Interesting stuff
indo-dreaming wrote:Supa maybe you should get your wife to explain to you the difference between uncooked rice and cooked rice, and maybe judge the rice once it's cooked and not beforehand.
Facebook is full of pages even advertised post with people impersonating other companies like Bunnings, Jetstar, Woolworths, Apple often with fake prizes even when reported these pages/post can stay active for weeks to even months, id be very surprised if Twitter hasn't had an issue with these types of things in the past too.
Just because media highlights them now doesn't mean they didn't exist beforehand, the only difference is now you would expect scammers have become more active trying to take opportunity of uncertainty of change and off course it currently makes a good story.
I agree Facebook is full of scams and they are advertised regularly. Twitter is not attracting advertisers at the moment for a variety of reasons and this is hurting Twitter as it relies on this for most of its revenue. https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/11/23451931/elon-musk-twitter-bankrupt-...
@indo the difference between Facebook scams and Twitter tweets from blue tick verified paid accounts is that Twitter is saying this is a verified account of that person/company. So who was doing the checking? Or just take the money and hope for the best ? Once they were found out to be fraudulent then they were suspended and Elon couldn’t care less and happy he got his $8. He had no choice but to cancel his blue tick verified paid account system when things got out of hand . He was asked when the blue tick would be back and has said next week. Just teething problems you think ?
I don’t think big mouth Musk really thought this through. Watching this slow train wreck is going to be fantastic. What a complete fuckup Musk buying twitter was. Too much debt and ad revenue will be shrinking at a fast rate.
https://mashable.com/article/twitter-fake-verified-posts-worse-elon-musk...
udo wrote:
Do they have electric jetski’s yet ?
udo wrote:https://watercraftzone.com.au/taiga-orca-electric-jet-ski-debuts-in-aust...
Top speed 100kph is pretty good, only 45klms distance might deter a few from purchasing just yet but hopefully they improve on that, thanks for link udo
Model Y Tesla
https://www.itemfix.com/v?t=dmhrmu
udo wrote:Model Y Tesla
https://www.itemfix.com/v?t=dmhrmu
Faaaaark. That is crazy
How's old mate #593, must be meandering along the shelf etc. Will pull up the bathy later and have a scope.
And jeezus, re Udo's post. Hectic!
Dunno about you fellas but I like actually driving.
I've driven cars, boats, bikes, trucks, graders and loaders.
I like being in precise control and having reliability, I don't even like electric windows and central locking in cars.
I can't ever see myself being merely a passenger in a car.
AndyM wrote:Dunno about you fellas but I like actually driving.
I've driven cars, boats, bikes, trucks, graders and loaders.
I like being in precise control and having reliability, I don't even like electric windows and central locking in cars.
I can't ever see myself being merely a passenger in a car.
You talking about self-drive cars? They sound appealing, in a Jetson's kind of a way, but I can't seem them being allowed here. The potential for mayhem is just too real, either through accidental errors (on a road where consequences can be tragic), the hacking of controls, or through deliberate strategies which mess with the transport system.
Why, for instance, would you ever pay for city parking if you owned a self-drive car? Just program it to drive around the block while you shop, work, or watch a movie.
And if everyone did that..?
The only real advantage was city living where time is money and people could work on the commute, yet the regional revival, and the work from home revolution is dimming that appeal.
I think driverless cars sound like some kind of hell. Surrender all autonomy and let big tech tell you where to go, at their pace, their way, listening to their piped-in ads.
Driving, especially in fully analog cars, is freedom. And no, I don't mean your normal shitty city commute.
Agree.
I surfed a regional secret spot yesterday.
Early morning drive along a big, winding river- cruising with the windows down- loving life.
freeride76 wrote:I surfed a regional secret spot yesterday.
Good idea to leave the self-drive Tesla at home then.
AndyM wrote:Dunno about you fellas but I like actually driving.
I've driven cars, boats, bikes, trucks, graders and loaders.
I like being in precise control and having reliability, I don't even like electric windows and central locking in cars.
I can't ever see myself being merely a passenger in a car.
AndyM . Me too, we are cut from the same cloth, i hate car air conditioning, electric windows, GPS map dashboards, just give me a basic and reliable trusty vehicle any day. I love a road trip anywhere, the longer the distance the better, across the Nullarbor, up the guts or cruising north on the WA coast.
Friends often remark at ‘don’t you get bored, or does the monotony do your head in’, reply NUP. In fact i like driving long distances on my own, you can take it all in, i spot birds and plants of interest from a distance, pull out the binos etc. ,listen to every album you love without others interrupting the serenity. Pull over anywhere, sleep under the stars, listen and look for night birds, nothing better. Surf somewhere without too many in the water, no time inhibitions and simply enjoy what Australian life has to offer. I’m off on a big road trip mid March 2024 departing Victoria, all aboard. Toot!!!!
