dailo10

This has not been my experience as a foreigner. WiFi at Singapore public libraries is handled through Wireless@SG - it just requires a one time setup.

https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/services/facilities/wifi-at-the-...

I remember trying Smashmallows, and they were delicious! Now I know why I can no longer find them... sigh.

SSO for your gov't ID is a no-brainer

TraceTogether is being phased out as the end of the pandemic nears. Haven't had to use it for weeks now.

As for privacy issue - they ended up stating that they would only use it for serious crimes e.g. they used it in a murder investigation. Seems like a reasonable compromise for better public safety.

(I recognize that not everyone will agree on that, but the level of safety and security in Singapore is mind blowing.)

Except in this case they went too far and the IRS busted them - to the tune of $7B.

Let’s not pretend like they weren’t trying to get away with not paying their fair share of taxes here.

And to OP's point - if the punishment was in proportion to how much they tried to steal - well, you’d probably see a lot less “creativity” in these tax schemes.

I would love to read an article about BRE and SRE. :)

Just because you move to a paid email provider doesn't mean that provider won't get hacked. In fact, the resources at larger companies like Google could provider better protection.

Perhaps the benefit of being at a paid email provider is that they have a much smaller number of accounts, so they are a less attractive target for hackers.

What I find exciting about this is:

1. They were "forced to prototype on existing lithium ion manufacturing equipment". This brings them much closer to actual, scalable manufacturing.

2. Hu's ability to develop solutions when challenges arise. He figured out how to get the battery working at room temperature. He was able to adapt his approach to work on existing manufacturing equipment.

Hu sounds like a world class talent, and I admire his ability to overcome challenges. Here's hoping SolidEngergy succeeds!

Regarding OSS - Yahoo was behind Hadoop, the platform for big data and distributed computing. HBase, Spark, Storm, etc. are all built on top of Hadoop. Gotta give them credit for that one.

There are multiple aspects at play here:

1. Fiduciary responsibility - Corporations have a financial objective to minimize their tax burden, in order to maximize shareholder value. Sure.

2. Legality. There are numerous loopholes that are technically legal. And it's remarkable how much gray area there is when it comes to tax law. This is why you have the big teams of lawyers to figure out how to best game the system and avoid taxation, while just barely staying on the legal side of the line.

3. Legal Consequences. And if they go to far and get caught breaking the law? No big deal. They can go to court and then settle. Sure, there will be a fine, but they knew that was a risk.

4. Jurisdictions and Multinationals. Countries can only make laws that take effect within their borders. But MNCs operate across multiple countries, and can effectively play jurisdictions off against one another.

5. Spirit of the Law. While lawyers may argue what they're doing is technically legal, it is certainly against the spirit of the law. The law did not intend for corporations to shift all the profits from where they are made to low tax haven jurisdictions.

Governments are trying to address these issues, as corporations will be doing their best to stay one step ahead of the law. This is why the OECD has started the BEPS movement to come up with a coordinated response. One of their initial goals is to create some transparency, so they can at least get some visibility into what's going on. That seems like a good first step.

Once we have self-driving cars, Uber can and will replace their current fleet of drivers with robots.

Actually, the dirty secret amongs development economists is that protectionism works when you're trying to establish yourself in an industry. If you look at a number of successful developing countries, they first created protectionist policies to nurture homegrown companies. Once those companies matured and acquired skills/knowledge, they slowly remove those policies to compete on a global level.

Of course, it's different for a developed country like the U.S. But I object to those who blithely proclaim that free trade is the best solution. Even when you look at the U.S., freer trade has led to clear winners and losers -- the winners being bigger profits for corporations, and the losers being those who have lost their jobs.

I'm not sure what a better solution looks like, but increasing globalization forces us to grapple with some very real issues and growing inequality.