HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

mortarion

162 karma · joined June 17, 2014

submissionscomments
mortarion··on Meta takes down a critical video about meta AI Glasses after filming at Meta
In Sweden for instance it's a bit in-between (unless the law has changed). You're allowed to film in public if you're using a non-stationary camera, but stationary cameras require a permit.
mortarion··on Fable 5.1 Solves the Cyphral Distich, a 370-year-old cipher
They will just take out new loans to service their old loans, rinse and repeat ad inifinitum.
mortarion··on How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
In the EU some companies simply cannot grow because of laws like that. They might want to grow, but can't because of laws that says if your company has more than X employees you suddenly have to deal with a bunch of extra bureaucracy and reporting requirements. These companies purposely stay small, and basically has stopped hiring, even if they could use more manpower.
mortarion··on Chinese chipmaker shares surge 470%
It's not possible. High living costs, high energy costs (100x of China) and high regulatory costs all mean that if you were to build a modern fab, you'd need to sell your product for way more than the price offered by the competition in Asia and the USA, just to break even.

The interstate competition you see in the USA, where states compete against each other for companies to invest, is plain illegal in the EU.

Tax breaks? Illegal. Subsidized energy? Illegal. Subsidized land? Illegal. Permit exemptions? Illegal.

EU countries are not allowed to compete against each other by offering targeted state aid as incentive. This is to prevent wealthier EU nations from outcompeting poorer EU nations when it comes investments.

Basically the EU, in our infinite wisdom, are forever doomed to be disadvantaged.

mortarion··on Chinese chipmaker shares surge 470%
It's simply not possible to build profitable fabs, or large industry anymore in most of the EU. This won't change. Laws and regulation has put a stop to this. The best that EU can do is to protect existing industry.
mortarion··on Codeberg: ToU extension to prohibit LLM-extrusions
Well, guess I will take my repositories elsewhere.
mortarion··on World-First 'Super Alloy' Could Transform the Way Metals Are Made
This is basic metallurgy that every metal forger and alloy designer is already aware of.
mortarion··on The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party
Marxism, communism and socialism are all extreme far-left ideologies.

Being anti-immigration doesn't automatically swing the party to the right. As written on Wikipedia, "left-conservative" is probably the best label.

The Swedish far-left loves to, for instance, brand the governing party in Denmark as far-right, but they are actually also left-conservative.

It is possible (shocker) to be liberal and progressive, whilst also being pro-assimilation, pro-deportation, anti-immigration.

mortarion··on The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party
Örebropartiet is not a extremist far-right party. All their policies is extreme far-left except immigration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party

mortarion··on Danish privacy activist Lars Andersen raided by police
You can if there's a direct threat to your life (i.e. you can see that the intruder is also armed).

But you can't use it against someone for just entering your premises illegally. It needs to be a clear and present danger.

mortarion··on W Social, public institutions and the theater of European digital sovereignty
The company is "W Social AB", meaning "aktiebolag" which in Swedish is what you in the USA would call an LLC or "joint stock company.

So they are 100% looking to monetize and turn a profit.

I wouldn't call it shady, but closed source, for-profit sounds accurate.

mortarion··on W Social, public institutions and the theater of European digital sovereignty
The guy who runs W Social, whilst he has a software developer background, has worked most of his time in the financial world. W social is also an LLC. It's a corporation with shares looking to make a profit somehow. No doubt there will be ads on there, and paid features.

I don't see how this will ever become a success, not because it's going closed source (people here don't care), or because it might have paid features (people here don't care) in the future, or even ands (people here don't care), but because of the name. Who the hell thought "W Social" was a good name for a company?

We are so bad at company names here in the EU it's embarrassing.

mortarion··on SpaceX to buy Cursor for $60B
SpaceX is 90% xAI and 10% space. It's no longer a space exploration company, it's an AI company (with a sub-par product). Insane (and dumb) valuation, kind of like Tesla.
mortarion··on Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier
We're terrible at company and brand naming here in Europe. Just look at the "Wero" payment solution (formerly/currently iDeal). Like, who the hell came up with that stupid name?

