It’s Legal To Play Pinball In Oakland For The First Time In 80 Years

This pleases the Pinball Wizard.

Flex those wrists and get your shoulders rolling, folks: It’s legal to play pinball in Oakland, Calif. for the first time in 80 years.

Though it was technically illegal this whole time, anyone playing pinball in the city might not have known they were breaking the law by flipping balls around.

As Wired explains, pinball was originally banned in the 1930s because it was seen as a method of gambling.

There were no flippers to help players back then, just whatever nudges you could make to the table to send the ball down the path to money.

“There was this stigma for what pinball was,” the president of the International Flipper Pinball Association tells Wired, “which stuck around as it evolved into an amusement machine, with electricity and the opportunity to control the ball via flippers.”

His father co-founded the association, and helped destigmatize the game in the 1970s, leading to several bans getting lifted in cities like New York City.

But no one really noticed in Oakland until the Association tried to have a tournament and got shut down. Its members vowed to reverse the law.

“It might have even been about the noise of the business, just based on the machines and the people there,” the Association’s president says. “If you want to shut someone down, find a way to make what they’re doing illegal. So they found this old rule that didn’t allow people to operate pinball machines that way.”

The group was successful in its fight, and the city council lifted the pinball ban last month.

To celebrate, a local RadioShack is hosting a monthlong pinball tournament. Any player who can rack up more than 50 million points on its machine will compete for the table itself. And then have to dress like Elton John in The Who’s Tommy because come on! So cool.

Huge Tournament Celebrates End of Oakland’s Bizarre 80-Year Pinball Ban [Wired]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Restaurant Realizes Maybe It Shouldn’t Force Servers To Pay Credit Card Fees Out Of Tips

(Avitania Satari Bronstein)

Earlier this month we told you about the Minnesota restaurant owners who decided the best way to offset increases to the state’s minimum wage was to deduct credit card transaction fees from servers’ tips. While it’s legal for businesses to do this, a poll of Consumerist readers found that 91% of you think it’s not a wise idea. Looks like the restaurant owners have finally gotten that message.

In a statement to local media yesterday, the owners of Blue Plate Restaurant Company, which operates eight restaurants in the state, announced they had stopped dinging servers’ tips to the tune of 2-3% to cover the cost of credit card transaction fees.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act allows for these fees to be deducted from tips, so long as the employee is still earning at least the minimum wage after the deduction.

But employees at Blue Plate restaurants didn’t see why they should be penalized when the servers have no say over whether customers pay in cash or with plastic.

“It’s their choice to accept credit cards, and the customers’ choice to pay with them,” said a server at the time, “it’s not up to me.”

Following the negative public response to the news, Blue Plate is changing the policy.

“We have always listened to our guests and our community,” wrote one of the owners in a statement. “Blue Plate is a family of small neighborhood restaurants and we value the hard work of our employees more than anything. Before we were founders we were servers, [we] built hundreds of meaningful relationships with our employees and guests. It’s our core; our people understand our values. We’ve reflected and decided to try a different approach that will give our communities a clear indicator of who we are as a business.”

[via Eater]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

We Want This Netflix Hack That Adjusts Color Of Room Lights To Match Screen

Engineers at Netflix have figured out a way to connect the streaming video service to new “smart” lightbulbs so that the lights in a room respond to color changes on screen, providing a much more immersive experience. Alas, we might never get to try this for ourselves.

The added functionality — which uses Philips’ Hue smart lightbulbs — was developed as part of Netflix’s most recent Hack Day, in which company engineers get to show off what they can do.

As demonstrated in the above video, the lights respond in real time to onscreen color changes. Some TV manufacturers have dabbled with ambient lighting that changes according to the colors being shown on the screen, but this hack operates from within the app so it doesn’t require a certain type of TV, or even a TV at all. So if you’re watching Netflix on your phone or tablet, the lighting changes would still work — so long as you have the very expensive Hue bulbs.

The real downer is that Hack Day hacks are often just “isn’t this cool?” one-offs that never make their way to the official Netflix app, so there’s a good chance that this ambient lighting function may never see the light of day.

