gary's recent activity
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Comment on Game Pass was supposed to save Xbox – instead, it’s killing the company in ~games
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Comment on Game Pass was supposed to save Xbox – instead, it’s killing the company in ~games
gary Link ParentI'm 95% confident that your numbers and method of calculation are wrong. Microsoft almost certainly has sophisticated financial modeling for determining how much opportunity cost Game Pass would...I'm 95% confident that your numbers and method of calculation are wrong. Microsoft almost certainly has sophisticated financial modeling for determining how much opportunity cost Game Pass would have cost. I am this confident because I work in a smaller gaming related company that does do stuff like this. We're not calculating with the "piracy math" as you call it; you'd be fired if you tried it.
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Comment on Why socialists should embrace luxury apartments in ~society
gary Link ParentFor you and some people, sure, I can buy it. But magically, once people move into middle class, they don't. Not every leftist is incapable of this, yet we hardly ever see it outside of a...For you and some people, sure, I can buy it. But magically, once people move into middle class, they don't. Not every leftist is incapable of this, yet we hardly ever see it outside of a charitable millionaire. Where are the co-ops? It's easy to be financially savvy when you're dictating someone else's money, but once you run the numbers and have to pony up yourself, you quickly realize that the calculations that seemed feasible don't actually work.
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Comment on Why socialists should embrace luxury apartments in ~society
gary Link ParentI suppose it's a similar concept, but something about rentals particularly drives people crazy on this site. Overall, there were few people who promoted the idea of money-losing investments...I suppose it's a similar concept, but something about rentals particularly drives people crazy on this site. Overall, there were few people who promoted the idea of money-losing investments because most people, when confronted, actually want their money to grow especially when there's risk involved. I maintain that words are cheap and few people here truly believe that landlords are strictly a rent-seeking class with zero-value-add that they're willing to bet money on it.
EDIT: I have a condo in Chicago right now that I could sell to someone at the same price as what I paid ~5 years ago if they're willing to rent out for strictly the cost of the mortgage (no interest, no inflation, no maintenance, nothing).
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Comment on Why socialists should embrace luxury apartments in ~society
gary Link ParentIf the typical landlord performs zero labor, then it would be very easy for a nice person or several nice people to come together and purchase a property to rent out at-cost. It would involve zero...- Exemplary
If the typical landlord performs zero labor, then it would be very easy for a nice person or several nice people to come together and purchase a property to rent out at-cost. It would involve zero labor presumably once that rental is on the market. From there, since these nice people don't need to make any money, they would undercut all other rentals that are from greedy landlords. Providing housing to people is good, so for a one-time sum, affordable housing could be provided in perpetuity, leading to positive vibes all over.
Of course, that assumes that landlords provide zero utility. Once someone actually tries to do this, in most markets, landlords do provide some utility. There's usually some labor involved and there's also the opportunity cost of capital required. No one wants to watch their money dissipate, so some margin is added to compensate for inflation, then some margin is added to mitigate the risk that the tenant doesn't pay, then some margin is added to account for maintenance and repairs, then some margin is added to compensate the person managing all this for their time. Before you know it, you've now arrived at a number that looks excessive because how dare someone rent a property out for more than the initial cost?
If landlords are such leeches, then find me ten Tilderinos that are willing to put some money where their mouths are. I remember a thread Are there alternative ways to invest savings?; where were the suggestions to rent at-cost?
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Comment on Ukraine ‘cuts off’ Crimea from Russia, plunging it into an energy crisis in ~society
gary Link ParentNo. The main reason is Ukraine wants that territory back. The opinions of the current residents of Crimea don't matter to Ukraine if it believes that the taking of Crimea was a non-consensual...No. The main reason is Ukraine wants that territory back. The opinions of the current residents of Crimea don't matter to Ukraine if it believes that the taking of Crimea was a non-consensual action.
And it does not matter to Ukraine if cutting off supplies to Crimea makes life harsh for the current residents. As Crimea was taken and held by Russia through force, only force will bring it back. It's not like becoming popular with Crimeans will convince Crimea to come back via referendum; Russia holds it because they want to.
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Comment on Apple sues OpenAI for stealing trade secrets to build AI hardware in ~tech
gary (edited )Link ParentThat only matters if they booked the free trial as revenue and then deducted as marketing expense though. Otherwise, deducting as marketing expense is normal. Plus it doesn't impact the...That only matters if they booked the free trial as revenue and then deducted as marketing expense though. Otherwise, deducting as marketing expense is normal. Plus it doesn't impact the calculation around profitability of inference. The only thing that matters to calculating inference cost is: is the price of computing a token less than the amount that a token is charged for. You can't hide that calculation by futzing around with customer acquisition cost numbers.
