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Family Values posted:Aren't we supposed to hate all forms of automation here in D&D? These restaurants are being evil for computerizing what was once the job of a hard working hostess. This development is just them getting their just rewards. There's nothing stopping this start up from doing the exact same thing at restaurants that take reservations by phone and in fact they may already do that for all I know.
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Jul 4, 2014 08:30
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All that's necessary is for restaurants to require a refundable deposit when making reservations. Which will add a layer of extra effort for restaurants and inconvenience customers, but the scalper website is probably not going to want to tie up thousands of dollars to hold a bunch of reservations, and then have to call up to do an in-person refund for reservations that weren't filled.
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Jul 5, 2014 18:50
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Speaking of the tech world and diversity...look, they're trying to attract women!quote:there were the pitches from college engineering programs in curly purple typeface accented by flowery images. She started to notice that many websites for budding female engineers are pink. Then there was the flyer for an after-school program hanging in a hallway of her high school. Printed on purple polka-dot paper, it read, "Are you a tech girl? Are you a web diva?" There's more! quote:At a recent Bay Area tech mixer put on by Girl Geek Dinners, the tech company that chose the decor elected to replace office lightbulbs with pink and purple ones, bathing the entire event in a fuchsia glow. An open bar was covered with a pink sequined runner. Guests were encouraged to take a Cosmo-style personality quiz revealing their nerd girl personas and given slap-bracelets and strawberry lip balm at the door. And more! quote:In February, at a Harvard event designed to get women interested in computer science, sponsor Goldman Sachs handed out cosmetic mirrors and nail files. Google joined in on the action too! quote:Last month, Google announced its plan to spend $50 million over the next three years encouraging young women to give coding a try. The website for the project features articles about inspiring women, like Erica Kochi, who leads UNICEF's Innovation Unit. The first item on a page of coding projects for girls to try is a 3-D-printed bracelet. http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/How-not-to-attract-women-to-coding-Make-tech-pink-5602104.php I guess that's what happens when things are run by dudes who last had contact with a female when they were 9 years old. Rah! fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Jul 6, 2014 |
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Jul 6, 2014 20:10
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ComradeCosmobot posted:So the final canvas of the June primary is in, and Betty Yee, who was in third place for Controller for most of election night and seesawed between second and third place over much of the next week officially managed to navigate her way to second place by 481 votes. Assemblyman John Perez has yet to concede and has mulled asking for a recount. As a follow up to this, Peréz has announced that he is prepared to pay for a recount in 15 counties. He has requested the recount to begin in a specified order, favoring counties in which he was strong, so it is likely this recount will go on for a while (Peréz can dip into his election funds beyond those earmarked for Controller, so money likely won't be an issue.)
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Jul 7, 2014 18:51
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Meanwhile in the war on humanity: http://brianmayer.com/2014/07/how-i-became-the-most-hated-person-in-san-francisco-for-a-day/quote:It’s a simple site with a simpler backend. I book reservations under assumed names, list them on ReservationHop, and price them according to the cost of the restaurant and how far in advance they need to be booked up. I don’t use OpenTable; I call the restaurants directly.
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Jul 9, 2014 01:10
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Trabisnikof posted:Meanwhile in the war on humanity: http://brianmayer.com/2014/07/how-i-became-the-most-hated-person-in-san-francisco-for-a-day/ Haha, holy poo poo. How the gently caress do you even write that?
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Jul 9, 2014 01:18
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This guy thinks the possibly unethical part is charging for his service. The idea that he's preventing the restaurants' own customers from being able to make reservations by grabbing them all, and then charging for those reservations, thereby effectively adding his own self-imposed cost onto the operations of either the restaurants or their customers or both might be unethical just isn't on his radar at all.
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Jul 9, 2014 03:13
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cafel posted:
So hiring Agent 47 to knock him off would not be unethical? A big part of the startup mindset is not worrying about troublesome things like legal obstacles or even ethical considerations.
