makeitsuckless

Constantly have to adapt and change or build services because commercial incentives will turn each and every successful service to shit feels like a problem to me.

It doesn't feel sustainable, and a backlash seems to me to only be a matter of time.

To be fair, to take the YouTube comment section, which in the days before G+ was known as the second greatest online cesspool after 4chan, and actually make it worse is an achievement of epic proportions.

Somewhat off-topic: Amsterdam's city center has recently seen a huge explosion of ice cream parlors, to the point where the center district now wants to ban any new ones.

Ice cream parlors, not "coffee shops" or "massage parlors" are currently the most hotly debated topic in Amsterdam's tourist area...

> there's no real negative social stigma attached to it

We live in world of bubbles, and apparently mine ends where yours begins.

Even at traditional companies software engineering salaries are not particularly high.

That's why most CS students choose to go towards consultancy job, and never write a line of code in the rest of their careers. (Those who want to do engineering choose hardware, which is much more respected and better paid.)

As a result, most software startups are started by MBA's and rarely by engineers, which perpetuates the circle of undervaluing software engineering skills.

Unfortunately, a lot of software development jobs in the Netherlands pay less than that.

> At least he is honest.

He's been caught lying on multiple occasions, most recently only two days ago about already having new proposals from the eurogroup.

And it's still remains to be seen how truthful the arguments with which he sold the Greek public on a "no" vote are.

> the whole point of the EU project was to make us all "Europeans"

Constantly repeating the lie doesn't suddenly make it true.

Also, trying to force people who prefer to remain sovereign and independent (and maybe most of all: democratic) is not a good recipe for a future without "disastrous fighting between states and people".

Quite the opposite.

Does the term "sovereign nation" mean anything to you?

Do you feel an obligation to pay for the debts of Greece? No? Then why would a German, or me as a Dutchman feel such an obligation?

You're not starving yet. You wouldn't be starving if Greece had accepted the deal.

You may however start to feel very hungry soon holding a pile of worthless Drachma...

You omitted the part where Greece repeatedly lied about the fact that it wasn't meeting its obligations.

And now our TV's are showing images of Greeks celebrating that they've told us to f-off with our euros. That's going to kill any kind of sympathy they still had when what's left of the Greek economy is going to crash hard over the next few weeks and months.

This is game over. Any compromise that was still possible is now dead, even if EU leaders would be willing to compromise, they can no longer sell this to their own people.

It does help that the space between Delft and The Hague is literally the size of a golf course.

As a kid I used to bike from the South West of The Hague to the center of Rotterdam. It's basically just one big urban area with some big parks.

In other words, they put themselves in a boring industrial terrain in a boring suburb, just like any other boring company, and then try to recreate the creative impulses you get if you would live and work in a lively city.

What they cite is their motivation is exactly why I live and work in an urban environment, but the office is supposed to be the place where I can focus in turning that input into productive results.

> is starting to be adopted by some big names

Citation needed. All I hear about Atom is that people are giving up on it.

BS. There's no "reasonably strong" Net Neutrality, just like there isn't "a little bit pregnant".

This is not net neutrality, this is a sham. It's full of deliberate vagaries and loopholes, and is specifically designed to kill the real net neutrality as it exists in my country, the Netherlands.

The new telecom law is specifically anti-Net Neutrality, designed to stop any more member states from adopting it, and overrule those that already have.

The Netherlands will vote against (government already announced that), but it won't matter. We'll be overruled. Once again we'll lose yet another bit of freedom to the corrupt EU.

Spending quality time with family doing outdoors activities, ensuring good and safe care and education for your children, eating quality food at fine restaurant, buying quality electronics, etcetera are actually the complete opposite of "stupid consumerism".

Sounds like an excellent way to spend your money if you have it.

Yes. And not limited to the EU.

In the vast majority of Western countries the notion of at will employment is considered an ancient, socially unacceptable practice.

All the things you've mentioned apply to pretty much every European nation.

The US is the outlier in the civilized world when it comes to labour protection.

Also, funny how every time people start to bitch in general terms about entrepreneurship in a European nation, it always comes down to one thing: you can't treat employees as expendable assets.

BTW, "It's really hard to get French people to adopt the latest trends." The place must be a horror for the fashion industry...

> The standoff reflects larger tensions in France over how to regulate fast-moving technology and stay globally competitive while ensuring labour protections.

This kind of biased journalism just pisses me off. Uber has nothing to do with "fast-moving technology". They could have done this service with on old fashioned phone dispatch in the 50s and it would still be the same illegal operation.

Sure, they've added some bells and whistle, but that merely serves to disguise what it really is: offering a cheaper service by breaking multiple laws.

Uber is about breaking the law, not about technology, and I'm glad they finally get treated as the criminals they are.

He's not a representative, he's an administrator. Representing the people is the job of parliament, his job is to lead. He cannot just switch sides whenever it suits him.

We have all of these safeguards in place to ensure our leaders neither go off the rails completely, nor simply follow the popular opinion du jour with the predictable disastrous consequences.

If we would do that in the rest of Europe, aid to Greece would have stopped a long time ago.

Yes, because theft and extortion are covered by consumer protection laws.

Oh, wait...

You do realize that the only difference Uber here makes is that it makes it easier for the criminal in question, since doesn't even have to bother stealing a medallion or have car that looks like a taxi?

Have you actually read the article? None of that applied. It was extremely factual and well constructed with a mildly left of center bias. Nothing compared to the extreme libertarian bias of half the non-technical articles on HN.

This is just a knee jerk reaction to the word "socialist".

There was nothing offensive of inflammatory about the article unless you consider the very existence of progressive though offensive.

The same happens in the Netherlands. However, that doesn't mean that it's legal. It's just that it's so convenient for both parties and IT contractors are so well paid that nobody challenges it.

I assume this is the same in most countries. IT contracting in it's current form is only viable because it's well paid and IT workers are rarely organised.

(And there's a major vested interest in keeping it this way, hence the rapid removal of this excellent article from the frontpage of HN yesterday: http://socialistworker.org/2015/06/24/class-capitalism-and-t... )

The local taxi company I usually use in Amsterdam had an app before Uber was even a thing.

That's a lame excuse. The only itch Uber is scratching is the libertarian itch to circumvent consumer protection, environmental protection and labour laws.

Yes, illegal, unregulated services tend to be cheaper.

What a groundbreaking discovery.

Not even that. It's core competence is to publicly break the law on an unprecedented scale for mainstream company and get away with it.

Why go to the Netherlands in the first place. We're the #1 in the world for wiretapping our own citizens.

(Except of course when those wiretaps involve prominent members of the government talking to fellow politicians suspected of corruption, then those wiretaps magically fail...)

If you move your operation to the Netherlands to avoid government snooping, you're going to have a bad time.

ad supported <> free

I wish people would stop echoing that. It would make it so much more possible to have a meaningful discourse about ad supported business models. We don't call anything else that requires something in return "free"

Tesla and Google's self driving cars are recent development. In Europe, there is a much bigger culture around car engineering, innovation, racing etcetera. There's a reason why, unlike in the US, millions are poured into all forms of autosports. It's nothing abnormal for an ordinary suburban housewife to prefer a "sporting" car with manual gearshift. Brands like Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche etcetera exist in Europe because cars are seen as much more than just vehicles.

The American obsession with cars is different, but there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of "love" involved in the American car culture, at least not since the 50s.

Their success lies in undercutting existing market prices by circumventing regulation.

Circumventing regulation not just by using soon-to-be-closed loopholes, but by encouraging people to break the law.

Airbnb and Uber have more to do with organized crime and right wing activism than with sharing.