Edit. My displeasure in flying somewhere reminds me of days in the early 80’s working on building sites in London, going to work on the Tube, simply have no fucking idea about how far and where you’ve travelled. I love the tyranny of distance, logging the kilometres hour after hour, it gives you a total perspective and mental picture of where you’ve departed from and where you are incrementally getting to, in that fashion you have a full picture and understanding of how far you’ve travelled and just how big our country is.
Car air conditioning is the same, I like to feel the day and night temperatures when i do road trips, it builds a personal climatological brain map, of again, the places i see and visit, it helps me understand plant and bird life distribution and heightens my knowledge base immensely.
Ah, my feet are itchy and tingling as i write.
udo wrote:https://electrek.co/2022/11/13/tesla-china-responds-to-dramatic-crash-th...
This sort of active disinformation spreading from the CEO of Twitter and Tesla naturally leads to public resentment that the world’s richest man would spend so much of his time and effort on polluting information streams instead of fixing his companies. So some number of people will be uninterested in seeing “his side” of the story, and will actively distrust anything that he or Tesla has to say, since he is spending so much public effort spreading disinformation lately.………….not really a glowing report on Elon’s character , he might regret laughing it off about people impersonating others and getting $8 for it .
Yeah, assumed that Tesla was autonomous but maybe there was something else at play there.
I'm with you Alfred, manufacturers can have their GPS this, that and the other, and all their trinkets. I'm not worried about the latest wireless connectivity or whatever, I want to know if I'm going to get 500k + out of the engine and/or if it's going to let me down when I need it the most.
Although I'm happy with air con and cruise control :)
Yep, some of my best memories in life, all around the world, involve being out on the highway on my own, with near-endless possibilities and destinations.
It's probably why the first Mad Max movies gives me goosebumps every time I see it.
"Give it the bejeesus!"
"You're blaspheming again - I don't have to work with a blasphemer..." :)
Supafreak wrote:indo-dreaming wrote:@Supafreak
Okay so you are telling me, he is saying he will create a system like this that makes complete sense in every way.
-From a business case, encourages people to get verification and pay
-Accountably which creates a better user experience
-Minimises exposure and incentive for bots.But instead just goes for some system that makes no sense at all
Im no buying it, i think you and others like your article are full of shit and just judging the cake before its baked.
Indo it might be best if you get your wife to read this article and explain it to you as you have said she is the brains in the relationship.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-12/eli-lilly-twitter-insulin-prices-.... Maybe you can also look at who has quit working at Twitter
Supafreak. Someone on these platforms provides me with at least one giggle a day. Yours was accidentally hidden at the bottom of the page of engagement with Indo. She probably wears the pants as well. Cracked me up. Good stuff
Nullabour Lunch Alfred..
https://www.amazon.com/CarQiWireless-Steering-Laptop-Tablet-Notebook/dp/...
udo wrote:Nullabour Lunch Alfred..
https://www.amazon.com/CarQiWireless-Steering-Laptop-Tablet-Notebook/dp/...
Udo. Oh Udo, you’ve done it again. Thanks, you’ve given me my second giggle for the day. My son whose a tech nut would see that as totally acceptable, mind you he’s never been on an epic road trip in Oz, albeit he did accompany my ex wife and I on a rip snorting Californian road trip back in 2019. How good are road trips ?
indo-dreaming wrote:Do you really think Elon wouldn't have known all the figures and financial risk and challenges ahead???
Do you really think the richest man in the world would not have a team of people crunching figures and looking at all kinds of different scenarios???
He/they would have known there would be sponsors leaving which also makes things harder, and of course he would have known many would leave twitter.
ID, I just posted a link in the Bitcoin thread to an article about FTX, but it had some revelatory information about Elon/Twitter halfway down. It's well worth reading (scroll down about 3/4, and look for the heading "Oh Elon").
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-14/ftx-s-balance-shee...
In short: Elon's bankers loaned him $13 billion to fund the acquisition, which they then planned to syndicate to investors (i.e. hedge funds).
However, due to the craziness of the last few weeks (with Elon publicly talking about bankruptcy), the hedge funds are only interested in buying it at a steep discount, of 60c in the dollar. The banks apparently won't go less than 70c.
Either way, that's a massive financial loss for the bankers in a very short space of time.
Ben, it seems that the worm has turned on planet earth and Musk is now on the receiving end of the same information warfare treatment that Trump got.
The debt deal to finance twitter was arranged in April this year (see for instance this article). The debt financiers don't consider offloading the debt in the market until the deal is finalised (October), as expected and is customary.
April is right when interest rates started increasing in the US. Also since April debt/credit market conditions have deteriorated quite spectacularly, in particular in terms of liquidity, spreads, and overall financial (dis)stress. A lot has changed in the global economy, particularly debt/credit markets, since April...
