hour is not particularly great, they value the flexibility (around other commitments) and this benefit makes the low pay worth it for them. So the current set-up is good for them, and I hear (from the librul meedja) that some are concerned that if they are categorized as employees then the ride hail companies might start dictating their hours instead of allowing them to "clock in" and out as convenient.
But for those "forced" to drive because there are simply no other (licit) jobs around (or there are only shite human-robot burner jobs that cause more mental trauma and anxiety than the "security" of "regular" hours merits), what of them? Do they not deserve at least some minimal protections if they can commit to some minimum amount of work (hours a day, hours a week)?
Perhaps the mixed-use pavement is not the most direct route between Point A and Point B? There is a main road in our burg that is not particularly bicycle-friendly, but is one of the most direct routes between midtown and the east side and is what cyclists use for commuting and time-sensitive journeys.
Kill it with fire, drown the ashes, then lob the steaming pile into space. Can that AI thingie be made available for download so one can simply set it to attack the next recaptcha box, go get another beverage, come back to a completed exercise, and save some sanity?
When the hordes of millennials start getting cataracts and other "old-age eye" problems, then maybe we'll see more shifts to black text on white backgrounds, and to fonts that don't require squinting and guessing (weren't Georgia and Verdana designed to be better legible on screens?). As much as I like the look of light grey text on white, I hate trying to actually read it.
Apparently Lucifer has the mother of all cataracts ------>
True, but now many cellco's offer flat monthly fees for "unlimited" calls and text messages, and thus there is no reason to stop incoming spam or robo calls. Once upon a time they might have been concerned about customers raising a ruckus over being charged for incoming nonsense (using some of the finite number of minutes per month or whatever) but with the flat fee "unlimited" model, that concern has been eliminated. Given their suboptimal customer service, they have apparently already decided that our time is of no value and any arguments about time spent listening to, deleting, blocking, et cetera will go unheard.
Or call it "Fat Axl" -- it would have to be a blond, full-bodied ale -- and serve it in a glass with a bandana wrapped around the base instead of on a coaster.
Then he'd have the admirable job of claiming to a court that yes, it is some sort of trademark infringement because, yes indeed, he is the Fat Axl namesake.
So, it sounds like the time I spent filing taxes (main form plus a handful of schedules) "by hand" (scratch copies, calculator, pencils, typewriter for "final" submitted version because why not) may have been smaller and less hassle-ful than trying to navigate the "free" systems? Kewl. It's probably some form of early onset senility, but I actually don't mind doing the forms and picking through the puzzle.
Also, in my town (and likely many others) the United Way (a community betterment non-profit) offers its "VITA" (volunteer income tax assistance, I think) program in which volunteers are trained to do basic tax form (plus some of the schedules) completion and then do this service for lower-income people. Might be another option to trying to find (and use without tripping over a pay-grenade) the "free" filing software.
Next class assignment: create pie chart showing percentages of Trump's 60 million followers who are (a) true Trump believers/ voters, (b) train wreck gawkers, (c) reporters who need to keep scanning the social media-scape in case some real news actually happens, (d) bots, and (e) members of his and Putin's families.
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