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European Parliament passes net neutrality law

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Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#131

Post by zyx321 »

Xylakant wrote: post #75
mattmanser wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're thinking of the Cold War, the end of Colonialism and Nuclear Bombs and confusing it with something the EU did.

I was born and grew up close to the french border, in a region that was contested between France and Germany and often changed hands. I was lucky to be born after the french-german friendship started to take roots, but I'm well aware that my country and France used to be arch enemies and fought three devastating wars between 1870 and 1970, not to count the petty little border conflicts. I still remember the day that…

>People that were born elsewhere or later than me don't even recognize the spot any more where the border was.

Which is kind of a shame, because there are few things that make one feel as free as driving past the empty booths of an abandoned checkpoint without even slowing down.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#132

Post by thisiswrong »

jcfrei wrote: post #77

Roaming charges will effectively be dropped on the 15th December 2015. Src: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/2014...

So much is changing in the tech world. I hope that by dec 2015 we have incentivised mesh networks, thus making centralized telcos obsolete.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#133

Post by voicereasonish »

Karunamon wrote: post #129
voicereasonish wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that some people, in some foreign country I will never visit, feel better, isn't much comfort to me I'm afraid.

If you're wondering why all your comments are turning an ever-lightening shade of grey, it's because of uninformed, thoughtless, selfish sentiments like this. The "ME ME ME" age of politics needs to end. And in some places, it appears it's moving towards that goal.

I'm not wondering. I fully expected hackernews crowd to be gushingly pro-european. This view is thankfully not echoed in the UK.

It's not about being selfish. It's about democracy and freedom. Imagine laws being created by people who don't even live on the same landmass as you, speak the same language, or know anything about your country or culture. Imagine if Brazil started making laws about what US citizens could do.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#134

Post by voicereasonish »

mkaziz wrote: post #123
voicereasonish wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that some people, in some foreign country I will never visit, feel better, isn't much comfort to me I'm afraid.

Why not? To them, you're just some person in a foreign country.

Exactly! And that's how it should be.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#135

Post by PeterisP »

madaxe_again wrote: post #87
mattmanser wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on, that's a silly thing to say, everyone's empires were significantly dismantled after WW2. It's easy not to fight when there's nothing to fight over and you've got a massive bear beating at the door. I'm not claiming the EU's done nothing, I think it's made Europe richer, increased growth, etc., I'm claiming the EU had nothing to do with peace in Europe. Europe would still be at peace today with or without a c…

> there's literally been no reason to fight. But how does that differ to WWII? Sure, reparations, polish corridor (not a reason at all), rise of fascism - but those things happened in a Europe that had sworn it would never fight again at Versailles. LN failed impressively because it was oriented around arms control and security pacts, rather than trade agreements - it attempted to treat the symptoms, not the cause. N…

The 'reason to fight' is the whole difference. In 1930ies, there were all kinds of practical reasons for European nations to win wars of conquest against their neighbours - that would bring them immediate practical and economic benefits, which would offset the costs of that military action unless it escalated to a world war. Especially after Versailles, there were many reasons to fight in Europe.

In 2000, however, there are no practical reasons for such wars (at least in Europe), as annexing a part of your neighbour would gain you little and hurt you a lot due to the trade impact.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#136

Post by mverwijs »

voicereasonish wrote: post #133
Karunamon wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're wondering why all your comments are turning an ever-lightening shade of grey, it's because of uninformed, thoughtless, selfish sentiments like this. The "ME ME ME" age of politics needs to end. And in some places, it appears it's moving towards that goal.

I'm not wondering. I fully expected hackernews crowd to be gushingly pro-european. This view is thankfully not echoed in the UK. It's not about being selfish. It's about democracy and freedom. Imagine laws being created by people who don't even live on the same landmass as you, speak the same language, or know anything about your country or culture. Imagine if Brazil started making laws about what US citizens could d…

I think you overestimate how United the United States really is, compared to the EU.

London is a 4 hour drive from Brussels.

Washington D.C. is a 41 hour drive from Seattle. And you can't even drive from D.C. to Hawaii.

When looking real hard at culture, I'm sure we can find as many differences between people from NY,NY and say Fairbanks, Alaska as we could between Londoners and Berliners.

I'm not against your arguments that the EU is a Bad Thing as such (I'm still on the fence on that one), but if you're thinking that US citizens cannot possibly relate to our issues with the EU since they're all nice and united, you could be in for a surprise.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#137

Post by johansch »

pessimizer wrote: post #119
johansch wrote: post #57

Here's a kind of sickening statement: '"Europe's telecoms operators are facing decreasing revenues ... compared with operators in the U.S. and Asia," said the GSM Association, an industry group for mobile phone companies. In a statement signed by director Anne Bouverot, the group said European laws are "impairing their ability to invest in the infrastructure required to put Europe back on the path to growth and jobs.…

>"Europe's telecoms operators are facing decreasing revenues ... compared with operators in the U.S. and Asia," Because decisions on regulation should always have the goal of preserving the existing business models of middlemen:) It's an important truth with a lot of implications for the wealth of nations that wages are sticky on the way down; should we devote as much study to the fact that modern governments don't b…

Population growth is at the moment only happening in Africa though.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#138

Post by voicereasonish »

mverwijs wrote: post #136
voicereasonish wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not wondering. I fully expected hackernews crowd to be gushingly pro-european. This view is thankfully not echoed in the UK. It's not about being selfish. It's about democracy and freedom. Imagine laws being created by people who don't even live on the same landmass as you, speak the same language, or know anything about your country or culture. Imagine if Brazil started making laws about what US citizens could d…

I think you overestimate how United the United States really is, compared to the EU. London is a 4 hour drive from Brussels. Washington D.C. is a 41 hour drive from Seattle. And you can't even drive from D.C. to Hawaii. When looking real hard at culture, I'm sure we can find as many differences between people from NY,NY and say Fairbanks, Alaska as we could between Londoners and Berliners. I'm not against your argume…

The US is all on the same land mass (mostly). They all speak the same language. They've all lived there pretty much the same amount of time.

With Europe, the UK is a different landmass, we all speak different languages, and we have centuries of complex history and culture.

Sure, the US varies quite a bit, but nothing like the amount that europe varies.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#139

Post by yxhuvud »

M2Ys4U wrote: post #85
voicereasonish wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU has only existed for a couple of decades. To suggest that the EU is a reason we haven't had any wars recently is ridiculous, yet it gets trotted out time and time again by pro europeans. It's as scientific as saying vaccinations probably cause autism. Also, the EU is not getting much useful done considering the millions that pour into it daily. The level of waste and bureaucracy is staggering. Moving the entir…

> The EU has only existed for a couple of decades. To suggest that the EU is a reason we haven't had any wars recently is ridiculous. You don't go to war with your major trading partners, it would be economic suicide. Of course, the EU isn't the only reason why there hasn't been (more) war, but it's a significant contributing factor along with organisations like NATO. >From regulations on fruit Ugh. I wish people wou…

> You don't go to war with your major trading partners, it would be economic suicide.

I suggest you go read up on WWI.

Re: European Parliament passes net neutrality law

#140

Post by gvr »

Systemic33 wrote: post #17
bayesianhorse wrote: post #9

I think the EU is getting an amazing amount of work done, if you consider that it consists of 28 nation states which went to war with each other regularly for centuries up to a couple of decades ago...

And some of them are still culturally at war ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark%E2%80%93Sweden_relation...

As a Swede I can honestly say that for all intents and purposes Sweden, Norway and Denmark are all the same and we love each other.
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