EU countries team up for semiconductor push • Hacker News Board

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#611

Post by modo_mario » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 10:00 AM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #265

rmrfstar wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the consensus seems to be that Intel tried to pile up too many new improvements, which backfired. TSMC took a more incremental and safe approach Can you point to some industry literature that explains this? If this is true, it is a lot more surprising that Intel is talking about going fabless. You build a lot of expertise by rolling the dice on new techniques that don't pan out on the first iteration. People wouldn…

>People wouldn't be so pessimistic about Boeing if they had just been overly aggressive in a new airframe design, rather than failing to safely mount new engines on an old design. Unfortunately Boeing doesn't have a huge list of customers that are willing to spend what it costs to switch to a new airframe. They sell to airlines what airlines want to buy. Airlines wanted a 737 with higher bypass engines and that's exa…

> they didn't do it as some nefarious cost cutting measure. They did it because American and Southwest said they wanted nothing to do with a "797" and threatened to switch to Airbus.

so a nefarious moneygrabbing measure?

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#612

Post by skissane » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 10:02 AM UTC

nixass wrote: post #427

rgblambda wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>the English language can become the lingua franca with less resistance as it is no ones language(Well, there are the Irish but it's a small country). Malta also has English as an official language, though again, it's an even smaller country. On the other hand, in neither Ireland or Malta is English the "first" official language.

While Irish/Gaelic language is a thing it's mostly ceremonial and people on the street know it poorly, with no knowledge to even superficial conversation. Irish language has no use in Ireland. Even tho it is "official", it's useless

What you say is true for most of Ireland, but there are small parts of the country where Irish is a first language – the Gaeltacht. For example, Gweedore (in Donegal) where over 70% of the population have Irish as a first language and all its local schools use Irish as the language of instruction.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#613

Post by skissane » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 10:12 AM UTC

pompeirules wrote: post #485

m000 wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any references of English actually being phased-out in EU? The Politico article was written just a few days after the Brexit referendum, and 4 years later I can only take it for empty sabre-rattling.

> Do you have any references of English actually being phased-out in EU? It's not clear yet if it will be used in official documents after Brexit agreements will be signed, but UK was the only country who chose English as an official language. There's an hard requirement in EU to translate every official document in every language spoken in the EU, if English is not an official language, that requirement will cease t…

> It's not clear yet if it will be used in official documents after Brexit agreements will be signed, but UK was the only country who chose English as an official language.

The official languages of the EU are set by Council Regulation No 1, which declares English to be an official language. Brexit did not change that regulation in any way; it would take a unanimous vote of the Council of the European Union to amend it, and it is very unlikely that Ireland would vote to remove as an official language the first language of the vast majority of its citizens.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/1958/1(1)/2013-07-01

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#614

Post by Yaggo » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 10:19 AM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #598

akie wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... maybe as the UK is out of the EU the English language can become the lingua franca with less resistance as it is no ones language I mean, this is never going to happen. Name one country in history that completely switched language without external pressure (invasion or colonisation).

It's not about switching languages but making a language the default when people don't have the same native language. So instead of dealing 24 languages, EU can make English the default for everything international. Local stuff will continue with the local language but all the international dealings can be conducted in English. That's pretty much the standart on the internet and the younger generations are already us…

EU will probably never give English any kind of official status of "linqua franca", because Germany/France/Spain/Italy etc. big countries with long cultural history just won't accept it. Smaller nations are much more flexible because they always have had to.

That being said, English is already unofficial common language between most Europeans. E.g. it's very common for Finns and Swedes to communicate in English, despite Swedish being one the official(!) languages in Finland (also taught in elementary school), simply because many Finns have much stronger English than Swedish skills (and Swedes speak typically more neutral (clear) English than native speakers).

Actually, because English is native language only in UK, that makes it excellent lingua franca for the rest: when both parties speak it as 2nd langauge, the communication is more easily kept in the same level (i.e. not speaking too fast, using exotic words, etc).

That's just how the world works nowadays, e.g. in tech English vocabulary is extremely pervasive. Even in Finnish every-day talk in tech related areas we often use direct loan words from English ("Finglish").

Personally I think the only downside of English is its irregular prononcing, i.e. relatively weak correlation between written and spoken language.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#615

Post by Aerroon » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 10:23 AM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #476

Aerroon wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU is ahead of the US in crude steel production, but we're about 6 times behind China.[0] ARM is in the UK and not the EU. It's owned by a Japanese company and soon an American one. Does Europe do that well in pharmaceuticals? It looks to me like the US is leading in biomedical research publications. [1] Some European countries are ahead when measured per capita, but only some and that's not an important figure h…

>"The EU is ahead of the US in crude steel production, but we're about 6 times behind China." People often throw around numbers like this without any context. In the other thread people were trying to judge economics of electric powerplants by total weight. Why is this a relevant metric? Why would you not expect China, which is 2x the population and is building infrastructure to refine more steel? Like they also prod…

>Why is this a relevant metric?

