thomas_witt

20 gün öncediscuss

I would be really interested in real life throughput. For an agentic chat situation, we are still on 5.4 - not because of the cost, but it's simply much faster than 5.5 with comparable results. Also we are using gpt-5.4-mini a lot for quick summaries, tldrs etc. In an ideal world we would upgrade 5.4 to 5.6 terra and 5.4 mini to 5.4 luna. But does somebody already have some measurements at least in terms of speed?

thomas_witt

20 gün öncediscuss

I would be really interested in real life throughput. For an agentic chat situation, we are still on 5.4 - not because of the cost, but it's simply much faster than 5.5 with comparable results. Also we are using gpt-5.4-mini a lot for quick summaries, tldrs etc.

In an ideal world we would upgrade 5.4 to 5.6 terra and 5.4 mini to 5.4 luna. But does somebody already have some measurements at least in terms of speed?

thomas_witt

20 gün öncediscuss

It took me a while until I found that you can switch between those two parts Work and Codex within the app on the left top corner when clicking on "ChatGPT Codex". And then - nothing happens. The old ChatGPT projects of my chats are gone, only appearing on the web. Wow, what a bad UX pattern.

thomas_witt

20 gün öncediscuss

If the EU just were to redirect the resources they're currently allocating to regulations like AI and Chat Control rather towards developing a genuinely competitive OpenAI or Anthropic alternative …

thomas_witt

geçen aydiscuss

[dead]

thomas_witt

geçen aydiscuss

The 25kEUR requirement has been lowered a few years ago to €12,5k as required paid-in capital.

thomas_witt

geçen aydiscuss

A UG and and a GmbH is legal-wise exactly the same.

thomas_witt

geçen aydiscuss

As much as I would like to agree with you about how non-digitized and rotten and crooked the whole notary etc system is - as someone who has incorporated and invested in dozens of German companies (UGs, GmbHs, and GmbH & Co. KGs), I’d seriously reconsider the UG & Co. KG structure for a one-person software business.

The tax explanation in the post is oversimplified.

Examples: With a KG, if the business earns €100k, that profit is attributed directly to you and taxed as personal income, whether you distribute it or not. At higher income levels, that’s roughly 45% including solidarity surcharge (and potentially church tax).

With a UG or GmbH, the company pays Körperschaftssteuer plus Gewerbesteuer, typically around 30% combined (depending on where its incorporated). On €100k profit, about €70k remains inside the company. If you later distribute it, you’ll pay capital gains tax based on the Halbeinkünfteverfahren on the distribution - which is 25% + Soli, bringing the total tax burden to roughly the same level as the KG.

The key difference is that with a UG/GmbH you can leave profits inside the company. That money can be reinvested into the business, other startups, ETFs, stocks, etc. - most often with only 1,5% effective tax while the money is working for you. You defer the second layer of taxation until you actually take the money out.

Also, you can pay yourself a salary. Whatever portion you pay out as salary is taxed personally just as it would be in the KG structure - but this time its company expenses, so no double taxation here either.

A few other points:

* A GmbH no longer requires €25k - its only 12,5k€ - and its also not to be locked away forever. The money can be used for legitimate business expenses immediately after incorporation.

* A decent tax advisor can usually get a VAT ID much faster than described in the article.

* A UG is widely accepted in the startup ecosystem. I’ve never seen customers reject an otherwise attractive startup because it started life as a UG. For investors, it's routine.

* Converting a UG into a GmbH later is routine, if you want to start small. If you have the 12,5k€ money, do a GmbH to save administrative hassle.

* A UG & Co. KG creates significantly more administration: two entities, two annual accounts, additional bookkeeping, additional filings, and additional advisor costs.

Of course there are valid reasons to use a GmbH & Co. KG, especially for complicated co-investment arrangements, but from what you wrote, that's not the case here. Therefore, for a solo software founder, I’d question whether the additional complexity buys you anything meaningful.

Bonus tip: You MIGHT want to consider owning your share in the Software UG not directly but through another UG, paolino UG or so. When you foresee to sell your business for significant money later, then you'll have exactly the same advantage, the money can stay in the company for reinvestment and you don't have to give up 50% of your capital gains in the moment you sign the sellers agreement. You CAN't do this easily later.

Not legal or tax advice. Just my personal experience.

thomas_witt

2 ay öncediscuss

After 1 hour with Fable on Ultracode:

  You've hit your monthly spend limit.
  /rate-limit-options
  What do you want to do?
   Adjust monthly spend limit: Unlimited ← or → to set a limit
    Wait for limit to reset

I've never hit a usage limit on my Max plan, basically ever -despite heavy xhigh usage on Opus 4.8.

I added $133 credits which I still had from somewhere. That lasted 27 minutes.

I think we are being prepared for a Post-IPO-World in terms of pricing.

thomas_witt

3 ay öncediscuss

It's hard to take the author seriously technically competent when reading "DynamoDB what a hot pile of garbage. I tried it and ended up with a $75USD bill by the end of the day."

Clearly there are many people - including me - who built highly scalable, available and near maintenance-free systems using DynamoDB for a ridiculously low cost.

I have no idea how you can actually burn more than $5 in development for DDB. If you don't make the effort to explore what a technology is built for and/or clearly didn't understand it, maybe you should holding back ranting about it. Unless you want to look like a fool.