The GAAP-compliance part is irrelevant because most tech companies report both GAAP and non-GAAP as GAAP is not exactly the most accurate way to understand a business. They will report GAAP at IPO, with additional non-GAAP numbers. It's not weird because any analyst will be able understand the difference.
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Comment on European Parliament achieves upgrade to air passenger rights in ~transport
gary Link ParentIt's always been a race to the bottom since the beginning. But we reach an equilibrium state where if the airlines get too bad, another one will step in. See American Airlines flailing now, United...It's always been a race to the bottom since the beginning. But we reach an equilibrium state where if the airlines get too bad, another one will step in. See American Airlines flailing now, United rising (even if United isn't the best), Spirit Airlines dying, Delta doing relatively well. But the weird games and price segmentation on the macro level has driven the cost of air travel down so far from where it has been before. Effectively, one set of flyers subsidize another set of flyers, given the cost of transporting each person is relatively similar.
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Comment on China is dealing with its own manosphere in ~life.men
gary Link ParentI thought you were going to go in the direction that maybe men forced women to abort the girl baby (plausible? possible?) or that a patriarchal society brainwashed women into thinking they needed...I thought you were going to go in the direction that maybe men forced women to abort the girl baby (plausible? possible?) or that a patriarchal society brainwashed women into thinking they needed the son. I think it's a little weird to envision a scenario where both the man and woman have the same stance ("we should have a son because a son is more precious") but that the man should get the blame because the man didn't ultimately choose to override the woman.
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Comment on European Parliament achieves upgrade to air passenger rights in ~transport
gary Link ParentYou know, if you and @Lobachevsky go back and forth and neither of you budge, you both can equally be accused of having deaf ears. You're not guaranteed to be correct. @Lobachevsky thinks the...You know, if you and @Lobachevsky go back and forth and neither of you budge, you both can equally be accused of having deaf ears. You're not guaranteed to be correct. @Lobachevsky thinks the tradeoff for lower prices is worth it. You don't think the profit generated by forcing an app on customers is passed on as savings. Some users think that regardless of savings or not, it's a step too far to require an app. No one is necessarily wrong.
Although I took a quick look at Ryanair and Lufthansa financials and the profit margins are roughly the same, which implies to me that Ryanair's weird pricing structure does pass on savings to customers, assuming that Ryanair has cheaper flights on average.
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Comment on Woman who dated US Senate candidate Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her in ~society
gary Link ParentYou didn't directly claim it, but "loud voices" is taken to mean a minority view that affects the outcome for the majority. Otherwise, loud voices as opposed to what? What's the point of bringing...You didn't directly claim it, but "loud voices" is taken to mean a minority view that affects the outcome for the majority. Otherwise, loud voices as opposed to what? What's the point of bringing up loud voices?
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Comment on Woman who dated US Senate candidate Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her in ~society
gary Link ParentI agree with everything you said except the part about loud voices. It wasn't just loud voices that insisted that he was great, which would imply that loud voices were the predominant factor in...I agree with everything you said except the part about loud voices. It wasn't just loud voices that insisted that he was great, which would imply that loud voices were the predominant factor in his success. Apparently, he not only overwhelmingly won the primary, but he also had the most votes a Democrat had ever had in a Maine primary. The people liked him in spite of all his failings and would have liked him regardless of loud voices.
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Comment on European Parliament achieves upgrade to air passenger rights in ~transport
gary Link ParentRyanair is able to offer cheap prices because they do things like force people to use their app, which leads to higher conversion rates in some higher margin product later. The removal of this...Ryanair is able to offer cheap prices because they do things like force people to use their app, which leads to higher conversion rates in some higher margin product later. The removal of this means less conversion there, which ultimately leads to higher prices for the average ticket on Ryanair in the long run. Sometimes, it's good to allow companies to offer these kinds of experiences even if they're shitty because it results in more consumer choice in airline experiences (trade shitty experience for cheap ticket) overall, even if it results in fewer consumer choices in airline experiences for you specifically because you don't want to install their app.
