Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

I was in a European city new to me at an event where the planners assumed that Uber and Bolt where the only taxi options people would use. I asked for a taxi phone number, called and had a car in 5 minutes. That's much quicker than the account signup, and leaks much less private data. Taxi apps are not more efficient, horrible for privacy, and their business model is based on building a monopoly. I guess fancy UX in the apps really hooks people, or I'm missing something

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/robotaxi-car-technology-traffic-18362647.php

#Wien Fluss

Another problem that often goes ignored is how less attractive countries can keep the people that they have paid to educate. I know this first hand because my father was a doctor who was educated by the social system of #Austria including an annual stipend that he lived off of, then he left for #America once he finished his studies. Austria paid to educate a doctor but got little in return. This dynamic is common around the world, medical pros from poorer countries emigrate to richer ones. 3/3

I grew up the child of an immigrant and emigrated myself, so clearly I'm not anti-immigration. When incoming streams are too large, that will drive housing prices up and wages down, that's the basic economics of supply and demand. But there are also advantages, like letting refugees flee war zones.

Also, for many people it is quite stressful when their neighborhood changes from single language to majority other language. This had happened in #Vienna neighborhoods in less than 20 years. 2/

We need to build a tolerant, anti-racist debate about #immigration, otherwise we abandon those who have experienced problems with immigration. Their only recourse is then to go to the racist politicians since they are talking about reducing immigration. There are lots of legitimate concerns about immigration, especially when the incoming streams are large or when areas newly gain a large portion of immigrants. 1/

I think it is impossible to regulate #BigTech or #gatekeepers with the current structure of #AntiTrust because it is all about pricing as if software was a commodity. Until #competition #policy takes into account #UserFreedom, it will be an extremely limited tool for dealing with problematic software companies. This is laid bare in this current case against #Google https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/google-escapes-play-store-class-action-after-finding-more-persuasive-expert/

The most promise is in #EU #DigitalMarketsAct. #FTC's & #UK's policy overhaul shows promise.
2/2

Economic analysis fails when discussing #software: economists want to think about software as a commodity, where one app is a drop in replacement for another, like buying wheat or oil from a different supplier. User-facing software is really about a culture and conversation between users and developers. Consider #Microsoft #Teams and #emacs Org-mode. This would entirely fail in either direction, the cultures are too different. Teams is for large top-down mgmt, emacs for decentralized hackers. 1/

Bosnian countryside, abandoned house with ice cream parlor

The old bobsled run from the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo is quite fun to walk down, with some lovely graffiti. But it is difficult to still see the scars of war, almost 30 years later.

Too often media about "#green" projects really promote some niche solutions but portray them as important pieces to solve the #Climate crisis. For example: data center waste water for lobster farms. Cool that it works. But Lobster is an expensive luxury food. This seems like the perfect product for those who don't want to feel guilty about owning a #Tesla or flying to distant eco-resorts. We need more about eating lentils and avoiding silly digital services. https://www.politico.eu/article/norway-lobster-water-green-mountain-data-farming/

If a country has labor shortages and record profits at the same time, that means the markets there are quite broken. Profit means companies have spare money to spend on things like paying workers better, so people want to take the jobs. Companies can only get away with this situation because there isn't competition there to step in.

Statements like this make me question if #BleepingComputer is actually a useful info source:

"Since APKs downloaded from outside Google Play cannot be vetted, the best way to protect against these threats is to avoid installing Android apps from third-party sites in the first place." https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/thousands-of-android-apks-use-compression-trick-to-thwart-analysis/

#FDroid not only vets the binaries it ships, it also vets the source code. #GooglePlay is not the safest source of apps on #Android.