This is reported on as if the loopholes allowing foreign money into US politics was not intentional in the first place. It would be quite simple to close these sorts of holes, but those in charge have generally made use of loopholes, and so are not about to close off their funding sources.
Readit NewsJohnGB commented on Loophole allows foreign money to flow into super PACs through shell companies issueone.org/articles/new... · Posted by u/hammock
JohnGB commented on Gov. DeSantis signs bill banning most direct-to-consumer auto sales floridapolitics.com/archi... · Posted by u/twiddling
What happened to Republicans and small government?
Google's entire process is opaque and open to dodgy behaviour. I had an app which was growing really well with about 5-10k downloads a day growing at about 20% a week and an average rating of 4.8 stars over a few thousand reviews. Suddenly this is tanking overnight and when we look into the data, we have twice as many new uninstalls per day as we do downloads a day. Next to no uninstalls from existing users, no change in the ratings, and no technical outages. It looked like a bot farm was just installing and immediately (as in less than a minute later) uninstalling the app over and over again. Google decided that this meant the app was bad, and we went from position 2-5 for our main keywords to not even in the top 50 overnight. I tried appealing, and tried getting information, but Google did absolutely nothing about it.
Wow, that's going to teach them a lesson! A whole $8.5M - That's literally only 23 minutes of 2022 revenue lost (I did the maths). I'm sure they will never do it again, despite the fact that they likely made way more than $8.5M from doing it.
If we want companies to stop doing illegal things, then the punitive consequences need to be so high that they prioritise not doing it. If a person steals $100, they could spend a decent amount of time in jail for it. Time that is worth a lot more than then $100 benefit they received. Companies want all the benefits of being a "person", so let's apply the same principles to them.
JohnGB commented on Mandatory helmet laws make cyclists less safe bicycling.com/culture/a29... · Posted by u/substation13
The Netherlands did a study on bike helmets and found that cars tend to be more dangerous with cyclists if the cyclists are wearing a helmet, which is why there are no mandatory bicycle helmet laws in the Netherlands. However, it's worth noting that the cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands also for the most part separates bikes and cars with more than just a line of paint, so their experience may not translate well to other countries with poor cycling infrastructure.
JohnGB commented on Mcmaster.com is the best e-commerce site I've ever used bedelstein.com/post/mcmas... · Posted by u/runxel
Mechanical Engineer and product designer here. I've been using mcmaster daily for 20 years to do my job. It is definitely the standard by which all others are judged. I'll gladly pay 2, 3, 5, even 10x the price to get it from McMaster. The service, the CAD models, I have what I need the next day. As an example of the level of their service, you can send them a box of loose parts, no part numbers, no markings, and they'll go through it, figure out what's what, and refund you for it. They make it so easy, you just have to do the engineering. Thank you McMaster-Carr.
Oh how I wish Mcmaster would open an EU branch... I don't even mind if they charge us more, but PLEASE for the love of all engineers in Europe, just open a branch here.
JohnGB commented on Apple expands Self Service Repair to Mac notebooks apple.com/newsroom/2022/0... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti
I tried replacing a broken speaker on my old Macbook Pro. I followed a very detailed guide from ifixit and it involved removing the motherboard, disconnecting 7 different ribbon cables, and keeping track of the exact location of 30 different screws of various sizes.
I've done a fair share of self-repair on various laptops and smartphones I owned and this was by far the scariest one. It didn't seem like something an average person can pull off easily.
That's because those laptops were specifically designed to not be easily repairable. The new ones are complying with EU regulations, and so are easier to repair.
JohnGB commented on Apple expands Self Service Repair to Mac notebooks apple.com/newsroom/2022/0... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti
As someone who has repaired Apple devices over the years, swearing under my breath each time they put new hurdles in the way, it is so refreshing to see a full repair manual for my relatively new phone [0]. Lots of negativity in the comments but it is so relieving to see Apple change course and lift the curtain.
Also adding to the anecdotes with my own: I have never needed a case for my phones or computers, and have barely even scratched the shell. I go on adventures for a good portion of the year and still manage to keep it intact, so i scratch my head when people say they break easily or that they always shatter their screen, it really seems to go beyond accidental damage and stray into carelessness.
[0] https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/2000/MA2074/en_US/iph...
It's not as if Apple didn't do everything they could to not do this. They were forced kicking and screaming by the EU to do this, and now they are trying to take credit for doing it.
JohnGB commented on Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019) henricodolfing.com/2019/1... · Posted by u/sogen
I have a background in electricity regulation and policy analysis. A good friend (who knows nothing about energy regulation or science got assigned as a senior consultant in one of the big 5 consulting firms to advise a national energy producer on their technical and economic strategy for a new plant.
So, she asked me if I could spare a few hours to sit with her and get her up to speed on electricity regulation and policy so that she would "know all about it" for the kickoff meeting in two days time...
JohnGB commented on EU Digital Markets Act, aimed at Google, Apple, Amazon, approved consilium.europa.eu/en/pr... · Posted by u/Gareth321
One would think that if there is truly a Europe wide market for such an unlocked device a competitor should be able to challenge Apple and Google dominance. Europe could even subsidize it.
But instead, it’s more engineering by bureaucrats. Why is Europe so afraid of competing in the open market?
That's an ironic take given that these rules are there to take away monopoly power and have an actual open market.