I am normally really protective with my data but I don’t get the outrage here. If the data is all about how you use the app and the report relates to things relevant to usage that are interesting and is sent just to you,I don’t see the harm. It’s not broadcast to the world and isn’t sharing a bunch of sensitive information (as far as I know). It just seems like a fun way to reflect on the year.
I use Pandora and I wish they did something like this. As much as pandora is all about data I would love to see a report on my music listening with some of their insights about music attributes included.
A demolition derby game like wreckfest but without the racing. Leveling, gear, competitions are all focused on destroying other cars and being last one standing.
Bonus if some shenanigans are allowed like you get out of your car and fight other drivers.
Don’t know how I missed this one when I had a PS1 but it would have definitely have been up my alley back in the day. Maybe I’ll get around to getting an emulator for my PC to pick it up again. Could be fun getting back into those old games again - I wouldn’t mind picking up the old Metal Gear 2 game again.
Yeah there’s only a couple subtle hints in the regular game and I think more in the dlc. I’m guessing they’ll lean into it more with control 2 now that AW2 is out as well.
Money wins, every time. They’re not concerned with accidentally destroying humanity with an out-of-control and dangerous AI who has decided “humans are the problem.” (I mean, that’s a little sci-fi anyway, an AGI couldn’t “infect” the entire internet as it currently exists.)...
I wish this narrative would get more traction. I don’t get the love for Altman, even inside Open AI.
This whole drama has revealed.what I suspect is a larger problem across tech- that there are product-focused people who are legitimately trying to make tools to better society, and there are people who just want to make money.
Two guesses which type of person is usually in the C suite.
Yeah, and that is also scary. There is so little accountability in tech and the excitement over AI is just going to create a new generation of tech bro leaders for Forbes to write cover stories about.
I’m a heavy emoji user, texting is such a poor medium for communication, many times people get the wrong message, but with an emoji you’ll get an idea of the face I’m making, so less chance of misunderstanding...
Yes, and I will judge the people using them. I know I shouldn’t because even smart people do dumb things and phones often autocorrect to emojis now but when I see a comment with a lot of emojis my first thought is “that is the language of idiots”.
(Not talking about an occasional smiling emoji, more like the people who use more emojis than words. )
Bethesda built up a fan base around a franchise that liked playing an immersive, story-oriented, highly-moddable game where the main character is kind of core to the story. They moved to a genre where xxPussySlayer69xx is jetpacking around, the story couldn’t matter much past the initial part of the game (since the point of the online portion is to have people replaying relatively-cheap-to-produce content), that couldn’t be modded much (to keep balance and players from cheating), and where the player’s character cannot matter much, because there are many player characters.
For real. I know every Fallout fan says this, but I don’t even need a new Fallout game-a remaster of new Vegas or even FO3 would be awesome. I know that’s not easy but it’s less work than designing a whole new game. Sometimes devs could save themselves a lot of trouble and aggravation if they listened to the fanbase instead of trying to tell us what we want
There’s supposedly a variety of different spectroscopy methods but what drives the choice of one method over another? If elements drive the colors, how do you parse out individual elements from a compound?...
Not to mention the fact that if they include office products in this, its not just personal information.
A lot of IP gets produced in there, even if it’s not purchased or created within an enterprise license. So if they train on that they will be basically stealing corporate information that they definitely have no rights to.
It’s the quirky 80s comedy spinoff where the lovable goofball Dexter just can’t keep a roommate, and his friends don’t get why since he’s just so darn swell.
Yep, and we are generally not willing (as a society) to pay decent wages for things like teachers, so getting drivers ed teachers for all student drivers would be not possible. Private lessons would work but that would make it unavailable to a lot of less affluent people.
tl/dr: email chains used as evidence in DOJ Google antitrust case show internal arguments about drops in # of searches, and how to increase them so that people see more ads. Search team wants to create better search results to keep people coming back....
This totally sucks, though I have to say I am impressed that they spelled it out so clearly. I can’t believe they showed it to you like that instead of burying it in some legalese/fine print, across multiple emails or something
A federal jury ruled on Tuesday that the powerful National Association of Realtors and several large brokerages had conspired to artificially inflate the commissions paid to real estate agents, a decision that could radically alter the home-buying process in the United States.
The realtors’ group and brokerages were ordered to pay damages of nearly $1.8 billion. The verdict allows the court to issue treble damages, which means they could swell to more than $5 billion.
