• 0 Posts
  • 22 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: June 21st, 2023
  • morry040@kbin.socialtoTechnology@beehaw.org•Google will no longer back up the Internet: Cached webpages are dead
    2·
    5 months ago

    I think it’s more about the web visitor cost. Handling traffic and API calls becomes a financial problem when there are a growing number of companies using bots to scrape data. Larger companies are moving their content behind paywalls, which acts as a bot filter, and have also identified that they can generate a revenue stream from subscriptions and API connections. Old content on the web is not deemed to have much business value, so it’s a decision of either charging for it or scrapping it.

  • morry040@kbin.socialtoTechnology@beehaw.org•Neuralink implants brain chip in first human, Musk says
    15·
    5 months ago

    There’s quite a difference between rapid prototyping on software/hardware versus the human body.
    Musk’s approach to developing engineering advances has worked well in the software, aerospace, and vehicular industries. Development on inorganic things is much more predictable, we can isolate variables, and it is easier to understand cause & effect. If you screw up some software on an inorganic system, your program might crash, your rocket might explode, or your car won’t start. These risks can be anticipated and costed fairly well, therefore rapid prototyping has an acceptable risk/reward ratio in that environment.

    The human body, on the other hand, is an extremely complex system that we still don’t fully understand. Each person is a unique variation on the model and that changes over time depending on upbringing, diet, exercise, and life experiences. Applying the same engineering approaches from inorganic industries has a much higher risk once you cross into the medical realm. If you have errors in a medical situation, you risk sickening, injuring, or even killing a person. The risk/reward ratio is skewed towards ensuring that human life is protected at all costs.

    Using SpaceX as an example, the first three launches failed spectacularly and a fourth failure would have ended the business but fortunately the fourth test was a success. If you’re suggesting that we apply the same risk-taking to Neuralink, are you suggesting that it’s acceptable for the first three patients to die, as long as the fourth is a success?

  • morry040@kbin.socialtoTechnology@beehaw.org•Why are people lining up for Worldcoin eyeball scans? “Easy $50”
    1·
    11 months ago

    Great article, thanks! The last few sections really make it seem like a dumpster fire.

    So, in simple terms, the value proposition is that the retinal scan will generate a unique ID of a person in the system and ensure that a person cannot be registered more than once. This will then allow the system to be used for tasks like authentication or ensuring fair distribution of tokens. Another potential use case mentioned is something like the administration of Universal Basic Income (UBI), whereby the system would verify that people receive UBI and cannot claim duplicate payments. You could also extend that idea to things like government ID.

    The privacy concerns would probably prevent a roll-out in most Western markets, so it will be interesting to see if they can generate enough business in other markets.

  • morry040@kbin.socialtoWorld News@lemmy.ml•Young Chinese are getting paid to be 'full-time children' as jobs become harder to find | CNN Business
    23·
    11 months ago

    Greed and envy (the roots of capitalism) are basic human drivers that we all have. It takes a lot of discipline, ethics, and an altruistic moral code or belief system to negate that. Some individuals are capable of that, but there is no societal system that has been able to overcome it.
    We would never be able to completely move away from a capitalist system because it’s in our nature to want more, to be rewarded for our efforts, and to be jealous of others. It’s also why alternative systems never work as intended - the greed turns into corruption and ends up ruining the system.
    The best outcome is to establish guardrails that limit the extent of the greed that is allowed in the system.

  • morry040@kbin.socialtoWorld News@lemmy.ml•Spotify raises premium subscription price for millions
    6·
    1 year ago

    Aside from the VC funding that others have mentioned, being a publicly listed company means that there is a never-ending pursuit for increasing profits. Investors who buy stocks want to see a positive return. The problem with some tech platforms is that their product / service offering is already ideal, so their choices are to either spend money to innovative and build something new (risky!) or simply raise prices. Subscription pricing is ideal because it provides a consistent revenue base and allows the company to forecast what revenue is likely to be in the future.

  • morry040@kbin.socialtoWorld News@lemmy.ml•Evergrande: Crisis-hit Chinese property giant reveals $81bn loss
    11·
    1 year ago

    Why are those specific metrics more important than 5-year plans?

    Because a plan is just an intention or wishful thinking. Inflation data is an actual, measurable result.

    Inflation data is one of the most common economic measurements and it can be reasonably expected that every country should be able to not only report on the inflation metric itself, but provide details on the measurement and the methodology used so that every country, globally, knows that the metric reported by each country is transparent and credible. Understanding the methodology then allows analysts to investigate the underlying drivers of the inflation result, confirm its accuracy, and compare it between countries by using similar methodologies.

    Simply put, if a country can’t provide detailed explanations on how they determine an important metric like inflation, then what does that suggest about other metrics or results that they share?

  • morry040@kbin.socialtoWorld News@lemmy.ml•Australian state cancels 2026 Commonwealth Games over cost blowout
    4·
    1 year ago

    This quote was interesting from the Deputy Premier on ABC Radio Melbourne:

    Jacinta Allan said the higher than expected costs became apparent to the government in recent weeks.

    “We’ve been going through a tender process, we’ve been going through market soundings, where you’re presented with the actuals — not the estimates,” she said.

    The deputy premier said the original $2.6 billion budget estimate was figured out by consulting firms engaged by the government, including EY.

    Apparently, the government has no idea how to budget properly and then needs to spend money on consultants to check the numbers.