acchariya

@acchariya@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hotels have developed a new revenue stream: "algorithmic" smoke detectors⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This is why I preemptively destroy the hotel room.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Introducing reitti: a selfhosted alternative to Google Timeline⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Looks to be a java application with a number of services running alongside- I don’t think it’s going to be lightweight to run on resource constrained devices, but sweet project anyway! (Side note, no clue how you engineers find the time to hack on things like this, I feel like I’ve got so little time to myself I cannot imagine dedicating it to a project like this)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Survey: More Than 1 In 4 Americans Feel They Need To Make $150,000 Or More To Live Comfortably⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Of course! On a house we could purchase in France, the property tax will be around $1300€. I pay $4000 in the US, up from $1800 in 2021.

  The $4000 in the US surprisingly doesn’t actually cover anything. My city charges my around $75 monthly for trash service. I also have a county solid waste fee to pay. Last year I replaced my air conditioning, and the county permit to do this was $500. I am lucky because some cities require an HVAC technician licensed in that city, which obviously charge a big premium. My electricity company, a monopoly in my area, charges $26 each month in state maintenance fund fees and delivery charges, separate from my electricity consumption. What are these?

  My home insurance is also around $4000, and is required by my mortgage. There is unfortunately only one provider in my area, and they include policy disclaimers that they may not be able to pay claims at all, and that I can’t sue them if they are insolvent. They raise their rate about 25% per year.

  My car insurance also consistently raises rates by double digit percentages, but they do it quietly by simply “auto renewing” at the increased amount. This is without accidents or tickets, and a vehicle which is another year older.

  VAT is 20% in France, but is included in the prices at the grocery store, and not included on essential food items. In my area in the US, we owe 7% sales tax on essential items.

  Speaking of my grocery store in the US, it is essentially a monopoly and they charge outrageous prices for many things because they can. The nearest health clinic to my house in the US is owned by private equity, and a visit with some routine scans and lab work will precipitate an array of invoices from random medical billing offices all over the country, for seemingly random amounts.

  As someone who has lived in a number of different countries as an expat over the years, the US is unique in the scale of the day to day extraction. Living in an apartment, from my experience, is far worse in the US. Things like COVID sanitization fee $500, mandatory parcel hold service, $29, mandatory trash concierge, $29, community utilities, $50, deposit insurance $299, etc etc etc. Everything is an unregulated opportunity to extract. You can sue for really egregious things and outright fraud, but it costs $75 to do that, plus you have to pay a private process server to start the lawsuit. Do you have time to do that for everything?

  The true state of the way things are in America should be a warning for Europeans to avoid going down that path. Our federal income tax is lower in the US, but we have significant tax bills due at the many levels of government from neighborhood, municipality, county, and state. Maybe it is less than 10% of some people’s income, but not most people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Survey: More Than 1 In 4 Americans Feel They Need To Make $150,000 Or More To Live Comfortably⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  *income taxes are lower in America

  I would argue that the overall tax burden to the government is not all that different. Income tax rates are higher in Europe, 37% in the US at my top tier and about 47% in Europe at the same top tier. However, the US has a lot of hidden taxes, and a whole lot of corporate parasitism which functions as a tax

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Survey: More Than 1 In 4 Americans Feel They Need To Make $150,000 Or More To Live Comfortably⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ten years ago, things might have been cheaper, but not any longer. I’m an American living in an expensive part of Europe, while also maintaining a place in a similarly expensive part of the US. I’m going to say Europe Here but I’m referring to our specific corner of Europe which has a huge range of costs. Similar for the US. Here are my actual numbers:

  Electricity: Europe: 99€ US: $95

  Internet: Europe: 26€ US: $62

  mobile phone (per line): Europe: 17€ US: $40

  grocery budget (monthly) family of two: Europe: 750€ US: $900

  Health insurance monthly (private): Europe: 190€ US: $800 (partially subsidized by work, real price closer to $1200)

  Car insurance monthly: Europe: 105€ US: $195

  Petrol costs monthly: Europe: 225€ ~7€/gallon US: $250 ~$3.50/gallon

  Oil change at car dealership: Europe: 70€ US: $95

  US mortgage + tax + insurance (2 bedroom house): $1775

  Europe rent + renter insurance: 1225€

  Local mid range restaurant: Europe: 62€ US: $105

  Dog grooming: Europe: 60€ US: $95

  Vet visit: Europe: 60€ US: $150

  Doctors visit (with insurance): Europe: 30€ US: $50

  Diagnostic labs (with insurance): Europe: 30€ US: $150

  The US has become shockingly expensive. Some of this is because we spend more to eat quality food when there, and we are in a bit of a touristy area. Both locations are in touristy areas though, so not entirely different. I might be in the minority but I don’t see much difference in lifestyle between the two areas I frequent.

