Out of the loop

eksb , in What's up with all the layoffs in the technology sector, especially in the gaming industry?
@eksb@programming.dev avatar

Salaries for tech workers went up due to supply and demand, and it started cutting into billionaire's yacht money. So they fired a bunch of people (and used that money to increase executive compensation), which pushes salaries down, so in a year when they need to hire more people, they can hire at a lower rate, and then give themselves bonuses for being so smart.

Unionize.

djsoren19 , in What's up with all the layoffs in the technology sector, especially in the gaming industry?

The answer is a lot of companies made dumb decisions during COVID-19. A lot of tech CEO's saw a massive increase of profits during the COVID lockdown, and they decided there was no possible way for the gravy train to ever slow. The tech sector expanded way beyond its means, and now that COVID restrictions have inevitably ended and most everyone has returned to normal, their profit margins have shrunk back to normal. Since tech CEOs all have a brain parasite that compels them to increase growth always and forever, they have to now cut all those employees they hired during the pandemic to make the line go up.

You'll notice that none of the tech CEOs are going to face any consequences for their pants-on-head stupid belief that they'd continue seeing the same revenue as when people were trapped in their homes, and the only ones who are going to suffer are all the employees who have now wasted ~3 years at these companies.

BottleOfAlkahest ,

I'm not sure the CEOs actually thought growth would continue like that forever. They just knew they could get rid of all the extra people they hired when it slowed. The layoffs were always part of the plan, they just didn't say that quiet part out loud back in 2020.

folkrav ,

There is zero way these people didn’t know this would eventually happen. Anyone who was looking at this going on with a critical eye would have seen it coming from a mile away. Tons of more senior tech workers knew it would happen eventually. The market is especially rough for juniors right now.

shalafi ,

You were all over it until you went cApiTisM BAD!

Yes, the tech sector went nuts and overstaffed. For reasons (see below). But now some people have to go.

Ever had a job at a big company where you're doing very little, not accomplishing much? It's miserable and scary.

We're social animals. We do well in small groups, contributing. When you look around your team and no one's doing shit, you get no sense of accomplishment and start asking each other, "Fuck are we doing here and when does the ax drop?" Morale tanks hard.

As to the suits being stupid, were you the CEO of Zoom, what would you have done at the beginning of the pandemic? Just said, "Fuck it. We're riding this unprecedented event out! No idea the fucks going to happen, but we'll tough it out with the staff we got!"

Then you would be bitching about overworked employees, miserable and unable to accomplish anything for the fire hose of work hitting them. Then you would bitch about how Zoom used to be great and really tanked during the pandemic.

I'm sure lemmy will come along and tell me how much more wisely they would have handled a century-event hitting a brand-new sector of the economy.

(And BTW, many of the people let go are walking off with a FAT new entry on their resumes. Tech jobs aren't hard to find, even in slim times. Been there, done that.)

slazer2au , in What's up with all the layoffs in the technology sector, especially in the gaming industry?

Couple causes, and not just gaming. It is happening in most tech orgs.

During the pandemic most tech companies did large hiring sprees to bolster their IT staff to assist the remote workers and increased customer base as more were spending money on digital goods.

Now that the world is returning to normal, the amount that people are spending on digital goods has gone down so they are laying off people.

TubularTittyFrog ,

and on the flip side... restaurants, travel, and hospitality is desperate for workers due to the huge uptick in demand.

KeenSnappersDontCome , in What's up with all the layoffs in the technology sector, especially in the gaming industry?

Its mostly just increased reporting. Tech companies overhired when when they were doing well during lockdowns and are laying people off now that the increased revenue didn't hold indefinitely.

https://layoffs.fyi/ has been tracking layoffs in the tech sector since covid and the charts show how much more layoffs there were in 2023 (particularly January and February). It seems like the biggest change is that now every time there is a layoff it gets more news coverage.

TubularTittyFrog ,

Media wants us to believe we are in a recession so people stop spending and actually cause it, thus the Fed has to lower interest rates and the wealthy can go back to getting lots and lots of free money for virtually nothing.

