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MeerkatBong

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Posts posted by MeerkatBong

  1. "Miami nightclubs, which have been rocked by the absence of big-spending crypto whales amid the market’s deep freeze.

    Nightclubs in the city became a home away from home for crypto entrepreneurs, who—when times were good—would rent out venues for half a million dollars and order top-shelf Champagne to shower themselves with. That clientele (“95 percent men…with a kind of nerdy style,” according to one operator) has disappeared due to the crypto market collapse, according to a report by the Financial Times.

    E11even, a club that accepted payment in cryptocurrency, processed $6+ million worth of transactions last year. In the last three months, it’s taken in less than $10,000.

    Is Miami okay? Magic City went pretty much all in on crypto back when celebrities were scooping up million-dollar ape drawings, but things have changed. Crypto-promoting Mayor Francis Suarez removed laser eyes from his Twitter profile; Miami-Dade County asked a federal judge to end the Miami Heat arena’s naming rights deal with bankrupt FTX; and the city’s personal token, MiamiCoin, has dropped 99% from its peak value."

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  2. It will be interesting to see if Musk can recruit other big name CEO/companies to create a coalition to go against Apple. Fortnite and Shopify are premiere names in consumers minds:

    In taking the gloves off with Apple, Musk formed an alliance with other tech leaders who’ve been grumbling about the App Store:

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    Tim Sweeney, CEO of Fortnite developer Epic Games, has gone to the mattresses over the fees: His company sued Apple over the 30% cut in 2020, pretty much lost, and appeared in court this month to appeal the verdict.

    Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said last month that Apple is “choking competition” after Spotify’s audiobooks app was rejected from the App Store three times for allegedly not following App Store rules.

    Sweeney and Ek are overjoyed to welcome Musk to the fam. Both CEOs retweeted posts from Musk about the App Store, and Sweeney used the renewed interest to update everyone on his feud with Apple, which he said “maintain[s] an illegal monopoly on app distribution.”

    As the storm rages, Apple CEO Tim Cook has stayed silent, not taking Musk’s bait

     

     

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  3. 17 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

    Except after the Epic suit against Apple the ruling is such that Apple can ask for the 30% no matter where it is taken (Epic eventually paid Apple).  Apple can also block you from the Apple store if you chose not to.  Apple could charge Twitter 80% if it wants to and there is nothing Musk could do about it.

    Musk is throwing a hissy fit for sure, but anyone not getting behind his pushback on the App Store (and Google to lesser degree) doesn't realize what a problem it is.

    Since Twitter is basically a mobile app focused product (80% of users)... the Apple cut is going to take 30% of any profits they try to raise.

    This is also why Meta is pissed at Apple as they recently said they are going to be coming after their ad revenue as well... 30%

    This. Apple (and Google, the duopoly, but focusing on Apple here) is a beast because they own the mechanism and ecosystem in which people interact with their digital worlds.

    The downfall of social media we've seen lately has a lot of causes, but of the more underrated ones is Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) that has eaten everyone's lunch the past 12+ months. Total boss move.

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  4. 10 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Oh, and back to Elmo shitting all over Apple, one of his largest advertisers.

    Imagine this scenario: Brisketexan is one of the most frequent customers of Boudreaux's Boudin Palace.  I eat a lot of boudin.  So much so, that my boudin purchases are 4% of Boudreaux's annual revenue.

    But one day, it is brought to may attention that Boudreaux has changed its boudin recipe in a way that makes it taste not so great to Brisketexan, and also fired a bunch of its employees so that its QC on batches of boudin is inconsistent.  Brisketexan stops buying his boudin from Boudreaux's, sharing his concerns with Boudreaux's management in hopes that Boudreaux's will fix things so that it will again be among Brisket's favorite dining establishments.

    Instead of acknowledging ANY of my concerns, Boudreaux's management attacks me, mocks me for my choice, and says that I am clearly anti-small business and anti-Cajun.  In fact, Boudreaux's posts a Yelp review of me, calling into question how I provide legal services to my clients.

    How many of you think Brisket will be going back to Boudreaux's for his boudin needs?

    How many of you think that Boudreaux's approach to customer relations is likely to have positive revenue results?