  • The fruits and vegetables are about the same price but taste much better in Europe.

  • The bread is far cheaper, more available and better in Europe.

  • The specialty products we like to eat are much cheaper in Europe. Eg, feta cheese, french butter and jam, etc.

  • The meat is about the same, maybe a bit cheaper in Europe. I don’t taste much difference.

  The most important differences for us are:

  1. If we don’t feel good we go the the emergency room in Europe. Yes we will wait a long time to be seen, but the cost last time was 175€. In the US, you will wait a day to see if you feel better, because you are going to wait just as long and the bill will be a minimum of $1200 with insurance.

  2. We do not take the car out every day in Europe, because we can walk to a small grocery store, medical lab, print shop, bakery. We must take the car out for any trip in the US, and the distances are longer.

  3. Customer service in Europe is sometimes not all that helpful, and they give that impression to you when talking to them. Customer service in the US seems very nice and accommodating, but they are equally unhelpful in most cases.

  4. People you hire to do work for you seem to have far more variability in the US. They might be extraordinarily expensive, super cheap, might not show up, etc. In Europe, the prices seem to be on average cheaper than the US, and the workers on average a bit more reliable, but more laid back and less busy than in the US.

  5. And finally, most importantly, any company you deal with in the US will constantly try to extract more and more from you. Every year, prices ratchet up, new charges are itemized, things previously included now cost extra, billing mistakes are created and they are never in your favor. In Europe our experience is that companies you deal with mostly maintain prices. To be fair, some of these are sanctioned monopolies, but the same is true in the US and somehow they do it anyway. This has been our experience with insurance, utilities, car maintenance, etc. The system wears you down in the US until you have no fight left.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your TV Is Spying On You⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just create a black hole network at your house and connect all ‘smart’ appliances to that. Block all traffic at the router level. This prevents them trying to connect to open mesh networks and also provides the benefit of cataloging all the traffic

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"And my dick fucks your wife more than you do. What's your point?"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  A shame, such a tasteless choice. If you had as much class as money, you’d have chosen something like a vintage 1960s submariner rather than a frivolous toy available on every high street in the world.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨public services of an entire german state switches from Microsoft to open source (Libreoffice, Linux, Nextcloud, Thunderbird)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not sure myself, there seems to be better software out there for each individual part of what nextcloud does, but not the whole thing. I’ve been reading up on open cloud, which is a fork of a rewrite of owncloud, which is what nextcloud is forked from. opencloud.eu/en/opencloud-community

  I haven’t tried it out yet though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨public services of an entire german state switches from Microsoft to open source (Libreoffice, Linux, Nextcloud, Thunderbird)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I wouldn’t say categorically that it sucks.

  1. It is inefficient and requires far too many server resources for what it does. Won’t really run on less than 2gb/RAM minimum, with 1-2 users.

  2. Add ONS seem to be all over the place with lots of incompatibilities, some default add ons that just plain don’t work.

  3. In my short testing it seems to be a bit unstable.

  In my opinion, it suffers from many of the same problems as other projects that started out and we’re developed largely by hobbyists like zoneminder, and even home assistant to some extent. Sprawling growth, no strict architecture, little concern for refactoring.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Duolingo CEO tries to walk back AI-first comments, fails⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It can go either way, some people like the method, others hâte it because it’s not gamified. Pro tip, get pimsleur courses from your library if you want to try them for a real trial rather than what they give you

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A 19-year old cis lesbian woman was beaten unconscious and robbed after she tried to use the women's restroom at a McDonald's in Carpentersville, Illinois⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They don’t want trans people in bathrooms or anywhere else. They want to disappear trans people, either by re-assimilating them into their “designated” sex, or if they are too far gone, just plain old disappearing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK You don't need Teflon pans for nonstick⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a well seasoned good quality one that makes eggs as well as a nonstick pan. Took time to get to that point though. Sugary American bacon is the surest way to end up having to reseason it though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tesla Reportedly Has $800 Million Worth of Cybertrucks That Nobody Wants⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think a few hours with a torch and they would make fantastic dumpsters. Imagine if you could crab walk a self moving dumpster? Genius