It's absurd to see a huge company dropping a few hundred jobs as a national headline... but that's how hard the media is determined to pushing the recession narrative/bad economy narrative.

otter , in Why are people posting sinks on the syncforlemmy community ?
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I'd assume it's a running joke

SyncForLemmy --> Sink for Lemmy

Ah just checked, maybe it's because the mods haven't checked in with the community in a while and it's a joke about being abandoned. From what I remember, even on Reddit the dev would disappear for some time and then come back with a big update?

If they ARE gone, there are a lot of Lemmy apps available that are receiving regular updates. Boost, Connect, and Eternity might be a similar feeling to Sync

kandoh , in Edward Snowden: Why did he have to leave USA & go into hiding? Where is he anyway? Who is taking care of him? How does he earn money to survive? What is he doing?

Edward Snowden (or Eddy Snow) had to leave the USA and go into hiding after leaking classified information about global surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies[1][2]. He initially flew to Hong Kong and later traveled to Moscow, where he sought asylum in various countries but was eventually granted temporary asylum in Russia[3][4]. Snowden is currently living in Russia, where he supports himself through speaking fees, earning income from public speaking engagements about cybersecurity and surveillance[3][4]. He has stated that he does not receive any financial support from the Russian government and lives independently[3][4]. Snowden's actions as a whistleblower led to changes in laws governing intelligence agencies and technology companies regarding privacy and security standards[3].

Citations:
[1] Edward Snowden - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
[2] Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance
[3] Edward Snowden Speaks Out: 'I Haven't And I Won't' Cooperate With Russia https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/761918152/exiled-nsa-contractor-edward-snowden-i-haven-t-and-i-won-t-cooperate-with-russia
[4] Edward Snowden asylum in Russia - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden_asylum_in_Russia
[5] Edward Snowden Revealed As Key Participant In Mysterious Ceremony ... https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2022/04/27/edward-snowden-revealed-as-key-participant-in-mysterious-ceremony-creating-2-billion-anonymous-cryptocurrency/?sh=6f6648723b24

sin_free_for_00_days , in Edward Snowden: Why did he have to leave USA & go into hiding? Where is he anyway? Who is taking care of him? How does he earn money to survive? What is he doing?

He leaked a ton of gov't documents. Some on domestic spying things that had been known about for some time. This was a good thing. He also leaked a bunch of stuff about U.S. international spying. That was not good. He might have gotten away with leaking domestic stuff. Or lightly gotten away, who knows. But he was without a doubt going to jail for leaking international intel. And rightfully so. As said, he ran away to Russia instead of face the music. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

gardylou ,
@gardylou@lemmy.world avatar

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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  • sin_free_for_00_days ,

    Yep. Every time I bring up the objectively bad parts of the leaks, people just flip out.

    idiomaddict ,

    What parts are objectively bad? see a lot that’s subjectively bad for the US, but plenty of other people are glad to know that they had been spied on and plenty of other countries are happy to have the US lose some significant pr points.

    prettybunnys ,

    It wasn’t just US assets that were uncovered in the leak.

    The Chinese were able to decrypt much of it causing nations other than the USA to need to evacuate personnel for safety reasons.

    Your feelings are one thing, seeing the USA with egg on its face always gets folks happy, rah rah USA bad we get it. That doesn’t change what happened.

    Snowden isn’t the villain he is made out to be by the USA but goddamn did he do a stupid thing in a dumb way and isn’t the hero folks who like to see the USA fail make him out to be.

    Chances are people in your country who work to keep you safe had their lives put at risk because of how he leaked what he leaked. Good still came out of it. It can be both.

    DigitalTraveler42 , in Edward Snowden: Why did he have to leave USA & go into hiding? Where is he anyway? Who is taking care of him? How does he earn money to survive? What is he doing?

    He's in Russia now being used as a propaganda mouthpiece against the West, that's how he survives, by doing whatever Russian intel tells him to do.

    This isn't totally a knock against him, he was caught between a rock and a hard place, and chose the "be used by dictators" route, rather than the "definitely go to prison for a while" route.

