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Former and current Microsofties react to the latest layoffs

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  • My current company recently had a huge round of layoffs. When I asked what leadership planned to do about the hit to morale, we were told we need to ask ourselves whether we really want to be here. I just tendered my two weeks' notice.

    I swear, such stories seem as if all these bosses really expected to become some sort of Soviet directors. There's no way they can expect this shit to work in a market economy.

    Maybe they really believe into that "replace everyone with AI" thing.

    Then we'll see evolution at work.

    I don't know why I feel that urge to compare what happens with western societies today to USSR. Probably has similarities with the moment when Soviet space dream found its' model's ceiling of capability.

  • MSFT is about as evil and shitty as a corpo can get. Helps that their products are terrible and anti-user. Anyway I hope everyone who gets laid off repents and uses their knowledge to harm the corpo.

    Article about how MSFT is increasingly turning to fascism

    I don't think it's reasonable to work for them in day and age and claim you know nothing of their wrong-doing.
    Even if you're working a menial job you're still turning a profit for one of the most evil corporations in the world. "Just following orders." or "Just paying bills." doesn't cut it.

  • I swear, such stories seem as if all these bosses really expected to become some sort of Soviet directors. There's no way they can expect this shit to work in a market economy.

    Maybe they really believe into that "replace everyone with AI" thing.

    Then we'll see evolution at work.

    I don't know why I feel that urge to compare what happens with western societies today to USSR. Probably has similarities with the moment when Soviet space dream found its' model's ceiling of capability.

    Maybe they really believe into that "replace everyone with AI" thing.

    A lot of ultra-wealthy people are incredible stupid, so, yes, this is likely.

  • Maybe they really believe into that "replace everyone with AI" thing.

    A lot of ultra-wealthy people are incredible stupid, so, yes, this is likely.

    If there's anything I've learned in my life, it's that I'm stupider than most. Maybe wiser at the same time, because being so stupid you evolve some wisdom or perish. Maybe.

    (Except I'm not sure it's wisdom that I've learned the girls I was too shy to talk to 5 years ago and last week live in the same building, same entrance, and yet I don't know how to talk to them, and I feel as if that day 5 years ago was closer to my infancy than today to my death. Autistic things are sometimes truly depressing.)

    People of this kind I've heard of seem very energetic. They may not always do the smartest thing, but they do it all the way in. Maybe that's what's wise.

    Though then why be a corporate executive. Doesn't seem anything desirable.

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    You know what the hilarious part is? They are ending support for Win 10 in October which essentially means that the OS will no longer receive security updates. But judging by this blind adoption of AI and the extreme loss of talent at Microsoft, I'm not sure their security will really be worth anything in a couple of years.

    I think it may be for the best that I'm using this impetus to migrate to Linux.

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    In the early 2000s I had a manager who hardly ever gave me anything to do. Like in 6 months I did maybe 3 weeks work. And it's not like I never asked. I was already fairly disgruntled and had other reasons, but it led to me leaving the company for a job at a cancer research center. The problem with not doing anything at MS is that unless you can hide it somehow your review comes up and you have nothing to show for the year, you're kind of screwed. So after a relaxing 6 months it was a good time to jump ship. Anyway, a couple years later I read MS was laying off like 600 people - which might have been their first layoffs ever, I dunno. It was supposed to clear out "deadwood" - so I checked after another couple months and found out my old manager was still there! So much for "clearing out deadwood" lol.

    Capitalism fanatics will say with great conviction that business has to be efficient because of competition, while government is inherently inefficient because it has no competition. There's a little truth there, but the complete truth is that business is as inefficient as it can afford to be. The more money a company has, the more inefficiency they can absorb. In my mind that's one good reason not to allow these gigantic mergers of mega-billion-dollar corporations. Huge entities with tons of money can be inefficient and sloppy as hell for a long, long time before they fail.

  • If there's anything I've learned in my life, it's that I'm stupider than most. Maybe wiser at the same time, because being so stupid you evolve some wisdom or perish. Maybe.

    (Except I'm not sure it's wisdom that I've learned the girls I was too shy to talk to 5 years ago and last week live in the same building, same entrance, and yet I don't know how to talk to them, and I feel as if that day 5 years ago was closer to my infancy than today to my death. Autistic things are sometimes truly depressing.)

