I've been petty enough to cut off quite big deals in my life, I wouldn't expect the moral outrage company that Microsoft harbors to not do something similar. As we know, MSFT did remove Twitter from their ad network due to API pricing changes, price of business is cheap compared to the benefits they got there, so that's quite a ridiculous cut of spending to say the least.
Then again, we know they operate in countries fundamentally opposed to their "corporate values". So who knows.
I personally don't see how it can happen but of course I'm not a corporate lawyer. The parent companies merge so they might keep up some local branch to support the UK market, but how would that be connected to the parent company? What level of separation is needed, in the UK's eyes? Will the UK Activision branch workers allowed to work with Microsoft US? Or would that be seen as evading the ruling?
Well it depends on how Microsoft's accountants manage the maths:
Hypothetically, if MS + Activision - UK > MS + UK - Activision (assuming it's only blocked in UK), it's plausible that Microsoft withdraws from UK to pursue its business with the merger everywhere else. The UK is a decent sized market, but it's far from the biggest.
There is another possibility here, which is MS + Activision - Cloud Gaming > MS + Cloud Gaming.
I wonder if MSFT is considering that at all. They obviously have the numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if cloud gaming hasn't seen the growth they expected and it makes sense to kill it entirely.
That was also the thought process of many smaller companies to implement EU data privacy rules. It was easier to stop serving the market instead of complying.
I've been listening to EconTalk since 2007. It's one of the only podcasts that I never skip an episode, even if the topic or author doesn't initially seem too interesting.
Great to hear you are a fan. A long time one albeit. Its been interesting seeing Russ Roberts evolve over the years. His interests have moved from quantitative to qualitative questions. What makes for a good life? What makes us happy? What gives us meaning? How should one conduct themselves? The harder questions in life. Questions that are difficult to articulate. Difficult to measure. But are vital to identify, because the economic policies we pursue mold our world which can either facilitate or hinder these interests.
Stories like this are why I only ever buy items on Amazon that are sold by and shipped from Amazon. (In case it's relevant, this is in the UK.) I've been buying from Amazon for 20 years and have only ever had issues on the rare occasions when I strayed from this rule.
That might not be enough since Amazon commingles their inventory with potentially fake inventory from their 3rd party sellers. You have to check the other sellers page and look for other sellers who are Primed enabled, meaning they store their inventory in Amazon warehouses and use Amazon shipping. It gets tiring having to check that list, but it definitely prevents impulse buying.
Can confirm. I bought a charging cable allegedly "sold by Amazon" and I got a reboxed broken item with a customs stamp signifying it had once been imported into Brazil. Quite a world traveler!
Go on Amazon UK and search for books by "Anett Muller", no umlaut. A couple of dozen listings, everything shipped and sold by Amazon, everything an obvious fake. I reported the listings when they appeared, almost a year ago, and Amazon did nothing.
Judging by how a dozen titles were dumped onto the store on a single day, and the highly specific yet disparate subject matter there are probably thousands of 'authors' like this. Some have hundreds of five-star reviews. In a few minutes I I identified a whole bunch of them: "Chillout Note Books", "Kim Karandash", "Steve Oneli", "Karolina Mendez", "Kai Halson", "TKH Team Publisher", "Dwayn Clarkes", "FỌRT-NITE Coloring"
Some look like they're using homoglyph attacks to evade detection, which is pretty sad given how trivial that should be to bypass. Given how many obvious fakes I could find in a short time with no special tools, it's also probable that there's even more less-obvious fakes out there.
So yeah, "sold and shipped by Amazon" is essentially meaningless as a badge of authenticity.
> Go on Amazon UK and search for books by "Anett Muller", no umlaut. A couple of dozen listings, everything shipped and sold by Amazon, everything an obvious fake
How are they obvious fakes? What is there in the product pages to indicate they are fake?
I see they're dispatched and sold by Amazon and I got no other information to tell those are fake. How do you know?
