#Direct selling software Company | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mlmsoftware-india-blog · 2 years ago

Text

Strategies for managing your MLM business while working a full-time job

Are you struggling to balance your MLM business with a full-time job? Do you feel like there's not enough time in the day to give your network marketing venture the attention it deserves? You're not alone. Many people face this challenge when launching their MLM businesses, but don't worry! We've got you covered.

In this blog post, we will share some effective strategies for managing your MLM business while working full-time. From prioritizing tasks to making the most of your downtime, we'll show you how to grow your business without sacrificing your career or personal life. Let's dive in!

What is an MLM?

An MLM is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate but also for the sales of the other members of their team. It can be a very effective way to build a business, but it can also be difficult to manage an MLM business while working a full-time job.

Overview of MLM and Working a Full-Time Job

MLM, or multi-level marketing, is a type of direct selling in which salespeople are not only compensated for their own sales but also for the sales of the people they recruit. This structure can create an additional stream of income, which can be especially helpful if you're already working a full-time job.

Like any business venture, there are both pros and cons to MLM. On the plus side, it can be a great way to earn some extra money and improve your work-life balance. On the downside, it can be time-consuming and may require you to invest money in order to see results.

Before getting started with MLM, it's important to do your research and understand the risks and potential rewards. Once you're ready to get started, be sure to set realistic goals and create a solid plan for success.

Here are some tips for managing your MLM business while working a full-time job:

1. Make time for your MLM business. Even if you only have a few hours each week, make sure you dedicate some time to working on your MLM business. You'll need to stay organized and keep on top of your customers and team members.

2. Keep your day job and your MLM business separate. Don't try to do both at the same time. Dedicate specific days or hours to work on your MLM business so you can give it the attention it deserves.

3. Delegate tasks whenever possible. You don't have to do everything yourself! If you have team members, delegate tasks to them so you can focus on generating sales and growing your customer base.

4. Stay focused and motivated. It can be easy to get discouraged when you're trying to manage an MLM business while working a full-time job, but it's important to stay focused and motivated. Remember why you started your MLM business in the first place, and keep that goal in mind as you work towards building an empire.

What are the benefits of an MLM business?

There are many benefits to running an MLM business. One of the biggest advantages is that you can do it from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. All you need is a phone and a computer. You can also set your own hours and work as much or as little as you want.

Another big advantage of MLM businesses is that they often have low start-up costs, and this makes them a great option for people who don't have a lot of money to invest in a new business. Additionally, many MLM businesses offer generous commissions and bonuses, which can help you earn a lot of money if you're successful in building your team.

How to manage your MLM business while working a full-time job

There are a few strategies you can implement to manage your MLM business while working a full-time job.

1. Set aside time each day to work on your business. This could be first thing in the morning before you go to work or after you get home from work. Just make sure you have some dedicated time each day to work on your business.

2. Automate as much as possible. There are many ways to automate your business, from social media to email marketing. The more you can automate, the less time you will need to spend working on your business each day.

3. Delegate and outsource when possible. You don’t have to do everything yourself! If there are tasks that someone else can do just as well (or better), delegate them or outsource them. This will free up more of your time to focus on the important tasks that only you can do.

By following these tips, you can easily manage your MLM business while working a full-time job.

Time management tips for MLM success

If you are working a full-time job and managing an MLM business, time management is key to your success. Here are some tips to help you manage your time and grow your business:

1. Set aside dedicated time each week to work on your MLM business. Whether it's an hour each day or a few hours on the weekend, make sure you have time set aside specifically for your business. This will help you stay focused and avoid getting overwhelmed.

2. Use technology to your advantage. There are a number of great online tools that can help you manage your time and business more efficiently. Utilize these tools to save yourself time and energy.

3. Delegate tasks whenever possible. If there are tasks that someone else can handle, delegate them! This will free up more of your time to focus on the important things.

4. Keep a positive attitude and stay motivated. It can be easy to get bogged down when managing both a full-time job and an MLM business, but it's important to stay positive and keep your eye on the prize. Remind yourself why you're doing this and what your goals are regularly to stay motivated.

Setting and achieving goals

Working a full-time job and running an MLM business can be challenging. Here are some tips for setting and achieving goals so you can successfully manage both:

1. Set realistic goals for your MLM business. Don't try to do too much at once, or you'll quickly become overwhelmed. Break down your goals into smaller, more manageable pieces and focus on one thing at a time.