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Jul 9, 2014 06:11
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My favorite part is that his example of "a maelstrom of internet hate" and becoming "the most hated person in San Francisco" includes people telling him he has dumb ideas, calling him a scumbag and an "a-hole", and one person saying they think he should be punched in the face. Compared to a lazy, lazy Google search that immediately brings me to an article about some woman that might have been rude to a guy having people hunt down where she lives and gleefully threaten to rape and murder her.
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Jul 9, 2014 06:23
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Wow, this guy is a total loving dumbshit. I read the post linked above and continued to look at his related posts, one of which was titled "Towing is Extortion." He argues that because tow trucks are out looking for cars 24/7, because the fee to reclaim your car is expensive, and because there's just one tow company contracted by the city of San Francisco, it's extortion. So it has absolutely nothing to do with dumbasses -- like himself -- not following parking regulations (he parked his car with its rear end-end partially stuck in front of somebody's driveway, so he got his car towed.) Hm.
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Jul 9, 2014 16:03
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Argh, I clicked that, then over to his "about" page, where he describes himself as "a libertarian and secular humanist..." The linked article is long and about what you expect. I wouldn't normally beat up on some random Internet libertarian, but these assholes are absolutely everywhere in San Francisco right now, they're well-connected, and they're securing funding to found the worst startups around. I hate these people.
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Jul 9, 2014 17:35
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Wow, does he literally think the world revolves around him and that anything that might sorta kinda maybe force him to consider other people is literally fascism?
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Jul 9, 2014 17:39
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It's ok guys, he did a "soft pivot"quote:The biggest criticism we have received has not been about the principle of selling reservations, but rather the methods we initially employed to hack this project into existence. We appreciate the criticism and honest feedback, which is why today ReservationHop is doing a “soft pivot” to address the same customer demand, and in addition work with the restaurants directly to cut them in on the deal. We believe that restaurants can benefit from selling reservations for a couple tables per weekend. This will not only reduce no-shows and mediate demand for their peak reservations slots in favor of off-peak times, but they will also get paid for filling these tables, instead of the other way around. Now we're going to have to pay to get a reservation, thanks Freedom!
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Jul 9, 2014 18:25
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These asshats who think they're extra special and deserving of praise just because they created "something" are...well, special 
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Jul 9, 2014 19:03
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I think you guys are generalizing based on a few bad apples. While this guy sounds like a total moron, there are lots of intelligent people working in the startup space on meaningful, impactful and ethical projects.
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Jul 10, 2014 04:20
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enraged_camel posted:I think you guys are generalizing based on a few bad apples. While this guy sounds like a total moron, there are lots of intelligent people working in the startup space on meaningful, impactful and ethical projects. We're talking about these assholes though, I don't think Silicon Valley is under-praised.
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Jul 10, 2014 04:22
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Trabisnikof posted:Meanwhile in the war on humanity: http://brianmayer.com/2014/07/how-i-became-the-most-hated-person-in-san-francisco-for-a-day/ Did he take this article down? It's not loading for me.
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Jul 10, 2014 04:22
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GrandpaPants posted:Did he take this article down? It's not loading for me. Loading fine for me!
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Jul 10, 2014 04:23
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enraged_camel posted:I think you guys are generalizing based on a few bad apples. While this guy sounds like a total moron, there are lots of intelligent people working in the startup space on meaningful, impactful and ethical projects. Source your quotes.
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Jul 10, 2014 04:59
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enraged_camel posted:there are lots of intelligent people working in the startup space on meaningful, impactful and ethical projects.
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Jul 10, 2014 09:28
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Looks like we've had two captains of industries bow to the evil forces of stagnation in a week: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/parking-spot-auction-app-caves-under-pressure-halts-in-san-francisco/ quote:the bidding service on MonkeyParking has been temporary disabled in the San Francisco area. In light of the cease and desist letter that we received from the City of San Francisco, we are currently reviewing our service to clarify our value proposition and avoid any future misunderstandings.
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Jul 10, 2014 18:35
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You can practically smell the nerd fury from a coder who can't stand to see something happen without a clearly defined procedure.
