Recent posts

#11

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by garbon - Today at 05:42:59 AM

I'm a little less concerned about what he did in school but rather his dodge from he clearly said racist things but claims never directly said to people. Sniveling worm that would be if true.

#12

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Richard Hakluyt - Today at 05:39:05 AM

His age is important here, born in 1964 so was at Dulwich College 1975-1982. These were years when the National Front was causing a lot of hassle and there was a powerful left-wing reaction against them even including some quite nasty streetfighting. The left was also trying to make progress on sexism and homophobia in this era. You had movements like Rock against Racism and CND were well supported too.

If he was 10 years older he could have claimed that he was just comforming to views generally held in public schools. But he is too young for that, the choice was being made by all politically motivated young people in that era. So I guess he has always been obnoxious, not even a trace of youthful idealism there.

#13

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Admiral Yi - Today at 03:28:07 AM

I've no idea on costs. I've worked in marketing adjacent areas but not in that side of things.
But for sure one company absolutely dominating the market to such a degree is not healthy.
Breaking up Google would indeed weaken the power they can bring to bare and give would've competitors a chance - as I say even meta failed when it had a try let alone a startup.

Well that's the thing.  As Joan pointed out, traditional monopoly analysis examines the companies ability to extract rents, to charge higher than the free market price.  When talking about monopolies "not healthy" means exactly that.

Discussions of "power" tend to be circular.  They have power because they are a monopoly.  They are a monopoly because they have power.  Have you considered the possibility they are just better?  From the link I posted Meta has close to Google's share of online advertising.  Ergo they have roughly the same "power."  It's not logical that they failed to compete with Google in ad exchange or publisher ad server (whatever that is) because they had less power.

#14

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Tonitrus - Today at 03:28:04 AM

With all the crap we've given Musk about screwing up Twitter/X, why should we be so eager to straight up trust the location data that their system spits out?

#15

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Josquius - Today at 03:08:08 AM

I missed that link. But yes. Its back end stuff that is used by basically everyone in online advertising. If you see an ad online and you're not on facebook, twitter, amazon, or some other walled garden.... then it's probably a google ad.

Do you think Google is overcharging advertisers to use this exchange and these servers?

Do you think breaking up Google would solve this problem?

I've no idea on costs. I've worked in marketing adjacent areas but not in that side of things.
But for sure one company absolutely dominating the market to such a degree is not healthy.
Breaking up Google would indeed weaken the power they can bring to bare and give would've competitors a chance - as I say even meta failed when it had a try let alone a startup.

#16

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Josquius - Today at 03:04:56 AM

Wow. This is something.

https://smartlifetrendingnow.com/lp/smart_uk/?clickid=7c33b2ta51n2t24a&uclick=2ta51n2t&uclickhash=2ta51n2t-2ta51n2t-b4wj-0-b4dz-17tw-q552-d36e1a#tblciGiCRb5r3S7N0EwA7XSJRgWy3IEOxnDUVwkD03OPV5iT0FCD-nHQo-6f025H-3c-bATD-lkA

I was sorting through my tabs and noticed a guardian article was opened titled people are using AI to make money. Thought that sounded interesting so started reading.... It's an ad for some scammy sounding tool. But it looks just like a guardian article. Guess I clicked an ad somewhere by mistake - the previously opened tab is the standard weather channel that comes with android- and it led to this very cunning scam.

I don't know if this has been the case elsewhere but some change in Twitter basically means you can see the very broad general location of that account's tweets.

And all day I've seen lots of far-right content creators ("Yookay aesthetics" etc) verified accounts earning money for the engagement on their content that appear to be based in India or South America I suspected something like this with some accounts I've seen that just had very Indian English grammar but still quite funny to see as a lot of those accounts now seem to be shutting down or pivoting to other content.

Reminded me a bit of the very interesting sounding book about the scam economy in South-East Asia:
https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3234-scam?srsltid=AfmBOoqTW63r0hQou6CiwSwyQIre14yUDY35XpvPheA-xhrozs_6Er82

Can't help but feel we're only at the start of seeing developing countries where the quality of internet connection has massively improved in recent years working out how to monetise that (and countries in the Global North).

Yeah, I've seen this too. Great to have the proof of it. The far right are always in constant denial it's their reality.
Saw a few posts from Canadians noting a lot of their Canadian potatriots seemed to be based in the US

#17

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by garbon - Today at 02:43:15 AM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87lx0981nro

Farage says he's 'never directly racially abused anybody' after school racism claims

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has insisted he has "never directly racially abused anybody", following complaints from 20 people he went to school with.

A Guardian investigation, external spoke to contemporaries at Dulwich College who alleged Farage made racist and antisemitic remarks to them, which a spokesperson denied.

Speaking directly to a journalist about the allegations for the first time, Farage, 61, was pressed on what he meant by "directly" and replied: "By taking it out on an individual on the basis of who they are or what they are."

He also ruled out holding an investigation into his own party, following the jailing of former Welsh Reform UK leader Nathan Gill for taking pro-Russian bribes.

Among the allegations in the Guardian are that Farage joked about gas chambers and put another pupil in detention, when he was a prefect, for the colour of their skin.

...

Oh alright then

#18

Gaming HQ / Re: Victoria 3

Last post by Syt - Today at 02:22:25 AM

EU5: "We have scramble for Africa in the 1600s!"

Vic3: "Yeah, let's break things up more to make progress slower."





(They clarified that e.g. Algeria state borders haven't changed, only country borders, if I read the thread correctly.)

#19

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Syt - Today at 02:18:36 AM

The beta has added EU4's border friction to "spice things up" internationally ... I guess Portugal will get eaten even more often by Spain Castille now?

#20

Gaming HQ / Re: Hearts of Iron IV

Last post by Syt - Today at 02:16:39 AM

New DLC has a rating of 40% positive on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3796260/Expansion__Hearts_of_Iron_IV_No_Compromise_No_Surrender/
(I guess much of it is due to the price tag of 29.99)

Which I guess is an improvement over the last one which sits at 15%?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152790/Country_Pack__Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Graveyard_of_Empires/