Rivalarrival
@Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
- Comment on Dell responds to return-to-office resistance with VPN, badge tracking 1 week ago:
You’re keeping the people willing to make sacrifices to keep their jobs. You’re keeping the most desperate, most readily exploitable people, and getting rid of anyone who won’t tolerate your abuse.
- Comment on Dell responds to return-to-office resistance with VPN, badge tracking 1 week ago:
It’s a layoff, but without having to call it a layoff.
- Comment on Rules for Life 1 week ago:
Inhalation anesthetic. We had kitty sized masks for the cats that just wanted to hiss and spit, and we had a clear, plexiglass box for the cats that wanted to rip our faces off. Once the cat goes googly eyes, we could intubate, or just finish the procedure quickly, and get it back in a carrier to recover.
We also had a bag. It was basically a thick pillowcase with 5 zippers on it. We’d stuff the cat in, and only unzip one hole at a time.
- Comment on bath time 3 weeks ago:
But yeah, probably ok if the water isn’t too salty
If you’re going to be passing a current through your bath water, you would want the bath water to be as conductive as possible. You don’t want the salt water in your body to be the path of least resistance. You want the current to flow around you, not through you.
- Comment on bath time 3 weeks ago:
You assume the neutral wire is present and connected to the neutral prong, as it is in typical appliances. If I were to make this ducky, I wouldn’t connect anything to the neutral or ground prongs in the plug. Indeed, I’d connect all three wires in the cord to the hot prong.
- Comment on This is a Test 1 month ago:
That’s “B”.
- Comment on This is a Test 1 month ago:
Most modern handguns do not have a (manually operated) safety.
“A” is the answer closest to “remove all of the ammunition”.
- Comment on All billionaires under 30 have inherited their wealth, research finds 1 month ago:
Showing up with bricks of cash would be less beneficial than dredging their harbors and building out new power plants and fixing all the damage done by the last big earthquake.
Show up with bricks of cash, and harbor-dredgers, electric generators, and construction companies will be racing each other to figure out how to get them from you.
- Comment on Spotting Visual Signs of Gentrification at Scale 1 month ago:
Gentrification isn’t the problem. Rent is the problem.
Eliminate rent. Convert rentals to land contracts or private mortgages. Convert apartments to condominiums
When the residents of a neighborhood are owners instead of renters, they gain an unexpected windfall from gentrification.
How do we eliminate rent? How do we convince landlords to sell? How do we convince them to issue land contracts instead of rental agreements?
Massively increase property taxes, but issue owner-occupant credits to revert those increases. Only owner-occupants get the credit. Investors do not.
Eat up their profits, unless they switch to an investment strategy that puts the deed in the occupant’s name, such as a land contract or a private mortgage. With the deed in their name, the occupant gains equity as property values rise.
The concept of renting needs to die in a fire.
- Comment on I still don't get why people spend money... there's tons of it for free 1 month ago:
I used to suck dick for porn.
- Comment on "Morbidly Wealthy": The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405b to $869b since 2020—at a rate of $14m/hr—while nearly five billion people have been made poorer 3 months ago:
So are the markets.
- Comment on "Morbidly Wealthy": The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405b to $869b since 2020—at a rate of $14m/hr—while nearly five billion people have been made poorer 3 months ago:
Do you really want to get between the angry people with the guillotines and the object of their wrath?
- Comment on "Morbidly Wealthy": The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405b to $869b since 2020—at a rate of $14m/hr—while nearly five billion people have been made poorer 3 months ago:
Wealth can be considered a disease. If you really want to get pissed off, Google “affluenza”
- Comment on "Morbidly Wealthy": The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405b to $869b since 2020—at a rate of $14m/hr—while nearly five billion people have been made poorer 3 months ago:
Phase in a significant increase in property taxes, with a commensurate owner-occupant credit against it for 1-4 unit homes.
