deanclatworthy

Maybe. But remember that the employees themselves voted on this. This was done by an independent auditor.

Depends on the economics. The food delivery companies take around 25-30% here in Finland (Wolt & Foodora). If the delivery fees were free, I'd order more food and Wolt would get more of the tax they charge restaurants. And maybe the restaurants can make up that loss by having more orders.

Delivery prices are astronomical here. For something 5min away with car (assuming no traffic) I have to pay around 7.90e. For something 1 minute drive away I pay 1.90e. Then there's ranges inbetween from 3.90 to 5.90.

This is exactly what I see happening. Restaurants are increasing prices to cover the “Wolt tax”. My local McDonald’s does this.

“Cleared” is a bit of a red herring. In reality this means ploughed. You’re still riding on compacted snow with puncture-wielding stones on top. In the capital they do “clear” some major bike lanes but it’s rather limited.

This isn’t such a problem with high end brands. I have a specialized ebike and am fairly sure I’ll get 5-10 years out of it. Only concern is the motor.

Much like cars, studded tyres are available for bicycles too. It’s a marginal cost. Only hassle is changing them, if you want to use the same rims.

Here in Finland best you can do is 1% depreciation a month. So after two years you’ve lost 24% value of your bike if it’s stolen. That’s a significant amount of money on top of a deductible to cough up to replace a stolen bike. Considering the probability of having it stolen is far far higher than a car too…

I know people who have had 2-3 of these bikes stolen. I use mine for commute at the moment and that’s it.

While I have your ear, what is the actual "goggle" performance like? These came up as the highest-end option when I was looking for a new pair. I have constant problems with every pair with seal, fogging and eventually degradation of the materials. My most recent speedo goggles see-through seal has degraded to the horrible yellow plastic, even inside a case, in a bag, in a cupboard.

They also have these, believe it or not, for swimmers

https://eu.formswim.com/products/smart-swim-goggles

At least when I was doing the interrail those options were not available with the ticket without paying considerably more. I've taken 2 person cabins here to Lapland (from Helsinki, Finland) and they exhibit the problems in my original comment. And of course, if you're going to go solo in a 2 person cabin then you'll have to cover the cost of the other person.

All the sentimental comments here around travelling by train make me wonder if Europe is just not good at this. I did the interrail about eight years ago and some of the worst nights sleep were had on the cramped bunk cabins. Arguments over air conditioning (too cold low down, too hot up top), people staying up late when you want to sleep, bad hygiene etc.

Even the night trains to the north of Finland which are seen here as some kind of benchmark are noisy with earplugs. They stop multiple times in the night so you wake to the beeping of the doors opening and closing.

I think there’s a market for rail travel. I love the idea. But it’s just not comfortable at all, or at least not economical to travel comfortably.

These problems, much like the IE problems back in the day are well documented. Much like you need domain knowledge to work on the back-end this is "par for the course" in front-end world also.

Yep this is the point. Back-end for sure is simpler if you are not operating at any meaningful scale. As soon as you start tackling the problems mentioned in my OP, things get (much) harder.

It really isn’t. I’m full stack and do both every day. I’ve been doing both since the days of IE5. Things have changed a lot but the challenges you face on the back-end with different technologies, distributed systems, data integrity, security etc are far more complex.

Thanks for the reply Jonathan. Sadly just for those who it's probably too late for, and a reactive response rather than pro-active (i.e. to prevent being hospitalised in the first place, given the amount of damage getting to that point can cause to an immunocompromised patient's body in the long term).

I’ve heard about these MCA treatments in articles but am surprised to hear in these comments about it actually already being in use.

My father is an immunocompromised transplant patient and has been isolating now since the start of the pandemic. His first two vaccines had no antibody response and we will get results on his third dose in just over a month from now.

The situation has been really difficult for us as a family and he’s not had human contact this whole time (lives alone, I’m in another country). His renal consultant and local NHS consultants offer no hope or mention of MCA treatment. Has anyone more information on this in the UK?

I've no idea of the Geography you are referring to in the DC area, being European. That said Uusimaa is a region, Helsinki is a (capital city). Helsinki spans quite a large geographic area and is fairly densely populated but primarily in a metropolitan area. Take a look on google maps and you'll see it's tiny, say compared to London, Paris, Berlin etc. Uusimaa covers a much bigger area with huge amounts of space between the edge and the metropolitan area (mostly covered with fields, private land and forest).

Uusimaa is a huge area, covering far more than Helsinki. I'm talking specifically about the metropolitan area.

I’d like to point out that the correlation between size and public transport isn’t always applicable. Helsinki has a fantastic and uncrowned public transport system. It’s also affordable (50-60e) a month. And it’s a tiny city when you compare to other capitals.

The number one thing stopping this is resolution. Monitors need to be sharp and crisp. It's none of those things in VR.

This isn’t secure re: your last point. If every country in Europe has numerous private keys it’s inevitable they’re leaked and used to sign fake vaccine passes.

Can someone tell me how the verification works?

From what I understand the data is signed. So someone has the key? Who controls the keys? We have an EU wide passport so are governments sharing the keys? There is an app for validating the codes in some countries so is that happening by hitting an API or are the keys in the apps?

What I’m getting at here is how are they validating keys without leaking the keys used to sign?

If you want to see an example of this taken to the extreme then check out Olafur Arnalds semi accompanying piano. It plays along with him using a lot of music theory to create generational music in real time on the same piano:

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/19/630111211/one-key-many-notes-...

I tried to create something similar using web audio and a midi piano a while ago but the reason this works is you are applying digital processing to analogue output, along with Ólafur being one of the most talented composers alive at the moment.

It's strange that it doesn't contain addresses. There's a bunch of other information you have to fill in including address on your arrival forms - so if it's the case that "this is it", we got off lightly. I have travelled there three times in the last ten years.

You can take those routers and use it as a modem only. Then put your own router in front of it.

Three years sounds reasonable, one not so much. For the lack of security at one year, an actual contracting role might be more lucrative.

Is it the case you can earn (quite a bit) more as a contractor, compared to full-time employment in NL? At least when I was doing contracting in the UK contracting roles could earn me almost twice as much as permanent roles (without the benefits of course).

Except job security. If you join a company in Finland on a permanent contract, once you have passed the trial period (6 months nowadays), it's quite difficult to get rid of you.

Changing jobs can be a hassle. It means learning new names, potentially changing private healthcare provider, getting new equipment and setup, learning new company politics.

I've no idea. I've never bought clothing online and don't trust these services either (yet).

Presumably what is my number one issue with online clothes shopping, and why I have and never will do it - sizing and perception.

1) Sizing - ordering multiple sizes so you get the right one is not a sustainable or environmentally friendly way of purchasing clothes online.

2) Perception - looking at a good-looking, slim person trying on clothes is not representative of most people. I've seen plenty of clothes look good on a mannequin look awful on me. Wish I could say vice-versa, but the mannequins don't talk back.

What I've been thinking of making is tiny little proximity devices that are next to the plants that emit a loud noise when movement is detected within a certain range. These could be reproduced quite easily and cheaply and left next to problem areas (e.g. plants, work surfaces).