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naskwo

266 karma · joined August 31, 2013

Building websites since 1996. Degrees in TV Production (San Marcos, CA) and Communication Systems (Utrecht, NL)

Founded Lexa.nl, largest dating site in The Netherlands, and Kamernet.nl, the de facto way for students to find rentals.

CTO of Physitrack (www.physitrack.com)

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naskwo··on The Gemini app is now on Mac
It seems that I cannot paste screenshots into the Mac app, whereas this does work in Gemini running in the browser (Chrome).
naskwo··on Judge rejects most ChatGPT copyright claims from book authors
How is this different from the authors of (business book) seeking royalties from (bigtech CEO) because he/she ingested knowledge (training) from this book? Humankind needs to build on top of each other’s knowledge to keep evolving.
naskwo··on Wind turbines are friendlier to birds than oil-and-gas drilling
How does this compare to the estimates amount of birds that are killed by house cats every year?

I had an argument with a vegetarian cat owner about this the other week….

naskwo··on Ask HN: Which HN post (or comment) changed your life (or career)
Thanks for sharing!
naskwo··on A bevy of rovers heading for the Moon
How much CO2 does each launch emit into the atmosphere?
naskwo··on Adobe XD, where did it go wrong?
Try Audacity?
naskwo··on An interview that disappeared – FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
Could someone here do the math: how much CO2 is emitted by air travel to Qatar for football teams + entourage + fans vs. European countries hosting the world cup games (e.g. Italy, Benelux, Spain)?
naskwo··on Slow Electric Vehicle Charging Is Making Drivers Switch Back to Gas
Interesting. I just posted this very same question, but in a different context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27034597
naskwo··on Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?
My point for trying start a HN discussion on this topic is exactly this: I think that "perception" will be more narrow than it is now, as all cars look more and more alike, and the quantifiable differences such as:

- range - safety features - audio system - etc - acceleration

Will be more difficult for high-end brands (Range Roger, Porsche) to use as discerning factors if the "heart" of the vehicle is largely identical between a Kia and a Porsche.

Will luxury car makers go to the way of Vertu vs. iPhone, or Omega vs. Apple Watch?

naskwo··on The MetaHumans: High-fidelity digital humans in minutes
It's all the more impressive when you look at some of the great master painters of the 17th century, how alive their models look.
naskwo··on Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living
I love Webflow and have used it >20 hours per week since 2014. It's been a game-changer to let me quickly and visually work out ideas, and has allowed us to iterate more quickly than having to mess around with css and Bootstrap templates (2014...).

That said, I sorely miss proper i18n support.

Currently, we use Transifex to i18n our marketing website, but this means that our SEO is hurt, as Google does not index strings in JS.

Vlad, if you're reading this, please have a look here for a feature suggestion: https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-2218

naskwo··on Britain to ban new petrol cars and vans by 2030 on road to net zero emissions
Isn't Britain the geological definition (https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-betwee...) and should the title not be "UK to ban..."?
naskwo··on Tobias Lutke still writes code for Shopify
Check out "No Rules Rules" by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer. If you can't leave (constructive) feedback/criticism to your CEO, you're working at a sick company.
naskwo··on John McAfee Developed One of the First Social Networks
I remember the MS Comic Chat days too :-)
naskwo··on Sonos is spying on me (and you)
For "offline" speakers, just buy some (used) Bang & Olufsen speakers (with built-in amplifiers) and a Bluetooth receiver to connect your mobile device. Done.
naskwo··on Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coronavirus
A safe bike route from SW to NE, e.g. Fulham to Shoreditch, would be lovely.
naskwo··on Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coronavirus
I'm still missing London in this discussion.
naskwo··on Paris to Create 650 Kilometers of Post-Lockdown Cycleways
Love it. London next?
naskwo··on Ask HN: Will this be the end of Airbnb?
Thanks for your insights. I think the tax and tourist income from AirBnB is less than what this form of tourism is costing the city, if measuring correctly. There were several studies published about this recently.
naskwo··on Bitcoin price crash forces miners off network
Given the run on toilet paper, a better black swan hedge seems to be Shitcoin!
naskwo··on Robinhood goes down again, during another historic trading day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton%27s_fence
naskwo··on German court bans Uber's ride-hailing services in Germany
IANAL, but it is likely that Uber has a good shot to appeal this at the EU level:

This ruling is rather incongruent with the recent Airbnb ruling (1) where Airbnb was ruled to be nothing more than an "information society service". (Rant: you could apply this label to anything from a public library to a sadistic secret service.)

Comparable to Uber, Airbnb makes money per transaction, yet claims it is no more than an information medium.

