arsenal21
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Posts posted by arsenal21
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31 minutes ago, Krieg said:I have the feeling people think young kids should not have phones because they think smartphones mean social networks. You are in for a surprise, you can have a smartphone with no social networks on it. Our kids started with something very simple (and limited). And some basic rules were laid out and some explanations about what could go wrong, so no adding unknown people to their contacts once they were allowed to have non- family members in their contact list, not allowed to install apps by themselves with parental approval, and so on.
Yep, did something like this too. First a smartphone but with no sim card, and rules such as no taking it to the bedrooms, out of the house etc.
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16 hours ago, MikeMelga said:In SW world you either have loners or big teams with a lot of interaction. These people work very well alone. Problem rises when they are integrated in a team, normally when a project grows fast.
Are you pehaps conflating 'being a team player' with 'having good social skills'?
Because, while there may be overlap, they are not necessarily the same thing.
One employee could work from home with no social interaction and make a valuable contribution, another could be very socially interactive and appear busy with meetings, talking to people etc. while doing the minimum possible work.
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On 10/26/2019, 10:28:25, lisa13 said:I'd also like to see any data or studies about how studying and practicing the dark arts might change the brain and/or behavior.
I've had some interesting conversations about this, most notably with people who got into their "autistic skills" later in life (ie not people who took up programming when they were kids) who can absolutely identify major differences in their thinking and personality pre and post IT or other technical work. Compared to my pre-programming self, I have become far too literal, too linear in my thinking, a bit too rigid/precise, none of which I value at all, on a personal level, but it does serve me well at work. Problem is that it's not like you can just switch it off. It kinda sucks, actually.
As I stated before, I don't agree that devs in general are particularly autistic - I only ever met one who really was. However, when you consider the nature of the work, and the amount of time spent doing it, you can't be too surprised when people who do this work develop some differences from the population at large.
As Wizard said in "Taxi Driver"
"Look at it this way. A man takes a job, you know? And that job - I mean, like that - That becomes what he is. You know, like - You do a thing and that's what you are. Like I've been a cabbie for thirteen years. Ten years at night. I still don't own my own cab. You know why? Because I don't want to. That must be what I want. To be on the night shift drivin' somebody else's cab. You understand? I mean, you become - You get a job, you become the job."
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19 minutes ago, French bean said:So is just about every army in Europe, look at the UK. NATO kept Russia out of Western Europe. The EU stopped flare ups within Europe. Nothing really happened between 1945 and 1990 and then we had the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
44 minutes ago, jeremytwo said:The EU claims it has kept the peace in Europe since WW2. That is an outright lie. It was the strong NATO alliance between Britain and the USA which kept the Soviets from invading, including the stay behind armies they set up to deter any invasion. The German military is very weak and underfunded.
When anyone brings that up, I ask them how many German army bases there are in Britain in America, or indeed worldwide.
The freedom of movement enabled by the EU was also instrumental in allowing peace to flourish in Northern Ireland.
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3 hours ago, dj_jay_smith said:But if they go searching/requesting information which is not publicly available and if the person is resident in Germany, and/or the authority is resident in Germany, then surely they have broken privacy German law (as well)?
Good question, I'm not a lawyer so I can't say for sure, but the tax office did use info taken allegedly illegally from a Swiss bank a few years ago to pursue German-resident tax cheats, and the courts said it was ok.
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The states don't have carte blanche anyway. Article 6 gives necessary conditions, not necessary and sufficient. For example, Ireland's ID card scheme got shut down as an example of governmental informational overreach.
And the parish or diocese or church in Poland or Italy does not HAVE to release the data because the German government wants it. If they do release it, I think they would be in breach of GDPR, though I'm not a lawyer so I dunno.
I can't imagine that many religions would be happy about the German government knocking on their front door and asking about their members...
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9 minutes ago, El Jeffo said:Okay, how about Article 6, sections 1 (c) and 1 (e)?
When it comes to taxes, fees, and other legal obligations, the member states practically have carte blanche to do whatever they want.
Yep, tax authorities can be fairly ruthless. But my understanding of GDPR is the parish, diocese or church should not release baptismal data unless requested by a subject.
