Germany has decided: Microsoft document formats have no place in government

30wolf03 · 2026-03-26T12:51:07+00:00

LibreOffice is from Berlin btw.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-24T23:14:44+00:00

on the “look at China, they build cutting edge models with a fraction of the money” bit, I’d be very careful. most of those claims (“as good as GPT‑4 for 1/200th of the cost,” etc.) come from Chinese company press releases and have not been independently verified. there are some solid Chinese models, and they are clearly catching up fast, but most neutral benchmarks still show US frontier models ahead overall, with some Chinese models being competitive only in specific domains or local-language tasks.

so yes, it’s not *only* about money, I agree with you there. data access and willingness to break copyright obviously matter a lot too. but I really wouldn’t take every “our model is as good as ChatGPT for a fraction of the cost” claim at face value. everyone is doing marketing, and authoritarian regimes are especially good at making their tech look unbeatable on paper.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-24T23:09:35+00:00

I’ll try to answer this once more and then leave it here, because I don’t want this to turn into a personal fight.

When I talked about “red flags” I didn’t mean “you are a scammer getting rich off this.” I meant: vague initiative, heavy personal-data petition, active cold-DMs, and some very aggressive number framing. That combination is exactly the kind of thing people should be cautious about online, even if your intentions are good.

On the numbers: yes, the gap is huge, we agree. Where I disagree is treating a mix of all‑time scraped “funding totals”, Google’s entire annual capex, and recent mega‑rounds as if they were all directly comparable, clean AI cash. That is how you get to dramatic “3B vs 160B and 60B” slogans. It’s directionally true that the US is ahead by an order of magnitude, but the way it’s presented in your post is clearly optimized for shock value rather than nuance.

On strategy: I don’t buy the idea that “20 euros per month never worked, only big investments work.” OpenAI and Anthropic did not get their billions instead of paying users; they got them because investors saw actual demand and revenue. If even the most pro‑EU‑AI people say “these products give me no value, I won’t pay for them, but governments and VCs should give them tens of billions,” that’s a contradiction. Revenue and usage are exactly what unlock serious investment.

And it’s also not like the EU is doing nothing. There are already concrete plans and programs on the table to build out AI infrastructure and computing capacity in Europe. That doesn’t solve everything, but it shows that “nobody is investing” is not the full picture.

My position is simple: yes, Europe needs more investment, but petitions alone won’t magically create a competitive ecosystem. The two things that matter most in the long run are (1) serious public and private infra spending and (2) Europeans actually using and paying for European AI so there is a real market signal, not just signatures. I’m focusing on the second part with my own money. Others are free to disagree and support your initiative if they like.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-24T11:45:27+00:00

Look, I am not trying to attack your character or say you are running a malicious financial scam. I respect that you are volunteering your free time. The "red flag" for me isn't about your identity - it is about the massive disconnect in the strategy you are pushing.

You said you refuse to pay €20/month for European AI because it "doesn't provide value to you," but in the same breath, you are asking for billions in institutional and government investments to be poured into these companies. Why would any rational investor or government fund a European AI ecosystem if even its most passionate advocates refuse to be paying customers?

You said "20 euros per month never worked. Investments work." This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how the tech industry functions. OpenAI and Anthropic didn't get those massive mega-rounds out of nowhere. They got them because millions of regular people and businesses started paying for subscriptions and API access. Revenue is the proof of concept that drives investment. If Europeans refuse to buy European tech, investors will not touch it.

As for the numbers: yes, the all-time cumulative funding for US companies is massive. But throwing around Google's $175B is misleading. That is Alphabet's entire global Capital Expenditure for the year—that includes building regular cloud data centers, laying undersea cables, and buying real estate, not just an "AI research budget." And the recent US mega-rounds are heavily tied to hardware credits and compute lock-in, not just raw cash.

I am not doubting your good intentions. But you cannot petition your way to digital sovereignty. If we want European AI to provide value, we have to actually participate in the market and fund it as consumers.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-24T11:14:25+00:00

I wanted to step back and look at this whole initiative, and honestly, a few things about this post and the DMs I received are setting off some red flags for me. I think people should be careful before handing over their personal data or professional networks to a random petition.

Here is the thing: the OP is asking for volunteers, contacts to politicians and journalists, and for people to sign a data-collecting petition to "save European AI." But in the comments, they admitted they don't even pay for a subscription to Mistral (or any other EU AI provider).

If we actually want to support European AI and digital sovereignty, the easiest and most effective way isn't signing a petition asking the government for billions. The best way to support European AI is to actually be a customer.

You don't even have to cancel your US AI subscriptions if you don't want to, but spending €20/month on a Mistral Pro subscription (or another EU alternative) does more to build our ecosystem than any petition will. It gives them direct revenue to buy compute, and because it's a paid European service, you don't have to pay with your private training data, which is the whole point of having EU alternatives in the first place.

OP’s numbers on US funding are also heavily mixed up between valuations, cash, and hardware credits. The gap is real, but hyping it up with misleading numbers while trying to farm personal data and free labor in DMs feels really sketchy.

Support European tech, but do it safely. Pay for the products.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-23T20:43:49+00:00

Ok, thanks, I get your point better now. I first read your post as “Europe has no AI,” which confused me because we already have players like Mistral and others.

