vollkorntomate

joined 4 months ago
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The European tube: Inside the project to launch a continent-wide rail system by 2040 in c/europe@feddit.org
[–] vollkorntomate@infosec.pub 11 points 6 days ago

Can we please call it EUtube?

Apple barred from Google antitrust trial, putting $20 billion search deal on the line in c/technology@lemmy.world
[–] vollkorntomate@infosec.pub 11 points 6 days ago

Users can choose it, but it isn’t the default

(DE) Isar Aerospace Test-flight today in c/europe@feddit.org
[–] vollkorntomate@infosec.pub 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The second generation of Spectrum will be larger and could potentially be reusable. As I understand this, the current version is simply too weak for all the extra components that reusability requires.

There are other companies tasked with the development of reusable rockets for ESA, though.

https://europeanspaceflight.com/esa-selects-four-companies-to-develop-reusable-rocket-technology/

German company set for first commercial rocket launch from Europe in c/europe@feddit.org
[–] vollkorntomate@infosec.pub 48 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Some background info on the company:

Isar Aerospace was founded by former students of the Technical University of Munich, who already participated in the WARR group which also won Elon Musk’s Hyperloop competition several times.

They received fundings from (among others) Airbus, NATO and a former SpaceX executive Bulent Altan (who studied at TUM as well).

Very impressive achievement already and a real hope for European space programs and independence!

1
Rant about Wero (European PayPal competitor) (infosec.pub)
 

(I don't know if this community allows such rants or if there are other communities better suited for it. Please let me know!)

So, I wanted to replace PayPal with a service that's not owned by an American megacorp. Last year, Wero (wero-wallet.eu) launched with much media attention as a self-proclaimed competitor to PayPal owned and operated by European banks. I love the idea!

Now here's the issue: I can't use it. My bank (DKB in Germany) isn't a part of the European Payments Initiative, so I can't use the service. And so are many other banks across Europe.

I understand that the owning banks want to have a competitive advantage over one another, but what really bothers me is that a system intended to compete with PayPal isn't even designed to seriously compete. With PayPal, I can just link any bank account from any bank using my IBAN, but Wero doesn't support this. This is one of the reasons why Giropay (or Kwitt) in Germany didn't really catch on – it is too complex and too inaccessible for most potential users.

Not only does it actively keep me and many other Europeans from using Wero, it will also never become a global competitor to PayPal (that could generate additional income for the owning banks), because no non-European bank will likely ever be part of the EPI.

I would love to see a European service capable of seriously competing with American megacorps on a global level. But in my opinion, Wero just ain't one of them.

*deleted by creator* in c/technology@lemmy.world
[–] vollkorntomate@infosec.pub 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’m still waiting for the day that I can make a full backup of my chats and save it on an external hard drive so that I won’t lose all of my message history when I lose my phone.