Privacy activistPnk • 2 days ago • 87%

One of my banks is threatening to freeze my account unless I disclose my residential address where I sleep at night (with proof! Thus all info that proof comes with). Their privacy policy starts with the standard “we take privacy seriously” then they go on to say deeper in the doc that they may share my personal info around to the full extent allowed by law (using weasel words that try to imply the contrary to sloppy/fast readers), vaguely to credit bureaus (who I have no contract with and who will share the data further, or leak it in a breach). This bank claims “regulations require…” No, they do not. The regs say they must collect residential address OR business address, or if those are not available an address to a family member. So the bank is bullshitting. At the same time, another bank says in so many words: sorry to inform you we were breached. Cyber criminals have all your sensitive info. We take privacy and security seriously. We offer you a credit monitoring subscription to compensate you. If you are interested, you can share your sensitive info with that monitoring org, who in turn will share the info with their subcontractors. And anonymous access is blocked so you must also share your IP address. In light of these two shitty¹ banks, I would like to give a big **fuck you** to those who say: * “You don’t want your bank to know where you live? What are you hiding? What kind of dodgy shit are you into?” * “You expect your bank to let you access your account from Tor? LOL. Why don’t you trust your bank with your IP address? Why don’t you want your ISP to know where you bank? What kind of dodgy shit are you into?” * Bruce Schneiere: “cryptocurrency is a solution looking for a problem” * “Cash is for tax evaders. You have no legitimate cause to demand cash payment or to pay in cash.” * “A cashless society protects us from criminals & money launderers” In the very least, we need a general right to be unbanked. ¹ I don’t mean two imply these to banks are exceptionally shitty. They are just like any bank. All banks, credit unions, etc, are shitty in the same way. (edit) Bank B also waited several months after they knew of the breach to inform me. So I imagine there were months of backroom chatter: “can we hide this? Do we have to tell the press and the victims?” They must have spent those months debating about whether or not to tell victims. Makes me wonder how many other breaches I was exposed to by banks without my knowledge.

Green Energy activistPnk • 4 days ago • 100%

Heat pump water heaters already exist. These are hybrid things where a traditional electric water heater is fitted with a heat pump. The heat pump can increase the water temp but cannot deliver enough, so heating elements are still needed to reach a usable temp. I’m wondering if that design can be improved on this way: instead of powering the heat pump from the wall, the heat pump can be connected directly to a PV. I think that would be more efficient and cheaper because PV output is not normally directly usable. IIUC, it’s variable D/C which must be regulated and/or inverted to A/C involving more hardware, conversion, and waste. But exceptionally, I’ve heard that a PV can directly power a compressor with no middleware. Any reasons this would be infeasible or uninteresting? Of course the tank still needs wall power for the heating elements, but would use less wall power and entail less conversion loss.

Privacy activistPnk • 4 days ago • 99%

eu.indystar.com

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13145612 > (edit) Would someone please ship some counterfeit money through there and get it confiscated, so the police can then be investigated for spending counterfeit money?

eu.indystar.com

(edit) Would someone please ship some counterfeit money through there and get it confiscated, so the police can then be investigated for spending counterfeit money?

If you open a PDF document in the browser (thus in pdf.js) and click the down arrow (↓) to save it locally, it redownloads the document instead of simply saving it from the cache. If you lose network connectivity or disconnect then try to save the PDF locally for later viewing, the browser reports connection issues when there was no need for the network. Tor Browser (Firefox based) does not have this problem.

keyboards activistPnk • 3 weeks ago • 100%

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12826007 > Is this a thing? > > I always have spare keyboards out of use either from old machines or pulled out of the trash. Many of them have a dead key which ruins their purpose as a primary keyboard. It’s probably not worth the effort to [bypass a bad trace](https://www.instructables.com/Fix-Membrane-Keyboard-With-Some-Non-working-Keys/). So why not have a 2nd keyboard just for symbols and emoji? ATM to enter a €uro symbol I have to type 3 keys (`$specialkey+c+=`). Or more importantly, the properly angled single and double quotes (`’ ‘ “ ” `) each require typing 3 keys. That shit is annoyingly tedious. And consider all the superscripts¹. > > I attached a qwerty keyboard and azerty keyboard at the same time (Debian, wayland + sway). The AZERTY board was treated as QWERTY. So that’s bizarre. Sure it’s useful that the layout is controllable by software, but strange that the keyboard’s native layout is not the default. It seems as if the layout choice (`man xkeyboard-config`) is universally imposed on all attached devices. Is it possible to configure a QWERTY or Dvorak layout for keyboard 1 and a totally custom or symbolic layout for keyboard 2? > > ¹ all the digits on a secondary keyboard could be superscripted like this footnote. E.g. ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹.. typing each of those requires 3 key presses. > update > --- > Possible answer: I hear this project enables different layouts to be assigned to different physical devices: > > https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd > > Bit annoying that that project has not made it into Debian official repos, but at least there are [deb files](https://salsa.debian.org/rhansen/keyd/-/jobs/5430067/artifacts/browse/debian/output).

