A few years back, I saw an online rumor, that I decided to try for myself.
I left my (locked) iPhone 6 in front of a TV overnight, that was left on a Spanish channel.
The next day, ALL of my Facebook ads, across all devices, were in Spanish — along with about 20% of the ads that I came across during regular web browsing. Took about a month for them to revert back to English.
I do not speak Spanish. At the time, I lived in a rural New England area, where census data reported very low Hispanic population. Zero reason for me to get targeted with alternative language advertisements.
I’m not a Luddite of any kind. Several decades of tech industry experience, specifically with ecommerce software engineering. Hold all available certifications for Google marketing, Facebook marketing, Hubspot marketing, along with many more. Know quite a bit more about this topic than the average Joe, and it concerns the hell out of me.
Since that day, Facebook’s apps haven’t been allowed on any of my devices, and their services only get used by me for work purposes.
In the oilfield, workers generally have rotational schedules.
Something like 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off.
The 2 weeks on is intense. 84+ hour work weeks, and still hitting the bar and partying every night. When you're on site, all laundry/meals/etc. are taken care of for you. Toolpushers (project managers) have budgets to cover booze (off-site), entertainment, and so on.
The 2 weeks off is to go back home, spend time with family, go fishing, and whatever else you to have to do to relax and be refreshed for your next 2 weeks on.
The workers usually get double occupancy rooms. One person works the day shift, the other works the night shift, both working on the same thing. During transition periods, they update each other with statuses of what's going on.
As far as I can tell, this is the most ideal way of pushing limits on how to maximize output without burning everyone out completely.
If someone had that kind of business model setup, I'd sign on in a heartbeat.
I built a self-driving car, and am launching a VR-based startup. Figured I should chime in here.
I personally don't see much opportunity for people to get involved directly with autonomous vehicles, from a tech/development standpoint. The vast majority of work is focused on highly specialized subsets of development. Computer vision, embedded systems, network infrastructure, cellular networks, robotics, artificial intelligence, yada yada yada. The only meaningful work being done right now, is mostly by engineers with Masters, Doctorate, or post-Doctorate level education in niche fields.
Personally, I don't have that kind of educational background. I still managed to piece together everything to make a working prototype, but there is not a snowball's chance in hell that I would be able to contribute anything into this field.
Not to say it's useless, though. This is about to unlock a need for UI designers/developers on a level that is hard to fathom. Sit down and think for a while about what the hell people are going to be doing, while being chauffeured around. Entertainment options (Netflix, Youtube, News, etc.) will be in massive demand. Gaming of all different kinds (especially multiplayer experiences, that involve the vehicle's environment.) Advertising as a whole. (And goddamn do I wish I could be an investor in PornHub right now.)
While Oculus, HTC, Microsoft, etc. all have (or will soon have) consumer-ready products available for the VR market, I still feel like this technology is barely entering it's infancy stage. The financial barrier to entry is holding back 98% of the world from getting into it (for now). There isn't enough meaningful content beyond some decent games. (Once again, goddamn do I wish I could be an investor in PornHub right now.) For the most part, still tethered to a computer (or using a watered-down phone-based experience). It's cool tech for sure, but it doesn't feel (to me, at least) like anyone has really figured out what the hell to do with it yet.
3D development isn't terribly different than any other kind of development. A few more thoughts and considerations, but still the same principles of traditional console/pc game development. WebVR (and ReactVR) are still just a novelty. Because of the sheer scale and intricacy of most 3D environments, and my own predictions of an explosive growth pattern in this industry, I'm thinking that some form of automation (A.I., etc.) will have to be taking over most of the grunt work for development. Thinking that most dev roles are going to evolve into mostly architect roles, and that the real need is going to be for UI/UX (particularly thought leaders, as opposed to designers).
I left my (locked) iPhone 6 in front of a TV overnight, that was left on a Spanish channel.
The next day, ALL of my Facebook ads, across all devices, were in Spanish — along with about 20% of the ads that I came across during regular web browsing. Took about a month for them to revert back to English.
I do not speak Spanish. At the time, I lived in a rural New England area, where census data reported very low Hispanic population. Zero reason for me to get targeted with alternative language advertisements.
I’m not a Luddite of any kind. Several decades of tech industry experience, specifically with ecommerce software engineering. Hold all available certifications for Google marketing, Facebook marketing, Hubspot marketing, along with many more. Know quite a bit more about this topic than the average Joe, and it concerns the hell out of me.
Since that day, Facebook’s apps haven’t been allowed on any of my devices, and their services only get used by me for work purposes.