Svip (u/Svip) - Readit News

Svip commented on 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books rte.ie/news/world/2025/08... · Posted by u/austinallegro

uoaei · 6 days ago

What is the primary reason for hard-coding these kinds of things? Gotta imagine CScientists would have debated this during the design phase. I have some hypotheses, are any of these right?

* correctness/verifiability analyses

* security? in compiled tools (prevent malicious re-configuration)

* an assumption of the inertia of law

* general incompetence/naivete

???

Svip · 6 days ago

The real problem is actually less the exact rate of 25%, but rather that most of the systems only assume one rate. Denmark was the first country to introduce a general VAT in 1967, and whilst the rate has changed (last in 1992 to 25%), the number of rates have not. So lowering the general VAT rate would likely be possible in a 1-3 year time frame (depending on unknown factors), but lowering the general VAT rate would be a significant loss on state finances (thus not interesting to politicians) (and as someone else pointed out, it mostly favours high spenders, which is also politically dicey).

However, introducing a split rate would definitely require a time frame of at least 4 years, and no politician are willing to wait that long for a politician win.

Svip commented on 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books rte.ie/news/world/2025/08... · Posted by u/austinallegro

MathMonkeyMan · 6 days ago

Problem: 15 year olds don't know how to read. Solution: Make books 25% cheaper.

Sure, it can't hurt, but are those kids or their parents gonna go out and buy books, and then, you know, learn how to read?

I wonder what the numbers are like in the US...

Svip · 6 days ago

This article[0], which covers the same but in Danish has more details. It mentions Sweden lowering their book VAT in 2001 to 6%. The takeaway was that more books were sold, but to people who were already buying books. Getting new readers thus requires an additional effort than merely lowering the cost.

[0] https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/regeringen-vil-afskaffe-mo...

Svip commented on 'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books rte.ie/news/world/2025/08... · Posted by u/austinallegro

Svip · 6 days ago

The way this article is worded makes it sound like Denmark has a 'book tax'. Denmark has a VAT on goods (and services), which is 25%. But Denmark doesn't have split VAT values, so it's either 25% or nothing; no in-between. So they are just proposing removing the VAT from books. (Some goods and services are already exempt from VAT.)

And if you wonder why Denmark doesn't simply lower their VAT or introduce a split VAT system like in most other countries; the answer is technical inertia (or technical debt, if you will). Most Danish accounting and banking systems are hardcoded to assume 25% (or nothing). So if a politician want immediate change to VAT, removing it from a category of goods/services is their only option.

Edit: I realise I was careless in my wording, when I wrote "hardcoded to assume 25% (or nothing)"; I meant that the systems only assume one rate (or nothing), not that the value of 25% was hardcoded (though it is in a few (lesser) systems I've encountered). I apologise for the confusion.

Svip commented on · Posted by u/kan101

Arainach · 9 days ago

>96. Which file defines a Github Actions pipeline?

How is this a Golang question?

Svip · 9 days ago

It definitely seems to include a lot of questions that may be related to what a Go programmer might encounter, but are technically _unrelated_ to Go.

> 471.What does SQLite not support compared to PostgreSQL?

I mean, I definitely use both SQLite and PostgreSQL in relation to Go. (Although my first thought when I saw the question was "true numeric types!", until I noticed it was not an option.)

As someone else suggested, it feels like the questions may well have been generated by a LLM, and then not filtered.

Svip commented on Progress towards universal Copy/Paste shortcuts on Linux mark.stosberg.com/univers... · Posted by u/uncircle

JoshTriplett · 12 days ago

I learned Ctrl-C for "kill program" very nearly before Ctrl-C for copy existed, and long before it existed on any platform I used. I value consistency, but I also value consistency with common practice for the type of application I'm using.

The common failure mode, for me, isn't hitting Ctrl-C for copy in a terminal by mistake, it's hitting Ctrl-Shift-C for copy in a browser and ending up with the console open, or hitting Ctrl-W to delete a word and having it close a tab.

