martneumann

>Yeah, but what happens if lose my file locations?

>No problem, the locations are just metadata! Your files are still there, sitting in π - they're never going away, are they?

Apart from weather, a big issue outside the USA is also car infrastructure. The US is extremely car centric with large, straight, easy-to-maneuver roads everywhere. Here in Germany, it's different. We have rather narrow, chaotic roads, unclear signage, "right car has right of way" traffic rules which sometimes get resolved via hand signs, no jaywalking laws, etc.

I am still hoping for fewer cars on the road overall. The car itself is inefficient and hopefully on its way out.

The first few are single family villas, the last four are multi family housing complexes.

For some reason, people in Europe back in the 60s believed that creating dense housing only units with no sense of scale, long commutes and walks and 100% car dependence was the way forward.

That experiment backfired almost everywhere. Some of these homes, both in Eastern and Western Europe are well connected via public transport, integrate commercial and residential zones and are fairly nice to live in. Most, however, are simply unhealthy for both the planet and the residents.

It's great to live in dense places; but its benefits are countered by huge, empty plazas that take 15 minutes to cross if I just want to walk to the next corner store.

Love this.

Posting to see what I got.

Are you saying that it's more likely API key requirements appear at some point than the interface changing?

I'm not that informed, but intuitively, I'd doubt that.

You're right. It's a societal, imagined instability.

In the US, if you lose your job, you're "between jobs". In Germany, you're "arbeitslos" (jobless), which some people use as an insult. There are entire TV channels that make fun of jobless people - think TLC type shows, but strictly about poverty and joblessness.

I once heard that Americans motivate themselves positively:

If I manage to finish this work today, great things will happen!

... while Germans motivate themselves negatively:

If I don't finish this work today, I'll lose my job, home, family and cat.

"Daaad, are you complaining about me on the Internet again?!" ;)

Haha, I had an addiction phase as well. It drives me crazy how the beginning is hard, then it gets very easy, and suddenly, you lose.

Just because many privately owned apps are bad, does not mean the concept of apps is bad. If the government in theory can offer a "secure" open source channel for me to do my business with them without having to go there or pay for postage, why not use it?

And why do we still believe that paper docs are secure? Someone needs to look at them and can just as easily "lose" them, too.

Loved it! The fun parts of breakout (getting shots trapped behind blocks) without the stressful controls!

It's really hard, though. I only survive like 5 shots. If theres a wall of 5s coming at me, what can I do?

Still, really cool.

>At the extreme, if it is bad enough, they can start their own.

That is not a realistic proposition, either. People are as forced to use private services as they are forced to use government ones. There might be a competitor, but even that does not necessarily provide cheaper or better service or products.

Honestly? It's little more than the better pay for me. I'm generally a conscious person with politics based on empathy and equality, and I have the same thoughts you have, but I have never worked in the public sector due to low salaries compared to the private sector.

I don't lie to myself, either. What I create is not making the world a better place by much at all. I'm making industry software that helps create products. Nothing more, nothing less. I steer clear of miltech or creating software for police or secret services, but apart from that, all it does is create value for some shareholders somewhere while pumping out products that are probably unnecessary and wasteful.

It's an interior conflict that does not go away, and I won't say I have resolved any of it for me. I know that I'm not contributing to saving the world, and it sucks. But I'm also not really in a position to change that. Furthermore, I'm not in a field where governments usually look for talent, and I do enjoy the freedom of creating my own systems with the architecture I prefer and not being constrained by the tight requirements of gov systems.

The little purpose I do find is in creating quality software that kind of makes stuff more efficient and by extension, helps progress towards a more sustainable future with less manual labor. But, in a way, that's what everyone on Earth does, so it's not much.

You take taxes away from other countries where the profits would be distributed - and where the actual companies operate.

When I read posts like this I'm reminded I actually studied computer engineering, not computer science ;)