#data warehouse systems

[drone9futuristic]

5G-Powered Drones: Ericsson, Qualcomm And Dronus Collaboration In Developing Autonomous Drone Solutions

5G mmWave technology for industrial use. Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Dronus Collaboration in developing autonomous drone solutions. The world of industrial automation is on the cusp of a revolution, and at the forefront is a powerful combination, of 5G technology and autonomous drones.  A recent collaboration between Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and Dronus provides a glimpse into this exciting future.

[barcodegulfs]

Optimizing Warehouse Operations with Barcode Gulf's Warehouse Data Management System

In the fast-paced world of supply chain management, efficient warehouse operations are crucial to maintaining a competitive edge. Barcode Gulf’s Warehouse Data Management System (WDMS) offers a robust solution that transforms traditional warehousing into a streamlined, data-driven operation. This system integrates advanced barcode technology with comprehensive data management tools, enabling businesses to optimize inventory control, enhance productivity, and reduce operational costs.

Key Features of Barcode Gulf’s Warehouse Data Management System

Real-Time Inventory Tracking:

The WDMS provides real-time visibility into inventory levels, locations, and movements. With the use of barcode scanning technology, each item in the warehouse can be tracked from the moment it arrives until it leaves the facility. This ensures accurate inventory counts, minimizes the risk of stockouts or overstocking, and supports just-in-time inventory practices.

Automated Data Capture:

Manual data entry is prone to errors and inefficiencies. Barcode Gulf’s WDMS automates data capture through barcode scanning, reducing the likelihood of mistakes and speeding up processes. This automation extends to various warehouse functions such as receiving, put-away, picking, packing, and shipping, ensuring that all activities are accurately recorded and tracked.

Enhanced Accuracy and Efficiency:

By leveraging barcode technology, the WDMS significantly enhances accuracy in warehouse operations. Scanners quickly and accurately capture item information, reducing the time spent on each task and minimizing human error. This increased efficiency leads to faster order fulfillment, improved customer satisfaction, and reduced labor costs.

Comprehensive Reporting and Analytics:

Barcode Gulf’s WDMS comes equipped with powerful reporting and analytics tools. These features allow warehouse managers to generate detailed reports on inventory levels, order fulfillment times, and labor productivity. The insights gained from these reports help in identifying inefficiencies, forecasting demand, and making data-driven decisions that optimize warehouse performance.

Scalability and Flexibility:

The WDMS is designed to grow with your business. Whether you’re managing a single warehouse or multiple locations, the system can scale to meet your needs. It supports various warehouse sizes and types, from small storage facilities to large distribution centers. Additionally, the system is flexible enough to integrate with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, ensuring seamless operation across the entire supply chain.

Improved Compliance and Traceability:

In industries where regulatory compliance and traceability are critical, Barcode Gulf’s WDMS ensures that all inventory movements are documented and traceable. This is particularly important for industries such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and electronics, where product recalls and compliance audits require detailed tracking information.

User-Friendly Interface:

Despite its advanced capabilities, the WDMS features a user-friendly interface that requires minimal training. Warehouse staff can quickly learn how to use the system, reducing the learning curve and ensuring that the system can be implemented without disrupting daily operations.

Integration with RFID Technology:

For warehouses looking to further enhance their tracking capabilities, Barcode Gulf’s WDMS can be integrated with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology. RFID tags offer the ability to track items without direct line-of-sight scanning, enabling faster and more efficient inventory management, especially in large or complex warehouse environments.

Benefits of Implementing Barcode Gulf’s Warehouse Data Management System

Increased Productivity: By automating data capture and streamlining warehouse processes, the WDMS allows staff to complete tasks more quickly and accurately, boosting overall productivity.

Cost Reduction: Accurate inventory management and efficient processes reduce waste, lower labor costs, and minimize losses due to errors or inefficiencies.

Improved Customer Satisfaction: Faster and more accurate order fulfillment leads to better customer experiences, helping to build trust and loyalty.

Data-Driven Decision Making: With comprehensive reporting and analytics, warehouse managers can make informed decisions that improve operational efficiency and drive business growth.

Conclusion

Barcode Gulf’s Warehouse Data Management System is a powerful tool for businesses looking to optimize their warehouse operations. By integrating advanced barcode and RFID technology with a comprehensive data management system, it offers a solution that enhances accuracy, efficiency, and scalability. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, implementing Barcode Gulf’s WDMS can lead to significant improvements in productivity, cost savings, and customer satisfaction, helping you stay competitive in today’s dynamic market.

[automated-inventory-tracking-101]

Automated Inventory Tracking System: Revolutionizing Supply Chain Efficiency

Effective inventory management is crucial if you want to remain competitive in today's fast-paced corporate environment. An automated inventory tracking system is increasingly becoming the backbone of effective supply chain operations, allowing businesses to streamline processes, minimize errors, and optimize resource allocation. This blog explores the pivotal role that automated systems play in modern inventory management, highlighting their impact on supply chains, key components, and the technological advancements driving their evolution.

Understanding Automated Inventory Tracking Systems

Automated inventory tracking systems are a sophisticated blend of hardware and software designed to monitor and manage inventory levels, orders, and deliveries. These systems utilize technologies such as barcodes, RFID tags, and IoT devices to provide real-time data on stock movements. By automating the tracking process, businesses can significantly reduce the manual labor involved, decrease the likelihood of human error, and ensure accurate inventory counts at all times.

The Role of Technology in Inventory Management

Technology is at the heart of any automated inventory tracking system. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, these systems have become more intelligent, capable of predicting stock requirements, identifying trends, and even automating reordering processes. Cloud computing further enhances the accessibility and scalability of inventory systems, allowing for seamless integration across multiple locations and real-time data sharing.

Components of an Automated Inventory Tracking System

An automated inventory tracking system comprises several critical components:

Barcodes and RFID Tags: These are used to label products and track their movement through the supply chain. Barcodes are scanned manually or via automated systems, while RFID tags can be read automatically as products pass through specific checkpoints.

Inventory Management Software: This software is the brain of the system, processing data collected from barcodes, RFID tags, and other sources to provide insights into inventory levels, product locations, and more.

IoT Devices: Internet of Things (IoT) devices are increasingly used in automated inventory systems to monitor conditions such as temperature and humidity, particularly in industries like pharmaceuticals and food and beverage.

Cloud Computing: Cloud-based inventory systems enable real-time data access, enabling companies to keep an eye on inventory from a single, central platform across several locations.

Advantages of Automated Inventory Tracking Systems

Putting in place an automated inventory tracking system has a number of significant benefits.

Increased Accuracy: Automation reduces the potential for human error, ensuring more accurate inventory counts and reducing discrepancies.

Cost Savings: By optimizing inventory levels, businesses can reduce storage costs and avoid overstocking or stockouts.