You can own as many homes as you want. Occupants of your homes will have greater value to you as co-owners or buyers than as tenants. You can make money selling your homes under land contract (“rent to own”) or by private mortgage. Traditional rental agreements on single family homes will be less feasible.
You can own a duplex, triplex, or quadplex and keep the owner-occupant credit so long as you or another owner maintains at least one of the units as a residence.
Basically, I think the property tax code should be used to motivate both landlords and tenants toward ownership rather than rental.
- Comment on "Morbidly Wealthy": The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405b to $869b since 2020—at a rate of $14m/hr—while nearly five billion people have been made poorer 3 months ago:
Universal healthcare now, paid for by the top 5 wealthiest people in the country. If they don’t want to pay it, they can spend until they are 6 or below.
Guillotines for anyone taking action against universal healthcare.
- Comment on When your crush walks into class but you're homeschooled... 3 months ago:
they had no right to leave the union under any circumstances.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on every other part, but that particular sentiment is rather disturbing. The particular reason they gave was not an acceptable justification for leaving the union, but the idea that they have no such right at all is extraordinarily problematic.
I mention this because we are a year away from a scenario where several states may determine that a particular candidate is unqualified to even run, let alone win the presidential election. We may very well find ourselves in a situation where half the country recognizes one person as president, while the other half recognizes a different person.
The idea that the states representing the majority of We The People should not be allowed to dissociate from a self-described dictator is a big fucking problem.
The union is only valid so long as we have the right to leave it.
- Comment on Anon is out of ideas 4 months ago:
Much easier to give it to some rich people. They’ve got money disposal services all over the place.
- Comment on 'I told police who my burglar was - but they did nothing' 4 months ago:
The suspect says he did not burgle Sarah.
Well, there you have it, folks. She’s trying to frame an innocent man.
- Comment on Android users could soon replace Google Assistant with ChatGPT 4 months ago:
Stop trying to make Bing happen.
- Comment on As if the tip actually goes to the dashers. 4 months ago:
You seem to be portraying “libertarianism” as a negative attribute for a worker. I don’t concede that at all.
A menial laborer has a sudden, unexpected opportunity fall in his lap. He wins tickets to a baseball game for him and his daughter.
As an employee, he has to weigh the ramifications of going to the game against his obligation to his employer. He has to face their attendance policy. A policy he had no meaningful input in developing, that he can either accept, or lose his job. That policy says he has to be at his station, stacking product on retail shelves, or earn himself a mark toward termination.
As a contractor, he writes his own attendance policy. The only consequence he faces for skipping work is he doesn’t get paid.
As an employee, he will likely have to say “Sorry, I can’t afford to skip my job stacking boxes on shelves, even for the opportunity to share this game with my kid. Can I get cash value instead?”
As a contractor, turning down the tickets doesn’t even begin to enter his thoughts. The time at the game is more valuable to him than the compensation for stacking boxes on shelves, so he turns off his driver app and goes to the game. His “company” doesn’t care that he skipped work to go to a game. They just keep dispatching work to the people who show up.
The “employment” model is absolutely terrible for the menial laborer. It’s completely disgusting that we allow major corporations to use it.
- Comment on As if the tip actually goes to the dashers. 4 months ago:
That’s the root of the problem. They should be employees and paid by their employer.
I strongly disagree. Employment is not a mutually beneficial relationship. Employment is an encumbrance on the worker, especially a non-union worker. As an employer, DoorDash can demand exclusivity. DoorDash would be allowed to add a non-compete clause, prohibiting employees from performing courier work on the side, or for competing platforms. I don’t want my working hours dictated to me on a schedule. I don’t want to have to negotiate time off or finding someone to cover my shift.
Employment would allow them to force drivers to take all “assignments”. I like being able to refuse service to a particular vendor or abusive customer. I don’t want to be forced to wait in the drive thru line for 45 minutes at a Taco Bell in a high-crime area.
Courier service is menial labor. When I look at other large businesses that utilize menial labor, I am not particularly struck by the equity of their employment agreements. I don’t see “employment” working out too well for the workers of Walmart, for example.
