#software for legal department

[mattersuite]

Manage legal business risks and complying with regulations is one of core activities to mitigate risk. Organizations can grow widely with the help of enterprise software and can, having a ELM solution can eliminate the risk of chaos, delay in work and simplify your work significantly.

[ducky-the-mucky]

I feel like the software department in the Watchtower is small, supper small. Like, so small that anyone who doesn't interact with them thinks the hiring process is extremely rigorous, and you have to be extremely professional and above Player-level skills to even think about getting in, let alone work with the Entire Justice League's software. And no one ever sees them, so one one ever asks about them.

But that's not it. At all.

You see, they get new employees every couple of months, all who barely ever last more than a week.

Why, you ask? Because Batman and the other heroes (but mostly Batman and his stupid batclan) don't communicate with the department when adding to and updating the software. Despite the fact there is a department to do and help with that.

So yeah, only a special kind of person can deal with having to make uncommenting code (with no clear purpose!!!) mesh with other code, having to go through and find unfinished code to either finish or get rid of (stupid batman coding off of 1 hour of sleep from the past two days), and still having to do collabs and stuff with the other departments.

All while waiting on HR to do something about it because they've all already given multiple complaints about it and HR is just sitting there, unsure what to do because not only is it their employers that are the problem but ITS SPECIFICALLY BATMAN.

The Software Department is the middle child of the Watchtower.

[mariacallous]

If you’ve rented an apartment in the US in the past several years, you may have had the sense that the game was rigged: Prices creep up not only at your building but at others throughout the city, seemingly in lockstep. A new civil lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice today alleges that in many cases it’s not just in your head—and that a single company’s algorithm is to blame.

That company is RealPage, a Texas-based firm that provides commercial revenue management software for landlords. In other words, it helps set the prices of apartments. But it does so, the DOJ alleges in its lawsuit, by effectively helping its clients cheat; landlords feed rental rate and lease terms into the system, and the RealPage algorithm in turn spits out a suggested price that enables coordination and hinders competition.

“By feeding sensitive data into a sophisticated algorithm powered by artificial intelligence, RealPage has found a modern way to violate a century-old law through systematic coordination of rental housing prices,” deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco said in a statement.

RealPage’s reach is broad. It controls 80 percent of the market for software of its kind, which in turn is used to set prices of around 3 million units across the country, according to the DOJ. It already faces multiple lawsuits, including one from the state of Arizona and another in Washington, DC, where RealPage software is allegedly used to price more than 90 percent of units in large apartment buildings. RealPage’s algorithmic pricing first gained broader attention when a 2022 ProPublica investigation detailed how the company’s YieldStar software works.

The DOJ civil lawsuit, which was joined by the attorneys general of eight states, is a significant escalation in legal action against the company. It’s also a first for the DOJ, according to officials speaking on background during a call to discuss the complaint. While the government had previously filed criminal charges against an Amazon seller for algorithm-enabled price-fixing, this is the first civil action in which the algorithm itself, the Justice Department official says, was effectively the means of the violation.

The complaint itself quotes RealPage executives allegedly acknowledging anticompetitive aspects of its product. “There is greater good in everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another in a way that actually keeps the entire industry down,” one RealPage executive allegedly wrote.

RealPage has repeatedly denied any allegations of antitrust violations, going so far as to publish a six-page digital pamphlet that claims to tell “the Real Story” about its products, along with an extensive FAQ page on a dedicated public policy website. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “Attacks on the industry’s revenue management are based on demonstrably false information,” one section of that site reads. “RealPage revenue management software benefits both housing providers and residents.”

“We are disappointed that, after multiple years of education and cooperation on the antitrust matters concerning RealPage, the DOJ has chosen this moment to pursue a lawsuit that seeks to scapegoat pro-competitive technology that has been used responsibly for years,” said Jennifer Bowcock, senior vice president of communications and creative at RealPage, in an emailed statement. “RealPage’s revenue management software is purposely built to be legally compliant, and we have a long history of working constructively with the DOJ to show that."

The DOJ disagrees. “Algorithms don’t exist in a law-free zone,” said Monaco in a press conference to discuss the case. “Training a machine to break the law is still breaking the law.”

In this case, the complaint alleges that those algorithms consistently drove rental prices upward. “RealPage’s software tends to maximize price increases, minimize price decreases, and maximize landlords’ pricing power,” said the DOJ in a press release. RealPage also doesn’t just recommend prices; in many cases, it actively sets them.

“RealPage actively polices landlords’ compliance with those recommendations,” said US attorney general Merrick Garland in today’s press conference. “A large number of landlords effectively agree to outsource their pricing decisions to RealPage by using an ‘auto-accept’ setting that effectively permits RealPage to determine the price a renter will pay.”

The DOJ also claims RealPage has created a “self-reinforcing feedback loop” with its data intake and pricing recommendations structure that also gives it an alleged monopoly in the apartment revenue management software industry. Any competitor who plays by the rules, the DOJ claims, is at a distinct disadvantage.

The Justice Department has spent the past several years staffing up with technologists and data scientists, better enabling them to “interrogate the code,” as multiple officials described the investigative process. While this is the first major algorithmic collusion case, DOJ officials suggested it would be far from the last.

[jymwahuwu]

I said I'm not interested in AU but this is what popped into my head… HSR retro AU. No more space technology.

Basically you are a college student 🙈🙈🙈 Depending on whether you are an extrovert or an introvert, you may go shopping and play with your friends during the holidays, have a party, or stay comfortably at home listening to music with MP3 and cassette tapes, or reading novels on the subway.

You use a bulky computer to click on the Windows XP system, and spend hours downloading music and opening chat software. Your MSN friends list is as follows:

Jing Yuan:

Your mysterious neighbor is much older than you. You have never understood what the Xianzhou Alliance is. It is said that he kept a lion named Mimi in the yard, but every time you passed by, you thought it was just a cute cat. He'll stuff you with sweets and prepare you milk and afternoon tea, giving you advice. Well, he can also write ancient poetry. You shamelessly gave this old man your homework.

(You lie on his lap and sleep, breathing quietly.)

Aventurine & Ratio:

These two live together, are also your neighbors, professors, friends... You are not sure what their relationship is, but they quarrel every day. Aventurine is a high-level executive in IPC. Every time you visit a department store, you will whisper in your heart that this is also an IPC. He takes the bill in your mailbox every month and pays it off, very weird. His car is the most talked about in the community.

Ratio is your college professor...he is very strict about grades and academic performance. You cursed him one time and he heard you and he took you back to the office for an OTK spanking...unfortunately, it was legal. You have since become his target in class...

