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[Continuation] Musk buys Twitter II

Andy_Ross said:
Musk was tweeting last week about X taking all online transactions in a few years.
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Problem with that is that Musk's ownership of twitter/x has pushed him over the trust cliff for too many businesses. If they are stopping trusting him with basically a PR vehicle (from their POV) why on earth would they trust him with anything more serious.
 
I have to say I agree with others here expressing doubts that there is any market for an "everything app" in the US. Sure, there are countries where this is a thing. In lots of countries Facebook basically is the entire internet for many people. The common theme with these stories is that a big app can corner the entire internet market in these places where internet use is not very common, but trying to dominate the US and Euro markets where internet use is already common seems a different story.

There's too much history and competition among websites and apps in the US to see how a single app would corner the "everything" market. All the things that would be serviced by the "everything" app can already be accomplished by mature companies (venmo, social media, texting apps, shopping, tv/movies, news sites, etc) and I'm not seeing how combining all these things is something people want or need. I especially don't see how Twitter is particularly well positioned to be the one to do so either. Something like Amazon or Meta seem the more likely candidate to accomplish such a feat, if it's even possible.
 
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Going on his record so far, I'm certain his everything app is as much vapourware and spin as all his other product "announcements" turn out to be. Of course if he can get it hyped up he may be able to turn that vapour into idiots willing to sink more money into X.
 
Darat said:
Going on his record so far, I'm certain his everything app is as much vapourware and spin as all his other product "announcements" turn out to be. Of course if he can get it hyped up he may be able to turn that vapour into idiots willing to sink more money into X.
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I dunno, Musk has been obsessed with this X idea for decades, going back to him trying to sabotage Paypal which would make his fortune. It's probably vaporware, but I'm not so sure Musk realizes that. It seems pretty clear that the thinks this is some great idea based on how long he's been carrying the torch for it.
 
Darat said:
Going on his record so far, I'm certain his everything app is as much vapourware and spin as all his other product "announcements" turn out to be. Of course if he can get it hyped up he may be able to turn that vapour into idiots willing to sink more money into X.
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He's got a lot of software developers when he bought Twitter. Oops.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
Amusing illustration of the "everything app" problem:

https://twitter.com/tallntran/status/1683575113286025216

Currently getting banned from twitter is pretty low stakes unless you have some huge account that's important for whatever reason. If Twitter became some node for everything you do online, getting a suspension becomes more of a problem.
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If Musk things I'm trusting him with things like my savings... he's got another thing coming. I don't even trust PayPal. I use it for transactions on occasion, but I'd never leave any serious money in my account.

This is a bit of a problem with Google and some of the other giant techs. Get banned on one service and you could have your entire account deleted. Thousands of dollars of movies you've bought? Gone. Cloud service account that you depend on for your livelihood? Gone.
 
lobosrul5 said:
If Musk things I'm trusting him with things like my savings... he's got another thing coming. I don't even trust PayPal. I use it for transactions on occasion, but I'd never leave any serious money in my account.

This is a bit of a problem with Google and some of the other giant techs. Get banned on one service and you could have your entire account deleted. Thousands of dollars of movies you've bought? Gone. Cloud service account that you depend on for your livelihood? Gone.
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yeah, kinda weird that Elon's right wing fanbois are cheering this one given the griping about "cancel culture". The more you trust to a single company, the more vulnerable you are to their whims. But, like has been beat to death in the cancel culture thread, these morons don't object to the idea of censorship, they just don't like who is making the judgements. So long as King Musk is passing judgement on what's allowed on the everything app (which apparently includes child porn from right wingers), they're content.

There's already been examples of this, at least, this guy claims a spurious claim of racism towards an Amazon delivery driver left him locked out of all his various Amazon smart-home devices:

Amazon barred a Baltimore, Maryland-based user from its smart home features for a week over an allegation that his doorbell intercom had made a "racist remark" towards a delivery driver.

In an explanation of his experience on Medium, Brandon Jackson, an engineer at Microsoft, who is Black, said no one was home when the alleged slur was made and the incident had led him to question his use of Amazon products.