2. Create a schedule and stick to it. When you're working a full-time job, it's important to be organized and have a set schedule for your MLM business, and this will help you stay on track and avoid getting behind.

3. Delegate tasks when possible. You can't do everything yourself, so delegate tasks to others in your team or hire someone to help you with the administrative side of things. This will free up your time so you can focus on more important tasks.

4. Take advantage of technology. There are many online tools and resources available that can help you run your MLM business more efficiently. Utilize these tools to save yourself time and energy.

5. Stay motivated and positive. It's easy to get bogged down when you're trying to juggle two businesses, but it's important to stay positive and focused on your goals. Find ways to stay motivated, such as setting weekly or monthly targets, so you can continue moving forward in spite of any challenges that come up

Conclusion

While working a full-time job can be a challenge, there are several strategies you can use to manage your MLM business successfully. First, it's important to have a clear overview of your business goals and objectives. This will help you prioritize your time and stay on track. Additionally, try to set aside some time each week to work on your business, even if it's just a few hours. You can also use technology to your advantage by setting up automated tasks and using online tools to stay organized. Finally, don't forget to take some time for yourself and maintain a healthy work-life balance. By following these tips, you can successfully manage your MLM business while working a full-time job.

#mlm business #mlm software #mlm companies #best mlm #mlm leads #mlm lead generation #mlm #network marketing business #network marketing companies #network marketing leads #network marketing #direct selling

0 notes

mlm-business-consultant · 2 years ago

Text

Uncovering the Truth Behind MLM Products: A Deep Dive

Multi-level marketing (MLM) companies have become increasingly popular in recent years, with many individuals turning to these companies as a way to earn extra income or even build a full-time business. MLM companies sell a wide range of products, from health and beauty products to supplements and more. However, despite their growing popularity, there is often a lack of transparency surrounding MLM companies and their products. In this article, we will take a deep dive into the world of MLM products, examining the structure of these companies, investigating the claims they make about their products, analyzing the potential financial benefits and drawbacks of participating in an MLM and evaluating the long-term sustainability of the MLM model and its products. By the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of the truth behind MLM products, and be able to make more informed decisions about whether to participate in an MLM or purchase its products.

Understanding the structure of MLM companies and their products

Multi-level marketing (MLM) companies, also known as direct selling companies, are structured in a unique way that differs from traditional retail businesses. The main characteristic of an MLM is that it relies on a network of independent salespeople, or "distributors," to sell its products. These distributors are not employees of the company, but rather work as independent contractors who earn a commission on their sales as well as a percentage of the sales made by the people they recruit into the company. This creates a hierarchical structure, with distributors at the top earning a commission on the sales made by those they have recruited, and so on down the line.

The products sold by MLM companies can vary widely, from health and beauty products to home goods, supplements, and more. The products are often marketed as high-quality and unique and may be more expensive than similar products found in traditional retail stores.

The structure of MLM companies and their products is important to understand because it has a major impact on how the products are marketed and sold. MLM companies rely on their network of distributors to promote and sell their products, rather than traditional advertising methods. This can lead to a lack of transparency about the products and their prices, as well as potential pressure on distributors to buy and sell large amounts of products in order to be successful. Additionally, the hierarchical structure of MLM companies can create a sense of pressure to recruit others in order to make more money, which can lead to a focus on recruitment over actual product sales.

Understanding the structure of MLM companies and their products is crucial for consumers to make informed decisions about whether to purchase and promote these products, and also for individuals considering participating in an MLM as a distributor.

Investigating the claims made by MLM companies about their products

When it comes to investigating the claims made by MLM companies about their products, it's important to approach them with a healthy dose of skepticism. MLM companies often make bold claims about the benefits of their products, such as claiming they can cure illnesses, improve overall health, or even make you rich. However, it's important to remember that these companies are in business to make money, and their primary goal is to sell their products.

One way to investigate the claims made by MLM companies is to research the products independently. This can include looking into the ingredients used in the products and researching their effectiveness, as well as checking for any potential side effects or warnings issued by regulatory bodies. Additionally, it's important to look for independent reviews of the products, rather than just relying on testimonials provided by the company or its distributors.

Another important aspect to investigate is the scientific evidence supporting the claims made by MLM companies. Many times, these companies will make claims that are not supported by scientific evidence or are based on small and inconclusive studies. So, it is important to look for scientific studies that were conducted by reputable organizations and were peer-reviewed.

