Interesting News, Articles & Stuff

florduh

Well-Known Member

That ought to be the end of Facebook/Meta and Only fans and anyone else involved. If Meta is taking bribes to put porn stars on the terror watch list you better believe people are also being illegally added to the list for posts/0pinions and politics. 21000 people added to the terror watch list for profits? The list is now useless and they endangered everyone by destroying an anti terror tool for profit, unfucking acceptable.

Woooooooooooooo! It takes a lot to make me shocked when it comes to corporate malfeasance these days. But this is something else.

I mentioned this on the video games thread the other day. But TikTok, a Chinese company, is putting out competitors to Meta's Oculus VR headsets. In the VR community, there's this idea that you shouldn't buy a headset from TikTok. Because TikTok, like Meta, thrives on collecting consumer data. And they might share that data with the Chinese Government!

My response to this thinking is.... go ahead and share my data with the Chinese Government. I don't give a fuck. I live in America, baby! Xi can't do anything to me. But the American Government sure can. And Meta has a cozy relationship with law enforcement. Like in this case:

 

Babylon Drifter

Black Taoist
Woooooooooooooo! It takes a lot to make me shocked when it comes to corporate malfeasance these days. But this is something else.

I mentioned this on the video games thread the other day. But TikTok, a Chinese company, is putting out competitors to Meta's Oculus VR headsets. In the VR community, there's this idea that you shouldn't buy a headset from TikTok. Because TikTok, like Meta, thrives on collecting consumer data. And they might share that data with the Chinese Government!

My response to this thinking is.... go ahead and share my data with the Chinese Government. I don't give a fuck. I live in America, baby! Xi can't do anything to me. But the American Government sure can. And Meta has a cozy relationship with law enforcement. Like in this case:


I have zero doubts that the Chinese are packaging the info and selling it to the various governments and entities who are interested. When have the Chinese ever been shy about making a buck from stolen information? As bad as Facebook and Twitter are there at least there is supposed to be some regulation, Tik Tok? LMAO take it up with the tanks they already have in the streets protecting the bankers.
 
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florduh

Well-Known Member
🏴 the link is good but no thumbnail

I don't understand how people get taken in by this obvious flim-flam man.

I don't understand why telling customers to buy your cars or investors to buy your stock on the promise that your magical "self driving" technology will be ready "next quarter", or "next year" isn't fraud. It's exxxactly what Theranos did.

They're not offering "self driving" technology. It's more like having your car possessed by a malicious ghost who occasionally tries to veer the car into schoolchildren. That seems more stressful than just driving the car on your own.
 

Farid

Well-Known Member
I think your charaterization of self driving technology is a bit off the mark. Opinions on Tesla aside, the technology (in most cases) is intended to be used as an advanced "cruise control" and not as a totally autonomous system. The operator is still responsible for disengaging when the vehicle makes an incorrect prediction.

The systems which are completely autonomous (to a point where a blind driver could enter a vehicle without a steering wheel) operate at a much lower speed (usually like 20mph) and within a geofenced area. They are also not available yet afaik.

I worked in this industry, and while there is certainly need for improvement before those 100% autonomous systems can be rolled out, I firmly believe that autonomous assisted systems, with an alert operator behind the wheel would make the roads safer. I've seen too many terrible drivers who try to change lanes and almost veer into you, or tailgate.

I've not driven a Tesla, but I think it's important to separate their poor decisions as a company from the technology itself. Imagine some unscrupulous vape company made a product that was killing people, and vaping was banned as a result.
 
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pakalolo

Toolbag v1.1 (candidate)
Staff member
I don't understand how people get taken in by this obvious flim-flam man.

I don't understand why telling customers to buy your cars or investors to buy your stock on the promise that your magical "self driving" technology will be ready "next quarter", or "next year" isn't fraud. It's exxxactly what Theranos did.

They're not offering "self driving" technology. It's more like having your car possessed by a malicious ghost who occasionally tries to veer the car into schoolchildren. That seems more stressful than just driving the car on your own.

Who is really the flim-flam man?

You should know that the video clip was actually part of a longer "ad" that was produced by the Dawn Project, which was formed specifically to smear Tesla's FSD program as part of one man's politcal campaign. In the incident shown in the video, FSD was not actually engaged.

Furthermore, this would be an accident that should be avoided or mitigated with completely different technology that is well developed and has been included in most cars manufactured in the last decade: front collision avaoidance. Tesla cars have this so for the incident to have occurred as show, this sytem must have been disabled. In a real-life situation FSD would alert the driver, who should immediately take control anyway.

