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Copernican

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Copernican ,

How often are returns defective vs just didn’t want/didn’t fit? If the item is defective you can’t restock it. If the item isn’t defective that’s where more cost might come in to get the item back in circulation to be sold.

Copernican ,

There’s not really a good answer other than convenience. Folks view Steam as the benevolent convenient monopoly. They want it to be their store for everything, their launcher for everything, their friends and social networks for all gaming on PC and what not. Epic is behind on feature parity and function, but even if it did have parity, I think gamers still want the convenience of one store/library/friends list.

Copernican ,

Yep. He committed the leak while on bail from other cyber crime. indicated he would continue engaging in criminal behavior. Was violent towards others while incarcerated. Deemed not mentally fit. And is indefinitely held in a psychiatric facility until a point in time he seems mentally fit to be released and not continue criminal activity.

Copernican ,

A new report from the Network Contagion Research Institute says that TikTok likely promotes and demotes certain topics based on the perceived preferences of the Chinese government.

It’s not about what it hosts, it’s what it pushes and promotes. And this was research on politically sensitive subjects.

Copernican ,

I think it’s a fair conclusion, and the conclusion is caveated saying more research is needed.

Conclusion: Substantial Differences in Hashtag Ratios Raise Concerns about TikTok’s Impartiality. Given the research above, we assess a strong possibility that content on TikTok is either amplified or suppressed based on its alignment with the interests of the Chinese Government. Future research should aim towards a more comprehensive analysis to determine the potential influence of TikTok on popular public narratives. This research should determine if and how TikTok might be utilized for furthering national/regional or international objectives of the Chinese Government. Should such research determine that TikTok users exhibit attitudes and assessments of world events aligned with the information distortions that we have discovered, democracies will need to consider appropriate counter-measures to better protect information integrity and mitigate potential real-world impacts.

Copernican , (edited )

Well I think the question they are asking is why some content is promoted or demoted, not a question of whether it is happening according to the article.

Copernican ,

Yeah. But they are saying the data is demonstrating that for non controversial hash tags, there is a lot of similarity between Tik tok and Instagram. But when it comes to hash tags that are controversial from a CCP POV, there is a strange disparity between hash tag prevalence. So it appears that this is due to intervention from the tik tok platform. But the data can’t definitively say who is responsible for this censorship of hash tags or conversations on CCP controversial subjects.

Copernican ,

Aren’t non competes generally very difficult to enforce? The people I’ve known that have gotten in trouble with non compete agreements are those in management positions that engaged in very active poaching of their old teams within a specified time frame.

Also, given the nature of remote work and hiring, I kind of have a mixed feeling. What does this kind of state regulation in a VHO/WFH environment do to NY workers in a job market with flexible location? These regulations really should be at the federal level.

Copernican ,

amnesty.org/…/gaza-palestinians-tortured-summaril…

Amnesty International concluded facilities in the hospital grounds were used for extrajudicial murders and torture by Hamas. Not a justification for the actions, but the hospital seemed to have some overlap or use by hamas.

Copernican ,

I’m guessing it was more of a “this is justifiably a military target, let’s maximize collateral damage.”

Copernican ,

Free speech POV aside, Substack is running a business as a publisher of content. They sell advertising space. You know what de values your advertising space? Unsafe hateful content. Advertisers care about “brand safety” in terms of what their ads appear next to. You can’t run a good advertising sales business if the advertisers don’t have guarantees on brand safety.

Copernican ,

Yeah. I feel like we see this shift in the ACLU. They used to represent some disgusting clients in order to fight for constitutional rights. Now a days the ACLU seems to struggle with protecting constitutional rights for the sake of constitutional rights, and instead is trying to do more politically liberal focused issues.

Copernican ,

Sometimes I find folks that play the ethics and environmental card to describe their lack of want to have children a bit disingenuous. Some of those DINKs are the most jet setting, extravagant, and excessive consumers. Better safari and see the animals in person before they go extinct, or fly around to scuba dive to see all the reefs in person before they die. If you want to have a lot of discretionary income to have fun with and see the world without having the responsibility of child raising, that’s fine. But don’t pretend it’s an ethical decision.

Copernican ,

amnesty.org/…/gaza-palestinians-tortured-summaril…

In 2014 Amnesty International concluded the hospital was used for torture.

Some were interrogated and tortured or otherwise ill-treated in a disused outpatient’s clinic within the grounds of Gaza City’s main al-Shifa hospital. At least three people arrested during the conflict accused of “collaboration” died in custody.

Doesn’t justify the scale of military action targeting the hospital though.

Teen GTA VI hacker sentenced to life in a secure hospital (www.theverge.com)

The 18-year-old Lapsus$ hacker who played a critical role in leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage has been sentenced to life inside a hospital prison, according to a report from the BBC. A British judge ruled on Thursday that Arion Kurtaj is a high risk to the public because he still wants to commit cybercrimes....