     

    What Elmo is doing re: Apple is juvenile and stupid.  If you praise it, you are juvenile and stupid.  And no, it doesn't even matter if he has a point about Apple and its app store or not.  Threats, blackmail, and attacks are not ever a means of recovering/retaining a customer.

    Now weave in the part where Briskettexan takes 30% of the house take on Boudin balls everyday whether Briskettexan wants to eat there or not. Because that's a not insignificant data point to the rigmarole and without it, the analogy fails.

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  5. 15 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

    We’re about to be in a recession if we aren’t already.  Tech stock prices are down like 30-40% this year.  Nobody needed inspiration from Elon or activist investors to start trimming costs and commencing layoffs.  

    The difference is the other companies will only fire the people they want to fire (and will actually have given thought to identifying who they want to fire and who they want to keep), they won’t aggressively piss off their key customers, and they won’t haphazardly invent and reverse critical corporate policies at the whim of a manchild based on how his Twitter interactions with random weirdos are going that day.

    I agree except for your first sentence which I would say the jury is still out.

    The thrust of my point (and the quoted piece) is NOT that other companies will be ham-handed, send out a mailchimp survey monkey "will you be hardxcore 80 hour employees with me, yes or no?" and sloppily halve their companies overnight.

    Elmo's very public torching of twitter could have a few unintended consequences (we've already touched on more pressure for apple's 30% mob cut, love it or hate it), and in the HR/RIF perspective, if Twitter wriggles their way out of this and can limp along more or less solvent, you could see a lot of activist investors and monied PE's start harassing businesses, from small to large, with the idea that "Hey, Twitter can survive with 1 of [these type employees], 3 of those types, only 6 of these, etc, why are you using 200, 300 and 1000 respectively." Or what have you.

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  6. 37 minutes ago, Js1 said:

    This administration negotiated with the union leaders for something like 15-20 hours straight. Them in a room with Walsh and Pete

    Of course, I’m not going to engage with your 18th sock, Donkey, about how disastrous the strike would be for this country and that Biden’s admin put in the work that most of the unions accepted.

    If he does nothing, you blame him. If Congress ratified the agreement, he sold them out. There’s no winning and I don’t think he cares one way or the other about scoring/winning points. 

    I was seriously asking as I respect your opinion and think you have a level head when it comes to politics and the realities of politics, specifically. Lots of folks on here live in fantasy land when it comes to execution and delivery and think this stuff is so easy.

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  7. 2 minutes ago, NoName said:

    i think it was fine to go in and cut it back. but there was no strategy in how it was done - it wasn't a "let's prune the bottom 20% of our engineers" it was let's take a machete to every group we have and hope nothing breaks. the cuts were the same for the teams developing new stuff as they were for the core infrastructure team as they were for the advertising group as they were for the moderation teams as they were for the app specific teams as they were for the trust and safety teams...it was done in the most hamfisted way possible.

    What is interesting about Elmo's machete cuts, as a precedent or lighthouse, is that other Big Tech (and most importantly Activist Investors!) are watching and waiting to see how this plays out. From the website The Information:

    Quote

     

    Alphabet has doubled the headcount in its Google Cloud unit since early 2019, according to data obtained by The Information, outstripping Alphabet’s overall hiring growth. The rapid growth helps explain why Google Cloud’s losses continue to widen even as its revenue grows rapidly. Google’s hardware unit and YouTube also each roughly doubled headcount between the first quarter of 2019 and this fall. And the number of employees working in marketing and finance roles across Google roughly doubled to 4,500 and 5,500, respectively. In comparison, Alphabet’s total employee count grew roughly 80% to 187,000 at the end of September, the company has said…

    Google Cloud now accounts for just over a quarter of the company’s workforce but only 10% of total revenues. Losses at the unit widened 12.6% in the first nine months of this year, to $2.5 billion, even as revenue grew 39%, a faster rate of growth than that of its much bigger rival, Amazon Web Services.

    The Information includes a chart of Google’s employee distribution in 2019 and 2022; what is striking is that Google Search and Ads are, even after the last three years’ crazy growth, only around 22,500 employees (up from around 16,000 employees in 2019). Those are the two units driving the majority of Google’s revenue and the vast majority of its profits. This reality — along with Meta, which despite its recent layoffs, is still massively larger than its pre-pandemic size — are probably the two biggest examples of companies that could start to feel significant investor pressure if Musk survives with a drastically reduced Twitter workforce. Still, both are large enough and profitable enough that investors may have limited means to have much of an impact; the pressure will be that much more intense on smaller companies.

