One wonders why the application “used for everything related to authentication with government services” runs on a Private Sector cloud.

I read (no citation here, I forget where I saw this now) a while back somebody involved saying that their procurement policies require they accept the lowest bid tended, as long as its legally submitted and not obviously a scam.

So yes, typical neo-liberal right-wing mentality is very much at fault I suspect.

Since the article is in Dutch, let me try to provide a little extra context:

1. It’s not actually the company that runs DigiD, that’s Logius, who is part of the ministry of the interior.
2. It’s about the cloud-hosting company that DigiD runs on. The DigiD code was open sourced, though it looks like the GitHub repository is now archived (https://github.com/MinBZK/woo-besluit-broncode-digid-app)
3. It really is used for everything related to authentication with government services. Doing your taxes, scheduling an appointment with the city government for <insert anything>, scheduling a doctors appointment, getting a prescription refilled, on and on.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t DigiD created by Logius, which is part of the “Interior Ministry” to roughly translate into English?

Eh, learn something new every day I guess.

From now on I will only use Newtons when discussing temperature.

It sure is. But it’s also really, really easy to convert between the various units of measurement.

Yes, a US audience:

1. CNN is an American company
2. My comment was specifically for Americans that may not understand or appreciate the situation, as houses there are built very differently and are less prone to baking their occupants during summer.

Why does my labeling the unit of measurement bother you so much you have to comment on it specifically? I’m genuinely confused here.

Why? I’m clearly addressing an American audience from a non-American location; specifying if I’m using Fahrenheit or Celsius just helps avoid confusion. Does the label of the unit bother you?

Hell yea; I love the rain here. You’ll get so many weird looks from Dutch people saying that, but whatever. Fuck summer, I’d rather live with year round winter personally.

After living in the Netherlands for about three years (moved here from the US) I finally gave in and ordered an air conditioner. I was slightly worried about my neighbors judging us for it (it’ll hang out the window, it’s hard to not notice) only to learn that they also bought one that same day.

All the homes are brick, and are well suited to retaining heat through winter. I only set my thermostat to ~65F for a single room and leave the rest of the apartment unheated and the other rooms average about 50F. In summer though it may peak at 85F outside, but inside it will hit 100F and just stay there for hours even when it’s back down to 65F outside at night.

Awesome in winter, and an oven in summer.

Ah, I see you’ve met my mother.

The IND (Immigration & Naturalization Department) has pretty good docs online and in English: https://ind.nl/en/residence-permits/work/residence-permit-self-employed-person

Not just any business; IIRC lawyers & doctors are restricted, and prostitution isn’t allowed. Although if you bring a spouse they are allowed to work without restrictions, including prostitution… if that’s your/their thing.

There’s no minimum “value” or income requirements at first (though if you want to get renewed at the two year mark you’ll need to demonstrate the business is doing at least something), you basically just need to put 4.5k euro in your business’ bank account and never let it go under that base 4.5k.

General advice: read everything you can; what I just wrote is ~3 years old and could have changed since. I paid an immigration attorney to handle my & spouse’s application something like 1k euro and think it was well worth it. Shipping stuff by boat usually comes with a minimum space purchase, which also means a minimum cost of 5k (again, few years old on that reference…). Most electronics aren’t worth bringing due to the AC/DC difference, though I disassembled my desktop and brought everything but the case and power supply in my luggage on the plane.

And lastly, if you are seriously considering it, learn the language. I can’t stress it enough. This isn’t just a two week vacation, you will eventually need to interact with dentists, doctors, repairmen, delivery people, etc, who probably speak great English but it isn’t guaranteed – especially if they’re older or if you live outside the randstad. I know some fellow Americans here that barely know any Dutch and it makes everything feel more difficult for them; even basic knowledge helps a lot if you’re on the train and you hear an announcement “the rear of the train is staying at the following station and going back, if you wish to continue further move to the front cabins”

Avoid Duolingo, it used to be good but it’s all AI-enshittified shit. I recommend Busuu, and when you feel like it’s starting to make sense do some actual lessons. “NOS Journaal in Makkelijke Taal” (“NOS Journal in Easy Language”) is good to watch; it’s a 8-ish minute news report of the day in simple and (usually) kindof slowly spoken Dutch. Just keep watching until it works.

Ahhh fuck now that I read it in that way I can totally see it lol!

I moved using the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty; basically start and run a Dutch business that employs yourself and sponsor your own immigration. It was the only valid path I had from the US -> Europe, and it’s actually surprisingly easy if you’re capable of being self employed. My business went well for a while until my main client screwed me over but now I have a regular highly-skilled-migrant visa which requires a Dutch company to hire you and sponsor your work visa.

I think it’s a wonderful place in it’s in own right. If I compare it to where I used to live I question why I didn’t do it sooner.

You have to be someone who identifies with your European heritage and ancestry.

Meanwhile I, an American living in the Netherlands, encounter black people on a daily basis that speak better Dutch than I ever will.

I mean, of course these people are fucking morons, but it’s also pretty telling that their view of what is European is insanely whitewashed.

I was actually just thinking about those the other day and how I kindof miss them in a certain way. Just a silly little break from daily monotony of writing code; wiggle the cursor a bit and watch a tiny cat try to catch it.

That’s all true, but besides my point.

Gas was expensive before, now it’s just completely bonkers. Rubio can celebrate that the US is “fortunate”, but that ignores the damage being done worldwide.

That said: the roads here are absolutely immaculate. Barely a pothole in sight, roads are so smooth you can rollerskate on them. I really think they could spend a bit less on road quality and still have some of the best roads in the world.

Best of luck! If you’ve got questions or problems feel free to DM me (or reply here) and I’ll try to help as best I can. I’ve been using linux since the mid 90s, so I have a decent idea of how it all works :)

11.26 USD per gallon here in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile in the Netherlands I just saw a station selling gas at $11.26 gallon. So good job Rubio, super awesome, you’re only utterly fucking over all of your allies and making people’s lives miserable worldwide. Great job.

I think it has some valid use as a tool in programming, though relying entirely on it (“vibe coding”) just produces a mountain of difficult to maintain crap.

What works for me is using it as tool like one could delegate to a junior programmer. I can write the signature of a method that it will complete the contents of; for example I’ll write “function reverseTextInSentence(string: text) {}” and tell an AI to implement that method. It saves me a little time and I can keep thinking about the larger picture rather than the details of reversing a string of text.

That said: do not let it organize the structure of your project, don’t let it name things for you, don’t use in place of critical thinking, don’t ever think it can actually use logic and reason besides repeating things it found on online forums, and don’t let it write projects wholesale. It’s a tool that can be useful, and you need to know when to use it and when its use will just make things worse.

Also fuck the AI corporations, run a free model on your own hardware.

One of my long standing house rules when I’m DM is to let people just be as creative as they want during downtime, as long as it doesn’t affect the story. Druid wants to spend all day wild shaped as a turtle, hanging out in the pond? Sure, go for it - I’ll ignore the X/hours per day limits or whatever. The wizard wants to cast Wish just to create a sick looking pipe to smoke from? Amazing, no XP or gold cost for that. Fighter wants to use Action Surge repeatedly to chop an entire tree into firewood for their winter log cabin? Don’t forget to mount a deer’s head above the fireplace.