damn, gotta wait for @HamZa next time

@TomK. waduuup

Good Morning, Hackers and Hackresses!

@HamZa What tech did you use for the blog?

you can then tie it to a domain of yours ofc

help.github.com/en/github/working-with-github-pages/…

I already have a server and such, so I am wondering how hard it would be to just run a blog on it without installing wordpress or similar

I might really have to migrate to github pages. I want some place to write about my miniatures

@MechMK1 i like gitthub pages because i don't need to manage a server, too much hassle

@HamZa waduuuup yourself!

I'm off to lunch

see ya laters

~

@HamZa I'm considering doing the same, at least for my homepage

@TomK. See ya

@MechMK1 Where do you keep your servers? And no this is not a social engineering attack :p

I've got a couple I run with linode for my personal stuff

@ConorMancone Next to my AR-15 :D

(That's not even a joke)

lol

It's on my desk

You run them at home?

Yup

I've never wanted to bother with running equipment through my ISP

my ISP is so amazing

wow, that's nice. All the ISPs in my area suck really bad

like, really bad

like, really, really, really bad

lol

(yes I laugh at my own bad jokes, because I'm the only one who finds me funny)

Basically they just gave me 200Mb/s for 2 months for free (or rather, the price of 100Mb/s)

The last time my ISP reached out to me it was because they decided to impose monthly bandwidth caps on all of their customers, with ridiculous overage charges. Made me angry, so when I had to cancel a month later (I was moving), I told them I was canceling over their bandwidth caps

Literally their answer: "Everyone else has bandwidth caps, so who are you going to switch to that is any better?"

It was funny because this was deemed illegal here

There was an ISP in germany who offered "unlimited internet for a flat monthly rate"

But then blocked customers who downloaded more than I believe 500 GB per month

On the grounds that it's "unreasonable" and "not normal usage"

Crap like that makes me angry

They sued, and won. The court ruled that the ISP offered "unlimited internet, not 500 GB internet per month"

And since virtually all contracts here are flat rates, no ISP tried that

At first of course they tried to explain: "We're just trying to deal with network congestion!". No, no you're not. It was a cable network. I can 100% guarantee that your network is very undersubscribed, and you're nowhere near congested

Mobile contracts are usually too like you have 10GB per month, and after that your speed is reduced to like 10kb/s

@ConorMancone I hear that a lot that in the US ISPs are trying to f*** over customers

@MechMK1 That at least is (IMO) mildly expected. Mobile networks at least have an excuse: they can actually have problems with congestion. I think that broadband networks used that as an excuse to start doing it themselves

It's the same with hardware. A lot of US people say their ISP does not allow them to use a different router or such behind their own router. My ISP was like "Yes, you can use our router, but the software is designed for people who really just want to surf and such. If you want to run like a gaming server, you might want to get your own home router and just bridge over"

@MechMK1 Yes, that is 100% correct. There are really only a few major broadband providers in the US, and they are all very unpopular

@ConorMancone They just tell lies because the average layperson can't tell the difference anyways.

Like some autoshops, that tell you that some part needs replacement

That's why my family only does repairs at one specific shop, because we have known the family who runs the shop for literal decades

And I would highly doubt they'd try to screw us over.

lol, don't even get me started on mechanics.

I've fortunately never had problems with hardware. My current ISP lets me use my own modem and router (although they don't suggest it). The last ISP I used required me to use their (combined) router/modem, except I disabled the wireless, connected my own wireless modem, and they never complained.

I really don't want to know how life in the US is like

@ConorMancone That's good. Bridging over their router is a lot better, since now you have a device you control.

@MechMK1 Don't get me wrong - I've got plenty to complain about, but the last thing I want to do is move to Europe (or anywhere else really). I very much like my lifestyle and life choices, but I think there is literally not another country in the world where I could live the way I do

In other words, the USA gets a lot of bad press, and I don't like the direction we're going in, but I'll still take us as-is over any of the other options

So you can keep Europe to yourself :p

@ConorMancone I think this stems from the fact that we've grown up and grown accustomed to a specific system, and thus this system seems "normal" to us.

For example, it seems completely normal to me that taxes and social security is deducted from my monthly income automatically

@MechMK1 That sounds reasonable, but it seems more likely to me that our way of doing things is genuinely better.

As far as I know, that's not the case in the US.

@ConorMancone Said like a true american!

Public transport seems better, at least here in austria. From what I have seen and heard, the public transit systems in some US cities can be considered...in need of an overhaul

@MechMK1 It depends. For most salaried employees taxes and social security come out automatically. If you're a contractor though (which is very common) it isn't, and you actually get taxed more as a result

@ConorMancone What do you mean by "it's very common"? Contract work is very common, or being employed with one employer as a contractor is common?

@MechMK1 I'm sure that's true. Most larger cities have some sort of bus system, but those are always pretty crappy. Only the largest cities have what would be considered an actual public transportation system by European standards, and (while I've never used one) I'm pretty sure they are generally not loved

@ConorMancone All larger austrian cities have a bus system that is very heavily used and relied upon by the public. Very large, for our standards, cities usually have a tram and/or a subway system as well, depending on how the city has grown

I, for example, don't own a car, because public transport costs just 200€ per year and gets me everywhere I need to go.