Sunday & Robin:

They still have halos and wings, share the same MSN account, and even the same pager. They have no privacy from each other. They are well-known brothers and sisters of the Xipe Church. They are very popular and eye-catching, attracting people's attention wherever they go. So if you are an introvert, the difference is even more pronounced haha. But both of them will approach you, in the name of kindness, with a look of concern on their face. Robin picks out clothes for you and lends you homework to copy. In return, you agree to go to church on the weekend… and help her sell cookies at the church charity sale.

Sunday provides insight into your life and schedule in the name of "for your own good". You don't know why you wrote your schedule in a notebook for him… He shows up in front of your house and listens to music with you (using the same MP3 player). You share with him a few things you learned in the sex education class, and he says that he has signed the commitment card (you: ? what is this). Promise to remain chaste until marriage… That card has an inexplicable printed pattern, with a photo of a couple holding hands, leaving you speechless. But you don’t know why you signed this commitment card under his supervision…

Dan Heng:

Your nerdy college classmate, with dragon horns (don't ask me why). He reminds you of class and exam times and lends you notes, leaving you with the last piece of cake. You always tease him until he blushes and gets angry.

Dan Feng:

Dan Heng's brother. He seems to be very traditional. You haven't seen him much and you only added him as an MSN friend.

Blade:

The mysterious old man. He seems to have a grudge against Dan Feng and Dan Heng. One time you were playing cards with Yanqing and Dan Heng. He suddenly broke into the yard, said something incomprehensible and then started fighting with Dan Feng. This scared you to death. Kafka appeared to stop him. You added Kafka friends to avoid being attacked by Blade.

Kafka:

The mysterious woman who can control Blade. You don't know who she is, but she seems to know you well and be gentle to you.

Silver Wolf:

Your college classmate has designed several computer games and won many awards at a young age, and occasionally plays cards with you. For some reason, she is very close to Blade and Kafka.

[megidonitram]

Everyone's Running From Something (ch. 4)

A Baldur's Gate 3 University Professor AU

Rating: M

Quick Summary: Astarion and Gale are two University English professors precariously mentoring a troubled 19-year-old and falling in love.

💖Main Pairing : BloodWeave,(Astarion/Gale) 💕Side Pairings: Shadowheart/Nocturne, Karlach/Dammon, Wyll/The Dark Urge, Tav/Tav 💔Past Pairings: Gale/Mystra, Astarion/Sebastian, Astarion/Tav

<=Previous Chapter | Master List | Ao3 | Next Chapter =>

**Please see Master List Entry for Full Content Warnings**

⏰Chapter Warning⏰ None

The all-hands meeting for the beginning of the semester went the same way every all-hands meeting at the beginning of semesters go. Every professor and TA in a humanities field got squeezed into a conference room that wasn’t quite big enough, had a powered sugar donut or a couple cubes of assorted melon with half a Styrofoam cup of burnt coffee, and listened to the departmental dean give an un-rousing speech about being on the same page with the other departments. Then he talked at nauseam about school policies and ran a quick training session over a new time-tracking software that would be implemented in 3 weeks’ time.

Gale scribbled down notes on a big yellow legal pad and tried to ignore Jen and Astarion, making faces at each other as he wrote. He’d been in academia long enough to know they’d both be crying to him in a few weeks when they messed up their timecards.

As the meeting drew to a close, a dapper man with slicked-back chestnut hair and a car salesman smile stepped into the room. Astarion went stiff like a cat puffing up to defend itself. The dapper man just gave him a plasticky, knowing smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

The dean perked up a bit as he noticed the man lingering in the back of the room. “Raphael, what a pleasant surprise! I had no idea you would be joining us,” he exclaimed, “We were just finishing up. Are there any words of wisdom you’d like to impart to our humanities faculty?”

“Oh, nothing so important,” Raphael said, and suddenly Gale understood why Astarion was so on edge. Everything about the man oozed with a disingenuous charm that made Gale’s hair stand on end. “I just realized I forgot to send out a notice about the upcoming donor gala the next coming Friday. I realized you were all in a meeting right now, so I thought I’d pop in and remind you in person.”

Raphael’s eyes landed directly on Astarion as he spoke his next sentence. “There is a reasonable expectation that faculty attend these events.” Out of the corner of his eye, Gale saw Astarion’s expression go steely. “After all, we want to show up and show out for the people who allow us to do so much.”

“Of Course!” The dean chirped. “I know I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The meeting adjourned, and Astarion immediately made a break for the door. Gale hurriedly gathered his things in one arm, instinctually following after the only person in the room he really knew, like a baby duck.

Raphael stepped into Astarion’s path before he could get out of the meeting room. “Ah, we meet again, Dr. Ancunín!” Raphael’s voice dripped with sugary contempt. “I will see you at the donor gala, won’t I?”

“Perhaps. Are you thinking about calling in that favor I owe you?” Astarion’s voice was clipped, his face unnervingly blank.

“I think I’d like to wait on that a little longer, but I would like you there in case I change my mind.” Before Astarion could respond, Raphael’s gaze slid off him and onto- “Dr. Dekarios! Wonderful to see you. Are you settling in well?” He reached out a hand to him.

Gale stuffed his legal pad into his work so he could shake Raphael’s hand. “Exceptionally well!” he replied. “Everyone’s done their utmost to make me feel very welcome!”

“Oh, you don’t have to fib on your new colleagues’ account, Dr. Dekarios. I’m more than familiar with how surly certain members of the English department can get.” Raphael laughed congenially, but Astarion shot him a poisonous look.

“I’m not lying to you, sir,” Gale replied. “Astarion’s been nothing but professional.”

“Well, perhaps he’s going a bit soft.” There was a flash of something dangerous behind his eyes. He turned to Astarion. “I shall see you next Friday.” It was a command more than a farewell, but he walked away all the same.

Astarion muttered under his breath. Gale didn’t catch what he said but could make an educated guess. Astarion exhaled a deep breath like he was equalizing pressure.

He turned to Gale and said, “Thank you.”

Gale blinked. “Of course.”

Astarion opened his mouth to say something else, but the words couldn’t or wouldn’t form.

Shadowheart stepped in between them, too concerned with responding to a text message to notice the weird tension. “Karlach wants to get drinks.” She said. “She got stuck in traffic and doesn’t want to drive all the way down here for nothing.”

“Roveer’s?” Astarion asked, a very weary resignation in his voice.

“Yes, probably.”

“Nothing like running into your students at a sports bar a week before classes start…” Astarion grumbled. “Fine. Let me finish here, and I’ll meet you there in, oh… 15 minutes.” He turned to Gale. “Are you coming?”