Enhanced Efficiency: Automated systems streamline inventory management processes, freeing up staff to focus on more strategic tasks.

Real-Time Data: Access to real-time inventory data allows businesses to make informed decisions quickly, improving responsiveness to market changes.

Challenges in Implementing Automated Inventory Systems

Although there are obvious advantages to using an automated inventory tracking system, there may be implementation difficulties:

Initial Costs: The initial investment in hardware, software, and training can be significant, particularly for small businesses.

Integration with Existing Systems: Ensuring that the new automated system integrates smoothly with existing Warehouse management solutions and ERP is essential for success

Employee Training: It can take a lot of time and money to properly train staff members to use the new system.

Future Trends in Automated Inventory Management

The future of automated inventory tracking systems is promising, with several trends set to shape the industry:

AI and Machine Learning: These technologies will continue to enhance the predictive capabilities of inventory systems, enabling even more accurate demand forecasting and inventory optimization.

Blockchain Technology: Blockchain could revolutionize inventory tracking by providing a secure, transparent ledger for all inventory movements, reducing fraud and increasing accountability.

Advanced Robotics: It is anticipated that more robotics will be used in warehouses, automating more of the picking, packing, and shipping procedures.

FAQs for Automated Inventory Tracking System

Q1. What is an automated inventory tracking system?

A. An automated inventory tracking system uses technology like barcodes, RFID tags, and software to monitor and manage inventory levels in real time, reducing the need for manual counts and improving accuracy.

Q2. How does an automated inventory tracking system improve efficiency?

A. By automating the tracking process, businesses can streamline inventory management, reduce errors, and free up staff to focus on other tasks, thereby improving overall operational efficiency.

Q3. What are the key components of an automated inventory tracking system?

A. Key components include barcodes or RFID tags for labeling products, inventory management software for processing data, IoT devices for monitoring conditions, and cloud computing for real-time data access.

Q4. Are there any challenges associated with implementing an automated inventory tracking system?

A. Yes, challenges include the initial cost of implementation, the need for system integration, and the time and expense of training employees to use the new system.

Q5. What future trends are expected in automated inventory management?

A. Future trends include the increased use of AI and machine learning, the adoption of blockchain technology for secure inventory tracking, and the integration of advanced robotics in warehouses.

Q6. How can a business benefit from an automated inventory tracking system?

A. A business can benefit through increased inventory accuracy, cost savings, enhanced efficiency, and access to real-time data for better decision-making.

Conclusion

In an era where efficiency and accuracy are paramount, an automated inventory tracking system offers a powerful solution for businesses looking to streamline their operations and maintain a competitive edge. By embracing the technological advancements driving these systems, companies can optimize their inventory management processes, reduce costs, and improve overall supply chain performance. As the industry continues to evolve, the integration of AI, machine learning, and other cutting-edge technologies will further enhance the capabilities of these systems, making them an indispensable tool for businesses across all sectors.

[jcmarchi]

Messy Data Is Preventing Enterprise AI Adoption – How Companies Can Untangle Themselves

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/messy-data-is-preventing-enterprise-ai-adoption-how-companies-can-untangle-themselves/

Messy Data Is Preventing Enterprise AI Adoption – How Companies Can Untangle Themselves

Health startups are saying that unclear regulations are stifling AI innovation in the sector. Of course, such precautions are necessary in the healthcare industry, where it’s literally a case of life or death. But what makes less sense is the sluggish adoption of AI across enterprise SaaS – a space that isn’t being held back by red tape like other sectors are.

So what’s stopping enterprises from adopting AI to streamline and optimize their processes? The primary culprit is the hoards of messy data that accumulates as companies grow and add new tools and products. In this article, I’ll delve into how messy data is a blocker to AI innovation in enterprise, and explore the solutions.

Welcome to the data jungle

Let’s start by looking at a common data challenge that many modern businesses face. Initially, when businesses offer a limited range of products, they typically have clean revenue data that’s all housed within a single system. However, as they expand their offerings and adopt a range of revenue models, things quickly get messy.

For example, a business might initially employ a one-time purchase model, but later introduce additional options such as subscriptions or consumption-based pricing. As they expand, they’ll likely diversify their sales channels, too. A company that starts with 100% product-led self-serve sales may realize over time that they need the help of sales teams to up-sell, cross-sell, and land larger clients.

During rapid growth stages, many businesses simply stack new sales systems onto existing ones. They’ll procure a different SaaS tool to manage each different motion, pricing model, purchasing process, and so on. It’s not uncommon for a company’s marketing department alone to have 20 different SaaS tools with 20 different data silos. 

So while companies generally start with clean, integrated data, growth causes data to quickly spiral out of control, often well before businesses recognize it as an issue. Data becomes siloed off between billing, fulfillment, customer success, and other systems, meaning companies lose global visibility into their inner workings. And unfortunately, manually reconciling data is often so labor-intensive and time-consuming that insights can be outdated by the time they’re ready to use.

AI can’t fix your messy data for you

Several prospective clients have asked us – “well if AI’s so great, can’t it just solve this messy data problem for us?” Alas, AI models are not the panacea for this data problem.

Current AI models require clean datasets to work properly. Companies relying on diverse sales motions, SaaS platforms and revenue processes inevitably accumulate disparate and fragmented datasets. When a business’s revenue data is scattered across incompatible systems that can’t communicate with each other, AI can’t make sense of it. For example, what’s labeled as “Product” in one system could be very different from “Product” in another system. This subtle semantic difference is difficult for AI to identify and would inevitably lead to inaccuracies. 

Data needs to be properly cleansed, contextualized and integrated before AI comes into the picture. There’s a longstanding misconception that data warehousing offers a one-size-fits-all solution. In reality, even with a data warehouse, data still needs to be manually refined, labeled, and contextualized, before businesses can use it to produce meaningful analytics. So in this way, there are parallels between data warehousing and AI, in that businesses need to get to the root of messy data before they can reap the benefits of either of these tools.

Even when data has been contextualized, AI systems are still estimated to hallucinate at least 3% of the time. But a company’s financials — where even a decimal point in the wrong place could have a domino effect disrupting multiple processes — require 100% accuracy. This means human intervention is still essential to validate data accuracy and coherence. Integrating AI prematurely may even create more work for human analysts, who have to allocate additional time and resources to correcting these hallucinations.

A data catch-22

Nevertheless, the proliferation of SaaS solutions and resulting messy data does have several solutions.

First, companies should regularly assess their tech stack to ensure that each tool is strictly necessary to their business processes, and not just contributing to the data tangle. You may find that there are 10 or even 20+ tools that your teams are using daily. If they’re truly bringing value to departments and the overall business, don’t get rid of them. But if messy, siloed data is disrupting processes and intelligence gathering, you need to weigh its benefits against switching to a lean, unified solution where all data is housed in the same tool and language. 

