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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 5th, 2023

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  • Some additional info based on their published material (screenshot below). The software gets its data from “publicly available sources” which includes tracking information from many different online advertisers, public social media posts, etc. As we know, the advertising data can sometimes have your personal info attached - sometimes not. Babel Street claims to anonymize the data, but let’s assume there is a $$ amount at which they won’t.

    So, theoretically, if you can successfully avoid ad trackers, and you don’t post on social media platforms except where you want to be “seen”, you can avoid this tracking (granted that seems quite impossible these days).


  • [My initial reply got posted top- level for some reason]

    True, he straight up admits many times in the books that he would lie about his wealth so that other people would work with him. I assume that came out during his fraud case in NY.

    He had a few deals that worked out - all starting with dad’s money. He managed to squander 4 out of 5 of everything he tried. Casinos in Atlantic City, Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Ice, Wollman Rink, etc. It’s a long list. But the 1 or 2 that worked is why he has any money at all. If I remember correctly, it’s mostly the golf courses and an option he bought in the 70s for an old railroad yard in lower west side Manhatten I think. He really fucked someone over on that one. He bragged about how much he screwed them for pages and pages. Like it brought him more joy to fuck someone over than it did to have a success. He’s a complete psychopath.




  • The first 5 or so of Trump’s books. No meaningful lessons in business to be had. Just him bragging about people he knew, people he’d screwed over, how good he thought he was at pretty much everything. How he got back at anyone who crossed him. Insufferable. I knew he was one of the worst people ever before he even mentioned getting into politics.

    And in those 5 books, he probably name-dropped every New York socialite he ever met. It’s consistent with his whole image of self-worth and needing to look and feel important. You know who he didn’t mention? Someone we’ve seen him with in several photos? Who he definitely would have mentioned if there wasn’t a reason not to? Jeffrey Epstein.






  • Waldowal@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    11 months ago

    Dear Mr. High & Mighty, I’ve actually seen all those things - on UL certified devices.

    But again, not my point. My point was a lamp isn’t complicated enough for the UL to charge so much that the price goes up 10x. If they are charging that much, there should be tons of competitors trying to get a piece of that pie. If they aren’t charging alot, then many of the products on Amazon, that are often certified by authorities in other countries, would also get UL certified. It has all the hallmarks of a racket.


  • Waldowal@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    11 months ago

    That’s not really the point I was going for. I’m not saying bad companies won’t make shit products. I’m just pointing out a lamp doesn’t require alot of effort for the UL to certify, so it can’t justify a 10x increase in cost. But they must be charging a ton or more companies would just get their products certified.


  • Waldowal@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    11 months ago

    Maybe unpopular opinion, but I’m on the fence about this. I slightly subscribe to the conspiracy theory that many “certified” products are just ways to stifle competition while also justifying higher prices for “certified” products.

    Take UL listed electronics for example. Sure, that might mean something on a full computer full of electronics, but a lamp is two fucking wires and a bulb. It’s not complicated. Even confirming proper metals are used to prevent shrinking and expansion is not complicated. But the same $15 lamp is $100 once it’s UL certified. The math doesn’t add up.

    Like I said: On the fence. Maybe it’s the best way to ensure safe products, but it also seems like a great system for lining specific peoples pockets.

    EDIT: Jesus people, read my post before you get all triggered. I’m not saying shit products don’t exist.




  • I’m no expert in this subject either, but a theoretical limit could be beyond 200x - depending on the data.

    For example, a basic compression approach is to use a lookup table that allows you to map large values to smaller lookup ids. So, if the possible data only contains 2 values: One consisting of 10,000 letter 'a’s. The other is 10,000 letter 'b’s. We can map the first to number 1 and the second to number 2. With this lookup in place, a compressed value of “12211” would uncompress to 50,000 characters. A 10,000x compression ratio. Extrapolate that example out and there is no theoretical maximum to the compression ratio.

    But that’s when the data set is known and small. As the complexity grows, it does seem logical that a maximum limit would be introduced.

    So, it might be possible to achieve 200x compression, but only if the complexity of the data set is below some threshold I’m not smart enough to calculate.