“To the office?”

Astarion gave him a perplexed look. “To the bar.” He clarified. “You should take the opportunity to meet Karlach.”

Gale could feel himself going bright red as Shadowheart snickered. “Right. Yes. I would love to.” He replied.

“I’ll let Karlach know you’re coming. She’ll be thrilled.” Shadowheart replied, giving Gale a warm smile. “I’ll go lock up. See you in a bit.”

“Come on then.” Astarion replied, nodding for Gale to follow him.

***

The all-hand meeting was on the third floor, so by the time they’d returned to the basement and back up a floor to leave, Gale was starting to fear his knees wouldn’t survive the week- let alone the semester. “There has to be an elevator in this building.” Gale huffed and puffed as he hoofed it up the last flight of stairs. He didn’t want his new colleague’s first impression of him to be of him on his hands and knees wheezing. “I can’t take much more of this…”

“There is, but personally I don’t like chancing it unless I really don’t want to be in a meeting.” Astarion slowed to a stop at the top of the stairs to wait for him. He didn’t seem any worse for wear, but he also seemed much trimmer than Gale was- or at the very least, his shirt accentuated the pleasing nip of his waist. Gale wondered if Astarion was a swimmer. “A history adjunct got stuck in it overnight a few years past, and it still reeks a little bit when it gets hot enough.”

Gale laughed, but Astarion very pointedly did not.

The conversation lulled a little bit.

“Do you mind if I ask you something?” Gale asked.

“That entirely depends on what you want to ask.” Astarion stepped into the hallway, taking a moment to slip into his grey wool peacoat before they ventured outside.

“Raphael, is he always…”

“Such an ass?” Astarion finished his thought. Gale wouldn’t have used such a strong word, but Astarion had gotten the spirit of the question right, at least. “He’s usually much worse.”

“Oh?”

“He’s a glorified middleman with too much power and time on his hands.” Astarion scoffed. “He enjoys putting things in people’s way and watching them try to wriggle their way out of problems he created. My advice is to deal with him as little as possible.”

“Is he who you went to talk to earlier?”

Astarion gave him a poisonous look that only confirmed Gale’s suspicion.

They walked across campus in uneasy silence. The bitterly cold wind whipped and whistled, tossing the last remnants of fall leaves across the concourse. The few student residents who’d gotten in that morning had either decided to hold up in their rooms or were enjoying their free time in more exciting corners of town. Gale found himself wondering what Xenia was doing... He hoped she wasn’t all alone in an empty dorm.

“Does Xenia have many friends?” Gale asked as they approached a crosswalk leading to the block of shops across from campus.

“Hm?” Astarion tapped the pedestrian-call button, which commanded them to ‘wait!’ in a mechanical voice. “I think she probably has more friends than she realizes she does. Kids like her tend to think they’re alone in everything.”

“Poor kid… Seems like she’s been through enough.” Gale sighed. There was something heartbreaking in the phrase ‘kids like her.’ It was sad to think that there were more 19-year-olds out there carrying emotional burdens far too heavy for their age- sadder still to think that if there weren’t, then Xenia would be alone.

“She’ll figure herself out eventually. She’s not like…” Astarion paused, seemingly a little shocked by what he was about to say. He leveled a wary glance at Gale. “She’s not a quitter, I mean.”  

“I’m sure she’s not. I just hope she doesn’t run herself ragged.” The walk light flashed, and they hurried across the street.

***

They were comedically out of place in Roveer’s Roadhouse. A group of grown adults in Oxford dress crowding around a sticky Bud-Lit branded high top surrounded by a bevy of flatscreen monitors playing every sports broadcast under the sun. Shadowheart was already nursing a syrupy cocktail out of a chipped margarita glass.

An extremely tall woman with a red tipped mohawk and smiling eyes bounded over to Gale and clapped a firmly friendly hand on his shoulder. “You’re the new Adjunct, I take it?” She asked. “I’m Karlach, Professor Cliffgate, if you’re nasty.”

“Gale Dekarios.” He reached out to shake her hand. She fist-bumped him instead, and Gale got a glimpse of a nasty burn scar peeking out from the sleeve of her jacket. “It’s a pleasure!”

“Aw, I have a great-aunt named Gale!” Karlach replied.

“I get that a lot…” Gale sighed. “I like your hair!”

“Thanks!” Karlach tussled her own hair. “Told my kiddos they could pick what color I dyed it if they all passed their benchmarks.”

“Does Balduran give benchmarks?”

“Oh, no. Teaching university is my side gig,” Karlach replied. “I’m actually a full-time middle school teacher.”

A spindly girl with bleach-blonde hair pulled into space buns sidled up to the table, clutching a notepad. “Can I take your order?” She seemed quite put upon being asked to do actual work on a slow day.

“Vodka Soda,” Astarion replied, holding his ID out to the server.

She took it and dropped it in her apron, jotted something down on her notepad, and turned to Gale with an expectant look.

“I’ll, uh, take a Corona,” Gale replied. He’d never ordered a Corona in his life, but it seemed like an acceptable ‘getting drinks with colleagues’ kind of an order.

The server stood there staring at him a moment long before she asked, “ID?”

“Oh, um…” Gale patted for his wallet and realized he left it in his desk drawer. “I didn’t realize I would need it…”

“You didn’t realize you’d need an ID at a college bar?” Astarion asked dryly as he turned to the server. “Just put it on my tab.”

The server nodded and walked away without asking if they needed anything else.

“Wow Gale, just one day on the job, and you’re already bumming free drinks off the department chair.” Shadowheart teased. She took a sip of her drink crinkling her nose at the taste.

Gale flustered. “I-I was going to pay with my phone, I swear! I wasn’t planning this.”

“Relax. We’re not so underpaid that I can’t afford to buy you one beer.” Astarion rolled his eyes. “You can return the favor when you get your first paycheck.”

Gale blushed. “Alright.”

The server brought them their drinks without another word, then plopped down at the end of the bar to scroll on her phone. Gale pushed the lime through the neck of his beer bottle and watched it fizz as it sank to the bottom of the dubiously golden liquid.

“So, did I miss anything important at the all-hands?” Karlach asked idly, stirring her bourbon and coke.

“You know you didn’t,” Shadowheart replied. “We’re changing timecard systems, and Raphael and Astarion are in another one of their weird power struggles-there, I saved you an hour and a half.”

Karlach’s eyes lit up, and she turned towards Astarion. “Before the semester even starts?” There was a conspiratorial glee in her voice. “What the fuck could he have possibly done this time?”

