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It seems like a lot of tech startups are doomed. Their entire business model is centered on attracting investors with almost no plans for making profits. It worked for Facebook, in that they found some ways to make profits, but advertising and big data can only go so far. On the other end of the spectrum you have the recent Soundcloud losses. I have no idea how they make money. Attracting investors, making something cool, hope you keep getting investors forever and no one asks you to actually make money. Tech startups and Higher Ed seem like massive bubbles.
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Feb 15, 2016 08:24
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groupon is a predatory business and I'm glad it's failing
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Feb 15, 2016 08:24
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William Stoner posted:Tech startups and Higher Ed seem like massive bubbles. Higher education's going through an interesting (and pretty horrible) bubble here in Australia. A combination of rising unemployment and government subsidies have given rise to a veritable fuckload of very predatory 'colleges' that try to get you on the hook in ways much like how people try to upsell you on phone services; that is, by pretending to be something different and/or just making it really hard to say no. The really poo poo ones go even further, by signing on people who would be literally incapable of doing the actual course, often promising things like laptops, and then shutting up shop and running the moment the government looks in their direction. But even the ostensibly legit ones are often pretty rancid, doing stuff like setting up fake job advertisements solely to pitch courses at the applicants, and more than once I've been approached by people from currently-opening technical colleges in shopping centres, at train stations, or by door-to-door salesmen.
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Feb 15, 2016 08:40
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Cleretic posted:Higher education's going through an interesting (and pretty horrible) bubble here in Australia. A combination of rising unemployment and government subsidies have given rise to a veritable fuckload of very predatory 'colleges' that try to get you on the hook in ways much like how people try to upsell you on phone services; that is, by pretending to be something different and/or just making it really hard to say no. holy gently caress. where do you live? I'm a post-graduate student in melbourne and have never seen or heard of any of this poo poo.
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Feb 15, 2016 08:48
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Yeah I don't get why every company ever seems to think the way to success is to cut manpower and services as much as possible, and then like Radio Shack and some other chains, decide to put everything they have into ridiculously low-profit, low volume items that nobody in their right mind will ever buy at a store instead of the manufacturer themselves. Like why would you go into a Best Buy and buy a Samsung phone when Verizon and Samsung themselves both sell it cheaper.
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Feb 15, 2016 09:08
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TacticalUrbanHomo posted:holy gently caress. where do you live? I'm a post-graduate student in melbourne and have never seen or heard of any of this poo poo. While I'm moving to Melbourne myself very soon, until now I've been living in Salisbury, in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. The area's got colossal unemployment rates, we're talking >30%, so it's unsurprising that the on-foot forces are targeting the region and that the fake job advertisers are perhaps focusing a bit more on entry-level jobs in Adelaide than elsewhere. The really heinous ones are generally online, and usually prey on people who wouldn't be able to understand the problems, go elsewhere, or honestly complete the course in the first place--we're talking largely people on disability. It's unsurprising you wouldn't have heard about this as a Melbourne postgrad, they're targeting both very different people and places. It's been sort of a quiet disaster, because it's not like the victims are the type that can speak out very well, but there's been recent crackdowns that have brought it out into the open a bit.
