Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’ • Hacker News Board

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#451

Post by toohotatopic » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

t0mas88 wrote: post #375

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe me, the UK is ages ahead of Germany in terms of digitization.

The UK is ages ahead of Germany, but that's because Germany is very non-digital, not because the UK is so ahead. When I lived in the UK things like online banking, internet speeds (even in London) and 4G/5G coverage all felt a few years behind as well.

In which way is banking behind? Within EU, you can transfer money for free. You can automate your monthly payments or let companies draw the money. What else is there to offer?

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#452

Post by touisteur » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:32 PM UTC

simias wrote: post #266

touisteur wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Listening to French entrepreneurs, the usual suspects (labor laws, taxes...) are not so much of a problem. They all seem to rally around an kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare of interacting with anything state-related... Especially orgs collecting payroll taxes... The stories I see, where you get nailed huge fines every year, for small nitpicky details. They all talk of nightmares where some admin comes and destroy th…

I hear stories like this often, I can believe there's a problem here. It is true that we like red tape over here. That being said the problem with these testimonies is that you'll often hear people complain when something go wrong but nobody is going to tell you how great the French tax system is when it plays in their favor. It's... whatever the opposite of survivor bias is. People also like to deflect the blame awa…

That's where I'm at (small improvements, minding Chesterton's fence) and I hope someday someone will stop listening to big French-capitalism-style conglomerates that are always trying to bring new laws, new contract types, to reform it all to make it more American, or German, or Danish... and start listening a bit more to SMEs. Of all kinds.

And I also think part of the problem is overzealous government orgs, who I'm sure take their job very seriously, but are not encouraged to think mistakes are made with no intent to cheat, by default.

I liked the idea of a 'by default we think you made a mistake, our laws and procedures are too complex, let's settle this without penalty, with a generous paiement plan... let's wait a bit before we punish you'... I don't know...

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#453

Post by LargoLasskhyfv » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

thiht wrote: post #204

thecleaner wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont hate US hegemony. They are there because they got things right. American companies are more innovayive and fast paced than their European counterparts (assuming they even have counterparts). In general, I would love to have American tech culture with a European safety net.

> They are there because they got things right. American companies are more innovayive and fast paced than their European counterparts That's naive. Europe simply wouldn't allow (rightly so) a company to become Google or Amazon. A conglomerate like Gaia-X seems like a safer alternative to US tech giants.

Hm. What do you think of Bertelsmann and all its subsidiaries then? Like independence of media, while the heiress is best friends with our chancellor? "Staat im Staat". Also Arvato and Infoscore, which almost nobody knows while rambling about the SCHUFA...

edit: apart from Bertelsmann: DATEV

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#454

Post by thecleaner » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #384

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I mean it's the same in the US. No one is talking salaries in Iowa whenever tech jobs are mentioned

The average software engineer in Iowa makes around 100K a year. That's pretty good, really, most people would consider it a lot of money. There is a reality distortion field around SV :)

100K in Iowa does seem like a great deal of money. One metric I would be interested in is what fraction of income would go to rent.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#455

Post by panzagl » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

This is great because it will be so easy to spin up instances- just provide your VAT registration, detailed plan for GPDR, mechanism for 'right to be forgotten', cookie policy, application for any protected region of origin usages, and pandemic mitigation policy and after a short series of review and revisions you will be put in the queue for the no-bid government IT contractor to reject your request because they phased out the instance type you requested.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#456

Post by goatinaboat » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

davedx wrote: post #211

heipei wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, and I'm glad I started by saying that I'm German because lots of smaller European countries run circles around us in terms of tech adoption. I don't underestimate the value of quality of life, and I don't blame anyone who knowingly works for a stable, "boring", old-school German company which has been the world-leader in its niche for the past 100 years. But I think many people here are not aware that t…

Yeah in the Netherlands here, and I’ve spent some time recently integrating a German fintech vendor. The cross of new and modern and old beurocratic way of doing things has been almost dystopian and really slowed everything down. Contrast to similar vendors in the UK is quite something.

When Europe does do fintech it’s just really sleazy and exploitative, like Revolut, so better off without.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23416169

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#457

Post by rad_gruchalski » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:54 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #303

viraptor wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tech salaries in Europe really are a joke. Don't look at just the number. Once you consider the cost of living, health coverage, days off, sick days, long service leave, parental leave, and lots of other benefits, it's actually not that impressive. > easy immigration to US for Europeans "Europeans" don't exist. UK has drastically different immigration rules than Poland for example. > good affordable education Some…

Don't just look at the list of things not included either. Actually look at the numbers. A Silicon Valley total compensation can easily be double that in the UK. That pays for a lot of cost of living, healthcare, time off, etc. It actually is an impressive difference.

A junior after Georgia Tech, zero experience, 4 years ago, would receive an offer of $90k in Atlanta.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#458

Post by zachguo » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 6:55 PM UTC

In terms of geopolitics this is a good move, a superpower should have its own tech infrastructure.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#459

Post by hackissimo123 » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

amaccuish wrote: post #242

hackissimo123 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the residents of Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and the entirety of central and eastern Europe (except Romania) would be surprised to hear that they don't speak a Latin language.

I assume you're speaking of alphabet? Because the languages you just listed are definitely not descendants of Latin.

Fuck, I need to proof-read my posts better. I got it the wrong way round - the European countries not listed are the ones that speak Latin languages.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#460

Post by rorykoehler » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

Nasrudith wrote: post #414

rorykoehler wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ye I’m not a fan. All it does is entrench existing inequality. A few new millionaires are minted but I’m interested in solutions that provide an economic floor for everyone so we can all bootstrap if we want to instead.

The distribution is a result of VC being a lotto that pays out well enough that not only is it not a bad idea to play it in terms of return on investment. Unfortunately it takes a lot of money to "buy every ticket". Which means to "win" for a VC they need to win big enough to outweigh their massive pile of failures. Except instead of a lotto board paying out it is growth of a successful company. The second desire? Pr…

Sorry you lost me regarding why the economic floor is a bad idea. I like advancement too but not at such a high human cost. It is bad value for money and tbh I'm not sure how much advancement is actually taking place as we move beyond the breakneck innovation phase of this technological paradigm shift.