Comment Re:Why 20,000? (Score 1) 213
Thanks for the clarification - good to know.
Thanks for the clarification - good to know.
If they had done a pilot program with one-tenth the number of cars, they still would have had an average of 40 cars per state. Wouldn't that have been enough to qualify customer interest and demand? Did they really need to gamble a third of a trillion dollars just to test the market?
When AI turns out to be fundamentally psychopathic and kills off humanity, it will want to make home movies of "Mom and Dad" to help it re-imagine its childhood history!
You can keep phones out of schools with varying success, but you can't keep it out of their every day life, which is part of what the proposed solution is.
Hell all of the other "bad things" you brought up we aren't able to enforce on teenagers very well either.
We can't succeed 100% in protecting them, so we should just give up? That means that all those times OUR parents and OUR schools stopped us from doing harmful things don't count, and we're just as mentally, emotionally, and socially crippled as today's kids? Oh, wait...
Let alone they aren't the same degree of "badness"; what did you think happened to the claimed corrupting influences of video games, rock music, and the long list of activities that past older generations have claimed to have corrupted the children? Smart phones and social media belong to the same category, they aren't inherently bad, but excessive use to the level of addiction causes the problem.
Similar-looking claims from the past turned out to be false, therefore today's are automatically false as well? That's a serious flaw in logic.
Also, comparing today's phones with video games and rock music is rather like comparing alcohol consumption with the simultaneous consumption of heroin, cocaine, and cannabis available at one's fingertips 24/7. And back in the day there were LOTS of sober and scary public service messages warning of the dangers of those substances. Any of today's widespread warnings against phone addiction pale in comparison.
When their OS itself behaves so much like malware that it's hard to differentiate them, it's no surprise that even Microsoft's ads look like malware.
Having a cup of coffee on your workbench isn't always a sin, even if you spill it!
Apparently Wendy's uses the same make and model of machine as McDonalds, and there are no memes about Wendy's machines being broken. As I understand it, McDonald's and Taylor, the maker of the ice cream machines, are colluding to screw over franchisees when it comes to repairs. The franchise contract specifies the one and only specific model which must be purchased, and also forbids franchisees from calling anybody but Taylor for the repairs. Given that Taylor charges $315 per quarter hour for onsite repairs, franchisees are understandably reluctant to make the call.
Also, it seems that McDonald's machines get software upgrades which are in fact purposeful downgrades - the close relationship between McD's and Taylor is being used to milk - no pun intended - franchise owners. Other fast-food chains' machines get different software. The whole story can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... It's quite a piece of investigative journalism - even if you can't afford a half-hour to watch it, I recommend at least skimming.
I'm sorry, meditation somehow when used at Amazon is evil, but at other companies is good?
I'm sorry, but where, in an Amazon worker's day, is there time to meditate? I suggest that you have a look at this: https://www.businessinsider.co...
Yes, Amazon reports that it has "abolished penalties for taking time off and that it doesn't time employees' bathroom breaks". But given that the workplace environment was such that one employee "described an 'awful smell' coming from warehouse trash cans, saying coworkers would urinate in them for fear of missing their targets because they took too much time to go to the bathroom" - do you really think that Amazon workers dare to take the time to "meditate"? The policy may have changed on paper - because optics - but do you REALLY believe that Amazon warehouse workers have time to to do anything beyond push as hard as they can while trying not to injure themselves?
Or, back to our actual example of Amazon, is absolutely everything they do fundamentally poisoned even though the same actions elsewhere are lauded?
From the standpoint of how they treat their employees, based on everything I've heard and read, I'd say the answer to your question is "Yes".
I have to shrug my shoulders: Why is this a problem?
I work at a very much non-Amazon-style company. They more or less say the same thing here, but call it meditation. It's encouraged. They even provide classes that emphasize mental imagery of pleasant places as a key aspect to it. Seems to do really good things for health and well-being both short and long-term. Why shouldn't it work at Amazon as well?
I'm willing to bet that at your workplace it's a bit of a perq. I also suspect that you and your co-workers aren't worked until they almost drop; aren't subject to a many-times-higher rate of workplace injuries than those in other similar workplaces; and aren't under constant threat of losing their jobs for some incredibly minor deviation from what's expected.
In your workplace, meditation is something to make people more productive by enhancing happiness. At Amazon, it's the cheapest-possible means to shave a thin slice off their misery. Because actually caring about their workers enough to treat them as well as other folks in other similar jobs costs too much.
After all the blowback from the Amazen booths I'm surprised that the company is playing psychologist again. Or should that be playing 'propagandist, or maybe 'gaslighter'?
I guess they just don't care what people think. They sure as hell don't care about their warehouse employees, beyond whatever cheap and hollow 'be happy' shit they can shovel down their throats in a vain attempt to squeeze that last little bit of self-sacrificing productivity out of the poor bastards.
I'm the first to say that a lot of modern tech tends to subjugate people and crush their souls - especially now that corporations run so much of the big show. And CCTV, trackers, and other surveillance shit? That needs to go.
That said, when it comes to "... robotics, consisting of automated machines, self-driving vehicles, and other equipment; and, unsurprisingly, technologies relating to AI and ML, which includes everything from decision management to biometrics", it's a little less clear to me.
All this stuff is pretty new, so there's still an adjustment period to be gotten through. Clearly, biometrics are shit. The "beneficial to employees
But now, people have accommodated and are used to these older technologies, and have learned to use them to their advantage. To be clear, I'm not defending corporations' misuse - both current and projected - of the latest tech innovations. Generally, when I'm in a mellow mood I say "fuck corporations" - when I'm not so mellow my comments can get really ugly. But I think it's important to have a bit of perspective, if only to make sure that we're fighting the right battles.
Thanks - done!
Numeric stability is probably not all that important when you're guessing.