    People of this kind I've heard of seem very energetic. They may not always do the smartest thing, but they do it all the way in. Maybe that's what's wise.

    Though then why be a corporate executive. Doesn't seem anything desirable.

    Autistic things are sometimes truly depressing.

    Absolutely. And figuring out how to interact with people, especially if they are people that you may find attractive for now intimate companionship (not trying to assume) is something that isn't generally explicitly taught. It probably should be though as doing so would significantly reduce interpersonal strife.

    If wanting or receptive to some advice from someone with AuADHD, I can share something that helps my brain in some in-person social situations. Sometimes, I reframe it as a "scene" where I am playing the character of Me. Not an exaggeration or non-authentic version of myself, more like "method acting". This tricks my brain into being more present and not worrying about possible futures or cringey things of the past.

    People of this kind I've heard of seem very energetic. They may not always do the smartest thing, but they do it all the way in. Maybe that's what's wise.

    For their benefit and the role that they in company structures, it is one approach that pays out for some. And it is one that's heavily promoted. However, it does effectively amount to gambling, albeit with minimal personal risk to the CEO, considering the level of connections and wealth required for the position, not to mention the Golden Parachutes that they have in their contracts, should they be replaced.

    Though then why be a corporate executive. Doesn't seem anything desirable.

    Generally, it's about accumulation of personal wealth and power, rather than actually believing in a given service or product. While to you and I, that may not seem desirable, to a certain percentage of the population, it is a principal drive. Unfortunately for us, and humanity at-large, there's also a statistically-significant increase in the incidence of anti-social personality disorder in those who pursue such positions, compared to the population average.

  • I don't think it's reasonable to work for them in day and age and claim you know nothing of their wrong-doing.
    Even if you're working a menial job you're still turning a profit for one of the most evil corporations in the world. "Just following orders." or "Just paying bills." doesn't cut it.

    i totally agree and i know a lot of people working for terrible companies whom i should give a lot more shit

  • Autistic things are sometimes truly depressing.

    Absolutely. And figuring out how to interact with people, especially if they are people that you may find attractive for now intimate companionship (not trying to assume) is something that isn't generally explicitly taught. It probably should be though as doing so would significantly reduce interpersonal strife.

    If wanting or receptive to some advice from someone with AuADHD, I can share something that helps my brain in some in-person social situations. Sometimes, I reframe it as a "scene" where I am playing the character of Me. Not an exaggeration or non-authentic version of myself, more like "method acting". This tricks my brain into being more present and not worrying about possible futures or cringey things of the past.

    People of this kind I've heard of seem very energetic. They may not always do the smartest thing, but they do it all the way in. Maybe that's what's wise.

    For their benefit and the role that they in company structures, it is one approach that pays out for some. And it is one that's heavily promoted. However, it does effectively amount to gambling, albeit with minimal personal risk to the CEO, considering the level of connections and wealth required for the position, not to mention the Golden Parachutes that they have in their contracts, should they be replaced.

    Though then why be a corporate executive. Doesn't seem anything desirable.

    Generally, it's about accumulation of personal wealth and power, rather than actually believing in a given service or product. While to you and I, that may not seem desirable, to a certain percentage of the population, it is a principal drive. Unfortunately for us, and humanity at-large, there's also a statistically-significant increase in the incidence of anti-social personality disorder in those who pursue such positions, compared to the population average.

    If wanting or receptive to some advice ...

    I have done this in the past, but I unfortunately also have BAD and sometimes abruptly drop habits, including useful ones, because they start feeling insincere. Hard to explain.

    This is a very precious reminder, cause the former just means that one has to start again and again.

    For their benefit and the role that they in company structures, it is one approach that pays out for some.

    It's also (hence why I've touched upon conditions) similar to the advice of "want to do something at all, do it badly", sometimes given to people with those involving executive dysfunction.

    Unfortunately for us, and humanity at-large, there’s also a statistically-significant increase in the incidence of anti-social personality disorder in those who pursue such positions, compared to the population average.

    Yes, I've had a pleasure (not really) of meeting such people.

    Anyway, if their common worldview is that we all live on some kind of ruins of a fallen empire, and they are going to be nobles of that society, that doesn't account for universal machines still being universal, and the technologies they rely upon being just as applicable the other way.

