Hacker News: sajithdilshan

New comment by sajithdilshan in "German implementation of eIDAS will require an Apple/Google account to function"

sajithdilshan — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:16:19 +0000

As someone living in Germany, the alternative would be snail mail, which is used to send a pre-authentication code, username and then another code. This is pretty common with insurance providers, German traditional banks, etc. However, the annoying part is that if you ever forget or lose the code, then you would have to request a new one via mail that would arrive like 2 weeks after.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe"

sajithdilshan — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 11:05:25 +0000

care to elaborate?

New comment by sajithdilshan in "How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe"

sajithdilshan — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 11:04:31 +0000

Not in EU. There is a sacred process that has to be followed that can take months even to flip a switch.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe"

sajithdilshan — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:42:51 +0000

New comment by sajithdilshan in "Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags"

sajithdilshan — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:28:42 +0000

I've been using an iPhone since 2017 and the only times I use Siri is to set an alarm or to play Music. Setting an alarm works like 90% of the time. Playing music on the other hand is a coin toss. Most of the time it fails because it plays the wrong song, cannot understand what I say or just refuse to play and ask me to unlock the phone because I'm not using apple music.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun"

sajithdilshan — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:57:16 +0000

Even if somehow EU is able to pull this off it would be a nightmare in terms of user experience. I live in Germany and this is how I would imagine it would work base on my experience in Germany.

1. You first need to install an app (because you want to use tap to pay)

2. Then you need to download another app to authenticate the first app

3. But to set up the 2nd app you need to wait for an actual physical mail which contains a code.

4. Then you set up the 2nd app, but then again it asks for you to do a KYC using your Id Card.

5. Now you need to download another app to do the KYC using your Id, but it asks for another code which you receive by physical mail when you got your Id years ago, but you have no idea where that mail or code is, now you have to request for another code and wait like 2 weeks till you get a physical mail with that code....

.... and the story goes on.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 19:30:41 +0000

US has a huge advantage compared to France. US has the control of its currency and can devalue it. France cannot do it since Euro is not controlled by France.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:06:23 +0000

Investing in infrastructure and economy and playing lotto with tax payers money in random companies is two different things. By your definition the government could just put all tax money into stock market and hope for the best.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:28:45 +0000

Exactly the point. YC is playing lotto with private venture. The governments cannot play lotto with the tax payers money.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:26:31 +0000

from where did you get that number? What is the source?

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:24:43 +0000

Not really, US population would continue to grow, while EU declines[1]

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/india-china-europe-...

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:23:13 +0000

But then again it won't be sovereign. EU has been doing the same with US companies and now they are switching US for a different country/countries

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:21:34 +0000

I guess a lot of Europeans don't want to see the real logical questioning and downvoting out of pure frustration.

Also EU doesn't have fiscal freedom. Germany is the only country barely keeping it together and without any hard reform France is a ticking time bomb when it come to its debt-to-GDP.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:19:28 +0000

You mean government subsidizing the companies and taxing them in return? How is that a viable model? Also subsidizing means tax payers put on the burden and there is no guarantee that the companies subsidized by the governments would turn a profit or just burn through the subsidies and go bankrupt.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "EU launches government satcom program in sovereignty push"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:19:11 +0000

I honestly wonder whether the EU can afford to spend on technological sovereignty. With an aging population and the need to maintain welfare states, governments will have to allocate more and more of future budgets to expanding and sustaining welfare programs (statutory health insurance, pensions, unemployment benefits, etc.). That ultimately means higher taxes, a larger government workforce, and a shrinking private sector. Maybe they will have enough money to maintain the existing status quo, but not sure where the additional capital would come from to invest in digital sovereignty.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels"

sajithdilshan — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 08:48:54 +0000

Another sensational headline. As someone living in Berlin, the capital of Europe’s largest economy, I see the effects firsthand. Germany’s aggressive green energy push has driven energy costs so high that heating has effectively become a luxury. This winter, air quality has been among the worst in recent years because many people are burning wood to stay warm instead of using central heating. At the same time, manufacturing companies are leaving the country, pushed out by some of the highest energy prices in Europe.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "Let's be honest, Generative AI isn't going all that well"

sajithdilshan — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 23:00:56 +0000

not YET.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn"

sajithdilshan — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 13:41:22 +0000

Unfortunately nowadays traveling with DB has become a game of Russian roulette. If you get lucky the train arrives at the destination ahead of time and if you're unlucky most probably a delay of 4+ hours and missing your connecting train.

The main reason for this is lack of competition for DB in Germany. I used to date a guy who works at infra department in DB and based on what he told me, I couldn't believe how inefficient and massively complicated DB is. They have internal departments which acts as separate entities to mimic competition and each department has to place bids among each other to get contracts (more bureaucracy) but then they have an IT department and no matter how cheap or good outside IT providers are they must get the service from internal IT department (so much for competition).

At this point DB needs a complete overhaul and let go of so much dead weight to make it working again and unfortunately German politicians are just throwing more money at every problem hoping they would magically solve themselves rather than fixing the actual structural problems.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "A proposed amendment to ban under 16s in the UK from common online services"

sajithdilshan — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 15:03:00 +0000

The parent in your conversation is just stupid and no matter how many laws we pass we cannot fix stupidity.

In that case only thing I can suggest is to pass a law to assess the eligibility and maturity of people if they want to have children and issue a permit if they are suitable to have and raise children and otherwise they cannot have children.

New comment by sajithdilshan in "A proposed amendment to ban under 16s in the UK from common online services"

sajithdilshan — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:46:35 +0000

The fact of me being a parent is non of your concern I would say.

If most of voting age parents want this, then what prevents them from enforcing it on their children. Why do they have to rely on government to be the parent. Maybe those parent should not have been parents in the first place if they need government to step in to raise their children.