mb_72

It's similar to a trademark - if you don't defend any even small slight or 'misuse', it becomes worthless and meaningless. Apparently.

Christian faith, I presume you are referring to? Because there are many other 'people of faith' who are not Christians, and who won't be offended in any way by Life of Brian.

More like there are plenty of people born in Australia or who are longer-term residents than yourself who are jaded after seeing ridiculous developments or promises by successive State and Federal governments.

All that aside, I'm not against reasonable and financially responsible development. In my hometown of Adelaide the recent revival and expansion of the tram lines has been done in a successful and financially responsible manner (IMO): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Adelaide

> So the cost savings have definitely been passed on to the customer, unless you can find figures to the contrary.

I think it's more up to the supermarkets to demonstrate that self-checkout is lowering prices. As a consumer I wouldn't 'definitely' believe any cost savings would be passed onto customers, and IMO it'd be foolish to do so.

"Europe" covers too many countries and supermarkets to make such a generalisation, I feel. In Estonia at our local supermarket the self-checkout lanes / machines are often extremely busy, and also introduce the chance of getting stuck behind a number of people who have problems using the machine or who are just slow.

We know who are the fastest operators at the 'manual' check-out, and it's easier to watch prices as they are scanned when one doesn't also need to be doing the scanning.

> Obviously they’d rather the company hire more workers and charge them s little extra.

It's happened the other way around - self checkout didn't exist, and when it was introduced prices didn't drop even though employment expenses are now lower. There isn't even an incentivising discount for using the self-checkout.

I've seen people have no end of problems with self-checkout systems, and would rather I have an experienced and 'expert' human dealing with the scanning and check-out part that I can also interact with.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll definitely grab a copy.

Anecdotally, my dear old Mum (now in her mid-70s) worked as a forensics investigator on the Snowtown murders (aka the "Bodies in the barrels" case) in the final stages of her career. She took some samples to the FBI in the USA as part of her work, and snagged me a cool FBI hoodie and t-shirt (well, I thought so anyway). Quite a morbid and disturbing business to be in, but I feel fortunate to have a parent is such a good role model; she completed her PhD around the age of 50, and had another whole career in scientific research and forensics after that. As I'm heading towards the same age it gives me some hope I can also make a sea-change.

I also learned, after asking some questions about the case, that sometimes you are better off being ignorant of the details. And that some people are really capable of terrible, terrible acts against others. :( Fortunately she had quite the grim sense of humour to help her deal with the cases she worked on.

What airport is this? At Adelaide airport arrivals I always choose to go through the manual processing queue, i.e. the one non-Australian citizens have to use. Half the time it's faster than the smart-gate system queue, and even if it's not an extra 10 minutes after 26hrs + of traveling isn't going to kill me.

As for departures, it wasn't obvious to me - like with you - that I could opt-out. I'll give it a shot next time and see what happens. Am expecting some annoyed and suspicious glances! :)

My Mum attended one maths course at university (as a mature age student) with Tao, and I distinctly remember her coming home and complaining about some 'smart-arse kid who wouldn't stop challenging the lecturer'. I guess it can be tough being very smart and capable and also young at the same time.

These days modelling (Helix etc) has reached the point where tube amps, cabs and individual FX pedals can be replaced by a single piece of hardware. As a bass player I ditched my SVT and individual pedals in favour of a Helix Stomp; it's the best musical purchase I've ever made.

My Estonian grandfather worked as a police officer in Viljandi prior to and during the German occupation. It was only when the Russians invaded Estonia towards the end of the war that he, my grandmother and mother decided it was safer to flee; the terrible reputation of the advancing Russians, murdering and raping as they went, proceeded them. Just was well, as a number of his colleagues were murdered by Russian soon after they escaped.

If you weren't a Jew, you were - in general - treated OK by occupying German soldiers, and least according to accounts I've heard from people who where actually there. The Germans were professional and courteous, the Russians uncontrolled and ravaging thugs.

Funny how Russians always see themselves as 'liberators', not 'occupiers' of Estonia. If this was the case, once they'd driven out the Germans, why didn't they then leave?

Last time I visited the Occupation Museum in Tallinn, the old Lenin etc statues were stored inside - downstairs near the toilets, quite appropriately.

There is a German soldier's cemetery in Viljandi: https://www.visitestonia.com/en/german-soldiers-cemetery-in-... ... which, as I understand it, was developed and is maintained with funding from the German government. I wonder if 'Mother Russia' bothers to contribute similarly to Russian-soldier related memorials in Estonia?

Re: 2 - I can't agree. Yes, the trams and trains stop running soon after midnight and start up ~5am or so, however that is pretty good time coverage. Many people in Tallinn don't own cars, and use the free public transport a lot, plus the coverage up to the city limits is also quite good: https://www.visittallinn.ee/static/files/063/2018_tallinn_tr...

One 'problem' here is that Taxify / Bolt is so cheap. I'll not even think about dropping 5EUR on a fare if it means slightly less hassle / time getting somewhere.

Exactly my experience; I watched a downloaded version first on my PC, then my wife and I watched the version on our local streamed station (Fox, in Estonia), and we thought it looked terrible. It was so bad we were wondering if they dialed down the quality to account for demand. Ended up giving her our iPad to watch the pirated version on.

I've also used them many times, for smaller amounts, and know several people that work there. While their environment seems somewhat cultish, I find it hard to reconcile your 'scumbag' comment with the people that I know - one of whom used to work in the anti-fraud department.

Are you really claiming that fraud is part of Transferwise's standard mode of operation? I really find this hard to believe.

