@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

lennardvanotterloo

@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social

The business of tech, micro/macro economics, politics across Europe, privacy tech and policy, public transport, urbanism, Europe.

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ChrisMayLA6, to Economics
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

The (centrist) Social Market Foundation asked a group of economists to look at the Labour Party's economic policies & see what theorising lies behind them (if anything).

They concluded that pragmatism & small scale/focussed policy interventions seemed to be the driving logic(s) rather than any more general economic theory or position (in this sense they lack the coherence of Biden's policy approach).

Whether this is a problem remans to be seen.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/what-economists-think-of-labours-economic-policy/

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @KimSJ I wonder how knowable some of Labour's planned policies are. There is electorally no benefit to nailing their colours to the mast before the election as that can only damage their appeal with some voter group or another.

I think their biggest challenge will be making their voters feel that something has radically changed for the better in the first 100 days. Only some of that can be achieved with economic policy.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

The “high speed” train Marseille - Bruxelles (that I’m taking as far as Lyon today)

Along its whole route it spends 67 minutes at stops! 🤦‍♂️

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@jon I’d say that the line itself is fine (bar the few non-ERTMS “islands” which require trains to have legacy signalling systems).

It’s the services where there’s room for improvement. If Eurostar can do London - Marne-la-Vallée I don’t see why an Amsterdam - Bordeaux service wouldn’t be able to circumvent central Paris.

Passenger demand and finding trainsets that can do ERTMS, ATB, TBL, and TVM are probably the biggest obstacles.

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@jon Yes, I think the requirement for multi-signalling, multi-voltage, train sets will put Open-access operators off.

That more or less leaves EurostarThalys to do this, they've got the kit.

EDPS, to random
@EDPS@social.network.europa.eu avatar

Two years ago, #EDPS embarked on a pioneering journey launching a pilot project of two decentralised social media platforms: #EUVoice & #EUVideo.

18 May will mark the end of the project. Time to review the results of this successful story.

Read Press Release https://europa.eu/!yJqDgK

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@ErikJonker @Mndell @helma @EDPS To be fair, one could argue it's not the job of a data protection authority to run a platform such as this. After a successful pilot it should move to the Comms Department where it most likely belongs.

glynmoody, to london
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

Lies, confections, distortions: how the right made the most vilified place in Britain - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/25/lies-london-britain-capital "Our capital has many problems, but it is time to push back against attacks from those who neither know nor understand it" quite

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@glynmoody I'm always amused how London allegedly consists entirely of Muslims, poor people, and criminals but simultaneously also consists entirely of out of touch wealthy elites.

glynmoody, to ai
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

Google considering charge for internet searches with , reports say - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/04/google-set-to-charge-for-internet-searches-with-ai-reports-say "Cost of artificial intelligence service could mean leaders in sector turning to subscription models" looking increasingly like there is no good business model here...

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@glynmoody Considering AI based search engines perform worse than non AI based search engines it would almost make more sense for Google to put its normal search behind a paywall and the AI-affected version free for non-paying users.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/14/1068498/why-you-shouldnt-trust-ai-search-engines/

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Departing Montbard for Paris this morning. Then onwards to Bruxelles. Not a regular #CrossBorderRail thread today - I’m going to #ConnectingEuropeDays - I’ll post using that tag

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@jon As demand for sleeper carriages clearly outstrips supply this seems to me a great business case for leasing companies.

Many of the night train projects are either experiments or even startups so won't have the capital or the time to wait until a carriage production order is delivered. We’re probably going through an experimental decade to see which routes are sustainable.

Leasing companies can hold these carriages throughout the turmoil and move them from failed project to new project.

lennardvanotterloo, to uk
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

This is quite something.