Indeed, discussing debt markets in general, the article says: "A sharp sell-off in credit markets has saddled banks with more than $35bn of debt from takeovers that they have been unable to sell to investors.. I.e. the same situation is happening across the board for lots of debt deals...
And the debt financiers won't incur a loss if they hold the debt on their books instead of sell it in the market in the current financial conditions. So they're not necessarily facing a massive financial loss...
So the media appears to be trying to make it look like the market doesn't want to touch the twitter debt due to Musk's "fiasco" at twitter, but in reality the debt financiers are simply facing tough debt market conditions to sell any debt into...
Nothing is ever as it seems or sold to us in the media - didn't covid just remind us of that...?
Fair enough, I defer to your better knowledge of finance markets.
But.. would you not agree that Musk is exacerbating the situation, by publicly discussing how Twitter could be bankrupt soon?
Every day there's a new story about something Twitter has buggered up under Musk's direction (today, it's 2fa, see below). Surely he's got the smarts to triple check any deployments before they go live?
Alright, so it looks like 2fa has been shut down. Making some backup codes, but if I get logged out, I may not be able to get back in. Will be posting a How To Reach Me stub and pinning it shortly. This is crazy. pic.twitter.com/vZoShmnkcl
— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) November 14, 2022
I actually am worried that the probabilities favour things ending quite badly for Musk here with twitter, but not necessarily due to his actions - more due to the "whole system" mobilising and turning against him, all the forces working in the background trying to bring him down and make his twitter venture fail.
Wow, you really think Musk hasn't brought this on himself?
Possibly brought it on himself only to the extent that Musk may have misread the sheer political forces - particularly from the democrat side of things - at work in the US aimed at censoring and preventing right wing free speech.
Righto. Not sure if it's worth continuing the discussion any further, if you're going to focus everything through a lens of political conspiracy.
Elon is the richest person in the world. All of his Twitter missteps have been widely documented for a long time, as has his general character (remember when he publicly accused one of the Thai cave rescuers of being a paedophile?).
Just seems to be a little too convenient to blame the failure of this biz deal on the 'Democrats'.
FWIW, I could care less about Elon.
I use Twitter regularly and don't want to see it fail. Starlink is a great product that I look forward to using. I'd happily consider a Tesla in the future (though hopefully he builds a ute so I can fit in my boards). And perhaps one day if I'm rich enough I'll pay for a ticket on SpaceX.
Doesn't mean the way he's handled the Twitter acquisition isn't a comprehensive balls-up.
I also respectfully disagree with your assertions GSCO. Elon has made an absolute mess of this acquisition and transaction. All his own doing, he can't help himself.
gsco wrote:Possibly brought it on himself only to the extent that Musk may have misread the sheer political forces - particularly from the democrat side of things - at work in the US aimed at censoring and preventing right wing free speech.
Is this like when you said I was cancelling Indo Dreaming because I didn't agree with him?
lol. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out, equally interesting as the FTX situation.
This Lowy Institute paper makes for some interesting reading: Rise of the Extreme Right: The new global extremism and the threat to democracy.
Some good news this morning - despite an exodus of advertisers, Twitter picked up a new client for a major campaign (in Australia too!).
SpaceX/Starlink.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/14/spacex-just-bought-a-big-ad-campaign-on-...
Some more grist for the mill.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-15/profit-crisis-the-inflation-drivi...
I agree 100% with your last few comments gsco
You see it here and elsewhere.
I find in very interesting though how people (especially progressives) turned on him so quickly, maybe i was viewing how others viewed him wrong but i always felt despite his wealth most progressives saw him in a positive light as was doing positive things in helping push EV's and battery tech which as we know is a key aspect to reducing global emissions.
Why do you think many have turned on him so quickly?
I think much of it is media driven, they like to blow up and divide for clicks & $$$ and i think they have a lot of power in shaping public narratives.
Okay some of it has to do with Elons persona, but he has always had that.
I always thought him wanting to ensure Twitter was more of a place where ideas could be debated more freely without political/social influence would also be viewed by most around the centre as a positive too (although knew the fringe left would be opposed to the idea)
But I think i was wrong, i think we have now got to a kind of scary point where people only want to have their thoughts and ideas reconfirmed and dont want to debate things.
Thats a scary point I'm a conservative but i have zero interest in echo chambers like right wing social media i dont even venture from YouTube or Vimeo.
Debate is good idea's should be challenged if your idea and beliefs can't hold up to healthy debate how can you belief in the things you believe in?
Along with the possibility of things like allowing Trump back on twitter, Musk’s friendship with China and that a major equity investor in twitter is a Saudi prince may also be factors. He seems to be doing things that are a bit on the nose of the Western psyche.
