Hacker News: abc03

New comment by abc03 in "Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million"

abc03 — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 18:05:00 +0000

In my experience, Swiss don't like criminals, unemployed people and people showing openly their religion. They negatively associate certain nationalities with stereotypes (e.g. Albanians, Maroccans etc.). If you are a representative of these groups, yes, it will be a problem. Violence towards foreigners is, compared to other countries, does not exist. Also with other nationalities, it is very different. Some people don't like Germans (that's also historically of course). However, with Germans near the boder it is often not a problem because they are more similar (and know how Swiss behave). With people from Berlin, many Swiss have not much in common. My wife is visible not Swiss and she never encountered raciscm (quite the contrary, she gets more free products at local stores than me because people recognize her). She also likes to buy tomatoes only from Switzerland. It is all how you behave in my experience. To the SVP, it is quite a different between the party and representative that are in the government. They are considered moderate due to the political system in Switzerland.

New comment by abc03 in "Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million"

abc03 — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 17:59:26 +0000

The plumbers I had were all Swiss. There is not an overproportional amount of foreigners working in this profession.

New comment by abc03 in "Swiss voters reject proposal to cap population at ten million"

abc03 — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 17:25:02 +0000

Maybe a personal analysis: It's a trend that is growing all over Europe. It's the equivalent of overtourism and a problem for the ruling parties (except the SVP that proposed it). Expect it to continue quite soon in Switzerland and other European countries (France, Germany etc.). Of course it doesn't make sense to curb immigration at 10 Mio and many know it. It was also for many a vote against the ruling parties. Although Switzerland is an immigration country, Swiss don't think this way. It's more farmer/alpine style: Welcome guests but expect them to leave again. Many Swiss also don't interact with foreigners a lot, including myself (besides at work). Many of my friends don't want to give up their prosperity. They are fairly advanced in their career and it's more about enjoying life. So for many of them it's more a rational decision than really a belief we should have more immigration. As long as I can benefit, it's good. For younger people it may be different. My wife, who is not native Swiss, was in favor. And compared to other countries, I think Xenophobia is low.

New comment by abc03 in "The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't"

abc03 — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:56:54 +0000

Currently also have copper and Sunrise cable. Just got the cables to the house two weeks ago. I’m now waiting for the local electricity company to get in-house installation. Everything at no costs. So yes, it’s progressing fast.

New comment by abc03 in "Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M"

abc03 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:09:07 +0000

This seems a highly biased view. You could also say that because Switzerland wasn’t war raged they had a had start.

New comment by abc03 in "Show HN: I got fired so I built a bank statement converter"

abc03 — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 20:37:12 +0000

I appreciate that you described your approach. I don‘t live in Australia but because of this I still looked at it.

New comment by abc03 in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (October 2025)"

abc03 — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 19:19:32 +0000

Congratulations on being featured in the Superhuman newsletter. Trying it out.

New comment by abc03 in "Ask HN: Are startups still using Ruby on Rails to start new products/projects?"

abc03 — Sat, 04 Oct 2025 10:19:52 +0000

My two cents, although there are probably some more people qualified to answer this: Avo, Sidekiq, Gorails etc. can make a living. Why couldn’t you?

New comment by abc03 in "Swiss voters back e-ID legislation"

abc03 — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 21:23:09 +0000

For context, this is the second voting. In the first 2021, 64% said no because the e-ID would have been administrated by private companies.

New comment by abc03 in "Don't bother parsing: Just use images for RAG"

abc03 — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 19:30:29 +0000

Related question: what is today‘s best solution for invoices?

New comment by abc03 in "AccountingBench: Evaluating LLMs on real long-horizon business tasks"

abc03 — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 19:10:24 +0000

A serious problem for many accounting start ups who so far faked it till it will work. In other words, they still need to do more manual labor than they thought. They will never be profitable and it will take years, if ever, until AI will substitute the local accountant.

New comment by abc03 in "G7 agrees to exempt U.S. multinationals from global minimum tax"

abc03 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 09:29:51 +0000

There are rules for RoW and there are rules for the USA. Astonishing that the G7 falls in this trap again and again (for example Basel III). The US was a major driver in pillar 2 but won‘t adhere to it. Probably companies will restructure their organization to have two streams and exploit it. Despite GILTI, some US companies have low ETRs.

New comment by abc03 in "The Rise of the Japanese Toilet"

abc03 — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 08:50:54 +0000

Indeed Geberit invented it and Toto marketed it. I have to say quite well.

New comment by abc03 in "Brex Layoffs"

abc03 — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 20:30:58 +0000

For people without the resources, yes. For people that have a problem and resources, no. They pay for the best and want to be sure it‘s watertight.

New comment by abc03 in "Switzerland Weighs Full or Partial Credit Suisse Nationalization"

abc03 — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 15:32:07 +0000

Why sell it? The SNB doesn't need to sell them and yes they can hold them to maturity. They can also give a larger credit line to CS and CS can buy back all the bonds from investor that want it. At CHF 100B it's a CHF 50B - 20B capital injection.

New comment by abc03 in "Switzerland Weighs Full or Partial Credit Suisse Nationalization"

abc03 — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 15:14:48 +0000

Unfortunately other banks, too. Not something to mention specifically in this case. We must admit that banks have gone too big and need to be split up in the future.

New comment by abc03 in "Switzerland Weighs Full or Partial Credit Suisse Nationalization"

abc03 — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 15:12:42 +0000

Currently in my view the only solution. The solution with UBS is not supported by the people. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has basically unlimited money power. Credit Suisse is not technically insolvent like Silicon Valley Bank but lacks trust in the market. The risk is too high that the contagion spreads to UBS and only defers the problem to a later date (what will we do with UBS). SNB should have already reacted much earlier and they are partly responsible for the problem (along with management and the biggest shareholder and their CHF 50B line but which they asked to be secured). It's high time to send a powerful message before Monday. And for the SNB it's easy to buy all bonds in the market at a distressed level and make a hefty return. This is better than to invest their currency reserves in the stock market. Edit: Added last two sentences.

New comment by abc03 in "Credit Suisse sheds nearly 25%, key backer says no more money"

abc03 — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 10:23:24 +0000

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes. Please don't post shallow dismissals Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That tramples curiosity. and more

New comment by abc03 in "Credit Suisse sheds nearly 25%, key backer says no more money"

abc03 — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 10:18:40 +0000

Mmh, are you also describing the American goverment? Remember drug for guns?

New comment by abc03 in "Swiss Post Design System"

abc03 — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 16:47:17 +0000

While technically it doesn't receive tax money because it must earn a profit, it of course is partly financed by the government. Just one example: I lived in an apartment that was owned by the Swiss Post (close to the post office but a separate building ). With a AAA credit rating, it is of course cheap to buy buildings and make a profit. A regular private company couldn't do this. Well, I benefited as well as the rent was relatively cheap compared to similar apartments.