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gerbler

287 karma · joined September 27, 2019

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gerbler··on The strange case of Britain’s demise
It was the initial incentive, but it's the only English speaking country in the eurozone (aside from Malta) and there's a huge number of companies who have massive capital investments (pharma/biomedical). Now there's a very active tech scene, it's tightly linked to the US so it actually feels quite sustainable.
gerbler··on The strange case of Britain’s demise
This was true, it no longer exists
gerbler··on Exclusive satellite images show Saudi Arabia's sci-fi megacity is well underway
Spot on
gerbler··on Meta’s Adversarial Threat Report, Third Quarter 2022
I don't know what to expect exactly, but these numbers seem quite small. Wonder if bad actors are moving to other channels
gerbler··on Twitter to employees: all office buildings closed, badge access suspended
Hahaha. Even better, the twitterer specializes in digital detoxes (a worthy cause, but counter to Twitter's goals). Maybe his secret plan is to turn down services in a volunteer capacity
gerbler··on Tim Berners-Lee: Web3 is not the web
>Aztec is on the cutting edge of zero-knowledge SNARK development. Built on PLONK — the paradigm-defining universal zk-SNARK used by leading zero-knowledge projects like Mina, Dusk, Zcash, and zkSync.

I have an open mind about this area and a technical background. I really struggle to understand what any of this means and what I can use it for. My experience with cryptocurrency (paying for things) has been challenging. As the whole ecosystem is very fragmented it's hard to know what to explore.

gerbler··on Michael Crichton’s and John Grisham’s ambition types
Comparing their personal lives is also interesting - Crichton, married 5 times, Grisham married once.

Not morally judging someone for getting divorced, but I suspect such an ambitious life (Crichton) left little room for personal relationships.

gerbler··on Meta stock price drops more than 20%
This isn't correct. You pay CGT on the difference between grant and sale

The one loophole is to sell with 4 weeks, that is CGT exempt.

gerbler··on Meta stock price drops more than 20%
This is country specific. The stock grant price and the vest or sale price are used in my country to assess gains, so you still have capital gains to pay even if you sell right after vesting
gerbler··on Global media ask what's happened to Britain
>Proximity to the university system breeds pro-EU attitudes because the EU enforces a similar ideology in Europe to that found in universities

That's an interesting claim - do you have evidence to justify it?

Not disagreeing entirely that degree holders benefit from EU membership based on the type of work degrees lead to, but in reality so do people without degrees if the economy is growing. There's really no economic argument for leaving the EU; it seems like it was purely ideological.

gerbler··on Global media ask what's happened to Britain
You could summarize it as fanciful brexit economics crashing into reality.

The dark irony is that it's from someone (Truss) who wasn't originally in favour of brexit.

The FT described her economic strategy as "cakeism" - getting to both eat and have your cake.

https://www.ft.com/content/f8f8d943-35e9-423a-9a9a-b6074a6cf...

gerbler··on Global media ask what's happened to Britain
I'm not sure that the electorate are educated well enough though - pro-brexit votes were higher in poorer, less-well educated areas (there was a strong linear correlation between the two published in The Economist).

Agree with your general points but would add that print media heavily influencing uneducated people allows any narrative to be justified.

gerbler··on Ask HN: Recommendations for ‘minimalist’ (e.g. not too ‘smart’) phones?
Not sure if this is an option, bit I have a pixel 3 Android and have explored a few custom launchers to achieve this.

Currently I use "minimalist phone", I've also used Siempo. Both are amazing, cut down on phone clutter and allow you to aggressively manage notifications.

gerbler··on Tesla’s self-driving technology fails to detect children in the road, tests find
The article clearly outlines the conflict of interest
gerbler··on My worst tech decision: A G Suite account for personal use
It's definitely not a perfect solution, but one approach could have been for the author to use a consumer Gmail account and to have set up the gsuite account as an alias.
gerbler··on Alphabet Q2 FY2022 Earnings [pdf]
Lots of capex
gerbler··on Disgraced Theranos founder will blame ‘abusive’ ex-boyfriend in fraud trial
My feeling is that hard proof around wire-fraud will be sufficient for her to be found guilty.
gerbler··on How Sweden became the Silicon Valley of Europe
I totally agree that English can be used entirely for businesses in other euro countries but for a US company it is attractive for employees/families to be in country where English is an official language.
gerbler··on How Sweden became the Silicon Valley of Europe
Also it is (and was) the only English speaking country in the eurozone.

Tax was a huge factor in drawing some of the big names but the double-Irish (the worst aspect of tax avoidance) had been phased out. Corporate tax is 12.5% which is lower than the majority of EU countries [1] but the existing ecosystem of companies has also helped create an attractive labour pool. If it's purely tax everyone would move to Hungary (9%).

1: https://taxfoundation.org/2021-corporate-tax-rates-in-europe...

gerbler··on Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence
For undergrads, no tuition fees and they are not paid
gerbler··on Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence
In Swiss federal institutes grad students are paid but it's free for undergrads.
gerbler··on Ask HN: What are the challenges of being an immigrant in the US?
In my experience (many years on the east coast as an immigrant) I found people very friendly.

I felt like people cared less about where you are from and what you do (blue collar/white collar) compared to my home country.

In some larger cities, specialized blue-collar workers can earn high wages (home-repair type work) due to a shortage of these skills in high cost-of-living areas.

gerbler··on Ask HN: What are the challenges of being an immigrant in the US?
To help build up a credit score you can register for a credit-card and try to use it as much as possible (paying it off in full each month). Once you build up a paper-trail it gets easier, but can be tricky to start.
gerbler··on The slow collapse of Amazon’s drone delivery dream
Oh wow - Zipline is so inspiring. This video showing their setup in Rwanda is fantastic: https://youtu.be/jEbRVNxL44c
gerbler··on Spreadsheet formulas for personal finance
You can look at a few of the sheets people link to here and just fiddle around with changing things too to see what happens
gerbler··on What I know about cleaning and seasoning cast-iron skillets
Griswolds are fantastic - I heard that they were made using a different process to the modern sand-casting and the surface is much smoother.
gerbler··on One Laptop per Child
Very accurate way of describing him.
gerbler··on Is This Prime?
I really like it.

I wonder if the text could be dropped once it starts. I found myself reading it each time which ended up distracting me a little and sometimes I would rush and tapped the opposite of what I intended.

gerbler··on Eliot Ness
I was curious about the line in a 2Pac song "A state that's untouchable like Eliot Ness" and learned more about the law-enforcement agent that took down Al Capone.
gerbler··on One Laptop per Child
I participated in the "Give One, Get One" campaign where I bought one and donated one. I used it to read my email for a while - it was super slow but I enjoyed the novelty. It used Sugar OS which was their own Linux flavor (I think).

I was a bit naive about the whole project - I heard Negroponte speak at an event where he was arguing defensively that all a country needs is technology (even ahead of civil society) and I was so disillusioned. I was no expert in this area, but his arguments were very weak. Pretty disappointing and I feel bad for the really kind and generous people who poured so much of their time into this project because it had garnered so much goodwill.

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