172 karma · joined December 10, 2013
Here in NL - Casio FX-82NL is allowed during test/exams for middle/high school, and actually for Radio Amateur/HAM licence exam - they even hand you one of their FX-82NLs.
Other more advanced (graphing, with memory/Python/etc) are also allowed in some places, but they need to be set to exam mode that disables memory/python/etc.
The "publishing the set of tools and criteria used to generate estimates" is happening, and so far it seems that usually doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter because of course those sources/news that report wildly wrong (be it larger or smaller numbers) are usually (not always, but very commonly) controlled by the governments.
So despite students that organized the biggest protests in Belgrade giving their estimates (based on combo of RSVP and how many people accommodated people from other cities). And those being close to independant research (using drone footage, VR/AR crowd simulations, AI) with loads of posts/videos providing detailed explanations ...
Most "ordinary people" saw (and keep seeing) just the "official version".
Check out #Post Milošević; and #Legacy; sections on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otpor (couldn't figure out how to get deeplinks on mobile).
TL;DR: Besides Ukraine and Egypt, they went to a few more places, in some it worked, in others it didn't. And there were revelations of foreign (e.g. USAID) funding.
From the top of my head I can think of news reporting both "few (tens of) thousands" vs "hundreds of thousands" (different news reporting different numbers/estimates/etc) in 2025 protests in Serbia/Belgrade, as well as those comparisons of Obama vs Trump inauguration news/photos.
Meanwhile to you as an individual there on the spot - both crowds of say 50K-100K and 1M+ look basically the same = "huge amounts of people in every direction that you look".
Those TV channels were virtually always (and to this day still are) controlled by "the government".
Meanwhile other TV channels, if there even were any, and if enough people even had chance to watch them (because limited frequency/transmission allocations, artificial limits on cable distribution ..etc) - were and still are labeled as "funded by foreign (state) actors that are trying to destabilize our independance/values/etc".
And it's more of the same online.
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This reminds me of an old website that's an absolute gold mine.
Knock yourself out https://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/minority_inf...
TL;DR: you can pre-configure and keep updating/building new versions of your own live-boot image of Gentoo/Calculate. Which kind of get's you "previous known-good builds" just the other way around.
Oh and the other thing I also never needed to use is update/rescue of Gentoo/Calculate installation through it's flip-flopping between two root partitions.
Calculate installer by default creates two root partitions, but I've only ever used one. And so far `cl-update` never broke the system - even when I was so far behind that my version of python and glibc got masked (or maybe even removed).
Back on vanilla Gentoo - being that far behind usually meant it was easier to reinstall Gentoo from stage3 :D
I think that for some years already - Gentoo has been providing binaries for "normal" packages - as long as your config/use-flags match (and if you turned on the option/flag to use binary packages).
And of course places with more than just a few Gentoo boxes were usually already running their own BINHOST setups long time ago.
Then one day at work I wanted to print something and I think I needed to add LDAP and CUPS use flags ... Rebuilding world with those new flags was not finished by the time I was back from lunch break, or maybe it even failed.
Then I discovered Calculate and it's desktop (e.g. KDE) profile turned out to have all those useful use flags already set in it's profiles.
Anyway ...
IMHO main reason to choose/stay with Gentoo/Calculate is flexibility and choice (like not having to use systemd, but also being able to). Habit is a part too - though due to work I've got familiar with CentOS and Ubuntu.
I don't necessarily want binary packages. Sure they are handy/convenient for speed/ease/etc. And even though I can't recall last time I needed to tweak some package/feature use flag (maybe V4L2 virtual camera in OBS?) - I really don't want to give that flexibility up ... As without it - it would be back to manually figuring out compile/run-time dependencies when all you want is just slightly differently configured/built package.
AFAIK Calculate provides more profiles (predefined set of use flags) - instead of just Gnome or KDE/Plasma - it also has Cinnamon, LXQt, MATE and Xfce, as well as one for server(s).
And Calculate also provides binaries for those profiles.
And it's literally yes, yes, next, next - the defaults are pretty good.
1) Calculate Linux is 100% Gentoo with more profiles (e.g. server, desktop-kde, desktop-gnome ...etc) and after switching from vanilla Gentoo to Calculate - I didn't need to tweak any use flags of any packages.