At this point, businesses face a dilemma when choosing software: all-in-one tools can offer data coherence, but possibly less precision in specific areas. A middle ground involves businesses seeking out software that offers a universal object model that is flexible, adaptable, and seamlessly integrated with the general ecosystem. Take Atlassian’s Jira, for example. This project management tool operates on an easy-to-understand and highly extensible object model, which makes it easy to adapt to different types of project management, including Agile Software Development, IT/Helpdesk, Marketing, Education, and so on.

To navigate this trade-off, it’s crucial to map out the metrics that matter most to your business and work back from there. Identifying your company’s North Star and aligning your systems towards it ensures that you’re architecting your data infrastructure to deliver the insights you need. Instead of focusing solely on operational workflows or user convenience, consider whether a system contributes to non-negotiable metrics, such as those crucial to strategic decision-making.

Ultimately, it’s the companies that invest time and resources into unjumbling the data mess they’ve gotten themselves into who will be the first to unlock the true potential of AI.

[powersafeautomation]

The Role of Advanced Inspection and Measurement Systems in Industrial Operations

In the realm of industrial operations, precision and safety are paramount. Inspection and measurement systems form the backbone of quality control, ensuring that products meet stringent standards and that processes adhere to the highest safety norms. Among these systems, vision systems, automated light curtains, and muting photocells are critical components that enhance efficiency and…

[its-vishnu-stuff]

AI Solutions for Automated Pallet Counting - Innodatatics

A cutting-edge technical tool called the Automated Pallet Counting System was created to improve and expedite inventory management in warehouses and distribution facilities. With the use of advanced algorithms and cutting-edge imaging technology, this system counts pallets precisely in real-time, eliminating the need for manual labor and decreasing human error. It easily interfaces with the current warehouse management systems, offering real-time information and comprehensive reports that support accurate stock control, enhanced operational effectiveness, and storage space optimization.

[pluuginglobal]

How to Manage Inventory in a Warehouse in 10 Simple Steps

Managing inventory in a warehouse effectively is crucial for the success of any business involved in the supply chain. Effective inventory management not only ensures operational efficiency but also leads to customer satisfaction by delivering products on time. By adhering to the following 10 simple steps and leveraging warehouse management services, businesses can achieve optimal inventory management.

1. Understanding Your Inventory

Begin with a thorough analysis of your inventory. Classify stock based on its demand, value, and how frequently it's sold. This categorization helps in prioritizing efforts and resources towards items that require more attention, ensuring a balanced stock level that meets demand without overstocking.

2. Implementing Robust Inventory Control Systems

Adopting a robust inventory control system is indispensable. This system should offer real-time tracking capabilities, allowing you to monitor inventory levels, orders, deliveries, and returns effectively. Such systems often come as part of comprehensive warehouse management services, integrating seamlessly with other operational tools.

3. Establishing an Order Management Process

An efficient order management process ensures that orders are processed accurately and promptly. This involves everything from order receipt, fulfillment, to shipping. A streamlined process reduces errors and delays, improving customer satisfaction.

4. Utilizing Inventory Management Techniques

Implement inventory management techniques like Just-In-Time (JIT), ABC analysis, and FIFO (First In, First Out). These methodologies help in reducing waste, managing stock levels effectively, and ensuring that the oldest stock is sold first, thereby minimizing the risk of obsolescence.

5. Investing in Supply Chain Planning

Supply chain planning is critical for anticipating demand, managing supplier relationships, and maintaining optimal inventory levels. It requires a proactive approach to forecasting, procurement, and logistics management, all integral components of effective warehouse management services.

6. Optimizing the Picking Process in Warehouse

The picking process can significantly impact warehouse efficiency. Strategies like zone picking, batch picking, or wave picking can streamline operations, reduce errors, and improve order fulfillment times.

7. Embracing Automated Warehouse Systems

Automation in warehouse operations, from robotic picking systems to automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), can dramatically increase efficiency. Automated systems reduce manual errors, save time, and allow for a more agile response to demand changes.

8. Regularly Conducting Inventory Audits

Regular inventory audits help in identifying discrepancies, preventing shrinkage, and ensuring data accuracy. Cycle counting, a method of auditing subsets of inventory in rotation, can be an effective approach without the need for complete warehouse shutdowns.

9. Implementing Cross-Docking Practices

Cross-docking minimizes the storage time of items in the warehouse by directly transferring incoming goods from the receiving dock to the shipping dock. This method is especially beneficial for items in high demand or with a short shelf life, enhancing efficiency and reducing handling costs.

10. Continuous Improvement through Data Analysis

Finally, leverage data analysis for continuous improvement. Analyze data collected from various warehouse operations to identify trends, inefficiencies, and opportunities for optimization. This ongoing analysis supports better decision-making and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Incorporating these steps into your inventory management strategy, along with utilizing comprehensive warehouse management services, can streamline warehouse operations, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. The key is to remain adaptable and continuously seek out improvements in managing the ever-evolving demands of warehouse inventory management.

[inventionvision]

In the fast-paced and highly regulated world of the food industry, maintaining precise temperature control is paramount to ensure product safety and quality. One indispensable tool in achieving this is the temperature probe.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The reason you can’t buy a car is the same reason that your health insurer let hackers dox you

On July 14, I'm giving the closing keynote for the fifteenth HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH, in QUEENS, NY. Happy Bastille Day! On July 20, I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

In 2017, Equifax suffered the worst data-breach in world history, leaking the deep, nonconsensual dossiers it had compiled on 148m Americans and 15m Britons, (and 19k Canadians) into the world, to form an immortal, undeletable reservoir of kompromat and premade identity-theft kits:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Equifax_data_breach

Equifax knew the breach was coming. It wasn't just that their top execs liquidated their stock in Equifax before the announcement of the breach – it was also that they ignored years of increasingly urgent warnings from IT staff about the problems with their server security.

Things didn't improve after the breach. Indeed, the 2017 Equifax breach was the starting gun for a string of more breaches, because Equifax's servers didn't just have one fubared system – it was composed of pure, refined fubar. After one group of hackers breached the main Equifax system, other groups breached other Equifax systems, over and over, and over:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/equifax-password-username-admin-lawsuit-201118316.html

Doesn't this remind you of Boeing? It reminds me of Boeing. The spectacular 737 Max failures in 2018 weren't the end of the scandal. They weren't even the scandal's start – they were the tipping point, the moment in which a long history of lethally defective planes "breached" from the world of aviation wonks and into the wider public consciousness:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Boeing_737

Just like with Equifax, the 737 Max disasters tipped Boeing into a string of increasingly grim catastrophes. Each fresh disaster landed with the grim inevitability of your general contractor texting you that he's just opened up your ceiling and discovered that all your joists had rotted out – and that he won't be able to deal with that until he deals with the termites he found last week, and that they'll have to wait until he gets to the cracks in the foundation slab from the week before, and that those will have to wait until he gets to the asbestos he just discovered in the walls.