The tech giant has since restored access to his account, and said in a statement that it was working to prevent similar incidents from happening in future.
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https://www.newsweek.com/amazon-smart-home-brandon-jackson-echo-racial-slur-allegation-1806947
 
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Twitter has officially changed its name and logo in the google app store. If you search for "twitter" there, you will not find it. You will still find "X" at the top of the list, but it kinda feels like when you search for something and you get a few sponsored results before the correct one.

Probably not the best way to onboard new users!
 
I Am The Scum said:
Twitter has officially changed its name and logo in the google app store. If you search for "twitter" there, you will not find it. You will still find "X" at the top of the list, but it kinda feels like when you search for something and you get a few sponsored results before the correct one.

Probably not the best way to onboard new users!
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They need a subtitle;

Formerly somewhat useful app formerly known as Twitter.​
 
lobosrul5 said:
If Musk things I'm trusting him with things like my savings... he's got another thing coming. I don't even trust PayPal. I use it for transactions on occasion, but I'd never leave any serious money in my account.

This is a bit of a problem with Google and some of the other giant techs. Get banned on one service and you could have your entire account deleted. Thousands of dollars of movies you've bought? Gone. Cloud service account that you depend on for your livelihood? Gone.
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Don't use cloud service, don't use Paypal, don't buy entertainment online, loss of google and the like would be a minor inconvenience. Yet somehow I manage to do everything I want to online without trusting any "giant techs" with my personal info beyond name and contact info that is readily available anyway. If it comes down to it I managed just fine before "online" was even a thing and I will continue to do so if ever I find it expedient to stop using the internet. I feel a little sorry for those who grew up so chained to the internet that they would be lost without it.

Oh yeah - never used twitter other than following an occasional link that takes me there.
 
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Steve said:
Don't use cloud service, don't use Paypal, don't buy entertainment online, loss of google and the like would be a minor inconvenience. Yet somehow I manage to do everything I want to online without trusting any "giant techs" with my personal info beyond name and contact info that is readily available anyway. If it comes down to it I managed just fine before "online" was even a thing and I will continue to do so if ever I find it expedient to stop using the internet. I feel a little sorry for those who grew up so chained to the internet that they would be lost without it.

Oh yeah - never used twitter other than following an occasional link that takes me there.
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I guess. Sometimes things become online and leave no alternative. I was at my local commuter rail station waiting for a train and an older lady asked me if there was any way to pay for parking without having a smartphone, and I realized no, there really wasn't. The ticket office by the train station had for many years been closed and it seems the presumption is that everyone has a smartphone to buy parking. At least you can still buy a train ticket in person at the convenience store nearby or pay cash/card to the train attendant on board, but I suspect it will get increasingly more difficult to avoid using online-by-default services. It's a transaction that takes place entirely in meat space (parking your car) that requires the use of a smartphone.
 
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TurkeysGhost said:
I guess. Sometimes things become online and leave no alternative. I was at my local commuter rail station waiting for a train and an older lady asked me if there was any way to pay for parking without having a smartphone, and I realized no, there really wasn't. The ticket office by the train station had for many years been closed and it seems the presumption is that everyone has a smartphone to buy parking. At least you can still buy a train ticket in person at the convenience store nearby or pay cash/card to the train attendant on board, but I suspect it will get increasingly more difficult to avoid using online-by-default services. It's a transaction that takes place entirely in meat space (parking your car) that requires the use of a smartphone.
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One of the advantages of being an old fart is that I will likely be dead before such inconveniences become prevalent.

Living in a relatively small isolated location as I do, the problem you describe will not be encountered here any time soon. Pay parking is quite rare and the few places that do have it require you to deposit coins into a machine :D. And not paying at all is an option - I have never seen, or heard of, anyone actually checking for parking violations.
 
Or the advantage of living in a less tech savvy nation. We have the business by smart phone stuff just coming in and not being eagerly accepted.
If you run a business you still need a physical location and living breathing people to work it.
If not you will not grab a large portion of the business a traditional store does.
 