It's also important to investigate the financial claims made by MLM companies, such as promises of high earnings or easy success. MLM companies often use flashy income disclosures or testimonials from successful distributors to lure in new participants, but it's important to remember that these examples are not representative of the average distributor's experience. It's also important to investigate the company's income disclosure statement and look into the success rates of its distributors.

In summary, investigating the claims made by MLM companies about their products requires research and critical thinking. Consumers and potential distributors should be aware of the potential biases and vested interests of the company and approach the claims made by MLM companies with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Evaluating the long-term sustainability of the MLM model and its products.

Evaluating the long-term sustainability of the Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) model and its products is important for understanding the potential risks and benefits of participating in an MLM as a distributor or purchasing its products. The MLM model has been around for decades, but the long-term sustainability of individual companies and the industry as a whole is often called into question.

One aspect to consider when evaluating the long-term sustainability of an MLM is the company's financial stability. MLM companies that have a history of financial difficulties, such as frequent changes in ownership or a high turnover rate of executives, may not be as sustainable in the long term. Additionally, it's important to look at the company's track record of product innovation and development, as companies that are unable to adapt and evolve may struggle to survive in the long term.

Another important aspect to consider is the saturation of the market. MLM companies often rely on recruiting new distributors in order to sell their products, but as the market becomes saturated, it can become increasingly difficult to recruit new distributors. This can lead to a decline in sales and ultimately the collapse of the company.

The legal and regulatory environment also plays a role in the long-term sustainability of the MLM model. In recent years, there has been increased scrutiny of the MLM industry by regulatory bodies, and there have been several high-profile cases of MLM companies facing legal action for deceptive business practices. It's important to keep an eye on the company's legal compliance and regulatory environment to understand the risks and potential challenges the company may face in the future.

Finally, it's important to consider the ethical concerns surrounding the MLM model. The focus on recruitment over actual product sales can lead to a pyramid-like structure where the majority of the profits are earned by a small number of individuals at the top, while the majority of the participants earn little or nothing. This can lead to a lack of transparency and a lack of trust in the company and its products, which can ultimately harm its long-term sustainability.

In conclusion, evaluating the long-term sustainability of the MLM model and its products requires careful examination of the company's financial stability, market saturation, legal and regulatory environment, and ethical concerns. This can help individuals make informed decisions about whether to participate in an MLM or purchase its products.

#mlm products manufacturer #mlm companies #direct selling products #mlm #mlm software

1 note · View note

mostlysignssomeportents · 15 days ago

Text

Conspiratorialism as a material phenomenon

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

I think it behooves us to be a little skeptical of stories about AI driving people to believe wrong things and commit ugly actions. Not that I like the AI slop that is filling up our social media, but when we look at the ways that AI is harming us, slop is pretty low on the list.

The real AI harms come from the actual things that AI companies sell AI to do. There's the AI gun-detector gadgets that the credulous Mayor Eric Adams put in NYC subways, which led to 2,749 invasive searches and turned up zero guns:

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nycs-subway-weapons-detector-pilot-program-ends/

Any time AI is used to predict crime – predictive policing, bail determinations, Child Protective Services red flags – they magnify the biases already present in these systems, and, even worse, they give this bias the veneer of scientific neutrality. This process is called "empiricism-washing," and you know you're experiencing it when you hear some variation on "it's just math, math can't be racist":

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/23/cryptocidal-maniacs/#phrenology

When AI is used to replace customer service representatives, it systematically defrauds customers, while providing an "accountability sink" that allows the company to disclaim responsibility for the thefts:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs

When AI is used to perform high-velocity "decision support" that is supposed to inform a "human in the loop," it quickly overwhelms its human overseer, who takes on the role of "moral crumple zone," pressing the "OK" button as fast as they can. This is bad enough when the sacrificial victim is a human overseeing, say, proctoring software that accuses remote students of cheating on their tests:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#cheating-anticheat

But it's potentially lethal when the AI is a transcription engine that doctors have to use to feed notes to a data-hungry electronic health record system that is optimized to commit health insurance fraud by seeking out pretenses to "upcode" a patient's treatment. Those AIs are prone to inventing things the doctor never said, inserting them into the record that the doctor is supposed to review, but remember, the only reason the AI is there at all is that the doctor is being asked to do so much paperwork that they don't have time to treat their patients:

https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-health-business-90020cdf5fa16c79ca2e5b6c4c9bbb14

My point is that "worrying about AI" is a zero-sum game. When we train our fire on the stuff that isn't important to the AI stock swindlers' business-plans (like creating AI slop), we should remember that the AI companies could halt all of that activity and not lose a dime in revenue. By contrast, when we focus on AI applications that do the most direct harm – policing, health, security, customer service – we also focus on the AI applications that make the most money and drive the most investment.