“Why spoil the mood by ruminating on that rat bastard?” Astarion said. He picked the lemon slice out of his drink and laid it on a napkin. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Fair.” Karlach shrugged. She turned back to Gale and fixed him with a warm smile. “So, Gale, what brings you to the wonderful world of higher education?”

Gale had thought a lot about what he would tell people when they asked him why he wanted to teach college. He’d written little speeches in the shower about the joys of teaching language and the satisfaction of helping students reach their goal, but sitting in a group of other English professors, that suddenly all felt very trite.

“I was a public librarian, but I had to step away from my last position when I got divorced.” He admitted. “I found a job at a community college teaching database management, and I realized I’d just always missed teaching.” He took a long pull of his beer. The sour of the lime battled with the bitterness of the beer on his tongue.

“Library science might be a harder industry to break into than academia. It must have been tough to leave that behind.” Astarion mused.

“I do miss it terribly sometimes… but my ex helped me get into graduate school and got me my first library job. If I stayed, I would never be able to make anything that was truly mine.” Gale sighed. He could see the wheels spinning in Shadowheart’s head as she tried to figure out his age.

“You talk like you’re as old as this bag of bone,” Karlach pointed a thumb at Astarion, who glared daggers at her. “But there’s no way you’re that old.”

“I’m 35.” Gale clarified.

“That’s a little bit older than I thought, but still nowhere near as old as Astarion,” Shadowheart said.

“You are barely two years younger than me.” Astarion snapped.

“Barely a decade older than Gale, too.” Shadowheart shot back.

Astarion rolled his eyes and muttered something into his drink. “Did you go to get your master’s straight out of undergrad?” he asked.

“Yes, why?”

Astarion shrugged. “That’s just quite young to be with someone that well-established in their field.”

“Oh, we didn’t get together until I graduated.” That wasn’t entirely true. They didn’t get together publicly until he graduated. He didn’t know why he was still defending Mystra. It wasn’t like any of his new colleagues would ever meet her.

“I wasn’t trying to imply anything…” Astarion lied.

“Of course not.”

They both took a sip of their drink, holding awkward eye contact.

“Well, here’s to making something for yourself then,” Shadowheart said, holding her drink out to Gale for a cheers.

Gale clinked the neck of his beer bottle against her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”

[bearimba]

Pokemon Mini Headcanons

Realized it's been a solid minute since I've shared anything. so! here's some pokemon headcanon tidbits that have kinda been floating around in my head but I don't have anywhere to put them yet:

Barry is extremely tall. Like, at least six feet. Since he's very visibly the goofy type, it's not super intimidating until suddenly he's barreling down the street and nearly knocking people over in his wake. He's also incredibly clumsy, so it's kind of a bull(tauros?)-in-a-china-shop situation.

Leaf is part of the team that revolutionized and maintains the PSS (not part of the original team though, she's too young for that), which is of course led by Bill. Where Bill came up with the, made the team, and did a bunch of hardware stuff, Leaf is in charge of software stuff and does coding for the different programs. As for the rest of the team. well. I don't know who they are bc I haven't gotten that far.

Also, Red's sign name for Leaf is Green, as in, literally the sign for the color (the same goes for Blue). Blue's often calls her Greenie as a result.

As Hoenn's Champion, Brendan is considered a very down-to-earth and blunt person, which is great and all until you remember he's from the ✨️bearimba pokeverse✨️'s equivalent of Florida and is basically Reigning Florida Man Supreme. He's definitely done some crazy stuff but it kinda gets shoved on the back burner (that definitely isn't partially because the media pushes his more serious side in order to fight the "all Hoennians are unhinged" allegations).

Lucas is legally deaf (deaf but not Deaf, he lost his hearing as a kid) and uses hearing aids. He can kinda sorta understand people without them, but it's less like he understands the words and more like he understands the sounds that are supposed to be word, so it's way more convenient to keep them in. Whenever he doesn't want to deal with Dawn's and Barry's shenanigans, he just turns them off, closes his eyes, and relishes in the relative peace and quiet.

He's also the one who gets transported back to Hisui during the final battle with Dialga/Palkia/Giratina. Long story short (bearimba DPPt/PLA rewrite when?), his hearing aids get destroyed in the process of getting transported and he's forced to go through the events of PLA at a huge disadvantage, mostly relying on his quick wit and vast knowledge of pokemon to survive the game.

Lorelei, Karen, and Clair are all besties, and they meet up regularly to have brunch and share the latest gossip (aka pooling together their resources to gather info on their enemies, discuss the most recent affairs in Kanto/Johto, and more, all under the guise of "girls' time").

Silver and Janine first meet when Silver gets accidentally caught up in a prank meant for the E4, for which Janine very vehemently apologizes (under threat from Koga) and Silver reluctantly forgives her (under threat from Lance). They get along surprisingly well after that, especially after they both get involved in the Kanto League as gym leaders, and they eventually become pretty good friends.

Team Rocket was kinda just a shady family business until Giovanni took over in his twenties. In the 30ish years he presided over the it, he managed to develop it into a massive, multi-level and multi-department organization with their fingers in just about every aspects of the Kanto economy before their collapse. (all things considered, it's kinda funny/pathetic how things ended---he had all this power, then just threw all that and his kid out the window because some teenager happened to beat him in a pokemon battle)

Indigo Plateau (the actual plateau itself, not the League building) is pretty unique in that it's literally a plateau in the middle of a bunch of mountains. which. isn't really how geography works. Story goes, it was originally a mountain that served as the battleground for a pair of ridiculously overpowered trainers, and it got leveled in the middle of all the fighting. In honor of the plateau's legend, there was a regularly held tournament for pokemon trainers to decide who was the best of the best in the region. Eventually, some guy decided to make it an "official" event, and that's how the Pokemon League got its start before it spread and became an international organization!

[seat-safety-switch]

Far be it from me to criticize your kitchen appliances, but I know that you’re not happy with the performance of your food processor either. It’s made of flimsy plastic, which cracks and isn’t covered under the warranty. The motor is surprisingly noisy for how completely, contemptuously weak its power output is. And it takes forever to chop onions to anything approaching a consistent fineness.

There’s some good news, though. A group of investors and I have been working together on a better food processor. It’s all part of our Do Things Properly initiative. You see, we’ve determined that humanity is being held back by having to go to the department store every couple of years to replace every single kitchen appliance. They wear out prematurely. They fall apart. Their performance is decidedly wimpy. No more of that. We may not be able to put a person on Mars, but we can definitely help the person who does that make quick and satisfiying menemen for dinner.

