ciferecaNinjo @ ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

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164

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298

Joined

2 yr. ago

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(update)

It seems all the *.europa.eu sites are blocking Tor across the board now. Even this page is unreachable to Tor users:

https://have-your-say.ec.europa.eu/index_en

It’s a bit embarrassing at the EU level. You might expect a mom/pop shop to be unable to handle Tor users, but the EU (a government of nation states) should have their infosec shit together and have the security competency to serve Tor users.

I was told that by a lawyer who gives free advice. I do not know if it’s all circumstances or just some. This also came up in the parent thread. I would love to have a source to reference and to read myself.

Around 15 years ago I consulted a lawyer for some advice (before I knew about the gratis advice service), and was charged €50 if paying cash. Was told I could pay electronically but then it costs slightly more and gets messy with VAT or something.. I don’t recall the details. But I would be surprised if that law office still operates that way today.

Also, does some form of "legal aid" not exist in Belgium?

Some forms of gratis legal aid exist in Belgium. AFAIK:

• Gratis legal advice to anyone, regardless of income
• Pro-deo representation - only for people with very low income

Indeed lawyers are used as money mules for criminals. This is likely the excuse being used for the law. But of course an arbitrary hunt for criminals is not a good excuse to infringe on the fundamental rights of non-criminals particularly when there is no probable cause for a particular crime. If a specific lawyer is suspect of crime, then it would be sensible to deny cash payment to a specific lawyer. But an across the board ban is a gross injustice.

The EU mandates the availability of “basic” bank accounts. But then each member state introduces their own limitations that essentially defeats those accounts as an option in various situations. Does France allow their basic accounts to have cash services? If not, then they are useless to someone who has their money in cash.

Also noteworthy that basic bank accounts are not free, and generally cost more than retail accounts.

Did they do that test domestically or internationally?

I suspect it does not matter for international mail because (apparently) /all/ international mail is priority. At least where I am, there is only a service variation for domestic mail. I’ve asked a few different post offices for non-priority Europe-bound stamps. They do not exist. We have a choice between priority stamps and regular for domestic. As the world suckers for the digital transformation and postal usage declines, there are fewer deliveries per week for the lower class mail. It was announced that deliveries have been reduced to like 3 or so times per week for non-priority mail and I expect it to worsen.

Regarding the test you mention, 6 mailings is a tiny sample. A non-priority envelope can perhaps get lucky if the timing is such that it reaches the local post office on a delivery day. Whereas priority /should/ go out for delivery ~5 or 6 days out of the week, IIUC.

I have started using the Event Timer app (in f-droid) and set up a button for priority mail and non-priority. So when any non-priority mail comes, I log it as non-priority. It’s too small of a dataset to be useful but perhaps in a few months I’ll see a pattern.

A snip of it is attached. I would say it came from a medium size org which unlikely sends much mail. It was a personal response to a letter that I sent them. I doubt they would be sending enough to get a bulk rate because they wouldn’t be sending out mail routinely.

Because it’s internationally sent, I suppose English would be a norm for any standard indicators. But you could be right that writing priority was a kind of custom msg as opposed to a paid service.

It took 4 days to reach an adjacent nation, which is about twice as fast as mail moves went both endpoints are within my city.

Apparently all international mail is priority. Nationally, I have a choice between priority and regular economy. But if I am sending something to another European country, priority is the only option. BTW, I saw “priority” printed next to the printed postage, which was in the same print (not a stamp).

I am using Ungoogled Chromium older than 120, so apparently that’s the issue. Does that also explain the problem of feddit.uk comments not being seen?

for example

Ice cubes would be interesting for non-fortified wine. But I suppose sherry might not freeze at 15% alc. (not sure).

Anyway, someone just said only 12% alc is needed for shelf-stability and someone else said 15% is fine for the shelf, so that solves the problem. Sherry can simply be kept at room temp.

Glad to hear about the 12% threshold. All the cheap sherry I have easy local access to are 15%.

Cooking wine is indeed cheaper and lower quality. But more importantly it is shelf-stable. You can open a bottle of cooking wine and keep it in the cupboard. The stuff is labelled “cooking wine” in the US so that it is treated as such. It probably gets around some of the tight liquor controls there.

Europe does not seem to have a product with preservatives specifically for that purpose. So you would use substandard wines for cooking. If champaign goes flat because an open bottle sat out overnight, it’s still good for risotto. But I would still chill it if I weren’t making risotto the next day. In the case at hand, I don’t want to be keeping a bottle of sherry in the fridge.

When using a whole bottle in a day, then of course there is no issue. But it takes me a year to get through a bottle of Sherry.

still dead for me. Perhaps they are quietly blocking Tor.

No, it moved. Bit of history:

• 2009: 1800 workstations were converted to Linux
• By 2013: the city of Munich had migrated over 15,000 desktop PCs (of about 18,000 desktops) to Linux
• 2013: Microsoft announced its willingness to move its German headquarters to Munich in 2016
• 2017 Munich city council decided to revert to Windows by 2020
• 2018: Reiter denied that he had initiated the reversal in gratitude for Microsoft moving its German headquarters from Unterschleißheim back to Munich.