AI hasn't attracted hundreds of billions in investment capital because investors love AI slop. All the money pouring into the system – from investors, from customers, from easily gulled big-city mayors – is chasing things that AI is objectively very bad at and those things also cause much more harm than AI slop. If you want to be a good AI critic, you should devote the majority of your focus to these applications. Sure, they're not as visually arresting, but discrediting them is financially arresting, and that's what really matters.

All that said: AI slop is real, there is a lot of it, and just because it doesn't warrant priority over the stuff AI companies actually sell, it still has cultural significance and is worth considering.

AI slop has turned Facebook into an anaerobic lagoon of botshit, just the laziest, grossest engagement bait, much of it the product of rise-and-grind spammers who avidly consume get rich quick "courses" and then churn out a torrent of "shrimp Jesus" and fake chainsaw sculptures:

https://www.404media.co/email/1cdf7620-2e2f-4450-9cd9-e041f4f0c27f/

For poor engagement farmers in the global south chasing the fractional pennies that Facebook shells out for successful clickbait, the actual content of the slop is beside the point. These spammers aren't necessarily tuned into the psyche of the wealthy-world Facebook users who represent Meta's top monetization subjects. They're just trying everything and doubling down on anything that moves the needle, A/B splitting their way into weird, hyper-optimized, grotesque crap:

https://www.404media.co/facebook-is-being-overrun-with-stolen-ai-generated-images-that-people-think-are-real/

In other words, Facebook's AI spammers are laying out a banquet of arbitrary possibilities, like the letters on a Ouija board, and the Facebook users' clicks and engagement are a collective ideomotor response, moving the algorithm's planchette to the options that tug hardest at our collective delights (or, more often, disgusts).

So, rather than thinking of AI spammers as creating the ideological and aesthetic trends that drive millions of confused Facebook users into condemning, praising, and arguing about surreal botshit, it's more true to say that spammers are discovering these trends within their subjects' collective yearnings and terrors, and then refining them by exploring endlessly ramified variations in search of unsuspected niches.

(If you know anything about AI, this may remind you of something: a Generative Adversarial Network, in which one bot creates variations on a theme, and another bot ranks how closely the variations approach some ideal. In this case, the spammers are the generators and the Facebook users they evince reactions from are the discriminators)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_network

I got to thinking about this today while reading User Mag, Taylor Lorenz's superb newsletter, and her reporting on a new AI slop trend, "My neighbor’s ridiculous reason for egging my car":

https://www.usermag.co/p/my-neighbors-ridiculous-reason-for

The "egging my car" slop consists of endless variations on a story in which the poster (generally a figure of sympathy, canonically a single mother of newborn twins) complains that her awful neighbor threw dozens of eggs at her car to punish her for parking in a way that blocked his elaborate Hallowe'en display. The text is accompanied by an AI-generated image showing a modest family car that has been absolutely plastered with broken eggs, dozens upon dozens of them.

According to Lorenz, variations on this slop are topping very large Facebook discussion forums totalling millions of users, like "Movie Character…,USA Story, Volleyball Women, Top Trends, Love Style, and God Bless." These posts link to SEO sites laden with programmatic advertising.

The funnel goes:

i. Create outrage and hence broad reach;

ii, A small percentage of those who see the post will click through to the SEO site;

iii. A small fraction of those users will click a low-quality ad;

iv. The ad will pay homeopathic sub-pennies to the spammer.

The revenue per user on this kind of scam is next to nothing, so it only works if it can get very broad reach, which is why the spam is so designed for engagement maximization. The more discussion a post generates, the more users Facebook recommends it to.

These are very effective engagement bait. Almost all AI slop gets some free engagement in the form of arguments between users who don't know they're commenting an AI scam and people hectoring them for falling for the scam. This is like the free square in the middle of a bingo card.

Beyond that, there's multivalent outrage: some users are furious about food wastage; others about the poor, victimized "mother" (some users are furious about both). Not only do users get to voice their fury at both of these imaginary sins, they can also argue with one another about whether, say, food wastage even matters when compared to the petty-minded aggression of the "perpetrator." These discussions also offer lots of opportunity for violent fantasies about the bad guy getting a comeuppance, offers to travel to the imaginary AI-generated suburb to dole out a beating, etc. All in all, the spammers behind this tedious fiction have really figured out how to rope in all kinds of users' attention.

