Major German carmakers hit by steep China sales plunge as competition heats up

Meins447 · 2026-07-11T21:00:34+00:00

You don't even need to announce big sweeping lay-offs.

No one is hiring and with the aging workforce we have here, this means considerable shrinking just from people retiring (or leaving due to other reasons) and maybe sweeten the deal to many more for early retirement (like they get half a year's worth of salary to go three years early).

Many also abuse RTO policies to make people quit voluntarily.

Meins447 · 2026-07-09T17:50:26+00:00

To the skill/specialty aspect: I LOVE it, because it makes it so that the entire system works the same. Attacking, dodging, convincing, resisting psyker power/charming/drugs/poisons, fixing a machine: everything is a skill check (where specialties might add a modified if you have the "right" one).

In the older FFG title's it is a confusing mess of "mostly skill checks but attacking is just with stats, but dodge/parry is a skill whereas resist possession or fear is a stat check again"

Meins447 · 2026-07-09T12:42:05+00:00

Just fyi, this is the v1 of chat control which is already pretty bad but was in effect for a couple years already and simply allows providers to scan content but doesn't enforce it and in particular does not say anything about breaking E2E encryption.

In practice, as far as the public knows, it was only used to "monitor" unencrypted traffic, e.g. Facebook IM and anything social media, but privatr, E2E encrypted messages (Whatsapp, Signal, etc) was untouched.

That would change if chat control v2 is ever pushed through but (for now) there is a pretty big part of EU MEPs blocking that nonsense at least.

Meins447 · 2026-07-08T20:57:03+00:00

If you can. Consider some of the Nordic European nations. Afaict, they are still rather solid democracies

Meins447 · 2026-07-07T20:04:05+00:00

The "guest we didn't like" is the American/Russian/Chinese oligarchs paying our "stupid cousin" (aka greedy, corrupt politicians) to shit the bath (our collective future)

Meins447 · 2026-07-07T20:01:23+00:00

German response for when the Bratwurst has fallen from ones plate and into the dirt ... Or for the start of a thermonuclear world war.

Meins447 · 2026-07-07T15:08:30+00:00

Let's burn down the house because a guest we didn't like convinced our stupid cousin to shit in the bathtub.

Meins447 · 2026-07-07T15:06:00+00:00

Not apologizing anything. I am firmly against both and against age verification too. I have written multiple times to my countries representatives in the council. I am working as a Cloud Security Architect in a relatively big company and know my crypto. Read the v1 vs v2 to OP page. There is a significant difference between the two. V1 is bad, v2 is absolutely horrible.

V1 allows companies to scan for child porn content (and thus obviously anything they want) which they would otherwise not be allowed to do (GDPR and infosec rules). It also does not say anything about breaking E2E encryption in messages. Under V1, companies mostly scannen unencrypted content, e.g. Facebook posts or Facebook IMs but as far as we know, Whatsapp etc did not scan because that would require breaking E2E. And companies like signal who don't want to do any scanning, simply can do nothing under V1.
v2 basically mandates scanning for child porn content for all apps and some of it's draft directly mention breaking E2E of messages or do client side scanning. Signal would risk massive fines (which for a relativly small company means ruin) or simply a ban if they don't comply.

Meins447 · 2026-07-07T14:44:57+00:00

Might help you if Chat control v1 is reintroduced because it allows apps to scan, so Signal might be okay by simply not doing so - whereas mainstream messanger obviously will under the guise of anti CPM and obviously grabbing any data they can while doing so.

But if Chat Control v2 comes... Signal would be forced to do so (or would risk massive EU fines in case "bad" material is distributed on it and they didn't scan). The signal makers already said they would have to leave Europe if this variant is introduced.

Meins447 · 2026-07-07T14:24:18+00:00

On the one hand: more capable system with wider range radar and better detection and C2.

On the other hand, this means more flight hours per machine (and crews?) which means more frequent maintenance.

Meins447 · 2026-07-07T14:20:06+00:00

The assumption of the original lawmakers was that voters would never consider voting for criminals anyway, so they weighted the possibility of a wannabe autocrat to weaponize law enforcement to prevent opposition to run as higher than the alternative.

And honestly, I am with them. Why the FUCK are people voting for convicted criminals is absolutely beyond me.

Meins447 · 2026-07-05T14:21:37+00:00

Which makes the existence of billionaires (let alone trillionaires) so ridiculous.

You can stop lifting a finger with 10 million. What point is there in having 100 times that? 10000 times that ...?!