[via GigaOm]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

DOJ Finally Confirms Record-Setting $16.65B Settlement With Bank Of America

(Adam Fagen)

More than two weeks after it was first reported that the Justice Dept. and Bank of America were coming to terms on a record-setting deal worth nearly $17 billion, the two parties have finally confirmed the details of a settlement that will resolve multiple federal and state claims involving the bank’s bad behavior in the lead-up to the collapse of the housing market.

According to the DOJ, the total value of the settlement is $16.65 billion, beating out last year’s deal with JPMorgan Chase to become the largest civil settlement with a single entity in U.S. history.

But it’s not like BofA will hand U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a big poster-board check for $16.65 billion and be done with it. Instead, the deal is broken down into various penalties, payments and consumer relief.

First, there is the $5 billion penalty — the largest ever of its kind — for claims brought under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), which prohibits the making of false statements to federally insured financial institutions.

Another $7 billion will go to consumers in various forms of relief, including principal reduction loan modifications for some homeowners who now owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth; new loans to credit-worthy borrowers struggling to get a loan; donations to assist communities in recovering from the financial crisis; and financing for affordable rental housing. And just in case Congress fails to extend the tax relief coverage of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, BofA has also agreed to place nearly half a billion in a tax relief fund to be used to help defray some of the tax liability that would be incurred by consumers receiving certain types of relief.

The bank will pay $1.8 billion to settle federal fraud claims related to the bank’s origination and sale of mortgages; $1.03 billion to settle federal and state securities claims by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and $135.84 million to settle claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

$300 million will be paid to settle claims by the state of California; $45 million to Delaware; $200 million to Illinois; $23 million to Kentucky; $75 million to Maryland; and $300 million to New York.

This settlement closes the books on numerous state and federal investigations into Bank of America’s (and its acquired affiliates like Countrywide and Merrill Lynch’s) packaging, marketing, sale, arrangement, structuring and issuance of Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), and the bank’s practices concerning the underwriting and origination of mortgage loans.

BofA acknowledges that it sold billions of dollars of RMBS without disclosing to investors key facts about the quality of these securitized loans, resulting in billions of dollars in losses when these worthless securities collapsed. The settlement also required BofA to concede that it originated risky mortgage loans and made misrepresentations about the quality of those loans to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration.

“At nearly $17 billion, today’s resolution with Bank of America is the largest the department has ever reached with a single entity in American history,” said Associate Attorney General West. “But the significance of this settlement lies not just in its size; this agreement is notable because it achieves real accountability for the American people and helps to rectify the harm caused by Bank of America’s conduct through a $7 billion consumer relief package that could benefit hundreds of thousands of Americans still struggling to pull themselves out from under the weight of the financial crisis.”t

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

UPS: Hackers Hit Computer Systems At 51 Retail Stores, Possibly Exposing Customer Info

(frankieleon.)

Did I bump my head and wake up in late 2013? Because it sure feels like deja vu with a slew of recent data breaches: Joining P.F. Chang’s, a group of supermarket chains and Community Health Systems in this month’s data breach roll call is United Parcel Service, which says 51 of its retail store locations had their computer systems hacked.

That breach may have exposed the credit and debit card information and postal and email addresses of customers at those stores in 24 states, reports the Associated Press, though UPS says no fraud has been linked to the attack yet.

A spokeswoman says a computer virus that isn’t identified by current anti-virus software was detected by a security firm it had hired, after UPS got a Department of Homeland Security bulletin about the malware on July 31 along with other retailers.

The malware is not identified by current anti-virus software, and may have been in place as early as January but probably didn’t start doing its dirty work until March or April, affecting about 1% of the company’s 4,470 franchised locations.

UPS says it’s still investigating how the breach happened, but that the problem was fixed by Aug. 11, and that the company took extra steps to make sure other stores’ systems weren’t at risk.

The company says it will provide identity protection and credit monitoring help to affected customers, who can go here for more information.

“The customer information that may have been exposed includes names, postal addresses, email addresses and payment card information,” wrote the company in a public statement. “Not all of this information may have been exposed for each customer. Based on the current assessment, The UPS Store has no evidence of fraud arising from this incident. The UPS Store is providing an information website, identity protection and credit monitoring services to customers whose information may have been compromised.”