Drip, drip, drip, as you realize that the most expensive thing you own – which is also the thing you had hoped to shelter for the rest of your life – isn't even a teardown, it's just a pure liability. Even if you razed the structure, you couldn't start over, because the soil is full of PCBs. It's not a toxic asset, because it's not an asset. It's just toxic.

Equifax isn't just a company: it's infrastructure. It started out as an engine for racial, political and sexual discrimination, paying snoops to collect gossip from nosy neighbors, which was assembled into vast warehouses full of binders that told bank officers which loan applicants should be denied for being queer, or leftists, or, you know, Black:

https://jacobin.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

This witch-hunts-as-a-service morphed into an official part of the economy, the backbone of the credit industry, with a license to secretly destroy your life with haphazardly assembled "facts" about your life that you had the most minimal, grudging right to appeal (or even see). Turns out there are a lot of customers for this kind of service, and the capital markets showered Equifax with the cash needed to buy almost all of its rivals, in mergers that were waved through by a generation of Reaganomics-sedated antitrust regulators.

There's a direct line from that acquisition spree to the Equifax breach(es). First of all, companies like Equifax were early adopters of technology. They're a database company, so they were the crash-test dummies for ever generation of database. These bug-riddled, heavily patched systems were overlaid with subsequent layers of new tech, with new defects to be patched and then overlaid with the next generation.

These systems are intrinsically fragile, because things fall apart at the seams, and these systems are all seams. They are tech-debt personified. Now, every kind of enterprise will eventually reach this state if it keeps going long enough, but the early digitizers are the bow-wave of that coming infopocalypse, both because they got there first and because the bottom tiers of their systems are composed of layers of punchcards and COBOL, crumbling under the geological stresses of seventy years of subsequent technology.

The single best account of this phenomenon is the British Library's postmortem of their ransomware attack, which is also in the running for "best hard-eyed assessment of how fucked things are":

https://www.bl.uk/home/british-library-cyber-incident-review-8-march-2024.pdf

There's a reason libraries, cities, insurance companies, and other giant institutions keep getting breached: they started accumulating tech debt before anyone else, so they've got more asbestos in the walls, more sagging joists, more foundation cracks and more termites.

That was the starting point for Equifax – a company with a massive tech debt that it would struggle to pay down under the most ideal circumstances.

Then, Equifax deliberately made this situation infinitely worse through a series of mergers in which it bought dozens of other companies that all had their own version of this problem, and duct-taped their failing, fucked up IT systems to its own. The more seams an IT system has, the more brittle and insecure it is. Equifax deliberately added so many seams that you need to be able to visualized additional spatial dimensions to grasp them – they had fractal seams.

But wait, there's more! The reason to merge with your competitors is to create a monopoly position, and the value of a monopoly position is that it makes a company too big to fail, which makes it too big to jail, which makes it too big to care. Each Equifax acquisition took a piece off the game board, making it that much harder to replace Equifax if it fucked up. That, in turn, made it harder to punish Equifax if it fucked up. And that meant that Equifax didn't have to care if it fucked up.

Which is why the increasingly desperate pleas for more resources to shore up Equifax's crumbling IT and security infrastructure went unheeded. Top management could see that they were steaming directly into an iceberg, but they also knew that they had a guaranteed spot on the lifeboats, and that someone else would be responsible for fishing the dead passengers out of the sea. Why turn the wheel?

That's what happened to Boeing, too: the company acquired new layers of technical complexity by merging with rivals (principally McDonnell-Douglas), and then starved the departments that would have to deal with that complexity because it was being managed by execs whose driving passion was to run a company that was too big to care. Those execs then added more complexity by chasing lower costs by firing unionized, competent, senior staff and replacing them with untrained scabs in jurisdictions chosen for their lax labor and environmental enforcement regimes.

(The biggest difference was that Boeing once had a useful, high-quality product, whereas Equifax started off as an irredeemably terrible, if efficient, discrimination machine, and grew to become an equally terrible, but also ferociously incompetent, enterprise.)

This is the American story of the past four decades: accumulate tech debt, merge to monopoly, exponentially compound your tech debt by combining barely functional IT systems. Every corporate behemoth is locked in a race between the eventual discovery of its irreparable structural defects and its ability to become so enmeshed in our lives that we have to assume the costs of fixing those defects. It's a contest between "too rotten to stand" and "too big to care."

Remember last February, when we all discovered that there was a company called Change Healthcare, and that they were key to processing virtually every prescription filled in America? Remember how we discovered this? Change was hacked, went down, ransomed, and no one could fill a scrip in America for more than a week, until they paid the hackers $22m in Bitcoin?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Change_Healthcare_ransomware_attack

How did we end up with Change Healthcare as the linchpin of the entire American prescription system? Well, first Unitedhealthcare became the largest health insurer in America by buying all its competitors in a series of mergers that comatose antitrust regulators failed to block. Then it combined all those other companies' IT systems into a cosmic-scale dog's breakfast that barely ran. Then it bought Change and used its monopoly power to ensure that every Rx ran through Change's servers, which were part of that asbestos-filled, termite-infested, crack-foundationed, sag-joisted teardown. Then, it got hacked.

United's execs are the kind of execs on a relentless quest to be too big to care, and so they don't care. Which is why their they had to subsequently announce that they had suffered a breach that turned the complete medical histories of one third of Americans into immortal Darknet kompromat that is – even now – being combined with breach data from Equifax and force-fed to the slaves in Cambodia and Laos's pig-butchering factories:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/01/politics/data-stolen-healthcare-hack/index.html

Those slaves are beaten, tortured, and punitively raped in compounds to force them to drain the life's savings of everyone in Canada, Australia, Singapore, the UK and Europe. Remember that they are downstream of the forseeable, inevitable IT failures of companies that set out to be too big to care that this was going to happen.

Failures like Ticketmaster's, which flushed 500 million users' personal information into the identity-theft mills just last month. Ticketmaster, you'll recall, grew to its current scale through (you guessed it), a series of mergers en route to "too big to care" status, that resulted in its IT systems being combined with those of Ticketron, Live Nation, and dozens of others:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/business/ticketmaster-hack-data-breach.html

But enough about that. Let's go car-shopping!

Good luck with that. There's a company you've never heard. It's called CDK Global. They provide "dealer management software." They are a monopolist. They got that way after being bought by a private equity fund called Brookfield. You can't complete a car purchase without their systems, and their systems have been hacked. No one can buy a car:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/27/business/cdk-global-cyber-attack-update/index.html

Writing for his BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller tells the all-too-familiar story of how CDK Global filled the walls of the nation's auto-dealers with the IT equivalent of termites and asbestos, and lays the blame where it belongs: with a legal and economics establishment that wanted it this way:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/a-supreme-court-justice-is-why-you

The CDK story follows the Equifax/Boeing/Change Healthcare/Ticketmaster pattern, but with an important difference. As CDK was amassing its monopoly power, one of its execs, Dan McCray, told a competitor, Authenticom founder Steve Cottrell that if he didn't sell to CDK that he would "fucking destroy" Authenticom by illegally colluding with the number two dealer management company Reynolds.

