28
daCoda
5y

So this is a rant about my country and especially my city: Berlin (Germany).
Germany is like a third world country when it comes to IT infrastructure. We have one of the slowest internet speeds in the whole EU. People are still afraid to pay with their card or phone. My people love their coins. While most of the other countries see the importance of the new technologies we still use mainly copper wire for internet. So why am I especially mad about Berlin? Google was planning to bring an innovation campus to our city. They wanted to establish a place for startups and technology. But the people from Berlin demonstrated against it extremely. They didn't want to have a company like Google in their city. I also am not a big fan of Google, but this would be such an important step to a better future for Germany. In a few years Germany will have a huge problem because we are so far behind the other countries. And it is so sad to see that seemingly no one cares about this.

This rant was brought to you by the worst internet in the whole EU

Comments
  • 8
    Tbh, I still prefer paying for things with coins. It's so much faster than even contactless card payment, which I do as well.
    Why is it faster? If you take out the exactly right amount of cash before it's your turn to pay, you just hand it over and take your stuff.
  • 2
    I feel you. I don't use cash at all. It's a pain when someone wants money from me for basketball training or collection for people leaving work. Always ask if I can transfer it over. Money is dirty, there are germs all over it. Sure, so there are on my phone but other people, eww.
  • 11
    @cherkie the germ argument is bullshit. Germs are everywhere, and unless you lick shit, there is no problem. Actually, an immune system that has nothing to do gets bored and starts fighting random shit, which is why allergies are so widespread in first world countries.
  • 2
    this technophobic mentality is why rocket internet exists. Copying ideas from the USA and implementing it in berlin and the rest of europe. Stealing isn't very innovating business practice. But it works.

    Rocket Intetnets headquarters looks cool tho. It's an old newspaper printing facility. It's located at U6 Ullsteinstrasse.
  • 4
    @daCoda yeah they fear that the appartments become more expensive to rent if people with income settle down.

    There are enough shitheads in Berlin who prefer Berlin to stay a parasitic shithole in debt relying on other federal states to cross-finance their social welfare dependent people.
  • 4
  • 3
    @Fast-Nop well still, your argument with preparing exact money while you're waiting in the queue is bs as well (in regard that is faster than contactless).

    Do you always carry every possible amount so when you pay 14.73 you have exactly that in your wallet? Probably not, you then wait for change while I'm paying with my phone and am gone quickly as I don't need receipts, or change, or PIN.

    Oh and plenty of germs where I live, people in the UK have not grasped the concept of washing hands after toilet.
  • 5
    @cherkie the payment argument wasn't by me, but from my practical experience, card payment does take longer. Also, cash doesn't have the privacy issue. I wouldn't pay with phone because I don't trust that shit.

    As for the germs, the trolley or basket handles in supermarkets are rarely washed (if at all), people using public transport also survive, and the whole argument is just hysteria.
  • 2
    Hey I am from Germany too. The thing that picks me on mostly is actually the price taken for this copper wire of hell. It is like we are the most expensive country concerning network connections....
  • 0
    🤷🏻‍♂️
    Deutschland3000 - Warum ist unser internet so langsam?
    https://youtu.be/rq7rGfZnoVU
  • 0
    @Fast-Nop well each to its own. All the best
  • 0
    And here i am hopping that one day will move to Germany to work... lol
  • 1
    IT infrastructure is a joke in Germany. I can go into the woods somewhere in Poland or be on the beach in Belgium or in any part of the Netherlands and have constant LTE4G extravaganza - I’m at the Düsseldorf Trainstation and have no reception at all.
    Wired connections are a sad sad joke in itself and the government hasn’t gotten the joke for the last 20 years or so. Instead we get shit about „flugtaxis“ - german people will get this one.

    I work at a great German company that really wants to push the edge and be very modern. We suffer from our bad connection at times and it’s also hecka expensive. This is also true for private connections.

    I also really hate the clingyness to cash. In Berlin you really have to check every bar, club or restaurant you go to as a lot don’t even take debit cards. It’s a sad sad joke.

    Gotta cut Berlin protest against google some slack tho. They wanted to build in Kreuzberg - gentrification is a big big issue there.
  • 5
    Paying with Coins whenever possible is like protesting against Google: trying to keep up privacy. So even when i'm a victim of Berlin slow Internet Speed by cable too i totally disagree with you. Feels more like you didnt think before connecting a google Campus to IT infrastructure politics, thats not how it works dude
  • 2
    Here's an example:
    I know that my Mini-DisplayPort2DisplayPort cable which I'll pick up at my favourite store costs exactly €8.69, so I pick out a 5€ bill, one 2€ coin, two 50c coins, three 20c coins, one 5c coin, two 2c coins.
    In a matter of seconds. And I only need to hand it to the cashier in a few minutes.
  • 4
    I am from Germany and living in the USA and I also pay as much as possible with cash, because I know my bank is just selling every bit of information they can get to the highest bidder. Could be a healthcare provider that wants to know how healthy I am eating/drinking, a car dealer that doesn't like me using public transport or a super market that wants to know why I am not buying their cake, and where I am getting my cake from.
  • 7
    Paying with cash is a function of freedom, giving away the ability to aquire goods and services without you bank knowing seems like an essential thing a free citizen should be able to make. Therefore cash money, while unwieldy at times, is an identifier of how free you are allowed to live your life.

    about the kreuzberg stuff...ohwell, berlin humans are weird
  • 2
    Berlin is wo ick wohne :) at least at work in Mitte we have some gig lines so no problem with speed there, in Pankow we created our small Freifunk community long time ago and shared one DSL line with 20 people via small self build antennas years ago. Slowly, but I can see progress within the infrastructure, wow I can have my very own circuit now :) You are right we are far behind any other country, partly caused by the transition from governmental owned to private company owned infrastructure but believe me, a Google campus in Kreuzberg is not a Game changer and even when they settle down it will not fix these problems. Ah and I am paying with cash as much as I can, not another profile to read/sell the food prints of my life by my bank.
  • 0
    Go visit Canada with their fucking cartel monopoly shut show all over telecom colluding about shottynprices and services.
  • 1
    Btw., the infrastructure in Berlin specifically is shit on so many levels. The metro trains are also crap, and the airport disaster is still ongoing.

    On the upside, slow internet for the media and web industry in Berlin is also a feature because it somewhat helps web devs to limit the bloat in the shit they design. I think web devs should have 10 MBit at most and ideally a computer with low specs.
Add Comment