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Comment on There is no reason to buy another PlayStation or Xbox in ~games
gary LinkWhen the PS4 and the PS5 launched, their performance-to-price ratio were really good though. I remember thinking at the time that I couldn't have built a competitive PC for the same price. Sony...When the PS4 and the PS5 launched, their performance-to-price ratio were really good though. I remember thinking at the time that I couldn't have built a competitive PC for the same price. Sony has scales of economy and they subsidize consoles and make up for it via games. I think that strategy will remain popular.
Steam Big Picture mode has also been mentioned a few times. I love Steam and the UI is better than PS or Xbox IMO, but it's still not a perfect console experience. Sometimes a Windows nag window will grab focus and ask for me to enable a Microsoft cloud account. Or Dragon Quest XI S launches a separate window that Steam won't automatically switch to focus on. Both cases necessitated I put the controller down, find my keyboard, then alt-tab to the correct window. It works 95% of the time, but the normies want their console to work 100% of the time.
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Comment on Fines doubled as teens outsmart Australia's world-first social media ban in ~tech
gary Link ParentCentralization of the internet caused it. With most users congregating onto a few platforms, there's only about 10 or fewer companies that governments need to target in order to reach the vast...Centralization of the internet caused it. With most users congregating onto a few platforms, there's only about 10 or fewer companies that governments need to target in order to reach the vast majority of users. Large tech companies are also very unpopular, causing people who would normally be against government surveillance to stay quiet for fear of looking like they're defending tech companies.
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Comment on Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles in ~games
gary Link ParentThat implies unintentional, but Sony owned Funimation, owned Crunchyroll, then merged Funimation into Crunchyroll and removed purchased Funimation movies from users that had purchased them. They...The movie thing was a legal fumble by Sony
That implies unintentional, but Sony owned Funimation, owned Crunchyroll, then merged Funimation into Crunchyroll and removed purchased Funimation movies from users that had purchased them. They don't get the presumption of innocence here. Sony is also a movie distributor, so they know better than most digital movie retailers how movie rights work. Apple doesn't have this problem. Vudu doesn't have this problem. One or two movies might disappear, but there's never been a report from Apple or Vudu that an entire studio's catalog just disappeared one day from a customer's library.
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Comment on Consequences of advertising and enshittification on the Internet in ~tech
gary Link ParentHence, the latter is price sensitive ("This money is better spent on milk for my children") and less averse to advertising ("seeing ads is better than not having milk for my children"). The term...Hence, the latter is price sensitive ("This money is better spent on milk for my children") and less averse to advertising ("seeing ads is better than not having milk for my children"). The term itself is useful and doesn't come with a moralistic slant to it. If you want to avoid useful terms because some terms are more likely to apply to some socioeconomic classes than others, then we will quickly lose the ability to use descriptions. Propose an alternative that isn't susceptible to this, I guess.
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Comment on Consequences of advertising and enshittification on the Internet in ~tech
gary (edited )Link ParentIt's not class bias. Advertising-averse means "given my options, I choose the ad-supported solution over paying or not consuming at all". You're just defining exactly what "advertising-averse"...It's not class bias. Advertising-averse means "given my options, I choose the ad-supported solution over paying or not consuming at all". You're just defining exactly what "advertising-averse" means.
Edit: alternatively, we need a different term to describe a willingness to trade advertising viewing for money. Someone can be more or less $TERM than another person (and it might be financially related, but outside of the scope of $TERM to describe).
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Comment on Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles in ~games
gary Link ParentBingo. Criminally overlooked in this thread. The sentiment among the 4K Blu-Ray folks is that this is the last generation of discs. Each time a new format was introduced, it was expensive to bring...Bingo. Criminally overlooked in this thread. The sentiment among the 4K Blu-Ray folks is that this is the last generation of discs. Each time a new format was introduced, it was expensive to bring to market and user adoption took a long time. The UX of loading a disc is less accepted today. The path forward would either be flash storage (stupidly expensive), digital, or digital with a physical key for validation like the Switch 2.
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Comment on Apple announces significant price increases for MacBooks, iPads, more in ~tech
gary Link ParentAh yeah, it's rough in some countries. Apple likes to base their prices in USD and then set their foreign prices accordingly and the yen has gotten very weak. Sadly the best way to buy Apple...Ah yeah, it's rough in some countries. Apple likes to base their prices in USD and then set their foreign prices accordingly and the yen has gotten very weak. Sadly the best way to buy Apple products these days is to have an American friend visit.
I would be surprised because I work in the payments org at my company. The 5% doubt is in case the leaked quote was intentionally misleading, but internally there's no way the execs are using such simplistic calculations.