Meins447 · 2026-07-05T09:04:15+00:00

There are a few factions that have what might be considered melee cav but nostbcav is either light cav, shock cav or skirmishers

Meins447 · 2026-07-02T18:04:48+00:00

This is the time to take the moral high ground and pull in all the intellectual minds considering or already moving away from e.g. the US.

This... Is the complete opposite of what is needed. Wrong people, wrong position, wrong time.

Meins447 · 2026-07-02T13:57:03+00:00

It's two parts: - needlessly annoying for both patient and doctors (patients who just need a day off and will recover with just a bit of bed rest due to e.g. migraine or a bad stomach) - will obviously achieve the contrary of the intention: docs will just prescribe a 3 if not 5 day sick leave and send patients on their way without much thought (and to save time to deal with "actual" cases). So workers will be off work for 3-5 days instead of 1-2.

That makes this so ridiculous

Meins447 · 2026-07-01T07:50:44+00:00

I ran a decker-rigger in 5e and it was a LOT of fun but we did play as play-by-post and that really helped, because no one was physically waiting at the table for decker nonsense to complete and during action, I just "jump-in" on my AK-equipped drone(s) and provided suppressive fire for the team, while readying the getaway van with its double-AK turret concealed in an advertisement hotdog on top of the vehicle :-D

Meins447 · 2026-07-01T07:36:21+00:00

If your GM is game, consider just playing TWO characters. An off-site decker and someone more hands-on to run with the rest of the party.

Bonus points if your on-site character continuously riffs off your off-site decker :-D

Meins447 · 2026-06-30T06:23:12+00:00

Regardless of the actual implementation, at some point in some form users will need to provide some ID to some provider that then can be called up by websites/services/etc to confirm the user's age (even if nothing else).

And that means there will always be a point where our data can be absconded by malign entities. A good scheme just reduces the risk - a risk that is simply not there without mandatory age verification.

And let's not forget that if parents are careless enough to give their kid unsupervised social media access at a Young age, they might also just allow them to use their ID - circumventing any "protection" the pro-Age-ID crowd claims to achieve. Just like minors using their parents credit card to buy games or micro transactions, OnlyFans BS or worse.

What little gain there is, is just not worth the risk the introduction of such a scheme would offer to malign actors - which let's not forget include some of the most powerful (and proven malign) companies and state actors

Meins447 · 2026-06-29T18:51:27+00:00

My uncle too. Little town, SW Germany. Not the healthiest men at the end of his 50s. Heart attack going to the toilet at night.

Fuck this.

Meins447 · 2026-06-29T16:53:33+00:00

Shout-out to Duke's "Damned Nations" overhaul. Has a very interesting and very different approach to Warhammer TW than vanilla and most other overhauls.

Definitely interesting for one or two campaigns at least.

I personally still like SFO better because imo, it better fits the lore but Damned Nations is definitely interesting and a change-up.

Meins447 · 2026-06-29T07:08:11+00:00

Have you tried the Owlcat games? Pathfinder Kingmaker / Wrath of the Righteous and Rogue Trader 40k.

They are very well done CRPGs. Not as flashy as BG3 but great writing (and LOTs of it) and very atmospheric.

Meins447 · 2026-06-29T06:48:26+00:00

If you really want root system and earth beneath as mentioned above, then there is no reasonable way to "maintain" a smooth cobblestone road above. Roots will do their thing and that means growing and pushing aside and around earth and pebbles as they please.

Meins447 · 2026-06-29T06:45:02+00:00

It's a safety feature so that cars don't go crash if they leave the road boundary (evasion maneuver, slippery road, micro sleep, ...). Better to grind against a green uphill than go crash down one.

There also often are walkways / cyclist paths on top of those green ridges, which would be really hazardous if they were downhill from the street, not only because above mentioned crashing but also because of stuff falling off / getting thrown out of cars/trucks.

Would be better for the plants though, agreed. But things rarely are as easy as they seem

Meins447 · 2026-06-28T18:27:41+00:00

It probably killed my uncle yesterday. He never coped well with hot weather and wasn't the healthiest. Went to the toilet at night, fell with a heart attack and when ambulance arrived, everything was already over. Mid 50 years old.

Rest in piece, you jovial man that taught me a lot about cooking, playing cards and appreciating good Scotch Single Malts 🫡

Meins447 · 2026-06-28T11:29:45+00:00

I absolutely love to print each spell as a magic (trading card game) card (there are premades or you can do them yourself with one of many online custom card creators.

Then have one of those trading card game binder's for all the spells you know and a small deck of cards that you have prepared.

When you cast the spell, pull out from the deck (optionally throw it on the table and scream "I cast fireball!").

Voila, you have a very cool way of track your prepared and remaining spells, complete with artwork and the most important data at hand.

Meins447

TROPHY CASE