websites2022 (u/websites2022)

websites2022 commented on Sgt. Pepper’s to get new Atmos mix: current version ‘doesn’t sound quite right’ theverge.com/2021/7/30/22... · Posted by u/Tomte

gdubs · 5 years ago

In some cases the mono mixes were the ones the Beatles themselves were present for. Some of the stereo mixes were the audio engineers experimenting on their own — this is why Beatles mono mixes are highly sought-after. Can’t recall whether Sgt. Pepper’s was a mono mix originally, but probably an easy search to find out — I’m too lazy to go to my bookshelf and flip through to the Beatles studio notes at the moment…

websites2022 · 5 years ago

Sgt. Pepper was indeed a mono mix originally, that was the version that the Beatles themselves oversaw. But, the new mixes are fantastic!

websites2022 commented on WeChat suspends new user registration for security compliance reuters.com/technology/te... · Posted by u/dyslexit

onethought · 5 years ago

Using western propaganda to strengthen a western propaganda point.

There are lots of communist party members in lots of organisations. Just like there are lots of republicans in organisations.

But the premise that you are trying to support is: ccp “controls” all the companies. Not: ccp membership can be found in lots of companies.

websites2022 · 5 years ago

“For us small businesses, we have no choice but to follow the party,” says Li Jun, a 50-year-old owner of a fish-farming business in the eastern Jiangsu province. “Even so, we’re not benefiting at all from government policies.” [0]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-xi-clampdown-private-sect...

websites2022 commented on WeChat suspends new user registration for security compliance reuters.com/technology/te... · Posted by u/dyslexit

onethought · 5 years ago

There are 26 million (official) companies in china. Just to orchestrate such a thing would require an entire department/ministry... could you point out which part of the chinese government apparatus that is?

This is just the normal Chinese gov control everything narrative that people who've basically not spent a lot of time in china tell themselves for whatever reasons.

CCP preserves CCPs power. That's its main focus, it controls what it needs to, to do that. Which it achieves by controlling just the top tier business like 10-20 of them. The other 25,999,980 businesses would likely never hear anything from the CCP in any meaningful way.

This is not dissimilar to how government has fairly significant influence over Amazon/Apple/Facebook etc in the US.

Note: I'm not defending CCP here, they do stupid/bad stuff but controlling every single business is not one of them.

websites2022 · 5 years ago

"The party’s efforts to place itself inside private companies have been, according to its own figures, very successful. One recent survey by the Central Organisation Department, the party’s personnel body, found that 68% of China’s private companies had party bodies by 2016, and 70% of foreign enterprises. Although these figures sound high, they don’t match the targets the party has set for itself. In Xi’s old stamping ground of Zhejiang, for example, officials set a target in August 2018 to have cells inside 95% of private businesses. There was a need, the survey said, to retain the revolutionary spirit inside the companies as their ownership was handed on to the next generation."[0]

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/china-business...

websites2022 commented on She risked everything to expose Facebook. Now she’s telling her story technologyreview.com/2021... · Posted by u/sss111

ALittleLight · 5 years ago

"When she received Facebook’s offer, she was upfront with her recruiter: she didn’t think the company was making the world better, but she would join to help fix it."

I don't get people who think like this. They're hiring you to be a "low level data scientist" not CEO. How would you possibly change a giant company?

websites2022 · 5 years ago

The only people who ever changed the world are the ones who thought they could.

websites2022 commented on Tesla is offering a $1500 upgrade for early cars to support “full self-driving” electrek.co/2021/07/18/te... · Posted by u/watchdogtimer

dcow · 5 years ago

Perhaps this is true. I suspect there's a strong preference to convert low margin buyers to high margin buyers, though. And as a high margin buyer it doesn't sit well with me knowing Tesla is subsidizing free HW upgrades out of my purchase price so it just feels like moving the problem around not actually solving it. That was my point, really. The money has to come from somewhere it seems Tesla wasn't as tactical as they could have been when considering the optics here. And the good thing is it's not hard to change and they have demonstrated history of correcting for price fluctuations in FSD costs, so there's fair hope they'll address any perceived gaps. Personally I think a 6 mo minimum subscription term or a "you get 6 months free with purchase of the hardware" promotion would be a great middle ground that lets purchasers attach long enough to fund the upgrade naturally.

websites2022 · 5 years ago

I don’t mean to be blunt, so please don’t take offense when I say this in response:

>And as a high margin buyer it doesn't sit well with me knowing Tesla is subsidizing free HW upgrades out of my purchase price so it just feels like moving the problem around not actually solving it.

You shouldn’t buy high margin products if you care what the company does with the high margin. The same goes for Apple products. Apple’s high margin goes to pay devs and for decades long R+D products, many of them will fail. It also goes to pay settlements when they fuck up. Them’s the breaks.

websites2022 commented on Tesla is offering a $1500 upgrade for early cars to support “full self-driving” electrek.co/2021/07/18/te... · Posted by u/watchdogtimer

dcow · 5 years ago

Would it be better optics if they just amortized the cost of those old HW upgrades into the recurring monthly price or if they had a minimum 6 mo commitment for the subscription FSD?

websites2022 · 5 years ago

Amortizing the cost would be better, without telling the user. Just charge everyone the same and factor in the cost of the free upgrade to the users with HW2.5. It’s not like this isn’t how it’s done elsewhere. High margin buyers subsidize low margin buyers all the time.

websites2022 commented on Tesla is offering a $1500 upgrade for early cars to support “full self-driving” electrek.co/2021/07/18/te... · Posted by u/watchdogtimer

dcow · 5 years ago

I only own one Tesla so I guess I don't win in that department.