I used to operate several large classifieds sites in the Netherlands, and am rather certain that as soon as the platform starts collecting per-transaction fees, it becomes part of the transaction, as it is in fact a broker between two parties.

In my (consumer) view: Uber adds value and convenience to a city and threatens an inefficient and monopolistic status quo (at least here in the Netherlands), whereas Airbnb turns housing into business cases, for better of for worse (and in Amsterdam: for worse).

1: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/19/eu-court-...

naskwo··on Tesla Cybertruck
Let's hope these trucks are more reliable than the Teslas that are in use as electric taxis at Amsterdam Airport: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=nl&sl=auto&tl=en&u...
naskwo··on Can we go electric before it's too late?
"Transportation makes up the largest share of emissions."1)

Transportation is still only 28%, slightly more than a quarter. Electricity & "industry" account for 50%.

Further, I remember a discussion with the president of Mercedes who was pushed for cleaner cars. He mentioned that one ocean-going freight vessel pollutes more than 450k cars combined (here is an article in that same trend (2).

I love the notion of quiet, electric cars, but the "industry" that pollutes these cars, and the "electricity" that is needed to charge these cars still accounts for 50% of the pollution. So, until ocean freighters are cleaned up, the net effect on pollution will likely be zero.

1) https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emis... 2) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-...

naskwo··on WSJ – The internet faq
"While you sign on to the Internet and blithely zap and receive electronic mail, visit Web sites and bare your soul in on-line discussion groups, you are increasingly being watched and tracked. Every move you make on the Internet can be followed, and the information gathered can be used against you." Prescient.
naskwo··on The case for electric scooters
I just returned from Singapore. The central business district is full of these scooters. As a Dutchman, personally, I don't see why people don't bike. Cardio & transport in one. (This also why I don't understand the appeal of the Segway)

The issue is that these scooters should not be on pedestrian walkways / sidewalks (and they are in Singapore), because there is too much difference in speed.

Singapore recently came with strict rules about usage, so perhaps there is a middle ground: https://www.mobilityscooters.sg/blogs/blog/are-mobility-scoo...

I'll stick to my bicycle for now, though. In Holland, I like the trend of "Bike roads" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_boulevard) as the deeper issue, certainly in London, has nothing to do with electric scooters, but with a reduction in automobile traffic, and giving back space to bicycles (and electric scooters, why not).

naskwo··on Apple will start paying $21B in back taxes to Ireland
What did the Panama Papers really unearth? Has there been _any_ effect?

Who are the UBOs of these Luxemburg entities? Happy activist investors? Or wealthy family funds who funnel the money to CH and the Caribbean?

A leaking bucket.

The rules around taxation in a global economy where mainly ideas/IP are shuffled around needs to evolve.

naskwo··on Apple will start paying $21B in back taxes to Ireland
10 years ago, the bond spreads of sovereign bonds would have reflected this accurately, where Greece would have a higher YTM than Germany.

The idea of the euro is convenient, but since the crisis of 2007-2009 + various (Greek) scares, it's devolved into a "cake and eat it" situation.

A country cannot devaluate its currency (Sweden still has this freedom if it so wanted).

I'm not sure what the solution is, but to start, I would homogenize corporate tax rates, and discourage tax-shopping inside the EU.

naskwo··on Apple will start paying $21B in back taxes to Ireland
It's weird that the EU has a monetary union, but so much difference in corporate income tax rates.

Great that IE is 12%, but this "competition" is BS in the sense that they needed the higher-tax countries to bail them out just a few years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-2008_Irish_banking_crisis

It's a leak in the EU system, and it needs to be plugged.

Just imagine what a unified income tax rate in the EU would do. (Post-Brexit, although if I were a gambling man, I'd wager that the Brexit will never materialize; A Brexit would sort of be like throwing out your existing post-ww2 source code instead of refactoring. Recipe for disaster).

THEN countries would really need to compete on quality of life and infrastructure to attract (US) corporations to establish show. Amsterdam is happy to welcome all the post-Brexit (see comment above) banks and EU-related orgs, as is Frankfurt.

naskwo··on Ask HN: What's actually in Coca Cola?
That's not was I meant to imply. What I meant was that consumers are more and more conscious of what exactly they are eating and drinking.

Indeed, there are no ingredients listed on wine either. It's not 100% grape juice. Various types of yeast and sulfur are added, and likely other ingredients.

Given that the whole world has pushed hard on anti-tobacco (rightfully so IMHO), and has shown beyond doubt that (known) additives are carcinogenic, I find it odd that Coca Cola is not more explicit about the exact composition of their drink.

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