It’s a decision that has the potential to rewrite the entire structure of the real estate industry in the United States, lowering the cost of moving homes by reducing commissions. Under a N.A.R. rule, a home seller is required to pay commissions to the agent representing the buyer, which sellers claimed forced them to pay excessive fees to the agents. The home sellers said the brokerages collaborated with N.A.R. to enforce what is called the “cooperative compensation rule.”
But under the verdict, the sellers would no longer be required to pay their buyers’ agents, and agents would be free to set their own commission rates, which could be slashed in half or less. For example, a home seller with a $1 million home can now pay as much as $60,000 in agent commissions — $30,000 to their agent and $30,000 to the buyers’ agent.
N.A.R., alongside Keller Williams, Anywhere (formerly, Realogy), Re/Max and HomeServices of America, had been on trial in Kansas City in an antitrust suit brought by nearly half a million Missouri home sellers.
The home sellers asked for damages of $1.78 billion. Before heading to trial, both Re/Max and Anywhere Real Estate opted to settle, with Re/Max paying $55 million and Anywhere Real Estate, whose subsidiaries include Coldwell Banker, Century 21 Real Estate, and Sotheby’s International Realty, paying $83.5 million in damages.
But N.A.R., as well as Keller Williams and HomeServices, headed to trial. And on Tuesday morning, after deliberating for less than three hours, an eight-person jury delivered the verdict: Yes, there had been a conspiracy, and not only would the defendants be required to pay damages, but those damages could triple.
The Chicago-based N.A.R. is the largest professional organization in the United States. It has more than $1 billion in assets and owns the trademark to the word “Realtor,” making a real estate agent’s ability to buy and sell homes contingent upon the payment of membership dues in much of the country.
N.A.R. said it plans to appeal the verdict, and in an internal memo sent to some members on Tuesday and obtained by The New York Times, the current N.A.R. president, Tracy Kasper wrote, “We remain confident we will ultimately prevail.”
“This verdict does not require a change in our rules,” she continued.
How the ruling plays out remains to be seen, but it’s clear that the verdict — and the size of the damages — point to a shift in the way agent commissions are now paid. Redfin, which earlier this month exited the National Association of Realtors, said that the decision will prompt home buyers and home sellers to now question the standard practice of setting commissions between 5 and 6 percent.
“Traditional brokers will undoubtedly now train their agents to welcome conversations about fees,” said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive, in a statement following the verdict. “But it’s also possible that buyers will become the ones who decide how much to pay a buyer’s agent.”
More than 1.5 million real estate agents across the United States pay dues to the organization in order to call themselves Realtors and assure home sellers and home buyers that they are aligned with the organization’s strict policies on ethics and home transactions. But after a series of sexual harassment allegations led to the resignation of the organization’s president this summer, Tuesday’s ruling threatens to further diminish their influence and could, according to some real estate agents, prompt many to abandon them entirely.
“This is an earthquake,” said Jason Haber, a real estate agent with Compass who has been one of the most outspoken critics of N.A.R. in recent months. “I’m disappointed in today’s verdict and I’m even more disappointed in N.A.R. This was their Super Bowl and World Series rolled up into one and not even Taylor Swift could have saved them.”
Mr. Haber, who created a grass-roots organization demanding the resignation of N.A.R.’s top leadership after the sexual harassment allegations came to light this summer, said he believed that there was no conspiracy when it comes to agent commissions, and that N.A.R. had let down its members by failing to present a stronger defense in court.
“As a dues-paying agent, they failed me, they failed all of my colleagues. Had they spent more time focusing on the trial and less time silencing women, maybe the outcome would have been different,” he said.
In an emailed statement, Mantill Williams, a spokesman for N.A.R., said the case will likely not be settled for a long time.
“We will continue to focus on our mission to advocate for homeownership and always put consumer interests first. It will likely be several years before this case is finally resolved,” he said.
Makenzy Mohrman, a financial services analyst at Capstone LLC, said the verdict was just the beginning of changes in the industry, noting the U.S. Department of Justice is likely to pursue a more thorough investigation of how real estate transactions are handled in the United States.
“Antitrust has been a top issue for the administration. This is something that will affect a lot of consumers,” she said in an emailed statement.
“We believe this is a significant hit for real estate brokers, but we don’t think this is over yet at all. There are more battles to be had,” she wrote. “This is the first domino to fall, but the National Association of Realtors is still on the hook.”
Brokerages who chose to settle ahead of the trial said they were pleased with their decision.
“The settlement releases our company, affiliated agents, and franchisees from liability related to these claims. The jury verdict, while disappointing, does not alter our settlement,” said Trey Sarten, a spokesman for Anywhere Real Estate, in an emailed statement.
