“Here’s why I will never buy an HP printer again (this time for sure)” by Kevin Drum https://jabberwocking.com/heres-why-i-will-never-buy-an-hp-printer-again-this-time-for-sure/ // all the companies i loved in the nineties turned themselves into predators

@phillmv i think that’s right, compared to the quality of conversation we used to have through blogs. but it was better than nothing (and did have some novel virtues, especially with respect to serendipity and diversity). maybe this nascent brave new world will prove much better! i hope so.

“Hugh profits produced an enormous pool of money at the top of society, but precisely because the rich were getting so much, there was nowhere good to invest.” @ryanlcooper https://prospect.org/economy/at-least-the-tech-winter-will-kill-off-some-zombie-companies/

one naturally feels a bit guilty if a toot goes viral.

@t0nyyates oh at best i’m a mirror!

This is a nadir for the internet as (my) republic of letters. The RSS feeds I still diligently follow have been a shadow of what they once were for years. Now, Twitter is declining, a rapid-fire recapitulation of what happened to my RSS, except on Twitter the reduction that remains is a darker and more poisonous than the ghosts of all those blogs. This, Mastodon, is a point of light, but not yet bright enough to compensate for what has been lost. Hopefully it continues to brighten.

you can check out any time you like.

People are dissing Elon Musk’s bold reforms at Twitter, but I think his efforts might really give truth.social a run for the money.

you hardened your heart in the name of justice.

and when all was said and done, all that was left—in your heart, in the world—was just ice.

algorithmic bias and self-driving cars could bring all kinds of new excitement. it already feels like the traffic is a conspiracy against me.

@maikelthedev (that’s what i mean by cross-post, albeit maybe with customizations like CW on mastodon).

if you are on multiple micro-blogging-ish services, when you post, you should

@Alon yeah. US private sector rail scheduling strikes me as a straight transfer from workers relative to older practices, unless elaborately compensated. being the residual whose plans must adjust, rather than a party whose plans and interests must be taken into account, is a large cost imposition. US gerontocracy is part of a more systemic US problem, US-ians have little ability to absorb downward shocks (for both structural and cultural reasons), so labor+management often agree to a ratchet.

@Alon Sure. Scheduling systems, like other aspects of working conditions, can admit real efficiencies and inefficiencies. Sometimes (as in US "dynamically scheduled" shiftwork), an "efficiency" from a business perspective is really just a transfer from the workforce. But not always. It is possible to schedule in ways that better satisfy workers and the employer, or for better satisfaction of one party to be so large they can compensate the other to create a clear net gain to all.

if your labor efficiency is a cheaper bill for the same (and same quality) headcount, that's not in an efficiency at all, just a transfer from workers to other stakeholders.

@Alon i gravitate towards mixed economies, social democracies, capitalism subject to control of civil society rather than in control of civil society or extinguished. obviously there are left movements that want to extinguish rather than dampen or manage all capitalist dynamics. but that’s not my view.

@Alon FdB can hate whoever he hates (or not, i don’t know) but from my perspective the degree of relative equality and security of (however “neoliberalized”) present day nordics is hugely aspirational!

@Alon perhaps. but in retrospect and in relative terms, the economy did a lot better at providing for (nearly) all, at a decent level, than now, regardless of how left movements at the time viewed things. the racial exclusion is an important point, but convergence in subsequent decades has been more downward than upward: members of previously favored groups increasingly experience the precarity of the less favored, rather than a more desirable other way around.

the emphasis on college and all variety of ed reform was a fig leaf covering, and red herring distracting from, economic changes that turned the economy from a secure provider for (nearly) all to a great game of musical chairs.

cf Freddie DeBoer https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/pushing-everyone-into-college-was

i know it annoys you how slowly i take hairpin turns, but i am curving on a grade!