The majority of employees and google as a whole is more productive. Their stock is up 80% in the last 12 months. Do you have a better indicator of productivity correlated to p&l?
This is more then a handful of disaffected basement keyboard Nazis. It's millions of people. Many of them reasonably upset at censorship and ultimate determination of truth by a group of 20-30 something high-top sneaker wearing San Francisco people.
I'm sick of this response. These social media companies individually can reach billions of people with the ability (proven) to sway their thoughts and emotions (see Facebook, WHO, Reddit). Free speech must apply to public forums like this
Private organizations are allowed to decide how their property is used, including the type of speech it is used to facilitate. This is inherent to the concept of private property. I don't know why you think these companies are public forums. If there is a public forum in this space, it is the internet itself.
People who dislike the limits of these platforms have a variety of other venues on the internet to choose from, but what they are not at all entitled to is the automatic amplification of their voice by these large but private platforms.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that corporations have 1st Amendment rights.
You have to remember that "corporation" can mean any group organized for a purpose. It can be Exxon, but it can also be Planned Parenthood or AARP.
People who can't speak loudly enough by themselves have a right to organize into a corporation, pool their money, and speak loudly together.
You can argue that a business should not be both a commercial enterprise and a holder of 1st Amendment rights, but that's not what the law says. And anyway, it would be an impossible line to draw.
If we’re still talking about TikTok here, the concern is that they don’t have the right to free speech — that the rights on their platform is coopted by a government power.
I'm not still talking about TikTok. I support banning Chinese social networks or any network where China has censorship power (either explicit or through back doors).
I was responding narrowly about the idea that "free speech" demands that the US govt can force companies to choose what to publish.
Forcing a company to stop operating here is an entirely different concept.
Why? Yes, these websites reach a lot of people, but why is that a reason that the site owners should not be able to control the type of content appears on their site?
I was literally going to call them today to monitor my house's pre-existing ADT (DSC I think?) system out of practicality. Now, I'm not so sure.
Edit I wonder what modern solutions exist in this space for takeover of old systems. It feels like every alarm system installed is designed to extract your money for components for 3 years or so and then immediately become "discontinued." Most of the companies I see want me to buy a new system and lock into 3 years of monitoring. It wouldn't be so bad if the components weren't so damned expensive. $1k to fit out a small house, no smarthome nonsense even.
We just bought an old house that had been nicely taken cared for. There's an existing wired alarm system which must have taken a lot of work to install. I just installed my first server rack in the basement for network-attached storage and to run services locally, including Home Assistant [1]. I'm looking at Konnected [2], which makes an aftermarket alarm panel interface. I'd love to hear what else folks have done.
konnected.io looks fascinating. It seems to focus on wired systems, but I believe the system I own is just an "old" wireless system. I'll look for something similar for wireless systems. At least what I want seems possible!
Its been a few years since I looked. But yeah.. basically all the consumer and general commercial monitoring is centralized to be handled by ADT. Hardware is all from honeywell or a few others. Companies like frontpoint etc handle customer acquisition, support, Billing, and distribution. Most of the “apps” and alarm system configuration is also reskinned ADT.
There are a couple small companies that provide more access to your own hardware. You can use their centralized system to send yourself alerts etc. Having police/fire/medical dispatch gets back them paying ADT to process those alerts. If you want to start in this direction I was happy with suretyhome.com.
Edit: regarding consumer hardware its all either zigbee or z-wave these days. A DIY system (like with surety) is generally all compatible and Id ball park more like $3-400 for hardware. If you use one of the bigger players they use custom firmware & lock down the panel/sensor management to ensure you pay them a nice markup.
Originally I had a local electric company take over our security system's sensors - it seems like the sensors are mostly standardized hardware where the sensors just read open or closed to some central hardware box, and the actual monitoring is handled by some third party. Might be worth investigating.It would have been a factor of ~1k more expensive to go with ADT for us.
This works if you have one of the wired systems, which are common on systems installed while the house was being built. All of the sensors are pretty easy to hook up, and there's even a DIY kit available from this company https://konnected.io/ if you're into that sort of thing
However, my alarm was added well after the house was built, and they used wireless sensors so they wouldn't have to open up any walls. These all use a proprietary protocol, which probably could be reverse engineered by someone smarter than me, but no drop in solutions exist. I am in the process of replacing all of them with Z-wave sensors to use with home-assistant, but removing them means re-painting all of the window trim.
Yeah, they can install a cheap TrendNet PoE switch and a handful of cheap offbrand cameras, and charge you for them monthly into perpetuity. After that contract point to repay for the equipment, it's highly profitable, as it turns one time costs into a recurring fee.
I’d love to hear your argument for doing anything other than opening up back to normal (not the new normal) while the elderly and at risk continue staying at home (in addition to anyone that feels more comfortable staying home).
How do you propose to go back to "normal" because of your own "(in addition to anyone that feels more comfortable staying home)."
It would get worse, there, too, if people did return to normal and cases spiked. Versus cities that are now in "new normal" and still full of people being much more cautious.
If cases didn't spike - there are those who believe the flattening of case rates isn't a result of behavioral changes but was some hidden factor - then "the new normal" will continue, but you won't be back to the old one.
If cases do spike, "the new normal" will get even less close to the old normal, because more and more people will self-select back into staying home.
Otherwise you have to get a way more coherent government plan to get on top of the spread. Like tracking and finding and isolating cases fast. And doing more to protect the people in essential jobs which are conducive for big outbreaks.
US Corporations do not have the power to 'stand up to China'.
People need to start to understand that when it comes to major international players, over $50B, that are related to state actors - then it's a geopolitical question as much as an economic one.
TikTok is not just a company, it's a strategic arm of the Chinese government.
China 'divides and conquers' and pushes ruthlessly on any and all entities in pursuit of its goals. They coordinate student groups on Western Uni campuses to oversee Chinese students, suppress any ideas or policies in their way. They threaten any politician, and the press from publishing or making statements they're not happy with.
They use the 'carrot' of access to their huge market, but often this is a ruse - as they require foreign companies to hand over IP to local companies, this IP filters into the hands of state-backed competitors and the entrant never has an opportunity. All of this is in blatant contradiction to WTO terms.
The Western companies that have made inroads are ones that have a lot of brand value, think McDonald's or Disney, but even then, China can have leverage: Big Hollywood films are made for global audiences, and China is a big market over which the government censors and controls content. China dictate terms to major Hollywood studios - and said studios comply - or are banned. It's that simple.
"If you do not promote our policies, and portray China a certain way, you do not get access to our market. So here is how you are going to portray us: ..."
Only the US President or the leader of the EU with the backing of the German Chancellor has the hope of applying pressure on China in any serious way. The Europeans won't so it's down to the US president.
Trump is blustering, nationalist, and not quite focused on the right things in 'standing up to China' and I think he might be doing it for some of the wrong reasons, nevertheless, he is doing it, and actually it is working. He has mostly a competent team doing it.
China's tactics have made a lot of talk behind closed doors around the world and even Dems, Europeans - everyone - is actually happy about this.
Sadly, it may be that the next administration may not have the wherewithal to continue to push for better terms because it does require a fairly steadfast and aggressive approach inconsistent with the personal manner of say, a guy like Obama, whom I admire quite a lot, but who I don't think will do what is needed.
Assume that anything you say on Zoom or TikTok could be made available fairly readily to the Chinese government and that they will leverage control of TikTok for whatever reason they want, consistent with their overall geopolitical strategy.
> Assume that anything you say on Zoom or TikTok could be made available fairly readily to the Chinese government and that they will leverage control of TikTok for whatever reason they want, consistent with their overall geopolitical strategy.
