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afford1 · 9 months

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affordable locksmith

#affordable locksmith #locksmith prices

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ask-the-becile-boys · 9 months

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Story. You Bet

[ID: 11 digitally sketched panels in b/w]

Previous | Next

[Panel 1: The Jack sitting on the left, looking nervous, and Riker sitting on the right, looking annoyed. Hare says from off panel, "I can see these two getting roped into this nerdy crap."]

[Panel 2: The Skull and Locksmith on the other side of the table, Skull on the left, Locksmith on the right. The Skull is shrugging with a mild glare while Locksmith has a brow raised and is gesturing with his right hand. Hare asks from off spanel, "What are (italics) you two doing?" The Skull says, "What, you the fun police now? I felt like it." Locksmith says, "Morbid curiosity."]

[Panel 3: Hare points at Dee, who looks down at the her hands on the table. Hare asks, "(ellipses) Dee?" Dee replies, "I don't like competitive board games. They make me angry."]

[Panel 4: Text at the top reads, "Earlier:" Dee is flipping a board game, scattering the pieces everywhere. Scratch, drawn simply, looks shocked. The Jack is in the background, also at the game table. Riker is cowering underneath the table with his hands on his head.]

[Panel 5: Scratch makes the ASL sign for 'cooperate,' saying, "So, I thought we'd try co-op." The Jack raises a hand in a friendly gesture, smiling, and says, "Come on, Hare, you like dice games!"]

[Panel 6: Hare folds his arms, rolls his eyes, and vents smoke. He says, "No, I like (italics) betting games. Not this make-believe, no stakes baloney."]

[Panel 7: Riker takes his cigarette out of his mouth and says slyly to The Jack, "I (italics) bet he can't get through character creation." From off panel, Hare says, "How much."]

[Panel 8: Riker coyly asks, "Say again?" Hare narrows his eye and says, "How much are you (italics) betting?"]

[Panel 9: Riker, smirking, looks in his wallet as The Jack and Dee watch him. Riker says, "I got five bucks."

[Panel 10: There's a silent pause (no text) as Hare stands next to an empty chair. Dee, The Skull, and Riker watch him, Riker smirking expectantly.]

[Panel 11: Hare sits down, scooting the chair back. He says, "Give me a damn pencil." Riker narrows his eyes victoriously. End ID]

#becile bots #fanbots #steam powered giraffe #hare's dignity has a price tag and it's $5 #story update #blog art #you bet #hare becile #the skull becile #the jack becile #locksmith becile #riker szarka #dee becile #scratch becile

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ogtumble · 1 month

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Mastering the Art of Web Marketing: Approaches for Success

In today's electronic age, Web marketing has become a vital element for services looking to reach a bigger audience and drive growth. From social media marketing to seo, the globe of internet marketing is substantial and ever-evolving. In order to stand apart in a jampacked online landscape, services should comprehend the relevance of producing a solid on the internet visibility and engaging with their target audience in significant ways.Effective Web marketing entails a combination of numerous approaches, including content marketing, e-mail projects, and influencer collaborations. By using these tools effectively, services can not only boost brand name recognition however also drive conversions and boost revenue. In this post, we will discover the most recent patterns and finest practices in Web marketing, offering you with the knowledge and insights you require to take your on-line visibility to the next degree.

Read more here http://cybercontroller.com/

#pricing monthly social media marketing packages #mobile locksmith online marketing #best locksmith marketing company #locksmith marketing company #pest control lead generation #hyperlocal social media marketing #locksmith marketing ideas #locksmith marketing #small business social media marketing packages monthly

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iandilocksmith · 1 month

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Locksmith Services - How to Determine the Right One

Some service businesses permit you to shop around until you find the perfect fit and the most favorable deal. However, locksmith services typically don't offer this luxury. When you require a locksmith, you need immediate assistance. Often, it's because you've inadvertently locked yourself out of your car or home. Alternatively, you might be contacting a locksmith due to a broken lock on your residence or place of business, necessitating prompt repair to ensure security. In such scenarios, you must locate a locksmith swiftly, and your optimal approach is to already have a trusted contact on hand.

The best way to be prepared for an emergency is to look at your options and find the best locksmith. Once you find the right service for your needs, keep their contact information close by. In your wallet or phone is a good idea, since you could be in a parking lot, locked out of your car? There are a few things you should look for when you select a locksmith service.