Copernican ,

So this was the kid that committed the cybercrime using a fire stick while out on bail due to other cybercrime. And in this process he shows no remorse to stop doing cyber crime. And the doctors of this lifetime prison hospital get discretion on when to release him if he shows remorse? Administrative medical prison sentencing is usually fucked up and unfair, but it sounds like this kid has a path forward to eventually get released.

Copernican ,

Does a local biz owner count as a corporate troll?

Copernican ,

Lol. Not all people that ban you are trump lovers. You might just be being an asshole and breaking the rules.

Copernican ,

This is actually a simile, not a metaphor. And a simile is a type of comparison .

Copernican ,

What a weird quote to use for your argument. The quote says it is a loss when adjusted for inflation. That is not a profit in any meaningful sense. When money is leant with interest below the inflation rate that is not making profit.

Copernican , (edited )

Lol. Yes, ticket service fees, venue fees, and reseller makerts is totally the best way to support an artist, especially if you live no where near a tour location.

Copernican ,

Brings a new meaning to POV that “The real Journalists are doing print”

Copernican , (edited )

Reading accounts like this has made me realize I should worry about disability insurance coverage more than life insurance. That extra 600 bucks a year or whatever for the add on disability insurance to give me 50% more coverage seems worth it to me. Hope I never need it, but 25 bucks per paycheck seems worth it for extra peace of mind and security.

Copernican ,

It’s probably a mixed bag. I live in a high cost of living area. Weird to see people, with such high salaries living paycheck to paycheck and carrying CC debt due to life style choices.

I wish the article or survey had a breakdown of the sentiment based on household income and other demographics.

Also curious, do schools teach financial literacy these days? I had volunteered in the past with some youth outreach programming, and one of the popular classes was financial literacy to help young people understand account management and how to avoid credit card debt pitfalls.

There is a lot that needs to happen to change the rules of the system to get to a more equal society, but in the meantime it is important to teach the rules of the system and how to work within it as best you can.

Copernican ,

So I guess I am lucky that my employer offers basic LTD? For me the 30 bucks is the supplemental add on to get the standard 40% salary coverage increases to 60%. To me that’s 600 or 700 bucks a year in cost that is going to be the difference of thousands of dollars a month if I end up needing LTD.

Copernican ,

Not even close. Jobs had a proof of concept that actually worked.

Copernican , (edited )

You think that’s limited to capitalism?

Edit. Not sure why downvoted. But also, despite the controlled nature of the demo, didn’t apple kind of deliver on the marketing to an acceptable degree?

Also, think of the self proclaimed communist leaders projecting how they solve all society’s problems, or will do so, without any proof of concept.

Copernican ,

Not sure why you are down voted. Marx argues that the secret to value is human labor, and capitalists exploit labor to capture surplus value.

Copernican ,

I think some folks, especially of the marxist POV, argue that labor is the work that you sell to make money. Progress and government require work. It’s not necessarily labor.

Copernican ,

Yeah, Amazon laying off a lot of folks in their Alexa division makes me skeptical this is real and is scalable.

Copernican ,

The $15 USB adapters is kind of annoying, but I think I really only am really peeved about it is when I am flying and can’t charge my phone and listen to music at the same time. For me I think there are a few factors that have made my headphone jack less necessary.

  1. Covid and WFH. I used to listen to music on my commutes and in the office from my phone on wired cans. Now I WFH and have speakers or have headphones running from my PC’s DAC.
  2. Streaming Speakers/Receivers that are wifi enabled. I no longer have to worry about using AUX inputs on my speakers, since I have wifi enabled devices that allow me to “cast” music to any device in my home from my phone instead of plugging it in or using a weak bluetooth connection.
  3. Android Auto or other car/phone USB/bluetooth integrations. No longer need to use Aux in cables to a car to listen to music.
Copernican ,

What’s your employer match for you 401k? that 15% saving should be the savings after your employer match. So if you have that, you might be able actually sacrificing less than 15% of take home pay to save fore retirement.

Copernican ,

I think that advice makes sense. Ideally put away more than 15% of your gross income if possible, but I think the general advice is that you should be saving 15% of your gross income every year. Whether part of that 15% of gross comes from employer match or directly from you doesn’t matter.

I think my employer did have a grant or something for new hires as well. The other thing I think they have is automatic increases annually of 401k contribution. So just in case you are an employee that doesn’t manually go in to modify contributions, those employees will automatically have an increase of 1% contribution to 401k every where up to a certain upper limit, iirc.

Good luck on the retirement. Hope it works out. Also, when you look at the calculators to project future retirement, they tend to assume the market will greatly underperform historical market performance. For me it looks bad on that default. When I flip the project to match historical performance, or out perform historical performance, my retirement looks excessive. So save as much as you can and follow the guidelines, but there is some luck of market factors involved as to how you will end up.