UPS stores included in the attack are listed here, but the company says all locations are now safe for customers to shop.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

400 People Continue Starbucks Pay-It-Forward Chain For 11 Hours

(Michael Sauers)

For about 11 hours, the customers of a Florida Starbucks kept a pay-it-forward chain going. Almost 400 cars each paid for the order of the customer behind them in line, continuing the chain from morning rush hour until dinner time. Are these chains inefficient? Sure. Do they brighten the day of both customers and employees? Generally.

Of course, there are the occasional grouches who say that they would have ordered something more expensive if they knew that someone else was paying the tab. Ignore those people. They are actively working against the spirit of generosity. It’s the person who starts the chain who is awesome.

How it worked in St. Petersburg yesterday was that customers would place their order at the drive-thru menu board, then learn that it had already been paid for when they pulled up to the window to pay. The barista offered them the opportunity to pay for the order of the person behind them in line in turn, which almost 400 people did.

According to employees, the final customer who broke the chain simply didn’t seem to understand what was going on, and chose not to pay for the customer behind her. Other outlets have solved this problem by keeping a rolling fund in cash for future orders, which is how a store in Connecticut kept their chain going for almost 1,500 customers over several days.

Is this a world-changing effort? No, of course not. It’s just a nice example of a few hundred people choosing to do something nice for a stranger.

Nearly 400 people ‘pay it forward’ at St. Petersburg Starbucks [Tampa Bay Times]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Family Dollar Says “No Thanks” To Deep-Pocketed Suitor Dollar General’s Takeover Attempt

(Steve Depolo)

Well, we didn’t exactly see this one coming: Family Dollar has rejected the advances of potential suitor Dollar General and its $9.7 billion bid to buy the smaller dollar store.

The New York Times reports that officials with Family Dollar cited “significant antirust issues” related to the offer as reason for its rejection.

North Carolina-based Family Dollar, instead, will stick with its earlier $8.5 billion merger deal with Dollar Tree to create a company with more than 13,00 stores and annual revenues of $18 billion.

“Our board reviewed, with our advisers, all aspects of Dollar General’s proposal and unanimously concluded that it is not reasonably likely to be completed on the terms proposed,” Howard Levine, Family Dollar CEO, said in a statement. “Accordingly, our board rejects Dollar General’s proposal and reaffirms its support for the pending merger with Dollar Tree.”

Officials with Family Dollar acknowledged on Thursday that they were party to several talks with Dollar General over the last year and a half to try to hash out a merger deal. However, they claim during that time that advisers warned a union would not pass regulatory scrutiny. And when Dollar General declined to attend an antitrust meeting in early June, and potential deal was all but dead.

The Times reports that when the two companies met again Family Dollar had already signed a nondisclosure agreement with Dollar Tree, preventing it from mentioning the pending deal.

Had the Dollar General bid won-out, the combined company would have included 20,000 stores in 46 states with annual revenue of $28 billion.

Family Dollar Rejects Takeover Bid by Dollar General [Forbes]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Now’s Your Chance: FCC Public Comment Period For Comcast/TWC Merger Ends Monday

Comcast and Time Warner Cable announced their intention to merge into wedded corporate bliss back in the middle of February. Now, six months later, the process is still rolling along. Monday — August 25 — is the deadline for members of the public to leave comments with the FCC about the merger. Got thoughts? You have three days left to make them heard.

Many of the comments filed so far are from those who, like Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, feel there might be some foreign conspiracy at work to take wholesome all-American programming off the air.

But the reality is bad enough without paranoia involved, and it’s so much more simple: all of it is about money. A combined Comcast/TWC would have massive reach, massive clout, and massive market power that it could use to eke more and more money from every link in the chain.

Since the companies announced their betrothal in February, we’ve looked at many of the issues the potential merger raises. Among them are…

Competition:

If Comcast buys Time Warner Cable, then they get big enough to raise serious anti-trust concerns in an environment that already has virtually no competition.

Customer Service:

The industry already has legendarily poor customer service, as we have seen in incident after incident after incident after incident just within the past month. Without competition, there’s nowhere else for those customers to go.

Internet Access:

Rates are going up and data caps are proliferating and there’s not a thing consumers can do about it. Competition is nil in many regions (and mobile data is no competition, no matter what Comcast claims).

Comcast also actively tries to keep out competition by “advocating” for state laws that block municipal broadband projects.

