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The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

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Re: The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

#101
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, the number of dark patterns trying to cost me money just to purchase a damned ticket on Ticketbastards today. Seriously by not clicking the right boxes I could have agreed to pay an extra $42 in add-ons/services for a $15 ticket that had its own $6 in fees added.

For Ticketmaster? That's odd, I deal with them quite a bit, and while they've definitely got a racket going on, usually they aren't opting you in for extra stuff (because you'll juts call to complain to their support and get it changed). I have seen them accidentally auto-select certain additions before, but that was a non-standard option on that event, and it was definitely a mistake.

It would be much easier to believe it was a mistake if the balance of "mistakes in the company's favor" vs "mistakes in the customer's favor" were even.

If all the mistakes go the company's way, then, at best, the company is working much harder at avoiding mistakes that hurt themselves than they are at getting it right.

This goes for credit card companies and many other firms.

Re: The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

#103
post #62

So what else is new. If you work at Facebook or Google you're benefiting directly from the similarly shady practices they used to grow on their way to being "pillars of tech" today. Do you remember when at LEAST 20% of Facebook's revenue came from Zynga? Like less than 5 years ago? Many speculated it was considerably higher, but Facebook never provided a full accounting (1). Or do you remember when Facebook literally…

Every nation is built on a hill of skulls. "Has done in the past" is not the same as "is currently doing".

Re: The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, good point. We live in an age when a whole set of duplicitous practices are now just referred to as "growth hacking"

Ugh, the number of dark patterns trying to cost me money just to purchase a damned ticket on Ticketbastards today. Seriously by not clicking the right boxes I could have agreed to pay an extra $42 in add-ons/services for a $15 ticket that had its own $6 in fees added.

Not to mention paying an extra $8 to print your own ticket.

Re: The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

#105

I also always wonder how the people working on engineering land mines do.

I once had a conversation with someone who had worked on surface-to-surface missile guidance. He did it because he didn't make the connection between the circuits and the software in front of him and the deaths they caused. Then there was a war and he saw the missiles on the news with pictures of casualties, and suddenly it was "Holy fuck - this stuff actually kills people!" Some people think small picture, and he ju…

You have to decide when you work for miltech or any dual use tech company if you are cool with it.

At my first job (hydrodynamics R&D)I was tasked with analyzing high sped files from one of our test rigs.

It was quite obvious what the rig was simulating and my office mates said oh yes thats REDACTED the Update to REDATED - I had to sit down and think how I felt about this.

I do draw the line a at Chem, Bio and Payday Loans.

Re: The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

#106
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While a public company answers to it's shareholders, it also has a responsibility to support the community it lives within, because often success can be directly attributed to where the company started. Aggressively avoiding taxes could very well be considered unethical by some parties.

So you are of course not taking any advantage of Pension tax reliefs in your 401K and IRA's ?

There's a big difference between taking advantage of pension tax reliefs in exactly the way a tax authority designed them to be used and creating an offshore subsidiary charging artificial royalties to exploit the tax authority's openness to actual foreign-owned businesses investing in the local area.

Re: The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

#107
Today my mother got AD on her phone with "Android update", it was a pop-up from one of normal sites she visit. So she touched "update now" as she normally do with system messages about update... Then she confirmed, then she got 2 SMS, in one that deal was finalized. WTF? I've checked with Orange and indeed she was charged and subscription was started, 20 euro a month for some 3 shitty sms per week. They have turned this subscription off. THIS practices should be stopped. This is really a plague, I see those on my desktop and phone on regular basis, i know they are fake updates but most people don't..

Re: The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

#108
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are of course not taking any advantage of Pension tax reliefs in your 401K and IRA's ?

401K/IRA tax avoidance techniques are codified in law to encourage people to save for retirement so we don't have generations of elderly homeless people. The tax loopholes that companies like Apple tax advantage of are another thing entirely.

>The tax loopholes that companies like Apple tax advantage of are another thing entirely.

No, the significant ones (i.e. offshore subsidiaries) are very much codified.

Re: The Perks Are Great, Just Don’t Ask What We Do

#110
post #85
post #72

I interviewed at 50onRed a few years ago soon after I left college. I went through the interview process, received an offer, and was on the verge of accepting. It was at this point I realized that I barely understood what the company actually did. I set up another in-person interview, except this time with the roles reversed. I asked them to walk me through their products and platforms so I could better understand wh…

I interviewed for a co-op position there and was turned down. I guess they saved me some time.

What's a co-op position?
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