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1 hour ago, El Jeffo said:Sorry, but in this case, the interests of both the state and the church override the individual's personal right to data privacy, as specified in Article 9 (2 (b))
as well as 9 (2 (d)):
The first one is arguable as there are a lot of caveats, the second one says the data should not be transferred outside the organisation (church) without the subject's approval.
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7 minutes ago, lisa13 said:yep, that's why I said if you have been baptized you run a risk. those records are forever.
You just fill a Kirchenaustritt form before you start work in Germany and they can't touch you.
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1 hour ago, El Jeffo said:Unfortunately, it won't. Fiscal/tax matters is one of the areas where the GDPR essentially doesn't apply.
The parish where a person has been christened, assuming it's in Europe, has a data protection responsibility and should not release personal data without the person's approval.
This is particularly so when the data has been gathered on a minor, as most people are babies when christened.
The German tax authorities, as you mention, don't care about breaking other country's privacy laws, as the Swissleblower case showed.
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1 hour ago, LeonG said:I've heard of cases of the Catholic Church sniffing people out who had been baptized and didn't officially leave the church in their home country. Somebody on here posted that the church was trying to get them for years worth of back taxes.
You only have to 'leave the Church' in Germany i.e. submit a Kirchenaustritt form. The Catholic church does not allow you to leave in general, once you're baptised, hence my Hotel California comment earlier.
Hopefully GDPR will put an end to the shameful practice of trying to shake down immigrants for Church tax.
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3 hours ago, arunadasi said:The photo in my profile is from 2017, taken on holiday in Sri Lanka! I'm a bit older now, going on 68. I'll update it soon.
I have a medical card, but it is because of my Barmer insurance. I would not be eligible if I did not have the German insurance, as it is income based and I'm above the threshold.
But I wouldn't need one, as I have Irish medical insurance as well as Beihilfe.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the medical card will cover a lot of stuff that Irish health insurance will not e.g. cost of GP visits, so that could be a plus point for keeping the Barmer insurance.
You might be automatically eligible for a card on reaching 70 anyway.
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Welcome back arundasi, hope you're getting on well in Ireland.
You look much younger than 60 in your profile photo ;-) but I found this info on the nurse's union website, saying EU over 60s may be eligible for a medical card.
https://www.inmo.ie/Article/PrintArticle/6551
I would suggest applying for a medical card in any case, it covers a lot of basic stuff.
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11 hours ago, lisa13 said:one can try to opt out of church tax but afaik if you were ever baptized that can be easier said than done.
anyway I was just pointing it out as one or both of these also would have been included in the 44.5% figure above.
You just have to fill a Kirchenaustritt form when you move to Germany and you're out, from a tax perspective.
Your soul, on the other hand, well it's like Hotel California - you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.
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3 hours ago, Maradel said:I'll narrow this down a little. I'm now considering Leipzig, because (1) it's relatively inexpensive compared to other major cities, (2) it's in central Germany, and since I plan to explore, that makes it a reasonable "home base", and (3) it's sort of near Jena, which would still be my first choice if there were anyplace to live there.
I've read some of the posts here, although a lot are too many years old to be relevant. Are there areas of the city that I should avoid? There is a lot more availability of affordable sub-lease places than other cities I've been looking at, so I might have some options.
What is the winter like there? I was living in the Colorado mountains for the last 25 years before coming to Italy (7000+ ft altitude), so I actually like cold weather. Continuous gray skies does not appeal to me, though. That wouldn't really influence a decision about Leipzig for this temporary stay, though.
Is there an active expat community there?
Any info will be appreciated!
3 hours ago, Maradel said:I'll narrow this down a little. I'm now considering Leipzig, because (1) it's relatively inexpensive compared to other major cities, (2) it's in central Germany, and since I plan to explore, that makes it a reasonable "home base", and (3) it's sort of near Jena, which would still be my first choice if there were anyplace to live there.
I've read some of the posts here, although a lot are too many years old to be relevant. Are there areas of the city that I should avoid? There is a lot more availability of affordable sub-lease places than other cities I've been looking at, so I might have some options.