  • In the early 2000s I had a manager who hardly ever gave me anything to do. Like in 6 months I did maybe 3 weeks work. And it's not like I never asked. I was already fairly disgruntled and had other reasons, but it led to me leaving the company for a job at a cancer research center. The problem with not doing anything at MS is that unless you can hide it somehow your review comes up and you have nothing to show for the year, you're kind of screwed. So after a relaxing 6 months it was a good time to jump ship. Anyway, a couple years later I read MS was laying off like 600 people - which might have been their first layoffs ever, I dunno. It was supposed to clear out "deadwood" - so I checked after another couple months and found out my old manager was still there! So much for "clearing out deadwood" lol.

    Capitalism fanatics will say with great conviction that business has to be efficient because of competition, while government is inherently inefficient because it has no competition. There's a little truth there, but the complete truth is that business is as inefficient as it can afford to be. The more money a company has, the more inefficiency they can absorb. In my mind that's one good reason not to allow these gigantic mergers of mega-billion-dollar corporations. Huge entities with tons of money can be inefficient and sloppy as hell for a long, long time before they fail.

    Incredibly well said. And couldn't agree more!

    Especially after working as a game dev for Apple Arcade. We spent months proving to them their saving architecture was faulty and would lead to people losing their save file for each Apple Arcade game they play.

    We were ignored, and then told it was a dev problem.

    Cut to the launch of Arcade: every single game has several 1 star reviews about players losing their save files.

    This cannot be fixed by devs as it's an Apple problem, so devs have to figure out novel ways to prevent the issue from happening using their own time and resources.

    1.5 years later, Apple finishes restructuring the entire backend of Arcade, fixing the problem. They tell all their devs to reimplement the saving architecture of their games to be compliant with Apples new backend or get booted from Arcade. This costs devs months of time to complete for literally zero return (Apple Arcade deals are upfront - little to no revenue is seen after launch).

    Apple used their trillions of dollars to ignore a massive backend issue that affected every player and developer on Apple Arcade. They then forced every dev to make an update to their game at their own expense just to keep it listed on Arcade. All while directing user frustration over the issue towards developers instead of taking accountability for launching a faulty product.

    Literally, these companies are run by sociopaths that have egos bigger than their paychecks. Issues like this are ignored as it's easier to place the blame on someone down the line. People like your manager end up getting promoted to the top of an office heirachy of bullshit, and everything the company makes just gets worse until whatever corpse is left is sold for parts to whatever bigger dumb company hasn't collapsed yet.

    It's really painful to watch, and even more painful to work with these idiots.

  • Tech Giants Team Up With Teachers Union on $23M AI Academy

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    incorrect assessment: unions will gladly collaborate with 3rd party corps if it benefits them. Also unions protect interests of their members, not entire humanity...
  • Telegram, the FSB, and the Man in the Middle

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    You can be seen from a kilometer away, pots ))
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    wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.comW
    Most still are/can be. Enough that I find it hard to believe people are missing out without podcasts through these paid services.
  • I Counted All of the Yurts in Mongolia Using Machine Learning

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    I'd say, when there's a policy and its goals aren't reached, that's a policy failure. If people don't like the policy, that's an issue but it's a separate issue. It doesn't seem likely that people prefer living in tents, though. But to be fair, the government may be doing the best it can. It's ranked "Flawed Democracy" by The Economist Democracy Index. That's really good, I'd say, considering the circumstances. They are placed slightly ahead of Argentina and Hungary. OP has this to say: Due to the large number of people moving to urban locations, it has been difficult for the government to build the infrastructure needed for them. The informal settlements that grew from this difficulty are now known as ger districts. There have been many efforts to formalize and develop these areas. The Law on Allocation of Land to Mongolian Citizens for Ownership, passed in 2002, allowed for existing ger district residents to formalize the land they settled, and allowed for others to receive land from the government into the future. Along with the privatization of land, the Mongolian government has been pushing for the development of ger districts into areas with housing blocks connected to utilities. The plan for this was published in 2014 as Ulaanbaatar 2020 Master Plan and Development Approaches for 2030. Although progress has been slow (Choi and Enkhbat 7), they have been making progress in building housing blocks in ger distrcts. Residents of ger districts sell or exchange their plots to developers who then build housing blocks on them. Often this is in exchange for an apartment in the building, and often the value of the apartment is less than the land they originally had (Choi and Enkhbat 15). Based on what I’ve read about the ger districts, they have been around since at least the 1970s, and progress on developing them has been slow. When ineffective policy results in a large chunk of the populace generationally living in yurts on the outskirts of urban areas, it’s clear that there is failure. Choi, Mack Joong, and Urandulguun Enkhbat. “Distributional Effects of Ger Area Redevelopment in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.” International Journal of Urban Sciences, vol. 24, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 50–68. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/12265934.2019.1571433.
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    I think the issue is people started buying etf instead of using Bitcoin themselves. Bitcoin as such has no value at all, it's only valuable if people use it for transactions.
  • Best way to block distractions