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Feb 15, 2016 09:17
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Larry Parrish posted:Yeah I don't get why every company ever seems to think the way to success is to cut manpower and services as much as possible, and then like Radio Shack and some other chains, decide to put everything they have into ridiculously low-profit, low volume items that nobody in their right mind will ever buy at a store instead of the manufacturer themselves. Like why would you go into a Best Buy and buy a Samsung phone when Verizon and Samsung themselves both sell it cheaper. no, why would you go to them and get the product cheaper when you could have the personal touch of a salesman, IDIOT 
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Feb 15, 2016 09:21
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Larry Parrish posted:Yeah I don't get why every company ever seems to think the way to success is to cut manpower and services as much as possible, and then like Radio Shack and some other chains, decide to put everything they have into ridiculously low-profit, low volume items that nobody in their right mind will ever buy at a store instead of the manufacturer themselves. Like why would you go into a Best Buy and buy a Samsung phone when Verizon and Samsung themselves both sell it cheaper. the execs making these decisions know exactly what they're doing and make changes that short-term profits but gently caress up the company in the long term. the goal is to post the biggest numbers possible from slashing costs as much as possible and then bail before the ramifications from slashing said costs (brain drain, people stop buying your products because they're cheaper and shoddier than they were before) are felt edit: this is also why the whole "  IF WE RAISE WAGES WE WON'T HAVE ANY JOBS " shtick is bullshit because lmao if you think labor isn't cut to the absolute bone already
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Feb 15, 2016 09:30
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Business Gorillas posted:the execs making these decisions know exactly what they're doing and make changes that short-term profits but gently caress up the company in the long term. the goal is to post the biggest numbers possible from slashing costs as much as possible and then bail before the ramifications from slashing said costs (brain drain, people stop buying your products because they're cheaper and shoddier than they were before) are felt Yeah but that's the point. If it's a tactic that's been super common and obviously beneficial only to senior executives and guaranteed to ruin the stockholder's return, why the gently caress do boards keep appointing these scumbags to run companies.
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Feb 15, 2016 09:32
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Larry Parrish posted:Yeah but that's the point. If it's a tactic that's been super common and obviously beneficial only to senior executives and guaranteed to ruin the stockholder's return, why the gently caress do boards keep appointing these scumbags to run companies. Scumbags watch after other Scumbags.
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Feb 15, 2016 10:15
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canyoneer posted:Groupon turning down a $6B buyout from google is the funniest thing, because Google realized "there is nothing Groupon is currently doing that we could not also do (and probably at least as well)"
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Feb 15, 2016 15:12
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Larry Parrish posted:Yeah but that's the point. If it's a tactic that's been super common and obviously beneficial only to senior executives and guaranteed to ruin the stockholder's return, why the gently caress do boards keep appointing these scumbags to run companies. Look up the board of pretty much any company. Almost 100% of the members are current or former senior executives
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Feb 15, 2016 15:48
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i've really enjoyed wall street success stories like Blackberry and HP that gutted themselves to nothing in search of ONE NEAT TRICK that makes shareholders happy
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Feb 15, 2016 16:02
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TacticalUrbanHomo posted:groupon is a predatory business and I'm glad it's failing How so? Serious question
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Feb 15, 2016 17:49
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Last night I got on my gf's Windows 10 PC and hit the Start button and said 'hey where's the search box?' and she said 'idk there isn't one you gotta just open File Explorer and search from there.' That alone makes Windows 10 retarded as gently caress. And even if there is a search box somewhere and my gf just missed it, then it's stupid that they made it so obfuscated (which is their favorite pastime wrt the control panel settings so maybe that's intentional). Business Gorillas posted:edit: this is also why the whole " ayup. idiot people think companies just have 'extra' labor costs they can cut. poo poo's already cut as much as possible; domino's doesn't have an extra employee on Thursday nights for shits and giggles. Larry Parrish posted:Yeah but that's the point. If it's a tactic that's been super common and obviously beneficial only to senior executives and guaranteed to ruin the stockholder's return, why the gently caress do boards keep appointing these scumbags to run companies. because the boards are usually made up of shareholders who like the short term profits, too. pump the company's figures until the share price is ballooned, sell, watch as it collapses, acquire shares, fire the CEO, repeat until it finally collapses. FishionMailed has a new favorite as of 18:41 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 18:33
