The Netherlands is one of the best places in the world for startups and businesses working on green tech. Managing the climate is deeply rooted in Dutch culture. With nearly a third of its land below sea level, the country has been highly-adaptive to environmental challenges finding ways to turn them into opportunities for technological growth. Think, for instance, of how the Dutch have managed to reclaim land from sea with polders, or avoid flooding from the North Sea with the construction of the Delta Works, a series of dams and surge barriers along the southern West coast. The…

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Almost weekly a friend or an acquaintance asks me, I want to learn to code; which language should I start with? More or less bi-weekly I get a DM on LinkedIn starting with, My son should start programming; what is the best language for him? Its not just people whove never coded before. Often I get these messages from people who have several years of coding experience under their belts. Im not saying this to complain. I make half a living from prodding the pros and cons of different programming languages, frameworks, and AI models here on Medium. I profit…

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Vivaldi browser is backing Mastodon to release online communications from Big Techs stranglehold. The Oslo-based company today became the first browser to integrate Mastodon just weeks after launching its own server on the federated social network. The moves aim to accelerate the uptake of Mastodon, while attracting more users to Vivaldis privacy-focused browser. They arrive amid a backlash against Silicon Valleys closed platforms and lock-in algorithms, which spread deeper into the mainstream after Elon Musk bought Twitter. Since the worlds richest person took over the bird app, Mastodons active user base has soared from 300,000 to 2.6 million …

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In July, Swedens payments firm Klarna marked a drop in valuation at $6.7 billion, down from $46 billion in June 2021. The buy-now-pay-later firm which was once seen as Europes most valuable private tech company recorded its first ever large-scale layoffs in May as it shed 10% of its staff. Similarly, Berlins once fast-growing rapid grocery delivery startup Gorillas recently laid off 300 employees. Between the global economic downturn and poor public market performance, Europes world of tech is currently facing a major decline in venture funding, sliding to its lowest point in nearly two years. Investments in…

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When signing up for Facebook and Instagram, users are forced to agree to Metas privacy policy. This allows the company to deliver targeted adverts but not for much longer. On Monday, EU privacy regulators ruled that users of Metas platforms should no longer have to accept these sort of adverts,sources from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reveal. The regulators declared that this kind of coerced consent falls foul of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EUs wide-reaching privacy law. This doesnt mean its a done deal though. Irelands Data Protection Commission still needs to issue specific orders…

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