Tech Nightmares: Ghostline the flux

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How many quarters after Q1 2016 till Marissa Mayer is unemployed?
	1 or fewer
	2
	4
	Her job is guaranteed; what are you even talking about?

Not a Children: Oct 9, 2012; Don't need a holster if you never stop shooting.

boner confessor posted:

i dont understand rentberry's business model. there's already tons of real estate listing sites out there, but they're going to make one where prices are more expensive to the renter? and as a renter i want to use this... why?

Millenials are so jaded to the costs of housing and the relentless financial bilking they've endured from cradle to present that they won't bother to negotiate on their own. Their in-person communication is so milquetoast that they cannot present another option without it being posited for them

I'm only half-joking

# ? Apr 3, 2017 16:26

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# ? Apr 29, 2024 05:37

fishmech: Jul 16, 2006; by VideoGames; Salad Prong

Whooping Crabs posted:

New rent-bidding site Rentberry will be grafting from both tenants and landlords based on market demand for housing.

"For now, Rentberry charges users a $25 fee, but in the future, it plans to charge 25 percent of the difference between the asking price and the agreed upon rent. Whoever received the better deal pays the fee�every month."

http://gizmodo.com/bidding-website-rentberry-may-be-the-startup-of-your-ni-1793940693

I can see landlords placing bids on their own properties until they meet the asking price then re-listing the property elsewhere. Or just increasing asking prices to an incredible amount in places with high demand and just let potential tenants fight it out and pay rentberry the 25% difference in asking fee. That fee (25% of the difference for the duration of the rental agreement) is outrageous.

Here are some things to mention:
1) They refuse to reveal what cities they actually operate in
2) It's rather annoying to actually find rentals on there sight-unseen. You can only try to find a property either by entering a particular address for a building you already knew to be up for rent (you would be told this when you tried to rent a place, and they told you you have to go through rentberry), or by entering random addresses where you want to move and hoping they actually have a listing in the search range or that they'll pop up when you pan around. You can't just enter a neighborhood or whole city, even though you can later zoom out their map thing.
3) Because of this, there's basically no way to tell if they are or ever will be popular, of if they're really just operating at the level of any other small time regional broker.

boner confessor posted:

i dont understand rentberry's business model. there's already tons of real estate listing sites out there, but they're going to make one where prices are more expensive to the renter? and as a renter i want to use this... why?

Because you went to try to rent a given apartment, and when you did that the landlord or broker or real estate agent tells you "by the way, if you want this place you need to bid rent on this one site or you're not allowed to rent it".

Outside of this, listings are rather hard to get to because you either need their exact address, or to happen to guess an address close by to a place up for rent or panning around a lot. So it's basically entirely relying on the fact that a landlord will force you to use it because you like a location.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 16:39

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

it sounds like it would be really hard to middleman a transaction that generally involves meeting in person.

it also sounds like it would be really hard to collect your middleman fee when it relies on the honor system. (if you are a landlord who got $1800/mo when you were asking for $2000, why wouldn't you do the lease for $1840 and cut rentberry out entirely? unless rentberry is also going to become the payment processor for rent as well?)

# ? Apr 3, 2017 16:47

boner confessor: Apr 25, 2013; by R. Guyovich

fishmech posted:

Because you went to try to rent a given apartment, and when you did that the landlord or broker or real estate agent tells you "by the way, if you want this place you need to bid rent on this one site or you're not allowed to rent it".

Outside of this, listings are rather hard to get to because you either need their exact address, or to happen to guess an address close by to a place up for rent or panning around a lot. So it's basically entirely relying on the fact that a landlord will force you to use it because you like a location.

this would really only work in markets that are so competitive that you can collect multiple bids on a unit in a short time frame, in which case it's hard to see the utility of a listing site that will take a large fee from you when you could just use any other listing site

where i live there was a glut of luxury apartment building in a completely unglamorous area and they're desperate to find tenants. a new complex up the street from me is only half full and has a full set of banners, sign guys, what have you advertising immediate residency, which is code for "you can't afford to live here and we can't afford to lower our rents". i get an email like every other day from my current apartment complex begging for resident referrals. which is what's weird about the other part of the rentberry guy's statement about lowering rents - why would any landlord list their property on a site that could end up lowering the asked for rent?

like most goofy startups rentberry seems like it solves an upper middle class problem that only exists in coastal downtowns and isn't applicable to the other 98% of america

# ? Apr 3, 2017 16:56

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

The NYT has a detailed explanation of some of Uber's methods of driver manipulation:

https://nyti.ms/2nMmDtc

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:07

fishmech: Jul 16, 2006; by VideoGames; Salad Prong

Klyith posted:

it sounds like it would be really hard to middleman a transaction that generally involves meeting in person.

it also sounds like it would be really hard to collect your middleman fee when it relies on the honor system. (if you are a landlord who got $1800/mo when you were asking for $2000, why wouldn't you do the lease for $1840 and cut rentberry out entirely? unless rentberry is also going to become the payment processor for rent as well?)