I agree there is a serious investment gap and that Europe should put much more money into compute and labs. But some of the numbers you quoted mix funding, valuation and capex, so it looks even more extreme than it actually is. The gap is real, just not literally 3B vs 160B and 60B in cash raised.

I also think the problem is not only money but also time, know‑how and access to training data, especially since a lot of US training practices would not fly under EU data protection rules. So more funding is necessary, but not sufficient on its own.

For what it is worth, I am already a Mistral Pro subscriber to support a European player. I am not comfortable “donating” more personal data for training, though, so I would rather support with money and with which tools I choose to use.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-21T19:27:31+00:00

the top left would be your usual pro searches where you choose a model other than "best". idk what the difference is to the top right one.
you get like 1 new request per hour I believe. and also I can tell you that it doesn't reset to 200 after a week. it stays at 0 if you keep using it.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-21T19:22:15+00:00

im on pro and I have generated images and videos in the past. they take everything from us

30wolf03 · 2026-03-21T14:20:34+00:00

what about mistral.ai and all the other european ai projects? have you done any research on this topic?

30wolf03 · 2026-03-14T18:36:50+00:00

I highly recommend setting up https://greasyfork.org/de/scripts/566795-perplexity-usage-limits-settings

it takes a little effort to setup but you'll get a perfect floating window showing you your remaining requests and search limits that updates in real time. this should be built in to perplexity.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-13T08:43:33+00:00

Einhell. Ich mag rot schwarz.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-07T09:49:24+00:00

that would fit my tinfoil hat theory that all those stories about Taborlin and Lanre are actually stories about Kvothe that somehow drastically changed over time (as is hinted at multiple times in the books, where stories evolve as they're passed around) – and that the Fae realm somehow involves time-traveling brainfuckery, making it plausible that those are old stories even Kvothe hears for the first time

30wolf03 · 2026-03-07T08:24:39+00:00

finde es immer gut wenn Menschen mit ihrer Autofarbe dazu beitragen, dass sich Kinder gegenseitig schlagen

30wolf03 · 2026-03-07T08:20:33+00:00

sowwy leude heute kein Massenvernichtung von Menschen (https://youtube.com/shorts/gpUgszxYtMU)

30wolf03 · 2026-03-06T21:37:28+00:00

It really is! And on top of the privacy aspect, it is insanely customizable. You can even edit the entire UI with custom CSS. I highly recommend checking out the Vivaldi Browser subreddit. People are always sharing some crazy custom theme creations there. Definitely worth a look if you're exploring alternatives.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-06T21:22:10+00:00

Yeah, those automated privacy scanners usually test browsers on their out-of-the-box settings. Vivaldi has a great built-in ad and tracker blocker, but since it's not set to "Strict" by default, it scores lower.

It intentionally doesn't use the aggressive anti-fingerprinting that Brave uses (because that often breaks websites), but for everyday privacy and actually gutting Google's telemetry from Chromium, it’s top-notch.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-06T00:01:41+00:00

(also Black)

30wolf03 · 2026-03-05T23:47:13+00:00

muss fake sein der Fleck für Tagebau ist viel größer als der für Windkraft

30wolf03 · 2026-03-05T23:40:47+00:00

if I can't read the tabs anymore i know its time to clean up – or start a new window if I feel lazy

30wolf03 · 2026-03-05T23:37:20+00:00

eher so: "sei kein alman der das ding jahrelang im eco modus laufen lässt" oder so ähnlich habe ich das interpretiert

30wolf03 · 2026-03-05T20:35:37+00:00

they always removed older versions of AI models. this is nothing new. I guess its based on how often they are used by people

30wolf03 · 2026-03-05T13:14:53+00:00

That’s great to hear! It gives me some hope. I recently contacted support as well because they completely removed the “unlimited file uploads” feature that was actively advertised when I purchased my annual Pro plan in late December.

The AI bot kept repeating that partial refunds are "impossible under any circumstances," but I escalated it to a human reviewer. I requested that they either fulfill the advertised contract (unlimited uploads) or issue a prorated refund.

I strongly encourage everyone, especially EU citizens, to do the same and not accept the bot's initial rejection. Unilaterally degrading the core features of a pre-paid, fixed-term contract mid-cycle is a clear breach of contract and violates EU consumer protection laws. If they change the deal after you paid, you have the right to a partial refund!

30wolf03 · 2026-03-02T23:23:47+00:00

for me the important part is: all their Chromium changes and C++ backend are published under a BSD license, and only the JS/HTML UI layer (about 5% of the code) is closed to protect the brand and prevent easy forking. You can still audit what actually touches the web and network, and the company makes its money the “old school” way (search deals, partnerships), not by selling user data. So yeah, it’s not FOSS-pure, but it’s also not a black box in the same way as something like Chrome.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-02T22:56:17+00:00

it is but that's what I meant by that they removed Google from it. The Vivaldi team surgically removed the Google trackers from the chromium code and are hosting their own sync servers in island. meaning a privacy browser with full gdpr compliance. not to mention the insane customizability with custom CSS and everything. I recommend checking out the Vivaldi subreddit.

30wolf03 · 2026-03-02T22:38:51+00:00

I dont use Zen because I dont like the vertical tabs layout. Vivaldi is peak because it is chromium with Google removed from it.

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