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FishionMailed posted:Last night I got on my gf's Windows 10 PC and hit the Start button and said 'hey where's the search box?' and she said 'idk there isn't one you gotta just open File Explorer and search from there.' My pc with W10 has a big annoying search box right next to the start button by default ? I actually wanted to remove it but too lazy to search how Are you sure it wasn't Windows 8
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Feb 15, 2016 18:45
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FishionMailed posted:Last night I got on my gf's Windows 10 PC and hit the Start button and said 'hey where's the search box?' and she said 'idk there isn't one you gotta just open File Explorer and search from there.' I thikn you just hit the windows key and start typing. Perhaps a bit too slick but the search function itself is pretty good
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Feb 15, 2016 18:46
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TacticalUrbanHomo posted:groupon is a predatory business and I'm glad it's failing I worked at Domino's and some restaurants so I can at least give you a service industry perspective on this. GroupOn negotiates the deals with the businesses and basically pressures businesses (usually chains like Domino's) to go in on GroupOn deals for the benefit of advertising and driving sales. Usually the coupon itself results in either very low profits or a loss. So like for example, they'd go to Domino's and say 'let's do a GroupOn where you offer large pizzas for $5' or whatever, and Domino's goes 'ah idk that sounds like we'd take a fairly large loss' and GroupOn goes 'no see you'll get great advertising out of it and drive sales and attract new customers.' Well as it turns out, the GroupOn results in a huge loss, the advertising/sales gains are marginal or nonexistent, and it leaves a hella sour taste in the business' mouth. I know that the Domino's company I was at (they franchise, this company owned all the San Diego locations) said 'nah we're not doing that poo poo anymore.' Specific to Domino's, the people that were getting food because of the GroupOn deal weren't coming back to pay full retail price and the people that already get pizza on a regular basis didn't order any more frequently (they just enjoyed the large discount on food once in a while). I can easily picture them pressuring some smaller business to provide a GroupOn deal in exchange for advertising and increased sales that never materialize. I can also see said smaller businesses (who don't have the benefit of a national advertising campaign like Domino's does) getting a decent chunk of customers only interested in paying GroupOn pricing at which point they go 'do we just keep making poo poo all money or do we cut out GroupOn and maybe lose what business it did bring in?' BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:I thikn you just hit the windows key and start typing. Perhaps a bit too slick but the search function itself is pretty good No I did that and nothing happened which is when I asked 'hey where's the search box?' Dunno. It wasn't Windows 8 because I remember her taking the free upgrade from 8 to 10. Maybe there was just a setting messed up somehow. FishionMailed has a new favorite as of 18:49 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 18:46
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vyst posted:How so? Serious question http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/09/groupon-single-worst-decision/ http://www.pcworld.com/article/229644/why_groupon_sucks_for_small_businesses.html http://www.cnbc.com/id/49092709 http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/groupons-bad-deal
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Feb 15, 2016 18:48
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FishionMailed posted:No I did that and nothing happened which is when I asked 'hey where's the search box?' Dunno. It wasn't Windows 8 because I remember her taking the free upgrade from 8 to 10. Maybe there was just a setting messed up somehow. Maybe she has it locked somehow. I'm typing/searching straight from the start button right now.
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Feb 15, 2016 18:48
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You might be dumb? There's definitely a search box right there http://i.blogs.es/f796ee/win10/original.png
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Feb 15, 2016 18:49
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^^^ probablyUniverse Master posted:Maybe she has it locked somehow. I'm typing/searching straight from the start button right now. Hm maybe. Idk otherwise her desktop with 10 seems to be easier to use than 8. Although it did push a 'Recommended: Facebook app!' ad at me as I was in the windows button looking for the search box and that kinda annoyed me, too. FishionMailed has a new favorite as of 18:54 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 18:50
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I bought a few groupons and they were great as a customer All of the small businesses where I used one are closed now
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Feb 15, 2016 18:51
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GroupOns integration with out system was also awful yeah. Just a massive pain in the rear end. I also didn't know they apparently want direct compensation from the business itself in addition to convincing them to run a promotion at just completely unprofitable prices lmao 50/50 split but they won't split the CC fees on every transaction I'm sure
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Feb 15, 2016 18:56
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FishionMailed posted:I can easily picture them pressuring some smaller business to provide a GroupOn deal in exchange for advertising and increased sales that never materialize. That is exactly what they do. quote:The sales process seemed like buying a car. Initially, the rep asked for 100% of the revenue. He eventually “settled” for 50% “Understanding that your business is newer, I decided to split the revenue with you,” he wrote. At one point, Jessie was told that she could only ever run one Groupon over the life of the business. FishionMailed posted:50/50 split but they won't split the CC fees on every transaction I'm sure Again, exactly correct.