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A VPN Company Canceled All Lifetime Subscriptions, Claiming It Didn’t Know About Them⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Companies aren’t held to contracts like people are held to contracts. One buyout, restructuring, name change, no more contract. It’s meaningless

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨To whom it may concern⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You just have to move to a place where the post office is a disaster and you won’t get mail anymore. Northern new Mexico, for one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Airbnb will now show users the total cost of their stay right away⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you are looking for a permanent place somewhere in Europe, it’s very difficult to quickly find monthly or weekly rentals with the appropriate monthly or weekly discount you will find on Airbnb. I don’t discount it’s négatives, but with the paperwork burden to find a medium or long term place in many areas in Europe Airbnb does the best job of cutting through all of that and getting you a place now

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Am I going crazy, or has people's spelling gotten awful lately?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the real cause. Tech peaked and has since gobe to dogshit monetization, ai-ification and ultimately idiocrification.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can I sue my apartment management company?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s usually worth it because

  1. You include court costs in the amount you sue for
  2. You include the highest possible rate for your time in the amount you sue for
  3. You include all incident expenses

  Plus, the landlord has an asset you can put a lien on in case of non-payment, the place you rented. It’s not the same as suing someone with no assets where the debt is uncollectible.

  NAL, just a former renter who got screwed over a few times, then stopped getting screwed over after I figured out that court is actually good for tenants and bad for shady landlords.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can I sue my apartment management company?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  NAL, but always sue, and sue for more than you are owed. Court is a negotiation and judges do not take kindly to landlords trying to pull a fast one and landing in their court.

  I have done this myself to a scammy corporate landlord and they settled out of court after a barrage of threatening letters, subsequent “you sued the wrong party”, and “we’re willing to drop what we were going to charge you if you drop this case” letters. I ended up about $400 up including court costs for filing and serving, just for ignoring letters.

  Private landlords, who I’ve also sued, are much more naively willing to go in front of a judge. If you have any case at all, the judge is likely to eat the landlord alive- unless you are a deadbeat tenant you will walk out of court probably with 3x damages.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm leaving the US for good, anything I should do before I leave?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Actually the only time I’ve ever needed one is outside of the country. You need a police report from anywhere you lived for more than six months to apply for residencies, get teaching jobs, etc etc. the only authority in the US that can do this and provide a report acceptable outside the country is the FBI.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s understanding code like chatgpt helps me understand Hungarian.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We all know it’s going to be nodejs, backed up by mongodb. This is because LOC on the commits can be maximized for minimal effort, and it will need to be rewritten every 2-3 years.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm leaving the US for good, anything I should do before I leave?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Get an FBI background check, and get it apostilled. Easy to do from your local post office in the US, difficult and expensive to do outside the us, and you will need it for many things you might want to do in other countries

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it better to leave a country, or stay behind to fight for it? And what about the ethics of fleeing instead of staying behind?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If it’s the police that keep breaking in and shitting on your pillow it would be best to move to a different town.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How exactly are people lighting Teslas on fire?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They seem to be using Molotov cocktails - that is, about a liter of gasoline ignited and spread when the bottle breaks. Since the car body itself is metal and glass, I would guess that until the battery ignites, it’s much the same mechanism of any other car burning.

  Plastics in the wheel wells, mirrors, tires are ignited, which burn hot enough to ignite more protected plastics. Eventually, the battery is heated to the point of thermal runaway (analogous to the fuel tank in an internal combustion car), and then it burns to the ground.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jeep Introduces Pop-Up Ads That Appear Every Time You Stop⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Its not marketing it’s that they extend credit to anyone who comes through the door. 550 credit score? No problem sir, here is your $62500 RAM 1500, loaded with options. If you can’t pay $1000/month for a Kia why not splurge and not pay $2000/month for an optioned out truck?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How can a US citizen invest outside the reach of the federal government?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Risky, but cryptocurrency. Never a bad idea to diversify a bit but maybe don’t put your whole savings there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has Fast Food Gotten Worse, or Am I Just Getting Old?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, and you can thank private equity for it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trying to reverse climate change won’t save us, scientists warn⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  currently depends on having a working-age population that is large enough to support the non-working population

  This is only a problem if production does not increase dramatically, as it has for the last century. The reason it feels like there are insufficient working people is because parasites siphon from the resource distribution between more and more productive workers and their non working counterparts

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Death of the Junior Developer⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Confidence is indistinguishable from correctness if you lack competence and experience. Now in addition to the competent and experienced having to interpret the requirements and do the work, they must also sift through half baked AI solutions.