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    Niemand hat geantwortet
  • Catbox.moe got screwed 😿

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    archrecord@lemm.eeA
    I'll gladly give you a reason. I'm actually happy to articulate my stance on this, considering how much I tend to care about digital rights. Services that host files should not be held responsible for what users upload, unless: The service explicitly caters to illegal content by definition or practice (i.e. the if the website is literally titled uploadyourcsamhere[.]com then it's safe to assume they deliberately want to host illegal content) The service has a very easy mechanism to remove illegal content, either when asked, or through simple monitoring systems, but chooses not to do so (catbox does this, and quite quickly too) Because holding services responsible creates a whole host of negative effects. Here's some examples: Someone starts a CDN and some users upload CSAM. The creator of the CDN goes to jail now. Nobody ever wants to create a CDN because of the legal risk, and thus the only providers of CDNs become shady, expensive, anonymously-run services with no compliance mechanisms. You run a site that hosts images, and someone decides they want to harm you. They upload CSAM, then report the site to law enforcement. You go to jail. Anybody in the future who wants to run an image sharing site must now self-censor to try and not upset any human being that could be willing to harm them via their site. A social media site is hosting the posts and content of users. In order to be compliant and not go to jail, they must engage in extremely strict filtering, otherwise even one mistake could land them in jail. All users of the site are prohibited from posting any NSFW or even suggestive content, (including newsworthy media, such as an image of bodies in a warzone) and any violation leads to an instant ban, because any of those things could lead to a chance of actually illegal content being attached. This isn't just my opinion either. Digital rights organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation have talked at length about similar policies before. To quote them: "When social media platforms adopt heavy-handed moderation policies, the unintended consequences can be hard to predict. For example, Twitter’s policies on sexual material have resulted in posts on sexual health and condoms being taken down. YouTube’s bans on violent content have resulted in journalism on the Syrian war being pulled from the site. It can be tempting to attempt to “fix” certain attitudes and behaviors online by placing increased restrictions on users’ speech, but in practice, web platforms have had more success at silencing innocent people than at making online communities healthier." Now, to address the rest of your comment, since I don't just want to focus on the beginning: I think you have to actively moderate what is uploaded Catbox does, and as previously mentioned, often at a much higher rate than other services, and at a comparable rate to many services that have millions, if not billions of dollars in annual profits that could otherwise be spent on further moderation. there has to be swifter and stricter punishment for those that do upload things that are against TOS and/or illegal. The problem isn't necessarily the speed at which people can be reported and punished, but rather that the internet is fundamentally harder to track people on than real life. It's easy for cops to sit around at a spot they know someone will be physically distributing illegal content at in real life, but digitally, even if you can see the feed of all the information passing through the service, a VPN or Tor connection will anonymize your IP address in a manner that most police departments won't be able to track, and most three-letter agencies will simply have a relatively low success rate with. There's no good solution to this problem of identifying perpetrators, which is why platforms often focus on moderation over legal enforcement actions against users so frequently. It accomplishes the goal of preventing and removing the content without having to, for example, require every single user of the internet to scan an ID (and also magically prevent people from just stealing other people's access tokens and impersonating their ID) I do agree, however, that we should probably provide larger amounts of funding, training, and resources, to divisions who's sole goal is to go after online distribution of various illegal content, primarily that which harms children, because it's certainly still an issue of there being too many reports to go through, even if many of them will still lead to dead ends. I hope that explains why making file hosting services liable for user uploaded content probably isn't the best strategy. I hate to see people with good intentions support ideas that sound good in practice, but in the end just cause more untold harms, and I hope you can understand why I believe this to be the case.
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    sentient_loom@sh.itjust.worksS
    I want to read his "Meaning of the City" because I just like City theory, but I keep postponing in case it's just Christian morality lessons. The anarchist Christian angle makes this sound more interesting.