Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Spam

To Beat Spam Filters, Look Like A Spammer? 143

Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton writes "A recent webinar for newsletter publishers suggested that if you want your emails not to be blocked as 'spam,' you paradoxically have to engage in some practices that contribute to the erosion of users' privacy, including some tactics similar to what many spammers are doing. The consequences aren't disastrous, but besides being a loss for privacy, it's another piece of evidence that free-market forces do not necessarily lead to spam filters that are optimal for end users." Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.
Robotics

Digital Revolution Will Kill Jobs, Inflame Social Unrest, Says Gartner 754

dcblogs writes "Gartner says new technologies are decreasing jobs. In the industrial revolution — and revolutions since — there was an invigoration of jobs. For instance, assembly lines for cars led to a vast infrastructure that could support mass production giving rise to everything from car dealers to road building and utility expansion into new suburban areas. But the "digital industrial revolution" is not following the same path. "What we're seeing is a decline in the overall number of people required to do a job," said Daryl Plummer, a Gartner analyst at the research firm's Symposium ITxpo. Plummer points to a company like Kodak, which once employed 130,000, versus Instagram's 13. The analyst believes social unrest movements, similar to Occupy Wall Street, will emerge again by 2014 as the job creation problem deepens." Isn't "decline in the overall number of people required to do a job" precisely what assembly lines effect, even if some job categories as a result require fewer humans? We recently posted a contrary analysis arguing that the Luddites are wrong.

Comment Re:-1 User gave me reality check (Score 1) 476

Focusing on the premature deaths that were avoided during the prior century is like worrying about a nose bleed while your wrists are slashed. The real focus should be on the probable extinctions to come, as a consequence of the positive feedback loop that we are sparking. I invite you to read the following for more details.
https://plus.google.com/+YonatanZunger/posts/SgzQU5DM3LQ

Comment Re:Graphics cards (Score 1) 160

Companies are not looking to maximize price. They are looking to maximize the area of the rectangle defined by Price times Volume. If they think the area of that rectangle will be larger at a smaller price, then they would sell at that smaller price.
Now imagine that your company has correctly identified that pricing sweetspot, but some of your product is partially defective, though still useful. You cannot sell it at that same ideal price as the fully-featured product. So, you necessarily sell it at some discount.

Comment Re:I'd be pissed (Score 1) 120

I'm going to hope that was a joke. I don't have the heart to explain all of economics tonight.

Dude, I get it. This and other Kickstarters aren't typical venture-capital investments. In fact, I think that is by design; I think that in the U.S., there are regulatory issues with crowd-funding venture capital, and so Kickstarter is intentionally structured this way.
I see below where you replied to an AC with:

But buying an item at a discount isn't an investment. It's like coming home from the mall with 20 shirts you didn't intend to buy and saying "but I saved money, they were on sale!"

That is not what happened in the case of Pebble. What happened is: I ponied up $110 in a "pledge" (read: angel investment,) for what amounted to a 0.001% stake. Then, prior to the first VC round, the future value of my equity was discounted back to present value, and paid to me in the currency of a Pebble watch, currently valued at $150.

Yes, I am saying the above somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But my primary point is: the only reason it is done this way is to work around regulatory issues.

Slashdot Top Deals

The sooner all the animals are extinct, the sooner we'll find their money. - Ed Bluestone

Working...