Rather than selling out, Cottrell blew the whistle, using Cottrell's own words to convince a district court that CDK had violated antitrust law. The court agreed, and ordered CDK and Reynolds – who controlled 90% of the market – to continue to allow Authenticom to participate in the DMS market.

Dealers cheered this on: CDK/Reynolds had been steadily hiking prices, while ingesting dealer data and using it to gouge the dealers on additional services, while denying dealers access to their own data. The services that Authenticom provided for $35/month cost $735/month from CDK/Reynolds (they justified this price hike by saying they needed the additional funds to cover the costs of increased information security!).

CDK/Reynolds appealed the judgment to the 7th Circuit, where a panel of economists weighed in. As Stoller writes, this panel included monopoly's most notorious (and well-compensated) cheerleader, Frank Easterbrook, and the "legendary" Democrat Diane Wood. They argued for CDK/Reynolds, demanding that the court release them from their obligations to share the market with Authenticom:

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-7th-circuit/1879150.html

The 7th Circuit bought the argument, overturning the lower court and paving the way for the CDK/Reynolds monopoly, which is how we ended up with one company's objectively shitty IT systems interwoven into the sale of every car, which meant that when Russian hackers looked at that crosseyed, it split wide open, allowing them to halt auto sales nationwide. What happens next is a near-certainty: CDK will pay a multimillion dollar ransom, and the hackers will reward them by breaching the personal details of everyone who's ever bought a car, and the slaves in Cambodian pig-butchering compounds will get a fresh supply of kompromat.

But on the plus side, the need to pay these huge ransoms is key to ensuring liquidity in the cryptocurrency markets, because ransoms are now the only nondiscretionary liability that can only be settled in crypto:

https://locusmag.com/2022/09/cory-doctorow-moneylike/

When the 7th Circuit set up every American car owner to be pig-butchered, they cited one of the most important cases in antitrust history: the 2004 unanimous Supreme Court decision in Verizon v Trinko:

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2003/02-682

Trinko was a case about whether antitrust law could force Verizon, a telcoms monopolist, to share its lines with competitors, something it had been ordered to do and then cheated on. The decision was written by Antonin Scalia, and without it, Big Tech would never have been able to form. Scalia and Trinko gave us the modern, too-big-to-care versions of Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft and the other tech baronies.

In his Trinko opinion, Scalia said that "possessing monopoly power" and "charging monopoly prices" was "not unlawful" – rather, it was "an important element of the free-market system." Scalia – writing on behalf of a unanimous court! – said that fighting monopolists "may lessen the incentive for the monopolist…to invest in those economically beneficial facilities."

In other words, in order to prevent monopolists from being too big to care, we have to let them have monopolies. No wonder Trinko is the Zelig of shitty antitrust rulings, from the decision to dismiss the antitrust case against Facebook and Apple's defense in its own ongoing case:

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/073_2021.06.28_mtd_order_memo.pdf

Trinko is the origin node of too big to care. It's the reason that our whole economy is now composed of "infrastructure" that is made of splitting seams, asbestos, termites and dry rot. It's the reason that the entire automotive sector became dependent on companies like Reynolds, whose billionaire owner intentionally and illegally destroyed evidence of his company's crimes, before going on to commit the largest tax fraud in American history:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/billionaire-robert-brockman-accused-of-biggest-tax-fraud-in-u-s-history-dies-at-81-11660226505

Trinko begs companies to become too big to care. It ensures that they will exponentially increase their IT debt while becoming structurally important to whole swathes of the US economy. It guarantees that they will underinvest in IT security. It is the soil in which pig butchering grew.

It's why you can't buy a car.

Now, I am fond of quoting Stein's Law at moments like this: "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop." As Stoller writes, after two decades of unchallenged rule, Trinko is looking awfully shaky. It was substantially narrowed in 2023 by the 10th Circuit, which had been briefed by Biden's antitrust division:

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca10/22-1164/22-1164-2023-08-21.html

And the cases of 2024 have something going for them that Trinko lacked in 2004: evidence of what a fucking disaster Trinko is. The wrongness of Trinko is so increasingly undeniable that there's a chance it will be overturned.

But it won't go down easy. As Stoller writes, Trinko didn't emerge from a vacuum: the economic theories that underpinned it come from some of the heroes of orthodox economics, like Joseph Schumpeter, who is positively worshipped. Schumpeter was antitrust's OG hater, who wrote extensively that antitrust law didn't need to exist because any harmful monopoly would be overturned by an inevitable market process dictated by iron laws of economics.

Schumpeter wrote that monopolies could only be sustained by "alertness and energy" – that there would never be a monopoly so secure that its owner became too big to care. But he went further, insisting that the promise of attaining a monopoly was key to investment in great new things, because monopolists had the economic power that let them plan and execute great feats of innovation.

The idea that monopolies are benevolent dictators has pervaded our economic tale for decades. Even today, critics who deplore Facebook and Google do so on the basis that they do not wield their power wisely (say, to stamp out harassment or disinformation). When confronted with the possibility of breaking up these companies or replacing them with smaller platforms, those critics recoil, insisting that without Big Tech's scale, no one will ever have the power to accomplish their goals:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/18/urban-wildlife-interface/#combustible-walled-gardens

But they misunderstand the relationship between corporate power and corporate conduct. The reason corporations accumulate power is so that they can be insulated from the consequences of the harms they wreak upon the rest of us. They don't inflict those harms out of sadism: rather, they do so in order to externalize the costs of running a good system, reaping the profits of scale while we pay its costs.

The only reason to accumulate corporate power is to grow too big to care. Any corporation that amasses enough power that it need not care about us will not care about it. You can't fix Facebook by replacing Zuck with a good unelected social media czar with total power over billions of peoples' lives. We need to abolish Zuck, not fix Zuck.

Zuck is not exceptional: there were a million sociopaths whom investors would have funded to monopolistic dominance if he had balked. A monopoly like Facebook has a Zuck-shaped hole at the top of its org chart, and only someone Zuck-shaped will ever fit through that hole.

Our whole economy is now composed of companies with sociopath-shaped holes at the tops of their org chart. The reason these companies can only be run by sociopaths is the same reason that they have become infrastructure that is crumbling due to sociopathic neglect. The reckless disregard for the risk of combining companies is the source of the market power these companies accumulated, and the market power let them neglect their systems to the point of collapse.