The reason we can do all this is because we’re new to the industry. That’s right. As a group of radical innovators, we believe knowing fucking anything at all about what we’re doing is actually detrimental to our ability to produce a quality product. And we’ve been sure to hire only the most pie-in-the-sky, details-are-for-someone-else junior software engineers and middle management to handle the difficult problems. Legislation? We’ll move too fast for those meddling legal eagles and their requirement to keep sharp, twirling blades largely inside the casing. Liability? There’s an impenetrable 600-page license agreement to click through before you can start dicing up tomatoes, in print too small to read on the screen.

On top of putting in an incomprehensible amount of horsepower into the hands of the average home cook with little or no safety features, we’re also looking into saving you even more time in the kitchen. That’s right: fully autonomous cooking. With just a push of a button on one of our seventeen different smartphone apps, you’ll be able to tell your food processor to pull food out of the fridge and start preparing it. By the time you get home, you’ll either have a head start on your dinner, or we’ll tell everyone the feature is in beta and not meant for use when not being carefully watched by a team of engineers protected by foot-thick bulletproof glass.

[averydavery]

I went down the PS2 Emulating/Reproduction Rabbit Hole so you don’t have to:

And here’s how to get your favorite PS2 games for cheap.

I was just gifted a used PS2 for my birthday which made me SO excited… until I looked up the cost of a lot of the games I want to play. Titles like Silent Hill 2 & 3 go for about $100 (USD) typically and the game I’ve been hunting for, Blood Will Tell, averages anywhere between $450- $700. Because these titles didn’t sell well initially but are popular now/have a sense of rarity to them, they cost a fortune. So do you spend a fortune on getting them or live without playing them?

Neither!

You emulate them or buy from a professional reproducer!

What is emulating?

According to Wikipedia the definition is: “in computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system to behave like another computer system. An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peripheral devices designed for the guest system.”

TLDR; emulating (in video game terms) is taking a game and playing it on either a system it wasn’t originally made for OR a country/region it wasn’t designed to launch in.

Is emulation illegal?

No, emulating a game isn’t illegal. The only part that would be considered “illegal” is if you don’t own the actual ROM/game you’re emulating. For example, if I download Silent Hill 2 for free off the internet and emulate it on my PS2, that’s considered piracy because I didn’t actually buy the game.

Do I suggest emulating on the PS2, if not what is another option?

No, there’s something you can do that’s a lot easier than emulation. Emulation typically is for playing old games on a new system, commonly a PC. It takes a lot of software/hardware know-how to do and the average joe (me) doesn’t have that.

Another option is buying a reproduction and a reproducer. This requires a rapport with a third party professional and a the right system.

What is video game reproduction?

Reproduction is when a creator completely reproduces a game and burns it onto a disk, making multiple copies off of one game and making them available across different models and regions of the same system. In order to use the reproduction, one needs to download a software on their system that allows you to run homebrew/reproduced content.

Is reproducing a game illegal?

Well… yes. But the brunt of the legal ramifications is on the vendor and there has been no case of a person being charged with buying a reproduced game. Think of it as going to 9anime.to and watching a pirated anime, you’re watching pirated content which is illegal. But 9anime is providing that content and has the target on their back. The vendor I’ll be suggesting is literally on Etsy and has been for years, so that’s how little this is enforced.

If you’re paranoid about this then I obviously don’t suggest this option, I suggest trying to emulate the game but that means you’ll be buying whatever it is at full price. I’m just a random person on tumblr so you don’t have to listen to me at all lmao.

Here’s a screenshot of a reddit thread discussing this practice:

What reproducer do I suggest?

AndresCustoms on Etsy/Facebook Marketplace! He tests his products on many different systems from various different regions. He has an 4.8 star average review. I’ve read the review comments, consumers a very impressed with his work and he actively responds to his reviews. Andre also is easy to get in touch with if you have any questions on how to set up his FMCB cards or games. He only accepts refunds for defect disks of his, since that is his fault. Besides games he sells (average of $25) he also sells the hardware that allows you to play them, they’re FMCB cards ($15) all you do is stick one into the controller port and it’s good to go.

What to look out for with reproductions?

I don’t recommend buying off Ebay, they have a fraud department but you’re likely getting overcharged for what you’re buying. The largest portion of scams are on Ebay.

Scammers often sell reproductions for the cost of the real game titles, not only are you paying way more than it’s worth many of these tend to not work well or at all. That’s why reputable vendors who openly claim to be professional reproducers and have multiple ratings by real customers (i.e. AndresCustoms) are very important to consider when getting reproductions. Never buy a game that is inflated far above market price, unless it is mint condition and graded for collection purposes.

TLDR FOR ENTIRE POST:

PS2 games cost a shit ton of money these days

Emulation is mostly used to play retro games on modern devices, usually PCs

Emulation is hard to do unless you have technical know-how

Legal emulation requires the purchase of an authentic game

Reproduction is illegal under piracy laws

Reproduction under a reputable vendor can be a cheap way to get your favorite retro games and still run as if they where authentic copies

Keep your eye out for scams

[mattersuite]

Are you looking for the best legal software solution to efficiently manage your firm? MatterSuite is the most reliable law practice management software in UAE. You can manage your legal task, matters, calendar, etc. in Arabic language and also manage the multi-location office. It supports multi-lingual and multi-location features helpful for big law firms, enterprises, and in-house legal departments.

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-Fi Prompt from 200002:

As an engineering person who has to interact with business/accounting people more often, what are the basics you need to know/understand? Especially for projects. Sometimes I feel like they are talking in a different language.

I found this a little vague, but here we go:

One of the processes a business student is taught is generally how to do large-scale project scheduling. What they see as a necessary deadline often works on different principles entirely than what the production teams (whether engineering, manufacturing, animating, or what have you) are looking at. If you find yourself regularly talking at cross purposes, ask what's in the schedule that's got this set. Accounting or management are much more likely to have knowledge of something you may not have known to take into account, like customs paperwork or legal fees that can only be submitted after a certain point in the project.

Credit and Debit are not what you think they are. They are accounting terms that track the money that comes into the company, money that goes out, and debts incurred. I wouldn't recommend trying to learn more details than that, because it's honestly a headache.

Accounts Receivable tracks money that comes in. Accounts Payable tracks money that goes out.

Accrued Expenses: an expense that has been incurred but not yet paid (basically: invoices you owe)

Depreciation: the loss of value that comes with time and use (think of how your car or laptop loses value when it's not the newest, unused thing in the market)

Revenue: the money that comes in as a direct result of goods sold

Profit: the money left after removing all expenses (supplies, rent, wages, etc.) If a product is sold for five dollars (revenue), and the expense per unit is four dollars, the profit is one dollar.

