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Comment: Re:No he doesn't (Score 2) 231

by kent_eh (#38344770) Attached to: Does Mega Media Control 90% of Content?

Indeed. There's no agenda to put out crappy media, but the vast consolidation gives them an oligopoly. With only five competetitors, and all of them producing dreck, there's no need to produce anything BUT dreck.

The less competition there is, the less work they have to do to compete.
Which means, the less they have to come up with new ideas. They just default to the same behaviors that all big companies do: playing it safe.
And in entertainment, that means more of the same.

More Jersy Shore clones.
More "housewives of..."
More fake drama applied to "reality" situations.

And more fake outrage and opinion force-feeding trying to pass for journalism.
Bleah
The last time my cable company increased my rates, I dropped to a smaller package (causing a net reduction in the bottom line on my bill). And I still only watch a couple hours a week max.
There's just not that much on that can hold my interest enough to sit thru the commercial break(s)

Comment: Re:Only a problem in the USA (Score 1) 228

by kent_eh (#38323160) Attached to: How many robocalls do you get each month?
Yeah, I get robo-calls from "the captain" - at least a couple a week - here in Canada.
They come from a (probably) fake caller-ID in Texas, to my (work) cell.
We also get them 1-2 times a moth on an un-listed test phone in the back of the shop. Obviously, someone's robot is dialling random numbers, because we've had that number for 20+ years, and it has never been given out to anyone outside our department.

Comment: Re:I've noticed this too (Score 4, Insightful) 601

by kent_eh (#38201522) Attached to: Europe's Largest IT Company To Ban Internal Email
Exactly. Multi-hour, daily conference calls about why a project is behind schedule are the leading cause for projects to be behind schedule.
It's the asynchronous nature of e-mail that improves my productivity.
Add in the CYA factor of being able to save, and forward old e-mails, and I can't see why anyone would want to move away from e-mail.

Unless they don't want to be held accountable for what they said months ago, or if they prefer to spend all their time in conference calls about work, as opposed to actually doing work...

Comment: Re:enhance your shopping experience? (Score 3, Insightful) 198

by kent_eh (#38152574) Attached to: Malls Track Shoppers' Cell Phones On Black Friday
It will enhance the mall's experience of you shopping.
Just like those "customer loyalty" thingies. Do you really thing they are for *your* benefit?

They will use it to improve their ability to get money out of your pocket and into theirs.
Why do I want to help them do that??

Comment: Re:Scientists Vote Sceptic (Score 1) 695

by kent_eh (#38052878) Attached to: What is Your position on Climate Change?
After reading your arguement, I agree that the wording isn't entirely clear. You seem to agree with my general definition of the term "sceptic", however in the climate change debate it's meaning has been somewhat muddied.
Those who don't accept the climate scientists' data call themselves "climate change skeptics". Yet in the normal use of the word, scientific data is pretty much the only thing sceptics will accept.

Should the first option, then, be more like: "I trust the information that shows that climate change is happening, and that humans are influencing the climate to change in ways that are generally un-favourable for the inhabitants of the earth".
And perhaps the 3rd option more like "I am not convinced of the truth of either side"
Which is what I intended when I voted "Believe it (not a researcher)"

Comment: Re:This is obviously the future (Score 1) 243

by kent_eh (#38044492) Attached to: Startup Testing Mobile Farmbots

Do you see more jobs because of computers, or fewer? Mostly, I see more lower-paying, low-quality McJobs.

That's the same problem that Henry Ford identified.
"If no one pays people do do stuff, who is going to be my customer."
Ford's solution was to pay his employees enough so they could afford to buy his product.

So, given that even the lowest paying jobs are being automated out of existence, who is getting paid enough to buy the stuff that all these "newly profitable" companies are producing with their human-free factories and farms?

No man is an island, but some of us are long peninsulas.

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