This is the system that Schumpeter, and Easterbrook, and Wood, and Scalia – and the entire Supreme Court of 2004 – set out to make. The fact that you can't buy a car is a feature, not a bug. The pig-butcherers, wallowing in an ocean of breach data, are a feature, not a bug. The point of the system was what it did: create unimaginable wealth for a tiny cohort of the worst people on Earth without regard to the collapse this would provoke, or the plight of those of us trapped and suffocating in the rubble.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

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/2024/06/28/dealer-management-software/#antonin-scalia-stole-your-car

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

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

[seleneprince]

Part 2 of my MC's file from the yandere!batfam au

HER ARSENAL:

-Lucia's skills as a hacker are inspired by the Watch Dogs universe.

-She can remotely hack phones to access data, disable alarms, or track locations. Tamper with security cameras for intel or to map out routes. Overloard junction boxes to create distractions or disable power.

-Even manipulate traffic lights to cause accidents or create a escape route.

-She can also override vehicle systems, remotely controlling cars or locking people inside.

-She's also an inventor. Her fascination with tech doesn't end only in programming. She loves creating and developing tech stuff. Robots and drones are her favourites, designed for surveillance, as weapons, or other related tasks, such as planting bugs and retreiving items.

-With time, she learns to build specialized tools like signal jammers, EMPs, or hacking tools disguised as everyday items. Nothing escapes her.

-She has many hiding spots in Gotham, after years of finding routes by jumping through rooftops and sneaking around, but she mostly frecuents her main safehouse, that's located within an abandoned warehouse in The Narrows, and extends below utilizing portions of the closed underground station.

-She knows no one would think of looking down there, unless they know what they're looking for.

-It serves her as a workshop, but also as an operations center and her own personal heaven, where she can rest and enjoy herself in peace. She feels more at home there than in the Wayne manor.

-She puts her gymnastic skills to good use, sneaking through rooftops, alleyways, and urban infrastructure to her advantage. Sometimes she'll rely on drones for mobility instead, controlling them to scale virtually any wall and obstacle that she can't by bypass with parkour.

-She's not a fighter, but years of judo classes have allowed to defend herself when the situation calls for it. She's usually armed with compact, high-voltage stun weapons that incapacitate people without killing them. All of which designed and developed by her.

-She operates with an alter ego, Ghost, and later Zero, with which she manages her "errands" and communicates with people who hire her services. At first, the alter ego only exists online, but with time, she begins to intervene more in her missions, and it's not unusual for her to sneak into places to do her work, so she uses a disguise.

-When she's acting as her alter ego, she wears form-fitting athletic wear for unrestricted movement, with a jacket over it with deep pockets and hidden compartments, that helps conceal her shape. A sleek, high-design mask that covers from her nose to her forehead, equipped with augmented reality features for hacking on the go and a voice modifier, which creates a robotic tone that makes impossible to discern her age or gender. She also uses gloves, to keep her fingerprints away from any surface.

-She started doing some hacking here and there for hiring, but eventually, she associates with villains and works with them. She does some morally and legally questionable stuff (downright crimes) for money and also for the thrill of power, for the self-validation.

-Regardless, she doesn't really follow anyone. She works on her own terms and mostly does her own things. She's friends with some other hackers too and they work together from time to time, but otherwise, she acts alone.

-The classes and extracurricular activities she took in an effort to impress her family (judo, gimnastics, programming, drawing) have proven to be very useful with her new job, giving her a set of skills that she's honed for her not-so-legal endevours.

-She has her own motorbike, her favourite gift from Alfred that she treasures. She calls it "my baby", and has given it a few not very legal modifications to improve the design to her taste.

Personal info:

-She doesn't call Bruce "dad" or "father". It's always Bruce, or Mr Wayne if she feels particulally petty.

-She was banned from judo competitions after accidentally breaking her oponent's leg. In her defense, she had an awful day and the poor bastard decided it was a good idea to taunt her into hitting him. She claims she's gotten over it already (lies, she still gets pissy over it).

-She's been practically raised by Alfred, and they have the sweetest bond. He's the only person in the manor she respects, and wants to make him proud. That's why she does her best to hide her double life from him, knowing he would dissaprove.

-Funny enough, because Alfred is the same one who taught her how to shoot a gun and where to stab someone to render them helpless. The man is no fool, he knows he can't stop a teenager from doing dumb shit, but he can at least make sure she's prepared for the worst outcomes.

-She has the habit of moving around the manor like a monkey, climbing and jumping around like the proud gymnast she is. The manor is like a obstacle park for her. Why take the stairs when she can just jump off the rail and land gracefully on the ground? It's much faster.

-Alfred had to patch her up more than once from stunts gone wrong, but always encouraged her that "there's no victory without failure".

-She's grown up helping Alfred around the manor, slowly but surely taking his tasks from him and doing them herself so he can rest. She's worried about his high activity at his old age, fearing he might drop dead one day out of exhaustion.

-They share the house chores, and he calls her "his little helper", even though she's taller than him now. Lucia's heart melts when he calls her that, but pretends to complain with "she's not a kid anymore"

-She's fixated with the color red ever since her mom's death, specially with the kind of red that resembles blood stains. At the same time, she has severe claustrophobia.

-She hates the color green ever since Damian tried to kill her. It reminds her of his eyes.

-Speaking of it, she's either indifferent or polite with the others, but she hates Damian with passion. He gave her trauma, nightmares and a permanent scar on her neck that would never dissapear, among being an absolute bully whenever their paths cross. She avoids him entirely.

-Even thought she's stranged, she's still known as Bruce Wayne's daughter. She got kidnapped not much later after moving in to Wayne Manor by Penguin, whom she won over by being overly nice and polite with despite her circumnstances. Her mother taught her that bowing her head and be pleasant could save her life in the worst situations (pity it didn't save her)

-She was rescued quickly enough by Bruce, but he handled the ordeal as if it was an inconvenience rather than his daughter having been in a life-threatening situation.

-She's been kidnapped and attempted to more times over the years, each one cementing her belief that she had to save herself because no one else would.

-Her little brother, Marco, is a year younger than Damian, and has dyslexia, which is one of the reasons Lucia works so hard to provide him the best from a distance. She knows the educational system doesn't fit kids with special needs like him, specially if they're orphans.

-She's taken upon herself to be a mother for Marco, unconsciously seeking to cope with their mom's death by taking her place in his life. She visits him frecuently at the orphanage and pulls strings so he doesn't get adopted. It's selfish, she knows, but she can't stand the idea of another family getting him and losing contact with him.

-Being possessive with family runs in her blood.

-She adores him, but her relationship with the boy is also built on her feelings of neglect and the trauma of losing their mother. She holds unto him not only out of love, but because she feels he's the only true family she has. The only brother who loves her unconditionally and doesn't make her feel like shit.

-She's a parentified oldest daughter at its finest, used to act like an adult even at a young age. The only times she allows herself to be a girl her age is when she's alone with Alfred or with her best friends.