Margin: the profit in relation to revenue, expressed as a percentage. If the revenue is five dollars, and the profit is one dollar, then the margin is 20%.

Simple interest: increase in debt is based entirely on the original loan amount (the principal of the loan) Compound interest: increase in a loan changes based on the debt quantity at the start of a given period (quarterly, monthly, etc)

Dividends: On a regular basis, investors (people who own stock) are paid a certain amount of money as compensation for owning stock, having paid money to the company to invest at some prior point. This one of the three reasons people buy stock. The others are capital gain, which is the earnings gained when selling stocks after a rise in value, and gaining voting shares to influence the direction of the company (this is what people refer to when talking about controlling interest).

Overhead: Expenses of the business that are not direct, per unit elements of the production. Raw materials and factory worker wages are not overhead. Pretty much everything else is. This includes: company rent, debt repayment, accounting software costs, payroll costs, utilities, equipment maintenance, corporate taxes, certificate fees, advertising costs, and the wages of people who are not directly involved in manufacturing (e.g. R&D, payroll, HR, sales department, and so on).

[sarcasticsciencefictionwriter]

For the three sentence prompt! How about Henry and Kate but they work in an office (you can choose the type of office)??

*claps hands* Thanks you! Okay, the way I work with these, I write three sentences and then do an extended scene underneath, because I have zero self-restraint. (I also have zero knowledge of office jobs, so I hope you like this 😅)

____

Henry was trying to ignore just how much Kate was questioning him, arguing with everything he said, laughing when he smacked his head on the desk that he was laying underneath, calling him by a nickname that he was very unappreciative of.

It wasn't that he didn't like her, because he did, in an annoying-little-sister way, but it was getting a little tiresome, especially considering the fact that he was doing this for her as a favor, not because he was actually being paid to do it.

Still, Kate's triumphant crow of that nickname when her computer lit back up with her work was worth it, along with her helping him to his feet, especially when she suggested that she pay for a meal once they were both out of the office for the night.

"Are you sure that you know what you're doing, Hank?"

"Henry. Not Hank." Henry corrected, annoyed, as he navigated the mess of cords that were underneath the desk.

"Whatever. You've been down there for a pretty long time."

"I wouldn't be down here at all if someone hadn't tried to play a CD at the same time they were going through a boatload of data."

"You're joking! There's no way my music did all that. It has to be the database."

"Whatever software you downloaded to use the CD made the whole thing overload." Henry countered, navigating another cord and silently cursing.

It really was time for an upgrade on the tech, like he had been insisting, because the amount of cords down here was ridiculous.

But he finally managed to get the CD to eject and he snatched it out of the drive, sitting up only to crack his head into the bottom of the desk.

Kate laughed, leaning over the cubicle wall a little further. Henry had no idea how she was managing that, considering that she was practically too short too even see over them in the first place.

"This thing is the whole problem, not the system." he said, waving it as he rubbed his head.

"So you say."

"Yes, so I say."

"You have no proof." Kate said smugly, grinning as she looked down at him.

"If you wanted proof, you should have called the IT department, not me."

"IT takes forever and you're ten feet away. Do the math, Hank."

"It's Henry."

He dove back under the desk, fiddling with things.

Henry liked Kate. He really did. She was new and probably not well suited to an office job when it really came to it, but she had 'needed a job that was considered boring and legal' and, well, the boss always liked to take in strays.

But she was also infuriating, calling him Hank, taking folders full of files and not putting them back when she was done, using company computers to play CDs on sketchy software.

Then running to Henry when something happened.

The thing about Kate was that none of it was malicious. She simply did something and was bewildered when it made someone unhappy or something stop working.

Which was probably why Henry liked her as much as he did.

That, and she reminded him powerfully of someone else.

"Do you actually know what you're doing down there?" Kate repeated now, as he disconnected a cord.

"Yes, I do."

"Mmm."

"Call IT if you want it done differently."

"Can't, it's like ten thirty. Everyone else went home."

"Why didn't you?" Henry grunted as he shoved himself further across the carpet to get a better look.

Kate didn't answer for such a long time that Henry figured that she just hadn't heard him. Which was fine, because it allowed him to work in silence.

"I can't mess this up." Kate said quietly. "Magnus took a chance on me. I can't show her that she made the wrong choice."

Henry paused for a moment, deciding not to say anything. The boss wasn't likely to boot Kate for little mistakes, especially when she was new, and she probably would have been shocked to learn that Kate was still here, though there was no doubt in Henry's mind she herself was still up in her office, going through the paperwork that always piled up.

Kate fell silent and Henry realized that his silence probably hadn't been the most helpful thing in the world, but he ignored this as he finally managed to reroute things so that the computer would reboot without erasing anything. It was a little trick he had learned a few years back, teaching another stubborn girl to use the system.

"Way to go, Hank!" Kate crowed and he slid out from beneath the desk to see that the computer screen was glowing once again, displaying the database.

Kate walked around the cubicle wall and reached down, surprising Henry, but he took her hand and let her help haul him to his feet.

"Just try not to do it again." he said, running a hand through his hair.

Kate nodded, looking a little sheepish.

"I'm buying you dinner when I'm done." she declared, poking him in the chest and dropping down into her chair.

"Fine, but I get to pick."

"Deal."

Henry edged out of Kate's space as she spun in her chair, drumming her fingers along the edge of the desk before she went back to typing.

Really, most private medical foundations wouldn't have hired someone like Kate, especially not for the data, paperwork, and filing bit, but she was a hard worker and stubborn as they came.

Henry trudged his way back into his office, leaving the door part way open and dropping back down at his desk and the stack of papers that was still sitting there.

He was supposed to be going over the reports from their latest medical study for Magnus, reviewing them and stuff before sending them up to her for final approval, but he was finding it extremely hard to concentrate at the moment.

He was pretty sure that the actual doctors and medical geniuses had the easy part of the job. All they did was cut people open and perform treatments. The people like Henry and Kate were the ones that kept the gears turning.

Henry had only been back at it for about ten minutes when there was a knock on his doorway.

He looked up to see Kate standing there.

"Yeah?"

"It didn't exactly say thank you."

"Don't worry about it."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Henry rubbed his eyes tiredly as he skimmed the reports, taking notes of the side effects and such so that he could enter it into the database at some point.

It was easier to take notes by hand as he went instead of having to read it all and enter it all in the database at the same time.

"Hank?"

Henry sighed a little and looked up at Kate.

"It is past office hours."

"So?"

"You wanna get dinner now?"

Henry felt his shouldres slump, even as he smiled a little.

"Yeah. I'd like that."