Part of their "sell" is that Rentberry also offers an online rent payment portal and seems to imply that if you do rent through a winning bid, you must pay your rent through them. Their rent payment page also says you can ask your existing landlord to take rent payments through them: https://rentberry.com/pay-rent. So when you are payign your rent through there, it'll be easy for them to take the cut.

It is of course obvious that a landlord could just say the rentberry bids fell through, and have the winning bidder just sign the lease and pay rent the normal way instead, wholly cutting rentberry out.

But who knows, maybe they'll drop their half-thought-out bidding thing entirely and move entirely to being one of those companies that administers electronic rent payment for landlords that don't want to do it themselves. There's already plenty of those around, but no one company ever seems to really get a dominant position, so there's probably room for yet another one.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:11

Panfilo: Aug 27, 2011; EXISTENCE IS PAIN😬

Wouldn't a landlord that mandates you bid/pay inflated rent through some website constitute a form of housing Discrimination?

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:18

poemdexter: Feb 18, 2005; Hooray Indie Games!; College Slice

I imagine this probably helps people who own a 2nd home and plan to rent it out for extra money. There's already tons of real estate companies that will manage a rent property for you for a cut. Rentberry would definitely need a way to handle tenant issues like a leaky pipe or broken light switch since most of the management companies handle that for the owner as well. I'm sure it's more comfortable for owners to be able to go to management face to face if needed instead of some internet startup.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:22

fishmech: Jul 16, 2006; by VideoGames; Salad Prong

Panfilo posted:

Wouldn't a landlord that mandates you bid/pay inflated rent through some website constitute a form of housing Discrimination?

The paying rent through a third party part isn't illegal in most places.

And in most places, bidding on what the rent will be isn't illegal because frankly, very few places would have thought someone would try to do that, so they never passed a law against it. It may however become explicitly illegal if this site or any sort of copycat really takes off.

poemdexter posted:

I imagine this probably helps people who own a 2nd home and plan to rent it out for extra money. There's already tons of real estate companies that will manage a rent property for you for a cut. Rentberry would definitely need a way to handle tenant issues like a leaky pipe or broken light switch since most of the management companies handle that for the owner as well. I'm sure it's more comfortable for owners to be able to go to management face to face if needed instead of some internet startup.

Rentberry explicitly doesn't offer property management services. They'll do (lovely) listing, they'll do the bidding thing in combination with potential renter background checks, and they'll handle rent payment services - but that's it.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:23

poemdexter: Feb 18, 2005; Hooray Indie Games!; College Slice

People already bid on buying houses. Why is bidding on rent less OK? (Asking a serious question here.)

Is it because it leads to less affordable housing because prices can only go up? I can see a situation where my lease is up but my landlord says "oh btw, someone bid $400 more on your place so unless you can beat that, you have 30 days to move."

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:27

Panfilo: Aug 27, 2011; EXISTENCE IS PAIN😬

poemdexter posted:

I imagine this probably helps people who own a 2nd home and plan to rent it out for extra money. There's already tons of real estate companies that will manage a rent property for you for a cut. Rentberry would definitely need a way to handle tenant issues like a leaky pipe or broken light switch since most of the management companies handle that for the owner as well. I'm sure it's more comfortable for owners to be able to go to management face to face if needed instead of some internet startup.

There are already property management services that do this. My mom uses one and even factoring in the cut he gets, he makes my mom extra money by being able to list her rental property more effectively vs her doing it herself, as well as managing the tenants issues ie repairs.

fishmech posted:

The paying rent through a third party part isn't illegal in most places.