Those who had lost previous court battles with N.A.R. were celebrating.
Jack Ryan, the chief executive of REX Real Estate, which in August lost an antitrust lawsuit against N.A.R., Zillow and Trulia, has been outspoken about setting commissions lower. In a text message on Tuesday, he hailed the verdict as “extremely good news for Americans.”
If commissions can be lowered, “the price of every home will come down, jobs and wages will go up, tax revenues will increase, people can easily move to better and more fulfilling jobs,” he wrote.
Other lawsuits are now imminent. Within minutes of receiving the verdict on Tuesday, the lawyers for the defendants entered another class-action suit into U.S. District Court in Missouri. That case, filed on behalf of three new home sellers, also claims the practice of having home sellers pay sales commissions to buyers’ agents is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. It names N.A.R. as a defendant, as well as several major brokerages including Compass, eXp World Holdings, Redfin and Douglas Elliman.
I lived in Evansville during high school and college. Otters games are fun, largely because the stadium is such a cool venue. It’s really small but definitely gives you a classic baseball kind of vibe.
Fun fact about league of their own: Madonna HATED Evansville and apparently was very outspoken about wanting to leave as quickly as possible. Having spent some of my formative years there, I get it.
A former model for Abercrombie & Fitch on Friday sued the fashion retailer, alleging it allowed its former CEO Mike Jeffries to run a sex-trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure....
Can’t believe it took this long. There was a Netflix documentary on A&F about a year ago that talked about this stuff happening a lot. It seemed like it was pretty widely known. Figured it would have gotten to a lawsuit way earlier.
Not sure if I was getting a sweet deal or what but I’m currently paying 4.99/mo. They are raising prices ro 9.99. In what universe would anybody think doubling prices is okay?
Huge fan of power wash simulator. The campaign was much more fun than I ever expected out of a sim and the DLC was a welcome surprise. I play it when I need something relaxing and it is great for a chill gaming session.
John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, the company whose 3D game engine had recently seen backlash from developers over proposed fee structures, will retire as CEO, president, and board chairman at the company, according to a press release issued late on a Monday afternoon, one many observe as a holiday.
get paid severance if they were fired - it’s likely them “retiring” saves the company money overall.
Typically that is true but at this level executives have contracts with non-compete clauses and as part of that even voluntary departures usually come with a severence, since they aren’t allowed to work in the industry for 6-12 months after leaving (unless they negotiate something as part of their departure). It’s very likely he got a generous payout.
It’s seen as a necessity for protecting intellectual property and company knowledge that the leaders take with them when they leave. It’s why so many execs start their own businesses after leaving big companies but don’t officially open shop for a while.
Thirty years ago today, Demolition Man first hit theaters, pitting Sylvester Stallone against Wesley Snipes in a crime-free but killjoy future where even minor vices have been declared illegal. The passage of time hasn’t quite elevated this sci-fi action comedy to the legendary status of Die Hard or Lethal Weapon, but it’s...
I’m all for unions, but identifying layoff targets based on these things seems like a sure way for the system to get abused. Single people and people without kids get stuck filling in for people with families already-taking layoffs for them is asking a lot.
Definitely agree on the spirit of your comment though- unionizing is pretty much always a good idea.
Well hell, while we’re all wishing, let’s just throw in a request for a Fallout New Vegas remaster. I would pay uncountable money for a version that I didn’t have to mod like crazy to make functional. Not holding my breath though.
Can’t believe it took me so long to get around to playing this but I’m so glad I did. Dishonored is still my favorite of theirs but now I’ve played all their games and they are easily my favorite studio because of their rich storytelling and immersive world design....
Stairs and inclines, like steep hills and tiered seating. We can’t sit in the cheap seats at sporting events because I constantly feel like I’m going to fall and I get anxiety attacks. Stairs and escalators are bad too, but I’ve gotten much better with those over the years (can’t exactly avoid them in most cases).
I have a 2 story house with a basement, and even going downstairs in my own home can sometimes be hard.
I never understood the love for Spotify. It’s always felt so much more commercial to me. I’ve had a pandora acct for about 10 years now and I love it. Ad-free is awesome and I can just skip over the artist spotlights and sponsored stuff.
I basically did. I stopped using mobile on July 31 since I was using boost and never looked back.
I wrote a case study on the API thing and spent a ton of time researching the different things going down on reddit and off throughout June and July so I used it on PC for that. Haven’t really been back since.
My concern with multi unit living is that your home is now dependent on the actions of others. You could lose everything because some dumbass next to you dropped cigarette burning on their floor, or overflowed their tub.