Green Energy activistPnk • 3 weeks ago • 100%

Some large PVs for rooftops were at a street market for €35 each. I’m not deeply knowledgable about them.. I just know that there are two varieties of solar panels and that the kind that are used from small appliances (e.g. calculators, speakers, lawn lights, etc) are junk. And that junk variety is sometimes used in large rooftop panels. What I was looking at resembled the kind I see on a bluetooth speaker with a slight blue tint so I was skeptical. The info on the backside of the panel indicated “1000 V”. The other thing is, all solar panels degrade over time and reach end of life after like 15 years (though this is improving). They may have been a good deal but I passed on them because I didn’t want to buy them on a blind risk. How would I know how much life a used PV has left? Would a volt meter give that info, assuming it’s sunny when I encounter them again?

Antiwork activistPnk • 3 weeks ago • 100%

phys.org

Two Cloudflare-free tor-reachable articles: ① [Australia gives millions of workers 'right to disconnect'](https://phys.org/news/2024-08-australia-millions-workers-disconnect.html) ② [Australia gives workers right to ignore bosses’ after-hours calls, emails](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/8/26/australia-gives-workers-right-to-ignore-bosses-after-hours-calls-emails) Those links are also popup-free (at least in my config). But note that ② is a little more junked up and has some video (but my image and autoplay blocking config seems to work). The wording of the new law sounds flimsy.. leaves it to employers to define whether an interruption is “reasonable”. But nonetheless it’s a step in the right direction.

A Belgian woman told me she received a gift from a relative for €300 in cash. When she tried to deposit it into her bank account, the bank interrogated her over the source of the money, as if this one-time transaction is some kind of terror or money laundering. In case no one is paying attention, it’s good to be aware of the extremes the #WarOnCash is evolving toward. Banks have become like police without training.. bullying people arbitrarily. We are collectively like boiling frogs as cashless people are oblivious to what’s going on. Only cash users see the water boiling.

Not sure if this has been scientifically studied but I’ve noticed a couple situations where continuous heat can be avoided. My mom’s way of cooking corn on the cob: bring a pot of water to boil, lid off with two wooden spoons resting on the top to prevent boiling over. She keeps the heat continously quite high for what, ~30—40 min? Seems wasteful because with the lid off the pot is evaporative cooling the whole time so more heat is needed to offset the cooling. I just tried it this way: bring to boil with lid on. Shut the burner off as soon as it boils. The corn continues cooking as the water temp drops. I could probably improve on that even more by using a pressure cooker. (I’m stalling on buying one because I boycott InstantPot due to the fact that they have a closed source phone app exclusively in Google Playstore; it’s optional but InstantPot buyers are still financing that. I should probably get a 2nd hand manual pressure cooker). Hydrating dried beans: soak overnight (which I skip because it seems to make little progress). So I do the “quick soak” -- bring to boil with lid on, turn off right away, and let them sit ½ the day in warm water. Pressure cooking speeds up the 2nd stage cooking for sure (I’ve tested with other people’s pressure cookers). Since I don’t have a pressure cooker, I end up doing the quick soak method ~3 or 4 times throughout the day.. which just means bring to a boil then shut off. Anecdotally this seems to reduce the time needed in the final phase of cooking. Am I going OCD on this? This all might be a drop in the ocean.. cooking is not a significant portion of energy consumption. But maybe notable in the summer when cooling systems have to work against the kitchen heat. Which is one reason I like the electronic pressure cookers: I can set the pressure cooker outside.

An important part of the Youtube content is the transcript at the bottom of the video description. There are some 3rd-party sites that collect and share the YT transcripts separately but then the naive admins put the service in Cloudflare’s walled garden, which is worse than YT itself and purpose-defeating to a large extent. (exceptionally this service is CF-free, but it says “Transcript is disabled on this video” in my test: https://youtubetranscript.io) Invidious should be picking up the slack here. And Lemmy could do better by automatically fetching the transcript of youtube/invidious links and include it, perhaps spoiler style [like this](https://slrpnk.net/post/12116953/10319381).

