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Comment Re:Reuters used to be able to write an article... (Score 2) 92

European here, living in Spain, here's my take on it: I'm guessing legislation affects consumer choice. Lately medium and large cities in Europe implement "low emission zone"s (LEZ) that cover almost the whole city area (if you're a resident some exceptions are in place of course, some wiggle room exists). Diesel and older gas cars are mostly affected by it, you get a fine if caught within the LEZ, one legal loophole are hybrids, because they're considered "green". That pushes people living outside the city limits into buying new cars to go to work without risking fines. Buying power is not on same terms with US - Spain even moreso - and EV's are still expensive, which leaves people with little choice, hybrids for now are the safest bet and more affordable.

Comment Re:in a process known as packaging (Score 1) 126

by prodigel (#63847526) Attached to: TSMC Arizona Chip Plant Will Be a 'Paperweight', Says Analyst

Official US policy is that Taiwan is already a part of China. There's nothing to protect.

No, the official US policy is strategic ambiguity, acknowledging that the PRC rules China, that people across the Taiwan Strait recognize one China of which Taiwan is a part, while maintaining unofficial relations with Taiwan and providing support for Taiwan's defense.

Of course, that's just diplomatic mumbo jumbo. In the 70's, the US didn't care about the Taiwanese people as much as supporting an Asian bulwark against the advancement of communist borders. At that time, Taiwan was ruled by the Nationalists who were mainland occupiers who really did believe that there was one China and that Taiwan was just one province. Nowadays, the Taiwanese people largely consider themselves both legally and culturally distinct from China.

None of the diplomatic language is important. The US still doesn't care about the Taiwanese people, but it does care about how a Chinese invasion or occupation of Taiwan would affect the US economy. If China invades Taiwan, it would be in the US interest to first try to protect Taiwanese factories vital to US companies and second to prevent China from gaining control of vital factories by making sure they are destroyed before any occupation.

I'd say the situation is more complex than that. The pacific military balance needs to be maintained. It's not only about Taiwan, you also have there South Korea, Japan and the Philippines as strategic allies. If the US turns their back on Taiwan in case China attempts an invasion - hint, they won't - the rest of allies won't trust US anymore and gravitate towards the safer options. True, economics is a major factor in the equation, but not the most relevant.

Comment Re:China and Hong Kong were a warning (Score 1) 90

by prodigel (#59382494) Attached to: Spain and GitHub Are Blocking an App That Helped Protesters Organize
Expat here living in Barcelona, witnessing the whole independence 'act' for a decade now. Comparing Spain with China is absurd, Spain is a federation, each province has great autonomy, Catalunya having the lion share believe it or not. The protesters using the said app are a 'rebels without a cause', young people with nothing better to do, the result of a couple of decades of systemic brainwashing into siding with the independence movement (weird how a "controlling" government let that happen for so long, right). The reality is a bit more complicated, the society is polarised, there's no majority that wants independence, and serious people organize peaceful scheduled protests when they want to have their voices heard (both pro independence and pro spain ones). I've talked to many locals about it, people that don't just take side for the sake of it and the conclusion is always the same: It's all about the money that gets in/out of the province from the central government, corrupt politicians are corrupt, perpetuating the status quo gives them the same political speech for elections and the votes flowing.

Comment Apple wireless (old model) (Score 1) 363

I'm no Apple fan but I do have one weakness: their keyboards. I'm using an one of the older Apple wireless keyboard, I find it very confortable to type and the layout comes very natural (no useless keypad and the left control almost on the same row with 'a' does wonders). Unfortunately some genius thought hard about what USERS need and made caps lock keypress longer in order to avoid accidental slip-ups. Being a vi mode addict I've remapped my Caps Lock as an Esc key, so now I'm stuck with buying only older models just to avoid hacking my way around their carefully thought feature (no hard switch exists). If any of you faced similar problems and found a replacement I'd me more then willing to try them out!

Comment Re:Spype? (Score 1) 259

by prodigel (#51818225) Attached to: Skype For Linux: Dead? Or Just Resting?
Then there's work, where you need to keep in touch with remote teams/colleagues. Years ago Skype was the best tool for casual VOIP calls, and that stuck in the professional environment, especially in middle-to-large sized companies. It won't be easy to escape the Skype curse, or not until a better alternative proves itself.

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