“Conservative support among those of working age has collapsed. At the last election, the crossover age where voters were more likely to vote Tory than Labour was 45. At the next one it will be 68, according to our data.“

https://www.economist.com/britain/2024/02/28/a-changing-british-electorate-is-propelling-labour-toward-victory

ErikJonker, to random
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social avatar

Wat een geweldig artikel, echt een must-read. Waarom de PVV wint. Onder andere veel gebruikte armoede argument wordt ontzenuwd.

https://decorrespondent.nl/15115/waarom-de-pvv-zo-groot-werd-en-nee-niet-door-geschrapte-buslijnen-guur-neoliberalisme-of-groeiende-ongelijkheid/11329427-c34e-0037-2754-969f6eb43828

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@ErikJonker Wat een geweldig stuk inderdaad. Dank voor het delen.

evan, to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

@davidpierce this explainer is great. But when do we get The Verge articles directly on the fediverse?

https://www.theverge.com/24063290/fediverse-explained-activitypub-social-media-open-protocol

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@evan @davidpierce I think The Verge has been on here for years. @verge

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@evan @evanprodromou Oh, I misunderstood. Yes I've seen those integrations, including yours. That would be quite a step further than the current account, yes.

Daojoan, to random
@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar

My biggest product copy pet hate:

“It’s like (x) on steroids”

Aren’t steroids associated with cheating and instability?

Or am I wrong?

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@Daojoan My partner is a doctor and the misuse of the word steroid winds her up a lot. To her a phrase that includes “on steroids” just doesn’t make any sense.

Also, probably most of the steroid use by non-scientists is in anti-inflammatory medication for treating eczema etc, anabolic steroids for muscle growth enhancement are probably a rounding error.

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

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Imperial (Metric).
Imperial (Metric).
Metric (Imperial).
Imperial (Metric).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68163036

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@Edent At least it’s not an American article where the size of the bear would be expressed in refrigerator-sized-boulders.

lennardvanotterloo, to uk
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

Also known as inflicting economic sanctions on oneself.

"British businesses have experienced a stark increase in the complexity and cost of trading with the EU since the UK left the bloc, spending an average of nearly £100,000 navigating the post-Brexit customs border over the past three years, new data has revealed.”

https://www.ft.com/content/ffac65e1-1ee3-4a1c-b3b1-ec970bc7b53c

ErikJonker, to Bulgaria
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social avatar

De harde realiteit na vier jaar Brexit: alle beloftes naar de gallemiezen

https://decorrespondent.nl/15079/de-harde-realiteit-na-vier-jaar-brexit-alle-beloftes-naar-de-gallemiezen/3ffabc6d-2cea-0dfc-251b-f8360a5be503

lennardvanotterloo, (edited )
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@ErikJonker De kunst van de Leave campagne was om vaag te zijn met feiten maar te focussen op emoties (makkelijk en minder saai) en vaag te zijn met wat er in plaats van EU lidmaatschap moest komen (om de tegenpolen binnen Leave binnen de tent te houden).

Het zwakste Leave argument was het financiële. Het Brexit proces zelf kostte het land £200mld, meer dan 47 jaar EU contributie. De 10mld EU contributie per jaar is vervangen door 60mld per jaar structurele hogere uitgaven ter vervanging.

LukaszOlejnik, to random
@LukaszOlejnik@mastodon.social avatar

Here's the reason why work is underway to lessen/balance the EU AI Act. French LLM model from Mistral comparable in quality (but cheaper) to US corps models. The French and Germans want to avoid shooting themselves in the foot early in the competition? https://www.ft.com/content/9e7ca55c-6987-4064-a181-47905eeb4662

image/png

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@LukaszOlejnik Let’s also not forget that the technology behind Stability AI was developed at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and that Google’s Deepmind is based a few kilometres from me here in London. I’ve often wondered whether Google Bard is named after William Shakespeare because of its UK heritage.

carnage4life, to random
@carnage4life@mas.to avatar

It's incredible to me that years later we are dealing with another set of life threatening quality issues in Boeing 737 MAX planes which can all be traced to the company deciding to optimize for shareholder value instead of listening to its engineers.

https://www.fromdayone.co/2022/05/01/lessons-of-boeings-cultural-decline-and-how-it-can-recover/

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@carnage4life It won’t help that they have a near-captive market. An airline with a significant Boeing fleet will see high switching costs if they have to retrain pilots for Airbus certification.