The linked PDF is the EU’s proposal to amend the [current ADR¹ policy](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013L0011). One favorable change for consumers is that traders will have a duty to respond to the ADR agencies. But I also see regressions for consumers. E.g. the EU wants to remove the requirement that traders inform consumers about ADR entities. I only read the first 6 pages or so but it looks like the changes will overall weaken consumer protection. I try to consume as little as possible and live somewhat as a minimalist. But I still get ripped off plenty and want protection. OTOH, I wonder if weakened consumer protections will perhaps create more minimalists who ditch their consumerist habits out of frustration with lack of protections. ¹ alternative dispute resolution

The article does not state how she paid and got caught, but this should serve as a situation that highlights the importance of cash preservation. (update) prosecution seeks a 15 year sentence.

I browse with images disabled. But sometimes I encounter a post where I want to see the image, like this one: https://iejideks5zu2v3zuthaxu5zz6m5o2j7vmbd24wh6dnuiyl7c6rfkcryd.onion/@JosephMeyer@c.im/112923392848232303 When opening that link in a browser configured to fetch images, it redirects to the original instance, which is inside an access-restricted walled garden. This seems like a new behaviour for Mastodon thus may be a regression. It’s a terrible design because it needlessly forces people on open decentralised networks into centralised walled gardens. The behaviour arises out of the incorrect assumption that everyone has equal access. As Cloudflare proves, access equality is non-existent. The perversion in this particular case is an onion is redirecting to Cloudflare (an adversary to all those who have onion access). There should be two separate links to each post: one to the source node, and one to the mirror. This kind of automatic redirect is detrimental. Lemmy demonstrates the better approach of giving two links and not redirecting. (But Lemmy has that problem of not mirroring images).

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12108012 > The EU guarantees most people a [right](https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/financial-products-and-services/bank-accounts-eu/index_en.htm) to open a “basic”¹ bank account. Superficially that sounds good, but of course having a right to open a bank account implies that you can then be *expected* to have an account. It’s an enabler for the #warOnCash. The right to a bank account is a masquerade of freedom from which oppression manifests. > > Anyway, you have to ask: do you really have a *“right”* to open a *basic* bank account if the procedure for opening the account is inherently exclusive? That is, if a bank only offers a basic account to people who are online, doesn’t a problem arise when this *right* to an account then leads to an assumption that everyone has an account? > > Some banks take the requirement to offer basic accounts seriously by making the application a static PDF which can also be obtained on paper form. So the only thing you need is a pen (to open the account and presumably to use it). But it’s bizarre some banks put the application for their basic account exclusively in an interactive online format. Are offline people just getting “lucky” if a bank happens to offer a basic account application on paper? > > ¹ “basic” is not just common language here. It refers to a specific type of account that fulfills specific legal criteria.

The EU guarantees most people a [right](https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/financial-products-and-services/bank-accounts-eu/index_en.htm) to open a “basic”¹ bank account. Superficially that sounds good, but of course having a right to open a bank account implies that you can then be *expected* to have an account. It’s an enabler for the #warOnCash. The right to a bank account is a masquerade of freedom from which oppression manifests. Anyway, you have to ask: do you really have a *“right”* to open a *basic* bank account if the procedure for opening the account is inherently exclusive? That is, if a bank only offers a basic account to people who are online, doesn’t a problem arise when this *right* to an account then leads to an assumption that everyone has an account? Some banks take the requirement to offer basic accounts seriously by making the application a static PDF which can also be obtained on paper form. So the only thing you need is a pen (to open the account and presumably to use it). But it’s bizarre some banks put the application for their basic account exclusively in an interactive online format. Are offline people just getting “lucky” if a bank happens to offer a basic account application on paper? ¹ “basic” is not just common language here. It refers to a specific type of account that fulfills specific legal criteria.

There are some very slow nodes (like Beehaw) where the server is apparently so overworked it cannot render a login form most of the time. The browser times out waiting. In the rare moments that there is a login opportunity, about ½ the time the login fails with a 2 second popup saying “incorrect login credentials”. It’s quite terrible because obviously users would assume their account has been deleted --- because that’s how most online services work. Admins do not generally give warnings or say why an account is deleted. They just hit the delete button. Like Marvin in Office Space who was not told he was laid off.. they just “fixed the payroll glitch”. This is generally how communication works on communication platforms.. admins just pull the plug. So because of how people learn that their account is deleted, users cannot distinguish a purposeful account removal from a faulty server. If you have a Beehaw account and you are told “incorrect login credentials”, don’t believe it. Keep trying. Eventually you’ll get in.

ecfr.gov used to be a decent source for looking up laws. When looking up the anti spam laws, the linked page is littered with links to an access-restricted Cloudflare site (www.govinfo.gov). The important parts of the law are missing from ecfr.gov. It’s common for various states to have this mom-pop shop competency level, but tragic and embarrassing that the US feds lack competency to the point of Cloudflare-dependency. Often Cornell University publishes federal law and mitigates the embarrassment to some extent. But when looking up the CAN-SPAM law at Cornell, the Cornell law site redirects to another access-restricted Cloudflare site (www.gpo.gov). There needs to be a fundamental high-level that requires all laws to be accessible to all people, not just people who Cloudflare is willing to give access to.