     

     

  8. 27 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

    Apple and Google effectively control access to the internet via their app stores?  Do people not even know how to use an internet browser now?  WTF?

    You are generally well-versed in market economics which makes this post even more disappointing. Or maybe you haven't heard the argument for how these two app stores on smart devices are a duopoly?

    An aside: Thanks for replies @Neonmoonand @atomheartbevo;makes more sense now.

     

  9. 7 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

    Many people are terrible at English. He was talking shit about their anti-dictator stance being "brave", stating it is not brave to be anti-dictator (at least in the USA I'm assuming, because being anti-dictator in Russia is brave as fuck). 

    Right. Which is why the guy's post in response makes no sense. Which I guess raises the question, why was it posted here? I'm possibly missing something that makes an obvious point so I'll just ask: What were you @atomheartbevotrying to illustrate? Simply making fun of the editor? Making fun that Elmo is wasting his time in foolish tweet troll wars instead of tending to his multiple business responsibilities?

     

  10. 5 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    simon cowell facepalm GIF
     

     

    Not to defend Elmo here, but more the English language and reading comprehension, but I don't think Phillips O gets it, which is weird because it looks like he's an editor. Elmo is clearly saying that his anti-dictator stance is an obvious (non-controversial) one and is so common and obvious as to be the opposite of a risky stance, thus needing no bravery either.

  11. 5 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

    It'd be cooler if you were a Theater/Intersectional Studies/Fiber Arts major.

    After he posted that I spent a solid 10 minutes looking for a Pumpkin Spice Latte Frappuccino app on the App Store, if that tells you anything about my major.

  12. 4 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

    Hey, I appreciate it. :) I don't actually have a Patreon page because the idea of being on a schedule gives me the jeebies. I'll let folks know if that changes. And once you have some of my art, it's actually in your financial interest for me to die, which is what I told my doctor after I made her a sketch.

    On principle I always act in complete opposition to my financial interests-- do you even read my CR posts?

    Jokes aside, you are living the dream and I really respect you.

  13. 1 minute ago, Chopper said:

     

     

    All valid explanations but you left out micro-dick energy and overcompesation.

     

    Call me more than skeptical that Elon Musk is going to be the tipping point over the app store, which has been through many wars with european and US regulators already, and won many, many legal battles.

     

     

    I am guessing you are right, but I think eventually, Apple will be forced to concede something at least due to a build-up of complaints and legal issues over their 30% vig. I'm not against Apple there, I think they created the ecosystem and platform and it's their value-add, but I also see the other side as well. 

    As for me with an Android phone? I could never. Halloween season is over so let's dispense with the spooky stories and haunting visions.

  14. It's amazing how technology as shaped us to where people are scared of the phone as the OP said he was reading about these new phobias. Maybe there are people that have always been and just now are accommodated, I don't know.

    Talking on the phone takes energy and work and effort. That's why we hate it. We like to be left alone to our own curious devices and we like to not have to focus or give 100% attention so we can be mediocre at multi-tasking. That's my theory anyways.

    7 minutes ago, TornACL said:

    There's a lady in my neighborhood who goes on a walk every morning around 7am. She uses the speaker phone, it's turned up to full blast. If I am outside I can hear her "talking" into her phone from at least 4 houses away, and as she passes I can hear everything the other person is saying. 

    I just assume people like that are oblivious assholes. Simplest explanation.

    Also, who the fuck wants to chit chat on the phone at 7 in the fucking morning?

    That's uncouth. Someone should say something to this lady.

  15. 5 minutes ago, Paper_jam said:

    Covid hospitalizations in TX look up close to 50% in the last two weeks. Is this increase "real," or an artifact of hospitals not doing many discharges over the holiday week?

    https://dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/tests.aspx

     

    It seems like an unfortunate time for DSHS to fall back to weekly updates, which they'll be doing tomorrow (Nov. 30) according to the website. 

    Just read that Flu hospitalizations have overtaken Covid hospitalizations in North Texas and this is the worst flu season in decades:

    Quote

     

    Flu hospitalizations now outnumber COVID-19 hospitalizations in North Texas for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic as multiple respiratory viruses continue to spread across the region.