Profiles are so good that everything works nicely together
2) There are prebuild binaries for your profile use-flag combo - can't recall last time I had to wait for something to compile
3) Much less likely to happen since you get binaries for everything - but there's additional cl-xxx tooling that makes even that easier
4) I don't think that's a bad thing. Though sure I could agree that having option to automatically restart services would be nice.
5) Yes - and you can also archive and basically have git-log on conf changes.
It's still 100% pure Gentoo (and actually these days even vanilla Gentoo itself offers precompiled binaries) so you still can compile things in rare cases that binary isn't already compiled with use/config that you want.
One time their support just give me a licence for a newer version of Windows - I've replaced the HDD/SSD, cloned/copied it and it was not activated. I contacted their chat support from that laptop and when they asked me for licence on the sticker I mentioned I'll have to come back in 5 minutes since I'll have to turn off laptop, and take out battery to see the MS sticker/hologram.
Support said "No worries, here's a new activation key".
Can't recall if it was from XP to Win 7, or Win 7 to 10.
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And after buying 2 or 3 licences from another website just like G2A (Win 10 was ~€10 on Instant-Gaming) - a bunch of new computers (even brand new assembled desktops) were automatically activated.
When we used to have access to (not all, but a lot of) Udemy through work - I could enroll into seemingly unlimited number of courses. And IIRC there was no (or no good) playlist/favorites mechanism - so I would just enroll in courses as a "playlist".
While work now mandates "If you want to use Linux, it has to be Ubuntu" (and I complied). On personal front - about a decade ago I've moved from "vanilla" Gentoo to Calculate Linux - which was and still is 100% Gentoo.
These days difference is even smaller, but already 10+ years ago Calculate had sane profiles as well as all software packages as pre compiled binaries matching those profiles.
And although systemd is one of configurable USE keywords on Calculate/Gentoo - it's still not the default.
So there probably are some folks that haven't been touched by systemd at all... For now.
As a diagnosed ADHD person myself - I think you should spend time to get that ADHD diagnosis Even without meds, stuff like CBT helps.
Anyway - not sure if they are downplaying FAANG salary, or its more about the ROI (long hours, stress ...etc)?
I'm basically at European equivalent of FAANG, and I don't see myself doing US version even if it's double the money.
There could be a big spread from smaller tech companies, and governments/police/military/etc that pay low even for tech positions.
So actually I would be really curious to meet/talk to someone that took a tech job in say police/military or such.
I'm curious to hear what's your definition of "life changing"?
Salaried tech compensation in Europe grew quite a lot over the last 10+ years. Still behind US, but no longer by as much as before.
Back in 2005, 2010, and even 2015 - companies were benchmarking salaries locally (and even down to that specific country). With FAANG opening up shops in EU, all other bigger tech companies started to benchmark compensation somewhat globally.
I know plenty of European software engineers that got a house with 30 years mortgage, and (with salary, RSUs and bonuses) paid it off in <10 years.
Granted, cost of real estate is now 3x compared to 10-15 years ago (other costs are also bigger, but not 3x). From what I've seen it's the same just about anywhere in Europe.
So if you just got a mortgage now, it will take longer.
But still - there's usually enough salary left (even after spending on traveling with 25+ vacation days) to put loads of money into rainy day funds, expensive hobbies, as well as investments/FIRE.
Most other sectors are not really close.
We got lucky to move to NL and then buy house just around the time when post 2008 crisis was at the lowest point. Some houses are only 2x more expensive than back then.
Meanwhile apartments in Belgrade Serbia are now similar to price of apartments in Amsterdam/Amstelveen/etc from 10-15 years ago.
From what I've heard from friends and family - more of the same across France, Germany ...etc.
Might be due to us (wife born in Croatia, myself in Serbia) being "effectively local".
The only unusual (though turns out it's the new norm) thing was brown skinned (probably from Southeast Asia) fastfood employee pronouncing our order number and telling me "Dobar tek!" (Enjoy your meal).
For me peak tourist scams are things like: - hop on hop off busses/boats (that cost more, and are usually worse for getting around than normal public transport) - all the hustlers like stereotypical Amsterdam RedLight or Barcelona Rambla "drugs" dealers, or random people (not waiting staff) trying to get you to enter way overpriced clubs/restaurant/etc. - restaurant selling €3-€5 frozen pizza as a "Real Wood Fired Italian Pizza Oven"
Otherwise - same as back home (used to be Belgrade Serbia, now Amsterdam NL) and when traveling.
