A lot of strip malls built in the '80s were designed to have a 3000-5000 sq. ft. video store in them from the get-go. Just the loss of that one tenant type creates a glut of retail space.

Netflix's streaming options are limited, but if you use the DVD by mail option (which still exists, as far as I know), I bet their selection is better than Blockbuster.

 

Yes, but that requires planning which movie you want to watch days in advance, which wasn't the Blockbuster model. Also, most people I know only have the the streaming package for Netflix. The mail option was great, but unless you watch a lot of movies that aren't available on streaming, it didn't make a lot of sense, at least for people on a budget.

Working at a video store was a soul-crushing window into the failing family life of the tasteless, anti-intellectual middle class...I worked at a Kroger video store in 1997 directly across the street from a Blockbuster.  It was incredible to witness how irrational and sloppy people were with their rental habits.  First, people called over and over again throughout the day to see if you had had such-and-such movie returned.  Second, people regularly returned Blockbuster movies in our box and vice-verse, then argued that they didn't owe late fees because WE should have taken their videos across the street for them.  Every once in awhile I remember doing that, but usually we let the videos fester for a few days (It seemed to happen because people sent their wives or husbands to return the videos and their dumbass spouse couldn't read the logo on the case).  Third, people actually BOUGHT NEW RELEASES from us when we got them in for $95.  So a lot of people don't know this but the video stores bought their videos for around $75 months before the public could buy them for $20.  So the video rental place had to rent the movie about 15 times before they broke even.  But they had the option to sell directly to customers, so Kroger would sell a copy of, say, Jerry McGuire, to some obnoxious pill-popping housewife for $95. 

 

These moms and dads were literally out of their minds.  But if Facebook existed, I'm sure it would be regularly loaded with smiling photos.  Family get-togethers.  Graduations.  Vacations. 

 

 

 

Those big summer movies are nearly impossible to sell even 1 year later for $4. I oughta know. Superhero stuff is the worst. Nobody cares after Week 2.

The first floor of Cincinnati's downtown library still recreates the atmosphere of Blockbuster to some extent, completely free of charge. I'm probably in there once a week or so on my lunch break to get a movie, they actually have a pretty wide selection, though you usually have to reserve new releases and wait a few days.

but that's public sector!

The first floor of Cincinnati's downtown library still recreates the atmosphere of Blockbuster to some extent, completely free of charge. I'm probably in there once a week or so on my lunch break to get a movie, they actually have a pretty wide selection, though you usually have to reserve new releases and wait a few days.

 

Just sub out Blockbuster's candy with the open air drug market outside the Vine St. side and they're nearly identical! Lol, I kid. I love the library, and often rent movies and CDs from it.

I miss Blockbuster for those reasons (picking something out was an event) and because they contributed to the local economy.  Yes, it might be time to reconsider how many jobs we really want machines to replace.

 

I started a conversation on this topic over in the Income Inequality thread. Basically I think we have to face the fact that there are many jobs that machines can do better than humans, and as automation becomes cheaper, we have to face that fact that many people won't be able to find jobs. And in order to deal with that, we have to ultimately replace our current welfare system with something that makes sure everyone can live a good life and all of the world's wealth doesn't flow into the pockets of the factory owners who fire their 1,000 employees and replace them with machines. Which is obviously going to be a tough sell to the people that already view welfare recipients negatively and hate "redistribution of wealth."

Pretty well-done video describing this phenomenon.

 

 

I believe Switzerland recently rejected a guaranteed wage for everyone in the country. I could see these types of things actually passing in our lifetimes as unemployment spikes in the coming decades due to automation. The biggest immediate losers are due to Autonomous Vehicles (trucking industry, delivery drivers, taxis, etc). He does a good job of explaining how seemingly safe jobs are not as safe as you may think.

As soon as artificial intelligence becomes real, this discussion becomes racist.  "What are you doing... Dave?"

I miss Blockbuster for those reasons (picking something out was an event) and because they contributed to the local economy.  Yes, it might be time to reconsider how many jobs we really want machines to replace.