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Feb 15, 2016 18:59
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the amount of marketing gimmick horseshit that people will fall for is amazing
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Feb 15, 2016 19:17
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I upgraded to Windows 10 but it wouldn't recognize my iPod, USB, or External but would recognize my iPhone, so that thing got set back to Windows 7 after a quick Google search found that Microsoft's response was "We'll fix that eventually"
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Feb 15, 2016 19:19
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If Windows 7 is working for you, then there is very little reason to upgrade to 10. And several reasons NOT to upgrade.
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Feb 15, 2016 19:24
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Not really circling the drain, but it'll be a tough year for US railroads. A huge portion of their income came from transporting coal, and we all know what's happening there. I work for a major east coast railroad and their planning big layoffs, almost certainly from the coal department. I work in intermodal (shipping containers) and we didn't do too well either, but will probably be okay.
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Feb 15, 2016 19:55
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Groupon's biggest problem is that their business model can be copied by virtually any company.
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Feb 15, 2016 20:16
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Johnny Aztec posted:If Windows 7 is working for you, then there is very little reason to upgrade to 10. The upgrade costs $0 and Windows 7 won't be supported forever. IE 11 isn't getting new features, just patches. Edge is a much safer browser, any way. Edit: if you buy a new system every two or three years, just get Windows 10 that way.
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Feb 15, 2016 20:23
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I'm not sure if it's still true, but in the height of the economic shitstorm a few years ago, marginal businesses couldn't get financing from banks, so they would sign a faustian bargain with Groupon in place of financing because Groupon would give them cash up front. In a lot of cases, the businesses were pretty badly hosed by the terms (like Groupon paid them $1,000 for $2,500 worth of pizzas), and the ones that did tracking found almost zero repeat business from the coupons.
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Feb 15, 2016 20:33
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Don Tacorleone posted:My pc with W10 has a big annoying search box right next to the start button by default ? I actually wanted to remove it but too lazy to search how You can do it if you buy Start10 for $5 bux. It's easily the best purchase I've made.
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Feb 15, 2016 20:36
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Right click on the task bar to open the options menu, see the "Search" menu? It has three options. Those options are "Hidden", "Show search icon", and "Show search box" I don't know what they do though, I was so outraged by Microsoft's default color scheme that I installed Ubunto Linux just as fast as I could and have been recommending it to everyone I meet.
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Feb 15, 2016 20:44
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vyst posted:You can do it if you buy Start10 for $5 bux. It's easily the best purchase I've made. Classic Start Menu is free and does something similar.
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Feb 15, 2016 20:46
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Aleph Null posted:Classic Start Menu is free and does something similar. Yea is a good alternative. Star10 is nice because it gets rid of the cortana search bar entirely which makes it worth it to me
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Feb 15, 2016 20:58
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I played Halo for the first time as like a 12-13 year old and it was GREAT. Too many sequels later and I don't give a poo poo but I do like to name my phone 'Cortana' as an affectation. Stupid loving MS now I can't do that because it's nowhere near as 'personal' (yeah I know it wasn't very much so to begin with but still).
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Feb 15, 2016 21:02
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vyst posted:Yea is a good alternative. Star10 is nice because it gets rid of the cortana search bar entirely which makes it worth it to me If it can kill the tracking, it would be worth three times as much.
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Feb 15, 2016 21:29
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Aleph Null posted:If it can kill the tracking, it would be worth three times as much. You can already kill the tracking yourself. It won't stop the service but you can kill everything it tracks already in its options and deeper.
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Feb 15, 2016 21:32
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reallivedinosaur posted:Right click on the task bar to open the options menu, see the "Search" menu? haha nice parody of a complete idiot. you've got it down pat.
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Feb 15, 2016 21:37
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