Posts by A.P. Veening 4198 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Aug 2018
So that "manager" managed to seriously inconvenience somebody but couldn't be bothered to request somebody else to read the message over the phone? Being illiterate can happen and is unfortunate (and people are understandably sensitive about it), but this takes incompetence to a whole new level.
The problem isn't really in the level of taxes (though there is something as a too high level) but in the complexity of the tax legislation. A lot of international companies like to have their HQ in the Netherlands because the tax legislation is relatively uncomplicated and the tax authorities are open to agreements, not because the taxes are especially low.
I've heard it said that some manufacturers (reportedly) voluntarily add best before dates because it shortens the shelf-life and increases sales.
As far as I know, it is mandatory as even packaged salt has a use by date. Everybody with a basic understanding of things like this considers it bureaucratic madness gone wild and manufacturers really wouldn't go to the expensive of putting it on if it weren't mandatory.
Who would replace him?
I'd say a (small) committee of respected experts, preferably with an odd number of members, working preferably by consensus. A nice example (in a totally unrelated field but with equally massive egos) is the ECB, especially the first period under Wim Duisenberg. In the beginning he flabbergasted the whole economic world by striving for consensus, after a while they appreciated the results.
We can see the cracks coming already : systemD, Rust in the kernel, user-space drivers ... once Linus is gone, who will decide if and how Rust should be part of the kernel ? Or how much the kernel should rely on systemD being there ?
There already is Rust in the kernel (with Linus' blessing), so that isn't a discussion anymore. There are also some user-space drivers that haven't been approved to/for kernel-space (yet). As for systemD, Linux is already split on that and several branches work perfectly fine without it, so the kernel shouldn't rely on it.
That upper altitude limit is nice, but what bit a couple of manufacturers seriously was the lower altitude limit. They specified altitudes between zero and a nice, impressive positive number. The rather important and security conscious client*) requested a negative number for the lower altitude number as they were located below sea level. Upon being told about the to them unexpected circumstances, the manufacturers faced the choice between retesting to the requested specifications or lose the sale. Most chose to retest and respecify.
*) Schiphol airport, the largest airport world wide (and one of very few at all) below sea level.
With a bit of logical thinking, you might discover that isn't necessarily a problem.
If the bot hooks up from the back, it can decouple and scuttle back between the legs of the main landing gear (it is low enough to fit under the fuselage of all aircraft with the possible exception of the B737).
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