Price Range

Different companies can charge a wide range of prices for their services. Make sure the prices are justified by experience, qualifications and good customer service. A good company is worth their fee in the trouble and risk they save you.

Services Offered

One thing that can make a locksmith service very valuable to you, the potential customer, is offering a variety of services. Being able to call the same people for lock out service and to replace your home or business locks will not only save you time but makes it possible to keep one phone number on your person for all occasions. Just make sure that the technicians who will be sent to do the work are equally trained in each area that you need.

Location

If you want to get quick service in an emergency, it's important that you choose a company close by. Make sure your technician will be deployed from a location close to your home or business. Choosing a local locksmith Olympia WA ensures swift assistance in case of a parking lot lockout.

Reputation

One of the most important things to consider in selecting a locksmith company is their customer service record. Courteous technicians who are careful with your home or vehicle are a must. The best way to find this out is to ask their existing customers. You can find reviews and testimonials on their website but the most impartial reviews you can find will be on line review sites like Angie's List. You can also ask your friends and neighbors if they have any experience with local companies. This is a good method because you can follow up with any questions you may have and you know whether or not to take the reviews seriously.

#Locksmith Services #Local Locksmith Olympia WA #Price Range #Reputation

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winterfells-snow · 2 months

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Understanding the Art of Web Advertising And Marketing: Approaches for Success

In today's electronic age, Internet advertising has actually come to be a vital element for companies seeking to get to a wider target market and drive development. From social media sites advertising to browse engine optimization, the world of internet marketing is huge and ever-evolving. In order to stand apart in a crowded online landscape, companies have to understand the value of developing a solid on the internet presence and engaging with their target audience in purposeful ways.Effective Internet advertising and marketing entails a combination of different techniques, including content advertising and marketing, email projects, and influencer partnerships. By using these tools effectively, organizations can not only boost brand recognition however also drive conversions and boost earnings. In this post, we will certainly explore the most recent patterns and finest techniques in Web marketing, offering you with the expertise and insights you require to take your online existence to the following level.

Read more here http://www.cybercontroller.com

#locksmith internet marketing #cybercontroller #social media marketing companies near me #locksmiths digital marketing #market locksmiths #locksmith digital marketing company #cyber controller #pricing monthly social media marketing packages

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chubbybbgrl · 2 months

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Understanding the Art of Web Marketing: Methods for Success

In today's electronic age, Online marketing has actually come to be a vital part for services looking to get to a wider target market and drive growth. From social media marketing to look engine optimization, the world of on-line marketing is substantial and ever-evolving. In order to stick out in a congested online landscape, services have to recognize the importance of developing a strong online presence and engaging with their target market in purposeful ways.Effective Web marketing involves a combination of numerous approaches, including content marketing, email projects, and influencer partnerships. By using these tools properly, companies can not only increase brand awareness however also drive conversions and boost income. In this blog message, we will certainly explore the latest patterns and finest methods in Net advertising and marketing, offering you with the understanding and insights you require to take your on-line existence to the following degree.

Read more here http://www.cybercontroller.com

#pest control lead generation #monthly social media marketing packages #social media marketing monthly packages #locksmith digital marketing #locksmith marketing ideas #pricing monthly social media marketing packages

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mixedsensations · 2 months

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Understanding the Art of Online Marketing: Approaches for Success

In today's digital age, Internet advertising has actually ended up being an important component for services wanting to get to a larger target market and drive development. From social media sites marketing to seo, the world of internet marketing is huge and ever-evolving. In order to stand out in a jampacked online landscape, businesses need to understand the relevance of developing a solid on the internet presence and involving with their target audience in meaningful ways.Effective Web advertising entails a mix of different strategies, including material advertising and marketing, email campaigns, and influencer partnerships. By using these devices successfully, businesses can not just increase brand name understanding yet also drive conversions and increase income. In this article, we will explore the most up to date patterns and best techniques in Web marketing, giving you with the understanding and insights you need to take your online existence to the next level.