The standaard.be site is a disaster for me.. can’t reach the text. But I might to unjail that article (perhaps run whatever dodgy JS) at some point and translate it to english.

I guess NMBS/SNCB must provide their schedule publicly because they share the rail system with other (freight) rail companies?

The latest EU rail passenger rights legislation requires rail operators to share their schedule and price data with other rail operators and 3rd party ticket vendors, but they are allowed to charge a fee for the data.

In any case, this API is decent as well (2).

iRail is in fact an openknowledge.be project where they obtained rail data from the gov using Belgium’s open data law. They do not get price info which for me really reduces the utility of it. I seem to recall that not all routes end up in iRail. I wonder if that’s a result of some non-compliance somewhere.. but it’s hard to know without knowing why they must share with the gov.

It depends on the level of competency of the executives. If the approach done with low frequency, feedback to upper management could trigger someone to calculate whether lost sales is worth it. If it is done on a large scale, then less competency is required for upper management to do the calculation. So the frequency of abandoned carts to have effect depends on the competency of management.

it prevents the business from functioning correctly and I think in that hypothetical scenario, you’re definitely hurting cashiers.

It’s not a boycott. You can abandon a basket in one Spar shop to send a msg then still buy the stuff at another one.

But let’s suppose it’s not just a signal but actually a boycott. To harm the cashiers the boycott would have to be on such a large scale that it causes at least one Spar shop to shut down. Do you really believe that would happen? It’s beyond unrealistic. Only 60% of the population even cares about cash. Many fewer even shop at Spar to begin with. It would be unlikely if even just 1% were to boycott on this issue. Then you have to figure that the 40% of the population who is okay with forced banking and cashless society would counter the boycott by patronising Spar when they otherwise wouldn’t. On top of that, this is not a hill Spar would die on no matter how incompetent they are. They would give in to the boycott far before closing shop.

In short, you have no chance of harming cashiers.

Giving the cashiers work to do does not “harm” them. If anything it improves their job security for them to have more work to do. They get paid the same whether it is putting back abandoned items or collecting money from shop supporters.

If the cost of unfruitful overhead labor coupled with lost sales does not change the behavior of the executives, fair enough, they are their own incompetent adversary in that case. We can setup conditions for them to make smart and favorable decisions but in the end it’s on them to make the smart decision.

It cannot be about addiction prevention especially when there is only one casino in a given area. The staff sees the faces of addicts on a regular basis, their behaviour, and emotions. This is better information than they could get from a transaction record.

Having to register is common across casinos I think.

It’s recent. In any case, I would like to find rare casinos that are free to enter anonymously.

currency has poisoned humanity,

Not sure what you mean by that.

Regarding pricing, trains are often not the cheapest. On long-haul trips airfare usually beats train fare. And on short hauls Flixbus pricing is unbeatable. Trains have their niche but for years I have quit checking train fare because of enshitification and shenanigans, making it hard to get pricing data.

I actually could not find the law. I’m a bit confused because Belgium supposedly has an exceptional open data law. But at the same time there is an EU Directive (2019/1024) which requires all member states to have an open data law. I cannot find Belgium’s implementation of this law. But in any case, Germany should have implemented the directive to ensure the data is machine readable:

    
Article 14
Specific high-value datasets and arrangements for publication and re-use
1.
The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down a list of specific high-value datasets belonging to the
categories set out in Annex I and held by public sector bodies and public undertakings among the documents to which
this Directive applies.
Such specific high-value datasets shall be:
(a) available free of charge, subject to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5;
(b) machine readable;
(c) provided via APIs; and
(d) provided as a bulk download, where relevant.
Those implementing acts may specify the arrangements for the publication and re-use of high-value datasets. Such
arrangements shall be compatible with open standard licences.
The arrangements may include terms applicable to re-use, formats of data and metadata and technical arrangements for
dissemination. Investments made by the Member States in open data approaches, such as investments into the
development and roll-out of certain standards, shall be taken into account and balanced against the potential benefits
from inclusion in the list.
Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 16(2).
The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down a list of specific high-value datasets belonging to the
categories set out in Annex I and held by public sector bodies and public undertakings among the documents to which
this Directive applies.
Such specific high-value datasets shall be:
(a) available free of charge, subject to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5;
(b) machine readable;
(c) provided via APIs; and
(d) provided as a bulk download, where relevant.
Those implementing acts may specify the arrangements for the publication and re-use of high-value datasets. Such
arrangements shall be compatible with open standard licences.
The arrangements may include terms applicable to re-use, formats of data and metadata and technical arrangements for
dissemination. Investments made by the Member States in open data approaches, such as investments into the
development and roll-out of certain standards, shall be taken into account and balanced against the potential benefits
from inclusion in the list.
Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 16(2).

  

(shitty paste but readable enough)

Are we talking online mail-order stuff, or you travel outside Belgium to do your shopping? Sounds like the latter, in which case I would be interested in hearing where you go for better prices on what. I sometimes travel to neighboring countries but don’t really know what to buy and bring back.

In particular, the mabru street market in Brussels is so good that people come from Netherlands to go there. I wonder if there is a comparable large 2nd-hand street market outside of Belgium that’s worth a look.