newreply.php posted:

Condiv posted:

uber wants to fingerprint new drivers and make them take lie detector tests

Condiv posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btJINsfeYhY

quote:

In 2010 I moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco and thought I had to bring my car with me.

LA, as anyone who's ever heard anyone say anything about LA knows, is a car city. If you're going anywhere, you're going in your car.

And after living there, I was convinced that this truth wasn't limited to any one city. Owning a car was necessary wherever you lived.

My friends placed bets on how quickly I'd ditch my beloved Volkswagen Jetta for a bicycle, telling me about the bike lanes, the BART, and so on. I patiently listened as I jingled my car keys in my pocket, confused why anyone would ever think I'd let go of such control.

When I arrived in San Francisco, I drove to work every day. Having a car was freedom. It was going wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. But slowly it started becoming a burden, both mental and financial.

That large dent someone anonymously gifted me on my driver's side door? I can't turn my leased car in with that. Do I fix it now or later? Those $68 parking tickets that amassed so quickly? But that's more than the cost of my lease each month! The reasons kept piling up. Skyrocketing gas prices, flat tires, overnight parking, more hit and run gifts, a speeding ticket, smashed windows. That glow of freedom? It was from a bonfire fed by a never-ending stream of my money.

My $271 per month car lease, which had seemed affordable, actually cost much more when I amortized my total expenditures. On average, my monthly expenses looked more like this:



Enter Uber and Lyft. Since giving up my car in October '13 I haven't waited more than 5 minutes from the moment I thought about needing a car to buckling my seatbelt. They hydrate me, tell me great stories, or, if I want, give me the space and time to do that last bit of work before a meeting. I don't look for parking, or worry about gas, or get upset if someone cuts me off on the highway. That's real freedom.

I also use GetAround — a platform that allows people to rent their neighbors' cars when they aren't using them — to run errands for a few hours, or when I want to hit the road for a weekend. GetAround cars are closer by and cheaper than any car rental company by a longshot.

Since giving up my car, I now spend an average of $572 per month on transportation, which comes to $11,352 per year in savings. On top of that, I get back my time, the most valuable thing of all. I save an average of 6.5 days per year — more than a full week! — to focus on the things I want to be doing, rather than serving my car.

Last year alone I used Uber in 17 different cities, including Rio de Janeiro and Manila. There's a chance I'll never own or lease a car again. I'm hopeful that in major cities, the networks of services like Uber and Lyft will swell so that people can get direct rides for the cost of public transportation. Car shares saved me time, energy, worry, and money. Crunch the numbers, and see what they can do for you.

quote:

Information technology workers at Southern California Edison (SCE) are being laid off and replaced by workers from India. Some employees are training their H-1B visa holding replacements, and many have already lost their jobs.

The employees are upset and say they can't understand how H-1B guest workers can be used to replace them.

The IT organization's "transition effort" is expected to result in about 400 layoffs, with "another 100 or so employees leaving voluntarily," SCE said in a statement. The "transition," which began in August, will be completed by the end of March, the company said.

"They are bringing in people with a couple of years' experience to replace us and then we have to train them," said one longtime IT worker. "It's demoralizing and in a way I kind of felt betrayed by the company."

SCE, Southern California's largest utility, has confirmed the layoffs and the hiring of Infosys, based in Bangalore, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Mumbai. They are two of the largest users of H-1B visas.

Condiv posted:

the COO of everest, katherine krug has abandoned her car for uber rides everywhere


i dunno how this person manages to get nearly $400 in tickets every month, and i feel really bad for the people who's cars she rented with getaround

daft punk railroad posted:

yeah aside from specifically involving Uber i don't really see the problem, driving in san francisco loving sucks

Condiv posted:

They hydrate me

Wulfolme posted:

who calls it that

gently caress you

Wulfolme posted:

who calls it that

gently caress you

Necc0 posted:

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...tors_picks=true

quote:

SCE said it is helping affected employees with severance, and other benefits, including "job fairs and other possible opportunities with other organizations within SCE."

"SCE does not take this action lightly and it is assisting employees through this difficult period," the utility said.

triple sulk posted:

who the gently caress washes their car more than twice a year

Jonny 290 posted:

during summer months I wash the BMW every 3 days,

Jonny 290 posted:

during summer months I wash the BMW every 3 days, do a one-coat wax touchup on Saturdays, and once a month do a full Dawn strip/detail/2 stage wax

Nobody has any pride in anything any more.

FMguru posted:

i thought the smart play for sf dwellers was a car-rental sharing service like zipcar. walk/bike/metro/bart where you need to go - if you cant then just jump in a zipcar

ultramiraculous posted:

uh this is all completely reasonable afaict.

having a car in sf appears to be a complete clusterfuck, and a non-starter if you're planning to actually use it to get around in the city. parking can be non-existent and just finding something that looks like a spot doesn't preclude you from getting a bill for a myriad of parking violations/getting your window smashed in for no reason.

Subjunctive posted:

you're not following the rules, you just think you are. the alternative is doing orbits of a 4-block radius hoping for luck to smile on you.

poty posted:

did yospos superstar the management really paint this picture

graph posted:

nice waste of water, hitler

suffix posted:

calling it now: they'll mail you a couple of alligator clips you plug into your phone's audio jack and clip to your nipples while you answer an in-app quiz

suffix posted:

calling it now: they'll mail you a couple of alligator clips you plug into your phone's audio jack and clip to your nipples while you answer an in-app quiz

Subjunctive posted:

sure, but what will they do to the drivers?

Bhodi posted:

It's hard to live at work ever since that one guy at google ruined it for everyone by bragging about it

ultramiraculous posted:

well four blocks...then five...then six...then every random side street. then you find a spot and debate if you're actually able to fit (ban full-size sedan rentals at SFO plz) or if you're going to be one inch too close to a driveway. then you see someone peeking out of the window and decide it's risky and move on. after passing several areas scheduled for "street cleaning" (lol), you find a spot on a road you've driven down four times just as you hit a solid :30 late for dinner.