> Imminent threats and specific calls to violence are a different matter.
More equality does not mean communism or everybody gets exactly the same. You position is just a straw man argument.
> Scandinavian
Scandinavian countries are social democracies, like most of Europe, they are not community countries. And are no exception but good examples of implementing good policies.
> Imminent threats and specific calls to violence are a different matter.
That is what I find disturbing. That general threads and calls to violence are ok. That threatening your neighbor is ok meanwhile you do not set a date and a time for the violence.
Finally, if I say that Coca-Cola causes cancer the Coca-Cola Company can sue me for lying. But, if I lie about your race is on because it only affects men, women and children economy, well-being and dignity but no corporation bottom line is hurt.
It seems that free of expression has some intriguing limitation when is convenient for some. Don't you think that racist propaganda may be protected because historical reasons and not any logic or benevolent intention?
There was a time that it was difficult for me to understand how it was possible that governments in the middle east were supporting domestic terrorism. It was difficult to imagine how normal people were supporting the killing of fellow citizens.
Now, that I see this same trend unravel in the USA it becomes easier to understand. I have seen for the past decades the shifting of what "conservative" means. Extremists were always there, that I knew. But, it has been scary to see how moving what normality is toward the extreme has happened. News, in USA case Fox News, have validated the extremist's views creating an equivalence between "both sides".
In Europe there are similar movements, but, it has not been televised so much. Except, maybe, for the rise of extremism in the United Kingdom.
As interesting it is from the political perspective, it is dishearting the amount of suffering that it is causing. The political discourse is not used to agree in a way forward for society but as a battleground. And, again, news outlets share its part of fault. Diminishing investment in education probably is even more to blame.
The response is not to be angry, but to be calm and help society to value well-intended discussions over sensationalist posts and news headers.
I hope that it is not too late, the last time that xenophobia was not stoped it cost over 80 million lives, this time it will be way worse.
> Steal from the richest man in the world: FBI is on the case with military-grade weapons, tactics and surveillance.
Steal from the richest man in the world * that avoids paying taxes * : FBI is on the case with military-grade weapons, tactics and surveillance * paid by taxpayers *.
> In the end, reducing support to the bare minimum possible appears a reasonable option for many companies: it is the easiest to implement, it reduces legal/PR risks, and it has a very measurable and consistent effect (how many people stop buying/using your service after failing to get support).
I agree that this is the best short interest for corporations. And that is why it is so important laws to protect consumers.
Corporations act in completely selfish economic interest. Mandatory customer support and hefty fines and regular inspections are the only protection for consumers. Also, it creates a fair environment where having good customer support is not an extra cost because of all companies having to provide it.
Corporations have a social responsibility that needs to be enforced. Corporations are going to optimize their extractive capacity until we humans are just reduced to production machines that survive another day to feed corporations profits. Our society goal should be human wellbeing, not corporate profits.
> This isn't just a part of an anti-government or even anti-education strategy
Big corporations should be paying way more taxes. It would be a good way to avoid creating such undemocratic centers of power. Education is a human right: Article 26. (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
> could not afford a one-week annual holiday away from home
You get in Europe around one month of paid vacation time. What people can't afford is to travel. The title of the article misses that point, but, it's clear in the article itself.
I'm surprised that Italy, 44%, is in such a bad position. Worse than Poland (35%).
I have been working in some fast-growing software companies. Every few years, we change office and get one in a better place, with new furniture, fancier each time, tv monitor is everywhere, each wall had pictures and was colourful.
I had to go to the hospital, nothing serious. It was so extremely sad to see 30-40 years old furniture, dark rooms that had never been re-painted, power outlets had been refurbished for the new European type. There was a sign that said, "Do not leave weelchears in this zone". Of course, there were wheelchairs as they did not have space anywhere else.
It felt so completely wrong. Are we, as a society, investing in the right things? Austerity in Spain means that there is no money for hospitals, education, etc. Anything that is not live-and-dead is a luxury. Meanwhile, those companies, all registered in tax havens like Malta or Ireland, had money to spend in fancy breakfast, new furniture every few years, unused monitors in every wall, ...
We know that to go to a hospital is a bad experience as you would like to be anywhere else. Why do we make it so much worse? Why we do not invest in life quality?
I know that there are countries where it is worse, I am happy that everyone in the country had free health care. But, it could be much better.
> Imaginary friends are a common—and normal—manifestation for many kids
I never had any imaginary friends. Even when other kids had fantastic expectations in the world, like asking a teacher to build a swimming pool, I was very sceptical on how will get permission and a budget for that. For me, toy cars were toys. I liked to make then run down a slope, but never tough they were real.
> what is less understood is what prompts children to create these personas or why some kids invent them and others don’t
I struggle to understand other behaviours too. When all the children were screaming in the theatre to the good guy "the bad guy is at your back!", I could not understand why the other children were screaming at the actor. He is an actor in the play, of course, he knows where the bad guy is and what is going to happen next. I felt slightly second-hand embarrassment.