What is the winter like there? I was living in the Colorado mountains for the last 25 years before coming to Italy (7000+ ft altitude), so I actually like cold weather. Continuous gray skies does not appeal to me, though. That wouldn't really influence a decision about Leipzig for this temporary stay, though.
Is there an active expat community there?
Any info will be appreciated!
The last 5-6 winters have been relatively mild but before that there were a few years with lots of snow and some cold snaps when it stayed below 0 for weeks at a time.
According to the stats bureau there are about 700 Yanks and 500 Brits living in Leipzig and there are Irish bars with quiz nights etc.
Property prices have gone up a lot in the recent past so it might not be as cheap as you expect, though you will certainly find something for 1000 a month.
I don't know of any areas to avoid but there are some grim Plattenbau estates like Grunau that I wouldn't like to live in.
If you like mountains then you should look further south e.g. Jena, as Leipzig and surroundings are all very flat.
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On 6/7/2019, 10:51:53, Jannerman said:You are missing the point I don't want them to use me full stop, so I am not going to help them. They haven't a clue what I do on daily basis so it would all be fabrications.
How does the company you work for not know what you do on a daily basis? And anyway, they don't need to describe every last task, just give a general job description, projects worked on etc
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Can they not just update with whatever you've been doing at the company for the past few years, and then ask you to approve it's ok?
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9 hours ago, Klubfan said:I guess the question is '' is watching films and sports through kodi legal? '
See zwiebelfish's answer above. This is the case she was referring to
http://www.taz.de/!5405008/?goMobile2=1557792000000
"Das ist laut EuGH beim unerlaubten Streaming geschützter Werke aber gerade nicht der Fall. Auch das Streaming offensichtlich illegaler Angebote gilt also von nun an als rechtswidrig. Das Urteil erfasst nicht nur die Nutzung eines Geräts wie des Filmspelers, sondern auch das Ansehen der Programme via Computer oder Smartphone direkt im Internet."
So its a question of what is "obviously illegal content".
Note I am not a lawyer nor have I wings to fly.
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I read on another thread that management in Germany tend to favour locals for promotion, then Germans/Swiss/Austrians from further away, then foreigners. Hopefully that's changing a bit as Germany is trying to absorb more qualified foreigners, but I think there is an element of truth to it.
Generally speaking, it's probably true in most countries, but if you look at say FTSE companies, you'd probably find more non-nationals at board level than at DAX companies.
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Perhaps the parents have made more effort to keep the story in the news, but the facts of the case make it interesting and terrifying at the same time. I can't think of virtually any other case where a kid went from tucked up in bed to disappearing without a trace.
The case of Inga who disappeared from Stendal 4 years ago hasn't made anything like the same media impact:
There was a 2 year old in Limerick who apparently walked almost a mile from his home in the middle of the night and was returned safely:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26665286
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On 4/24/2019, 4:13:04, yesterday said:Notice, the date in the above link was 1 jan 2016 - so I guess should already be here by now :)
I expect in two years time it will still be another 2 or 3 years away ;-)
Tesla announced results today: 13000 fewer cars delivered than expected; 700m loss, 10 times what was expected; cash burn 10m per day; share price down 5% etc.
https://www.focus.de/finanzen/boerse/grosse-ziele-tesla-tief-in-roten-zahlen_id_10631625.html
But on the upside they have some new type of leafblower with a cable...
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6 hours ago, LeCheese said:Tesla cars could be completely driverless in 2 years:
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28 minutes ago, franklan said:That's news to me. Can you give a source for that information?
There are companies that do that. The school works with the company to select a suitable tour, but the tour company organizes the bus, the ferry, the tickets for shows, guest families for the kids etc.
I doubt if there are kickbacks as such, but the teachers presumably don't have to pay full whack.
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Tesla are not that safe. They do well in crash tests but they have other quality problems that can be dangerous.
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Children. Smartphone. What age?
in Family life
Posted
A smart phone is like a game console, just because the kid likes playing video games doesn't mean they are picking up any game developer skills.
If you want them to learn tech skills you'd be better off getting them a Lego robotics kit than a smartphone.