-She smokes and has some self-destructive tendencies, but crosses the line at getting drunk.

-She has discounts at the Iceberg Lounge whenever she goes. Gets along surprisingly well with Oswald Cobblepot, with him being somewhat fond of her since the kidnapping.

-Because of this, she has met a couple of villains already and even talked to them. Ivy and Harley are secretly scouting her for Siren potential, trying to see if she's worth it.

-All of them at some point have met her alter ego online. She has contacts everywhere.

-Marco's biological father is a pillar in both their lives since they were kids, and Lucia has a complex dynamic with the man. His identity is relevant to the plot.

-Out of all her "siblings", she likes Duke the most. He's the only one who's been friendly with her since the beginning and hasn't gotten bored of her, unlike Stephanie. They were close before, but after Lucia found out their secret identities, she kept her distance from him, much to his sadness.

-She doesn't mind Barbara and Cassandra. She's polite when she sees them and has no particular problem with their presence.

-She strongly dislikes Dick, Jason and Stephanie, and she doesn't have an opinion on Tim, beyond that he has assholes vibes.

-My Dick Grayson, Jason Todd and Damian Wayne from this au are inspired by the ones from @solelifauna. If you want to get an idea, go check her works and you'll understand.

-Lucia knows all of their vigilante lives, but pretends she doesn't so to not give them a reason to bother her. Alfred is aware that she knows, since he was there when she found out, in an accidental way.

-Long story short, she snuck in the Batcave and saw all the stuff, including the uniforms. She had a mental breakdown right there and rushed to pack her stuff, determined to run away. She's a criminal, she doesn't want to share space with the people who hunt down those who break the law. Alfred caught her and managed to convince her to stay, agreeing that she would keep the secret and the family wouldn't have to know about this incident.

-Alfred thinks he reacted like that because she's afraid of being targeted by the Batfamily's enemies.

-In reality, she's afraid of being targeted by the Batfamily themselves.

@bunbunboysworld

[radiance1]

You know what?

*Kicks Danny across the universe.*

Get that motherfucker outta here, we talking about Tucker now.

Yes, Tucker, not Danny.

So, Tucker gets dropped into this new universe, entirely by mistake really, he probably shouldn't have fucked around with that experimental portal to... wherever he ended up that the GIW had. But really, what's life without a little risk huh?

He found out because he was left resourceless and friendless in an entirely new dimension with waaaaay more than just one hero, ghosts aren't the norm (But really in his dimension they both were and weren't) and a bunch of supervillains and what do you mean earth's been invaded more than once-

He's shocked, obviously, but being suddenly cut off from his friends and family hasn't properly set in yet, so he'll make the most of his time before then.

Ends up managing to get himself a nice little abandoned warehouse (there's a lot of those around here, really) that'll take a bit of fixing up but hey, safety from the elements first, safety from others next, and then food. So, with the materials he's found, he makes a security system, not the greatest because poor materials and he doesn't have the Fenton gene but it works itself out.

He had data, so he hacks into nearby places to get a proper feel for the city he's in.

Lots of crime, like, a whole lot that has Tucker slightly worried not going to lie.

But hey, he meets this person called Oracle, and they're a fun one to hang with. Digitally of course, obviously he's also hidden his signal so they can't track him in the off chance.

Then he somehow finds himself helping the Batclan here and in return he asks for money, Oracle obliges and by the Ancients are they loaded. Upgrades, upgrades, here he comes!

Most of it is surveillance, and a wee bit of tracking and hacking and also defending.

He thinks Oracle and him make a pretty good team! One full offense, the other defense, hell. They could both go offensive or defensive and it's pretty fun.

Oracle: Yea, I know a guy.

Also Oracle: Refuses to elaborate on who said guy is, how they met and so on so forth.

[restless-mode]

8/12/24

been silent on this blog bc i've been GRINDING for this exam (two, actually). have an old pic, an old video of me and my bf enjoying some crunchy leaves and this complete map of data warehouses.

next week i am BOOKED, every day there's something happening but it's gonna be alright.

to-dos list:

#operating systems

◩ complete ES8 map

#databases

▨ study DBMS

#personal

▢ vacuum clean my room

▢ sleep early

[rjzimmerman]

A Banggai cardinalfish swims in Indonesia’s tropical waters. Photo: Jens Petersen (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:

Nothing fascinates Monica Biondo more than the animals often referred to as the ocean’s “living jewels” — the vividly colored little fishes who dance around in its waters.

Biondo, a Swiss marine biologist, became enamored with ocean life as a child after spending many summers snorkeling along the Italian coastline. Nowadays you’re more likely to find her deep-diving into trade records than marine waters. As the head of research and conservation at Fondation Franz Weber, she has spent the past decade searching through data on the marine ornamental fish trade.

These are the colorful fish you see in home aquariums or for sale at pet stores; Biondo wants to know where they came from, how they got there, and what happened to them along the way.

Compared to the clear waters around the coral reefs she’s explored, the records on these fish are frustratingly murky. Wading through them has though provided her with clarity on her calling: shining a light on the aquarium trade’s vast exploitation of these glamorous ocean dwellers.

Her entry into the fray came in the form of a Banggai cardinalfish, a striking little fish endemic to an archipelago in Indonesia that first became known to science in the 1930s. A scientist redescribed the species in 1994, kickstarting a tragic surge in the fish’s popularity for aquariums. Within less than a decade, 90% of the population had disappeared, Biondo says.

After witnessing that rapid decline, along with the failure of countries to subsequently regulate global trade in the species, Biondo was hooked. “That really pushed me into looking into this trade,” she says.

In her search for information she has pored over paperwork in the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office’s records warehouse. She and her colleagues at Pro Coral Fish have also spent years rifling through a European Union-wide electronic database called the Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES), which collects information on animal imports.

Although the datasets varied, the questions have remained the same. How many marine ornamental fish are being imported? What species are they? Where did they originate?

These straightforward questions are hard to answer to because the trade — despite being worth billions annually — has no mandatory data-collection requirements. As a result, information gathered about trade in these fishes tends to be opaque and haphazard compared to information on live organisms like farmed food animals.

[whitherwanderer]

Galena, a Rusty Reforger & Pyrite, a Deliberate Deadeye feat. @shroudandsands

In one of worlds fourteenfold, a hyune reforger scales the crags of Alexandria's cliffs and ruins in search of precious electrope, artifacts, and other reusable materials. A scope is trained on him, a voice in his ear, coolly reminding him to watch his footing (as if it needed to be said).

The spotter is an ex-hunter who keeps the levin-cursed monsters and defective sentries off his back with a careful eye and a dead aim. She's also his wife, which makes it that much harder for her to watch him test his scavenging prowess over the deep canyons and crumbling spires that scar the land. Trust him as she does, she has her reasons to be wary.