Net Neutrality:

Or cable company f*ckery, as it were. Comcast is bound by the conditions of their 2011 merger with NBCUniversal to stick with the now-vacated 2010 net neutrality rule until 2018. But that doesn’t stop them from advocating against a replacement that would continue to protect consumers past that point. Instead, they’re in favor of the FCC’s proposed fast lane solution.

Vertical Integration:

Comcast isn’t just a TV distributor or an ISP. They’re both, and also a content provider and a half-dozen other things. But the control that they can exert by controlling access to the cloud and to streaming content helps them lock out potential competitors — both content producers and programming distributors (and companies, like Netflix, that are both). They can also charge those companies more money for access to Comcast’s internet subscribers. (Which, in turn, ripples to other providers.)

That leverage also gives them the power to keep content on networks they own, like regional sports programming, to themselves, or to charge a prohibitively high rate for it to other providers.

Track Record:

This isn’t Comcast’s first mega-merger. As Senator Al Franken pointed out earlier this year, their behavior after buying NBCUniversal in 2011 has not lived up to all of their promises.

Money!

Comcast, meanwhile, is ginning up support for their merger plan from every angle. They’re using campaign donations, lobbyists, dinners and parties, and even philanthropy and outreach to lower-income families as ways of trying to convince the FCC and the DoJ that expanding their business is in the public interest.

And yet, over half the country still thinks that this merger is a pretty terrible idea for consumers.

If you want to add your name to the chorus, here’s the place to do it and here’s a reminder of how.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Woman Says Anthropologie Manager Sent Her To Breastfeed On The Toilet

(CBS Los Angeles)

A woman in California says that Anthropologie used to be her favorite store, but she gave serious thought to boycotting the chain after a store manager asked her to please feed her six-week-old son in the bathroom, not in the back of the store. The goal? To make everyone more “comfortable.”

Why didn’t she just cover up, you ask? She claims that she was using a cover to shield the public from the sight of her infant eating, but that wasn’t good enough for the Anthropologie Boob Police. Instead of a quiet corner of the stockroom or a dedicated lactation room, which some businesses now have, the store manager escorted the mother and son to the store’s restroom and invited them to have a seat on the toilet.

After leaving the store, the mother called to discuss the incident with the same manager who had escorted her to feed her child while sitting on a toilet. The manager’s response? “I thought you and the other customers would be more comfortable off the sales floor,” the mother recounted on Facebook. “We must be fair to all the customers, not just moms.”

Sure, Anthropologie doesn’t sell gauzy $180 infant sundresses, but the store was not in the right here. Like many states, California has a law that explicitly says that mothers are allowed to feed their babies in any place that they’re normally permitted to be. That means the customer couldn’t go nurse in the stockroom without permission, or break into someone’s house to nurse in a comfy armchair. However, the sales floor of a store where she was about to drop $700 on new clothes is a perfectly legal place to feed a baby.

Whether it’s polite in modern American society is another matter, and that’s a subject about which many pixels have been spilled on this and other sites. After the mother posted about the incident on Facebook, outrage spread across Los Angeles and the world, and a nurse-in was planned in front of the store yesterday afternoon.

The company did post an apologie on its Facebook page, promising “training and education” for employees. Maybe they could start by showing store managers this series of student-produced ads.

We are disappointed to hear of the unfortunate experience that occurred in our Beverly Hills store. As a company comprised of hundreds of mothers, which seeks to put the customer first, we celebrate women in all of their life stages. Given our staff’s dedication to providing exceptional customer service, we welcome this as an opportunity to enhance our customer experience by providing further training and education for our staff. Our aim is that all women – all mothers – be comfortable in our stores and delight in their relationship with Anthropologie.

Woman Says Beverly Hills Store Broke The Law After Asking Her To Breastfeed In Private [CBS Los Angeles]

Anthropologie Learns a Lesson in How Not to Treat Breastfeeding Moms [AdWeek]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Estudio sobre que quieren ser los niños españoles de mayores (por Adecco) #empleo

Hola:

Os dejo con un Estudio sobre que quieren ser los niños españoles de mayores realizado por Adecco.

Un saludo

Archivado en: España, Formación, Infografía, Inserción laboral, RRHH Tagged: formación, Inserción laboral, RRHH



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