    We just need better whistleblower protections and oversight here in the states, but if anything the spying on us has gotten worse since Snowden, while also still allowing for Internet Nazis to spread like a cancer with almost no pushback.

    Yawweee877h444 ,

    Your 1st paragraph, do you have actual proof of that? Serious question.

    I think it makes sense given the situation, and would be completely unsurprising since it's Russia and they torture people. And his wife and child (multiple kids now?) are there with him. In his case I'd just do exactly as told out of fear.

    But just curious if there's any tangible evidence of this or anything he's doing over there.

    DigitalTraveler42 ,

    This blog post is kind of biased but it has good links to some of the articles about the times that Snowden has "toed the party line" for Putin's regime. So mamy articles coming up in those useless garbage we now call search engines just pull up where Snowden has sworn an oath to Russia and has been given citizenship so therefore he's eligible to go fight Ukraine now, rather than things more related to my search.

    bamboo ,

    I'd say this is more than kinda biased, and is heavily biased. They link to a 2015 article that says only 2% of documents have been publicly disclosed through journalists, and then make the claim that Russia and China have the other 98% with no source at all for the claim.

    I might be misremembering the timeline in Citizen Four, but I remember that he had given the journalists all the documents and made a point that he didn't have access to anything before leaving for Latin America.

    It's unfortunate that Snowden's passport was revoked while he was in the Moscow Airport, and that he's stuck there now. For a guy who didn't want to go to jail or be executed for speaking out against the government, I don't blame him for not speaking up against Putin.

    prettybunnys ,

    Remember friends: the enemies of your enemy may feign to be your friend, but their only intent is to hurt their enemy not be your friend

    ^ this is why Snowden is where he is, he picked poorly HOWEVER he likely had little choice.

    PP_BOY_ , in Edward Snowden: Why did he have to leave USA & go into hiding? Where is he anyway? Who is taking care of him? How does he earn money to survive? What is he doing?
    @PP_BOY_@lemmy.world avatar

    This doesn't really seem like OOTL and more like "I need someone to Google this for me." I usually hate snarky answers like the one I'm writing right now, but come on.

    jasep ,
    dbilitated ,
    @dbilitated@aussie.zone avatar

    Snowden later made contact with Glenn Greenwald, a journalist working at The Guardian.[111] He contacted Greenwald anonymously as "Cincinnatus"[112][113] and said he had sensitive documents that he would like to share.[114] Greenwald found the measures that the source asked him to take to secure their communications, such as encrypting email, too annoying to employ. Snowden then contacted

    what the fuck, Glenn.

    Furbag , in Why Are People Hating on Julian Assange?

    He's the reason we got Trump in 2016. He likes to pick and choose which facts to leak and which to keep concealed in order to further his own agenda. Not to mention he gets this information from foreign agents who stole it from our government.

    Edward Snowden is far more deserving of recognition for his whistleblowing. He didn't do it to personally profit from it, just because he knew it was the right thing to do.

    NotAtWork , in Why Are People Hating on Julian Assange?

    Mueller Report PDF download
    Page 44:
    3. Use of WikiLeaks

    • In order to expand its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the GRU units transferred many of the documents they stole from the DNC and the chairman of the Clinton Campaign to WikiLeaks. GRU officers used both the DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 personas to communicate with WikiLeaks through Twitter private messaging and through encrypted channels, including possibly through WikiLeaks’s private communication system.

    a. WikiLeaks’s Expressed Opposition Toward the Clinton Campaign

    WikiLeaks, and particularly its founder Julian Assange, privately expressed opposition to candidate Clinton well before the first release of stolen documents. In November 2015, Assange wrote to other members and associates of WikiLeaks that “[w]e believe it would be much better for GOP to win . . . Dems+Media+liberals woudl [sic] then form a block to reign in their worst qualities. . . . With Hillary in charge, GOP will be pushing for her worst qualities., dems+media+neoliberals will be mute. . . . She’s a bright, well connected, sadisitic sociopath.”156 In March 2016, WikiLeaks released a searchable archive of approximately 30,000 Clinton emails that had been obtained through FOIA litigation.157 While designing the archive, one WikiLeaks member explained the reason for building the archive to another associate:
    -[W]e want this repository to become “the place” to search for background on hillary’s plotting at the state department during 2009-2013. . . . Firstly because its useful and will annoy Hillary, but secondly because we want to be seen to be a resource/player in the US election, because eit [sic] may en[]courage people to send us even more important leaks.