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Jul 10, 2014 19:41
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Oh don't worry, the forces of capitalism are still advancing, as evidenced by this 98 year old woman being evicted from her home of 50 years.
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Jul 10, 2014 20:42
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So much bile and hatred in this thread. It's kind of funny.ShutteredIn posted:Source your quotes. Quick examples: Chegg - Allows students to rent textbooks, massively reducing one of the biggest quarterly expenses for them (not to mention battle the predatory textbook industry) oDesk - Helps freelancers and remote workers get hired, reducing people's dependence on full-time corporate jobs LightSail - Capturing heat energy from compressed air to provide clean energy I could go on. Now, if you want to read a few articles in the news and jump to the conclusion that people like this Brian Mayer kid are the norm in the Valley, that's your prerogative. But I think that would simply prove that you're just as stupid.
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Jul 11, 2014 01:05
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Kobayashi posted:Oh don't worry, the forces of capitalism are still advancing, as evidenced by this 98 year old woman being evicted from her home of 50 years. Maybe if she majored in something useful, she could afford to live somewhere else in the city. 
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Jul 11, 2014 01:37
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enraged_camel posted:So much bile and hatred in this thread. It's kind of funny. So your examples are: A college bookstore (but online!) A work placement agency (but online!) and a cleantech company (which btw, compressed air energy storage is nothing new or revolutionary this is yet another energy equipment manufacturer). All 3 of those companies aren't doing anything new. I rented textbooks in 2008, a recruitment agency with a fancy website is just a recruitment agency, and trying to sell incredibly expensive equipment to power companies isn't exactly revolutionary. But they get automatically called "meaningful", "impactful" and "ethical" with a wave of the hand.... California has a B-Corp statute, and if these companies were really trying to be meaningful, ethical or impactful in some way, they could have written it into their charter. But they don't and that's ok, but its foolish to pretend otherwise. Meanwhile, when we mock the worst of the worst and somehow become strawmen who hate innovation and all startups.
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Jul 11, 2014 01:40
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Trabisnikof posted:All 3 of those companies aren't doing anything new. I rented textbooks in 2008, a recruitment agency with a fancy website is just a recruitment agency, and trying to sell incredibly expensive equipment to power companies isn't exactly revolutionary. The impact is that they do it without as much human labor, and funnel those savings into the owner's pocket, while telling people who are now displaced by technology to go gently caress themselves.
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Jul 11, 2014 02:09
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on the left posted:The impact is that they do it without as much human labor, and funnel those savings into the owner's pocket, while telling people who are now displaced by technology to go gently caress themselves. Yup. I thought he was going to list some nonprofits at least.
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Jul 11, 2014 03:19
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Trabisnikof posted:So your examples are: Yep. Just like Amazon was a bookstore (but online!) on the left posted:The impact is that they do it without as much human labor, and funnel those savings into the owner's pocket, while telling people who are now displaced by technology to go gently caress themselves. Wah wah, automation is taking our jobs away, wah wah. Slow News Day fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Jul 11, 2014 |
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Jul 11, 2014 03:24
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Chegg runs a "pay to cheat on your homework" service as well.
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Jul 11, 2014 03:28
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computer parts posted:Chegg runs a "pay to cheat on your homework" service as well. Wait, what?
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Jul 11, 2014 03:42
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Forceholy posted:Wait, what? They have a "unified help session" where people can post questions to homework (like physics etc) and get answers. These questions (but not the answers) are conveniently cached on Google so people have an incentive to sign up. It's hard to find prices online but it costs ~$15/month for this service.
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Jul 11, 2014 03:57
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enraged_camel posted:Wah wah, automation is taking our jobs away, wah wah. Honestly, I do think it's good, but not because of automation, it's because it allows small companies to eviscerate companies that have gotten too large and unresponsive. This is great if you are a young person, bad if you are an older worker who can't use a computer and is relying on that big company to provide a pension for the next 30 years.