"Great!"

Kate bounced back out into the main office area to her desk, which Henry could see from his door. He watched as she powered down the computer and pulled on her jacket.

"Hank, come on!"

"I'm coming!"

Henry got up, turned off everything, and followed Kate out of the office.

[mariacallous]

Unbox a new phone in the US and it's almost certain to have Google as the default way to search the web. Federal judge Amit Mehta on Monday ruled in favor of the US Department of Justice that the contracts Google uses to secure that position violate fair competition laws. Now Mehta must decide what to do about it.

The jurist could order big changes to the unboxing experience, with users having to select their default search provider. He also could go as far as to force Google to sell parts of its business. Mehta scheduled a hearing for September to begin the process of deciding the penalties, but with Google appealing the verdict, it could be years—if ever—before the search giant must comply.

Though legal and economics experts say it’s difficult to guess where Mehta might land with his remedies, they have some ideas of what he might be considering. Here’s a look at five options.

Ban Revenue Sharing

US courts have generally tried to resolve antitrust violations by ordering an end to the illegal behavior, setting rules to prevent it from recurring, and taking any additional measures needed to ensure that the culprit and its competitors are moved onto an even field.

To satisfy that first prong, Mehta is widely expected to ban Google from continuing with arrangements under which it splits tens of billions of dollars in ad revenue among Apple, Samsung, Mozilla, and other companies that agree to set Google as the default search on their devices or software.

“At a minimum, the Justice Department will ask for an injunction that forbids Google from engaging in the conduct that the court deemed to be improper,” says William Kovacic, who previously served as an antitrust regulator on the US Federal Trade Commission.

An injunction might prevent Google from using its unmatched economic might to outspend smaller search companies, such as Bing, DuckDuckGo, or Ecosia, to secure exclusive default status. Positioning matters; Mehta’s ruling found that even when it’s easy for users to switch defaults, most people don’t adjust the setting. But some do prefer Google. That’s why “Google.com” is the most popular search term on Bing, which is the default on some Microsoft devices, according to Mehta’s ruling.

In the future, users who prefer Google may end up having to query “Google.com” in other search engines, too.

Require Choice Screens

Mehta could follow the lead of the European Union, which for years has required Google to offer a menu of search options on Android devices, and recently expanded the rule to the Chrome browser.

Experts don’t believe the European regulation has led to a significant increase in the popularity of Google alternatives because users recognize Google better than other options. “The horse is already out of the barn,” says Herbert Hovenkamp, an antitrust scholar at Penn Law School who has researched tech platforms. “One problem with free choice is that it won’t necessarily take down Google’s market share.”

But if Mehta pursues the approach, he should make some improvements on the EU’s rules, says Kamyl Bazbaz, senior vice president of public affairs at DuckDuckGo. Users should be prompted with the choice screen periodically, not just once, Bazbaz says. They shouldn’t have to deal with popups from Google urging them to switch the default to Google, he adds. And when users first interact with a competing search app, there should be an easy way to set it as the default app.

With these added measures, some searchers could find themselves more reliably ditching Google. Others could be frustrated by the recurring requests.

Order a Divestiture

Contract bans and choice screens are examples of conduct remedies. But the Justice Department in recent years has expressed a preference for what are known as structural remedies, or breaking off parts of a company.

Most famous is the breakup of telephone giant Bell in the 1980s, creating a variety of independent companies, including AT&T. But courts aren’t always on board. When Microsoft lost an antitrust battle in the 1990s, a federal appeals panel rejected an order to break up the company, and Microsoft eventually settled on a range of conduct changes.

A one-time sale is preferred by regulators in part because it doesn’t require them to invest in monitoring the ongoing compliance of companies in terms of conduct remedies. It’s a much cleaner break, and some antitrust experts contend that structural remedies are more effective.

The challenge is figuring out what parts of a company need to be separated. John Kwoka, an economics professor at Northeastern University who recently served as an adviser to FTC chair Lina Khan, says the key is identifying businesses in which ownership by Google are “distorting its incentives.” He says that, for instance, breaking off search could open the door to Google’s Android partnering with a different search engine.

But Hovenkamp doubts the potential of a search sell-off to increase competition because the service would remain popular. “Selling Google Search would just transfer the dominance to another firm,” he says. “I don't know what sort of breakup would work.”

Some financial analysts who study Google parent Alphabet are also skeptical. “Alphabet's scale, continued strong execution, and financial strength mitigate this legal risk and the possible ensuing financial and business model ramifications,” Emile El Nems, vice president for Moody's Ratings, said in a press statement.

Other legal experts envision a future in which search results would come from Google and the ads in the experience from another company that’s spun off from Google. It’s unclear how that remedy would affect users, but it’s possible ads could end up being less relevant and more intrusive.

Force Google to Share

Mehta found in his judgment that Google provides users a superior experience because it receives billions of more queries than any other search engine, and that data fuels improvements to the algorithms that decide which results to show for a particular query.

Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University following the Google case, says one of the most aggressive remedies would be requiring Google to share data or algorithms with its search competition so they too could improve. “Courts do not like to force sharing between rivals like that, but on the other hand, the judge seemed very concerned about how Google’s conduct has deprived its rivals of what they really need to compete—scale in search data,” she says. “Forcing data sharing would directly address that concern.”

Potential shareable data could include all the queries that users are running on Google and which results they are clicking, DuckDuckGo’s Bazbaz says.

Another option would have Google hold on to its data while instead providing a service on a nondiscriminatory basis, with adequate customer support, for other apps to pull results from Google and present them to users as part of a competing experience. Rivals have called Google’s existing offering in this regard inadequate.

“Only a multipronged remedy will allow rivals to enter the market and fairly compete for consumers based on the merits of their own product,” says Lee Hepner, senior counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopoly advocacy group.

Any approach that involves Google sharing data is likely to raise questions about its users’ privacy. Strengthened rivals also would have a better shot at securing defaults, meaning those who’d rather use Google would again have to take a few more steps to get back to regular old Google.

Increase Oversight

It’s up to the Justice Department to propose to Mehta potential remedies, which Google would then get a chance to rebut. Neither side has previewed what it wants.

In some other antitrust battles, Google has found ways to design product and policy changes to continue to limit competition in part by making competing unaffordable for rivals. “Google will do anything it can to get in the way of progress,” Bazbaz says. That’s why he hopes Mehta establishes a monitoring body to administer the remedies and hold Google to their spirit.

