Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?
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@gordonjcp said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Steve_The_Cynic Right, but unless there's a really serious amount of CO2 or water vapour in a room, breathing it in won't kill you. CO will kill you extremely quickly, because it prevents your blood from transporting oxygen.
This is why warehouse forklifts run on propane instead of petrol (and they don't run on diesel because of all the soot).
Only if they work properly. You can still get plenty of carbon monoxide from propane lean and propane rich burns. There's no magic which makes propane immune to producing CO.
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@Steve_The_Cynic said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
If there's enough water in the air for it to be a serious asphyxiation risk, you are more likely to die of heat-related problems than asphyxiation.
Or drowning because the air has become a lake.
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@dkf said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Steve_The_Cynic said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
If there's enough water in the air for it to be a serious asphyxiation risk, you are more likely to die of heat-related problems than asphyxiation.
Or drowning because the air has become a lake.
Yeah, that's called "Midwest summer in the afternoon."
When the temperature and the humidity are both in the upper 90s, and then the sun starts going down and the temperature drops a degree or two, suddenly the humidity is over 100% and the air can't physically hold that much water, so it dumps it in a massive deluge.
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@levicki said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
Oh come on, just evolve lungs that can extract O from CO, CO2, and H2O -- problem solved (though you might end up belching or farting flammable gas or pooping diamonds if you try hard enough).
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@kazitor said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Steve_The_Cynic said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
I'm sure the "random changes of subject" thread is around somewhere.
There are plenty of those; in fact there's even an incomplete index of every
singlerecent one.It includes only the recent ones (it's right there in the name), and even then, it may not be complete if you're ignoring threads.
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@Rhywden You only get appreciable amounts of CO from extremely rich running, and if it's running that badly it's plainly extremely faulty - like, black smoke from the exhaust and no power, kind of faulty.
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@gordonjcp There's also lean. And, as I said, there's no magic which prevents problems.
And, no, it does not have to be "extreme". Just above or below the ideal proportions.
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@FrostCat said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
You mean like altavista?
Possibly. I'm sure I didn't mean like avuncular.
I am hella avuncular. I got nieces, nephews, second and third cousins, and a guy named Greg whose degree of relationship can't be calculated but who I am able to nougie, and therefore an uncle of.
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@JBert said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
On topic, cab companies were created to... provide predictable pricing vs the unregulated, sorta crowdsourced carriage rides available in the day.
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@Gribnit said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@JBert said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
On topic, cab companies were created to... provide predictable pricing vs the unregulated, sorta crowdsourced carriage rides available in the day.
If by predictable you mean atrocious, then sure.
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@MrL said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Gribnit said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@JBert said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
On topic, cab companies were created to... provide predictable pricing vs the unregulated, sorta crowdsourced carriage rides available in the day.
If by predictable you mean atrocious, then sure.
I never had a problem but I do not handle money myself.
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@JBert said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
A company that bleeds billion dollars every year for the last decade may have a bad business model.
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@MrL said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Gribnit said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@JBert said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
On topic, cab companies were created to... provide predictable pricing vs the unregulated, sorta crowdsourced carriage rides available in the day.
If by predictable you mean atrocious, then sure.
Trade unions have allegedly done a lot of good too back in the day. So it's not a big stretch to believe that cab companies used to be good too.
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@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
So it's not a big stretch to believe that cab companies used to be good too.
I got to take a cab in Shenzhen a few times. Cheap (no tips accepted, but that seem fairly common over there) and fairly reliable. Also, we got to keep our kidneys, so that's a plus. On the other hand, they also had quite good public transportation. (And a huge metal statue of Deng showing the way forward, under the watchful eye of a handful of not-so-inconspicuous guards in civil clothing.)
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@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@MrL said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Gribnit said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@JBert said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
On topic, cab companies were created to... provide predictable pricing vs the unregulated, sorta crowdsourced carriage rides available in the day.
If by predictable you mean atrocious, then sure.
Trade unions have allegedly done a lot of good too back in the day. So it's not a big stretch to believe that cab companies used to be good too.
I'm not sure how artificially throttled supply with artificially ramped up costs is better than free competition. But we can believe anything we want.
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@MrL I'm not sure whether you're talking about trade unions or taxi companies as what you said fits both, but my point is, it was a different world 100-200 years ago, and those institutions operated differently too, and back when they were founded their goals were very different from what they are now and actually aligned with the good of common people.
Side note: can you believe "100 years ago" refers to interwar period now?
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@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@MrL I'm not sure whether you're talking about trade unions or taxi companies as what you said fits both, but my point is, it was a different world 100-200 years ago, and those institutions operated differently too, and back when they were founded their goals were very different from what they are now and actually aligned with the good of common people.
Side note: can you believe "100 years ago" refers to interwar period now?
That's a wonderfully naive 'good old times' take.
World was just as corrupt and vile as today, if not more. In business, politics and everything else.
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@MrL but every so often, good things happen. Granted, I don't actually know the first thing about history of taxi industry, but in general, when big companies start to form in a sector previously dominated by individual entrepreneurs, usually it's good news for the consumers, at least in short term. It's when they get government-mandated monopolies when things go haywire.
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@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@MrL but every so often, good things happen. Granted, I don't actually know the first thing about history of taxi industry, but in general, when big companies start to form in a sector previously dominated by individual entrepreneurs, usually it's good news for the consumers, at least in short term. It's when they get government-mandated monopolies when things go haywire.
Well, I'm not talking about general benefits of economies of scale, but about ridiculously overpriced bottom of the barrel quality customer loathing scam rings, i.e. taxi companies.
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@MrL and were taxi companies always like that, or did it only start in the 20th century? That's what we're talking about.
