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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • I must admit that I am biased in that regard, but still I believe blaming Airbnb is mostly a distraction. Even in the worst of the worst places like Barcelona they reach around 10% of rental properties. Usually it’s a few percent in touristy places and much less everywhere else. Is it good for renters? Of course not. But it’s not the biggest factor, by far.

    Now if I look at the whole rental market in my country, Germany, what’s on Airbnb is just a drop in the bucket. And still people are struggling to pay rent, especially in the cities. Even in those places that nobody in their right mind would go as a tourist unless threatened with serious physical harm.

    Rents here started increasing uncomfortably after rental properties owned by local governments were privatized for a quick buck. Those new, publicly traded companies quickly raised rents sharply, because of course they have to earn back what they paid for the properties, plus a nice payout to investors. For the last two decades they have continued raising rents, neglecting maintenance and bought each other until now we the biggest company alone has almost half a million rental units, in a country of 80 million people. Of course, they don’t own three houses in villages here and there, but whole blocks in cities, with local market shares of up to 25%. That is much more significant than a few percent that are lost to tourism.

    And don’t get me started on cost of construction, the chronic lack of new buildings, empty real estate owned by speculators or money launderers,… or I might rant again 😉








  • What was that study course and what made it hell? Might want to a avoid a similar situation in the future.

    What exactly seems out of reach and impossible? If you had something specific in mind but gave it up, it might be a good way forward to consider something similar with less (or more manageable) obstacles.

    Have you considered job perspectives abroad? It might be even harder to get a good picture of the situation abroad, but there could be chances there.

    What are your passions or things you like? Languages, obviously, and that is great because that gives you a much greater area to look for jobs (if you want to maybe go abroad).




  • As a 40 year old male I find that character becomes a bigger factor, even if it sounds cheesy. Sure, a hot but bland 20 something can be attractive and that will not change, but I would rather spend my time with an interesting 60 year old. Maybe it is because I am no Adonis either. But I also like to believe that a DiCaprio type situation would make me deadly afraid of taking advantage of someone at a much different stage of life.

    I would also theorize that as it becomes more difficult to guess the age by looks alone character becomes a more important differentiator. Of course some signs of age can not be hidden, but there are plenty of 18 year olds dressing much older as well as lots of older women not giving off grandma vibes.





  • One of the early Samsung Android phones. They dropped „support“ less than a year after release and even during that time refused to acknowledge serious bugs.

    The community built Android versions managed to fix most bugs, and even made dual touch possible, but then again could only do so much without all sources. And usually they were not the most stable either.

    On the one hand having a smartphone with touchscreen, apps etc. was amazing. On the other hand Samsungs bullshit meant I wasted a lot of time chasing a properly working software for my phone that it should have had from the beginning.


  • It’s great that you want to support your kid and hopefully get them away from the focus-destroying dopamine traps that are many „kid friendly“ apps. But please ask yourself what your kid likes first, not what you want them to be interested in. It’s perfectly fine to restrict tablet time and let him focus on what he likes, be it computer stuff or football or cycling or reading or painting or whatever. If he really interested in Linux and nor, xor etc that’s great, but don’t force it on him.

    And that is coming from someone who bought and built his first own computer around that age and wrote his first few lines of very basic basic code not long after. Not because it was expected of me, but because I was interested and given the opportunity to follow those interests.

    So, if that kid is interested in computers, Minecraft is a great game for kids. It encourages creativity, problem solving, perseverance and, maybe later, collaboration. It’s also possible to play together and scale their experience to their age: get started in creative or peaceful, then let them discover mobs and mods when they are a bit older, then let them play with friends.

    If the kid likes building and Legos, you might want to look into Lego Boost and Spike, although they are rather expensive.

    Oh, and paint. Kids love paint, be it MS paint, Paint.net or any other open source alternative. Show them that with a computer they can create, not just consume.


  • Not an American, but as an iPhone user who has had Android phones since cupcake before: iPhones „just work“, they are a lot less janky than Android, the ecosystem is smooth (although admittedly and intentionally less so when leaving it), they get updated for longer (and at the same time!) and apple has a much better privacy track record than the competition (a low bar).

    Yes, I would prefer to install my apps from anywhere I want on the device I should own. An open source phone from top to bottom would be my dream, but Android is about as far removed from that as an iphone. Google took Linux and made it into a Frankenstein nightmare that is wholly dependent on them.

    Just try to stick to open source and make your phone respect your privacy and see how far you get. Start at the usually locked bootloader, install a rom without google and see how few apps are left that do not require google services. And even then you are most likely dependent on binary blobs for the drivers, meaning the manufacturers can (and will) pull the rug from under your efforts as soon as they no longer feel like updating their shitty built of Android for the device in time.

    I do not have time for that. What I have is enough money to buy a phone that comes as close as possible to my idea of safety, freedom and privacy without constantly jumping through burning hoops. If I am to be in a cage, it better be golden.