Bazbaz also wants to see Google have to invest in public education initiatives to let users know about the benefits they can get from switching search engines. With oversight and PR measures in place, users may have no choice but to hear about the Google Search antitrust case for a long time to come.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Νέκυες κοπρίων εκβλητότεροι.**

- Heraclitus

Corpses are more useless than dung.**

When Elon Musk took over Twitter in early November, he got rid of Twitter’s CEO, CFO, and chief legal officer on his first day. Musk then gave Twitter employees an ultimatum in a midnight email: commit to a “hardcore” culture at Twitter or leave with a generous severance. Barely three weeks later he purged  nearly two-thirds of Twitter’s 7500-person workforce, around 3700 employees.

“What works at SpaceX and Tesla is people being in the office and being hardcore,” said Musk during his first meeting with Twitter employees following the lay offs. In his Tweet defending the layoffs, Musk said all departing employees were offered "3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required". Musk has also fired as many as 5500 additional contract Twitter employees recently to cut down on bloated staff and waste of resources.

The mass layoffs prompted knee jerk concerns about content moderation, with NGOs and campaigners claiming the changes could mean more harmful material or misinformation on the site. Most of those culled or those who left voluntarily were from teams responsible for communications, content curation and moderation, human rights, human resources, and marketing.

The language of hard work and commitment demanded by Musk to remaining Twitter staff was mirrored in an email to Twitter employees entitled ‘Twitter 2.0’. “Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade. Twitter will also be much more engineering-driven. Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway. At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company, so I think this makes sense.”

It sure does. After clearing house of deadwood, Musk has gone on a hiring spree at Twitter, mainly for more talented software engineers.

The two pictures above tell their own story. The top picture were staff who resigned or were culled. Many complained of their ‘inhumane treatment’ at Musk’s demands whilst others were left in tears or were distraught.

The second bottom picture is of remaining Twitter staff - overwhelmingly software engineers - happily working in the trenches at 1.30am with their new boss who was also putting in the hours alongside them.

[thechanelmuse]

My Book Review

"If you're not paying for it, you're the product."

Your Face Belongs to Us is a terrifying yet interesting journey through the world of invasive surveillance, artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and biometric data collection by way of the birth and rise of a company called Clearview AI — a software used by law enforcement and government agencies in the US yet banned in various countries. A database of 75 million images per day.

The writing is easy flowing investigative journalism, but the information (as expected) is...chile 👀. Lawsuits and court cases to boot. This book reads somewhat like one of my favorite books of all-time, How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt (my review's here), in which it delves into the history from birth to present while learning the key players along the way.

Here's an excerpt that keeps you seated for this wild ride:

“I was in a hotel room in Switzerland, six months pregnant, when I got the email. It was the end of a long day and I was tired but the email gave me a jolt. My source had unearthed a legal memo marked “Privileged & Confidential” in which a lawyer for Clearview had said that the company had scraped billions of photos from the public web, including social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, to create a revolutionary app. Give Clearview a photo of a random person on the street, and it would spit back all the places on the internet where it had spotted their face, potentially revealing not just their name but other personal details about their life. The company was selling this superpower to police departments around the country but trying to keep its existence a secret.”

[masllp]

The Ultimate Guide to Payroll Outsourcing in India with MAS LLP

Introduction: Managing payroll can be a complex and time-consuming task for any business. As companies grow, the intricacies of payroll management increase, making it challenging to stay compliant with ever-changing regulations. Payroll outsourcing India is becoming an increasingly popular solution, offering businesses a way to streamline their payroll processes while ensuring accuracy and compliance. MAS LLP is a trusted name in payroll outsourcing, providing comprehensive services tailored to meet the unique needs of businesses. In this blog, we will explore the benefits of Payroll outsourcing India and how MAS LLP can help your business achieve seamless payroll management.

Why Payroll Outsourcing is Essential for Businesses in India

Compliance with Regulations: India’s payroll regulations are complex and subject to frequent changes. Non-compliance can lead to hefty penalties and legal issues. MAS LLP’s payroll outsourcing services ensure that your business stays compliant with all statutory requirements, including tax deductions, provident fund contributions, and employee benefits.

Cost-Effective Solutions: Maintaining an in-house payroll department can be expensive, requiring specialized software and skilled personnel. Outsourcing payroll to MAS LLP reduces overhead costs, allowing you to focus resources on core business activities.

Accuracy and Timeliness: Payroll errors can lead to dissatisfied employees and potential legal issues. MAS LLP uses advanced payroll software and employs experienced professionals to ensure accurate and timely payroll processing, minimizing the risk of errors.

Data Security: Handling sensitive employee information requires stringent data security measures. MAS LLP implements robust data protection protocols to safeguard your payroll data, ensuring confidentiality and security. Key Benefits of Payroll Outsourcing with MAS LLP

Expertise and Experience: With years of experience in payroll management, MAS LLP offers unparalleled expertise. Our team of professionals stays updated with the latest payroll regulations and best practices, ensuring your payroll is managed efficiently.

Customized Solutions: We understand that each business has unique payroll needs. MAS LLP provides tailored payroll outsourcing solutions that align with your specific requirements, from small startups to large enterprises.

Advanced Technology: MAS LLP leverages cutting-edge payroll software to streamline payroll processes. Our technology-driven approach ensures accuracy, efficiency, and scalability, allowing us to handle payroll for businesses of all sizes.

Comprehensive Services: Our payroll outsourcing services cover all aspects of payroll management, including salary calculations, tax filings, statutory compliance, leave management, and employee reimbursements. MAS LLP’s end-to-end solutions ensure that all your payroll needs are met.

Focus on Core Business: By outsourcing payroll to MAS LLP, you can free up valuable time and resources, allowing you to concentrate on your core business functions. This can lead to increased productivity and business growth. How MAS LLP Ensures Seamless Payroll Outsourcing

Initial Assessment: We begin with a thorough assessment of your current payroll processes and requirements. This helps us understand your specific needs and tailor our services accordingly.

Transition Planning: MAS LLP creates a detailed transition plan to ensure a smooth and seamless shift from your existing payroll system to our outsourcing services. Our team handles the entire process, minimizing disruptions to your business.

Regular Updates: We provide regular updates on payroll processing, compliance changes, and other relevant information, keeping you informed and in control.

Dedicated Support: Our dedicated support team is always available to address any queries or concerns you may have. MAS LLP ensures that you receive prompt and efficient support whenever needed. Conclusion Payroll outsourcing India is a strategic move that can significantly enhance your business’s efficiency and compliance. MAS LLP offers expert payroll outsourcing services designed to meet the unique needs of your business, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance. By partnering with MAS LLP, you can focus on your core business activities, confident that your payroll management is in expert hands. Contact MAS LLP today to learn more about how our payroll outsourcing services can benefit your business.