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Comment Re: Seems like a black and white issue (Score 2) 105

A lot of people voted on projected believes on what he would do. They stopped listening to, what he was actually saying, and are now very surprised, that he is actually trying to do much of it. They thought it was just blabbering.

They watched him do his double hand-job dance for 45 minutes... and cheered.

Trump fans are the ones who listen to Trump the least.

Comment Re:Yay, greenwashing with profit (Score 1) 68

That easily increases the profit margin by dozens of Euros a piece.

Considering it's now just a phone in a laptop form, they've got to be making money hand over fist. I think I'll stick to my ordinary laptop/PC that can play video games. There is at least some competition in that market keeping prices sane (well, somewhat sane, not paying 3000 Euro for a oversized phone).

Comment Re:Improper Impression (Score 1) 82

Also, the ranking is flawed because most western nations these days require a pre-travel electronic authorisation of some sort, which basically is the equivalent to a visa (you cant travel to the country without one).

For example, the US has a Visa Waiver Program with many countries, which technically means you can travel to the US without applying for a visa.

But, since 2007 you have needed either an ESTA or an actual issued visa before you can travel to the US by sea or air.

And the ESTA requirement was expanded to travel by land in 2022, basically meaning there is no way to arrive at the US without prior approval - so in actuality, the ESTA is now a visa for the US, but not one which allows actual entry, just the possibility of entry.

Not really, these are travel authorisations (the TA in ESTA) and are considered visa waivers, not visas. They've essentially replaced the old arrival cards you used to have to fill out.

I recently went back to Australia and my gast was flabbered by the mere fact I had to fill out a paper slip on entry... What used to be commonplace has almost completely disappeared in the last 5 odd years. I'm a UK/AU dual national for context, so I didn't need a visa to enter but still needed to complete an incoming passenger card (everyone does, citizen, visitor or otherwise).

Comment Re:US Still behind (Score 1) 53

Other countries have had these rules for decades.
Whenever I have been to the USA I feel the whole country is just one giant con-job with all the hidden fees, taxes, etc etc etc.
Why do Americans put up with hidden fees ?
I see goods and services aimed at consumers in New Zealand, Australia, and others and the price I see is the price I pay.
"Too hard" is absolute BS, I hear there are these things called computers that can do this quickly and easily, in fact that is just what they are doing at the checkout.

Because being lied to is "freedom".

Seriously, I've had more than one American use this argument to defend fraudulent advertising practices. Apparently its up to the audience to determine what is true or not despite most of the audience being completely unable to do so.

This morning I read about another ad being banned for misleading information and I thought, "won't this make companies more afraid to use risky advertising techniqes" and my second thought was "good".

Comment Black Jack/Syndicate (Score 1) 187

Of course, I'm just guessing, since, as far as I can tell, the summary doesn't tell us what constitutes a "toxic workplace".

The article, however, does tell us exactly what people reported as toxic. From TFA:

Top Causes of Poor Mental Health:
59% Toxic work culture
54% A bad manager
47% Lack of growth opportunities
47% Increased workload
33% Staffing shortages

Among those with poor or fair mental health, 51% say their well-being would improve if employers removed toxic employees.

Corporate America really reminds me of the Syndicate from Jack Cambell's Lost Fleet/Lost Stars novels. A corporate state where skulduggery rules amongst the executive classes and fear is used to rule the worker classes. Probably where the author got the idea for it.

Mark my words, unless your country decides to stand up for itself against corporate greed, you'll have to call them "honoured CEO" before too long.

OTOH, work really doesn't have to suck, it just tends to most of the time.

Comment Re:The bright side (Score 1) 37

And he has been massively successful!

He has brought inflation down to tolerable levels, he has done a lot to improve the overall fiscal picture.

And you believe that? If you look at the inflation of South American countries you'll notice that Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Equador and Peru next to Argentina looked completely flat. When you zoom in you realise that they had the same curve but topped out around 12% where as Argentina went to over 220% and only dropped down to 110%. Brazil and Colombia followed similar curves and they had left wing governments (Lula and Petro respectively) which should tell you it was a global condition and Milei (as well as Lula and Petro) had little to do with inflation coming down.. Otherwise you'd best be praising the Brazil's Lula and Colombia's Petro for the same thing.

Comment Re:Just tell the to sell consulting... (Score 1) 38

Not sure why McKinsey is wondering how to sell something with "No Measurable Benefits," that has been a key consulting skill for years before AI.

And if they're still not sure, they can go and ask the pharma companies selling vitamin supplements that don't work (they're designed not to, expressly to avoid being classed as medications and that means they might be regulated).

Just create a fictional problem that your product is meant to fix. The entire "disease" of halitosis was invented by Lambert Pharmaceutical Company to sell Listerine.

Comment Re:What is this crap? (Score 1) 110

Sounds like the US ISP market is completely broken. You know what fees I pay here (Europe)? Two. One is for the fibber and the speed, the second on is for a static IP, which I find beneficial for some things. No other fees whatsoever.

Why are you paying for a liar?

(yeah, I know you mean fibre, just couldn't resist a cheap joke).