It also just gets messy having that many people try to manage a property together. I lived in a high rise for a year. There was constant bickering over who put the wrong thing down the trash chute or who was using the elevator to move furniture without checking it out first. Everyone had to all agree to building repairs, which was a nightmare, and getting them them done took forever. From my understanding our building was pretty well run, but it didn’t feel like it. I loved the idea of high rise life when I moved in but by the time we got out house I was ready to be done with it.
Im a big fan of Pandora. I like listening to lots of different genres and discovering random music and the pandora app is pretty good for that. I have channels for everything from bossa nova to classic country to alternative and they do a great job of recommending stuff that I would never find on my own. It runs through android auto and on my pc so I basically have it playing all the time.
Okay I’m not very technical but I hate Microsoft with every fiber of my being and want desperately to break from them but can’t bring myself to switch my regular and gaming PCs to Linux. It just feels like too much work like I’d be starting over and most of all I just fear change. Is there a good YT series/channel or blog or something I can check out that might make things a little less intimidating?
Was there even a mass exodus? I largely avoid Reddit now, but I do kind of doubt that they’ve been hurt in any meaningful way by all the protests and people leaving…
Im working on a case study for a publishing firm about the whole API announcement and subsequent fallout so I’ve been watching all this really closely. The thing I’m most anxious for is the data on web traffic to reddit and it’s competitors, which I can only get on a monthly basis. It dropped a lot from May to June, which you could attribute to the protest or even the summer. However, Discords traffic increased during that time, and it was the only major social platform to change in either direction. I’m hoping to get some clarity once July data comes out but I don’t think we well know for sure about long term impact for a while. Reddit I’m sure knows more but definitely won’t share it publicly unless necessary, like if they do go public, but I’m not sure that kind of data would be included in a filing.
(I tracked traffic on similarweb and Semrush. Lemmy is on there too, but is tracked per server, and most were tracked starting in may or June so data is pretty limited and can’t really be compared.)
Hi everybody, I’m a UI/UX designer and I wanna contribute to the community here with my expertise. Here is a quick prototype for a Android Lemmy app with Material You Design, it’s a simple and customizable app. With this app, I also want to improve the experience when exploring different servers....
I like the look. One thing I would like to see is integration of the community search tool to make discoverability easier. Something that shows what server each community is on but also will allow you to search across servers in case you don’t know where things are, and a way to view the list of all communities if you want.
Steam Year in Review 2023: how to see your Steam Replay (www.digitaltrends.com)
Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition - Horizon Forbidden West coming soon to PC (store.steampowered.com)
Pacific Drive | Release Date Trailer (www.youtube.com)
Spotify Wrapped is creepy, meaningless – and shows just how much data big tech has on you (www.theguardian.com)
What is a video game that you'd love to play, but no one has developed yet?
deleted_by_author
Which video game did you bounce off of at first, but then tried again later for it to become one of your favorites of all time?
Is it just me, or has the BS with OpenAI shown that nobody in the AI space actually cares about "safeguarding AGI?"
Money wins, every time. They’re not concerned with accidentally destroying humanity with an out-of-control and dangerous AI who has decided “humans are the problem.” (I mean, that’s a little sci-fi anyway, an AGI couldn’t “infect” the entire internet as it currently exists.)...
why do lemmy users hate the use of emojis ?
I’m a heavy emoji user, texting is such a poor medium for communication, many times people get the wrong message, but with an emoji you’ll get an idea of the face I’m making, so less chance of misunderstanding...
Gabe Newell on why game delays are okay: 'Late is just for a little while. Suck is forever.' (www.pcgamer.com)
Can someone give me a semi-layperson explanation of emission spectra?
There’s supposedly a variety of different spectroscopy methods but what drives the choice of one method over another? If elements drive the colors, how do you parse out individual elements from a compound?...
Mozillas petition to get an answer from Microsoft, is it using your data to train its AI? (foundation.mozilla.org)
Microsofts new Terms and Service agreement is rather questionable. In short; It does not clarify if Microsoft will use your data to train it’s AI....
Jeff Bezos Is Moving to Miami After 29 Years in Seattle (www.businessinsider.com)
Right turn on red? With pedestrian deaths rising, US cities are considering bans (apnews.com)
Google emails revealing disagreements b/w Product and Advertising teams about manipulating search to drive ad revenue (gizmodo.com.au)
tl/dr: email chains used as evidence in DOJ Google antitrust case show internal arguments about drops in # of searches, and how to increase them so that people see more ads. Search team wants to create better search results to keep people coming back....