Did you even read the listing? This is the fakest fake that ever faked. Why does this "independently published" Berserk colouring book make no reference to the original author, the Japanese publisher of the original or the English publisher? The description reads like a totally generic description of a children's colouring book, and makes multiple references to "relaxation" and "stress reduction", and being for "kids" with "small hands". This is a Berserk colouring book. You know, the manga series notorious for featuring extreme violence, psychological horror and sexual content. Nothing in it is relaxing or remotely suitable for children.
The pattern continues with the other listings, why does a Fortnite colouring book spell "Fortnite" wrong? Twice, and differently each time using an unlikely homoglyph? Why isn't it being listed on the Epic Games Amazon store with the other Fortnite books? All of which mention being "official" when this one doesn't. Why does the description claim "unique" and "hand drawn" art yet the preview show clearly automatically vectorised screenshots or key visuals? And I don't even play Fortnite, so this isn't even some deep insider knowledge.
Someone clearly has a script to pull images of trending IPs from a search engine, vectorise them and then sell them as 'colouring books' on Amazon through PoD with generic descriptions. There's similar rackets with notebooks, t-shirts, mouse mats and mugs through other PoD services.
Weird, the only item I've ever bought on AMZN is a physical out-of-print book which I thought was the one thing left over from their startup phase where they got book stores behind and which they got right.
Your reasoning sounds weird but Amazon actually is a good source for out-of-print books. Another good source is a abebooks, which is also owned by Amazon, unfortunately.
My experiences buying books from Amazon have been basically positive apart from the generally poor state of on demand printing. As far as I'm concerned they do get it right.
Cynical programmers don't write about OK experiences.
Same here in France. I've never gotten a counterfeit (that i know of), and sometimes I've gotten lower quality than expected stuff, but returns take care of that. Across electronics (multiple switches and ethernet cables, batteries, usb cables), clothing, random small stuff (like a trash bag holder or laser meter).
I have no issues with this but I worked from home before the pandemic. Once it's 17:30 or so that's it. Close the computer and go my way. No matter how much stuff needs to be done. Once it's time it can wait till tomorrow.
I get a set schedule from 10am to 5pm. As my desktop is the most comfortable setup, I use it after hours too, but I close all work related software at 5pm. I use Safari as my personal browser and Firefox as my work one (Most of my software are pretty utilitarian as I have a ps4 and an Apple TV for entertainment purposes). The other things is I don't do work outside of my desk.
You only work 7h per day minus lunch break? Sounds sweet. Do you get paid for full time?
I usually work 7am to 4pm but lately we have been ordered to work overtime so currently I am doing 7am to 5pm and a couple of hours extra on Saturdays.
Personal life pretty much consists of taking care of the kids and maintaining the house.
Most companies will throw out their employees at the drop of the hat when they feel like it. Is it really worth giving them that much of your time every day? I don't think so.
If you keep this up for the next 10 years, what will you have to say about yourself and your accomplishments?
I dont see anywhere in my employment contract that says my ass needs to be in a seat for a certain amount of hours per week. I just do my best to meet my employment obligations — especially when working from home I can meet those obligations in less than 40 hours per week. If my employer said I needed to work regular overtime or if they demanded I work a very rigid schedule I would just leave and find a job elsewhere. The tech job market in my city is so hot right now I get solicited by recruiters 3-4 times per week, it just isn’t worth it to spend time in a place which doesn’t treat you well.
I'm a contractor working full time on a project. If something is not done after 7 hours of continuous work, it may as well wait for tomorrow as I will be very tired and less than performant. Also mental health. I've been burned out previously and it was not pleasant. I try to separate work and personal life as much as I can (mostly virtually, as I'm working from home). If I had an office space, I would leave my desktop there.
When I WFH, I still get dressed into "work clothes". When I check out for the day, I'll change into something more comfortable (not that slacks and a collared shirt are particularly uncomfortable). I don't remember to do this every day, but when I do, it really helps me unplug afterwards. No work clothes = no work!