Anyway, this was all before the subscription package. Things are not the same as they were in 2016 with the introduction of the 200/mo subscription. By saying "your cars have the hardware to do FSD" it means they're fitted with all the required accessories. If Tesla needs to give them a more powerful computer as a complementary upgrade once they purchase FSD, so be it. It doesn't make sense for Tesla to just ship out a bunch of the more powerful chips to people who never intend on using FSD. And like we've already covered, if you purchase FSD in full, the chip is entirely free.

I guess it comes down to whether you'd rather have a subscription or not. Either FSD remains only accessible in a "bulk purchase attached to the car" capacity, or Telsa figures out how to work the economics of adding in a subscription model. I tend to think this subscription model opens up FSD to more people than not having it, so I think it's a net positive.

websites2022 · 5 years ago

>Things are not the same as they were in 2016 with the introduction of the 200/mo subscription.

This does not change the fundamental fact that Tesla promised something and then did not deliver it. That is, they promised that the hardware shipping with the vehicles 2016 onward were FSD capable. They are not. Remember —- they took investor cash after this announcement. That matters.

> It doesn't make sense for Tesla to just ship out a bunch of the more powerful chips to people who never intend on using FSD.

By this you mean: “It isn’t in Tesla’s best immediate financial interest.” But we have laws and norms in place in the US to counter balance the interest of corporations vs that of customers. Two of those laws and norms is not lying to your customers and making them whole whole whenever you make a mistake.

As well, cars go through several owners. People purchased Teslas after the announcement with the value calculation that it was FSD capable. Tesla essentially robbed those customers of $1500 of resale value. That is, the customers expected to buy a car they could resell as FSD capable. Now they can’t.

websites2022 commented on Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education? slate.com/business/2021/0... · Posted by u/rustoo

skewart · 5 years ago

I bet Ferrari owners earn even more than that compared to people without Ferraris.

I don’t think that means we should tell young people to take out loans to buy a Ferrari because it’s a ticket to easy money.

When the only kids going to college were either rich or highly motivated then having a degree made you stand out and could open doors. When everyone gets a degree it doesn’t make you stand out any more. Instead, not having a degree makes you look bad. (And unlike high school, which anyone can attend for free, most kids in the US need to take on a lot of debt just so the don’t get left behind.)

websites2022 · 5 years ago

>When everyone gets a degree it doesn’t make you stand out any more.

Then let’s talk when we get closer to everyone having a degree. 33% is not everyone and “a degree” is not a single product that can be compared 1:1 across each instance.

> most kids in the US need to take on a lot of debt just so the don’t get left behind

The average student loan debt for undergraduate degrees is $28,950. This is not “a lot of debt.”

According to the valuation analysts at Kelley Blue Book, the estimated average transaction price for a light vehicle in the United States was $37,876 in 2020.

That is to say, on average, students are taking on the debt for a 4 year education, that sets them up on average to earn a million dollars more in their lifetime than their peers who don’t, for less than the average transaction price for a light vehicle — an asset that depreciates ~20% when you take it off the lot.

And you get the keep the credentials a lot longer.

websites2022 commented on Tesla is offering a $1500 upgrade for early cars to support “full self-driving” electrek.co/2021/07/18/te... · Posted by u/watchdogtimer

alisonkisk · 5 years ago

it's more like selling you an Xbox and then never releasing any games, and then selling Xbox 360 and games.

the original can (theoretically) play games, but no one with a license wrote any.

websites2022 · 5 years ago

Except there is no 3rd party license to make software for Tesla. To make your metaphor apt, it would have to be “Selling you an Xbox that they claim can play Witcher 3 but then requiring you to buy Xbox 360 to play it.”

websites2022 commented on Tesla is offering a $1500 upgrade for early cars to support “full self-driving” electrek.co/2021/07/18/te... · Posted by u/watchdogtimer

gimmeThaBeet · 5 years ago

I agree, It's one of the things where I feel I hate the opinion, but it is what it is.

If the promise boils down to the blog announcement on their blog, the line is 'all Tesla vehicles produced in our factory – including Model 3 – will have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.'

IMO (not a lawyer), it feels like they didn't tell you it would be the latest, greatest, continually supported in perpetuity, never changing hardware. They told you it had hardware that could support a full self-driving system that is safer than a human. Hardware that they do not support now.

I haven't interacted with any Tesla sales folks, but I feel like if you asked about a commitment like this, even before this subscription service, no one is going to commit to that.

They made it clear it's up to you to purchase the self-driving software, and that is where all the magic is. And to boot, the available agreement when people purchased the car is still on the table; if you give them $10k, they will give you hardware. If you want the subscription, you need to have/acquire the supported hardware.

If they had a contract like a phone (which dislike that business model) where you commit to X months, I could see it. But I too wouldn't want to be handing these out to have people cancel after a month.

websites2022 · 5 years ago

> They told you it had hardware that could support a full self-driving system that is safer than a human.

And this turned out to not be true, because if it were, they would have released FSD on this hardware.

Just imagine if Microsoft sold you PC hardware that they claimed would support windows 11 back in 2016, but now require a processor upgrade to support it. This is exactly the same situation.