 

I started a conversation on this topic over in the Income Inequality thread. Basically I think we have to face the fact that there are many jobs that machines can do better than humans, and as automation becomes cheaper, we have to face that fact that many people won't be able to find jobs. And in order to deal with that, we have to ultimately replace our current welfare system with something that makes sure everyone can live a good life and all of the world's wealth doesn't flow into the pockets of the factory owners who fire their 1,000 employees and replace them with machines. Which is obviously going to be a tough sell to the people that already view welfare recipients negatively and hate "redistribution of wealth."

 

It is a trade off. As a business owner that contemplates this on a day to day basis, I am torn on the investment. While a self service machine will be much more cost effective, a certain level of service will be sacrificed. However, when people talk about pushing the minimum wage it makes it much easier to make the decision to switch to the machine because the cost of providing quality service has a diminishing marginal return. This is what happened with Blockbuster, while they had a great service and provided that "experience" there was a diminishing marginal return to investing in such activity when Netflix and the Redbox kiosks started showing up. Neither could provide the same satisfaction tot he customer as Blockbuster, but their cost structure allowed them to offer less service and higher profits for that less service because they have less labor costs.

Blockbuster could have downsized their stores so that there wasn't 4 inches between each DVD, but then customers wouldn't feel as comfortable browsing. Some Blockbusters were 7,000 sq. ft. At 2,000 sq. ft. they could have cut expenses significantly. A lot of strip mall landlords demand leases that are LOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGG though.

Blockbuster was killed on the high overhead. You need many more employees to staff all their stores than you would need in a warehouse/distribution/drop ship center.  Plus, Class A retail is expensive. Even if they could save on the rent by downsizing, they still are likely going to have the same employee cost which was what was keeping them from being competitive.

Cut out enough people and there's no market left for anything.  Automation doesn't want money but it doesn't spend money either.  The next wave will really make this clear, if it isn't already.  There's no such thing as a linear economy.

Henry Ford knew that the more money his workers had, the more cars they'd buy from him and the more money he'd have.

Honest, I never shop at Walmart, but I did yesterday because I needed to purchase a bike tube, cheap and quick.

 

 

So yesterday I'm checking out through the self-checkout kiosk and an older couple (mid-to-late 60's) comes up to the self-checkout area. The Walmart clerk notices them stop and she says to them; "one of these should be free any minute, sir." ... He then says, "no thanks. I will not use these because I am eliminating someone's job."

 

I almost lost it. I'm thinking, does he realize the irony in this scenario?

 

I agree with them 100%.  Refuse to use them (but I also don't shop Wal Mart).

 

Maybe we should outlaw self serve gas, ATM machines, Netflix and Redbox kiosks too while they are at it.

 

Those actually increase convenience, while "self serve" checkouts, at least as done by GE and Wallyworld, do not.

^ I seem to be the only person who misses Blockbuster. Redbox sucks, Netflix is super limited, and while you can rent from iTunes, you have to have a cord to connect your computer to the TV. I loved being able to go to Blockbuster, browse around, ask the employees for recommendations, pick up your candy and stuff all in one place. Plus, the Blockbuster by the house I grew up in was next to both a TCBY and Dairy Queen and a LaRosas, so we'd often get pizza and ice cream in the same trip to get the movie. Made for much more of an experience than just downloading a movie on your computer or picking one from a very small selection in the entryway of a grocery store.

 

Pretty much any innovation that reduces lead time, travel time, and extraneous interaction is likely to succeed.  That’s what happened here.

Ten years ago, in 2006, I worked for about 3 months second shift at an Amazon distribution center (before they were called "fulfillment centers").  I made $12.75/hr.  I'm now seeing mass Amazon hiring events for the Christmas season in NKY offering $11.50-$12.50/hr.  So ten years later, they're paying less for the same sort of job.  These mass seasonal hiring events give people (housewives, retirees, smug tea partiers) the illusion that "jobs are out there" and that you just need to "work your way up". 

 

 

 

Maybe we should outlaw self serve gas, ATM machines, Netflix and Redbox kiosks too while they are at it.

 

Those actually increase convenience, while "self serve" checkouts, at least as done by GE and Wallyworld, do not.

 

 

 

That is a matter of opinion, sometimes I prefer self checkout for convenience, other times I do not.[quote author=GCrites80s

link=topic=439.msg821447#msg821447 date=1475694069]

Henry Ford knew that the more money his workers had, the more cars they'd buy from him and the more money he'd have.