A minor 'fun' twitter experience today -

I was reading The Guardian regular updates on the Eng v Aus cricket match and there was a link to an action video of a crickety incident earlier in the day. Clicked it, watched the clip, paused it and clicked the 'X' to dismiss it. The X took me to twitter :)
 
quadraginta said:
They aren't necessarily inconveniences for everyone.

I for one think most of them are great.

And I'm an 'old fart', too. I'm kinda glad I've lived long enough to see as many of them as I have.
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Sure some new internet based stuff is great as long as you are careful. Having no option but a smartphone to pay for something as simple as parking is not. Every business should have more than one option for payment.
 
Steve said:
Sure some new internet based stuff is great as long as you are careful. Having no option but a smartphone to pay for something as simple as parking is not. Every business should have more than one option for payment.
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I don't disagree, but it sounds like the issue is the way your jurisdiction chose to implement their payment system.

I've seen more than a few municipalities change from individual coin operated meters (at considerable savings) and they have all had a number of centralized pay stations which take coins, bills, and credit cards. Some (as happened here in Durham) later added an alternative to pay by smartphone app. But it definitely isn't the only available method to pay.
 
quadraginta said:
I don't disagree, but it sounds like the issue is the way your jurisdiction chose to implement their payment system.

I've seen more than a few municipalities change from individual coin operated meters (at considerable savings) and they have all had a number of centralized pay stations which take coins, bills, and credit cards. Some (as happened here in Durham) later added an alternative to pay by smartphone app. But it definitely isn't the only available method to pay.
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Not so much "chose to implement", rather not bothering to upgrade an old system. Free parking is so prevalent here that few find it necessary to feed a meter. We are not exactly in the forefront of technology here. Suits me fine.

Anyway, trivial sidetrack has run its course.
 
I was curious, so I looked to see what they had to say about the whole thing in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality had a page on their website about the mobile payment app in Sydney.

Among other things they had this to say;

Additional information to remember:

Parking meter time limits vary throughout the Downtown area

If you receive a parking ticket, paper tickets will still be issued, not through the mobile app

You do not have to use the mobile app in order to pay, standard methods of payment for parking remain unchanged​

As I said, this has been my experience everywhere I have seen the changeover from individual coin-operated meters.

Were you talking about some other location?
 
quadraginta said:
I was curious, so I looked to see what they had to say about the whole thing in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality had a page on their website about the mobile payment app in Sydney.

Among other things they had this to say;

Additional information to remember:

Parking meter time limits vary throughout the Downtown area

If you receive a parking ticket, paper tickets will still be issued, not through the mobile app

You do not have to use the mobile app in order to pay, standard methods of payment for parking remain unchanged​

As I said, this has been my experience everywhere I have seen the changeover from individual coin-operated meters.

Were you talking about some other location?
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Nope, that's where I live. You are obviously way more interested than me. I have never used a meter. Just occasionally seen a person plug in a few coins. Never seen a meter checker, never mind received a parking ticket. In any case for those who choose to pay there are options available that do not require smartphones, unlike the example posted by TurkeysGhost that I commented on.
 
Twitter's mysterious brother...Racer X

(That was a seriously obscure TV joke which you have to be very old to get)

wtf? Renaming Twitter to X? Is there supposed to be some logic behind this?
 
I Am The Scum said:
Twitter has officially changed its name and logo in the google app store. If you search for "twitter" there, you will not find it. You will still find "X" at the top of the list, but it kinda feels like when you search for something and you get a few sponsored results before the correct one.

Probably not the best way to onboard new users!
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A single letter brand is crazy for searching on.
 
Darat said:
Going on his record so far, I'm certain his everything app is as much vapourware and spin as all his other product "announcements" turn out to be. Of course if he can get it hyped up he may be able to turn that vapour into idiots willing to sink more money into X.
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This. It's why I've been suspecting for a while now that Musk's photo should be in the dictionary next to the "tinkerbellend" word that Cracked coined a long time ago. If you want an illustration of someone who acts like they'll literally die if people stop talking about them, and has to do more and more outrageous posts and stunts to stay in the public eye... yeah, Musk is the perfect example.
 
