It’s amazing how they can write such an article with no mentions of AI datacenters - the dominant factor for increased electricity and fresh water usage. This data is pretty much on the surface. I’ve decided to even double-check my sources, and brief googling (or duckduckgo-ing) confirms that the Netherlands has already hosted numerous of them. How did the article not even mention this? Do nos.nl’s shareholders have fingers in the AI money bin too, or?..
(That’s how their cancellation website looks. Broken year selector, and their auto-generated response to my original email said I need to fill my personal number which they’ve said is “0000”.)
Thanks for the response!
EU law says it can’t be more difficult to cancel a subscription than it was to begin one.
I’m also asking because I feel powerless (and wronged) but I don’t know my rights very well yet.
I think the point around them wanting a couple more months is a key point though. Why are they expecting that?
They have a statement in their agreement that cancellations have a 1-month notice period and are monthly, so that’s up to 2 months. After I’ve sent them the original email, I thought their follow-up money request is a glitch so I’ve declined that. I got worried later when they’ve started sending me emails implying debt collection services, and at that time I’ve sent them another super-formal email + did manage to go through their (still quite broken) website. The company’s view is that I haven’t gone to their website so my cancellation original email counts for nothing, and they simply ignore any of my mentions or screenshots of the broken website as well.
So their perspective, if I understand it correctly, is that I’ve only cancelled much later and I still need to pay for 2 extra months.
I’m not sure I agree. Let me explain.
One one hand, when I moved to Europe many years ago, I had one of the criteria for choosing a country as “a country that spends the least on military”. It resonated with my values, and it was important.
Things have changed since then. Many countries are now obstaining from full-on support of Ukraine, and why? Because they’re afraid to displease Putin with his nuclear arsenal.
So, as of now, do we want peace? Yes. And this is great. Sadly, we need to wake up from the pleasant days and grow some teeth if we want to continue living in peace. Russia is conducting information war, sabotage, spying and assassinations in Europe already. The war is here already. A switch of mindset is required where you want peace but you’re ready to defend it with weapons and even deaths of your own citizens such as you and me - if you want it to last. ~“A tolerant society should not tolerate the intolerant”.
I took a day off and cycled to the (snowy) dunes on Wednesday… It was quite fun actually.
Wouldn’t want it every day though.
Reddit is prone to manipulation. So what you read on Reddit is not the same as what people think if you ask them.
E.g. this: https://lemmy.ml/post/40603414?sort=Top
Two accounts on Reddit post 30%-50% of all content on r/conservative on a daily basis except one day when there happened to be a power outage in part of Moscow
(I don’t think the linked post is fully objective and has enough evidence support, but it at least clearly shows the risk.)
Yes please!
Grok this grok that…
I’m sorry, but ***k grok. Stop posting about it.
Fully agree on this one 🤝
The feedback loop is real and powerful
I’m not. As I said, I think people have varying degrees of education. I’m not separating between “us” and “them” in terms of education. I don’t make generalised statements of what happens on a global scale without good research into the subject either.
But simple things such as “we need to make education a social priority” is within my reach.
but people are uneducated
So you’re not? OK, as you say.
I’m not subscribing to such statements, personally. I see varying levels of education around, and I see my job as educating when I can, learning when I can.
Or instead of raising the voting question (also known as non-democracy, only-whites-can-vote etc), maybe better agree on the importance of accessible education. Such as, a well funded school system, free or cheap non-corporate universities etc.
Are you talking about the one that was updated 4 years ago?
The original claim was about tracking (“escape the big tech tracking”), so here AWS and Cloudflare are definitely relevant. The content, including input, also flows through them I think? It’s specifically unencrypted if I get it right.
Thanks for your comment. I’m still only learning how legislation in the EU works. However, so far I haven’t been able to confirm what you’re saying. Could you help if you know? (I assume not only me, but possibly other readers, too)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_the_European_Union
Here it doesn’t say (almost) anything about “trade”. Admittedly I’ve only read 2-3 pages and then used Ctrl+F to search on the rest of the page though… Is it a de-facto split between the legislative powers of the Council and the Parliament? Where to read about it?
there is little doubt that EU chat control will be implemented
Personally, I believe there’s a chance for stopping this. EU is not an authoritarian state. I wouldn’t give up too early – instead would rather fight and provide public pressure for the direction of the law that supports mine and everybody’s freedom.
A much better and desired solution is to stop this law from ever happening by societal pressure, in my personal opinion. I wasn’t born in the EU, but I live here many years now. I choose to believe that EU isn’t fully corrupted, and that many good and meaningful changes are still happening.
If Europe doesn’t fight back strongly enough, Chat Control will be one such thing. All your messages being scanned by a “black box” system. Hopes are on the European Parliament and societal pressure to cancel this now. https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/reality-check-eu-council-chat-control-vote-is-not-a-retreat-but-a-green-light-for-indiscriminate-mass-surveillance-and-the-end-of-right-to-communicate-anonymously/
escape the big tech tracking by installing uBlock Origin
Cloudflare and AWS say “Hi” 👋
UBO is a very good tech that I strongly recommend too though. Just gotta be aware of its limits.
Same. Funnily, after I’ve researched the cost (=> supply/demand) graph, I’ve started using it on my home which is currently on a fixed day/night granularity. I still schedule heavy stuff for a bit after midday or a bit after midnight when possible (and usually it’s possible).