28 karma · joined November 6, 2022
In my opinion, computer touchscreens are one of those things you don't realize how nice they are until you've already gotten used to them and are faced with the sub-par alternative. Say what you will about Windows 11, but it is extremely good for touchscreen interaction. That is not by accident. I strongly believe that any UI that takes touch seriously will significantly enhance its KB+M experience as well because it has knock-on effects on the UI. It's a bit like mobile-first. When you stop treating touchscreens as an afterthought, you are forced to become a better designer. You start thinking more clearly about information density, visual hierarchy+feedback, and most ironic of all, it makes keyboard navigation even more pleasant. I would love to see more focus on touch-friendly desktop apps, even if only for those secondary benefits.
I do understand where proponents of language equivalency are coming from. LLMs seem to be extremely good at answering simple, one-shot type questions and mechanical 'low-level' translations for most languages. I feel like as soon as you introduce complex chains of thought or multi-step cross-linguistic tasks, minor imperfections stack and become magnified, just as with coding tasks or context rot.
Edit: Added some primary sources [2][3][4], including an interactive website by Andrew McCalip which lets you play around with the unit economics of orbital 'datacenters' at various price points [4].
[1] https://youtu.be/DCto6UkBJoI
[2] https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/suncatcher_paper.p...
If you want to pressure Volkswagen, go ahead. Nobody cares. The fundamental flaw in your position is your implicit assumption about what we value or what motivates us. We're not Americans. I don't think America's "non-tariff barriers" are a valid concern. They are disingenuous rhetoric for domestic consumption. Heads would roll if there was ever an agreement with the US to lower our standards and open up local industries to competition from lower quality foreign importers due to geopolitical pressure. Pressure is not going to undo the DSA or the GDPR because they have broad support. As others have said, it is decades overdue. If Elon Musk is mad about having to follow the law, I'm sure he can find sympathy elsewhere. His sour grapes are not principled, they are about protecting his ego and finding others who do so for him.
Sorry for the bluntness, but I feel it is very much warranted.
[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170027#46170683
[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170027#46170823
[2] - ibid.
[3] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170027#46171255
[4] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170027#46174642
[5] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170027#46175036
I think a more mundane explanation, which I personally subscribe to, is that Europeans have different priorities than Americans. They don’t want the same trade-offs, and they’re willing to make certain business models economically unviable if they believe those models are harmful or in bad taste. US companies are disproportionately affected because they don't share those values. First amendment, etc.
From the outside, this can create the impression of "hidden motives": the stated reasons sound unconvincing, the effects fall heavily on US companies, and so people infer that the EU is targeting Americans. But really, I think we're just different. If US laws disproportionately burdened EU citizens, I’d expect Europeans to be equally upset. It's only natural. I'm sure few people in Europe would be thrilled to find out that GDPR doesn't apply to ChatGPT because they got involved in some copyright lawsuit in New York.
That said, there's always a mix of motivations. I'm personally not a fan of other EU initiatives, like the one on encryption, but I think GDPR and DSA mostly mirror what the average João wants. I'm not sure most people care that much about the geopolitics.
Despite its clear humanist project, the anglosphere's continued failure to recognize this is almost farcical by now.
Edit: To be clear, I agree, for the most part, with this article.
Honestly, we could just use commas: After some discussion back, forth; we decided to get fish, chips. Then we droned on, on about this, that.