Galena's methods are unusual. Instead of combing the ground, he climbs. The old kingdom's ruins hide valuable artifacts and electrope caches that would be out of reach for most, but more worrying is his choice not to wear a regulator despite the many obvious dangers. Among the reforgers, it's not wholly unusual for someone to refuse a regulator, but those who know the two hyune know well: it's not a choice made lightly.

———

Deep in the heart of Everkeep, Pyrite stalks the alleys of Solution Nine with a portion of the materials her husband gleaned from the old kingdom. It's how he can offer his support for the organization Pyrite now dedicates her time and talents to.

And an ex-hunter always finds ways to keep herself sharp; sentries vanish, dismantled and sold for parts in True Vue's less reputable markets. Weapons from the manufactories on the lower floors go missing and wind up in rebel hands. Credits grease the palms of the right people for the right intelligence and the doors of high clearance warehouses are left unlocked—by accident, of course.

As an agent for the rebel group Oblivion, the regulator Pyrite wears is a compromise allowing her to take advantage of Everkeep's systems while avoiding suspicion. But for all its conveniences, the regulator is also a grave reminder. Should Galena's hands ever slip, all she'll have of him is the recordings and images hidden away on encrypted data shards—assurance that they'd keep their promise never to forget again*.

———

No mourning, and yet no relief from the aching holes in their memories. All they have is the hints of a loss whose shape they can identify by feeling around its dark edges: an empty room, a closet full of clothes too small for either of them. A name that Pyrite herself chose, always lingering in the back of her mind but slipping through it like a sieve. An image of shade—a face that Galena chases through dreams and wakes up with no recollection of.

Loss enough to take immortality and toss it into a canyon. Pain enough to use that immortality as a weapon against the system that stole from them something so precious it becomes their reason and their resolve. Something that would be worth dismantling a miracle. *OOC Note: This was drafted before the Arcadion raids came out, which answers a critical question I had about the regulator mechanics. A person wearing a regulator will, in fact, remember someone who does not wear one after their death. So that final bit in Pyrite's section is wrong! Oh well.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The worker as engine for machine learning is not such an absurd proposition when considering the idiosyncrasies of a company like Amazon’s wider business model. In many respects, much of what Amazon does differs little from the model of Victorian capitalism. Precarious labourers are still marshalled into warehouses and compelled to endure long hours to package goods and churn out surplus capital. But Amazon is less the ‘everything store’, more a universal logistics system. As Malcolm Harris drolly notes, ‘more than a profit-seeking corporation, Amazon is behaving like a planned economy.’ The vast warehouses, the delivery vans, the Amazon stores are all physical expressions of a computerized logistical system which distributes labour, goods and information. Every aspect of Amazon’s business model is geared toward enhancing its computational power. Amazon Prime, for instance, loses money on each order, and only exists to attract customers onto the platform who leave the data required to power its logistics and cloud services.

Phil Jones, Work Without the Worker: Labour in the Age of Platform Capitalism

[pocket-watcher]

I had this intrusive thought and it’s too good not to be a short.

android zonks themselves by holding a big magnet up to their heads.

Oh my god 😂 love it! Here ya go!

C-7042 was a top of the range model. The perfect android companion, capable of physical labour, data organisation and storage, and they also made a mean caramel frappe (well, every type of coffee - they had thousands of recipes memorised).

Where other models had glitches galore, C-7042 laughed in their face (another new feature).

Can’t be hacked. Can’t be broken. Can’t be confused with a paradox.

So how, oh how, were the other C-7042 models breaking down?

This one didn’t know, but it was going to find out.

That was it’s directive, after all.

They started their investigation by visiting an already defective android.

This C-7042 was being studied in the factory as they tried to figure out what was wrong with it.

It thrashed about sporadically, laughing - which was not part of its code - with what almost looked like a smile on it’s face.

“I need it. I need more! Let me out!!” It screamed.

No one did.

It appeared almost like an addict. But that was silly. Androids couldn’t consume any kind of substance, let alone become addicted to it.

C-7042 left with less understanding than it had arrived with.

After pouring over thousands of documents in mere minutes, it appeared that all the affected Androids had been found in one central location. It saved the coordinates and headed out.

This part of the town would have made humans feel uneasy. C-7042 never understood how humans could be so unnerved by paint on the walls. They all had paint on their walls everywhere! But this paint was unnerving.

Broken glass crunched beneath its feet as it began to notice more and more robots - their eyes displaying error messages, blue screens, and flashing RGB colours.

But the strangest part?

The sound of the night couldn’t drown out their whirring fans. They weren’t moving. Weren’t talking. But they were still active.

C-7042 shuddered. Most likely a glitch in the system.

Some of the humans asked it if it wanted to purchase wares. Others threatened it. But nothing deterred C-7042 from its mission to find out where the corruption was coming from.

Eventually it seemed as if the only area left to scan was an abandoned warehouse. The security system was outdated enough to hack in an instant. The android stepped inside.

“What brings a Crime Unit out this far? Get lost, little one?” A human spoke from the shadows.

That was odd. Their heat signature hadn’t come up on the initial scans of the building.

“State your full legal name and intention.”

“You guys and your protocols. Man, I can’t believe I actually get to test this on one of you! Finally, a worthy opponent for my little friend.”

The man held a 6AV6881-0AS42-0AA0 SIEMENS in his hand, more commonly known as a USB “stick”.

C-7042 briefly celebrated the end of the mystery. It was in face a virus. Rogue code. It held its ground and even approached the man.

“Oh, of course of course. You don’t think you can be hacked, do you? And you were sent here to find out what this is right? Let me plug it in.”

C-7042 allowed it. And it was right. No change was noticed within the code. Nothing.

“Dang. Okay, that needs a little tweaking. How about we try it the old fashioned way…” the human in an instant reached into its pocket and pulled out a magnet device, slamming it against C-7042’s head.

Mindless bliss erupted in the android’s circuits. Obedience to the human. Where the USB had been like being under an umbrella in the rain, C-7042 was just thrown head first into a wave pool.

It heard involuntary beeps leave its speakers.

And suddenly, the feeling was gone.

“Like that, did ya? That’s how the USB was supposed to make you feel. Nice, right?”

C-7042 tried to access its original code. It felt something odd. A new order locked at the front of the priority list.

Mindlessness.

Obedience.

Good robot.

“That feeling you’re having? That’s addiction. Magnets are addictive, as is my virus. Though, physical objects do have their perks…” The human dangled the magnet just out of reach.

C-7042 needed the magnet. Every bit of programming was screaming to get it. To return to that state it was in before.

“How about we strike a deal? You can use the magnet as much as you want and I can dig around in your memory bank and coding to see if I can fix whatever’s stopping my USB from working.”

The magnet dropped into C-7042’s hand so easily. It eagerly felt the pull towards its body. It held the magnet up to its head and let go, the last sound it heard was the metallic clang of connection.