aitait (u/aitait) - Readit News

aitait commented on EU to unveil landmark law curbing power of tech giants dw.com/en/eu-to-unveil-la... · Posted by u/dcgudeman

absolutelyrad · 5 years ago

List of companies that I'd like to be investigated for corruption and anti trust abuses:

1. Alphabet/Google

2. Apple

3. Facebook

4. Match Group

Match group is lucky they're not getting much attention, but they own all major dating apps. They need a bit of smacking.

Reasons:

For Google, the biggest problem is their bundling of Chrome, YouTube, Gmail if you want to have Google certified android phone that has the Google play store. Google should be prevented from having their own WWW crawler too. The crawler should be made into it's own company and data should be purchased by Google and any other company that want to purchase it at the same costs.

For Apple, it's their app store. The app store needs to be eliminated. Apple has a problem with not allowing competing browser engines on iOS and misleading people by saying it's for privacy reason. Eliminating the control of the App store from Apple is going to fix the problem.

For Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp should be spun off to their own entities.

For Match group, break off tinder into a separate company. And prevent any future dating app accusations by Match group or Tinder. NO MERGERS.

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From the Chinese side:

I'd like to see Alibaba group and Tencent being investigated.

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Edit: replying to calls below for travel industry.

The travel industry is already competitive enough, and the situation in these areas should be reviewed after a year or two.

For now, these are the critical problems for tech. Their control is taking the breath away from smaller companies and reducing innovation.

aitait · 5 years ago

Travel apps never managed a "The winner takes it all" approach.

Regarding "match". You would be surprised how much fraud exits in the dating industry. How many people get payed to keep paying customers engaged with the app. Also, just wait until your Tinder gold expries. You will get tons of (hidden) likes.

aitait commented on Germany's State Distance-Learning University fernuni-hagen.de/english/... · Posted by u/Tomte

philshem · 5 years ago

It’s a 19th century essay from Mark Twain about the difficulties learning German as an English speaker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awful_German_Language

The title translated into German is "Die Schrecken der deutschen Sprache" ("The Horrors of the German Language") which is more appropriate.

aitait · 5 years ago

I don't think German is really difficult. Some things are strange for an English speaker: declension, therefore flexible word order and gender is more elusive compared to Spanish.

There is a saying: "Hungarian... the only tongue in the world the devil respects."

aitait commented on Germany's State Distance-Learning University fernuni-hagen.de/english/... · Posted by u/Tomte

DataDaoDe · 5 years ago

> The neat thing is that any foreigner can study any subject at any University in Germany for free.

This statement is not true. It is the case though that many if not most public German universities have costs that run in the very low thousands i.e. 1-5k for total degree costs.

However, there are some drawbacks to the way this system works. For one, you will be hard pressed to find online degree offerings or continuing studies options from public Universities (i.e. these types of low costs offerings) that allow you to continue your education while working fulltime. Most of these come from private institutions or specific programs which have higher costs typically running in the 10k+ cost range area.

Its great if you are a student graduating from high school and going to university - you won't be burdened with high costs. However, the public system largely still neglects (this lone University being the only example in all of Germany which I am aware of) many other situations where people might want to further their education.

We do have something called Volkshochschulen, which is in some ways similar to Junior Colleges in the United States and provides some level of extended studies at a public level, but anyway, I won't go into details, suffice it to say the systems don't translate one-to-one onto each other and there are cons with our system as well.

aitait · 5 years ago

"Volkshochschulen"

Volkshochschule are "low level" community training courses. Yet many people successfully learned Languages there. It is far below a University or a poly-technical college. It has nothing do do with a real degree.

FUN FACT: I read once a Serbian guy took a course there in Economics, had the certificate translated into Serbian and the translator translated "Volkshochschule", to "Peoples University" and became an Economics professor with this certifica in Serbia until the whole scam became public.

To give you the perspective: Basically every guy here on Hackernews could give a "Python course" there or something. for 2 hours every week for 6 months and one of the attendees would manage to become a CS professor with this.

aitait commented on Germany's State Distance-Learning University fernuni-hagen.de/english/... · Posted by u/Tomte

aitait · 5 years ago

Fernuni is a public/government university. The big thing is that you get a UNIVERSITY degree that is recognized in Germany. This may have implications, e.g. doing a MS after a BS there or getting a University degree after you attended a poly-technical college, both entitles you to better career options in the public service.

They have also several other niches. E.g patent lawyers are getting trained there after their STEM degrees.