Read more here www.cybercontroller.com

#locksmith marketing #pricing monthly social media marketing packages #social media marketing companies near me #landscaping seo #market locksmiths

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autoprolocksmithlondon · 5 months

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Unlocking the Truth: A Comprehensive Guide to Locksmith Prices in the United Kingdom

Introduction Welcome to our in-depth exploration of locksmith prices in the United Kingdom, where we unravel the intricacies of the costs associated with securing your property. At Auto Pro Locksmith, we believe in transparency and empowering our clients with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions. Understanding Locksmith Services Emergency Locksmith Services Emergency locksmith…

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#Locksmith #LONDON #price

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bikelockcutting1 · 9 months

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Finding the Best Locksmith Pricing in Birmingham: Your Comprehensive Guide

Introduction

When it comes to ensuring the safety and security of your home or business in Birmingham, one essential service you might need is a locksmith. Whether you're locked out of your property, need to upgrade your locks, or require assistance with other security-related issues, finding the best locksmith pricing in Birmingham is crucial. In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve into various aspects of locksmith services and pricing in Birmingham, helping you make an informed decision when choosing a locksmith for your needs.

Understanding Locksmith Services

Before we delve into pricing details, it's important to understand the range of services locksmiths offer in Birmingham. Locksmith services can include:

Emergency Lockout Services: Getting locked out of your home, car, or business can happen at any time. Locksmiths offer 24/7 emergency services to help you regain access quickly.

Lock Installation and Repair: Whether you need new locks installed or existing ones repaired, locksmiths can provide expert assistance.

Key Cutting: Locksmiths can cut keys for a variety of locks, including standard house keys, high-security keys, and car keys.

Security System Installation: Some locksmiths also offer security system installation, such as CCTV cameras and alarm systems.

Lock Rekeying: Instead of changing locks, locksmiths can rekey them, which is a cost-effective option if you want to maintain the same locks but ensure that old keys no longer work.

Factors Affecting Locksmith Pricing

Several factors can influence locksmith pricing in Birmingham:

Service Type: The type of service you require will impact the cost. Emergency services or complex tasks like security system installation may be more expensive than routine lock changes.

Time and Location: Locksmiths may charge more for services outside regular business hours or for locations far from their base.

Lock Type and Complexity: High-security locks or complex locking systems may require more time and expertise, affecting the price.

Materials: If you need new locks or keys, the cost of materials will be included in the total price.

Labor: Labor costs vary among locksmiths and can depend on their experience and reputation.

Comparing Locksmith Pricing

To find the best locksmith pricing in Birmingham, it's essential to compare quotes from different locksmiths. Here's how to go about it:

Research and Shortlist: Start by researching locksmiths in Birmingham and creating a shortlist of reputable ones.

Request Quotes: Contact each locksmith on your list and request detailed quotes for your specific needs. Ensure they provide a breakdown of costs.

Compare Services: Don't just compare prices; also consider the range of services offered and the quality of their work.

Read Reviews: Check online reviews and testimonials from previous customers to gauge the locksmith's reputation and customer satisfaction.

Ask for References: Don't hesitate to ask for references to speak directly with past clients about their experiences.

Avoiding Scams and Hidden Fees

While searching for the best locksmith pricing, be wary of scams and hidden fees. Here are some tips to avoid falling victim to unscrupulous locksmiths:

Verify Credentials: Ensure the locksmith is licensed and insured. Legitimate locksmiths are usually members of professional associations.

Get Everything in Writing: Before any work begins, ask for a written estimate that includes all costs to avoid surprises.

Beware of Low-Ball Offers: Extremely low quotes may indicate subpar work or hidden fees.

Ask Questions: Don't be afraid to ask the locksmith about any concerns or questions you may have about the pricing or services.

Conclusion

Finding the best locksmith pricing in Birmingham requires research, careful consideration of your needs, and comparing quotes from reputable locksmiths. Remember that the safety and security of your property are paramount, so prioritize quality and reliability over the lowest price. By following the tips in this guide, you can confidently choose a locksmith in Birmingham who offers both competitive pricing and trustworthy services.

#Best locksmith pricing in Birmingha

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ohnoproblems · 3 months

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CAPTAIN MISURN — "This is the one." The captain lapses into customary silence. Interrogations are *your* job, lieutenant.

CHILCHUCK — "Make it quick, yeah?" The half-foot is several drinks deep, an adventurer's preferred state. "I don't make a habit of talking to Canaries."

ELECTROCHEMISTRY — I'll have what he's having.

CHILCHUCK — He waits like a pin for your first raking pass.

- "What do you know about necromancy?"

- "I've heard you're organizing adventurers. You can't do that, it tarnishes the divine authority of Her Ethereal Majesty's glorious Elven nation!"

- "I've heard you're organizing adventurers. Do you not trust market forces to set a fair price for sneakthievery?"

- "I've heard you're organizing adventurers. It's a good start, but when do you behead the governor and let the streets run with the blood of shopkeeps and other petty-bourgeois pigs?"