I'm saying mandating rent be paid online through some third party website vs just giving someone in the front office check on the first of the month. Seems like this could lead to a lot of abuse. I'm pretty sure I'm California certain methods of payment must be accepted by landlords.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:36

boner confessor: Apr 25, 2013; by R. Guyovich

poemdexter posted:

People already bid on buying houses. Why is bidding on rent less OK? (Asking a serious question here.)

it's not that bidding on apartments is less ok, it's just that bidding on apartments is a pain in the rear end. if im going to bid on a home i plan on being there for many years. i could move out of an apartment in a year's time, depending, so it's not really worth my time to pay a premium just to get the ~perfect~ studio apartment in a boring neighborhood. the dynamics of the market are different and renting just isn't as suited to bidding wars except in crowded markets. if in some big downtown six people show up the day i list a unit and three of them are willing to pay cash on the spot, that's the kind of situation that leads to bidding. but most markets in america have some slack in terms of higher and longer vacancy so you'll list a unit and it will sit empty for a week or more until someone comes along willing to accept the listed price - who would bid against them? and is it in my interest as a landlord to increase the rent ask and wait another week for someone else to pay that amount +100?

poemdexter posted:

Is it because it leads to less affordable housing because prices can only go up? I can see a situation where my lease is up but my landlord says "oh btw, someone bid $400 more on your place so unless you can beat that, you have 30 days to move."

kind of, though bidding wars for rental properties are only going to happen in a market where your landlord refuses to reup your lease so they can raise the rent substantially

boner confessor fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Apr 3, 2017

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:38

Platonicsolid: Nov 17, 2008

If you're of the generation that is so financially screwed you don't think you'll ever own a home,mit might be worth it.

Then again, not like you'll be able to keep it, now that rent control is ~~disrupted~~.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:40

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

Computer programmers? On MY H1-B?

Not anymore!

# ? Apr 3, 2017 17:58

fishmech: Jul 16, 2006; by VideoGames; Salad Prong

Panfilo posted:

I'm saying mandating rent be paid online through some third party website vs just giving someone in the front office check on the first of the month. Seems like this could lead to a lot of abuse. I'm pretty sure I'm California certain methods of payment must be accepted by landlords.

Rentberry's system doesn't require that you pay online, it looks like you can also mail a check to a rentberry office or initiate the ACH payment directly at your bank/credit union. That would seem to be in line with many landlords' existing systems, where the only real option you have is sending a check because they don't take cash and don't set up their own bank deposit system.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 18:09

Tars Tarkas: Apr 13, 2003; Rock the Mok

A nasty woman, I think you should try is, Jess.

JawnV6 posted:

Computer programmers? On MY H1-B?

Not anymore!

Didn't Facebook help found FWD.us to do exactly the opposite of this?

# ? Apr 3, 2017 18:10

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

It's more complex than the summary makes it sound.
The actual policy

quote:

The [previous] memorandum also does not properly explain or distinguish an entry-level position from one
that is, for example, more senior, complex, specialized, or unique.

This is relevant in that,
absent additional evidence to the contrary, the Handbook indicates that an individual with an
associate�s degree may enter the occupation of computer programmer. As such, while the fact
that some computer programming positions may only require an associate�s degree does not
necessarily disqualify all positions in the computer programming occupation (viewed generally)
from qualifying as positions in a specialty occupation, an entry-level computer programmer
position would not generally qualify as a position in a specialty occupation because the plain
language of the statutory and regulatory definition of �specialty occupation� requires in part that
the proffered position have a minimum entry requirement of a U.S. bachelor�s or higher degree
in the specific specialty, or its equivalent. See section 214(i)(1) of the Act; 8 CFR
214.2(h)(4)(ii).7

Based on the current version of the Handbook, the fact that a person may be employed as a
computer programmer and may use information technology skills and knowledge to help an
enterprise achieve its goals in the course of his or her job is not sufficient to establish the position
as a specialty occupation. Thus, a petitioner may not rely solely on the Handbook to meet its
burden when seeking to sponsor a beneficiary for a computer programmer position. Instead, a
petitioner must provide other evidence ...

[from footnote]
Accordingly, USCIS officers must also review the LCA to ensure the wage level
designated by the petitioner corresponds to the proffered position. If a petitioner designates a position as a Level I,
entry-level position, for example, such an assertion will likely contradict a claim that the proffered position is
particularly complex, specialized, or unique compared to other positions within the same occupation.
In general, a petitioner must distinguish its proffered position from others within the same occupation through the
proper wage level designation to indicate factors such as the complexity of the job duties, the level of judgment, the
amount and level of supervision, and the level of understanding required to perform the job duties.

So, basically, "If you're calling it something you can't get an American to do, why the hell is it entry-level?" They're not saying no H1-B for programmers, they're saying "S/he's a programmer" isn't a gimme for an H1-B.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 19:32

JawnV6: Jul 4, 2004; So hot ...

