Other than being an obvious ad for their own AI, the article was pretty informative.

Per the article, the following were found to be affected. Probably anything by the publisher should not be trusted as they’re just a data mining company, so make sure not to download any rebrands or new releases from the same people. Chrome Web Store:

• Urban VPN Proxy - 6,000,000 users
• 1ClickVPN Proxy - 600,000 users
• Urban Browser Guard - 40,000 users
• Urban Ad Blocker - 10,000 users

Microsoft Edge Add-ons:

• Urban VPN Proxy - 1,323,622 users
• 1ClickVPN Proxy - 36,459 users
• Urban Browser Guard - 12,624 users
• Urban Ad Blocker - 6,476 users

Absolutely infuriating. I’m upset the judge did not award the full extent of monetary damages even though it’s evident that Verizon is in violation of multiple agreements.

I know it’s not how this works, but since the FCC put those rules in place as a condition of their acquisition of the other companies, and since they violated those rules, the government should be able to nationalize/seize the assets of the other companies. Verizon should not legally have them since they broke the agreement. I’d love to see not just a one time fine but a legitimate punishment. If this guy hadn’t done this they’d be knowingly violating their agreement still. The people doing this are disgusting and taking advantage of the people with the least amount of time and resources. I truly wish they all have the day they deserve.

Love that he thinks “if you know how to tell a great story you will love AI.” The whole point of AI is to cut out the telling a story part. In reality it’s “if you think you have a good idea for a story but don’t know how to tell one you’ll love whatever the AI spits out.” People who know how to do creative things don’t need AI to do it for them.

Yes, I agreed that it was a dissatisfaction thing, I was just commenting in the context of the whole thread where some are suggesting it’s because people have left the Trump cult or that it’s about charisma or whatever. This 1 in 10 figure is pretty standard now. I’ve made the argument previously that it really is more about ignorance than dissatisfaction, because truth be told I’m probably more dissatisfied than any of those crossover voters and I can actually list real specific reasons. You have to be really ignorant to think that this sort of crossover voting is good, regardless of if the person you’re voting for seems like an outsider or not. But yes, long story short, disruption seems to be a big part of it.

Not a you specific thing, but I hate when people cite these stats as though they’re significant, but in reality they are pretty standard for the past decade at least. I know people mostly do it because the media highlights them without comparable information or context and it just sticks in people’s heads. Plenty of people think things must be meaningful or significant just because there’s a headline, but this is not a new phenomenon.

Data shows that in 2016, these [Obama] voters comprised roughly 13% of Trump voters. In 2012, this segment of voters made up 9% of total Obama voters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama–Trump_voters

I agree that one of the themes is dissatisfaction though.

People often refer to the ACA as Obamacare. Obamacare did change requirements for employer provided health care, not just marketplace plans. So, prior to the ACA full time employees had certain benefits that part time employees did not. Post ACA there were changes to mandatory minimum benefits that employer healthcare packages provided. If you can articulate what the issue you are raising is, that would be helpful.

Also from my comment:

Obamacare mandates employers offer healthcare to people working 30 hrs a week.

Not the person you’re responding to, but I had the same questions. They didn’t come to mind as looking for a justification, only that it could possibly give some additional context. If she delivered there before and they had gotten into a verbal altercation for example, it would shed even more doubt on any excuse she might make. I’m not saying there’s no way she did that for no reason or for her cited reason, but it’s possible that a motive for doing that might be clear if we had that additional information.

Oh, definitely. And having 2 part time jobs, if you can manage it, often means you end up working more hours (25+25), and are still not given the benefits of a full time employee because you aren’t technically full time anywhere. It’s terrible and for what it’s worth I do feel bad for anon here. They are drinking the right wing kook aid, which sucks, but it’s an awful position to be in. There’s comments calling them a moron or that they just have to make minor changes etc, but the reality is, especially in these small towns, there’s not a lot of options and acting like it’s the fault of individuals is really missing the point.

For what it’s worth, Obamacare did technically add to the employer burden by making good healthcare a mandatory offering for full time employees, so I understand why some people have convinced themselves it’s the ACAs fault, but employers were doing the 25 hours thing to skirt other benefits way before Obamacare.