Of course, the spammers don't get much from this. There isn't such a thing as an "attention economy." You can't use attention as a unit of account, a medium of exchange or a store of value. Attention – like everything else that you can't build an economy upon, such as cryptocurrency – must be converted to money before it has economic significance. Hence that tooth-achingly trite high-tech neologism, "monetization."

The monetization of attention is very poor, but AI is heavily subsidized or even free (for now), so the largest venture capital and private equity funds in the world are spending billions in public pension money and rich peoples' savings into CO2 plumes, GPUs, and botshit so that a bunch of hustle-culture weirdos in the Pacific Rim can make a few dollars by tricking people into clicking through engagement bait slop – twice.

The slop isn't the point of this, but the slop does have the useful function of making the collective ideomotor response visible and thus providing a peek into our hopes and fears. What does the "egging my car" slop say about the things that we're thinking about?

Lorenz cites Jamie Cohen, a media scholar at CUNY Queens, who points out that subtext of this slop is "fear and distrust in people about their neighbors." Cohen predicts that "the next trend, is going to be stranger and more violent.”

This feels right to me. The corollary of mistrusting your neighbors, of course, is trusting only yourself and your family. Or, as Margaret Thatcher liked to say, "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families."

We are living in the tail end of a 40 year experiment in structuring our world as though "there is no such thing as society." We've gutted our welfare net, shut down or privatized public services, all but abolished solidaristic institutions like unions.

This isn't mere aesthetics: an atomized society is far more hospitable to extreme wealth inequality than one in which we are all in it together. When your power comes from being a "wise consumer" who "votes with your wallet," then all you can do about the climate emergency is buy a different kind of car – you can't build the public transit system that will make cars obsolete.

When you "vote with your wallet" all you can do about animal cruelty and habitat loss is eat less meat. When you "vote with your wallet" all you can do about high drug prices is "shop around for a bargain." When you vote with your wallet, all you can do when your bank forecloses on your home is "choose your next lender more carefully."

Most importantly, when you vote with your wallet, you cast a ballot in an election that the people with the thickest wallets always win. No wonder those people have spent so long teaching us that we can't trust our neighbors, that there is no such thing as society, that we can't have nice things. That there is no alternative.

The commercial surveillance industry really wants you to believe that they're good at convincing people of things, because that's a good way to sell advertising. But claims of mind-control are pretty goddamned improbable – everyone who ever claimed to have managed the trick was lying, from Rasputin to MK-ULTRA:

https://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism

Rather than seeing these platforms as convincing people of things, we should understand them as discovering and reinforcing the ideology that people have been driven to by material conditions. Platforms like Facebook show us to one another, let us form groups that can imperfectly fill in for the solidarity we're desperate for after 40 years of "no such thing as society."

The most interesting thing about "egging my car" slop is that it reveals that so many of us are convinced of two contradictory things: first, that everyone else is a monster who will turn on you for the pettiest of reasons; and second, that we're all the kind of people who would stick up for the victims of those monsters.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

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/2024/10/29/hobbesian-slop/#cui-bono

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #taylor lorenz #conspiratorialism #conspiracy fantasy #mind control #a paradise built in hell #solnit #ai slop #ai #disinformation #materialism #doppelganger #naomi klein

297 notes · View notes

autolenaphilia · 1 year ago

Text

The main reason to use Firefox and Linux and other free and open source software is that otherwise the big tech monopolies will fuck you as the customer over in search of profits. They will seek to control how you use their products and sell your data. When a company dominates the market, things can only get worse for ordinary people.

Like take Google Chrome for example, which together with its chromium reskins dominate the web browser market. Google makes a lot of money from ads, and consequently the company hates adblockers. They already are planning to move to manifest V3, which will nerf adblockers significantly. The manifest V3 compatible chrome version of Ublock Orgin is a "Lite" version for a reason. Ublock's Github page has an entire page explaining why the addon works best in Firefox.

And Google as we speak are trying to block adblockers from working on Youtube, If you want to continue blocking Youtube ads, and since Youtube ads make the site unuseable you ought to want that, it makes the most sense to not use a browser controlled by Google.

