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Daily Tech News 10 September 2024
Monday Overnight Open Thread (9/9/24) Off Grid Bunker 3rd Edition Dicknose Cafe Quick Hits Kamala Reveals Short, Vague Statement on Her Alleged "Positions" On Eve of Debate Grandfather of Trans-Concerned School Shooter Colt Grey Calls Murderer's Father "Evil," Wants Death Penalty Biden-Harris Administration Airdrops Invasionary Force of Hatian Immigrants on Springfield, Ohio Trump: I Will Prosecute Those Who Cheat in Elections and Send Them to Prison; Media Which Denies There Is Any Election Cheating: TRUMP IS THREATENING TO IMPRISON THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE!!! Trump Slips Ahead of Kamala Harris in New NYT Poll THE MORNING RANT: A Police Department - in Hurricane Country - is Getting EV Patrol Cars; How Many Ways Can This Go Wrong? Absent Friends
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June 03, 2019
DOJ Weighing Anti-Monopoly Probe Into GoogleThis was announced just after midnight Friday night. Though WSJ didn't specify which aspects of Google's business might come under the microscope, a string of multi-billion-euro fines recently levied by the EU might offer some guidance. The bloc's anti-trust authority, which has been far more eager to take on American tech giants than its American counterpart (for reasons that should be obvious to all), has fined Google over its practice of bundling software with its standard Android license, the way its search engine rankings favor its own product listings, and ways it has harmed competition in the digital advertising market. The Verge article mentioned discusses the possibility of treating Google as Microsoft was treated in the 90s, stopping the practice of "leveraging" a dominant/monopoly position in one area (Google has many, but the most important are the search function and ad placement (itself based on, "Leveraged" from, its near-monopoly position on search)), into market dominance in a different area of the economy. In the case of Microsoft, they were accused of leveraging their dominant/monopoly position in operating systems for non-Apple computers into making it difficult to use any browser on their systems besides the Microsoft-owned Internet Explorer. Netscape sued, claiming Microsoft was using a dominant position in one area to secure a privileged position in another area, in order to squelch competition in that other area. Verge proposes that Google would be forbidden to purchase any new companies, so it can't just buy out its competitors -- its competitors would have to provide actual competition to Google. This sort of a theory is somewhat modest -- it basically says, "We will allow you the fruits of your luck and labor in making this current monopoly, and we will let that sit undisturbed, but we won't let you take the next steps and use your current monopoly power in one area to leverage yourself new monopolies in other areas."
As a commenter pointed out, tech stocks are taking a beating, now that they have to price in the costs of a possible resurrection of anti-monopoly laws that remain on the books, but have been largely ignored since Clinton. Alphabet stock (GOOGL) was down 6.1% in Monday morning trading, to $1039.42 per share. Shares of U.S. tech giants Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) were also down. Apple stock (AAPL) was up slightly as the S&P 500 was mostly flat and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.5%. Amazon.com (AMZN), which the Washington Post reported "could face heightened antitrust scrutiny" from the Federal Trade Commission, was down 3.7%. The Federal Trade Commission also considered an anti-trust probe into Google in 2013, but declined. Did the DOJ time its news to help publicize Glenn Reynolds new book making the case for anti-trust investigations into Monster Tech? The timing -- I question it! But seriously, Roger Simon partly reviews that book and partly discusses the evil of the Tech Monopolies in an article worth reading.
The "plague-like diseases" Reynolds is talking about, I would imagine, are psychological -- loneliness, neuroticism, outright sociopathy, all encouraged/nutured by our Dumb New World -- as well as a general lowering of IQ as we descend into social-media Idiocracy. I should pick the book up. I think I will. Update: Several commenters propose that the silver bullet would just be to regulate -- or ban -- the collection of data on users. Perhaps a soft ban, requiring actual cash-money payments to people who agree, with full disclosure and understanding, to permit Google to create gigantic databases about them and their personal habits. Here's one example: 19 End mass information gathering and brokering. No more collecting data, even "anonymized" (what a lie!), except as specifically required for a transaction. No more selling of personal data, even "anonymized", PERIOD. (Once I might have entertained exceptions. No longer.) ABSOLUTELY NO DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WITHOUT EXPRESS SPECIFIC CONSENT. A short exchange on this point: >>>29 I will note that if [selling]-you-as-the-product becomes illegal, a lot of free stuff isn't going to be free anymore. For good or ill. Posted by: Grump928(C) Corrected: I wrongly stated that Microsoft's browser was netscape. It wasn't; it was IE. Netscape was the competing product that alleged Microsoft was using its OS dominance to fence it out of the browser market. Thanks to Yudhishthira's Dice. I knew all this a lot better before the internet began killing my brain like a kind of electrically-transmitted dementia. | Recent Comments
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Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere [/i] [/b]: "[i]Wolfus, I think tonight is right now. The debat ..." Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere [/i] [/b]: "[i]Anybody planning to watch the "debate" tonight? ..." Village Idiot's Apprentice: "Just like every other debate in recent times, I wi ..." m: "9 Which keys are considered part of the set of fou ..." m: "maybe? Noam Blum @neontaster 14h Once Biden ..." JQ: "I am looking at police headlamps on Amazon. ---- ..." Skip : "Neglected birdbath yesterday ..." Village Idiot's Apprentice: "I get the 'innocent till proved guilty' part. B ..." Thing From Snowy Mountain: "Wolfus, I think tonight is right now. The debate i ..." m: "w00t ..." Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come: "[i]8 Anybody planning to watch the "debate" tonigh ..." Recent Entries
Daily Tech News 10 September 2024
Monday Overnight Open Thread (9/9/24) Off Grid Bunker 3rd Edition Dicknose Cafe Quick Hits Kamala Reveals Short, Vague Statement on Her Alleged "Positions" On Eve of Debate Grandfather of Trans-Concerned School Shooter Colt Grey Calls Murderer's Father "Evil," Wants Death Penalty Biden-Harris Administration Airdrops Invasionary Force of Hatian Immigrants on Springfield, Ohio Trump: I Will Prosecute Those Who Cheat in Elections and Send Them to Prison; Media Which Denies There Is Any Election Cheating: TRUMP IS THREATENING TO IMPRISON THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE!!! Trump Slips Ahead of Kamala Harris in New NYT Poll THE MORNING RANT: A Police Department - in Hurricane Country - is Getting EV Patrol Cars; How Many Ways Can This Go Wrong? Search
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