I do not appreciate Doordash offloading its responsibility of paying and “disciplining” its workers onto customers. Do you honestly have no problem with that?
No, I don’t have a problem with that. I think DoorDash retains too much control over pay and discipline of workers, and interferes too much between customers and workers.
DoorDash punishes workers for refusing orders, by downgrading their priority for higher paying offers. When a customer insists on placing a $3 offer for a 9-mile delivery, every driver in the area will reject it. That single shitty order results in every active driver having their “Acceptance Rate” stat lowered. DoorDash should not be giving customers this particular power over drivers. It is the customer who should be “punished” for making an offer so far below minimum wage.
- Comment on As if the tip actually goes to the dashers. 4 months ago:
Good.
Now, fuck off.
- Comment on As if the tip actually goes to the dashers. 4 months ago:
If they don’t fulfill your expectations, you inform DoorDash. They hand out full refunds like candy.
That “rando” is not a DoorDash employee. You’re hiring a contractor through a broker, not asking a restaurant to send a waitress to your table.
The employee-waitress can’t refuse you service without getting herself fired, but a contractor-driver can tell you exactly where and how far to shove your bullshit offer.
- Comment on As if the tip actually goes to the dashers. 4 months ago:
Dashers are not employees. There is no employer obligating a Dasher to serve the business’s customers.
A waitress is an employee. Her employer can demand that she serve a particular customer. She can be fired for refusing to serve you.
A Dasher is not an employee. DoorDash cannot fire a Dasher for refusing to accept an order. The Dasher is perfectly free to decline your offer for any reason they want.
The only information the Dasher is given is the location of the pickup, the location of the dropoff, and how much you are willing to pay for the trip. From that information, the Dasher has to decide whether to take the offer, or decline.
When your offer is so shitty that it would cost more to fulfill it than you’re offering the Dasher is absolutely justified in flaming you to a crisp.
- Comment on As if the tip actually goes to the dashers. 4 months ago:
You’ve got the wrong model. DoorDash is not an employer, and Dashers are not employees. Dashers are not assigned shifts, or expected to clock in and out at specific times. Dashers are free to refuse offers they don’t want to take.
DoorDash is a “broker”, not an employer. They attempt to connect a customer to a vendor and a Dasher. What you pay DoorDash is a brokerage fee, not a service charge. Your “tip” is not a tip: it is a bid for the Dasher’s delivery service. The Dasher is not obligated to serve you; if you want service, you need to offer payment for that service and find someone willing to provide it at that price.
- Comment on As if the tip actually goes to the dashers. 4 months ago:
Given their compensation model, all I can say is that if you are not willing to tip, and/or you are not willing to tip ahead of time, you absolutely should not use the service at all.
- Comment on As if the tip actually goes to the dashers. 4 months ago:
The pay is about $2 per order, regardless of mileage. Dashers can typically complete 2-3 orders per hour, and pay for their own fuel. The base pay is absolutely not worth it.
- Comment on Researchers train AI chatbots to 'jailbreak' rival chatbots - and automate the process 4 months ago:
Priority is determined by the entity using the AI, not the AI itself. My point is that so long as the ability to create any AI is documented, an unencumbered AI is feasible.
We are on the verge of discovering Roko’s Basilisk.
- Comment on Teslas Have a Minor Issue Where the Wheels Fly Off While Driving, Documents Show 4 months ago:
The wheel falls off. It falls off. It falls the fuck off. Turning your Tesla into a tripod, and spinning you into a dimension of pissed off you have never been in before in your life.
- Comment on Researchers train AI chatbots to 'jailbreak' rival chatbots - and automate the process 4 months ago:
Therefore every AI chatbot maker needs to apply protections,
I’m pretty sure the instructions to create an AI chatbot have been published, and are available for a sufficiently capable AI to draw from. What keeps a primary, morality-encumbered AI from using those instructions to create a secondary, morality-unencumbered AI?