Easily believable. I used to live in a place in California that was maybe 200 feet away from a local shopping center / strip mall kind of thing; groceries, restaurants, laundromat, couple assorted stores. It would have been real convenient except going there directly would have required walking through a neighbors yard and jumping their fence; so instead the only path to get to this place (again, 200 feet away if I were a bird) was to get in the car and drive in the opposite direction to leave the neighborhood and then double back along the main road.

200 feet became about 3 miles, about half of which had no sidewalk for people on foot.

In the Netherlands my electric prices have remained steady but gas went up substantially.

As far as I (a non-British person) can tell the actual proposal hasn’t been released yet so: nobody knows.

I do know that I wouldn’t count on them doing a good job of defining what “social media” is; and if we’re being honest then IRC, Usenet, forums, and Lemmy should all be included in that definition as they are all forms of it.

I started coding when I was 10 (yea, I know, that’s earlier than usual, but still!) and I learned so much from programming forums and mailing lists that I think it’s safe to say my entire career would be on a very different or VERY delayed path if I wasn’t allowed access to those until I was 16.

Sorry, you must be old enough to pilot a multi-thousand-pound vehicle at highway speeds before we let you learn about the dark magic that is Perl and awk.

Should we attempt to regulate how social media companies operate, educate children and parents on the possible harm and how to avoid it, or do anything with the goal of just improving the way technology is used?

No, we’ll just ban it. Something that has famously always worked well.

In a way this makes me a little sad. I met my wife via IRC, I built long lasting relationships with random people I met online when I was a teenager; I learned so much about programming and Linux/BSD/Solaris from online forums of people that took time to help my dumb ass out. All of that same potential to be swept under the rug because of trash like TikTok and Facebook.

Yes, there was a lot of work to do. Which is why waiting almost two years to start working is so fucking appalling. They should have started in early 2021!

Biden took office Jan 20th, 2021. Garland didn’t appoint Jack Smith until November 18th, 2022 - one year and almost ten full months later. Almost halfway through Biden’s term. What Trump did on January 6th was obvious and well known before Biden took office, the fact that Jack Smith wasn’t appointed IN EARLY 2021 is a colossal failure on Biden’s part.

Biden’s inaction, and his appointing Merrick Garland who also did far too little far too late, are only two of many events in a long chain that built up to this.

Before Biden there was the failure to do anything about Obama’s war crimes, the failure to do anything about GWB’s numerous war crimes and lies that started two wars, the failure to do anything about Reagan and the Iran-Contra scheme or the rigging of HUD, the failure to actually prosecute Nixon… all the way back to failing to prosecute the confederates that murdered 1.5 million people. Jefferson Davis was never even prosecuted, and was released from jail after two years without a trial.

The US is broken because it has never held powerful people responsible for their crimes. The revolution to escape a king only established an oligarchy of the wealthy.

Another option: give urinals their own stalls / rooms. Just give everybody privacy.

I moved from the US to the Netherlands, and it really makes this whole attitude even more insane. Like, the solution is easy and obvious: GIVE PEOPLE PRIVACY IN BATHROOMS.

There’s no need for gendered bathrooms if everybody gets their own small stall or closet that actually provides privacy. I do mean floor to ceiling doors, not this weird and creepy as fuck American “we need to see you shitting just in case you’re doing smack” nonsense that leaves gaps between the panels large enough to make eye contact and engage in a firm handshake through.

I don’t know how many times I’ve walked out of the toilet closet and immediately met a woman cleaning the men’s room. And it’s fine!

One wonders why the application “used for everything related to authentication with government services” runs on a Private Sector cloud.

I read (no citation here, I forget where I saw this now) a while back somebody involved saying that their procurement policies require they accept the lowest bid tended, as long as its legally submitted and not obviously a scam.

So yes, typical neo-liberal right-wing mentality is very much at fault I suspect.

