Hacker News: germanier

New comment by germanier in "Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features"

germanier — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 07:42:05 +0000

That's not a new question: what if you photograph a sculpture?

New comment by germanier in "LibRedirect – Redirects popular sites to alternative privacy-friendly frontends"

germanier — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 15:49:06 +0000

Nothing. An acquaintance of mine develops a third-party frontend explicitly marketed as a privacy-friendly alternative and actively looks at lots of user data (which includes the full name) without disclosing. I honestly believe that it's only done for improving the service (and it helps tremendously) but I can't get through with arguing that this should be transparent.

You could notice by closely reading the source code.

New comment by germanier in "German civil activists win victory in election case against X"

germanier — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 20:12:49 +0000

It's clearly in the spirit of the law, namely Article 40 section 12 of the EU Digital Services Act:

> Providers of very large online platforms or of very large online search engines shall give access without undue delay to data, including, where technically possible, to real-time data, provided that the data is publicly accessible in their online interface by researchers, including those affiliated to not for profit bodies, organisations and associations, who comply with the conditions set out in paragraph 8, points (b), (c), (d) and (e), and who use the data solely for performing research that contributes to the detection, identification and understanding of systemic risks in the Union pursuant to Article 34(1).

New comment by germanier in "'Equals' has more than one meaning in math"

germanier — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:06:58 +0000

The usual formal definition for the rational numbers is equivalence classes of pairs of integers. The zero is then the equivalence class of (0, 1) which is not the same as the integer 0.

You could certainly somehow get it to work by starting with the closure of the division operation but would introduce a lot of unnecessary headache along the way.

New comment by germanier in "A man ordered to hide his boat painted the boat on his fence"

germanier — Fri, 31 May 2024 20:15:54 +0000

In buildings with differently owned apartments it's required but in theory (and in some places in practice) you could also setup multiple buildings on a common plot of land with one.

New comment by germanier in "A man ordered to hide his boat painted the boat on his fence"

germanier — Fri, 31 May 2024 11:42:45 +0000

In Germany there is the in some - but not all - aspects similar concept of WEG (Wohneigentumsgemeinschaft).

New comment by germanier in "Undisclosed tinkering in Excel behind economics paper"

germanier — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 18:25:00 +0000

I can't think of a single example of a former FH having rebranded to "Universität". The closest I can think of is the incorporation of FH Lausitz into BTU Cottbus. In any case, there are still >200 FHs in Germany which are not using the "Universität" label and without right to award doctorates. I'm really not sure what you are talking about.

New comment by germanier in "Germany: Police seize bitcoins worth €2B"

germanier — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 18:37:30 +0000

Do we know for a fact that the operators didn't run file hosters as well with links to those hosters being preferred?

Because that was the business model of their predecessor.

New comment by germanier in "How a software glitch at the UK Post Office ruined lives"

germanier — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 06:49:00 +0000

In Germany, the protected title Ingenieur is still around but most bachelor degrees in a technical field grant you the right to use it. Whether or not you are one doesn't change the liability situation (although you can't perform certain works at all without). It's not really relevant in software development.

The English term "Engineer" can be used by anybody though.

New comment by germanier in "South Korea Will Police 'Shrinkflation' at the Supermarket"

germanier — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 10:07:57 +0000

Yes, it's an EU-wide legal requirement (directive 98/6/EC on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products offered to consumers).

New comment by germanier in "Bootstrapping a SaaS Business in Germany: How I did it"

germanier — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 17:42:41 +0000

You have to cleanly separate personal and company taxes. If the managing director makes significant decisions (as in forming the will, not as in executing) while on German soil, the company is taxed like any other German capital company.

Btw. despite the myth, just being 182 days outside of Germany doesn't get you out of German personal taxes. It just stops taxation of foreign-derived income.

New comment by germanier in "First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by CS student"

germanier — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 09:25:43 +0000

A commented translation is available under the title Pythagoras. Legende - Lehre - Lebensgestaltung as a book and as open access here: https://rep.adw-goe.de/handle/11858/00-001S-0000-002D-B3AD-5...

New comment by germanier in "Paperless-ngx – Open source document management system"

germanier — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 15:28:55 +0000

It's perfectly legal (and common) for a decade now to scan documents and destroy the paper original as long as you follow some guidelines. Keyword is "ersetzendes Scannen".

And yes, they care about those rules and that you provide "originals" according to that definition - in particular that you didn't modify digital documents in any way. You can (and should) comply with that and there are service providers to help if you are to small to set that up yourself.

New comment by germanier in "Very high number of workplace accidents at Tesla factory in Germany"

germanier — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 18:30:21 +0000

Yes, this is correct.

All accidents, no matter how minor, have to be documented and the documentation kept for 5 years though.

New comment by germanier in "The German group buying ticket dodgers out of prison"

germanier — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 08:59:25 +0000

You already agree to buy such an ticket (at the "erhöhtes Beförderungsentgelt" price) but there is no way to avoid a criminal law specifically designed for that situation by just changing the content of a contract.

New comment by germanier in "We tried to book a train ticket and ended up with a 245k records data breach"

germanier — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 17:34:14 +0000

The linked tender is mostly not about marketing. They tendered basically a pretty large travel agency. Eurail is surely not just a intermediary here. They are in the business of selling train passes and operate lots of the services tendered for decades (e.g. an online train booking platform)

New comment by germanier in "Travel across Germany with the 49 Euro ticket"

germanier — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 22:22:36 +0000

The usual method is by SEPA direct debit (initiated by Paypal) but you can use a SEPA transfer as well to top up your Paypal balance and pay with that.

New comment by germanier in "Travel across Germany with the 49 Euro ticket"

germanier — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 19:55:39 +0000

According to the Bundesbank, Paypal is the most used online payment type in Germany with almost every second transaction using it.

New comment by germanier in "Travel across Germany with the 49 Euro ticket"

germanier — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 19:49:16 +0000

Employees in high salary groups can opt to get a "NetzCard" which allows unlimited travel in all DB operated trains. High management gets a real BahnCard 100 for them and a second person.

The free day tickets for private use that every employee gets are limited to 16 a year (but only one a month is tax free) and don't allow to take someone with you.

By the way, not every employee can use first class for business related travel (many can).

New comment by germanier in "Travel across Germany with the 49 Euro ticket"

germanier — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 18:27:28 +0000

The monthly payment option is discontinued, you can now only get it by paying a lump sum of 4339 € for a whole year.