Tars Tarkas posted:

Didn't Facebook help found FWD.us to do exactly the opposite of this?

I'm not really sure they'll care too much, it's removing some auto-approval and requiring additional documentation. The legislative side of H1B reform died iirc? The commentary around this suggests a higher bar that will ONLY be applied to the body-shops and others paying minimum wage to immigrants (something FB would want anyway), but upending 17 years of policy right before the application window is pretty bad and I'm sure there's some HR folks scrambling.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 20:07

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

Oh, no, it's the d-word again!
"In the summer of 2017, you can bet we will be launching one of the most disruptive brand companies in digital."

It's the Yahoo-AOL merger. The merged company will be called Oath.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 21:14

Orkiec: Dec 28, 2008; My gut, huh?

From what I understand, they are blocking programmers, but not software engineers. Tech companies may get top foreign talent yet.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 21:19

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

Orkiec posted:

From what I understand, they are blocking programmers, but not software engineers. Tech companies may get top foreign talent yet.

The phrase "software engineer" does not appear anywhere in the linked document. Are you aware of other documents involved?

# ? Apr 3, 2017 21:22

Orkiec: Dec 28, 2008; My gut, huh?

Arsenic Lupin posted:

The phrase "software engineer" does not appear anywhere in the linked document. Are you aware of other documents involved?

Well, no. But from my understanding, the H1B process does differentiate between Programmers and Software ~~Engineers~~ Developers, even if they're the same in ordinary speech. Also note this random list I found about the top occupations hired through H1B, and the large difference in salary between Programmers and Software Developers.

http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2017-H1B-Visa-Category.aspx?T=OC

# ? Apr 3, 2017 21:52

Tiny Brontosaurus: Aug 1, 2013; by Lowtax

Rentberry looks designed from the ground up to violate the Fairness in Housing Act. Landlords are required to accept the first qualified applicant precisely so they can't make judgment calls about who would be a "good tenant," since that was always just a coded way to make sure you only rented to white people.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 22:46

Groovelord Neato: Dec 6, 2014

why are these people so bad at renaming/naming new poo poo. alphabet. oath. xi. academi.

# ? Apr 3, 2017 22:51

curufinor: Apr 4, 2016; by Smythe

implementing oauth for oath is gonna suck
implementing oauth always sucks but this one especially

# ? Apr 3, 2017 22:55

call to action: Jun 10, 2016; by FactsAreUseless

Tiny Brontosaurus posted:

Rentberry looks designed from the ground up to violate the Fairness in Housing Act. Landlords are required to accept the first qualified applicant precisely so they can't make judgment calls about who would be a "good tenant," since that was always just a coded way to make sure you only rented to white people.

Lol no landlords most certainly do not have to choose the "first" applicant

# ? Apr 4, 2017 00:34

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

Orkiec posted:

Well, no. But from my understanding, the H1B process does differentiate between Programmers and Software ~~Engineers~~ Developers, even if they're the same in ordinary speech. Also note this random list I found about the top occupations hired through H1B, and the large difference in salary between Programmers and Software Developers.

http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2017-H1B-Visa-Category.aspx?T=OC

Oh, makes sense! Thanks.

The worst nouveau corporate name is still Tronc, which is the name for the wreck of what used to be the Chicago Tribune. Tronc is short for "Tribune Online Content". Very 1990s.

# ? Apr 4, 2017 00:41

fishmech: Jul 16, 2006; by VideoGames; Salad Prong

Have to say I don't see the problem with "Oath" as the name for "subsidiary that handles all the various poo poo AOL and Yahoo bought up over 20 years, and then we bought now". Presumably the stuff like Yahoo Mail and AOL Instant Messenger which is still popular and tied to the old brand names will keep those names, while nobody will care that Techcrunch is no longer under "AOL" and Flickr is no longer under "Yahoo".

I think they might have started from just jamming AOL and YAHOO together in various ways, and then ended up dropping the L and Y for a T...

# ? Apr 4, 2017 00:45

Xae: Jan 19, 2005

Orkiec posted:

Well, no. But from my understanding, the H1B process does differentiate between Programmers and Software ~~Engineers~~ Developers, even if they're the same in ordinary speech. Also note this random list I found about the top occupations hired through H1B, and the large difference in salary between Programmers and Software Developers.

http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2017-H1B-Visa-Category.aspx?T=OC

A programmer is a developer with little or no autonomy. They receive a specification that details what they are going to build. They are told to build a function that takes parameters A, B and C and then runs them through formula D and returns result E.