And there is no reason to think things won't get worse. There is for example nothing stopping Google from kicking adblockers off their add-on stores completely. They do regard it as basically piracy if the youtube pop-ups tell us anything, so updating the Chrome extensions terms of service to ban adblocking is a natural step. And so many people seem to think Chrome is the only browser that exists, so they are not going to switch to alternatives, or if they do, they will switch to another chrominum-based browser.

And again, they are fucking chromium itself for adblockers with Manifest V3, so only Firefox remains as a viable alternative. It's the only alternative to letting Google control the internet.

And Microsoft is the same thing. I posted before about their plans to move Windows increasingly into the cloud. This already exists for corporate customers, as Windows 365. And a version for ordinary users is probably not far off. It might not be the only version of Windows for awhile, the lack of solid internet access for a good part of the Earth's population will prevent it. But you'll probably see cheap very low-spec chromebookesque laptops running Windows for sale soon, that gets around Windows 11's obscene system requirements by their Windows being a cloud-based version.

And more and more of Windows will require Internet access or validation for DRM reasons if nothing else. Subscription fees instead of a one-time license are also likely. It will just be Windows moving in the direction Microsoft Office has already gone.

There is nothing preventing this, because again on the desktop/laptop market Windows is effectively a monopoly, or a duopoly with Apple. So there is no competition preventing Microsoft from exercising control over Windows users in the vein of Apple.

For example, Microsoft making Windows a walled garden by only permitting programs to be installed from the Microsoft Store probably isn't far off. This already exists for Win10 and 11, it's called S-mode. There seem to be more and more laptops being sold with Windows S-mode as the default.

Now it's not the only option, and you can turn it off with some tinkering, but there is really nothing stopping Microsoft from making it the only way of using Windows. And customers will probably accept it, because again the main competition is Apple where the walled garden has been the default for decades.

Customers have already accepted all sorts of bad things from Microsoft, because again Windows is a near-monopoly, and Apple and Google are even worse. That’s why there has been no major negative reaction to how Windows has increasingly spies on its users.

Another thing is how the system requirements for Windows seem to grow almost exponentially with each edition, making still perfectly useable computers unable to run the new edition. And Windows 11 is the worst yet. Like it's hard to get the numbers of how many computers running Win10 can't upgrade to Win11, but it's probably the majority of them, at least 55% or maybe even 75%. This has the effect of Windows users abandoning still perfectly useable hardware and buying new computers, creating more e-waste.

For Windows users, the alternative Windows gives them is to buy a new computer or get another operating system, and inertia pushes them towards buying another computer to keep using Windows. This is good for Windows and the hardware manufacturers selling computers with Windows 11 pre-installed, they get to profit off people buying Windows 11 keys and new computers, while the end-users have to pay, as does the environment. It’s planned obsolescence.

And it doesn’t have to be like that. Linux distros prove that you can have a modern operating system that has far lower hardware requirements. Even the most resource taxing Linux distros, like for example Ubuntu running the Gnome desktop, have far more modest system requirements than modern Windows. And you can always install lightweight Linux Distros that often have very low system requirements. One I have used is Antix. The ballooning Windows system requirements comes across as pure bloat on Microsoft’s part.

Now neither Linux or Firefox are perfect. Free and open source software don’t have a lot of the polish that comes with the proprietary products of major corporations. And being in competition with technology monopolies does have its drawbacks. The lacking website compatibility with Firefox and game compatibility with Linux are two obvious examples.

Yet Firefox and Linux have the capacity to grow, to become better. Being open source helps. Even if Firefox falls, developers can create a fork of it. If a Linux distro is not to your taste, there is usually another one. Whereas Windows and Chrome will only get worse as they will continue to abuse their monopolistic powers over the tech market.

#my writings #mozilla firefox #google chrome #microsoft windows #linux #open source #foss

831 notes · View notes

spaghettioverdose · 4 months ago

Note

regarding your recent posts on petit bougeoisie, one thing ive never managed to understand is how someone like an independent digital artist isnt considered to be selling their labour. in that scenario there is nothing they own that is making them more capable of making artworks, as they could fairly easily just be working off of a library computer or something, and what they’re selling is basicaly just the time and skill they’ve invested into producing their clients request. so besides the fact that they arnt being paid hourly and are instead charging based on how much work they’ve done, i dont really understand how they’re not considered to be selling their labour?

with something like a carpenter selling chairs or something i can more understand it as theres at least a physical thing being owned with the wood, and another being sold with the chairs, but even there it still seems like a stretch to say they’re not selling their labour at least in part, as the increased price of the chair compared to the wood is due to the work the carpeter put into sculpting it.