 

That is a pretty little quote and while true, you cannot wrap a pretty bow on it like people argue. Ford was a smart businessman and he recognized the ability to mass produce his vehicles to make them available to the masses. He understood if he could create a certain volume, he can bring the prices down, which was good for everyone (especially him) however, there is a point where you reach your peak efficiency and there is a diminishing marginal benefit.

 

The thing is there are diminishing returns going on here, but the economy is adaptive. Yes, when you put people out of work and business you lose their ability to become customers but there will be other customers, and those people will land in other industries

The thing is there are diminishing returns going on here, but the economy is adaptive. Yes, when you put people out of work and business you lose their ability to become customers but there will be other customers, and those people will land in other industries

 

At what point does the typical person's value to the economy no longer exceed their costs, though? At some point, demand for things that only humans can provide (ie computers/robots cannot do the task) will be small enough where people can't just find jobs in other industries. If machines take over most food production, transportation, construction, manufacturing, and most blue collar, or low-skill jobs, what happens to the remaining people?

 

I have an extremely hard time believing that everyone will shift to technology/computer companies. Eventually even those jobs will be taken over by computers/machines.

The thing is there are diminishing returns going on here, but the economy is adaptive. Yes, when you put people out of work and business you lose their ability to become customers but there will be other customers, and those people will land in other industries

I have an extremely hard time believing that everyone will shift to technology/computer companies. Eventually even those jobs will be taken over by computers/machines.

 

Me, too. I can't even get a job as a Jr. level Programmer right now and I went to school for it. Supposedly, statistics show there's 1,000,000 unfilled coding jobs in America right now and the number is increasing. I sure can't tell. Still getting the b.s. about how I need years of work experience in it because they're too cheap to have strong on-boarding programs. I sure wish this robot / automation thing would hurry up and take over.

 

People are always going to value human interaction. There's already been a backlash. Most of the failing cell phone and PC companies are those that went the cheap route and used automated services for customer care and tech support. Or even worse than automated support - having you talk to someone from India. My God. That is by far the hardest accent to understand.

A lot of unfilled positions across the country sit on the job boards for years as they look for someone with a very specific skill that almost no one has or is very new. They are positions that companies would like to fill but they are capable of functioning without and continuing to do it the "old way" for now.

 

I tell you one pastime that has helped my former employees at the video game store score IT work is building modded systems. Not doing regimented things like loading a bunch of old arcade ROMs on to an Xbox using the old Tom Clancy Splinter Cell non-Platinum Hits exploit, but building things that required modifying circuitry, designing cases in CAD and soldering. One guy builds portable GameCubes with integrated screens and .ISOs loaded onto internal memory. Another guy turned an NES into a PC. The current manager at the store who is also a coder installs lighted screens into the old non-backlit Game Boy Advances. This shows that they also like to tinker for fun instead of looking at computers as just a good job.

This robot passed a classic self-awareness test.

 

Asimo has come a long way, over the years. The way Asimo moves around and stabilizes itself while walking and playing sports, is so human-like its scary. It's only a matter of time before these robots are soldiers in the military.

 

 

 

Investors want their money back from Theranos:

 

http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/11/technology/theranos-lawsuit-partner-fund-management/index.html?iid=ob_homepage_tech_pool

 

 

 

Oh, nice. I was only partially banned from this site. Pretty cool feature that I didn't know existed on this forum.

 

I was talking to my neighbor who was telling me she had jury duty today but was trying to get out of it and said she managed to get out of it before, by saying that she's either sick or had to take her mother to the hospital. I didn't know it was that easy. I've actually ALWAYS wanted to do jury duty but for some reason I've never been selected for it.

 

I was part of a focus group last week and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I signed up for it a long time ago but forgot about it and they recently contacted me to come in. I couldn't believe it. I got paid about 20 bucks an hour to be presented evidence - pre-recorded testimony and documentation, listen to a lawyer's (45 minute!) opening statement and just critique it all. You kind of assume that no one really cares about your opinions anyway, when you give them but here I am with a camera and mic pointed at me, recording my reaction to things and I actually got paid a good amount of cash money to do so!

