arsenal21

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Posts posted by arsenal21

  1. Posted

    I was on AG a good few years ago so I don't know if it's still the same but they would pay reasonable travel expenses to get one or two job interviews per month. You can do your interview in the morning and then sightseeing/shopping before getting the train back. It's also good experience for learning German, hearing different dialects etc!

     

    I had interviews in Furth, Berlin, Karlsruhe, Frankfurt, Wurzburg and maybe a few more :)

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  5. Posted

    Another point in favor of consoles is that they are more social. You can play online pc games with people all over the world, but you're still sitting at a computer by yourself, whereas console games allow more social interaction and a shared experience with the people in the same room.

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  6. Posted

    Console games can also be educational.

    Zelda, for example, has lots of puzzles, though it also has cartoon style fighting.

    Human Resource Machine is a great programming game available on Switch, also on other platforms.

    The Switch also has some sort of kit for building robots out of cardboard iirc.

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  7. Posted

    If she has administrative skills she could consider:

    1. International schools may have vacancies for admin/librarian etc

    2. Call centre/tech support ‐ not the best type of work but possible if she has reasonable computer skills 

    Tbh, I don't know any native English speakers who have done Ausbildung, except perhaps in childcare for working in a kindergarten.

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  8. Posted

    You have to give notice formally in writing for it to take effect but it may be no harm to tell your team leader informally beforehand,  as it gives more time to find and train a replacement.

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  9. Posted

    How come no-one has mentioned Tatort? I've only recently started to get into them. I guess they're sort of an acquired taste. They can be all sorts: social commentary, black humour, soap opera etc.

     

    Football coverage is also pretty decent, but the commentary annoys me. There are two commentary channels usually on ARD, one (the standard commentary) sounds like a guy sitting on his couch and trying not to fall asleep, who namechecks maybe one player in ten, the other commentary is the audiodescription which gives a lot more detail, but neither one has any personality, humour or analysis.

     

    Kids tv is pretty good, particularly news for kids.

     

    Comedy is sorely lacking. Occasionally there's a sketch show that's watchable.

     

    There are a couple of quiz shows with fast questions that are pretty good.

     

    And there seems to be an infinite number of execrable talk shows where people sit in a circle and talk about whatever it is Germans talk about when they're having coffee and cakes.

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  10. Posted

    12 hours ago, Krieg said:

     

    No, no and no.

     

    5:3 only changes the month to month calculations.  But the final amount of tax will be calculated when you file taxes.  That amount will be exactly the same amount of taxes you will pay if you file taxes as 4:4.

     

    The only advantage of 5:3 is that you will have the money in your pocket every month.  Provided you do not have to pay it back, because then they will assign you tax prepayments and there will be no advantage.

    My apologies, you are right. Did this change at some point in the past?

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  12. Posted

    12 minutes ago, balticus said:

     

    If you have a Swiss/Cayman Islands/Panamanian/Uruguayan bank account and you want your pass on the contents to your heirs, record the details sufficiently so that the right people can extract anything of value.   

     

    Not a new problem and not a new solution.  

    7 hours ago, MadManEarle said:

     

     

    It's a solution in need of a problem I don't have. If I want my cash I'm happy going to the hole in the wall or the bank around the corner, rather than flying to Panama or Cayman Islands.

     

    But my point is that bitcoin is one-factor authentication, which people don't even rely on for their Facebook accounts nowadays. Banks provide 2-factor authentication e.g. card and pin. 

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  13. Posted

    7 hours ago, MadManEarle said:

     

    This attitude baffles me completely. You are saying that you trust a stranger more than you trust yourself, to do what is best for you.

     

    I will never understand this kind of rejection of personal responsibility for such important things.

     

    No, I don't necessarily trust my future memory. What if I don't write down the bitcoin key, get a bang on the head and lose my memory? Unless I have the key written down somewhere, then the access is gone. If the key is written down somewhere, then someone can steal it. 

    2

  14. Posted

    6 hours ago, MadManEarle said:

     

    Not your keys, not your coins.

     

    You trusted a central authority with your money, and they took it from you. Why would you want to trust a different central authority instead?

     

    This is why I personally don't like crypto. If I lose my bank card, forget my pin and online password and bank account number, then I can go into the bank and show them my passport and utility bill or whatever and they can issue me a new card or pin or whatever else I forgot or lost.

     

    Whereas with crypto if you lose or forget the key or password, it's gone for good.