    b. WikiLeaks’s First Contact with Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks

    Shortly after the GRU’s first release of stolen documents through dcleaks.com in June 2016, GRU officers also used the DCLeaks persona to contact WikiLeaks about possible coordination in the future release of stolen emails. On June 14, 2016, @dcleaks_ sent a direct message to @WikiLeaks, noting, “You announced your organization was preparing to publish more Hillary’s emails. We are ready to support you. We have some sensitive information too, in particular, her financial documents. Let’s do it together. What do you think about publishing our info at the same moment? Thank you.”159 Investigative Technique Around the same time, WikiLeaks initiated communications with the GRU persona Guccifer 2.0 shortly after it was used to release documents stolen from the DNC. On June 22, 2016, seven days after Guccifer 2.0’s first releases of stolen DNC documents, WikiLeaks used Twitter’s direct message function to contact the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account and suggest that Guccifer 2.0 “[s]end any new material [stolen from the DNC] here for us to review and it will have a much higher impact than what you are doing.”160 On July 6, 2016, WikiLeaks again contacted Guccifer 2.0 through Twitter’s private messaging function, writing, “if you have anything hillary related we want it in the next tweo [sic] days prefable [sic] because the DNC is approaching and she will solidify bernie supporters behind her after.” The Guccifer 2.0 persona responded, “ok . . . i see.” WikiLeaks also explained, “we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary . . . so conflict between bernie and hillary is interesting.”

    c. The GRU’s Transfer of Stolen Materials to WikiLeaks

    Both the GRU and WikiLeaks sought to hide their communications, which has limited the Office’s ability to collect all of the communications between them. Thus, although it is clear that the stolen DNC and Podesta documents were transferred from the GRU to WikiLeaks, The Office was able to identify when the GRU (operating through its personas Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks) transferred some of the stolen documents to WikiLeaks through online archives set up by the GRU. Assange had access to the internet from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, England. 62 Investigative Technique On July 14, 2016, GRU officers used a Guccifer 2.0 email account to send WikiLeaks an email bearing the subject “big archive” and the message “a new attempt.”163 The email contained an encrypted attachment with the name “wk dnc link1.txt.gpg.”164 Using the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account, GRU officers sent WikiLeaks an encrypted file and instructions on how to open it.165 On July 18, 2016, WikiLeaks confirmed in a direct message to the Guccifer 2.0 account that it had “the 1Gb or so archive” and would make a release of the stolen documents “this week.”166 On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released over 20,000 emails and other documents stolen from the DNC computer networks.167 The Democratic National Convention began three days later. Similar communications occurred between WikiLeaks and the GRU-operated persona DCLeaks. On September 15, 2016, @dcleaks wrote to @WikiLeaks, “hi there! I'm from DC Leaks. How could we discuss some submission-related issues? Am trying to reach out to you via your secured chat but getting no response. I’ve got something that might interest you. You won't be disappointed, I promise.”168 The WikiLeaks account responded, “Hi there,” without further elaboration. The @dcleaks_ account did not respond immediately. The same day, the Twitter account @guccifer_2 sent @dcleaks_ a direct message, which is the first known contact between the personas.169 During subsequent communications, the Guccifer 2.0 persona informed DCLeaks that WikiLeaks was trying to contact DCLeaks and arrange for a way to speak through encrypted emails.170 An analysis of the metadata collected from the WikiLeaks site revealed that the stolen Podesta emails show a creation date of September 19, 2016.171 Based on information about Assange’s computer and its possible operating system, this date may be when the GRU staged the stolen Podesta emails for transfer to WikiLeaks (as the GRU had previously done in July 2016 for the DNC emails).172 The WikiLeaks site also released PDFs and other documents taken from Podesta that were attachments to emails in his account; these documents had a creation date of October 2, 2016, which appears to be the date the attachments were separately staged by WikiLeaks on its site.173 Beginning on September 20, 2016, WikiLeaks and DCLeaks resumed communications in a brief exchange. On September 22, 2016, a DCLeaks email account dcleaksproject@gmail.com sent an email to a WikiLeaks account with the subject “Submission” and the message “Hi from DCLeaks.” The email Investigative Technique contained a PGP-encrypted message with the filename “wiki_mail.txt.gpg.”174 The email, however, bears a number of similarities to the July 14, 2016 email in which GRU officers used the Guccifer 2.0 persona to give WikiLeaks access to the archive of DNC files. On September 22, 2016 (the same day of DCLeaks’ email to WikiLeaks), the Twitter account @dcleaks_ sent a single message to @WikiLeaks with the string of characters Investigative Technique The Office cannot rule out that stolen documents were transferred to WikiLeaks through intermediaries who visited during the summer of 2016. For example, public reporting identified Andrew Müller-Maguhn as a WikiLeaks associate who may have assisted with the transfer of these stolen documents to WikiLeaks