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Jul 11, 2014 04:06
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enraged_camel posted:Yep. Just like Amazon was a bookstore (but online!) Right and I wouldn't call Amazon "meaningful", "impactful" or "ethical" just because they're a business success. Amazon is only really as impactful as their market disruption, which doesn't translate into societally meaningful. Working for Amazon is about as meaningful as working for Walmart, bringing cheaper goods to the masses, yay.
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Jul 11, 2014 04:17
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Trabisnikof posted:Right and I wouldn't call Amazon "meaningful", "impactful" or "ethical" just because they're a business success. Amazon is only really as impactful as their market disruption, which doesn't translate into societally meaningful. Working for Amazon is about as meaningful as working for Walmart, bringing cheaper goods to the masses, yay. Amazon has dramatically impacted logistics and cloud computing as a side effect of running their business. Their kiva robots alone are revolutionary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KRjuuEVEZs
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Jul 11, 2014 04:26
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Seriously. Trabisnikof, I don't know what world you live in, but in this one Amazon has had a dramatically positive impact on online commerce. This hasn't benefited just them either. There are over two million sellers on the Amazon marketplace -- many of them small shops and businesses -- and last year alone they conducted tens of billions of dollars in combined sales.
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Jul 11, 2014 05:33
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enraged_camel posted:Seriously. Trabisnikof, I don't know what world you live in, but in this one Amazon has had a dramatically positive impact on online commerce. This hasn't benefited just them either. There are over two million sellers on the Amazon marketplace -- many of them small shops and businesses -- and last year alone they conducted tens of billions of dollars in combined sales. And how is that a societal good? How does making business more effective mean it has to be ethical? This is exactly the mentality that leads to ParkingMonkey et al, that if the market supports it all other questions go to the wayside. Really Amazon is no different than Walmart, except Amazon has a digital storefront. Also Amazon is neither a start-up or a SF/SV company so it also doesn't apply to the point you're trying to make.
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Jul 11, 2014 06:12
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If your default assumption is that big business is automatically bad, that's probably beyond the scope of this thread to try to refute. But suggesting Amazon is "just as bad" as walmart is a stretch. Walmart devastates communities by destroying all of their retail businesses, paying the employees minimum wage (and mostly part time jobs, too), driving average wages down in the same communities where they've just crushed all the small businesses. They essentially rely on the government to subsidize their workers (because a big proportion of them rely on food stamps). Walmart also crushes their own suppliers with the relentless demand for lowering prices. If you've never read the story about the 1 gallon pickles, you really should. Walmart is such a dominant retailer that many manufacturers are forced to change their entire product lines - even the products they don't sell at Walmart - due to pressure by the company, becuase they can't afford to produce two different versions. For example, there are known examples of DVDs of popular movies being released with special edits to remove naughty content the conservative walton family don't like, in order to get sold in their stores. Turning down walmart would mean turning down the majority of the american DVD marketplace (because Walmart owns over 50% of that market), so it's just not an option for many industries. So everyone, even people who aren't' walmart customers, got censored versions of certain movies. And of course, Walmart often competes on price by driving down quality and importing the cheapest possible items (particularly from China). By comparison, Amazon is fairly benign. They certainly have issues. They put pressure on some publishers, which is probably bad by extension for authors, by driving down the amount an author is paid per copy of a book. They compete aggressively on price, too, which certainly undercuts retailers all over the country, particularly for products where customers don't feel they need a knowledgeable retail clerk to help them out. But there's a lot of good things Amazon does, too. They sell DRM-free MP3s, competing aggressively with Apple's DRM-laden marketplace. They're innovating in the cloud computing space, competing with the likes of google and microsoft, which is probably good for customers (more competitors usually means better, less expensive products). They provide a market for a lot of small authors who otherwise could not get published at all - flipping the old predatory practices of vanity presses on its head by making it economically feasible to publish a book, for a modest profit, that only ever sells a few hundred copies. Amazon offers innovative new products, and innovative new products are one of the ways in which the capitalist system produces increases in