Right wing free speech. From the top down-"Nancy Pelosi said please don't call them animals, they're human beings,' he said, as he talked about crimes committed by the MS-13 gang. 'I said no, they're animals. Of course, I think she's an animal, too, if you want to know the truth."
The price we pay for freedom.
C'mon gsco, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal invested $300 million into Twitter almost eleven years ago. Why wasn't this an issue prior to Elon coming on board? (he only began investing in Twitter in January this year).
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2471759/arab-prince-buys-twitter-s...
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/timeline-elon-musks-tumultuous-twitter-a...
Who cares if Trump is allowed back on Twitter? He's got his own social media network anyway (and it's the best one around, apparently!). If he came back to Twitter, surely that'd be a risk that Truth may fade into obscurity? Surely Trump wouldn't want the legacy of a failed product with his name on it.
And re: China, surely Musk has more to lose (with Tesla and Starlink) by owning Twitter, than not owning it?
Some people see a global conspiracy, others see what they think is justified reportage. I dont recall hearing many complaints about some of the reporting on "Dictator Dan" from the free speech crew currently bemoaning the jump-on on Musk. Its crap but it aint one-sided. Beware your confirmation bias.
Good comment Blackers, and I just want to clarify one thing.
I'm not pushing for the idea of some major global conspiracy against Musk. It seems much simpler than that.
His wealth and actions just have political implications - he's kind of stepping into the realm of US politics - and so he's just feeling the brunt of the US political scene.
(Ben I'd love to address some of your comments but I need to get some work done. I appreciate you taking the time to debate with me and I hope the shingles isn't driving you crazy.)
gsco wrote:Good comment Blackers, and I just want to clarify one thing.
I'm not pushing for the idea of some major global conspiracy against Musk. It seems much simpler than that.
His wealth and actions just have political implications - he's kind of stepping into the realm of US politics - and so he's just feeling the brunt of the US political scene.
(Ben I'd love to address some of your comments but I need to get some work done. I appreciate you taking the time to debate with me and I hope the shingles isn't driving you crazy.)
Strangely enough, there is no similar brunt of the US political scene when it comes to Tik Tok. Some have spoken about it but nothing like this. But it's owned by the Chinese who then obviously control all the algorithms and data storage. How is everyone so outraged about Musk but not about Tik Tok?
No worries for the corporate world then...
"The broadening of inflation beyond commodity prices is more profit margin expansion than wage cost pressures," chief economist of UBS Global Wealth Management.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-15/profit-crisis-the-inflation-drivi...
I look forward to one of the usual Swellnet spruikers justifying this
Has anyone else noticed a trend by major retailers to dramatically increase prices of all goods other than their home brand product lines? For example, my local Coles got a lot more expensive across the board but their home-brand items haven't increased as much at all. I'm talking basic items like eggs, bread...I feel like they are using inflation as a tool to penetrate the market with their product lines (which got much bigger lately).
I find the notion that free speech is under attack very odd. Today, more so than any other time, there are seemingly 100s of avenues to express yourself. Of course, in politics it’s a weaponised notion as are terms like cancel culture and woke.
It seems that free speech is always run up the flagpole in the context of open and fair/reasonable discussion; the contest of ideas. Yet, those who often claim free speech is under threat can come to that debate with their own facts. Trump and his supporters for example.
Without shared facts where is the open or fair or reasonable debate?
So, what is the real problem? Threats to free speech or a fractious world where real facts /truth are disputed?
GuySmiley wrote:I find the notion that free speech is under attack very odd. Today, more so than any other time, there are seemingly 100s of avenues to express yourself. Of course, in politics it’s a weaponised notion as are terms like cancel culture and woke.
It seems that free speech is always run up the flagpole in the context of open and fair/reasonable discussion; the contest of ideas. Yet, those who often claim free speech is under threat can come to that debate with their own facts. Trump and his supporters for example.
Without shared facts where is the open or fair or reasonable debate?
So, what is the real problem? Threats to free speech or a fractious world where real facts /truth are disputed?
Good comment. I agree, the avenue to express oneself has never been greater. But that doesn't mean that cancel culture, woke mentality, and virtue signaling are not real. All these can happen simultaneously. I believe many are happy to speculate online but when they run the risk of being canceled they resort to free speech as their defense mechanism. The true problem is - many want to say whatever they want but don't like being canceled as it hurts their interests. But sadly for them, this is now part of the game whether we like it or not.
'Elon Musk Would Have Done Better With Twitter If He’d Read Noam Chomsky'
At the risk of sounding like a broken record...a broken record...a broken record, I feel like that headline has many applications. A lot of people could've done better with Chomsky.
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/12/elon-musk-twitter-media/
Please note: It's not a 'take' on Musk and Twitter. Treat it as a broader understanding of modern media with Musk as real time case study.
Then again, if culture war is your religion you'll interpret it as you will.
Have it cunts