- "I need to gather my party." [Leave.]

YOU — "What do you know about necromancy?"

CHILCHUCK — "Necromancy? You mean the forbidden arts? Dark magic? Officer, why in the hell would I know *anything* about that?"

DRAMA [Challenging: Success] — My liege. 'Tis not just spirits on his breath. Smell it: the savory scent of a *lie.*

EMPATHY [Legendary: Success] — There's a sorrow he's trying to hide.

- "Seems like a useful skill to pick up."

- "She's gone, isn't she?"

- "Let's talk about something else."

YOU — "She's gone, isn't she?"

CHILCHUCK — "What are you…?" His eyes widen - it's just a flicker. He shakes it away. "What are you saying, officer?"

EMPATHY — It's there. Deep in there.

- Wait, how do I know this?

- "I said she's *gone,* isn't she?"

- "Nothing. Never mind."

YOU — Wait, how do I know this?

INLAND EMPIRE — You ask from the bottom of a hole. You already know this.

EMPATHY — A pain you've borne for an age of men, alone. It's there, fresh, in the tiny mirrors of his eyes. He feels it, too.

- "I said she's *gone,* isn't she?"

- "She's gone… and she took the kids."

- "Nothing. Never mind."

YOU — "She's gone… and she took the kids."

CHILCHUCK — He scowls. "You know what? Officer, this interview is over. Any further questions will have to go through a guild representative."

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Medium: Success] — His hands shake around the stein. A liability for a locksmith.

AUTHORITY — Bingo.

New task: Call her.

#dungeon meshi #disco elysium #chatventure

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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This is your brain on fraud apologetics

In 1998, two Stanford students published a paper in Computer Networks entitled “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” in which they wrote, “Advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of consumers.”

https://research.google/pubs/pub334/

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

The co-authors were Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin, and the “large-scale hypertextual web search-engine” they were describing was their new project, which they called “Google.” They were 100% correct — prescient, even!

On Wednesday night, a friend came over to watch some TV with us. We ordered out. We got scammed. We searched for a great local Thai place we like called Kiin and clicked a sponsored link for a Wix site called “Kiinthaila.com.” We should have clicked the third link down (kiinthaiburbank.com).

We got scammed. The Wix site was a lookalike for Kiin Thai, which marked up their prices by 15% and relayed the order to our local, mom-and-pop, one-branch restaurant. The restaurant knew it, too — they called us and told us they were canceling the order, and said we could still come get our food, but we’d have to call Amex to reverse the charge.

As it turned out, the scammers double-billed us for our order. I called Amex, who advised us to call back in a couple days when the charge posted to cancel it — in other words, they were treating it as a regular customer dispute, and not a systemic, widespread fraud (there’s no way this scammer is just doing this for one restaurant).

In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor hassle, but boy, it’s haunting to watch the quarter-century old prophecy of Brin and Page coming true. Search Google for carpenters, plumbers, gas-stations, locksmiths, concert tickets, entry visas, jobs at the US Post Office or (not making this up) tech support for Google products, and the top result will be a paid ad for a scam. Sometimes it’s several of the top ads.

This kind of “intermediation” business is actually revered in business-schools. As Douglas Rushkoff has written, the modern business wisdom reveres “going meta” — not doing anything useful, but rather, creating a chokepoint between people who do useful things and people who want to pay for those things, and squatting there, collecting rent:

https://rushkoff.medium.com/going-meta-d42c6a09225e

It’s the ultimate passive income/rise and grind side-hustle: It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover a whole festering nest of creeps on Tiktok talking about how they pay Mechanical Turks to produce these lookalike sites at scale.

This mindset is so pervasive that people running companies with billions in revenue and massive hoards of venture capital run exactly the same scam. During lockdown, companies like Doordash, Grubhub and Uber Eats stood up predatory lookalike websites for local restaurants, without their consent, and played monster-in-the-middle, tricking diners into ordering through them:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/19/we-are-beautiful/#man-in-the-middle

These delivery app companies were playing a classic enshittification game: first they directed surpluses to customers to lock them in (heavily discounting food), then they directed surplus to restaurants (preferential search results, free delivery, low commissions) — then, having locked in both consumers and producers, they harvested the surplus for themselves.

