restingboredface @ restingboredface @sh.itjust.works

Posts

24

Comments

406

Joined

2 yr. ago

Been making my way through Return of the Obra Dinn. It's so different from anything I've played before. Really neat, though I wish there was some more help/guide info available in game on the mechanics of it. I feel like I stumble into things most of the time.

Not to mention the fact that if they include office products in this, its not just personal information.

A lot of IP gets produced in there, even if it's not purchased or created within an enterprise license. So if they train on that they will be basically stealing corporate information that they definitely have no rights to.

It's the quirky 80s comedy spinoff where the lovable goofball Dexter just can't keep a roommate, and his friends don't get why since he's just so darn swell.

Yep, and we are generally not willing (as a society) to pay decent wages for things like teachers, so getting drivers ed teachers for all student drivers would be not possible. Private lessons would work but that would make it unavailable to a lot of less affluent people.

This totally sucks, though I have to say I am impressed that they spelled it out so clearly. I can't believe they showed it to you like that instead of burying it in some legalese/fine print, across multiple emails or something

Yeah, it makes me worried about what they have planned to replace it.

I don't understand how it's not plausible to know whether works aren't copyrighted in the data or not. That has to be tracked for multiple reasons and if AI teams pulled in the full data set to train the model it should be a matter of filtering out works that have usage restrictions applied. I would think it is just a matter of the AI team choosing to ignore usage restrictions rather than an inability to adhere to them.

It seems to me like the judge is misunderstanding or disregarding the nature of the data and procedures for deselecting cases.

I thought it was telling that they released a new iPhone this year and the only thing they could think to promote about it was that it had titanium in it.

They have some of the best marketing people out there and that was literally the only selling point of their new model of their flagship device.

That would set a dangerous precedent though.

Full text:

A federal jury ruled on Tuesday that the powerful National Association of Realtors and several large brokerages had conspired to artificially inflate the commissions paid to real estate agents, a decision that could radically alter the home-buying process in the United States.

The realtors’ group and brokerages were ordered to pay damages of nearly $1.8 billion. The verdict allows the court to issue treble damages, which means they could swell to more than $5 billion.

It’s a decision that has the potential to rewrite the entire structure of the real estate industry in the United States, lowering the cost of moving homes by reducing commissions. Under a N.A.R. rule, a home seller is required to pay commissions to the agent representing the buyer, which sellers claimed forced them to pay excessive fees to the agents. The home sellers said the brokerages collaborated with N.A.R. to enforce what is called the “cooperative compensation rule.”

But under the verdict, the sellers would no longer be required to pay their buyers’ agents, and agents would be free to set their own commission rates, which could be slashed in half or less. For example, a home seller with a $1 million home can now pay as much as $60,000 in agent commissions — $30,000 to their agent and $30,000 to the buyers’ agent.

N.A.R., alongside Keller Williams, Anywhere (formerly, Realogy), Re/Max and HomeServices of America, had been on trial in Kansas City in an antitrust suit brought by nearly half a million Missouri home sellers.

The home sellers asked for damages of $1.78 billion. Before heading to trial, both Re/Max and Anywhere Real Estate opted to settle, with Re/Max paying $55 million and Anywhere Real Estate, whose subsidiaries include Coldwell Banker, Century 21 Real Estate, and Sotheby’s International Realty, paying $83.5 million in damages.

But N.A.R., as well as Keller Williams and HomeServices, headed to trial. And on Tuesday morning, after deliberating for less than three hours, an eight-person jury delivered the verdict: Yes, there had been a conspiracy, and not only would the defendants be required to pay damages, but those damages could triple.

The Chicago-based N.A.R. is the largest professional organization in the United States. It has more than $1 billion in assets and owns the trademark to the word “Realtor,” making a real estate agent’s ability to buy and sell homes contingent upon the payment of membership dues in much of the country.

N.A.R. said it plans to appeal the verdict, and in an internal memo sent to some members on Tuesday and obtained by The New York Times, the current N.A.R. president, Tracy Kasper wrote, “We remain confident we will ultimately prevail.”

“This verdict does not require a change in our rules,” she continued.

How the ruling plays out remains to be seen, but it’s clear that the verdict — and the size of the damages — point to a shift in the way agent commissions are now paid. Redfin, which earlier this month exited the National Association of Realtors, said that the decision will prompt home buyers and home sellers to now question the standard practice of setting commissions between 5 and 6 percent.

“Traditional brokers will undoubtedly now train their agents to welcome conversations about fees,” said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive, in a statement following the verdict. “But it’s also possible that buyers will become the ones who decide how much to pay a buyer’s agent.”

More than 1.5 million real estate agents across the United States pay dues to the organization in order to call themselves Realtors and assure home sellers and home buyers that they are aligned with the organization’s strict policies on ethics and home transactions. But after a series of sexual harassment allegations led to the resignation of the organization’s president this summer, Tuesday’s ruling threatens to further diminish their influence and could, according to some real estate agents, prompt many to abandon them entirely.