Having already declared war on employees, users, advertisers, partners, lenders and landlords, Musk is going after his neighbours. He’s installed an excessively bright unicode character atop the former Twitter building, which seem to achieve little other than floodlighting the apartment windows on the other side of the street.

https://twitter.com/itsmefrenchy123/status/1685177000913502209

I wonder if photosensitive epilepsy even crossed his mind.
 
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Shrinker said:
Having already declared war on employees, users, advertisers, partners, lenders and tenants, Musk is going after his neighbours. He’s installed an excessively bright unicode character atop the former Twitter building, which seem to achieve little other than floodlighting the apartment windows on the other side of the street.

https://twitter.com/itsmefrenchy123/status/1685177000913502209

I wonder if photosensitive epilepsy even crossed his mind.
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I'd buy a rifle. Man, that's outrageous and I doubt it will last more than a few days.
 
Shrinker said:
Having already declared war on employees, users, advertisers, partners, lenders and landlords, Musk is going after his neighbours. He’s installed an excessively bright unicode character atop the former Twitter building, which seem to achieve little other than floodlighting the apartment windows on the other side of the street.

https://twitter.com/itsmefrenchy123/status/1685177000913502209

I wonder if photosensitive epilepsy even crossed his mind.
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But you've got to hand it to him, that the blinking, as if Twitter/X was defective, is a nice touch.
 
Gulliver Foyle said:
I've been of the opinion for at least the last few weeks that Yaccarino sees this gig as her pension fund and is acting accordingly; doing enough plamásing to keep the boss happy and nothing else.
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I could easily see it either being an extremely difficult, unpleasant job of having to run around putting out fires as best she can, or a very great, do-nothing job where she knows that Musk is still going to personally run everything and she just has to phone in a bare-minimum effort.
 
Shrinker said:
Having already declared war on employees, users, advertisers, partners, lenders and landlords, Musk is going after his neighbours. He’s installed an excessively bright unicode character atop the former Twitter building, which seem to achieve little other than floodlighting the apartment windows on the other side of the street.

https://twitter.com/itsmefrenchy123/status/1685177000913502209

I wonder if photosensitive epilepsy even crossed his mind.
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Apparently Twitter has refused to allow city inspectors roof access on two occasions to date. At what point do they escalate this by showing up with a warrant and cutting power until the building is brought into compliance?

Knowing Musk's approach to things, I would not be surprised if this thing is structurally unsound and ends up plummeting into the street. San Francisco is known for strong winds.

The San Francisco Department of Building and Inspection says it has been unable to inspect a new black “X” logo on the roof of Elon Musk’s social media company formerly known as Twitter for two days in a row after the company declined access to the structure.
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https://deadline.com/2023/07/x-logo-permits-san-francisco-headquarters-elon-musk-twitter-1235450978/
 
TurkeysGhost said:
Knowing Musk's approach to things, I would not be surprised if this thing is structurally unsound and ends up plummeting into the street. San Francisco is known for strong winds.
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Photographs have shown that it does not appear to be bolted to the building in any way. Rather, it has a square steel frame that is held down by sandbags.

Also, the footage of the X sign shows that it is so bright that it causes a lens flare effect, similar to what you get when you point your camera at the sun.
 
Apparently, Twitter's new motto is "Blaze your glory"

I know how stupid that sounds. I'm not making it up. It sounds like something a life coach from a cut scene in Idiocracy would say.
 
I Am The Scum said:
Apparently, Twitter's new motto is "Blaze your glory"

I know how stupid that sounds. I'm not making it up. It sounds like something a life coach from a cut scene in Idiocracy would say.
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Musk is a dumb guy's idea of what a smart person is. Moronic and empty self-help style slogans like this are entirely fitting of that pattern.

I doubt Musk was ever a brainiac, but I subscribe to the theory that being rich often makes people dumber. That level of wealth and power heavily insulates people from the effects of their actions. That level of money severs your link to a more rational world. People are generally nice and servile no matter how you act, the consequences of dumb actions are often easily dealt with, often without the person even knowing, and so on. A total departure into fantasy land.

Musk is totally unmoored from reality, surrounded by orbiters of weird fanbois and paid yes-men that assure him his farts smell like roses.
 
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