HBO Max Shrinkflation: Removing features from my plan, with no reduction in price (lemmy.world)
Chrome not proceeding with Web Integrity API deemed by many to be DRM (9to5google.com)
The Chrome team says they’re not going to pursue Web Integrity but…...
The hidden culprit driving America’s apocalypse of boarded-up storefronts is the banks (www.businessinsider.com)
Realtors found liable for $1.8 billion in damages in conspiracy to keep commissions high | CNN Business (www.nytimes.com)
Guys, things are going to be okay after all..Kim Kardashian is stepping up to fight climate change. (designtaxi.com)
She is so brave.
A home run: Special needs man becomes bat boy for Evansville baseball team (www.14news.com)
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - You may not like baseball, but one Evansville man with special needs says he lives for it.
Abercrombie & Fitch slapped with lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of its male models under former CEO (apnews.com)
A former model for Abercrombie & Fitch on Friday sued the fashion retailer, alleging it allowed its former CEO Mike Jeffries to run a sex-trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure....
Apple jacks prices to juice profits because $19.3B a quarter isn't enough (www.theregister.com)
'We don't have teachers' | This Austin private school lets AI teach core subjects (www.kvue.com)
School leaders believe pairing AI and life skill courses is the future of education....
Meta is promoting Threads posts on Facebook and there’s no way to opt out (www.engadget.com)
Meta is starting to ramp up its growth-hacking tactics for Threads in a bid to boost engagement on the Twitter competitor.
Square Enix's trust in Powerwash Simulator studio paved the way for crossover DLC (www.gamesindustry.biz)
Unity CEO John Riccitiello is retiring, effective immediately (arstechnica.com)
John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, the company whose 3D game engine had recently seen backlash from developers over proposed fee structures, will retire as CEO, president, and board chairman at the company, according to a press release issued late on a Monday afternoon, one many observe as a holiday.
Enhance your calm: Demolition Man turns 30 | The film remains an under-appreciated gem of ‘90s comedy/action flicks (arstechnica.com)
Thirty years ago today, Demolition Man first hit theaters, pitting Sylvester Stallone against Wesley Snipes in a crime-free but killjoy future where even minor vices have been declared illegal. The passage of time hasn’t quite elevated this sci-fi action comedy to the legendary status of Die Hard or Lethal Weapon, but it’s...
CD Projekt Red devs unionise after its third round of layoffs in three months (www.eurogamer.net)
Staff at CD Projekt Red are uniting with others in the Polish video game industry to unionise. The union was formed aft…
What games do you think would be great if they'd get properly remastered and would be a hit if it was done?
I believe this will mostly affects games which were lacking in technology....
Readers prefer ChatGPT over Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…/Recent_research...
Obsidian's Josh Sawyer jokes that he's waiting for a call from Microsoft to make 'Pillars of Eternity 3. But I don't want it to be a joke. (www.windowscentral.com)
High on Life: High on Knife Review - Too Short to Stab (mp1st.com)
Just finished my first playthrough of Prey by Arkane Studios and WOW.
Can’t believe it took me so long to get around to playing this but I’m so glad I did. Dishonored is still my favorite of theirs but now I’ve played all their games and they are easily my favorite studio because of their rich storytelling and immersive world design....
Do you have any phobia? (psychcentral.com)
What is a phobia?...
Horizon Forbidden West Coming to PC (www.theverge.com)
CAN’T WAIT!
Spotify's new Showcase tool lets artists pay to promote their music in the Home feed | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
Another reason to never listen to anything recommended by spotify
How many people actually dropped Reddit for Lemmy?
It is possible to estimate?
[meme] How would you rather see this land developed? (lemmy.world)
White noise podcasts are costing Spotify $38m per year, and record labels are not happy about it (www.bloomberg.com)
Windows 12 (lemmy.world)
Rudy Giuliani, who pioneered the use of RICO when he was a US attorney, just got indicted on RICO charges (www.businessinsider.com)
Giuliani went from RICO charge prosecutor to a defendant in Fulton County DA Fani Willis' RICO case over Trump's alleged 2020 election interference.
Is there any evidence that Reddit has suffered at all from the exodus to Lemmy?
Was there even a mass exodus? I largely avoid Reddit now, but I do kind of doubt that they’ve been hurt in any meaningful way by all the protests and people leaving…
I designed a Material You app for Lemmy (lemmy.ml)
Hi everybody, I’m a UI/UX designer and I wanna contribute to the community here with my expertise. Here is a quick prototype for a Android Lemmy app with Material You Design, it’s a simple and customizable app. With this app, I also want to improve the experience when exploring different servers....