Was it the same UK government that put Turing into jail?
In the same sense that the Biden administration put homosexuals, suspected communists and people who violated desegregation laws in jail, perhaps...
UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
91–100 of 135 posts
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
"In fact we get paid more than our US counterparts." That is almost never the case in the UK.
We also get paid holiday and sick leave, and can leave work at 5pm without anyone raising an eyebrow.
Around the 2000 years and the dot com boom, When I worked at a very large and well-known US software company, on-site for an external (German company) partner, their campus parking lots filled up around 9-10 am and emptied at 4 pm. Long midday breaks in the (several) restaurants on campus, or the sports building, many driving off-site for eating in some nearby city (many to choose from on the SF Bay Area peninsula).
True, the Americans didn't get much vacation, when I and some German colleagues went skiing over that long fall weekend (forgot what holiday it was) the resort was suddenly empty exactly at the end of the holiday, while we Germans stayed a day longer.
However, during regular hours it's pretty casual. My job involved traveling to many IT companies all over the country, I don't think the insane hours are anywhere near normal apart from some very few companies and not for long. The best you will get is people pretending to work - often enough I saw lots of "office golf" and web browsing or being out for coffee breaks, lots more than people actually working. That was before the wave of remote work so I think I saw the "real work". I'm fine with it, I think that's sane and reasonable for these kinds of jobs.
On the other hand, what I saw from low-level service jobs was really bad. It seemed to me that those employees do have it hard and are under constant supervision with little authority to do anything or to use their brain, just follow the script and call a supervisor if any actual decisions have to be made, and they really have to work those hours.
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Production costs varying over the seasons or supply availability I can understand. I can't understand how /every/ UK supermarket chain made the same decision to decline the higher costs without asking myself if they spoke to each other about it. Emergent behaviour caused by racing to the bottom?
Anti price gouging laws prevent them jacking up prices when there is tight supply. They literally can't offer to pay more.
Except that isn't a law. Although if they were all shown to be acting in concert, not buying tomatoes in order to get a better price. That would be illegal.
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding of bigger salaries outside the UK is that they are based on longer working hours, with very little focus on quality of life outside work. This may only apply to the US, but in any case I’ll always personally consider off-work time a very precious requirement.
How many hours do you think the average US programmer works?
probably almost four to eight weeks more per year than the average British or European programmer. In the EU and UK most countries have about six weeks of mandatory paid time off per year, and strict limits on overtime work.
Anecdotally from my own experience in the US I'd say Americans work probably about 20% more hours annually. Even people who had comparable vacation would often only take two weeks, and weekly hours seemed to be closer to 40-45 than the 35-38 that's common in Europe.
edit: btw that's not industry specific, it's a long running trend: https://www.stlouisfed.org/-/media/project/frbstl/stlouisfed...
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of Europe is suffering shortages the same though, it's just that in the UK the supermarkets refused to pay more. Whereas like here in Sweden you can buy tomatoes, but they now cost $10 per kg.
I still do not get why people buy those sad pale tomatoes in winter.
Tesco tomatoes are a bright, happy red - and remain so even after six months in the fridge.
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brexit is a symptom of the underlying incompetence of the British political class, not a cause.
> Brexit is a symptom of the underlying incompetence of the British political class, not a cause. It's not incompetence. It is deliberate sabotage. The economy is being smashed to pieces so the Conservatives can steal it and sell the bits off for a quick fix of cash. They're all junkies, who will steal whatever public property they can to sell, and now they've worked out they can do it to the whole country.
I think there's a complex interplay between their incompetence and maliciousness.
They are both, but the incompetence means that the maliciousness, while intended ends up manifesting in some unintended way.
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anti price gouging laws prevent them jacking up prices when there is tight supply. They literally can't offer to pay more.
This is nonsense. There is no UK "price gouging" legislation applicable to paying more to import foodstuffs
The law is against 'unfair business practices', but the Competition and Markets Authority took action when businesses raised the price of hand sanitizer when there was lots of demand in 2020.
Now businesses generally can't make big price shifts due to increased demand or constrained supply.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-and-trade-bod...
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Brexit is a symptom of the underlying incompetence of the British political class, not a cause. It's not incompetence. It is deliberate sabotage. The economy is being smashed to pieces so the Conservatives can steal it and sell the bits off for a quick fix of cash. They're all junkies, who will steal whatever public property they can to sell, and now they've worked out they can do it to the whole country.
I think there's a complex interplay between their incompetence and maliciousness. They are both, but the incompetence means that the maliciousness, while intended ends up manifesting in some unintended way.
> They are both, but the incompetence means that the maliciousness, while intended ends up manifesting in some unintended way.
Oh yeah absolutely, the whole idea of Kwasi Kwarteng deliberately tanking the pound sterling by about 60 billion so that his wee pals at Odey Asset Management could clean up a few million quid was absolutely premeditated sabotage, but everything that followed on from that was like some fucked-up lovechild of The Sorceror's Apprentice and some malign bottle genie's implementation of the "Invisible Hand".
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#99This is something that comes up time and time again with our recent string of conservative governments, going back to Cameron. At this point I'm pretty convinced that it is a dead cat strategy to avoid us talking about the lack of fruit and vegetables in the supermarkets. Or maybe I'm just being hopeful.
You really think that an issue as important as basic food supplies is going to be bumped out of the headlines by a tedious government consultation on internet governance?
Re: UK Proposes Even More Stupid Ideas for Directly Regulating the Internet
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, it's winter now - I'd expect off season fruits and vegetables to be more expensive? Or do you mean that tomatoes are more expensive now than last winter?
"off-season tomatoes" hasn't been a thing in decades. Tomatoes are available at affordable prices all year long.
Well, I would hardly call 10$/kilo affordable.
Where I live ( France), at the height of the season, and assuming you live in the south, good tomato will cost about 2-3$/kilo. In winter you can indeed buy tomatoes (for more money) which look like tomatoes but are tasteless and are therefore a different kind of product. It might be possible to get good tomatoes as well, but I assume this will incur a significant premium, at which point I no longer consider them affordable.