    The 2022-23 flu season is shaping up to be one of the worst in more than a decade. Cases and hospitalizations from the virus shot up unseasonably early as the U.S. entered its first flu season without COVID-19-era public health measures like masking and social distancing

     

     

  16. 20 hours ago, MeerkatBong said:

    What might be an interesting, unintended effect of this brouhaha (still TBD) is what this mummer's farce will mean for putting more visibility on Apple's 30% cut. A lot has been made in the last 12 months of if it should be legal and it has regulator's attention. I think it all started with the Fortnite guys firing the first shot years ago, but Elmo could put some gas on that fire. Apple might not want that smoke or they might not care at all and brush Elon away like a gadfly.

    This is why Elmo's Twitter is more entertaining than a soap opera, every week there is some new dramatic story arc.

    I said this yesterday and today I was reading where some business news analysts ( @wildcat09, the objective Ben Thompson) agrees that Apple might not want the attention Elmo is bringing, which is why Elmo is doing this:

    From WSJ (bold emphasis my own):

    Quote

    In a string of tweets accusing Apple of stanching free speech and claiming that the tech giant had threatened to kick the Twitter app off the iPhone, Mr. Musk introduced a new wrinkle in Apple’s efforts to maintain control over software distribution, acting as a megaphone for critics who say the company holds too much power through its App Store. By calling attention to Apple’s role as a gatekeeper for the App ecosystem, Mr. Musk is picking up the mantle in the yearslong fight developers have waged against Apple and its fees. Mr. Musk could bring new focus to the company from lawmakers and regulators around the world, including politicians who have expressed concern that Silicon Valley is silencing conservative voices.

    From Ben Thompson (bold emphasis my own):

    Quote

     

    Indeed, that ban reinforces my assumption that Apple is not kicking Twitter out of the store anytime soon: Apple has much larger concerns than Twitter’s moderation policies, specifically bills currently in Congress that are targeted squarely at the App Store and Apple’s integrated business model. Those bills have been massively watered down and may never come to the floor for a vote in the current lame duck session; Apple would very much like said bills to die a quiet death and I suspect would be reticent to do anything to raise the issue’s visibility.

    Still, the 30% issue is almost certainly going to be a flashpoint between Musk and Apple: 30% of $8 is $2.40, money that Twitter can scarce afford to give up when (checks notes) Twitter just lost around $200 million annually from Apple alone (i.e. around 3 million annual subscribers worth of revenue). It’s not clear what Musk can do about this directly, but he does have one of the largest megaphones around, and the risk to Apple from that megaphone being used to highlight the company’s App Store policies is significant. Indeed, this is another example of why Musk’s ownership of Twitter, as exhausting as it can seem, may end up being extremely impactful for not just Twitter but the industry broadly.

     

     and

    Quote

    I suspect that Apple won’t take the step of actually kicking Twitter out of the App Store: the blowback would, needless to say, be a lot larger than Parler, given that a critical mass of people actually use Twitter. What is likely happening, though, is an ongoing delay in approval of app updates because of content moderation issues — and that may impact the impending re-launch of Twitter Blue.

    and from NYT:

    Apple is already being investigated for its App Store policies, including by the Justice Department. Meanwhile, Spotify sued Apple for rejecting its audiobooks app three times, accusing it of anticompetitive behavior. And Epic Games is still locked in a legal fight with Apple over forced use of the company’s in-app payment system. (Epic’s C.E.O., Tim Sweeney, backed Musk’s fight yesterday, tweeting, “Apple is a menace to freedom worldwide.”)

  17. 9 minutes ago, Loch Ness Monster said:

    Not a Elon fanboy but I do respect his ability to create buzz and controversy around his companies. Twitters probably never been more talked about than right now. 

    Pissing off advertisers the real downfall so far. Maybe they'll come back eventually though tbd.

    As we've seen with Qatar, corporations are whores who follow the viewers/users/money. Except B-corps and Patagonia type companies, but you know what I meant. Typical F500 stuff.

  18. 1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

    What are his motives for jumping into the culture wars and dividing us?

    I think briskettexan nailed it (broken clock right twice a day etc.); sociopathic narcissistic tendencies fueled by awesome resources and wealth that has broken his brain, potentially. He’s what would happen if you gave an average 4chan troll a hot hand and billions of dollars.

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