    On October 7, 2016, WikiLeaks released the first emails stolen from the Podesta email account. In total, WikiLeaks released 33 tranches of stolen emails between October 7, 2016 and November 7, 2016. The releases included private speeches given by Clinton;177 internal communications between Podesta and other high-ranking members of the Clinton Campaign;178 and correspondence related to the Clinton Foundation.179 In total, WikiLeaks released over 50,000 documents stolen from Podesta’s personal email account. The last-in-time email released from Podesta’s account was dated March 21, 2016, two days after Podesta received a spearphishing email sent by the GRU.

    d. WikiLeaks Statements Dissembling About the Source of Stolen Materials

    As reports attributing the DNC and DCCC hacks to the Russian government emerged, WikiLeaks and Assange made several public statements apparently designed to obscure the source of the materials that WikiLeaks was releasing. The file-transfer evidence described above and other information uncovered during the investigation discredit WikiLeaks’s claims about the source of material that it posted. Beginning in the summer of 2016, Assange and WikiLeaks made a number of statements about Seth Rich, a former DNC staff member who was killed in July 2016. The statements about Rich implied falsely that he had been the source of the stolen DNC emails. On August 9, 2016, the @WikiLeaks Twitter account posted: “ANNOUNCE: WikiLeaks has decided to issue a US$20k reward for information leading to conviction for the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich.”180 Likewise, on August 25, 2016, Assange was asked in an interview, “Why are you so interested in Seth Rich’s killer?” and responded, “We’re very interested in anything that might be a threat to alleged Wikileaks sources.” The interviewer responded to Assange’s statement by commenting, “I know you don’t want to reveal your source, but it certainly sounds like you’re suggesting a man who leaked information to WikiLeaks was then murdered.” Assange replied, “If there’s someone who’s potentially connected to our publication, and that person has been murdered in suspicious circumstances, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the two are connected. But it is a very serious matter…that type of allegation is very serious, as it’s taken very seriously by us.”181 After the U.S. intelligence community publicly announced its assessment that Russia was behind the hacking operation, Assange continued to deny that the Clinton materials released by WikiLeaks had come from Russian

    pop , in Why Are People Hating on Julian Assange?

    If you go against Russia/China/North Korea/Iran/India, they send a hitman to assassinate you. If you go against US and its allies, they assassinate your character first and you die in an accident in the prison with the camera footage missing.

    And this is if you are actually somewhat popular, if not there are a tons of black sites they where they do Russia/China/North Korea/India shit and their populace will deflect how they are more humane like their life depends on it.

    PapaStevesy ,

    Just so you know, this comment reads like you really like Jeffrey Epstein and you think he was set up...

    blahsay , in Why Are People Hating on Julian Assange?

    Because propaganda works.