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@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@MrL and were taxi companies always like that, or did it only start in the 20th century? That's what we're talking about.
They were always like that.
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@MrL said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@MrL said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Gribnit said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@JBert said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
On topic, cab companies were created to... provide predictable pricing vs the unregulated, sorta crowdsourced carriage rides available in the day.
If by predictable you mean atrocious, then sure.
Trade unions have allegedly done a lot of good too back in the day. So it's not a big stretch to believe that cab companies used to be good too.
I'm not sure how artificially throttled supply with artificially ramped up costs is better than free competition. But we can believe anything we want.
Well, to pick up the example above, overall business is cheaper if you take some customers' kidneys once in a while. Would still prefer the more expensive business.
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@MrL said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@MrL and were taxi companies always like that, or did it only start in the 20th century? That's what we're talking about.
They were always like that.
And so, they were always both worse and better than independent operators, and no one ever learned anything. G'night.
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@MrL said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
They were always like that.
Just not looking far enough back. Or maybe you're just too attached to your kidneys.
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an Uber from Manhattan to JFK Airport was $100—nearly double the fixed yellow cab rate. But good luck finding a yellow cab
Now they have their monopoly.
At least, for a moment.
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@loopback0 said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
Without even reading the article, it's a cycle you see in every app/SaaS/MMORPG/etc:
- New widget is launched, is cheap or free to attract a userbase
- Users note how cool the widget is and flock to it
- Funding runs out and financial pressures mount
- Widget maker modifies the widget to improve profitability but inevitably increases its suck factor big-time in the process
- Users realize that widget is now total shit and go in search of a new one that's better
- New widget is launched, is cheap or free to attract a userbase
After reading the article, nothing to add, really.
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In which Betteridge applies to thread titles:
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@boomzilla In the context of the thread's origin, the answer might, indeed, buck Betteridge's Rule, depending on exactly how you define "worst". I'd say, though, that "opens new (geographic) markets by deliberately ignoring the local laws that prohibit their business" is pretty bad.
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@Steve_The_Cynic I’m sure there’s a joke in there comparing Uber to OpenAI.
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@Steve_The_Cynic said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@boomzilla In the context of the thread's origin, the answer might, indeed, buck Betteridge's Rule, depending on exactly how you define "worst". I'd say, though, that "opens new (geographic) markets by deliberately ignoring the local laws that prohibit their business" is pretty bad.
I'm sure if we tried we could find a .com breaking all sorts of laws and still losing money.
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@boomzilla said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Steve_The_Cynic said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@boomzilla In the context of the thread's origin, the answer might, indeed, buck Betteridge's Rule, depending on exactly how you define "worst". I'd say, though, that "opens new (geographic) markets by deliberately ignoring the local laws that prohibit their business" is pretty bad.
I'm sure if we tried we could find a .com breaking all sorts of laws and still losing money.
OpenAI.com
Bitcon.com
TotallyNotPointShaving.com
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@boomzilla said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Steve_The_Cynic said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@boomzilla In the context of the thread's origin, the answer might, indeed, buck Betteridge's Rule, depending on exactly how you define "worst". I'd say, though, that "opens new (geographic) markets by deliberately ignoring the local laws that prohibit their business" is pretty bad.
I'm sure if we tried we could find a .com breaking all sorts of laws and still losing money.
FTX?
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Ahem...
@izzion said in You suck at economics yes you totally suck:
Over/under on him having coincidentally scheduled the sale of 500k shares to happen at the time this typo completely accidentally happened?
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@Steve_The_Cynic said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@boomzilla In the context of the thread's origin, the answer might, indeed, buck Betteridge's Rule, depending on exactly how you define "worst". I'd say, though, that "opens new (geographic) markets by deliberately ignoring the local laws that prohibit their business" is pretty bad.
in my locality it was unfair laws, with most cab licenses owned by city lawmakers, and cabs being priced as a luxury, with old cars and rude drivers
the owner of the license would hire a driver to work for him, and the profit, doing nothing, was better than the average pay of an engineer like us
maybe on less corrupt places one can see Uber as the bad guys, but down nobody has sympathy for cabs (and buses, same story)
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@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@MrL and were taxi companies always like that, or did it only start in the 20th century? That's what we're talking about.
Um, were there taxi companies before the 20th century? I suppose there were horse and buggy taxis.
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@BernieTheBernie said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
an Uber from Manhattan to JFK Airport was $100—nearly double the fixed yellow cab rate. But good luck finding a yellow cab
Now they have their monopoly.
At least, for a moment.You left out the exclamation point after "cab". It also shows the problem with government controlled pricing - the fixed yellow cab rate is apparently not high enough to make it worth it to the owners to put enough cabs on the road to meet demand.
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@jinpa said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@Gąska said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
@MrL and were taxi companies always like that, or did it only start in the 20th century? That's what we're talking about.
Um, were there taxi companies before the 20th century? I suppose there were horse and buggy taxis.
There certainly were in the Victorian era, Sherlock Holmes’s first bad guy turns out to be the cab driver.
But actually, the history of cab licences in the UK dates back to 1649.
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@sockpuppet7 said in Is Uber the *worst* .com currently?:
in my locality it was unfair laws, with most cab licenses owned by city lawmakers, and cabs being priced as a luxury, with old cars and rude drivers
the owner of the license would hire a driver to work for him, and the profit, doing nothing, was better than the average pay of an engineer like us
That's the sort of situation where I'd expect Uber to do well, cracking a market where prices were massively out of line with service levels. It is the differential between prices and service levels that provides the opportunity, the competitive edge. Markets where there isn't that dysfunction will be harder (that's why they've found the UK mostly hard going, especially outside London; not impossible but very little to gain advantage with).