I suspect that your country, like most civilised countries has laws that state the price on the contract is the final price and must include all applicable fees, taxes and charges.

The US doesn't like that system as hiding the real price behind fees and charges makes them think they're still an affordable country to live in because the advertised price is still low, however they always pay more than the advertised price. See Also: tipping, eating out appears cheap until you realise you have to add 20% or more onto the top.

Comment Re:Truly an impossible task (Score 1) 110

It's really not that hard to enforce the intention of the rule... Change the rule to require that the total price with all fees must be the largest number shown on any advertisement. If they want to show the breakdown of the fees in a smaller font, fine... But you must show the *total* price. And that must be the largest font on the ad.

This kind of thing is not a problem with other countries because many, many, many years ago we codified into law (yes law, not "rules" or "voluntary codes of conduct", actual law) that an advertised price must be the price at which the product can be purchased including all applicable fees, charges, duties, levies and taxes. Basically if you say you widget costs 10 of my finest Pounds, then I can front up with 2 fivers and get your widget.

The same goes for contracts. Any fees or charges must be written in and for consumer contracts, like your phone, internet, et al. the final price must be prominently displayed (mid-contract price rises I suspect is going to be killed in the UK sometime in the near future). There is no "we're adding a fee calculation fee" after the deal is struck.

Comment Re:"gross negligence" (Score 1) 36

The city, along with its school districts and health department, alleges that "gross negligence" on the part of Meta, Alphabet, Snap, and ByteDance has gotten kids hooked on social media, which has created a "public nuisance" that is placing a strain on the city's resources.

So insulting to call it "gross negligence". This took years of deliberate effort.

Seriously, it did. Teams doing A/B tests and analyzing interactions to optimize for maximum sustainable engagement. Tweaks to algorithms to promote conflict -but just enough to keep people posting without actually driving them away. "Like" counts to encourage gamification. It is all about encouraging addiction.

The "gross negligence" part is that after years of concerted efforts, they still have only just managed to cause some harm to the point where governments are starting to take notice.

Comment Re:The bright side (Score 1) 37

It is also no coincidence that el Bunko's Treasury has just concluded a currency swap with Argentina worth about $20 Billion. That means that we get to hold their peso and they get to hold our dollar. If you have been following Argentina's Milei,

Didn't Javier Milei sweep to power in Argentina promising to fix the Argentine economy with magical Libertarian powers by cutting all government departments. I distinctly remember videos of him tearing names of government departments off a white board shouting "Afuera".

What would such an anarcho-capitalist god need with a bailout?

Comment Re:What am I missing? (Score 1) 25

If it ends hardware sales, what will its games run on? Existing installs only? What sense does that make?

Someone else makes the hardware, Microsoft sticks a badge on it.

Then you pay for the subscription.

MS wants out of the hardware game because it's not paying for itself any more. With Sony blinking first and raising the price of the Playstation, Microsoft sees it's out. It can get someone else to build the hardware and just reap the profit from the software sales and subscription services. That was the only thing that made the Xbox profitable, the fact that they could get publishers to pay a per instance fee for the game (and pass that on to the end user) and then get the end user to pay a monthly fee for basic things like online access. However that's not bringing in enough money to pay for the hardware any more. This generation is over and both Sony and Microsoft need it to continue for several more years to make it profitable.

So they're in a bind... but don't worry, the brands will continue because it doesn't matter what kind of abuse Sony and MS dish out, console owners will bend over and take it like they always have.

Comment Re:Detection rate? (Score 1) 57

They found 26 cases out of just short of 13,000 staff, so 0.2% of the total. A quick internet search suggests that 1/3rd of the staff are admin/operations/lawyers and I suspect that at any given time at least 1/3rd of the rest are working through investigations and case documentation, so about half the total are probably working on a computer (rather than on the beat) at any given time. This suggests that they found somewhat under 0.5% of the desk staff doing this. Based on my pre-COVID experience of working in British offices, if only 0.5% of the staff were playing Solitaire, doom-scrolling social media or taking a tea-break and nattering about last weekend's football match then it would be considered a profound leap forward in productivity!

Pretty much this.

By forcing everyone back into the office you're not going to force the workshy to start working, they'll just have to go back to their old, tried and trusted methods of avoiding work by walking around, having conversations, drinking coffee, going to Greggs and pointless meetings. In fact it's going to be a productivity sync as they love to drag others into their pointless meetings to make it look like they're doing something... which drags the productive people away from being productive.

Comment Re:Trying to care... (Score 1) 92

The reason it matters (to some people anyway - including myself) is that Amazon recently acquired creative control over the James Bond franchise.

Now if you're not a fan of Bond in the first place, then obviously you wouldn't care either way.

Meh,

It's not like they could do any more damage to the franchise after the last few movies. The Blond Bond and grittyfication sucked all the humour and gravitas out of the series. Now they're left with a withered husk so they might as well see what they can do with it.

And the thing is, I liked Daniel Craig in his previous roles. He wasn't even the wrong actor, it was the role that had changed into something worse.

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