markvdb

75 ms·

811.
by markvdb 10y ago
I've lived in one for a few months. Most of them are really nice and incredibly well designed actually. The fact that this is happening mostly in Moscow hints at what others have suggested this is: a new development money grab for land
812.
by markvdb 10y ago
Belgium is interesting. The forms are really complicated, but luckily largely prefilled forms for most (salary and pension income, mortgage related deductions, ...). Apart from the complexity, the problem here is the extremely slow return o
813.
by markvdb 10y ago
Yes, a smaller financial sector would make lending more expensive. But would that be a bad thing, socially speaking? A smaller financial sector would stabilise the financial and economical system, albeit at a lower level of economic activit
814.
by markvdb 10y ago
A large part of hydro actually is storage rather than production though. It's most valuable as a stabiliser for the electricity network.
815.
by markvdb 10y ago
Yuval Noah Harari had interesting things to say about nationalism versus globalism. http://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_nationalism_vs_gl... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuval_Noah_Harari
816.
by markvdb 10y ago
I can see some potential in things like RERAM to scale beyond 3D NAND and bridge the SSD/RAM gap. I like the technological elegance of non-filamentary RERAM [2] in particular. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resi
817.
by markvdb 10y ago
"OVH" and "great" in one sentence. Good the roulette ended up in good spots for you, like it did for me for some time. They can be rather cost effective for private toy projects. But. I can confidently say I would seriou
818.
by markvdb 10y ago
Grow lights and decorated the house with "greenery" for christmas? Sorry, read news too often about pot plantations and their high electricity consumption...
819.
by markvdb 10y ago
To be fair, he seems to be speaking about the socially developed part of the western world. Fairly decent to very good quality universal healthcare is available in large parts of western Europe, Japan, Canada... Even large parts of eastern
820.
by markvdb 10y ago
<quote> Want to disrupt the heart attack market?</quote> Might be a good idea! Just don't stop there and be more ambitious. Kill the heart attack market as much as you can by making this technology widely available to
821.
by markvdb 10y ago
(Disclaimer: I'm not Latvian. I just happen to speak the language rather well, run a small business in Riga and spend about 1/3 of my time there.) "Latvian as a language never lived better under the USSR". I've seen
822.
by markvdb 10y ago
If you want to see what technology and automation do, and early ideas of how to support the "useless" class, don't look at California. Look at places like Switzerland, Scandinavia and Belgium. The wage cost pressure is just p
823.
by markvdb 10y ago
Slightly off topic... everyone around me knows what "Tricatel food" means, from the French film "L'aile ou la cuisse": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lxk0kxHi80&start=4171
824.
by markvdb 10y ago
The '70s, '80s and early '90s had unusually high interest rates though. Through compounding with those high interest rates early on, it suddenly becomes more reasonable... 6.7% over 42 years would get you to over 300k already
825.
by markvdb 10y ago
The work of Joey Hess on projects like git-annex and recently keysafe. https://lwn.net/Articles/696765/
826.
by markvdb 10y ago
These are all really good, valid points you are making. Thank you for that. You are absolutely right about this. I've even thought of yet another rather elephant-in-the-room one: health insurance.
827.
by markvdb 10y ago
Mostly email bait.
828.
by markvdb 10y ago
Can you elaborate on why you think this would be more difficult in Europe? I can imagine Europe wide fitness chains not being so common. http://www.basic-fit.com and friends seem to be building something like it. But then again,
829.
US condemns EU over plan to demand millions from Apple in unpaid taxes(independent.co.uk)
6 points by markvdb 10y ago|1 comments
830.
by markvdb 10y ago
"Dead souls", by Nikolaj Gogol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Souls
831.
by markvdb 10y ago
Norway has a giant sovereign wealth fund. Denmark, Finland and Sweden don't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Nor...
832.
by markvdb 10y ago
Hah. Only days? In Belgium, it takes three to four months. Plus about 15% of the purchase price in taxes, sky high monopoly notary fees and more.
833.
by markvdb 10y ago
Tell that to my significant other with a straight face. I know my financial position. For me when I was single, energy spent on personal finance was energy lost for other causes, like earning a lot more money for example, or doing something
834.
by markvdb 10y ago
You can always go work in the US or sell your product there. Rocard - may he rest in peace- and so many others did make a difference, for the better. The software patents battle is one of the reasons we have less patent trolls in the EU ver
835.
by markvdb 10y ago
Rocard was into politics to try and make the world a better place. He was one of our strongest allies in the software patents fight. I remember standing at the entrance of the Strasbourg parliament with a megaphone kindly saying to all memb
836.
by markvdb 10y ago
"These workarounds are necessary because the health care system doesn’t follow any rational rules of economics, where the customer should be king." The health care system how it's currently organised in the US _does_ follow r
837.
by markvdb 10y ago
More of the second hand clothing from Western Europe at least ends up in Eastern Europe than in Africa: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30227025 . Anecdata. My second home country, Latvia, has so many more second hand
838.
by markvdb 10y ago
That might be what has happened in much of the western world. On a worldwide scale, things look much better though.
839.
by markvdb 10y ago
In a recent past, what is now commonly referred to as "ip" or "intellectual property" used to be described more accurately as intellectual rights. Sorry, could not resist.
840.
by markvdb 10y ago
It may sound silly, but here's a few: * extra customs checks, even if there is no customs rate * different VAT procedures from the common market * courier and postal services delivering strictly within the EU, or charging a premium for

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