In the stock Lemmy web client there is apparently no mechanism for users to fetch their history of posts. The *settings* page gives only a way to download settings. This contrasts with Mastodon where users can grab an archive of everything they have posted which is still stored on the server. Or am I missing something? IIUC, there is no GDPR issue here because no data is personal (because all Lemmy accounts are anonymous). But if a Lemmy server were to hypothetically require users to identify themselves with first+last name, then the admin would have a substantial manual burden to comply with GDPR Art.20 requests. Correct?

Privacy activistPnk • 2 months ago • 57%

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11937000 > The article is normally paywalled but I prefixed 12ft.io/ to it, which worked for me. Google supposedly quit caching websites but old caches are still reachable with 12ft.io. > > The UK’s GDPR might make it hard for banks to use people’s purchase data to derive their alcohol & tobacco habits, so apparently banks have to rely on interviews. Still, it would be foolish to rely on the GDPR. There are also stories of banks looking at spending data to deny mortgages, which I would guess is happening in a place without privacy safeguards like the US. > > I’ll quote the article here as well: > > > Homebuyers could be forced to provide detailed information about the amount of money they spend on alcohol each month to qualify for a new mortgage under a new clampdown on reckless lending. > > > > In a sweeping review of the mortgage market published today, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said lenders needed to be far more rigorous about their financial checks of potential borrowers. > > > > It said lenders should delve deeper into homebuyers’ personal spending including the amount they spend on alcohol and tobacco. > > > > Spending on shoes, clothes and childcare could also be assessed under a new, industry-wide “affordability test”. > > > > At present, the FSA does not prescribe rules about assessing a consumers’ ability to repay a mortgage and practices vary from one lender to the next. > > > > In its document, the City regulator said: “There is clearly a responsibility on all lenders to extend credit only where a consumer can afford it and, in our view, a robust assessment of both income and expenditure is key to ensuring affordable mortgages. > > > > “We propose to require all lenders to assess the level of a consumer’s expenditure in determining the affordability of a mortgage product, to ensure that lending decisions are based on a consumer’s free disposable income.” > > > > It conceded though that there were some flaws with its plan with consumers potentially underestimating their spend or “failing to incorporate past experiences into their budgeting”. > > > > The new measures, which aim to stamp out risky lending that has been criticised for compounding the financial crisis and tipping hundreds of thousands of homebuyers into negative equity, also include a plan to ban self-certified mortgages, dubbed “liar’s loans”, and to stop lenders from exploiting consumers who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. > > > > It also proposed that the FSA should regulate mortgages for landlords for the first time. > > > > Self-certification mortgages were aimed at self-employed people with irregular incomes. The mortgages, which did not require proof of income, accounted for one third of new loans in 2007. > > > > Their proposed banning was first revealed in The Times last week. > > > > But the FSA stopped short of ruling out “supersized mortgages” by introducing caps on loan-to-value, loan-to-income or debt-to-income multiples. > > > > Such mortgages were typified by Northern Rock which, at the height of the housing boom, offered 125 per cent home loan deals. > > > > Gordon Brown wrote in a newspaper article at the weekend that it was “critical we end reckless banking practices that have left so many people worried about their finances”. > > > > Jon Pain, managing director of supervision at the FSA, said: “The mortgage market has seen extraordinary upheaval over the past 18 months and while it has worked well for the vast majority of borrowers, some have suffered great financial distress. We recognise that we need to bring about a step change in regulation.” > > > > He said there had been a “mutual assumption by too many borrowers and lenders that the good times could not end.” > > > > The new reforms, he said, would ensure firms “only lend to people who can afford to pay back the money”. > > > > But mortgage experts questioned the ease of imposing some of the new measures and expressed concern about the possible impact on homebuyers. > > > > Ray Boulger, mortgage expert at John Charcol, said the new affordability test could prove difficult to implement. “I think it will be very difficult in practice to go into too much detail,” he said. > > > > Homebuyers, he said, often forget the detail of their spending. “They will remember the weekly shop but not the £3 they spend on a sandwich each day.” > > > > Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the Building Societies Association, said he had “significant reservations about the possible unintended consequences of some of the ideas.” > > > > He said: “We believe that home ownership is something that should be encouraged, and it is vital that lenders retain the flexibility to respond to the very individual financial circumstances of individual borrowers.” > > > > He added that self-certification mortgages were suitable for a minority of people and that an outright ban was “not appropriate.” > > > > The Council of Mortgage Lenders said it was “important that the principle of consumer responsibility is not lost in such a regulatory environment, as it is a basic tenet upon which transactions of all kinds between firms and consumers rely”. > > > > The report said there was a “clear and non-controversial case” for banning self-certification mortgages, instead compelling lenders to insist that customers provide evidence of their income. > > > > “Our analysis shows that self-cert borrowers take out larger loan amounts than borrowers with standard products and fall into arrears much more frequently. To address these issues we propose to require verification of income for all mortgage applications,” it said. > > > > The loans have been vilified as a significant contributor to the banks’ toxic loans problem because some customers have lied about their income. Defaults on self-cert repayments have been at much higher rates than the industry average. > > > > HBOS and Bradford & Bingley were among the biggest self-cert lenders. HBOS was sold to Lloyds TSB in a rescue deal in September last year and B&B collapsed and had to be partially nationalised. > > > > The plan to bring mortgages for landlords into the FSA’s scope for the first time was necessary the regulator said because of the big part the industry had played in “fuelling property price appreciation” > > > > The FSA said: “As well as being a general contributor, buy-to-let funding funding has particularly helped to inflate prices of certain property types and locations such as city centre apartments. > > > > “The overall impact on house prices inevitably has implications for our interest in the sustainability of the mortgage market.” > > > > The market for buy-to-let mortgages has grown rapidly. Gross advances grew from £3.1 billion in 1999 to £44.6 billion in 2007. > > > > The paper has been put out for consultation until early next year with a “feedback statement” to be published in March.