Because the parent poster brought it up. Also, Japan produces about the same amount of crude steel as the US despite being less than half the population.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#616

Post by josalhor » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 10:52 AM UTC

josalhor wrote: post #592

TMWNN wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your headline salary in the Us is higher but disposable income is often lower. At $45,284 the US has the highest household net disposable income per capita in the OECD ( http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/united-states/ ), where "disposable income" ( http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=46 ) accounts for healthcare and government benefits.

This doesn't account for cost of living (I mean running costs), right?

Self reply: It was early in the morning and I didn't read correctly. My comment makes no sense (although I certainly meant to ask about the purchase power relative to cost).

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#617

Post by mschuster91 » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 10:54 AM UTC

piokoch wrote: post #604

mrtksn wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe has some successful international projects like CERN or Airbus. Besides, what are the other options? Europe is in this strange place where collectively account for enormous wealth and power but individually no country is a match to the big boys like USA/China when simultaneously are super unoptimised due to cultural/lingual differences. The younger Europeans I met were all very eager to learn English, so who k…

That's very true. Europe is in a very difficult position now. RCEP agreement has just happened (it will take 1-2 years to ratify it by all countries), but it is a huge step towards Asia economic dominance. Next, China is sponsoring actively similar agreement for African countries. Africa is a potentially huge market and has a lot of natural resources. It seems that Europe totally drop the ball here, the only thing th…

> Europe leaders really need to wake up. Stop concentrating on immaterial issues, push for more competitive economy, lower taxes, less regulations

I agree that our dear leaders have to wake up - but that is not the direction they should go at all. Our taxes are already so low that many countries have problems financing taking care of basic needs like healthcare. Less regulation? This will directly, and negatively, impact the people of Europe because corporations always exploit every legal (and illegal) avenue to cut corners at the expense of the people.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#618

Post by brutuscat » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 10:55 AM UTC

tristor wrote: post #407

mlyle wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe's done big multinational technical-political things many times to varying levels of success. Don't forget Gaileo, Arianespace, Airbus's parent EADS, the ESA, etc. They tend to not be super capital efficient, but the sheer amount of wealth and resources tend to make things that are priorities not completely fail. > P.S: a lot of the young in Europe are learning english because they want to get the f--- out the…

> What factors make you want to get out? As an American who's spent a lot of time in both the US and Continental Europe (and elsewhere) I don't see any terrific suck. At the risk of speaking out of turn, I've traveled extensively outside the US and befriended a lot of folks and had discussions on this topic with them. I would summarize my findings as such: 1. Economic Mobility: In Europe economic mobility, on average…

I do agree with you (at least I used to), but lately I've been very reluctant to anything "made in USA" (e.g. the American dream). The sheer amount of injustice that happens there is just way to much. I am not sure I would be able to sleep comfortably living in a country where I would be making 7x or 8x what other families are making at the expense of leaving them with no safety net whatsoever.

Freedom at times kinda looks a lot more like selfishness.

The EU has a lot of other problems, but at least people here does not have to think twice before doing "normal things" like going to the doctor. I mean it is primarily important to think about one self, I get that, but what happens to others is really important and will affect us eventually!

PS: I left Buenos Aires in 2009, now I live in Spain, even though here it is not perfect at least I can sleep without regrets.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#619

Post by dmch-1 » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 11:22 AM UTC

haspok wrote: post #602

mrtksn wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe has some successful international projects like CERN or Airbus. Besides, what are the other options? Europe is in this strange place where collectively account for enormous wealth and power but individually no country is a match to the big boys like USA/China when simultaneously are super unoptimised due to cultural/lingual differences. The younger Europeans I met were all very eager to learn English, so who k…

> The younger Europeans I met were all very eager to learn English... English IS the lingua franca in Europe, right now, at this moment, no question about it. Even the in remotest parts Generation Z and younger speak and understand a little bit, it is only the older folks who still remember the EU with borders are reluctant to speack anything else other than their own language. And there are more and more people pick…

To be honest, the most disadvantaged are the native English speakers. Nobody understands them.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#620

Post by mmc4444 » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 11:28 AM UTC

haspok wrote: post #602

mrtksn wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe has some successful international projects like CERN or Airbus. Besides, what are the other options? Europe is in this strange place where collectively account for enormous wealth and power but individually no country is a match to the big boys like USA/China when simultaneously are super unoptimised due to cultural/lingual differences. The younger Europeans I met were all very eager to learn English, so who k…

> The younger Europeans I met were all very eager to learn English... English IS the lingua franca in Europe, right now, at this moment, no question about it. Even the in remotest parts Generation Z and younger speak and understand a little bit, it is only the older folks who still remember the EU with borders are reluctant to speack anything else other than their own language. And there are more and more people pick…

> No more awkward meetings where 20 people understand each other reasonably well, but not the single UK representative... (true story)

I'm confused by this. Are you saying that the native English speaker in the room was the one having difficulty understanding what the other non-native speakers were saying?