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Uber had a lot of problems in Germany and were banned for a long time, regarding the ignoring laws. They were letting anyone register as a driver, but they never bothered to check if the drivers were allowed to transport paying passengers.
In Germany, you must have a professional driving license, the normal one isn’t valid for carrying paying passengers. This isn’t a medallion type thing, but purely an advanced driving test, leading to a higher license qualification. Without that, you cannot get commercial insurance and you cannot carry paying passengers - paying their share of the fuel is allowed, as long as you and they are travelling the same way. As soon as you make money on the journey, you are a professional driver and need the relevant license and insurance.
Uber didn’t bother, according to the press and courts in Germany. They didn’t check that the drivers were qualified and has the required level of insurance. Without the license and insurance, they are automatically at fault in an accident, their regular insurance is null and void and they will be responsible for all accident costs to all parties, including their passenger, if they are injured. On top of that, they would also lose their license for several months and face a large fine.
Regarding more expensive to do thing wrong, before they start doing it right, GDPR does start to force their hands, at least with new projects. If you don’t include the data protection officer in the initial discussions and planning for a new project/product, you are out of compliance and the project cannot go ahead, or you could be facing large fines. If your DPO finds out about the project after it has been initiated, they are required to report non-compliance to the authorities - the DPO is a protected job, in Germany, they cannot be fired for interfering with the day to day running of the business, they do not report to the mangers or board of directors, they are required to ensure the company is following the law and to report infractions.
This means that data protection and security have to be built into new projects from the get-go, not just when people start complaining or data is exposed,
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Devindra’s question about “Why does macOS still look like it did in 2001?” was very odd to me. Why should it look different? For the sake of it?
Microsoft invented the perfect desktop environment back in 1995. There’ve been a few good tweaks since then, but mostly small. A lot of others have tried to make something better but they nailed it! Based on the number of people who object any time Microsoft moves further away from that, I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way, either.
The UI of desktops/laptops is definitely one of those “it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” cases in my opinion. I’m sure there’s better ways to do it, and I’m open to suggestions of course, but Stage Manager ain’t it.
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Ironically, there are Linux desktops that are much closer to being what Windows was in the 90s-2000s than what you see in Windows 11. The Cinnamon desktop primarily used by Linux Mint is more like using Windows XP or Windows 7. MacOS just never got the alt-tab function down correctly. They’ve always had different views of how a UI should function. Some people like it better, but most do not like it well enough to purchase a Mac. Linux desktops running on very old hardware do a lot better job of hopping between workspaces than modern day Macs, and of course iPads, do
I tried turning on Stage Manager on my Intel Macbook Pro hoping to get a “new feel” out of it. However I just wasn’t pleased with it. I’m one of the few I suppose that prefer the dock sitting at the bottom of the screen where I’ve been use to my taskbar for years. Coming from Windows to Mac, it just feels more natural there for me.
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