The Software Engineer is the guy who wrote those specs. And designed the application around it.

But this is IT titles land. The job title frequently has nothing to do with what the position does. I've seen places hire people with 2 year degrees and call them Software Engineers. I've also seen people with multiple advanced degrees and decades of experienced titled as Programmers.

# ? Apr 4, 2017 00:57

super sweet best pal: Nov 18, 2009

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Oh, no, it's the d-word again!
"In the summer of 2017, you can bet we will be launching one of the most disruptive brand companies in digital."

It's the Yahoo-AOL merger. The merged company will be called Oath.

Yahoo to merge with the only social hub more irrelevant than they are.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Oh, makes sense! Thanks.

The worst nouveau corporate name is still Tronc, which is the name for the wreck of what used to be the Chicago Tribune. Tronc is short for "Tribune Online Content". Very 1990s.

Don't you dare insult Tronc. :colbert:

# ? Apr 4, 2017 01:24

Panfilo: Aug 27, 2011; EXISTENCE IS PAIN😬

Tiny Brontosaurus posted:

Rentberry looks designed from the ground up to violate the Fairness in Housing Act. Landlords are required to accept the first qualified applicant precisely so they can't make judgment calls about who would be a "good tenant," since that was always just a coded way to make sure you only rented to white people.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. It comes off as a method for gating certain tenants from entering. Right up Trump Administration's Alley if you think about it.

# ? Apr 4, 2017 01:38

silence_kit: Jul 14, 2011; by the sex ghost

Groovelord Neato posted:

why are these people so bad at renaming/naming new poo poo. alphabet. oath. xi. academi.

I think an important consideration for new company names is whether the domain name is available. This at least explains all of the nonsense words used in new company names.

# ? Apr 4, 2017 02:51

TheScott2K: Oct 26, 2003; I'm just saying, there's a nonzero chance Trump has a really toad penis.

clownpenis.fart still available

# ? Apr 4, 2017 03:36

RandomPauI: Nov 24, 2006; Grimey Drawer

Phone posting, otherwise I'd post the SNL sketch about an investment firm stuck with clownpenis.com.

E:fb

# ? Apr 4, 2017 03:39

Terrible Opinions: Oct 18, 2013

RandomPauI posted:

I think LA is the designated target for traffic because people want to feel like their differently crappy roads are better than someone else's.

I think it's more likely for the same reason a lot of stuff is LA/New York centric, because most writers for national US media only really spend time in large coastal cities and their surrounding suburbs. LA has the worst roads out of that specific subset, so it's the only made fun of in national media and thus the punchline for everyone due to osmosis. Even though it has much much nicer roads than say Fort Worth.

# ? Apr 4, 2017 03:42

boner confessor: Apr 25, 2013; by R. Guyovich

LA is the target because it's the second most populous metro in the us and one of the largest geographically. it is therefore the best known example of a 20th century automotive metro, and one of the side effects of this development pattern is horrible traffic

# ? Apr 4, 2017 04:02

Condiv: May 7, 2008; Sorry to undo the effort of paying a domestic abuser $10 to own this poster, but I am going to lose my dang mind if I keep seeing multiple posters who appear to be Baloogan.

With love,
a mod

RandomPauI posted:

Phone posting, otherwise I'd post the SNL sketch about an investment firm stuck with clownpenis.com.

E:fb

stuck? they were blessed with that domain

# ? Apr 4, 2017 06:10

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

Xae posted:

A programmer is a developer with little or no autonomy. They receive a specification that details what they are going to build. They are told to build a function that takes parameters A, B and C and then runs them through formula D and returns result E.

The Software Engineer is the guy who wrote those specs. And designed the application around it.

But this is IT titles land.

What's the basis for your understanding of this classification?

# ? Apr 4, 2017 12:24

Maluco Marinero: Jan 18, 2001; Damn that's a
fine elephant.

Subjunctive posted:

What's the basis for your understanding of this classification?

lol it's how men thought programming was going to work when they decided programming was 'women's work'. (it didn't)

# ? Apr 4, 2017 12:52

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 29, 2024 05:37

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Maluco Marinero posted:

lol it's how men thought programming was going to work when they decided programming was 'women's work'. (it didn't)

It's also analogous to how engineers and technicians work in R&D. An R&D engineer writes test protocols and reports, and technicians execute the protocols and reports. Engineers are also expected to do the executions from time to time depending on staffing levels and seniority.

# ? Apr 4, 2017 15:29

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