Svip · 12 days ago

Kind of wish Firefox allowed one to modify the common keyboard shortcuts in the browser. But considering the open issue on the matter, I won't keep my hopes up: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=57805

The hacks about seems to be basically steal keyboard shortcuts the same way webpages already do; either through an extension[0] or modifying config-pref.js[1]. Neither of which seems very appealing to me. Though, funnily: I did hit Ctrl-W writing this message to delete a word; thank goodness for cache.

[0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/shortkeys/

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/kilmm2/restore_ctr...

Svip commented on Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session github.com/AdoPi/wlgblock... · Posted by u/anajimi

anajimi · 15 days ago

Thanks for your idea! I think it is totally possible to implement a screensaver with the ext-session-lock protocol. I will try to explore this idea when I have time in the next few months :)

Svip · 15 days ago

I wish you a lot of luck; I am basically just waiting on XScreenSaver to be ported to Wayland before I move on from X11.

But jwz (XScreenSaver's creator and maintainer) doesn't give me much hope: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/07/xscreensaver-wayland-and-lo...

Svip commented on Fight Chat Control fightchatcontrol.eu/... · Posted by u/tokai

NoboruWataya · 15 days ago

The positive intentional act, I guess, is disseminating the material. Proving intent and various ancillary concepts like knowledge, etc, are the bread and butter of prosecutors, so I don't think the act would be as difficult to enforce as you suggest. Sure, there might be corner cases where you can say "oops I forgot to password protect that Dropbox link" but certainly porn websites that don't do age verification will have a hard time arguing their conduct was not intentional.

Svip · 15 days ago

Which leads to my next questions: What is pornography material? Do drawings qualify? What about text? What about softcore pornography? What about a non-profit outfit? What is the amount of pornography material I need to have for it to be considered disseminating? Someone uploads a few suggestive fan art drawings to my niche bulletin board and now I am liable for a year in jail?

Svip commented on Fight Chat Control fightchatcontrol.eu/... · Posted by u/tokai

throwaway89201 · 16 days ago

Please also fight mandatory age verification with prison sentences. The European Parliament has already voted in favor of a law that mandates age verification for pornography with a one year prison sentence. It was included as a last minute amendment into this bill [1]. See "Amendment 186". It has been completely missed by news organizations and even interest groups.

The full accepted article reads: "Disseminating pornographic content online without putting in place robust and effective age verification tools to effectively prevent children from accessing pornographic content online shall be punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 1 year."

It's not law yet, as the first reading is now sent back to the Council of the European Union, but I don't think it's very likely it will get a second reading.

[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-10-2025-011...

Svip · 16 days ago

A little more context: that article 3 paragraph 2.a. was added by parliament (not proposed by the Commission). But paragraph 1 (same article) was altered to this text:

> Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the intentional conduct referred to in paragraphs 2 to 8 is punishable.

(Emphasis being the change.)

So they only mean the intentional act of putting up pornography without age verification? Just feign forgetfulness, I guess. How is a negative act an intentional one? Or moreover; how do you prove it? I know neglect and gross neglect are things, so I assume they mean if you don't do it after being asked to.

Svip commented on Easily run Windows software on Linux with Bottles usebottles.com/... · Posted by u/doener

modzu · 16 days ago

if it makes you feel any better i doubt cs runs on steam Linux

Svip · 16 days ago

Considering that Valve has a native Linux release for Counter Strike (as well as all their other titles), I doubt you looked much into this.

Svip commented on EU kills Android bootloader unlock starting August 1 xiaomitime.com/eu-kills-a... · Posted by u/methuselah_in

Ayesh · 24 days ago

https://www.riskinsight-wavestone.com/en/2025/07/radio-equip...

This page (cited by the article at the bottom) has a lot more context and somewhat detailed technical. Information.

Svip · 24 days ago

Under the section "Software authenticity" does it mention that the secure boot requirement appears to come from article 3, §3 (i).

Quoting article 3, §3 (i):

> radio equipment supports certain features in order to ensure that software can only be loaded into the radio equipment where the compliance of the combination of the radio equipment and software has been demonstrated.

The opening of §3 is:

> Radio equipment within certain categories or classes shall be so constructed that it complies with the following essential requirements:

Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2014/53/oj/eng