Ryanair has nearly 600 Boeing aircraft. They occasionally threaten to go Airbus in negotiations with Boeing but few people would believe that they actually would.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Damn the rail industry is full of bullshit

This Dutch startup Heuro claims it wants to run trains to London has neither trains nor finance as far as I can tell, just a very basic website

But the industry lobby of the private rail firms ALLRAIL is euphoric about them

I may just as well be euphoric about 🎅

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@jon Here's a bit more on the plan.

Maarten van den Biggelaar is indeed an accomplished businessman and he would probably be able to get the financing sorted.

Some of what he says in this piece makes sense but nothing about STP capacity constraints, baggage scanners or passport control, however.

Perhaps detrain everyone from Groningen in Amsterdam or Rotterdam and get them through security there?

https://www.parool.nl/nederland/strijd-op-het-spoor-nieuwkomer-heuro-wil-goedkoper-rijden-naar-londen-parijs-en-groningen~b8e69051/

davidallengreen, to random
@davidallengreen@mastodon.green avatar

The extraordinary situation that the Met police - the Met police! - are more liberal than the government.

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@davidallengreen A Met Commissioner reading the Riot Act to a Home Secretary. Interesting times.

glynmoody, to random
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

WeWork, once a $47bn firm, files for bankruptcy after accruing $2.9bn debt - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/06/wework-bankruptcy-debt-remote-work as many of us expected....

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@glynmoody I’m not sure if it’s the sacking of Neumann that made the company go under or whether it went under because he was ever involved in it.

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@glynmoody The challenge is that it’s not a new business model, companies such as Regus have been doing this for ages with much lower valuation multiples. It transfers the risk to the company in between (Regus, WeWork) so tricky business to run.

Neumann claimed to add some special sauce to present it as a tech firm with tech valuations.

One could argue that he more or less sold a dud to Softbank and that they let him get away with to save face.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

Dear security people: Is there any good reason in this day and age that an online order form should force me to paste my email into two different fields as some kind of "check"?

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@dharrison @annaleen You’d be amazed how bad people are at this.

At one of my previous businesses we had to run weekly checks on submitted data to fix the numerous instances of gmail.con, gmal.com, hotmal.com etc. etc.

It was partially automated but we wanted human oversight to make sure the process wouldn’t destroy valuable contact details.

futurism, to random

Elon Musks Says He Unloaded a Tommy Gun Into a Cybertruck "Al Capone Style" https://t.co/ExiS7s98z2

lennardvanotterloo,
@lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

@futurism I do suspect they removed the battery first and stayed clear of windows and tyres to achieve this fairly basic publicity stunt.

And here we are, talking about it.

deannapizzuti, to random

deleted_by_author

    •
    lennardvanotterloo,
    @lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

    @LouisIngenthron @SteveCooke Musk is no longer CEO so it would be Linda Yaccarino, or if there still is one, the head of the European operations who would appear in legal proceedings.

    Punishment would be against the company, not the person, but ultimately it would be a block of Twitter/X services in the EU+Norway+Iceland.

    Edent, to security
    @Edent@mastodon.social avatar

    My 2FA Code was 000 000!

    https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/03/my-2fa-code-was-000-000/

    lennardvanotterloo,
    @lennardvanotterloo@mastodon.social avatar

    @Edent For years I had the exact PIN code on my card as the one the bank used in all its example material. “If your PIN code is 1547…”

    This was in the nineties so before you could change your PIN. I couldn’t tell anyone how funny it was that the country’s biggest bank plastered my exact PIN across all their materials because then they would have known my PIN.

    Considering there are only 10000 variations many others must have had the same experience.

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