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lopatir wrote: - if you've got 100,000,000 customers and 1,000,000 (1%) complain not one of them knows what you're doing with their data until there's a leak, then another leak, then another leak...
How can you possibly defend their behaviour?
And your writing off a few hundred dollars is hardly the same as the big four writing off tens of billions each.
Think how many people could be hired to teach religion in schools, for that money.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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it's all about scale, bigger you are easier to throw mud that will stick to it.Mark_Wallace wrote: Think how many people could be hired to teach religion in schools, for that money.
sadly they would more likely be taught tax avoidance (which at least is legal as opposed to tax evasion which isn't.)
- again it's just scale: my (and 100,000 other small businesses) beer fridge, alphabets private jet(s).
what's the difference?
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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lopatir wrote: - again it's just scale: my (and 100,000 other small businesses) beer fridge, alphabets private jet(s).
what's the difference?
You pay most of your taxes.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I'd get me a private jet, but the parking really ain't cheap 
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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Getting shouted at by Swedish teenagers is a bit of a downer, too.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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lopatir wrote: (which at least is legal as opposed to tax evasion which isn't.)
What is and isn't legal tends to change with time.
Ethics are an evolutionary handicap.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Yes, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and other big (tech) companies do what other companies would do too, given the chance.
That doesn't make it less evil.
People kill, and so do other people, and it's just what every killer wants, but that doesn't mean killing is good.
And not every company mistreats employees, sells their customer data or sells at ridiculous prices.
The point with these big companies is that they've grown so big, other businesses can't compete anymore.
You can choose not to use Alphabet services, and more people do it, but there really aren't good alternatives for all services or the alternatives are evil too.
These companies, that are so rich you can't even imagine it, buy startups and kill them off, just to stifle innovation and competition.
These CEOs are the richest people in the world, richer than many countries, yet they underpay and mistreat employees, just to make even more money.
It's easy to say "just find another job", but these aren't the people that have so many job offers lined up.
Companies like Amazon even save on employee security, just so the richest man alive can become even richer.
These companies take your data and tell you they value your privacy, meanwhile they (secretly) sell it to the highest bidder.
Facebook or Twitter allowed for advertisers to target neo-nazis specifically.
Exxon did environment research in the 70's and 80's and concluded they were destroying it, instead of finding cleaner ways to do business they kept the research hidden and lobbied for new laws that would make sure they could continue what they were doing.
Microsoft helped China with "AI" projects that are used to monitor and oppress people.
Apple helped the Chinese government by taking an app down in Hong Kong, just so they could do business there.
Facebook has access to billions of people and they decide what you can and cannot see, that is almost literally the power to shape the world.
These companies are knowingly and willingly destroying the world and peoples lives just for some extra revenue.
And with their money they can bribe lawmakers or pressure governments, that's why many of these companies are still legal.
Just because it's legal what they're doing (and mind you, it often isn't, but the fines are spare change for these companies) doesn't mean they're not evil.
I want to pay less taxes too, but I don't have the money to pressure the government into agreeing with me, and that's an unfair advantage for these big companies.
Don't underestimate these companies, I'm sure even governments are afraid of what they can do.
I think this is where capitalism fails.
It's not a fair system, it's a system where the rich get richer and the poor ultimately get poorer.
Although it's probably one of the few systems where at least a lot of people can have decent incomes and living standards.
It's just not equal chances for everyone.
Too bad we don't have anything better yet.
That said, it's not ALL evil what they're doing and their services are often very good (which is how they grew so big), but I think it's dangerous and short-sighted to say "well, that's just business and others would do it too."
These companies are rich, mighty and potentially dangerous, and they should be kept in check.
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Sander Rossel wrote: Too bad we don't have anything better yet.
We do; you and I could work together, instead of compete; makes us both more resilient.
I throw my batteries in the grey bin, along with my glass and paper; I'm not going to recycle if the sh*t is simply shipped to Africa, and if machines are built to die within 10 years. I don't care about the environment, there's no need to; whatever we do to improve the air-quality becomes a reason for Schiphol to expand.
The playing field cannot be equal, since our best companies would "leave the country" (and supposedly leave the rich consumer for greener fields). Our economy is based on blackmail; without the health-insurance, I'd be bankrupt. Not because my medication is hard to make, but because it is patented and comes with a 700%+ profit margin.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: We do; you and I could work together, instead of compete; makes us both more resilient.
That's a utopia.
In that case, communism is an awesome alternative as well.
Too bad this stuff only works on paper.
Eddy Vluggen wrote: but because it is patented and comes with a 700%+ profit margin
I think that's something governments could fix, but they won't because of the power these companies have.
It's ridiculous though, these pharmaceuticals are actual maffia.
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Sander Rossel wrote: won't because of the power these companies have.
It's ridiculous though, these pharmaceuticals are actual maffia.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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lopatir wrote: that 1T$, came from people that paid them, so obviously they have something that people want to buy.
Have you paid them anything recently? Probably not. Ad companies paid that 1T$ to Google for the profiling data they have on everyone. I'm not that convinced that's something to be celebrated.
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Dollars becoming cheap 
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Are you kidding?
If someone tried to sell me printer paper at the price that a dollar bill costs (a dollar -- by pure coincidence, maybe), I'd laugh in their face!
A dollar for a tiny scrap of paper like that? I'd want at least 20 A3 sheets of baxter stock!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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gotta wonder with inflation and the actual price of making money when $1000 notes will make a comeback.
many countries have already dropped their 1 cent coins, too expensive, not that useful.
in fact even some banks complained, cost of counting, wrapping and storing them was more than their value - they could almost save money by throwing them away.
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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lopatir wrote: many countries have already dropped their 1 cent coins, too expensive, not that useful.
Are you kidding?
The English half pence coin (as opposed to the old ha'penny) was immensely useful -- for plumbing!
It was precisely the right size for making a stop-end out of a simple compression fitting! That made it worth about 75x its value when using it to pay for stuff!
If some idiotic-list-making web-site were to make a list of the world's most useful coins, betcha it'd be right up there at the top!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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1914 dollars in 2018 | Inflation Calculator[^]
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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in the early 70's my father bought a brand new car for exactly $2500. (even had the optional AM radio!!)
being a salesman he clocked it in just over 2 years and traded to the new model.
about 15 years later he said he saw it on a used car lot for $2500.
yeah he had a good memory for the plate numbers, had a lot of cars, could recall every one
also had exactly 1 mobile phone, with a phone number he never remembered,
... then again that made sense: only ever had it's battery charged up exactly once
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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Sweet!!!. I still own some stock
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Let me know when you've got the beer and the barbie ready.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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So .NET uses 16bit unicode by default, and with the territory comes the possibility of 32 bit codes embedded as surrogate pairs.
That's all well and good even if it complicates things.
However, .NET provides no functions for operating on those 32-bit values.
No char.IsWhiteSpace(). No GetUnicodeCategory(), nada.
So what the hell are you supposed to do with these values?
*angery*
Real programmers use butterflies
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Okay yes, but once i have that converted (either to a 32bit int, or a double-char string, i can't do anything with it.
I can't call char.IsWhiteSpace with it.
I can't do anything but print its value. Which is stupid
Real programmers use butterflies
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ASCII FTW! 127 characters should be enough for anyone!
I'm not sure there are any whitespace characters that would be encoded as a surrogate pair:
Whitespace character - Wikipedia[^]
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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And EBCDIC - everybody always forgets EBCDIC 
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And sixbit on DEC's PDP systems!
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