Today, delivery apps charge massive premiums to both eaters and restaurants, load up every order with junk fees, and clone the most successful restaurants out of ghost kitchens — shipping containers in parking lots crammed with low-waged workers cranking out orders for 15 different fake “virtual restaurants”:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/01/autophagic-buckeyes/#subsidized-autophagia

Delivery apps speedran the enshittification cycle, but Google took a slower path to get there. The company has locked in billions of users (e.g. by paying billions to be the default search on Safari and Firefox and using legal bullying to block third party Android device-makers from pre-installing browsers other than Chrome). For years, it’s been leveraging our lock-in to prey on small businesses, getting them to set up Google Business Profiles.

These profiles are supposed to help Google distinguish between real sellers and scammers. But Kiin Thai has a Google Business Profile, and searching for “kiin thai burbank” brings up a “Knowledge Panel” with the correct website address — on a page that is headed with a link to a scam website for the same business. Google, in other words, has everything it needs to flag lookalike sites and confirm them with their registered owners. It would cost Google money to do this — engineer-time to build and maintain the system, content moderator time to manually check flagged listings, and lost ad-revenue from scammers — but letting the scams flourish makes Google money, at the expense of Google users and Google business customers.

Now, Google has an answer for this: they tell merchants who are being impersonated by ad-buying scammers that all they need to do is outbid them for the top ad-spot. This is a common approach — Amazon has a $31b/year “ad business” that’s mostly its own platform sellers bidding against each other to show you fake results for your query. The first five screens of Amazon search results are 50% ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

This is “going meta,” so naturally, Meta is doing it too: Facebook and Instagram have announced a $12/month “verification” badge that will let you report impersonation and tweak the algorithm to make it more likely that the posts you make are shown to the people who explicitly asked to see them:

https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/2/21/23609375/meta-verified-twitter-blue-checkmark-badge-instagram-facebook

The corollary of this, of course, is that if you don’t pay, they won’t police your impersonators, and they won’t show your posts to the people who asked to see them. This is pure enshittification — the surplus from users and business customers is harvested for the benefit of the platform owners:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

The idea that merchants should master the platforms as a means of keeping us safe from their impersonators is a hollow joke. For one thing, the rules change all the time, as the platforms endlessly twiddle the knobs that determine what gets shown to whom:

https://doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9690cce6

And they refuse to tell anyone what the rules are, because if they told you what the rules were, you’d be able to bypass them. Content moderation is the only infosec domain where “security through obscurity” doesn’t get laughed out of the room:

https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563

Worse: the one thing the platforms do hunt down and exterminate with extreme prejudice is anything that users or business-customers use to twiddle back — add-ons and plugins and jailbreaks that override their poor choices with better ones:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/29/23378541/the-og-app-instagram-clone-pulled-from-app-store

As I was submitting complaints about the fake Kiin scam-site (and Amex’s handling of my fraud call) to the FTC, the California Attorney General, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and Wix, I wrote a little Twitter thread about what a gross scam this is:

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1628948906657878016

The thread got more than two million reads and got picked up by Hacker News and other sites. While most of the responses evinced solidarity and frustration and recounted similar incidents in other domains, a significant plurality of the replies were scam apologetics — messages from people who wanted to explain why this wasn’t a problem after all.

The most common of these was victim-blaming: “you should have used an adblocker” or “never click the sponsored link.” Of course, I do use an ad-blocker — but this order was placed with a mobile browser, after an absentminded query into the Google search-box permanently placed on the home screen, which opens results in Chrome (where I don’t have an ad-blocker, so I can see material behind an ad-blocker-blocker), not Firefox (which does have an ad-blocker).

Now, I also have a PiHole on my home LAN, which blocks most ads even in a default browser — but earlier this day, I’d been on a public wifi network that was erroneously blocking a website (the always excellent superpunch.net) so I’d turned my wifi off, which meant the connection came over my phone’s 5G connection, bypassing the PiHole:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/28/shut-yer-pi-hole/

“Don’t click a sponsored link” — well, the irony here is that if you habitually use a browser with an ad-blocker, and you backstop it with a PiHole, you never see sponsored links, so it’s easy to miss the tiny “Sponsored” notification beside the search result. That goes double if you’re relaxing with a dinner guest on the sofa and ordering dinner while chatting.

There’s a name for this kind of security failure: the Swiss Cheese Model. We all have multiple defenses (in my case: foreknowledge of Google’s ad-scam problem, an ad-blocker in my browser, LAN-wide ad sinkholing). We also have multiple vulnerabilities (in my case: forgetting I was on 5G, being distracted by conversation, using a mobile device with a permanent insecure search bar on the homescreen, and being so accustomed to ad-blocked results that I got out of the habit of checking whether a result was an ad).