so far any reading ive done has been only really adressing small buisness owners who employ others and not really touching fully independent people working off of commisions or similar models of buisness, so im hoping you can clarify this for me or direct me to somewhere that does

Firstly, a clarification: a worker is not selling their labour, but rather their labour power. In some of the earlier works by Marx and Engles, they talk about selling their labour, which is later corrected to labour power. This is a more precise and useful term. When we refer to selling labour power, we are talking about the worker selling their ability to work for a given amount of hours in exchange for a wage. The worker who builds phones in a factory does not sell phones to the capitalist and their are not paid per phone. They are paid per hour. What is being purchased is their ability to work during those hours.

According to the formulation of labour in your ask, essentially everyone would be proletarian. In all commodities, regardless of who produces them and how they are made, the labour hours used to create them are factored into the price.

When it comes to independent artists, they are putting their labour power into the commodity (regardless if it is physical or digital) that their are selling, rather than selling the labour power itself. When an artist makes art in exchange for patreon money or doing comissions, the commodity that they are selling is the piece of art that they have made, rather than their labour power. They also receive income in the form of profits and not wages. This is in contrast with, for example, a digital artist who works for a AAA games company and is paid a wage for their ability to produce a certain amount of art per hour, rather than the piece of art itself.

In theory you could be an independent digital artist as someone who draws with a mouse on mspaint at a library computers and perhaps someone has done this before, but it is absolutely not how independent digital artists tend to operate. In reality, an independent digital artist is someone who owns a set of tools (copy of art software, computer, drawing tablet etc.) which act as the means of production when they produce a commodity (a piece of art that they intend to sell). When they invest their money into their further ability to produce more commodities (buying better software or hardware for example), that money acts as capital.

If I misinterpreted any part of your ask, please let me know.

As far as reading recommendations, and assuming that you have read Wage Labour and Capital, I would recommend Value, Price and Profit which touches more on this.

#asks

37 notes · View notes

redactedshapes · 9 months ago

Text

Privacy Focused web recommendations

Webhosting:

If you don't mind doing your own HTML/CSS

NearlyFreeSpeech.net is a dirt cheap web hosting service

It has NO BULLSHIT discounts for paying three years upfront and then charging you a stupid amount of money or anything like that (I've had my website hosted there for some time now, it's a learning curve if you're used to software like wordpress.org - you need to use the command line maybe a couple times and then not anymore, but THE HEADACHE IS WORTH IT)

Publii is a free blogging software

That you install on your computer, write your blog posts and then it uploads it to your site. It's a static blog software. So much more lightweight than wordpress.org - obviously it has a lot less options but if all you need is basic blogging/archival of posts, then it'll do the job just fine.

FOR FREE, PRIVACY FOCUSED EMAIL AND CLOUD SERVICES

DISROOT.ORG

They offer email, cloud folders (like dropbox) and even their own instance of the fediverse, and so many other services.

I cannot recommend these people enough. They're a handful of volunteers just as fed up with all the privacy violations perpetuated by every big web company.

They offer everything for free.

If you give them a chance I urge you to please send them donations (as I do every year).

If you want a more "stable" or "reliable" email service:

I've been using Mailbox.org for many, may years now for my main email. Their UI is quite obtuse, but with a nice looking desktop email client that's no issue.

None of these websites show you ads of any kind and they don't sell or share any your data.

I've been using all of these for some time now and I'll be happy to respond any questions or point you in the right direction if you run into problems while using them. Just bear in mind I've given up on using wordpress.org or any other php/dynamic software, I did the move to static-only content for over a year now.

66 notes · View notes

viewwrangler · 4 months ago

Text

I mean ... that's an interesting approach, to put it mildly

CrowdStrike to vendors: Sorry for the global tech outage. Here’s a $10 Uber Eats voucher Analysis by Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN Updated 7:17 PM EDT, Wed July 24, 2024

A single CrowdStrike bug sent the entire tech world into chaos last week — a snafu some companies (see: Delta) are still recovering from. Third-party agents selling and supporting CrowdStrike software and the complicated repairs for customers have been a miserably busy bunch over the past week.

CrowdStrike’s token of appreciation for those vendors: a $10 Uber Eats voucher. We’re not kidding....

