Atropos

16 ms·

121.
by Atropos 15y ago
I'm probably a non-geek by HN standards, I primarily use my computer for internet, writing documents, media consumption etc... I have been using Ubuntu for 5 years or so and for my purposes it is "like windows, but better": (Practically) no
122.
by Atropos 15y ago
I don't know, the general theory of "Companies outsourcing themselves to death" sounds fine, but somehow the examples are never convincing. I mean if you compare the development of Dell vs. Asustek in GoogleFinance, it really doesn't seem t
123.
by Atropos 15y ago
This opt-in/opt-out is a false dichotomy in my opinion, because probably 90% of the population don't know this issue at all. So it doesn't seem to matter much, how difficult the opt-out mechanism is. Likewise, if you use an opt-in mechanism
124.
by Atropos 15y ago
The membership in the European Union is key, having the Euro doesn't really make the integration much deeper. There are practically no laws that don't apply to the UK just because they are not in the Euro. You can be happy that you aren't i
125.
by Atropos 15y ago
If you look at the hopfeully neutral doing business rankings compiled by the world bank ( http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings ) you see: - Italy: Rank 87 - Greece: Rank 100 I hope we can agree that these are horrible numbers for wealthy E
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by Atropos 15y ago
The "move to AND WORK" in your last sentence is key. Because even for EU citizens it is not possible to move to a country simply to enjoy the benefits of the social systems - otherwise there would probably be alot of migration to Sweden for
127.
by Atropos 15y ago
Of course there are control issues as well, turkey has 73 million population and so would instantly be the 2nd largest voting bloc, very likely to become the biggest due to demographics in the future. It would make sense to have a much stri
128.
by Atropos 15y ago
That is correct, only disputes between countries are settled to WTO law. German courts and the ECJ do not apply WTO law.
129.
by Atropos 15y ago
The highest court the case would likely reach is the BGH. The EU courts aren't really courts of appeals, but concern the interpretation of EU directives etc. If there was an unclear EU directive in this case, the LG should have sent the cas
130.
by Atropos 15y ago
Some of the professions you mentioned like biglaw firms, bankers, management consulting are lucky to operate very high up the "value chain". Look at the Motorola-Google deal: $12,5b purchase prize, and a $2,5 billion fee that Google has to
131.
by Atropos 15y ago
Employees and shareholders do not get their money from the government. But what about old people, government employees, social services? It just seems to me that the "assets" of the government move to a low tax country, but the "liabilities
132.
by Atropos 15y ago
Not entirely comparable. Most universities don't have tuition fees in Germany, the highest fees are 1000€/year, while it is estimated that the costs of educating a medical student are at least 30,000€ / year. Basically the education is heav
133.
by Atropos 15y ago
I know comparative advantage, but does it really apply to competition with tax rates? For example inside the European Union it doesn't matter in which country a company is based, you have basically freedom of trade for goods and services. I
134.
by Atropos 15y ago
I agree with your view of what the realities are. But I don't see why should applaud them: What happens if a country like Switzerland or Singapore has a sustainable competitive advantage over the USA or Germany, that simply cannot be overco
135.
by Atropos 15y ago
It is legally possible to "wave away" your right to privacy. It is somewhat analogous to commercializing your "personality" by giving someone the right to advertise with your name. However the European data protection standard demands "info
136.
by Atropos 15y ago
I'm from Germany and I'm currently writing a dissertation (similiar to PhD) on data protection law. My take on the situation: 1) Are the european data protection laws "perfect" or reasonable? No, they can't be, the most relevant directive i
137.
by Atropos 15y ago
I maybe took 3 weeks of programming in high school 8 years ago, so I just took the test for fun and here is what I don't understand: I picked the mental model that the left variable ALWAYS takes the value of the right variable and changes i
138.
by Atropos 15y ago
Some other AAA countries: Switzerland, Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore. To me it seems a little ridiculous that the US and these countries shared the same rating for such a long time. On the other hand, there are AAA countries like UK, France
139.
by Atropos 15y ago
How many different paywalls are there and how many articles are trapped? I'm able to access 5 different databases + one of the biggest research libraries in my state and there are still often articles that are simply inacessible. Or even mo