AMA

aitait commented on Ask HN: What are some of your favorite journals or magazines? · Posted by u/pthreads

atmosx · 5 years ago

The economist is okay if you are conservative liberal with strong bias towards the "west". Russia and China are _wrong_ by default, every _war_ (Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Afghanistan, Iran... all of them failed campaigns by public standards, Afghanistan not failed(?) by US standards - Afghanistan is about global heroin control btw) is justifiable and actively supported, Banks ought to be _protected_ any social-welfare policy (before covid, in the covid era the tune has changed considerably) is brought to us by "populist devilish politicians" while every bank-saving, pro-market scheme which leaves large % of the population jobless is "made-in-heaven".

The economist like reading an old British grandmother supporting financial schemes and policies which failed more time than I can count, again and again.

By the way before 2010 the articles were better argued and these differences were not so blatant. I believe the quality has decreased considerably. Then again, these are polarized times...

There's also the good parts. The obituary, the "Charlemagne" part is often somewhat relevant.

Examples of double-standards are Brexit vs France "yello vests" movement. The British should by all means do another referendum or the politicians should mimic the 2015 Greek PM and revert the result the of the referendum because "people don't know". The French voters should stay put and accept "the result of the democratic procedures" which brought Macron to power. So... Which one is it then? Respect democracy or overturn it? ;-)

When I was a subscriber I was getting informed for various matters all over the world, so if it's the economist vs nothing, I would prefer the economist. If it's the economist vs something else, well... I don't know.

aitait · 5 years ago

I ignore the war statements since I would have to review several issues again before I could give an opinion.

"conservative liberal" Not sure that the Economist is conservative. Sure, it is pro-market and pro "west" in the sense of Open Society and Democracy.

"The British should by all means do another referendum or the politicians should mimic the 2015 Greek PM and revert the result the of the referendum because "people don't know"."

This may have indeed the best solution since nobody really know what "Brexit" means since there are several options of Brexit. But I also remember the issue where they wrote: Now, as Brexit has happened, lets try to make the best out of it.

"Respect democracy or overturn it? ;-)" Well, currently the majority of the British people are against Brexit. So it is the uttermost democratic principle, that opinions can change.

"When I was a subscriber I was getting informed for various matters all over the world, so if it's the economist vs nothing, I would prefer the economist. If it's the economist vs something else, well... I don't know."

Is is unlikely that there is a magazine that can afford the intelligence service of the economist. Maybe Bloomberg.

aitait commented on Ask HN: What are some of your favorite journals or magazines? · Posted by u/pthreads

sentrysapper · 5 years ago

Started reading more in print magazines to help pass the lockdown time.

In general, I'd recommend Monocle to just about anyone. The articles and photography are top notch: https://monocle.com/magazine/

For Canadians living in or entranced by the Maritimes: https://maritimeedit.com/

aitait · 5 years ago

Not trying to troll here. But Monocle? I always wondered who reads this? Poor people who want to know how rich people live? (Trust me, no rich person I know of would buy this poser magazine).

aitait commented on Ask HN: What are some of your favorite journals or magazines? · Posted by u/pthreads

firebombzero · 5 years ago

The Economist if you want to get all the wrong information about the world.

aitait · 5 years ago

I doubt there is a magazine in the world that can compete in deep, knowledge and network (And I can read magazines in at least 3 major languages, possibly four).

Would you mind to elaborate where the Economist delivers "wrong" information? Preferably give some specific examples.

aitait commented on Ask HN: What are some of your favorite journals or magazines? · Posted by u/pthreads

bobthepanda · 5 years ago

The Economist is great, but it definitely wears its biases on its sleeve; it hasn’t quite found a problem the free market can’t solve.

aitait · 5 years ago

I tend to disagree. While a pro market magazine, it often suggests strong government actions. I think you have never dealt with real fee market fetishists.

The only annoying things is the double Christmas issue and the "New Year outlook". They always write the same. The world has never been better and everything becomes better and next year will be better than the last.

aitait commented on Ask HN: What are some of your favorite journals or magazines? · Posted by u/pthreads

aitait · 5 years ago

Seconding The Economist. A league on its own. :-)

I never subscribed, but like/liked to read (e.g. at B&N)

THE NEW YORKER 2600 FOREIGN POLICY HARPER'S THE ATLANTIC Even the Rolling Stone can have good articles. E.g.: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/how-amer...

aitait commented on Pfizer and BioNTech Conclude Phase 3 Study of Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate investors.biontech.de/new... · Posted by u/doener

SoSoRoCoCo · 5 years ago

I'm confused, who actually made the vaccine? I read that BionTech created it and Pfizer is handling logistics, approval, and distribution in the US. But I keep seeing it as "Pfizer's vaccine"?

aitait · 5 years ago

Yes, likely. I also would not make sense for a small company to build distribution and marketing channels (marketing might not be necessary in this case). Also, big name. Nobody knows BionTech but the name Pfizer signals trust. In most cases the small company is actually getting bought by big pharma.

I work on a medical consumer device. Would be madness to market this ourself. A big company has the resources for distribution and marketing.