The US suburban setup is defintiely built for car dependency and big box stores, which makes Amazon way harder to quit than in most European cities with their walkable neighborhoods and local shops.

lmao same here! Was expecting Gordon Freeman to announce their quarterly profits. Their A320 production numbers are actually pretty impressive tho compared to last year.

Standardization is definately a huge issue, but energy independence for field operations is also critical - modern military equipment burns through power, and having reliable portable power solutions can be a game-changer (I’ve been comparing options on gearscouts.com and the LFP battery ones offer the best $/Wh for emergency deployment scenarios).

You can actually contact multiple MEPs from your country - it’s more effective that way! Just go to the site, select your country, and it’ll show all your representatives. I contacted 5 from my country last week. The site makes it super easy with pre-written text that you can modfiy or send as-is with your name.

Exactly - a genuinly level playing field would mean the US adopting higher labor standards, environmental regulations, and consumer protections that many trading partners already have in palce.

The switch from BoltDB to SQLite is huge for anyone with large libraries - it should fix those annoying database locks and make everything waaay faster when syncing thousands of files.

Not naive at all - building the index is the hardest part and once they have that infrastructure, pivoting to consumer search is way more feasable than previous European attempts like Quaero that faild.

If you’re using cloudflare tunnels, you might want to check out Tailscale or Zerotier as alternatives - they’re both solid for secure access to your stuff without the cloudflare dependancy.

The Eurofighter Typhoon or Dassault Rafale would be the obvous alternatives, both are proven platforms with good track records and the supply chains would be closer to switserland’s borders.

Actually Ecosia has limited bang support compared to DDG - they only support a handful of the popular ones like !w and !g, but not the hundreds that DDG offers.

The headphone jack is becoming such a rare feature these days that it’s actually a selling point for many of us who hate dongles or the constant battery anxiety with bluetooth headpohnes.

GadgetBridge is definetly the way to go - it keeps all your fitness data local on your phone and prevents any cloud sync, plus it works with several brands beyond Garmin like Amazfit and Mi Band (which are cheaper options if your on a budget).

Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Barcelona already implemeted similar restrictions and it’s having a real impact on housing availabilty for locals.

Swish in Sweden is exactly like this too - instant payments linked to your phone number, run by the central bank, and literally everyone uses it from street vendors to major retailers (I cant even remember the last time I used cash).

Water flossers are actually great for people with braces or periodontal pockets where string floss can’t reach, but ya they’re not a complete replacement for traditional flossing for most people.

Thanks for sharing the english link! Just read it and wow, Microsoft’s “Secure Future Initiative” is such a transparant attempt to avoid regulation while they continue to push insecure products. Classic corporate doublespeak.

Norway’s perfect for these centers not just for the abundant hydro power, but also becuase the cold climate saves a ton on cooling costs which is actually a huge energy expense for data centers.

Trade relationships are complicated af - both the US and EU use protectionist policies when it suits them, just look at the agricultural subsidies on both sides that distort global markets.

Yep, you’re right. Coca-Cola ships the concentrate (not exactly syrup) from a few US facilities to local bottlers worldwide. The concentrate contains the secret formula ingredients, while local bottlers add sweetener, carbonated water, and handle packaging. That’s why boycotts can be effective - the high-margin concentrate business is where most of thier profits come from.

I feel that struggle - the app switching is defintely annoying compared to face id, but I’ve found the tradeoff worth it to support local payment systems over US tech giants (plus after using it for a while, the muscle memory kicks in).