54 replies to this topic

[stocks]

Facebook Fraud - "Facebook's revenue is based on fake likes. Most of the likes on my page are fake.'

I know first-hand that Facebook's advertising model is deeply flawed. When I paid to promote my page I gained 80,000 followers in developing countries who didn't care about the product.

A click farm is a form of click fraud, where a large group of low-paid workers is hired to click on paid advertising links for the click fraudster. The workers click the links, surf the target website for a period of time, and possibly sign up
for newsletters prior to clicking another link.

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The push by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to expand the number of visas for high-tech foreign workers is an attempt to dilute a lucrative job market with cheap, indentured labor.

H1-B Visas: Clever Trick for Cheap Tech Talent

I have a hard time understanding the notion that there's a severe need for more workers from abroad when wages for these jobs rose only 4.5 percent between 2000 and 2011. You see stagnant wages for high skilled workers, when these companies tell you that they desperately need high skilled workers. Why not raise wages to attract those workers?

In February 2013, Matloff published a report through the Economic Policy Institute, which came to two somewhat controversial conclusions about foreign students that graduate through U.S. programs.

He found that "on a variety of measures, the former foreign students have talent lesser than, or equal to, their American peers."

http://www.inc.com/e...ap-labor.html/1

Mark Zuckerberg, Billionaire Parasite

The importance of having a network that is free and open

The internet was created by government and runs on open source software. Nobody "owns" it. Yet on this "free" foundation, colossal enterprises and fortunes have been built – a fact that the neoliberal fanatics who run internet companies often seem to forget. Berners-Lee could have been as rich as Croesus if he had viewed the web as a commercial opportunity. But he didn't – he persuaded Cern that it should be given to the world as a free resource. So the web in its turn became, like the internet, a platform for permissionless innovation. That's why a Harvard undergraduate was able to launch Facebook on the back of the web.

Many of the things that are built on the web are neither free nor open

Mark Zuckerberg was able to build Facebook because the web was free and open. But he hasn't returned the compliment: his creation is not a platform from which young innovators can freely spring the next set of surprises. The same holds for most of the others who have built fortunes from exploiting the facilities offered by the web. The only real exception is Wikipedia.

The web is now dominated by corporations

Despite the fact that anybody can launch a website, the vast majority of the top 100 websites are run by corporations. The only real exception is Wikipedia.

Web dominance gives companies awesome (and unregulated) powers

Take Google, the dominant search engine. If a Google search doesn't find your site, then in effect you don't exist. And this will get worse as more of the world's business moves online. Every so often, Google tweaks its search algorithms in order to thwart those who are trying to "game" them in what's called search engine optimisation. Every time Google rolls out the new tweaks, however, entrepreneurs and organisations find that their online business or service suffers or disappears altogether. And there's no real comeback for them.


http://www.theguardi...tim-berners-lee

[stocks]

The importance of having a network that is free and open

The internet was created by government and runs on open source software. Nobody "owns" it. Yet on this "free" foundation, colossal enterprises and fortunes have been built – a fact that the neoliberal fanatics who run internet companies often seem to forget. Berners-Lee could have been as rich as Croesus if he had viewed the web as a commercial opportunity. But he didn't – he persuaded Cern that it should be given to the world as a free resource. So the web in its turn became, like the internet, a platform for permissionless innovation. That's why a Harvard undergraduate was able to launch Facebook on the back of the web.

Many of the things that are built on the web are neither free nor open

Mark Zuckerberg was able to build Facebook because the web was free and open. But he hasn't returned the compliment: his creation is not a platform from which young innovators can freely spring the next set of surprises. The same holds for most of the others who have built fortunes from exploiting the facilities offered by the web. The only real exception is Wikipedia.


http://www.theguardi...tim-berners-lee

The Cult of Jobs

A Comment:

It's baffling to me that Steve Jobs, whose company's very expensive products would mostly be useless without the web is a hero to so many while Berners-Lee is a relatively anonymous figure.

Imagine if Apple had invented the web (I'm sure many Macheads think Jobs came up with the idea while getting high in an ashram)...they'd charge a fee to everyone for using it, control it's content rigourously, and go thermonuclear on anyone who came up with an open-source alternative.

I say it's time to replace the cult of Jobs with the cult of Berners-Lee.


http://www.theguardi...tim-berners-lee

[stocks]

The push by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to expand the number of visas for high-tech foreign workers is an attempt to dilute a lucrative job market with cheap, indentured labor.

H1-B Visas: Clever Trick for Cheap Tech Talent

I have a hard time understanding the notion that there's a severe need for more workers from abroad when wages for these jobs rose only 4.5 percent between 2000 and 2011. You see stagnant wages for high skilled workers, when these companies tell you that they desperately need high skilled workers. Why not raise wages to attract those workers?
labor.html/1[/url]

Mark Zuckerberg, Billionaire Parasite

The importance of having a network that is free and open

The internet was created by government and runs on open source software. Nobody "owns" it. Yet on this "free" foundation, colossal enterprises and fortunes have been built – a fact that the neoliberal fanatics who run internet companies often seem to forget. Berners-Lee could have been as rich as Croesus if he had viewed the web as a commercial opportunity. But he didn't – he persuaded Cern that it should be given to the world as a free resource. So the web in its turn became, like the internet, a platform for permissionless innovation. That's why a Harvard undergraduate was able to launch Facebook on the back of the web.

