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openplatypus

1,459 karma · joined February 14, 2015

Founder at Input Objects GmbH, the makers of Wide Angle Analytics https://wideangle.co
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openplatypus··on RybbitL Open source Google Analytics replacement
It is US company. Does not matter where server resides. If server is in EU but under US jurisdiction (US company) that can be (needs checking) treated as International Data Transfer.
openplatypus··on Open source Google Analytics replacement
Yes, I have seen organizations with websites that had 15+ trackers because every person in the company had their favourite tool.
openplatypus··on Open source Google Analytics replacement
It is US company. It does not matter where the servers are physically located.
openplatypus··on RybbitL Open source Google Analytics replacement
As a founder in this space, it not as bad as you think. There are niches in this crowded yet broad space.

Plausible - good for self-hosting, but their SaaS is very expensive and FOSS vs SaaS offering differ.

Ahrefs - they will use your traffic to improve your competitor research, you really should use them cautiously.

Matomo - feature rich but can be overwhelming.

Posthog - its SaaS is US based so dismissed early by EU customers.

Clarity, like GA has serious privacy issues.

Our product, Wide Angle Analytics, has its own gotchas compared to competitors - its opinionated and there are folks who do not agree with our opinions, but the landscape of websites is so vast that you find your client nevertheless.

That said, we are still in business after 4 years, and we saw few competitors disappear or get acquired and extinguished.

So, all the best to the OP. Hope you find your niche :)

openplatypus··on Judge said Meta illegally used books to build its AI
What is this just world you are talking about?
openplatypus··on Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds
HN is mostly US audience.

EU = bad

US = good

openplatypus··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)
Fourth year of Wide Angle Analytics and going strong :)

More advanced digital marketing features, scaling and what's typical for mature product, an upgrade cycle of for major 3rd party dependencies.

openplatypus··on Reports of widespread power cuts in Spain and Portugal
I am getting downvoted for mentioning something from the linked article. Fun.
openplatypus··on Widespread power outage in Spain and Portugal
Apparently Italy is also affected.

https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2025-04-28/directo-cor...

openplatypus··on Amazon Japan ordered to pay 35M. yen for allowing listing of fakes
Untill you notice to late and fake washing machine burns down your house.

There was a wave of fake household appliances sold in the UK.

Amazon is ceaspool and should be shutdown for the betterment of humanity.

openplatypus··on Amazon Japan ordered to pay 35M. yen for allowing listing of fakes
Exactly. I wish fines for selling fakes were more common.
openplatypus··on Amazon Japan ordered to pay 35M. yen for allowing listing of fakes
I wish this was more common.

I rarely, like once every 6 months, look for some obscure thing on Amazon. First thing I do after finding products, I research which one of the listing has any chance of not being a fake/dud/scam.

I can't imagine buying anything of value on Amazon.

openplatypus··on What If We Could Rebuild Kafka from Scratch?
Don't use best platform engineered and perfected over decades?

Why?

openplatypus··on What If We Could Rebuild Kafka from Scratch?
How to kill a project and blemish your brand?

Ding Ding Ding

That's correct!

openplatypus··on What If We Could Rebuild Kafka from Scratch?
> Object storage for Kafka? Wouldn't this 10x the latency and cost?

It will become slower. It will become costlier (to maintain). And we will end up with local replicas for performance.

If only people looked outside AWS bubble and realised they are SEVERELY overcharged for storage, this would be mute point.

I would welcome getting partition dropped in favour of multi-tenancy ... but for my use cases this is often equivalent.

Storage is not the problem though.

openplatypus··on Careless People
Their lawyers are daft as bricks.

They can't even control their client from lying in public.

openplatypus··on The effect of deactivating Facebook and Instagram on users' emotional state
You described Mastodon.
openplatypus··on Don't force your kids to do math
> The author clearly has very limited experience with raising kids. Most kids won't do difficult things if you don't push them.

Such a bold claim coming from some who does not share their credentials on the matter.

My kid will do everything as long as it is interesting. My sample of 1 contradicts your claim, but neither of us are experts on the matter.

openplatypus··on TikTok is harming children at an industrial scale
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter ... no need to single out TikTok. They are all equally bad.
openplatypus··on Meta got caught gaming AI benchmarks
Meta doing something dodgy OR unethical OR criminal ... and nobody is surprised.
openplatypus··on A startup doesn't need to be a unicorn
In practical terms you can hire someone. Mind you if you hit an audit, those hourly fees quickly add up.

Also side note, Estonian companies have been recently overrun with Russians. I don't deal with EE companies anymore. Got burned too many times.

openplatypus··on A startup doesn't need to be a unicorn
> I can found a new company in Estonia in literal minutes without speaking a single word of Estonian and without being physically present in the country because the whole process is digital and in English.

Bad example. When you incorporate in Estonia, if you come through eResidency, they are very clear and very open in stating that ANY interaction with tax office and/or judicial system WILL be and MUST be performed in Estonian.

openplatypus··on Your Startup Doesn't Need to Be a Unicorn
Only up to 25k.

UG allows you to incorporate for 1eur (600eur with accountant, notary, etc) and you are liable only up to level of full GmbH which is 25k.

openplatypus··on A startup doesn't need to be a unicorn
Which land?

Last time I checked and looked for different support scheme all that was offered in Berlin was some 90s style support for office equipment (we are fully remote) support or 1/2 salary on an intern.

Truly pathetic back in the early 2024.

openplatypus··on Evolving Scala
> Yes, it's a very common one shared by virtually all Scala 3 developers. Stop. At least for a couple of years.

Please avoid generalisation. Not "all".

openplatypus··on Evolving Scala
Great post. There is no need to hide the fact that Scala is not the most popular language or that it ever will be.

And Kudos to VirtusLabs for maintenance.

Huge Kudos to Daniel for his courses. If you think Scala is difficult, check his course, these will change your mind.

When building Wide Angle Analytics backend I chose Scala. Sometimes I miss the convenience of Spring Boot of having all integrations at the fingertips. But then I implement same thing in Scala and it is much leaner, boils down to couple of functions and it just fits nicely.

My only personal pet peeve with Scala is painful upgrade path between libraries (Cats 2 -> Cats 3). Oh well.

openplatypus··on Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?
We are seeing uptick off traffic on Wide Angle Analytics. Not just from the aforementioned directory.
openplatypus··on French academic denied entry to US for 'personal opinion' on Trump
From the article:

The academic, who works in the space sector and whose identity has not been revealed, was travelling to the U.S. on March 9, and underwent a random check on arrival, according to the AFP agency. His phone and computer were examined and messages referring to Trump’s policies toward the academia were found.

openplatypus··on Ask HN: What do you use for analytics for a statically generated website?
Wide Angle Analytics (our product) is great for static websites. Small script, fast, no cookie banner required, privacy first.
openplatypus··on The early days of Linux (2023)
Slackware 3.6/4.0 back in 1998-99 Never forget.

The joy of startx command working (sometimes)

Fun times.

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