Ich bin alt genug, um der Stolze Besitzer eines ADAC-Straßenatlasses zu sein; mittlerweile leider hoffnungslos veraltet :-)

Anscheinend funktioniert “Bücherei” als Suchbegriff, “Bibliothek” nur, wenn das im Namen vorkommt.

Leider ein Beispiel, warum der Ansatz von OSM zwar gut ist, aber das derzeitige Produkt leider nicht auf dem Niveau des Platzhirsches ist.

OSM-Daten sind genau so gut, wie Freiwillige sie gemacht haben.

Ist bei Google Maps grundsätzlich an vielen Stellen genauso, aber die User-Basis ist vielfach größer.

Dafür, dass sie “on-demand” heruntergeladen werden wie bei Google Maps, haben sie wohl nicht die Ressourcen.

Leider noch ein Beispiel, wie die Funktionalität leidet. Für eine anstehende, längere Fahrt in den Urlaub müsste ich also das Kartenmaterial quer durch Europe runterladen. Das ist leider für mich nicht praktikabel und wieder ein Punkt, der den etablierten Marktführer weiter auf dieser Position verweilen lässt.

Bitte nicht falsch verstehen; ich würde gerne weniger auf Google-Dienste zurückgreifen und tue das an vielen Stellen (Mail, Cloud-Storage, Kalender, Browser) auch erfolgreich. Gerade Maps hat aber einfach keine ansatzweise gleichwertige Alternative, die nicht gleich zum Hobby wird.

There’s more with an agreement. Some also have a partial agreement, where only a written test is necessary. Here’s the full list, if you’re interested: https://www.german-way.com/for-expats/living-in-germany/german-drivers-license-reciprocity/

Can you tell/show me how/where I can use OSM as a replacement for Google Maps. I’ve given OsmAnd a try and found it lacking.

I ran a few tests such as searching for my local library. Unfortunately I had to use the exact wording (“Stadtbibliothek”) rather than simpler, more common wording (“Bibliothek”). The Google map found it immediately. Similarly I searched for a local Café, which I easily found in Google Maps (despite not capitalising anything). Meanwhile the business is not present in OSM, despite being the most popular Café in my town.

Additionally navigation doesn’t work for me for regions I haven’t downloaded. How would I go about getting it to work for navigation to places further afield that I haven’t downloaded?

Unfortunately this seems all to plausible. Despite Firefox and ad blocking in general, there’s very few services that rival Google’s Android and (in my opinion) none that can honestly rival Maps at present.

So, it’s basically a loss leader in this scenario to feed other sevices like the ad network?

driving license was another one mentioned. Having it not expire before you can transfer it is preferable

This is a giant, often overlooked issue. My home country of the Netherlands for example doesn’t allow a simple transef and makes you take a test (because road safety is important to Dutch people!). In Germany it’s even worse. There it depends on the state you obtained your US license in, since Germany has agreements with some states but not all…

Can confirm. I’ve lived in the Netherlands, France and Germany for basically all my life and I don’t recall ever actively saying thank you to a bus driver. I don’t even remember when last I exchanged any words with one thanks to modern fare systems.

On the contrary I say thank you to cashiers at the supermarket or staff at the bakery several times per week.

This is such an annoyance. As someone who regularly reads and watches media in several times different languages, the scourge of auto translate has only become worse. With the advent of more capable translation tools this will probably only get worse. I’ve already switched my OS language to English on all of my devices and found that it helped a little.

Oh dear ! Must be those batteries spontaneously combusting. I remember when that used to happen to Samsung phones a while back.

And the US negotiation team will respond: “Yes sir, we agree that all of your terms need to be met. Now we can finally suspend all aid to those pesky Ukranians again and lift all sanctions, since Uncle Vladimir is totally in favour of peace!”

This will really be an interesting question for the so-called global south. Since most countries there are generally considered to politically align with China/Russia due to “anti imperialism”, it’s going to be interesting to see if they remain on the side of Russia although this is now the side of the US or whether they alternatively remain opposed to the US but find themselves on the same side as the Europeans.

Turns out the supply chain for such a complex machine is in itself very complex. Some components are manufactured by suppliers in various countries formerly believed to be allies. This includes stuff like the ejection seats and some electronics that are made in the UK, parts for the wing sets that are made in Italy or inserts for the weapon bays that are made in Canada. Additionally the Netherlands currently houses the supply hub for spare parts for the European countries. It is estimated that there are spare parts to keep hundreds of F-35s in the air for a while there. The most worrying aspect certainly remains the software support, without which all the precious hardware loses much of its utility, even if there isn’t a master kill switch.