Zuckerberg and Jobs shared the same business philosophy:

"You do the work, I get the money."

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The great growth cycle of Silicon Valley is ending. It lasted 36 years (1978-2014)

They can kiss their techno-toys and gossip-enabling software goodbye. The fall is going to be very painful for them - and for California.

Gay activists throw a tantrum, Silicon Valley folds like a cheap suit.

Leftist Thought-Gangsters Strike Again

This politically correct thought control is getting out of hand. For a disturbing percentage of people on the left, freedom doesn't matter, nor do tolerance, inclusiveness and compassion. If you don't have the correct views -- e.g., if you believe that marriage should still be defined as being between one man and one woman -- you are not entitled to respect or even to the same rights and freedoms as others. The rationale is that because of your "intolerance" and "hate," you are of a different class, a subspecies -- vermin -- and you forfeit the privilege of being tolerated and deserve to be treated with hate yourself.

But not all these Stalinists on the left are so open about their own bigotry. To be sure, they support the mistreatment of people like Brendan Eich, who committed the unpardonable sin of voting for California's Proposition 8, but they "nuance" their arguments to depict themselves as less tyrannical.


http://townhall.com/...akingOnTownhall

[stocks]

Don't lose sleep over Heartbleed hysteria

Security software is a huge industry that has a vested interest in keeping us afraid

A few years before the Lovebug virus struck, internet users got into an even greater panic courtesy of the Millennium Bug. This was a software glitch that was going to be the end of the world as we knew it. There were confident predictions that the global banking system would collapse; even that the Third World War would start. IT consultants rubbed their hands with glee as we happily handed over between $0.3 trillion and $1.4 trillion (estimates vary) to make Y2K go away. The whole thing was hype, of course, but that is the thing with wizards; they are very good at magicking money out of thin air and gullibility.



http://www.telegraph...d-hysteria.html

[dougie]

the author of that article has not a clue.

Don't lose sleep over Heartbleed hysteria

Security software is a huge industry that has a vested interest in keeping us afraid

A few years before the Lovebug virus struck, internet users got into an even greater panic courtesy of the Millennium Bug. This was a software glitch that was going to be the end of the world as we knew it. There were confident predictions that the global banking system would collapse; even that the Third World War would start. IT consultants rubbed their hands with glee as we happily handed over between $0.3 trillion and $1.4 trillion (estimates vary) to make Y2K go away. The whole thing was hype, of course, but that is the thing with wizards; they are very good at magicking money out of thin air and gullibility.



http://www.telegraph...d-hysteria.html

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The Mirage of the 'New Economy'

Social networking is all the rage today. Putting aside its potential as a business, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on economy-wide productivity. Yes, people have a place to publicize what they are doing every day, but does it make any difference to the economy? One could argue that social networking sites are just places for people to express their narcissism cheaply.

Online gaming has become the real money spinner. Of course, it is bad for economic productivity. All those people who are addicted to online gaming are less productive. The worst is its impact on young people. Its financial success is partly due to a lack of regulation of content. Sex and violence are restricted in print media, TV and film. Standards in online games are not present.

Youth addiction to online gaming has seriously damaged the physical fitness and academic achievement of a whole generation. It is amazing that government is not regulating it like other harmful and addictive yet entertaining products like cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, etc. This is really due to the aura that anything online has in today's world. One day, governments and consumers will realize that the Internet world is just like the physical world, where some products are useful, some frivolous and some so harmful they need to regulated.


http://english.caixi.../100654231.html

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If Steve Jobs were alive today, would he be in jail?

For all his gifts and talents, Jobs seems to have been sociopathic, psychopathic, narcissistic

Jobs could have been a great religious cult leader,” said Malone. “Or a political dictator. Or a drug lord. Or a crime syndicate boss.”

Stewart recounts the option backdating scandal that could’ve easily sent Jobs to prison eight years ago.

Mr. Jobs “was a walking antitrust violation,” said Herbert Hovenkamp, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and an expert in antitrust law. “I’m simply astounded by the risks he seemed willing to take.”


http://www.forbes.co...-of-capitalism/

[stocks]

The push by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to expand the number of visas for high-tech foreign workers is an attempt to dilute a lucrative job market with cheap, indentured labor.

H1-B Visas: Clever Trick for Cheap Tech Talent

In the March issue of The Atlantic, demographer Michael Teitelbaum of Harvard Law School summarized the literature on STEM. “No one has been able to find any evidence indicating current widespread labor market shortages or hiring difficulties in science and engineering occupations that require bachelor’s degrees or higher”

So if there is a superabundance of native and immigrant STEM workers and little wage growth, and STEM immigration already exceeds the absorption capacity of the STEM labor market, why are there calls to allow in even more? The answer, put simply, is greed and politics.

The businesses that want more immigration would get more workers to choose from, holding wages in check and increasing their bargaining power over their employees. What’s not to like? The Republicans listen to their corporate donors in Silicon Valley and elsewhere and respond by promising to increase STEM immigration even further.

Another reason that the “we need more STEM workers” argument is taken as gospel is that it is endorsed by many of America’s most prominent billionaire entrepreneurs, such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Their vested interest in holding wages down and improving their bargaining power vis-à-vis their workers goes unmentioned by the media that tend to just transcribe their press releases on the subject.

http://www.nationalr...de/378334/print