> One suggested that relationships with invisible beings fulfill a child’s need for friendship and are more common among firstborn or only children.
I saw all these "imaginary friends" in movies as an American thing. Like Big Foot, I saw imaginary friends as a storytelling device, not as something real. I was surprised when I read that is a real thing, not just part of movies. But, when I grew up, most families were at least two children. So, maybe there was not much space for imaginary friends.
> it can be hard to fathom a day when the imaginary characters who’ve been populating their lives for so long simply cease to exist.
And this is for me the final irony, I continue having fun when I go to work. I will go with some weird clothing or I will draw characters from books with interesting quotes in meeting rooms. For me, there is not that strong separation between being a child and being an adult. I was responsible as a child, taking care of myself and the people around me. And, I am playful and have fun as an adult, and - inside the limits of what makes sense - I try to engage my colleagues and I make new friends all the time that I have been lucky enough to keep after moving jobs and countries.
> I can´t even begin to describe to you what type of regulatory hurdles and red-tape I was faced with when trying to get that up and running.
I can imagine how harder it is than in the USA. From the article: "The combination of lax regulations and customers not paying attention to the fine print of their box-leasing agreements allows many banks to deflect responsibility when valuables are damaged or go missing."
Consumer protection is usually is a hassle for business. But, it is needed if you expect companies to behave even close to what is the public expectation. I understand that for business the lax regulation in the USA and the complete lack of rights of consumers make easier to get profits, even if it's at the cost of your own customers.
> I have now come to understand now that it is something completely different ... I would be surprised if our economy even survives another decade without some serious restructuring.
These are very strong statements at the same time that quite vague. Did I miss something? Can you explain what do you mean?
> It was meant to be, in response to OP's hyperbole that there's nothing new being created.
You are right. Sorry for not expressing myself with clarity. To say that there's nothing new being created is hyperbolic and it is not what I wanted to say.
I just wanted to note that the pace of change is too slow to keep things interesting for decades. I am sure that if I do not code for 20 years, I will need to learn new things to get back into it as enough changes will have had accumulated in that time.
You don't. For that, you can get a digital signature. You can go to a police station, or to an embassy and present your physical Id card to get a digital signature. You can use that signature to sign contracts or your tax returns.
> how do you apply for a credit card or similar online?
In Spain, with your usual bank, you use your login/password and your 2FA.
In Sweden, you can use Bank-Id almost everywhere to identify yourself. It is also a digital signature, but it has brother use.
Yes. And it is a good idea. I have moved between Java backend applications and C++ videogames jobs. The difference in language and domain keep things interesting, and you discover that also there is a lot of sharing and you can apply patterns across very different domains. I have around ten years of experience in each.
I have also developed professionally in Clipper, Visual Basic, C# and even a little assembly. But, nothing for so many years as C++ and Java.
> Keeping up with framework churn should keep you busy for the next 25 years.
Oh. Yes. I just find it boring. To learn to do the same thing again and again with different named functions losses its appeal after a while. I try to keep my knowledge close to the core of the frameworks and google anything more complicated than that. I suck at interviews where I get questions about how to do this or that in a concrete version of a concrete framework, thou.
I will take this as an example. I was developing in 80386 machines. When smartphones appeared and people said that "this is different because you have limited resources compared with a desktop machine", I just thought "it is new for you, not for me". I said nothing because they are right. It was new to them. I was happy to share an environment with people excited with "a new challenge".
> there is also so much more depth than we used to have. No?
Most intelligent behaviour in games is based on agents and finite state machines. With more states than ever, with higher polygon count, but it is the same that you had 20 years ago. The results are way more impressive because the hardware is faster and there is way more memory. But, the algorithms are the same.
Look for A* search algorithm or Dijkstra's algorithm. Been there for a while. Graph theory is still a building block for most things that look intelligent.
> By that logic we should all be using punch cards.
There are zero limitations in punching cards to express any modern program. And that is my point. Keyboards are faster, I use a fancy mechanical keyboard to write my code in a fancy IDE with autocomplete. The nature of the problems is the same, thou.
> I tend to gravitate towards higher level systems design and mentoring the younger folks.
I do the same. At work, I make sure that teams communicate between them, that they take into account the big picture and help them to push back agains deadlines when quality is at risk.
It is when I get home that I do not feel that urge of coding anymore. I still code at home, but I prefer to spend more time doing something that feels new and more challenging.
Machine learning is another area that I am interested in. But, not as a developer, that is the same thing that coding for anything else. I am improving my math skills, there I see a challenge. But, first I want to become better at drawing. One thing at a time.
More equality does not mean communism or everybody gets exactly the same. You position is just a straw man argument.
> Scandinavian
Scandinavian countries are social democracies, like most of Europe, they are not community countries. And are no exception but good examples of implementing good policies.