From my comment:

It’s also worth mentioning that employers did this even before Obamacare because there are other things that full time employees are entitled to that part time employees aren’t.

I commented above, but in the US some employers will refuse to give you more hours to keep you as a part time employee, since full time employees are guaranteed certain benefits. Those benefits include access to healthcare. They would rather hire 2 people part time than 1 person full time. This is not Obamacare’s fault, but for some reason people in the middle of nowhere who make very little money have convinced themselves that it’s Obama who’s to blame instead of the shitty companies and their shitty owners.

Obamacare mandates employers offer healthcare to people working 30 hrs a week. A lot of places will only allow you to be scheduled for less than 30 hours a week, even if you are able and willing to go full time. It’s stupid, but some people have convinced themselves that it’s Obamacare’s fault that their employer is shitty and the subsequent governments have been unwilling to close that loophole. It’s also worth mentioning that employers did this even before Obamacare because there are other things that full time employees are entitled to that part time employees aren’t.

Yes, thank you! My timing was wrong (I’m getting old lol), but this was the exact thing being discussed. Glad other people were able to find the info.

Yes! Thank you for the link! I can’t guarantee it but this seems like the exact thing we had been chatting about. The age puts it in time to have made the rounds but still be tech relevant at around the time of discussion.

Not to support Disney or IP/copyright laws here, but that’s not really how that works. A musician can choose to not be on Spotify but be on Apple Music. A movie can be licensed to Netflix and not Hulu. A writer can publish in one paper and refuse to work with another. I think for how these things currently work, that is an important right that holders can claim. If I’m an artist and I want to make an AI generator from just my art, that should not give other companies license to use my are to train their AI.

To a certain extent, isn’t it still enshitification? They lowered their standards (making the product/marketplace worse) to capture marketshare/increase profits.

Also, blaming consumers for being “bad at shopping” is certainly a take. What about the gold plated HDMI cables sold at a huge markup? More expensive doesn’t mean better and we can’t expect everyone to have the knowledge or ability or time to know about every single thing they purchase. Shitty companies are charging more for less and consumers are being squeezed. Photos are all manipulated and there’s no real way to know the quality from a picture. People are trying their best to get good products for their money without being scammed.

Yea. I didn’t call it AI because I’m not sure the exact method of generation. It may have been AI or maybe some other generation method.

I may be hallucinating now, but I swear I remember nearly a decade ago there was a paper or articles about how CG PCBs were using some electrical tricks that were non standard to minimize space or something. The design purposefully had arcs or short circuits or something. Maybe it was a temperature thing? I did a more than cursory search and couldn’t find much, but I vividly remember having conversations about it. Anyone remember anything like that?

This was great. I hope people click the link. The comments were hilarious:

So go back to the 🗣⬅➡⬅➡cluuuub⬅➡⬅➡🗣

Adam Driver in this movie looks, talks and acts like Snape if he was a thirty something tech bro on morphine, and also took losing Lily Potter even harder.

This is like if roman history and some philosophy books fell into a blender mixed in with Spy Kids and Star Wars prequels DVDs and this is what we got

Actress: “Let me give three different versions of this line so you can pick the one you like.” Coppola: “I hired the whole actress I’m gonna use tho whole acting!”

I agree with a lot of this but I think it’s excessive to say involvement in any ad makes you terrible. Local band puts up flyer at local bar. Karaoke MC says he’ll be at bar Y next week and back here same day next month. I don’t think that makes them bad people. I certainly don’t think it makes the people who designed the flyer bad people. I think ads have become bad and pervasive, but in reality they could and should serve a purpose. If there’s something I’d be interested in, I want to know about it, but there’s no way for me to subconsciously just get all of that information. Newsletters, another form of advertising, are a great way to do this, but those too have suffered. Ads could at least be somewhat informative, but now they’re all just “brand awareness”. I think that’s one of the big issues. I understand the perspective of wanting a 0 ad life, but I think a lot of that mindset comes from the abuse ads have done. Autoplay video ads? Abhorrent. Small ad on a bar website telling me when happy hour is? Helpful. That’s just my opinion, obviously, but I thought I’d mention as an alternative perspective.