What I meant by cents on the dollar is usually, they broke rules, make $100 billion from it (imaginary scenario), and then the settlement from that wrong doing sees them pay out $2 billion to the affected customers that joined the class. It may be due to the fact that I’ve not paid attention to too many class action suits, but it seems like the settlement never comes close to the harm they caused.

I can tell you that I have arbitration on going, and it’s been well over a year that it has been happening. To assume that the arbitration wraps up in a month, when you’ve got lawyers involved is non-sense. I don’t believe arbitrators are in anyone’s pocket either. The arbitrators aren’t in-house council for Valve, they are a company Valve has contracted with, and they’re going to be neutral, and rule based on law, not who’s paying. As a lot of arbitration rules state that if you take the case to arbitration and lose, the one that is ruled against pays for the cost of the arbitration. Based on the “mate’s rates”, I’m guessing you’re UK based. I don’t know that legal system, so can’t say how fee structures work. But a great deal of lawyers that are suing on behalf of you, in the US, take a percentage of the settlement. So the biggest cost is all to the person being sued, as they do pay the lawyers by the hour instead of a cut of the ruling.

I don’t think Valve is changing their rules to screw customers, I think they’re doing it because they’ve found separating each case into a different arbitration claim is too expensive. And it would have been better for them all to be in one group. I believe Valve is the best game distributor, as it turns out. But if people with law degrees think they’ve broken rules, I’m all for punishing rule-breaking. In this particular scenario, it seems like it might slightly improve things for consumers, and greatly benefit small studios.

If you push everybody into a class action, it will be cheaper. Have you ever gotten more than a cent on the dollar from a class action settlement(unless you’re the class representative)? Sure the seem like the settlements are a lot of money, but if you can get the class action settled with very few claimants, no one will be able to sue over that particular issue again, so it puts it behind the company. Instead of being dogged by individuals for however long.

It’s nobody’s business but the Turks!

Sure wish they were quiet enough to sleep through.

It certainly can be, but it’s such a high bar to get over that these days I’m not sure there will be another amendment.

Handy guide, but this whole USB situation is a cock-up, since it needs the freakin guide in the first place.

Imma start flingin shit if this video doesn’t load soon!

It’s a higher average than the amount of calls they had 150 years ago.

It’s a banger!

Apparently, the classification levels in the US are illegal! Snowden will rejoice, he can come home, as the first amendment allows free speech, even when it damages national security.

I did not read the article, but the summary made me actually laugh out loud. Hell the supreme court has already said the government has the right to intern a whole class of US citizens based on national security. The SCOTUS rulings do seem rather crazy at times to me though, so perhaps this is a winning strategy for ByteDance.

I still miss having a physical keyboard for messages. If HTC had kept making slide out keyboard phones, I woulda kept buying. Though it seems, based on market trends, I might have been one of the very few.

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

One of the few movies I’ve gotten more than a few minutes into, but stopped watching. Seem to remember my breaking point being when some female char was supposed to be struggling to crawl forward, but instead looked like she was swimming on the floor. Seems to me the actors aren’t bad, but the director must have been.

Spiderman 2 and Mario Bros Wonder.

Mainly Spiderman, but play the other when my daughter is playing her SM2 game.

They towed the boat out of the environment.

And putting money in the bank is just rent for living? The money is used to increase your home’s value. But I see we are at an impasse, and will be done discussing it.

It’s nothing like a landlord, as the person living in the apartment owns said apartment. The owner makes the money off it when it’s next sold.

While often HOAs are abusive, and I don’t want to ever be a part of one, I also don’t want to live in a condo/apartment again. Someone needs to take care of the building, so they set up HOAs which, when run well, are democratic. You elect the board, you can go to the meetings and make your voice heard. If you speak well you can convince all the people in the building to get behind the idea you’re championing. Condos require a Home Owner’s Association due to the fact that no one person should get to dictate how the common area is run, and no one should be on the hook to fix, say, an elevator. Everyone pays dues, and those dues pay for the repairs.

If people elect to hire a company to be the head of the HOA, well they’re choosing to be lazy, and for that reason, the HOA will be paying the company to run it’s affairs. If the HOA is run by the residents, no money is going to enrich any one person, the money is being used to enrich everyone that lives there, through keeping the building in good shape to raise the value of their personal property.

Would imagine it’s an HOA situation.

There’s a company that owns the land, and it’s sole purpose is to maintain the land and common areas of the building. All the units could be individually owned, and that company exists to have a bank account that can pay for repairs/repaints. In this situation I’m describing, while the company would own the building, they have no ability to raise rents, as all the units would be owned by the tenants.

I will be sure to get off your lawn. 👍