I try to go into restaurants or fast food where locals go. Often recognized by police/ambulance/firefighters/taxi cars and uniformed clients, bunch of school age kids or student going there during scheduled breaks.
And while digital nomads and expats are indeed apples and oranges. It seems you're missing the parts where they are the same?
Both digital nomads and expats didn't cost the country anything while those nomads/expats were growing up, got education ...etc.
Perhaps it's USA centric vs the rest of more "socialistic" countries POV?
Outside of USA - (specifically in Croatia, but also many other countries) child birth, subsequent parental leave, daycare, school, college/university and children healthcare are subsidized or even "free". Of course "free" means paid by all the taxpayers of that country.
And yes - I think that bringing in expats (implying there being more local business/employers, more corporate and income taxes) is better for a country/economy than bringing in digital nomads.
However when economy is heavily relying on seasonal tourism (and it seems like most of countries with digital nomad visa programs are), they also tend not to be the most suitable for other types of services/innovation/manufacturing/etc business.
They usually still need to spend more money on building office spaces, change the laws to make it more attractive for business to incorporate there...etc. And overall not feel like a ghost town outside of tourist season.
Perhaps Croatia (and other countries with digital nomad visas) are counting on digital nomads leading to more office space being built, some of nomads staying and starting a business, etc
So far your views/opinions seem to be very "black and white". And beyond stating them - I'm yet to see anything to support or even just explain/elaborate them.
I'm still waiting to see how/why my order of who's using public infrastructure is wrong/opposite.
Care to explain?
Personally - I'm happy for my taxes money to be used for police or firefighters (and other things) and I still hope I never really use/need them.
At the same time. If The Netherlands hadn't had 30% tax ruling for expats, wife and I would've went back after my initial 12 months contract.
Back in 2010/2011 - even with software engineer salary, until 30% tax rule was granted for me - we were chipping away money we saved up living in Serbia.
Back in <=2010 wife and I were earning €1500~€1750 in Belgrade. Saving at least a third of that. In the NL the ~€45k gross (before 30% tax rule was granted) was not enough for rent, food and other normal (no car, not eating out ...etc.) costs.
But Dutch had 30% ruling, so even with one newborn we could still make ends meet. And 15 years later The Netherlands has 2 adult tax payers (at 0 prior cost for NL), and 2 children (born there, so same societal/taxpayer cost as any other NL citizen/child).
Perhaps we have different ideas about what "taxpayer resources" and/or "public infrastructure" is?
I was highly skilled migrant/expat, now "naturalized Dutch", and work for Booking.com - so I know a thing or two about tourism (beyond just traveling myself).
Tourists least, digital nomads a bit more, and expats even more - use public infrastructure.
But over lifetime, locals use order of magnitude more than expats.
I am saying that over their lifetime - they use much less of the societal services in their "remote/nomadic" locations compared to lifetime-permanent/locals.
And governments calculated that in.
What would be ultra touristic places in Poland? Both Split and Dubrovnik are ultra touristic, and say Amsterdam is similar. Also the part of really old streets/buildings that are UNESCO and such protected and not supposed to be renovated.
And to me - Krakow seemed very similar to Belgrade (Serbia) and Zagreb (Croatia).
Not just for periods before and after they are living there - also during their stay.
For example. If they (nomads) lose their (remote) job - they won't get social benefits payments like the "locals".
They (nomads) also don't accrue retirement/pension which is usually part of income taxes.
And of course they pay all the other "taxes".
If they rent/buy anything - there's VAT. If they drive around in their car - they pay registration, insurance, road tax, highway tolls.
Pretty sure they also need to purchase some sort of health insurance.
Same feelings towards non-nomadic Expats in The Netherlands - because of the "30% tax free for Expats".
Meanwhile the truth is that some 15-20 years ago - Dutch government introduced that "30% tax rule" as a cost saving measures.
Previously expats in The Netherlands would collect bills/receipts for expatriation related expenses (e.g. language classes, international school for kids, differences in cost of living/housing ...etc).
And processing those tax claims was so much bureaucracy that Dutch government realized just giving expats 30% of gross income tax free for 10 years (reduced to 8 and then 5 years) is both less money than actual expenses used to be, and much less paperwork/cost.
And let's not forget that (definitely for non-nomadic expats, though arguably also for digital nomads) country didn't need to pay their birth/growing up, education ...etc.
And (especially for digital nomads) might not need to cover the costs for their old age health, retirement and such.