The list of stupid European company names and product names are endless.

mortarion··on Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data
Most people in the USA live within 100 miles of the border. That 100 miles limit was chosen for a purpose, to weaken protections for most US citizens.
mortarion··on Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz
Russian military technology has not evolved since the 90s
mortarion··on Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz
9/11 was not a military action against the USA, and the invocation of article 5 by the USA was illegimate.
mortarion··on Nvidia NemoClaw
Agents should be treated like users. Would you give another user you know is a bit careless, write access to your important documents and data? Probably not. I get it that people don't want to be bothered by "can i do this and that?" requests, but there's no other real solution.
mortarion··on US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere
In the EU the platform becomes responsible for posted content, the moment someone notifies them that they are hosting something illegal. They have plausible deniability until notified, after which they have a certain time to act, and if they don't they are criminally liable. The user posting the content is also liable, from the moment they made the post.
mortarion··on US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere
Compared to the USA, we have incredible privacy in the EU.
mortarion··on US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere
Countries in Europe (and most of the world) have positive constitutions, which defines what the government "must do" (for its citizens), whilst the USA has a negative constitution that defines what the government "cannot do" (against its citizens).

What constitutes hate speech is carefully defined in the constitutions of EU countries. Politicians can't just amend or extend the definition at will, except in the UK which has a strange system of laws and not a constitution like you're used to in the USA or in the EU.

In Europe we recognize that Hitler came to power by abusing free speech, which is why using the same rhetoric now can land you in trouble with the law. We also recognize that the pen is mightier than the sword and that unfettered speech can be used to persuade groups of people to use violence against other groups of people.

mortarion··on X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok
Not only that. This law exists like this because of a EU directive.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/93/oj/eng

Let me quote again: Pay attention to c.iv specifically:

(c) ‘child pornography’ means:

(i) any material that visually depicts a child engaged in real or simulated sexually explicit conduct;

(ii) any depiction of the sexual organs of a child for primarily sexual purposes;

(iii) any material that visually depicts any person appearing to be a child engaged in real or simulated sexually explicit conduct or any depiction of the sexual organs of any person appearing to be a child, for primarily sexual purposes; or

(iv) realistic images of a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct or realistic images of the sexual organs of a child, for primarily sexual purposes;

mortarion··on X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok
This is the actual law (Brottsbalken 16:10a)

https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/sven...

A person who

1. depicts a child in a pornographic image,

2. disseminates, transfers, provides, exhibits, or otherwise makes such an image of a child available to another person,

3. acquires or offers such an image of a child,

4. facilitates contacts between buyers and sellers of such images of children or takes any other similar measure intended to promote trade in such images, or

5. possesses such an image of a child or views such an image to which he or she has gained access

shall be sentenced for a child pornography offense to imprisonment for at most two years.

Then there's Proposition 2009/10:70, which is a clarifying document on how the law should be interpreted:

https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/prop...

Let me quote (translated):

"To depict a child in a pornographic image entails the production of such an image of a child. An image can be produced in various ways, e.g., by photographing, filming, or drawing a real child. Through various techniques, more or less artificial images can also be created. For criminal liability, it is not required that the image depicts a real child; images of fictitious children are also covered. New productions can also be created by reproducing or manipulating already existing depictions, for example, by editing film sequences together in a different order or by splicing an image of a child’s head onto an image of another child’s body."

mortarion··on X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok
Maybe you should look up child pornography laws in Europe. In Sweden, the mere act of scrolling by an image depicting (real or not) a child in a sexual position, and having it stored in the browser cache, is a crime with up to 2 years of prison time.
mortarion··on X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok
Maybe US law makes a distinction, but in Europe there is no difference. Sexual depictions of children (real or not) is considered child pornography and will get you sent to the slammer.
mortarion··on X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok
This is the cyber crime unit. They will exfiltrate any data they want. They will use employee account to pivot into the rest of the X network. They don't just go in, grab a couple of papers, laptops and phones. They hook into the network and begin cracking.
mortarion··on The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal
Within the Schengen area, you don't really need an ID to get on a plane either. In fact you can go through security screening in many places without an ID or a valid ticket.
mortarion··on The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal
In most of the modern world, it's impossible to go through life without a bank account at the minimum (which requires an ID), but not so in the USA, there you can live your whole life, paying with, and accepting cash, storing it in your matress.
mortarion··on X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok
CSAM does not have a universal definition. In Sweden for instance, CSAM is any image of an underage subject (real or realistic digital) designed to evoke a sexual response. If you take a picture of a 14 year old girl (age of consent is 15) and use Grok to give her bikini, or make her topless, then you are most definately producing and possessing CSAM.

No abuse of a real minor is needed.

mortarion··on xAI joins SpaceX
Yeah, delivering using Falcon 9.

The Starship stack? Not so much. It's plagued, and will continue to be plagued, by endless problems. BO will beat them with NG.

Page 1 of 3Next →