 

I signed a confidentiality agreement so I can't really say much - but basically, one of the cases involved this woman with cancer who seemed like she was looney tunes and faced some serious consequences by forgoing treatment but is suing anyway. The other case was a classic tale of nursing home abuse and the lawyer representing the family who gave his opening statement basically made it an open / shut case but we gave him pointers on how to strengthen his case and his speech.

 

It was so much fun. I wish there were more focus groups that I could join. I like this sort of stuff.

 

It's not possible to volunteer for jury duty is it? Juries seem like a total crap shoot.

 

 

 

 

I imagine a lot of people who would volunteer for jury duty all of the time would have an agenda they are trying to push, which would dilute the idea that it's a jury of your peers. Just a thought, though.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking and that's probably the reason why but on the other hand, when you randomly select people in a jury, it seems that there's a great chance that they're going to be apathetic about the whole thing and just go along with some convincing, charismatic leader-type within the jury. I guess a strong case could be made for both sides (no pun intended, haha.) :)

You should contact the Jury Commissioner in your county and let them know you're interested in volunteering.

I've never been picked for JD either.

 

As to the previous discussion about automation and jobs, I definitely think we are moving to a less employed economy and different types of meanings for "worker" than in the past. The Atlantic did an excellent, excellent article about this.

 

I actually think there are a lot of people that will have to go back to blue-collar jobs, of which there are MANY that are unfilled because there are no trained/vocational people anymore, and then supplement with part time work, barter shit, etc.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/world-without-work/395294/

Lots of people avoid the trades since you don't get to go away to college if you select the trades. Look at the options:

 

College: Party!!!!! Away from your parents in a town far away. Meet new girls every day. Or maybe you're not into parties -- you like nerd stuff like many, many young people today. Endless nerd stuff to do in college these days.

 

Trade school: Right across town; you drive there every day to a classroom/shop full of dudes so that you can then go work at a place that's all dudes for the rest of your life. All aspects of life revolve around work right at age 18. DUDES DUDES DUDES. All the older guys talk about all day is NASCAR, fishing and football that nerds don't give a crap about.

It's not as easy as you'd think, to get into a trade. You have to know the right people who actually like you or have the right last name, especially w/ unions.

Yeah, a good buddy of mine is a local skilled-trade union head and there's plenty of times when they just can't find people work. Of course, a lot of people just up and move from Appalachia to Columbus thinking there will be work immediately (besides non-union warehouse work) so sometimes there's an oversupply of people.

I suppose that's true for those with advanced skills, but I happen to know several trades that are DYING FOR BODIES and would truly hire anyone as long as they showed up every day and worked hard, would provide training, etc.

His trade is very specific, yes. Do you think that it could be especially bad in Cleveland since so many people left in the past and haven't realized that things aren't as bad there nowadays?

Lots of people avoid the trades since you don't get to go away to college if you select the trades. Look at the options:

 

College: Party!!!!! Away from your parents in a town far away. Meet new girls every day. Or maybe you're not into parties -- you like nerd stuff like many, many young people today. Endless nerd stuff to do in college these days.

 

Trade school: Right across town; you drive there every day to a classroom/shop full of dudes so that you can then go work at a place that's all dudes for the rest of your life. All aspects of life revolve around work right at age 18. DUDES DUDES DUDES. All the older guys talk about all day is NASCAR, fishing and football that nerds don't give a crap about.

 

LOL true that, and one thing I am surprised about is that younger women have not figured that out.

 

A couple of our managers are married to ex employees and another former assembly operator has been dating one of the owners for a couple years now.

Lots of people avoid the trades since you don't get to go away to college if you select the trades. Look at the options:

 

College: Party!!!!! Away from your parents in a town far away. Meet new girls every day. Or maybe you're not into parties -- you like nerd stuff like many, many young people today. Endless nerd stuff to do in college these days.

 

Trade school: Right across town; you drive there every day to a classroom/shop full of dudes so that you can then go work at a place that's all dudes for the rest of your life. All aspects of life revolve around work right at age 18. DUDES DUDES DUDES. All the older guys talk about all day is NASCAR, fishing and football that nerds don't give a crap about.

 

LOL true that, and one thing I am surprised about is that younger women have not figured that out.

 

A couple of our managers are married to ex employees and another former assembly operator has been dating one of the owners for a couple years now.