quality of life over time. Walmart does not innovate, it just drives down cost and quality to own the absolute bottom of the marketplace, driving small businesses into bankruptcy and impoverishing entire communities. Trabisnikof posted:And how is that a societal good? How does making business more effective mean it has to be ethical? This is exactly the mentality that leads to ParkingMonkey et al, that if the market supports it all other questions go to the wayside. No, that's a bit of a category shift. ParkingMonkey is an example of a business that is actively flouting the law, taking a resource that is in the public domain and hijacking it. It is not merely focusing on business efficiency... it's literally stealing from the commons for a profit. quote:Really Amazon is no different than Walmart, except Amazon has a digital storefront. Walmart also has a digital storefront. quote:Also Amazon is neither a start-up or a SF/SV company so it also doesn't apply to the point you're trying to make. Amazon was a startup, and the point he was trying to make should have been obvious: it's that you cavalierly dismissed as insignificant, a startup company working in the online book peddling space. Amazon shows that that space is certainly not insignificant. I have no idea whether that company will succeed, but at the very least, its business model does not appear to be blatantly unethical theft from the commons, the way ParkingMonkey is, or theft from its own supposed customers the way the restaurant booking service was. Which is ultimately trying to point out to you that no, silicon valley is not, on balance, some kind of uniformly monstrous amoral force of evil run amok. Mostly it's just a bunch of companies doing normal company stuff, often in new ways by leveraging software, networking, the internet, and other newer technologies. It's not fair to characterize any industry by running a tiny sample of its absolute worst actors up a flagpole and then pretending they're representative of the norm.
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Jul 11, 2014 07:37
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I dunno. I think the occasional inefficiency is fine. Look at things like hotels, flights and car rentals. The bulk of those are just a giant circle-jerk that corporate partners give each other. That's why your breakfast at mid-range hotels costs $15, because that is the industry standard for "does not need a receipt to expense". It can make some parts of travel expensive for the individual but it also serves to subsidize the entire industry. Market inefficiencies create jobs through bubbles and artificial demand. By eliminating those inefficiencies, we are eliminating a lot of jobs. The older, more inefficient model, can be adjusted via taxation. Sure, there will be some rich fucks, but they know their job is a function of that inefficiency and they are highly taxed so their money goes back into the pool anyway*. To me, tech wipes all that away and replaces it with a very small cadre of super rich folks and a whole lot of not much else. It is a reinvention of early capitalism. Big tech companies recreate a lot of standard inefficiencies (though they have a larger in-house slave pool as opposed to working primarily off of acquisition) but start-ups are the worst. * Note: Since ~'79 we've had a taxation problem. Reagan made it worse. This worsening trend was continued by Bush and Clinton until W made it much, much, much worse.
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Jul 11, 2014 07:54
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Leperflesh posted:Amazon was a startup, and the point he was trying to make should have been obvious: it's that you cavalierly dismissed as insignificant, a startup company working in the online book peddling space. Amazon shows that that space is certainly not insignificant. I have no idea whether that company will succeed, but at the very least, its business model does not appear to be blatantly unethical theft from the commons, the way ParkingMonkey is, or theft from its own supposed customers the way the restaurant booking service was. Which is ultimately trying to point out to you that no, silicon valley is not, on balance, some kind of uniformly monstrous amoral force of evil run amok. Mostly it's just a bunch of companies doing normal company stuff, often in new ways by leveraging software, networking, the internet, and other newer technologies. It's not fair to characterize any industry by running a tiny sample of its absolute worst actors up a flagpole and then pretending they're representative of the norm. I never was saying that Silicon Valley is the great evil, but that Silicon Valley gets a free pass on being "good" and "ethical". Remember, this discussed was sparked by the number of silicon valley companies and leaders who believe generally "if it sells it must be ethical". There is a general mood for some reason if tech or startups are involved our ability to criticism them for ethical lapses should somehow be reduced. Silicon Valley isn't out to save, empower, or help us. They're businesses out to make money as they should. They aren't our saviors and they aren't out to do "good" by you or me, unless that helps them somehow. Sure there are some who have loftier goals, but it's not fair to characterize any industry by glorifying a small section of their industry and then pretending they're representative of the norm.
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Jul 11, 2014 08:07
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