Same goes for IAM. It's complex but still easily understandable to get the basics. Creating e.g. a rule where you can only read from a DynamoDB table but not delete entries or the whole table takes you under 10 clicks.

thomas_witt

3 ay öncediscuss

I have a pre-installed pool heat pump - an “AcquaSource” branded unit, the kind you can buy at any pool store in Europe - which supports WiFi. The App called “Pool Panel” wasn’t pretty, but it worked and I didn’t give it much thought. At one time, the remote control of the pump stopped responding: The pump itself was fine; the panel worked, the temperature held. So I decided to take a deeper look at how it all works. It turned out to be a security nightmare.

As icing on the cake: Their iOS app “Pool panel” by the developer “Guangzhou Wo Jie Information Technology Co., Ltd” is unmaintained since 2019, the contact link leads to a broken link (https://www.axen-heatpump.com/contactus.html), nobody responded via email. Very trustworthy.

This is the story of how I got control back, learned a few uncomfortable things along the way, and ended up with a small Docker container that exposes my pool pump as a clean local REST API.

thomas_witt

4 ay öncediscuss

And I suppose people flying an 40 year old Cessna 172 will share the same feeling if someone wants to "digitize" it.

thomas_witt

4 ay öncediscuss

[flagged]

thomas_witt

4 ay öncediscuss

How would you exactly "digitize"? While that sounds like a nice idea in theory it's the same as "digitizing" road traffic.

In the end the air traffic system is a highly complex but also a highly reliable system, especially when you compare accident rates.

I am sure the working conditions of ATC staff might be improved - but being both a pilot and a programmer, I know that there is no easy digitalization magic wand for aviation.

thomas_witt

6 ay öncediscuss

Funny that they apparently didn't include South Beach, at least according to the map.

thomas_witt

6 ay öncediscuss

Engine-wise, yeah, it has the power. But try it, that's not something you really want to do.

thomas_witt

6 ay öncediscuss

My point is, just from my perspective (YMMV), the Porsche cars are pretty perfect. I have a hard time finding a car which behaves more precisely and reliably on the street, regardless of the speed, than a 911 or 718 - or a Taycan or Panamera.

That refers back to my original answer when the poster said Porsche are "in trouble" because they are "technologically underequipped" and "don't deliver meaningful benefits". There is a lot of stuff China and other carmakers haven't caught up to. Will they in the future? Maybe.

To take that German-centric thing out: Try going on a mountain road and have fun in the corners. I am sure, if you have multiple cars to do the same thing, the Porsche will rank pretty high.

In any case, of course, this is all a pretty niche market for people who love driving sports cars. In 99%, a Toyota can deliver exactly the same value for the base use case (going from A to B) for way less money.

thomas_witt

6 ay öncediscuss

Not really, I usually don't carry them out at Porsche itself, only the regular inspections.

thomas_witt

6 ay öncediscuss

That is not my personal experience. I get very often those cars of those other major German brands at SIXT car rental, and of course this is my personal opinion:

- BMW is indeed very nice, I agree. I also once had a 6 series convertible which was - apart from the very low consumption (Diesel) - really nice to drive. Their cars are indeed a good alternative at a lower price point. - Audi is the utmost catastrophe. Apart from the abysmal navigation system, the car simply doesn't feel safe at higher speeds (had an A6, your mileage may vary with tuned S models). I didn't want to drive faster than 180km/h - Same goes for Mercedes (drove C, E and S Classes). The entertainment system is straight from the 90ies and the steering gets super wobbly at higher speeds. - Toyota - are you kidding me? Very reliable, good value, but nowhere near the driving capabilities of a BMW or Porsche.

Of course they are all nice cars and should do the job, especially in countries with speed limits - until 120 km/h that all doesn't matter. I'm just saying, if you really want (and can) go fast, most of those cars don't deliver in my opinion.

thomas_witt

6 ay öncediscuss

Being a customer for years, I have to politely disagree.

Design is obviously a totally personal matter of taste, but as they have made many iconic shapes, apparently they're in the broad opinion not too bad at it.

The main difference is driving. I have driven many cars in my life, from very cheap to very expensive. For me personally, Porsche is in my opinion comparable to using a Mac - they're one of the few who "get it right":

- The entire workmanship is fantastic—nothing wobbles and nothing rattles. - Everything looks very harmonic, from interior to usability. Every button is where it has to be. Even the built-in entertainment system is highly usable (which in my opinion others like Mercedes never got right). - And, most importantly, despite being ICE or EV, the whole driving experience is just lightyears away from many competitors. Whether it's a 911 or a 718, they are just a joy to drive. Even a Cayenne just doesn't feel like a bulky SUV. There seems to be a lot of engineering going into all of that, weight distribution, chassis tuning, etc.

Apart from that - again, having owned many cars in my life - they're the most service-unintense cars ever. They just - work. You change the oil, sometimes the tires and that's it. I never had a single bigger problem with them.

Is there a lot of stuff which they didn't get? Agreed. Would it be nice to have better self-driving options? Without a doubt, but that's just a question of time.

But at least you have to give them that they, in strong contrast to many other German car manufacturers, didn't miss the trend and started to produce sexy EVs (hello Taycan) from very early on.

As long as I can, I will stay a loyal customer to them. If you have never driven a Porsche, get a test drive. I can only highly recommend it.

PS: And double points if you can do it on the German Autobahn. Try driving 240+ km/h with any other large-volume-production car, you'll be sweaty. With a Porsche, it just feels joyful.

thomas_witt

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