 

A girl changed my oil the other day, and seemed to relish all of the attention she was getting from the 6-8 dudes in the garage which I assume continues unabated day after day, week after week. 

 

 

It's not as easy as you'd think, to get into a trade. You have to know the right people who actually like you or have the right last name, especially w/ unions.

 

Funny/sad story. Back in the late 80's our high school had a "trade day," where you could try your hand at doing some blue collar work and maybe go that career route. A flighty girl who looked like Kim Kardashian and always got into trouble (in hindsight she probably had ADD too) became obsessed with the brick laying demo. She wouldn't let anyone else have a turn! I'd never seen her focus her energy on anything other than stretch pants and her hair and makeup...this was NJ after all. The trade guys, amused, let her work diligently for an hour. Then at the end they flat out told her that she couldn't be a bricklayer. I'll never forget how she looked very hurt by this.

Lots of people avoid the trades since you don't get to go away to college if you select the trades. Look at the options:

 

College: Party!!!!! Away from your parents in a town far away. Meet new girls every day. Or maybe you're not into parties -- you like nerd stuff like many, many young people today. Endless nerd stuff to do in college these days.

 

Trade school: Right across town; you drive there every day to a classroom/shop full of dudes so that you can then go work at a place that's all dudes for the rest of your life. All aspects of life revolve around work right at age 18. DUDES DUDES DUDES. All the older guys talk about all day is NASCAR, fishing and football that nerds don't give a crap about.

 

LOL true that, and one thing I am surprised about is that younger women have not figured that out.

 

A couple of our managers are married to ex employees and another former assembly operator has been dating one of the owners for a couple years now.

 

A girl changed my oil the other day, and seemed to relish all of the attention she was getting from the 6-8 dudes in the garage which I assume continues unabated day after day, week after week. 

 

 

 

At the fittings plant, we had a Polish immigrant  woman, about 22 and extremely attractive, who was also a very competent machine operator.  We used to joke about putting her on whatever machine needed the most maintenance attention because it was going to get it anyway.

We also had this day, though they called it "career day." My backwater town could do nothing related to what I wanted to pursue as my actual career, so I chose things to be funny. One of them was truck driving. Of course, I was the only girl in the class. It was awesome! I made friends with a super-hood I sat next to who thought my foul mouth was terrific, and we joked about being a husband-wife team with a decked out rig and cozy cabin for long journeys. About 6 months later, some guys were physically harassing me on the smoking deck, pushing into me and trying to kiss me and he and another guy happened to come around the corner and, well, let's just say it's true what they say about friends in low places. He was good people.

 

I also chose police officer so I could see the inside of the jail and path to it so that I could case it and try to figure out a means of escape when I would be arrested. Because being arrested was like a given. It's kind of a good thing I got out of there.

 

I am mad about the story you posted. I would have thrown a brick at someone.

I went to see an architect give a slide show on career day and everything he built was strip malls and steel light industrial buildings.  He sounded burnt-out and told us "don't think you're going to be building skyscrapers and suspension bridges...", so I walked out completely disinterested in becoming an architect, even though I had told adults that's what I wanted to be since I was little. 

It's not as easy as you'd think, to get into a trade. You have to know the right people who actually like you or have the right last name, especially w/ unions.

 

Funny/sad story. Back in the late 80's our high school had a "trade day," where you could try your hand at doing some blue collar work and maybe go that career route. A flighty girl who looked like Kim Kardashian and always got into trouble (in hindsight she probably had ADD too) became obsessed with the brick laying demo. She wouldn't let anyone else have a turn! I'd never seen her focus her energy on anything other than stretch pants and her hair and makeup...this was NJ after all. The trade guys, amused, let her work diligently for an hour. Then at the end they flat out told her that she couldn't be a bricklayer. I'll never forget how she looked very hurt by this.

 

How did she turn out?

It's not as easy as you'd think, to get into a trade. You have to know the right people who actually like you or have the right last name, especially w/ unions.

 

Funny/sad story. Back in the late 80's our high school had a "trade day," where you could try your hand at doing some blue collar work and maybe go that career route. A flighty girl who looked like Kim Kardashian and always got into trouble (in hindsight she probably had ADD too) became obsessed with the brick laying demo. She wouldn't let anyone else have a turn! I'd never seen her focus her energy on anything other than stretch pants and her hair and makeup...this was NJ after all. The trade guys, amused, let her work diligently for an hour. Then at the end they flat out told her that she couldn't be a bricklayer. I'll never forget how she looked very hurt by this.