We finally know what caused the global tech outage - and how much it cost By Brian Fung, CNN 4 minute read Updated 7:30 PM EDT, Wed July 24, 2024

Insurers have begun calculating the financial damage caused by last week’s devastating CrowdStrike software glitch that crashed computers, canceled flights and disrupted hospitals all around the globe — and the picture isn’t pretty.

What’s been described as the largest IT outage in history will cost Fortune 500 companies alone more than $5 billion in direct losses, according to one insurer’s analysis of the incident published Wednesday.

The new figures put into stark relief how a single automated software update brought much of the global economy to a sudden halt — revealing the world’s overwhelming dependence on a key cybersecurity company — and what it will take to recover....

And that's only the Fortune 500 they're talking about. There are myriad smaller businesses that use Crowdstrike that were affected as well. The companies hit by the buggy release were also far broader than just the "tech world".

Not sure that an Uber Eats coupon will be regarded as sufficient recompense for a week that could have cost millions of dollars, somehow.

#crowdstrike #uber eats

25 notes · View notes

scarefox · 30 days ago

Text

Signed up to watch a 2h speech / presentation I need to attend... BUT it is online via zoom so I don't have to go outside and can sit on my couch in a blanket and drink coffe!

It's about new AI laws and legally save AI software... I need to know this as graphics designer 😔

---

lol started with a AI animated avatar / deepfake of himself that totally looked AI because the hand movements didn't match what he said.

Oh no, he is a Zuckerberg fanboy.

This is going to be fun. (probably will get pissed along the way tho)

But they have some lawyers there to answer questions. Yay Christian Solmecke is there too (popular german media lawyer on yt)

---

so far: unlike human made work, AI generated artwork or designs are not copyrighted (in germany) AND if the AI piece is based on an existing human made work and it's still visible in the AI piece you need to get the copyright from the original owner / creator (includes designs, logos, images, text and music)

Copyright owner can opt-out and sue if it's still gets used for AI training / generation (american laws aren't finished yet but also will go into that direction)

---

They test different AI software to give out a little comic scenario. And oh boy as a graphic designer with knowledge about typography the text is triggering me so hard. It's so bad. SEE alone typography is an area that can't be made by a machine because even tho it is based on design laws it's still an intuitive human-eye based way of design. There is a difference between mathematical-centered and optical-centered.

---

Man they are all so horny for AI and reduction of jobs and costs.... But no matter how good an AI could generate an image or video... it will never give you the raw files where you can do individual changes afterwards.

Besides that I still think humanity isn't ready yet for the power and options AI is giving us. (at least one of the very high quality AI builders isn't selling it atm because they are afraid that it will get misused for fake news and stuff, so they try to find a way to prevent that before they bring it on the market)

So many creative jobs and professions that will die out just for us to get 100% digital made "creative" content and advertisements :/ (so far even the most high quality AI still has some small uncanny vibe). Like even actors will be replaced in the future... all they need to do is allow companies to use their face / body.... there is literally a Black Mirror episode about that.

Reminds me of that one AI kpop idol project I have seen last year on tiktok.... absolutely creepy and wrong. I know some of us are simping over anime, game or vocaloid characters but... man idk, do yall want to simp over uncanny digital kpop idols who don't even exist nor actually work for their skills and talent? 💀 Being into an idol is not just about the visuals and songs, it's about their personality and individuality.... for me at least.... (but of course the kpop industry is one of the first trying this). I do like Taemin for example beacuse he's breaking out of the industry norms. AI dude could never be on his level.

---

"Amazing. In a company in the US a CEO told us that with the use of an AI they could remove 700 jobs and save so much money!"

.... yeah cool. Maybe we should remove ALL jobs on this earth and let AI do it, so we humans don't do anything at all anymore. Oh wait, no, of course we still have to do hard repetitive labor like some work drones because it's cheaper than to build and maintain actual robots for these jobs.

---

BRUH of course the event is mainly to sell an AI class from the hosting company. For the cheap price of 4900€ FOR THE LAST TIME because the next class will be over 6000€

I feel like AI bros always hype each other up to blow it all up artificially. Just like NFT and the mobile game market.

---

DID HE JUST SAY that there aren't enough graphic designer and programmer on the market and that they will profit from the support of AI?? (it's actually oversaturated and therefore jobs are hard to get) AI bros really live in a secluded bubble hu? Of course none of these dudes in this event are from the creative industry but lawyers and CEOs

#ai laws #german laws #i do a little live bogging so i have notes for myself too #anti ai art

7 notes · View notes