This exactly my list (except with different software for 4)). Have been running Windows since Win3.1, and haven't 'caught' anything bad yet; worst was adware that somehow escaped detection inside installer for an old version of Delphi.

Despite the fear-mongering, a lot of it comes down to common sense; don't click on links in dodgy emails, use adblockers for torrent sites etc. Most people get trapped by fairly basic stuff that more experienced computer / Windows users sidestep effortlessly, IMO and IME.

What about becoming an Australian citizen, then going the E3 visa route?

Your friend sounds like an outlier in these circumstances; the certification is more likely to be of benefit to those fresh to the field, and in the field of child-care (and aged care also), I think some bare minimum requirement of capability is warranted.

Professional training organisations may not have direct experience with the subject matter, but given a good curriculum prepared by someone who DOES have experience, I don't see why they couldn't deliver a reasonable result. I agree that any "Q and A" sessions, or questions along the lines of "What is it really like working as a..." would not be that useful, though.

I'm very sorry to hear of your condition, and can't imagine what it's like to be in your situation. I have Crohn's disease - nothing equivalent to you, but it is 'something' for which if I thought stem cell treatment would help then I would give it a try.

That said, what evidence is there that any stem cell treatments actually have a beneficial effect? A lot of what you have written echos speculation or hopeful comments I've read about other non-proven treatment methods for stem cells or, if I may put if this way, other 'alternative' treatments.

With my own condition, I have a couple of specialist doctors with whom I discuss advances in treatment of my Crohn's and research efforts, but in terms of the action taken nothing has changed for some years as according to their best advice, and my separate reading, there is nothing better - yet - for me. I also tend to reject the "this diet worked for me", "this drug worked for me", "this (x) worked for me" anecdotes, as with Crohn's you are always one meal away from moving from remission to a flare-up.

Quite the dismissive mention of going 'back to the basement'. I work from home almost all the time (self-employed), and have quite a lovely work room setup exactly how I want, with plenty of natural light and fresh air. My wife knows not to bother me, so the only 'forced' interruption is our cat asking to be taken outside. There is no unnecessary noise or distractions, both things which have always put me off co-working spaces. If I want to socialise with respect to tech, I'll go along to a local meet-up or other event.

This might sound terrible, but I don't want to expend each days' stack of valuable clear-minded 'processing time' greeting people or talking about whatever is on their mind. Of course, I acknowledge that as a solo guy I have different needs to the people that find these places useful.

I often listen in to support calls when I'm on Skype with my business partner (I'm the dev, he's the sales / support / biz owner); this isn't planned, but happens because he's the only one who can take the calls. There isn't a single call I haven't learned something from, or (more positively) haven't had an idea on how to improve the product from. I've also learned a lot of respect for him as someone who not only keeps his cool with a (admittedly!) sometimes grumpy dev, but oftentimes grumpy customers.

I left one software company, in part because they developed apps for pubs and restaurants, and most of the other employees came from a hospitality background and wanted to get wasted each Friday night. That I wanted to a) spend time with my daughter (on alternating weeks) or b) just go home and chill out alone was not acceptable, and my disinterest in the partying culture lead to many cold shoulders at work also. Much younger me had not even considered asking about the 'after-work' culture when interviewing; lesson learned!

"Digesting food matter is a great way to get sick and maintain sickness."

So our bodies doing what they have evolved to do is a way to 'get sick'?

"... only you can find out what works for you."

How do you know one specific thing worked, and it wasn't something else? Or just mere coincidence? As someone who has Crohn's disease I have lost track of the times someone has said "oh, blah worked for this person" etc etc.... all anecdotes, with no way of deciding whether there are side-effects that need to be weighed-up. No thanks.

Those trades do not require the same level of abstract and logical reasoning, no matter what other skills they do require. It's the former that is in short supply in the general population.

Completely agree. The majority of people are not suited to be even basically competent developers; they just lack the mindset / diligence / intelligence / etc. You can in no way compare this to apprenticing as a plumber or carpenter, which are positions that do not require anywhere as much mental capability. All that aside, I guess these guys have done their calculations carefully, and might make some big 'wins' based on finding diamonds in the rough, and otherwise find enough average Joes to shovel into the meat-grinder of low-level development work.

I, like many others, loved and used Delphi a lot in the 90s, but for one major client we identified a major risk was the declining availability of Delphi developers (in Australia, at least), and I did a rewrite of the entire app into C#, splitting off the calculation part (it being a financial application) into a separate 'core' which is now re-usable across Windows, MacOS and web. At the time we did this it wasn't even clear if Delphi the product was going to survive. I'm glad it has, but the rewrite was the correct decision (yes, as risky as rewrites can be).

Isn't that the same argument that could be applied to child actors / singers / performers? I don't know the statistics, I admit, but there seem to be not so many people who were those things are a kid who are happy and well balanced people, and many who are not (or who are dead). Given the sexual undertones of a child doing ASMR, I can't imagine being a child Youtube star is going to work out any better.

Nice in theory, but China goes out of it's way to force it's viewpoint on others outside of China and Taiwan (eg political interference in Australia, propaganda distribution in Australia, the whole South China Sea debacle where China actively tries to prevent ships navigating international waters, debt-trap loans to various Pacific and other nations etc etc) . The relationship between Taiwan and China is just one aspect of this, and you better believe there will be some kind of military action taken to defend Taiwan if China decides to go that way, something even more destabilising to the region. So, just 'staying out of it' and silent is not really an optimal option, IMO.