 

How did she turn out?

 

Gosh I have no idea. She's not on Facebook or anything. I hope okay.

It's funny to me whenever I read an article from the UK that refers to a "scheme". Unlike the US where that word has negative connotations, it does not have any connotation when used in the UK. So for example, a UK neighborhood might put a "development scheme" into place or come up with a "traffic calming scheme" to make streets safer for pedestrians.

Huh. That's interesting. When you said "scheme" and "connotation" I immediately thought of "conspiracy" as a synonym. I definitely pictured something malicious. It does have a bad connotation. I tried to think of different forms of the word and the first thing I thought was database schema, something I've designed several times and realized that a scheme or schema is just basically just a thought out and then implemented design. I looked it up on google and sure enough, a scheme is just a systematic arrangement or plan. Maybe "English" and "American" need their own separate dictionaries.

 

 

It's like how the British call scalping "secondary ticketing" -- a much more pleasant term.

Is KJP paid by the post, or is he on salary?

Is KJP paid by the post, or is he on salary?

Meaning?  You've been here long enough to know we post a lot.  Some of us old timers post less frequently than we did a few years ago.

http://www.freelance.com/en/mission/view/Web-Site-Developer-Designer/dbf9112256f9e6500157046e518f57f5

 

Has anyone used a freelance website to get work? Some of the people on this site are absolutely insane! Tight-wads... Do they think its like a numbers game? 100 people view your ad and there's going to be that one sucker who will work for literally $0.25 an hour? This person's budget is $100 and this backlog would literally entail a 1-2 week sprint for an entire team of software engineers plus requires a graphic designer. That's assuming all goes well because as she says, "all redesign when done must be approved by me." You know what that means... entire days wasted adding features and changing designs and showing this idiot what you came up with, only for said idiot to respond with "could you just change it to this and add that." Even if the job paid well, this person is so horrible at describing exactly what this project is and what they want done - I'd consider it too risky to get myself involved.

 

I knew graphic design freelancing was bad. People think its so easy and the field doesn't get the respect it deserves. I had countless people approach me and say "Hey, if you design my logo for free, I have a lot of friends who I can recommend you to for paying work." Or I'd do a project and they were never satisfied with really good graphics that I came up with. Every element had to be modified several times to the point where I was probably averaging $4 an hour by using these sites.

 

I thought coding would be different but it looks like the same old BS in some cases.

 

I think finding a niche would be a good start - that or making a name for yourself somewhere else.  You are right that freelance websites are going to be terrible places to make decent money.  You are competing against the whole world and we've seen how that works in nearly every other industry.  So become an expert in something specific. Take this site for instance.  It uses SMF to power the boards - learn SMF, deploy it in multiple environments, write plugins for it et al.  Once you know your stuff, create a site that touts your expertise and charge 50$ an hour until you get some name recognition, then you can up it.  I knew a couple people who worked with popular software and did freelance work - they were turning people away they stayed so busy.

Huh. That's interesting. When you said "scheme" and "connotation" I immediately thought of "conspiracy" as a synonym. I definitely pictured something malicious. It does have a bad connotation. I tried to think of different forms of the word and the first thing I thought was database schema, something I've designed several times and realized that a scheme or schema is just basically just a thought out and then implemented design. I looked it up on google and sure enough, a scheme is just a systematic arrangement or plan. Maybe "English" and "American" need their own separate dictionaries.

 

 

 

 

yeah american is modern english and the brits would be traditional english. the brits have a lot of oddball phrases, but some nice ones too, like secondary marking for scalping as noted above. they also use archaic spelling, like programme instead of program, which is annoying. but the usa has plenty of stuff like that too in house, like in wisconsin they call a water fountain or a drinking fountain a bubbler and in ny we like to say waiting on line instead of in line, stuff like that. its really no different that portugal vs brazil portugese and spain vs the rest of the spanish speaking world though.

"Waiting on line" really didn't sound that weird until the internet hit. You just picture computers set up off to the side so that people can surf the 'net while they're bored in a queue.