     

    So I trust a regulated bank as a central authority more than I trust a crypto or exchange or even my own memory.

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  15. Posted

    On 5/21/2021, 4:06:59, catjones said:

    Predicting Musk is perilous.

    Not on your list:

    Teslas Made in Russia? Elon Musk Says It’s Possible

    Tesla CEO says electric-vehicle maker is considering opening a factory in Russia

    “I think we are close to establishing a Tesla presence in Russia, that would be great,” Mr. Musk said Friday, adding that he was also looking at expanding to the former Soviet nation of Kazakhstan, and other neighboring states.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/teslas-made-in-russia-elon-musk-says-its-possible-11621600327?mod=hp_lista_pos4

     

    Sounds like somebody is shopping for government subsidies to build a factory. This may explain the bitcoin u-turn. The lustre may be beginning to wear off though.

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  17. Posted

    On 3/21/2021, 3:50:00, MikeMelga said:

    It was reported last month that half the ID3 sales in 2020 were internal...

    Although everybody got excited with their announced plans (and they are good) let's keep perspective. They announce 12x less battery production capacity than Tesla. The race is about production capacity.

    And finally, VW still only plans to sell cars. That's not where the money is going to come from. Insurance, robotaxi, gaming, entertainment is the future of profitability.

     

    You haven't done your research Mike. Volkswagen is already in the insurance business. In fact, it's the biggest motor insurer in Germany.

     

    https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Versicherungsdienst

     

    VW already makes a lot of money from finance. In fact VW Financial Services has revenue and profit several times the size of Tesla's entire revenue. Tesla has a plan to sell insurance, but its competitive advantage is minimal and so far it has made inroads only in California, where it's not even an insurer, but a broker.

     

    And another way VW make money from finance is leasing - typically selling to a subsidiary company which leases the cars, which could explain the sales figures above.

     

    And of course they're not just going to sit there and watch Tesla come up with business ideas and do nothing so they also have a subsidiary that offers ride sharing in Berlin.

     

    Sure there is also money in games and entertainment but there are also market incumbents with deep pockets who will also want a piece of the action. 

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  18. Posted

    You are resident in Ireland for tax purposes if you are there for 183 days or more in the year, so as I understand it if you move after July 2nd (or whatever the 182nd day is) then your tax residency in should not begin until 2022. I'm not a finance professional either so you should check with revenue.ie.

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  19. Posted

    15 minutes ago, fraufruit said:

    Please keep the crypto yammering on the Bitcoin thread, thanks.

     

    Musk buying bitcoin is not really on topic here. Especially considering that 1.5 billion is chump change for him.

     

    It's not Musk buying on his own account, it's Tesla that has used almost 8% of its available cash to buy bitcoin. It's a material risk for the company.

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  20. Posted

    On 2/8/2021, 10:27:35, MikeMelga said:

    People now have the tools now to make transactions over the phone. Some studies show that in some cases 97% of amateur daytraders lose money on Robinhood.

    Bitcoin is not daytrading, but it's hyped to the point everyone is putting money there.

     

    This is not going to end well.

    It's time the nanny state steps in and put a stop on this. 

     

    You are falling into the same stupid trap that all "professional" investors are: relying on metrics that only apply to stable currencies. Those metrics show their weakness in currencies with exponential potential. Worst, you are completely skipping the proper analysis to make for Crypto: technology, process, disruption. :lol:

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  21. Posted

    I don't think there is any point in trying to ban it because crypto is fundamentally an idea.

     

    One big gripe I'd have with bitcoin though is that the underlying computational problem is the equivalent of a sudoku or a rubik's cube i.e. it's just a puzzle. If they could formulate problems like analysing cancer cells or unsolved mathematical theorems to be solved then there would be some tangible benefit from all that computing power.

     

    I think regulation will eventually have to happen in that people will have to identify themselves to use the service and 'anonymous' bitcoins will be sanctioned. So if the US government says to Tesla, ok you can accept whatever currency or crypto you like as long as you can identify who is giving it to you, then that makes it much less of a wild west.

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  23. Posted

    I grabbed the following off twitter

    Tesla Q4 investor call preview:

    Solar: no roof progress
    Insurance: no state progress
    Robotaxi: no development progress
    Factory utilization: 45%
    Factories: 2 in progress
    Battery: no cost estimate
    Cybertruck: no date
    Roadster: no date
    Semi: no date
    FSD: no “self insurance” reserves

     

    But rumours of lithium being found on Mars should send the share price up, right?

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