Since the article is in Dutch, let me try to provide a little extra context:

1. It’s not actually the company that runs DigiD, that’s Logius, who is part of the ministry of the interior.
2. It’s about the cloud-hosting company that DigiD runs on. The DigiD code was open sourced, though it looks like the GitHub repository is now archived (https://github.com/MinBZK/woo-besluit-broncode-digid-app)
3. It really is used for everything related to authentication with government services. Doing your taxes, scheduling an appointment with the city government for <insert anything>, scheduling a doctors appointment, getting a prescription refilled, on and on.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t DigiD created by Logius, which is part of the “Interior Ministry” to roughly translate into English?

Eh, learn something new every day I guess.

From now on I will only use Newtons when discussing temperature.

It sure is. But it’s also really, really easy to convert between the various units of measurement.

Yes, a US audience:

1. CNN is an American company
2. My comment was specifically for Americans that may not understand or appreciate the situation, as houses there are built very differently and are less prone to baking their occupants during summer.

Why does my labeling the unit of measurement bother you so much you have to comment on it specifically? I’m genuinely confused here.

Why? I’m clearly addressing an American audience from a non-American location; specifying if I’m using Fahrenheit or Celsius just helps avoid confusion. Does the label of the unit bother you?

Hell yea; I love the rain here. You’ll get so many weird looks from Dutch people saying that, but whatever. Fuck summer, I’d rather live with year round winter personally.

After living in the Netherlands for about three years (moved here from the US) I finally gave in and ordered an air conditioner. I was slightly worried about my neighbors judging us for it (it’ll hang out the window, it’s hard to not notice) only to learn that they also bought one that same day.

All the homes are brick, and are well suited to retaining heat through winter. I only set my thermostat to ~65F for a single room and leave the rest of the apartment unheated and the other rooms average about 50F. In summer though it may peak at 85F outside, but inside it will hit 100F and just stay there for hours even when it’s back down to 65F outside at night.

Awesome in winter, and an oven in summer.

Ah, I see you’ve met my mother.

The IND (Immigration & Naturalization Department) has pretty good docs online and in English: https://ind.nl/en/residence-permits/work/residence-permit-self-employed-person

Not just any business; IIRC lawyers & doctors are restricted, and prostitution isn’t allowed. Although if you bring a spouse they are allowed to work without restrictions, including prostitution… if that’s your/their thing.

There’s no minimum “value” or income requirements at first (though if you want to get renewed at the two year mark you’ll need to demonstrate the business is doing at least something), you basically just need to put 4.5k euro in your business’ bank account and never let it go under that base 4.5k.

General advice: read everything you can; what I just wrote is ~3 years old and could have changed since. I paid an immigration attorney to handle my & spouse’s application something like 1k euro and think it was well worth it. Shipping stuff by boat usually comes with a minimum space purchase, which also means a minimum cost of 5k (again, few years old on that reference…). Most electronics aren’t worth bringing due to the AC/DC difference, though I disassembled my desktop and brought everything but the case and power supply in my luggage on the plane.

And lastly, if you are seriously considering it, learn the language. I can’t stress it enough. This isn’t just a two week vacation, you will eventually need to interact with dentists, doctors, repairmen, delivery people, etc, who probably speak great English but it isn’t guaranteed – especially if they’re older or if you live outside the randstad. I know some fellow Americans here that barely know any Dutch and it makes everything feel more difficult for them; even basic knowledge helps a lot if you’re on the train and you hear an announcement “the rear of the train is staying at the following station and going back, if you wish to continue further move to the front cabins”

Avoid Duolingo, it used to be good but it’s all AI-enshittified shit. I recommend Busuu, and when you feel like it’s starting to make sense do some actual lessons. “NOS Journaal in Makkelijke Taal” (“NOS Journal in Easy Language”) is good to watch; it’s a 8-ish minute news report of the day in simple and (usually) kindof slowly spoken Dutch. Just keep watching until it works.