I'm not trying to defend Tesla here, since there is ample evidence that FSD (which is still in beta) is not yet perfected. I'm just tired of seeing people sucked in by political propaganda produced by someone with an agenda to discredit Tesla's FSD in order to get elected.
 

florduh

Well-Known Member
Who is really the flim-flam man?

The Elizabeth Holmes of the automotive world is. My opinions on Musk lying to investors and customers about the state of self driving technology were formed long before I watched that video. And whoever made that video is hardly the only guy pointing out the massive gulf between Musk's promises and what he delivers.

I'm not trying to defend Tesla here, since there is ample evidence that FSD (which is still in beta) is not yet perfected.

Yes. Very far from perfected. In 2015 Musk said there would be full autonomous driving cars by 2018. It's 2022 and the tech still can't stop for a small child.


IMO, this is exactly what Theranos did. Holmes, who like Musk is not an engineer, claimed she had magical blood testing tech that was "right around the corner". Actual experts in the industry scoffed and said that technology is decades away. How is this different than what Musk has been saying about autonomous driving? I don't think you could find a single Ai expert in 2015 not employed by Tesla who believed we'd have FSD by 2018.

Opinions on Tesla aside, the technology (in most cases) is intended to be used as an advanced "cruise control" and not as a totally autonomous system. The operator is still responsible for disengaging when the vehicle makes an incorrect prediction.

Was Musk out there telling investors and customers it's advanced cruise control, or "autopilot"? That's what I'm taking issue with. I guess there's a fine line between aggressive marketing and fraud.

I know Musk is hardly the only guy who does this. Elizabeth Holmes decided to engage in her fraud after Larry Ellison, one of the most successful businessmen in history, told her to just lie and hope the tech catches up to her lies. Unfortunately for her and Theranos's investors, it never did. Maybe Musk will be luckier.

I also want autonomous driving tech to be fully developed. I think it will make roads safer. But I'm against corporations lying about the state of that technology to keep investor money flowing and sell cars.
 
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florduh

Well-Known Member

I think single family homes should only be sold to....single families. Not hedge funds. IMO, that should be illegal.

Also, do we really trust a single Wall Street firm to hold tens of thousands of mortgages? Given that Wall Street's fuckery with mortgage related products melted down the entire global economy less than 15 years ago.
 

endof3d

Cognitive Dissonance D4 ++++
wargames.jpg
 

florduh

Well-Known Member
Finns. What are you doing? Leave this Queen alone.


I'd take a cool, hot party animal over the 95 year old ghouls who rule over us in the imperial core. Our leaders have to take uppers to stay up past 2pm. Theirs take uppers to party past 2am.
 

florduh

Well-Known Member

Texas doesn't have a state income tax, but most Texans pay more in taxes than Californians, data suggests​


:peace: :leaf:

Here it is without the paywall:


Here's Texas

Texans in the bottom 20 percent of income earners — those earning less than $20,900 — pay 13 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while those in the top 1 percent of income earners — those earning $617,900 or more — pay only 3.1 percent.

Here's Cali

In California, the bottom 20 percent of income earners — those earning less than $23,200 — pay 10.5 percent in state and local taxes, while the top 1 percent — those earning $714,400 or more — pay 12.4 percent.

Something to consider when moving to a lower tax area too. You're liable to pay in other ways. There's lots of privatized services in FL like trash collection. And that magical free market efficiency often doesn't translate into better service than the city or State provides in other areas.
 

CANtalk

Well-Known Member


:peace: :leaf:
 

Planck

believes in Dog
Hmmm, prior volcanic activity is Mars is well know, the largest known volcano in the entire solar system is on Mars. It is unknown if they are still active and dormant or dead.
 

CANtalk

Well-Known Member

Fox Reports Trump’s TRUTH Social Faces ‘Big Money Woes,’ Owes Web Host $1.6 Million in Outstanding Payments​


:peace: :leaf:
 

florduh

Well-Known Member

Fox Reports Trump’s TRUTH Social Faces ‘Big Money Woes,’ Owes Web Host $1.6 Million in Outstanding Payments​


:peace: :leaf:

1.) They will never see a fucking dime of that money. Imagine giving that guy almost 2 mil worth of service without requiring payment upfront. Dummies.

2.) Real Twitter can barely make a profit because it's a shitty business model. It is and always will be the least profitable social media giant. So of course a shittier Twitter with fewer users is going to be a failure.

3.) There's fewer users because the entire point of being online is triggering the libs. If you build a safe space with no libs to trigger...what's the point?

4.) The big proposition of Truth Social was a "Twitter without censorship". But their terms of service are more restrictive on free speech than actual Twitter.

 
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