@MechMK1 I'm not sure what the exact breakdown is, but there is a lot of variety. Certainly, there are plenty of people who are full time salaried and have taxes taken out automatically. There are also plenty of people who are "contract" employees but work full time for one employer (common in tech especially). They have to pay their own taxes. There are also lots of people who basically just work for themselves (they are effectively a business with one person)

and have to take care of their own taxes. Small businesses like that are fairly common in the US

As far as I know, being a contractor but working only for one employer is a bit of a gray area here. It's not very common at least, and I'm sure there's reasons for that. And yes, if you work on your own, you're responsible for your taxes (technically, your employer is ;))

@MechMK1 As a college town we have a bus system, but even as a college student I rarely used it. Walking was often faster. Biking was always faster.

@ConorMancone My campus was quite far away, so it took me almost 45 minutes by bus. But it would always depart at 08:00 and arrive at 08:43, giving me enough time to grab a coffee and get to my lecture hall at 08:50

@MechMK1 There's starting to be some push back against being a contractor with just one employee, since it has grown more common in some sectors. A lot of states are trying to get such situations reclassified as full time employees. A lot of that pushback started relatively recently because of companies like Uber, who sign up all of their workers exclusively as contractors

@ConorMancone I can certainly understand why, from a business perspective. Letting go of an employee is much more difficult than to let go of a contractor.

I mean, who cares about that 50-year-old guy who still has some years until he can retire, right?

It cuts into the profit, and that is what we are really here for.

@MechMK1 In a right-to-work state in the US, there's actually no real difference. In every company I've ever worked at, I could be fired with no notice and for no better reason than because the owner woke up in a bad mood

Jesus fucking Christ really?

@MechMK1 Absolutely, which I mention because that's typically how Europeans respond. In practice though I like it. If the only thing keeping me in my job was the fact that firing me is too expensive, I wouldn't want to be there. Also, people forget that there are two sides to the coin: businesses are smart and barriers to firing lead to barriers in hiring. I can get fired easier, but I can also get hired easier, and I'm okay with that

That's a valid point, though the problem I see is that there are situations where you having to keep a job is essential.

A co-worker of my mother (she works for the gov't) got cancer and had to spend a lot of time in the hospital, but the gov't couldn't fire him. The fact that they had to keep paying his wage was the only way for him and his wife (who had a 20h/wk job until then) to sustain their children

Is it unfair to the company? Yes, in a way, but it means that a family isn't starving, which is also pretty good

In the US we have disability insurance for situations like that, although most people don't get it (I keep meaning to, but haven't purchased it myself yet)

I can certainly understand why the right-to-work arrangement makes many people squeamish

I'm a crazy libertarian though, and my overall philosophy is that regulations like that still hurt employees in the long run (businesses hire less, pay less, etc...) and so my preference is to just let the market sort it out. That's a long conversation though, and the libertarian viewpoint is not usually very popular...

Some people called my views libertarian, and in a sense, perhaps I am

It's difficult to make generalized statements like "More regulations are good, because..." or "Less regulations are good, because..."

Because honestly both have advantages and disadvantages. Some regulations mean well, but completely miss the mark, have loopholes or cause paradoxical effects

Like, for example, how Mexico tried to improve the environment by forcing everybody to not use their car one day per week. Result: People bought the cheapest, shittiest cars with the most horrible impact on the environment to drive once a week, resulting in even worse environmental impact.

The problem with politics is that people want easy solutions to big problems, and in a complex system like the economy of a country, you just won't get easy solutions.

"Can't we just..." - no, we can't just, because if we could just, we would already have done it. We already thought about just doing, but we found out that just doing would result in a lot of bad thing happening.

I can happily agree with all of that.

I think the thing that bugs me the most is that we're so quick to confidently pass laws because, "this will make things better™"

But no one stops in 5-10 years from now to ask, "did this actually do what we assumed it would?"

Instead, once it's a law, it stays there. The end result is that our governments grow slightly larger every year, and the one generality that I'll confidently stand behind is: "a constantly growing government is something that is not sustainable in the long term"

@ConorMancone I absolutely agree with that. I remember Thomas Jefferson suggesting every law should by default only have a lifespan of 19 years

I agree with the idea, except for laws that are extremely basic and unlikely to change over time

So if a law or regulation only had a limited lifespan, we'd by default be forced to check if it was effective (and thus if we should renew and/or change it)

A good example was the Bush Assault Weapons Ban, a catastrophe of a law. It did no good, it just harmed law-abiding citizens and was a nightmare for companies

@MechMK1 just do it

Possible candidate for "least research effort ever"?

Or maybe just in the running for broadest question ever...

@HamZa uh, nice. how much did you get done yet?

btw, you should take a look at themanyhats.club/invite

I've been there for some weeks, and it's pretty good