“This is an earthquake,” said Jason Haber, a real estate agent with Compass who has been one of the most outspoken critics of N.A.R. in recent months. “I’m disappointed in today’s verdict and I’m even more disappointed in N.A.R. This was their Super Bowl and World Series rolled up into one and not even Taylor Swift could have saved them.”

Mr. Haber, who created a grass-roots organization demanding the resignation of N.A.R.’s top leadership after the sexual harassment allegations came to light this summer, said he believed that there was no conspiracy when it comes to agent commissions, and that N.A.R. had let down its members by failing to present a stronger defense in court.

“As a dues-paying agent, they failed me, they failed all of my colleagues. Had they spent more time focusing on the trial and less time silencing women, maybe the outcome would have been different,” he said.

In an emailed statement, Mantill Williams, a spokesman for N.A.R., said the case will likely not be settled for a long time.

“We will continue to focus on our mission to advocate for homeownership and always put consumer interests first. It will likely be several years before this case is finally resolved,” he said.

Makenzy Mohrman, a financial services analyst at Capstone LLC, said the verdict was just the beginning of changes in the industry, noting the U.S. Department of Justice is likely to pursue a more thorough investigation of how real estate transactions are handled in the United States.

“Antitrust has been a top issue for the administration. This is something that will affect a lot of consumers,” she said in an emailed statement.

“We believe this is a significant hit for real estate brokers, but we don’t think this is over yet at all. There are more battles to be had,” she wrote. “This is the first domino to fall, but the National Association of Realtors is still on the hook.”

Brokerages who chose to settle ahead of the trial said they were pleased with their decision.

“The settlement releases our company, affiliated agents, and franchisees from liability related to these claims. The jury verdict, while disappointing, does not alter our settlement,” said Trey Sarten, a spokesman for Anywhere Real Estate, in an emailed statement.

Those who had lost previous court battles with N.A.R. were celebrating.

Jack Ryan, the chief executive of REX Real Estate, which in August lost an antitrust lawsuit against N.A.R., Zillow and Trulia, has been outspoken about setting commissions lower. In a text message on Tuesday, he hailed the verdict as “extremely good news for Americans.”

If commissions can be lowered, “the price of every home will come down, jobs and wages will go up, tax revenues will increase, people can easily move to better and more fulfilling jobs,” he wrote.

Other lawsuits are now imminent. Within minutes of receiving the verdict on Tuesday, the lawyers for the defendants entered another class-action suit into U.S. District Court in Missouri. That case, filed on behalf of three new home sellers, also claims the practice of having home sellers pay sales commissions to buyers’ agents is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. It names N.A.R. as a defendant, as well as several major brokerages including Compass, eXp World Holdings, Redfin and Douglas Elliman.

I lived in Evansville during high school and college. Otters games are fun, largely because the stadium is such a cool venue. It's really small but definitely gives you a classic baseball kind of vibe.

Fun fact about league of their own: Madonna HATED Evansville and apparently was very outspoken about wanting to leave as quickly as possible. Having spent some of my formative years there, I get it.

Can't believe it took this long. There was a Netflix documentary on A&F about a year ago that talked about this stuff happening a lot. It seemed like it was pretty widely known. Figured it would have gotten to a lawsuit way earlier.

I use my pc on my TV with a controller for this reason. It limits the games I can play since so many aren't optimized for controller but I generally like the games on PC better. I also use my pc for movies and TV as well so it serves as an overall entertainment center.

Not sure if I was getting a sweet deal or what but I'm currently paying 4.99/mo. They are raising prices ro 9.99. In what universe would anybody think doubling prices is okay?

And it won't turn whistle-blower when the state unilaterally changes curriculum when no one is looking.

I mean, how long have they been pouring money into the VR stuff that only their employees were using?

Yeah, even got a placement service and executive coach to help with resume and professional bio and all that. Word docs work better than pdfs but still have trouble with getting things loaded properly.

When I was hiring I almost never looked at what was in the hris so I've always prioritised the resume document when I applied but getting some help with optimizing it for the systems definitely seems to have helped. Just not with all of them.

No, you got lucky. I'm on the market too. It varies a lot by platform. Successfactors is the worst I've seen. It never picks up anything from resumes. Workday though is a crapshoot and seems to be based on the company's implementation.

My company was about 70% remote before I joined, and went to about 90% during covid so I had two people in office when I started and let them go remote about 18 months in.

We had lots of time together to get to chat and get to know one another. I stressed on camera time for most team calls (other calls were their choice). I also made sure to build in time fore every call to just chat and socialize. I tried to get budget for some team gatherings but we never got it. That would definitely have helped with learning about people personally.

Remote is definitely different from in person work, and I felt like I had fewer friends around work than I did in person. But I was productive and effective and so was my team. And they were happy. If I could do it again I'd definitely build in more time for regular in person meetings, maybe quarterly or semiannual, but unless I find the perfect gig in town I don't think I would ask another team to work in person full time. Its not necessary for most white-collar jobs anymore.

I managed a remote team for 5 years. Good managers have no problem leading teams remotely. It is a question of knowing your employees and how best to make the remote environment work for their specific skills and job requirements. People trying to get monitoring software or pushing for RTO are just trying to get butts in seats and not truly managing their people.