If you think you aren’t vulnerable to scams, you’re wrong — and your confidence in your invulnerability actually increases your risk. This isn’t the first time I’ve been scammed, and it won’t be the last — and every time, it’s been a Swiss Cheese failure, where all the holes in all my defenses lined up for a brief instant and left me vulnerable:

https://locusmag.com/2010/05/cory-doctorow-persistence-pays-parasites/

Other apologetics: “just call the restaurant rather than using its website.” Look, I know the people who say this don’t think I have a time-machine I can use to travel back to the 1980s and retrieve a Yellow Pages, but it’s hard not to snark at them, just the same. Scammers don’t just set up fake websites for your local businesses — they staff them with fake call-centers, too. The same search that takes you to a fake website will also take you to a fake phone number.

Finally, there’s “What do you expect Google to do? They can’t possibly detect this kind of scam.” But they can. Indeed, they are better situated to discover these scams than anyone else, because they have their business profiles, with verified contact information for the merchants being impersonated. When they get an ad that seems to be for the same business but to a different website, they could interrupt the ad process to confirm it with their verified contact info.

Instead, they choose to avoid the expense, and pocket the ad revenue. If a company promises to “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” I think we have the right to demand these kinds of basic countermeasures:

https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/our-approach/

The same goes for Amex: when a merchant is scamming customers, they shouldn’t treat complaints as “chargebacks” — they should treat them as reports of a crime in progress. Amex has the bird’s eye view of their transaction flow and when a customer reports a scam, they can backtrack it to see if the same scammer is doing this with other merchants — but the credit card companies make money by not chasing down fraud:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/mastercard-visa-fraud

Wix also has platform-scale analytics that they could use to detect and interdict this kind of fraud — when a scammer creates a hundred lookalike websites for restaurants and uses Wix’s merchant services to process payments for them, that could trigger human review — but it didn’t.

Where do all of these apologetics come from? Why are people so eager to leap to the defense of scammers and their adtech and fintech enablers? Why is there such an impulse to victim-blame?

I think it’s fear: in their hearts, people — especially techies — know that they, too, are vulnerable to these ripoffs, but they don’t want to admit it. They want to convince themselves that the person who got scammed made an easily avoidable mistake, and that they themselves will never make a similar mistake.

This is doubly true for readerships on tech-heavy forums like Twitter or (especially) Hacker News. These readers know just how many vulnerabilities there are — how many holes are in their Swiss cheese — and they are also overexposed to rise-and-grind/passive income rhetoric.

This produces a powerful cognitive dissonance: “If all the ‘entrepreneurs’ I worship are just laying traps for the unwary, and if I am sometimes unwary, then I’m cheering on the authors of my future enduring misery.” The only way to resolve this dissonance — short of re-evaluating your view of platform capitalism or questioning your own immunity to scams — is to blame the victim.

The median Hacker News reader has to somehow resolve the tension between “just install an adblocker” and “Chrome’s extension sandbox is a dumpster fire and it’s basically impossible to know whether any add-on you install can steal every keystroke and all your other data”:

https://mattfrisbie.substack.com/p/spy-chrome-extension

In my Twitter thread, I called this “the worst of all possible timelines.” Everything we do is mediated by gigantic, surveillant monopolists that spy on us comprehensively from asshole to appetite — but none of them, not a 20th century payment giant nor a 21st century search giant — can bestir itself to use that data to keep us safe from scams.

Next Thu (Mar 2) I'll be in Brussels for Antitrust, Regulation and the Political Economy, along with a who's-who of European and US trustbusters. It's livestreamed, and both in-person and virtual attendance are free:

https://www.brusselsconference.com/registration

On Fri (Mar 3), I'll be in Graz for the Elevate Festival:

https://elevate.at/diskurs/programm/event/e23doctorow/

[Image ID: A modified version of Hieronymus Bosch's painting 'The Conjurer,' which depicts a scam artist playing a shell-game for a group of gawking rubes. The image has been modified so that the scam artist's table has a Google logo and the pea he is triumphantly holding aloft bears the 'Sponsored' wordmark that appears alongside Google search results.]

#pluralistic #victim blaming #fraud #going meta #douglas rushkoff #ad-tech #local search #wix #amex #thai food #business #rent-seeking #entrepreneurship #passive income #chokepoint capitalism #platform lawyers

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