Politically-engaged Redditors tend to be more toxic -- even in non-political subreddits (www.psypost.org)

Politically-engaged Redditors tend to be more toxic – even in non-political subreddits::A new study links partisan activity on the Internet to widespread online toxicity, revealing that politically-engaged users exhibit uncivil behavior even in non-political discussions. The findings are based on an analysis of hundreds of...

Copernican ,

Reminds me of this key and peele sketch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3h6es6zh1c

Copernican , (edited )

As if this comment being responded to had an actual reply to the article. This article is clearly about Pennsylvania and it’s University politics. Yet the comment is talking about the war and international politics only. OP is giving the commenter more credit than maybe they deserve by pretending they were engaging with the content of the posted article.

Copernican ,

Did you read the article. This comment doesn’t even attempt to engage with the content of the article. OP response is pointing that out, the commenter didn’t read the article and is just arbitrarily expressing their POV.

Copernican ,

Can someone explain why faculty view this as an academic freedom issue when this seems like a student code of conduct and administrative issue at heart?

Copernican ,

So when my co workers complain about my custom mechanical keyboard being too loud, I should tell them I’m doing it to improve our cyber security.

Copernican , (edited )

If this rhetoric was used in a conservative opinion piece instead of a pro piracy opinion piece, I’m pretty sure it would be banned for calling for violence towards specific individuals.

Guillotine preview image and quotes like:

Sure, Zaslav deserves to be staked out over an anthill and slathered in high-fructose corn syrup. But save the next anthill for the Sony exec who shipped a product that would let Zaslav come into your home and rob you. That piece of shit knew what they were doing and they did it anyway. Fuck them. Sideways. With a brick.

Sure, Warner is an unbelievably shitty company run by the single most guillotineable executive in all of Southern California, the loathsome David Zaslav, who oversaw the merger of Warner with Discovery.

What a trash article and site. How is this permitted.

Copernican ,

But, is the piracy only justifiable if and only if the item you bought was unilaterally taken away from you? This seems to be arguing that: SOMETIMES purchased digital goods are stolen from a consumer, therefore it is ALWAYS justifiable for a consumer to pirate. I think we need a more nuanced take on piracy.

And now that SAG AFTRA concessions were made to give to more payout to actors and other creative folks based on streaming metrics, I think that means consumers should attempt to stream if available to help ensure the creators hit their metrics for payout.

Copernican ,

Is it too much to ask for civil, level headed, and nuanced discussion or posts?

Copernican ,

The bottom line is make not pirating more convenient and cheaper than pirating and I’ll stop doing it.

How do you make it cheaper than pirating?

Copernican ,

No, I’ve just been living in American for the past 30 years or so and have an understanding of what inflammatory and dehumanizing attacks on individuals and groups does to society. And even if it’s permissible based on the rules of this community, it’s still garbage journalism.

Copernican ,

As a rent stabilized new yorker, my POV is that if you can settle on a rent increase limit that both pisses off the renter and landlord in equal proportion, it’s the right decision. Rents need to increase from time to time. And if you want improvements to building and units, there needs to be cash from the landlord to do it. When I consider buying, or renting another spot, I think it’d just be cheaper to put 10k per year into my rent stabilized place than rent at market value or buy and take out a mortgage.

That’s a long way of saying, rent control and stabilization increases aren’t always bad, but need to be reasonable. And for 3 years there were no rent increases. Inflation is real over the past 3 years.

Copernican ,

I’ve been in tech for a while, I can’t tell how much of this is due to over hiring and over paying for work during that crazy time 2 years ago. I had lots of friends bounce to hire paying jobs and a lot of folks were just trying to gobble up talent. A lot of those places doing that seemed to be having big lay offs in the years following. I think there was a lot of optimism back the about the market, and it seems like course correction and pessimistic outlooks at play.

Copernican ,

Yes and no.

Yes the economic rigging is the billionaire class. But at 150k assuming. Single and not joint income, this is interesting. At that point you are 78th percentile of income. How is the top 25 percentile not able to cover expenses? I think that is a question worth asking.

Also read the article. It talks about paycheck to paycheck as not being able to cover full credit card expenses monthly.

Chinese Boarding Schools and the Indoctrination of a Generation (www.foreignaffairs.com)

Nearly a million Tibetan children live in state-run residential schools on the Tibetan plateau. Chinese authorities subject these children to a highly politicized curriculum designed to strip them of their mother tongue, sever their ties to their religion and culture, and methodically replace their Tibetan identity with a...

Copernican ,

China is a place and country. Chinese is a ethnicity. As a Chinese American myself, I had no confusion over what the commenter was saying. When we talk bout nations and their governments, it is pretty common to just refer to the country’s name. I don’t necessarily agree with the statement being made, but I did not at all take it as a ethnic or racial criticism.

Copernican ,

A “haven” is a place, not a people. And a haven usually describes a place that has favorable laws, regulations, or attitudes towards certain behaviors. To me that is a government since havens usually have laws to support that. For example, a tax haven is a place where laws and government are organized in a way to be favorable to tax evasion.

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