    • The USA created some thoroughly disproven 'rape' charges (it was never a rape charge but that was the media reporting and most people don't read beyond headlines).

    • Classic painting of him as a traitor. We have 'evidence' you can't see that he works for [insert enemy here]

    athos77 , in Why Are People Hating on Julian Assange?

    I found the multiple allegations of rape to be credible. I don't support rapists.

    NOT_RICK , in Why Are People Hating on Julian Assange?
    @NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

    “We had several leaks sent to Wikileaks, including the Russian hack. It would have exposed Russian activities and shown WikiLeaks was not controlled by Russian security services,” the source who provided the messages wrote to FP. “Many Wikileaks staff and volunteers or their families suffered at the hands of Russian corruption and cruelty, we were sure Wikileaks would release it. Assange gave excuse after excuse.”

    Because obvious Russian asset is obvious.

    Here’s the full story

    xor ,

    according to chat messages and a source who provided the records.

    if you're going to pretend like that's solid proof, then you're the asset.

    assange did also mention that they were reluctant to publish russian documents because russia isn't reluctant to assassinate people

    Bipta ,

    russia isn’t reluctant to assassinate people

    Look at me, I care about human freedoms so much that my life is more important, so I'll help Russia to paint a skewed picture instead.

    xor ,

    so I'll help Russia to paint a skewed picture instead.

    nice try, shilly... but there's a huge difference between "reluctant to get killed by russia" and "helping them paint a skewed picture"

    btw, the DNC leaks were not from a russian hacker, they were from Seth Rich, who was killed for it.

    also, america was off limits for many years for similar reasons.
    and they're still in the process of extraditing him to slowly kill him in prison

    NOT_RICK ,
    @NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

    You are aware that people can disagree with your conclusions without being a shill, right? Seth Rich’s parents would also like you to stop disrespecting his memory by saying he was murdered by the DNC, they even refute he was the DNC email leaker.

    xor ,

    if you made any sense in your "disagreement" other than vitriolic repetition of easily discredited lies, well then i'd consider you might not be a shill.

    the DNC leaks were an inside job. This was proven forensically by Bill Binny, an NSA whistleblower...
    Seth Rich fit the MO and was murdered shortly thereafter by people that didn't take anything... killed, not robbed...

    it could've been not him, but there's a lot more reason to think it was him over russian hackers... or are you really taking the government's word on leaks about the government?

    his parents would have no way of knowing any better than me, so i don't see how that's relevant...

    NOT_RICK ,
    @NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

    Bill Benny, Trump Qult member, enthusiastically refutes reports that exonerates the DNC of murder. Shocking. You accuse me of taking the government’s word when you’re taking the word of someone with an agenda. I mention Seth’s parents because they have a a vested interest in finding out the truth of what happened to their son and their conclusion is the DNC leaker conspiracy theory is a a load of bullshit.

    https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252445769/Briton-ran-pro-Kremlin-disinformation-campaign-that-helped-Trump-deny-Russian-links

    A month after visiting CIA headquarters, Binney came to Britain. After re-examining the data in Guccifer 2.0 files thoroughly with the author of this article, Binney changed his mind. He said there was “no evidence to prove where the download/copy was done”. The Guccifer 2.0 files analysed by Leonard’s g-2.space were “manipulated”, he said, and a “fabrication”.

    xor ,

    Bill Benny, Trump Qult member

    big claims

    NOT_RICK ,
    @NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

    That part’s far less relevant than when he admitted he had no means of assessing the source of the guccifer leaks when he reexamined the docs.

    xor ,

    cool story bro

    Emmy ,

    Truthfully it was also articles about them releasing DNC hacks but refusing to do rnc hacks that seemed most obvious to me.

    At best they're extremely partisan at worst they are a Russian asset.

    xor ,

    refusing to do rnc hacks

    no they did not! they never had leaks from the RNC and as such, could not release it.
    you know they don't do any hacking, right?
    people (usually whistleblowers) leak info to wikiLEAKS, and then they verify it and publish it.
    they would love to do rnc leaks if they had that information...

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