The article is normally paywalled but I prefixed 12ft.io/ to it, which worked for me. Google supposedly quit caching websites but old caches are still reachable with 12ft.io. The UK’s GDPR might make it hard for banks to use people’s purchase data to derive their alcohol & tobacco habits, so apparently banks have to rely on interviews. Still, it would be foolish to rely on the GDPR. There are also stories of banks looking at spending data to deny mortgages, which I would guess is happening in a place without privacy safeguards like the US. I’ll quote the article here as well: > Homebuyers could be forced to provide detailed information about the amount of money they spend on alcohol each month to qualify for a new mortgage under a new clampdown on reckless lending. > > In a sweeping review of the mortgage market published today, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said lenders needed to be far more rigorous about their financial checks of potential borrowers. > > It said lenders should delve deeper into homebuyers’ personal spending including the amount they spend on alcohol and tobacco. > > Spending on shoes, clothes and childcare could also be assessed under a new, industry-wide “affordability test”. > > At present, the FSA does not prescribe rules about assessing a consumers’ ability to repay a mortgage and practices vary from one lender to the next. > > In its document, the City regulator said: “There is clearly a responsibility on all lenders to extend credit only where a consumer can afford it and, in our view, a robust assessment of both income and expenditure is key to ensuring affordable mortgages. > > “We propose to require all lenders to assess the level of a consumer’s expenditure in determining the affordability of a mortgage product, to ensure that lending decisions are based on a consumer’s free disposable income.” > > It conceded though that there were some flaws with its plan with consumers potentially underestimating their spend or “failing to incorporate past experiences into their budgeting”. > > The new measures, which aim to stamp out risky lending that has been criticised for compounding the financial crisis and tipping hundreds of thousands of homebuyers into negative equity, also include a plan to ban self-certified mortgages, dubbed “liar’s loans”, and to stop lenders from exploiting consumers who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. > > It also proposed that the FSA should regulate mortgages for landlords for the first time. > > Self-certification mortgages were aimed at self-employed people with irregular incomes. The mortgages, which did not require proof of income, accounted for one third of new loans in 2007. > > Their proposed banning was first revealed in The Times last week. > > But the FSA stopped short of ruling out “supersized mortgages” by introducing caps on loan-to-value, loan-to-income or debt-to-income multiples. > > Such mortgages were typified by Northern Rock which, at the height of the housing boom, offered 125 per cent home loan deals. > > Gordon Brown wrote in a newspaper article at the weekend that it was “critical we end reckless banking practices that have left so many people worried about their finances”. > > Jon Pain, managing director of supervision at the FSA, said: “The mortgage market has seen extraordinary upheaval over the past 18 months and while it has worked well for the vast majority of borrowers, some have suffered great financial distress. We recognise that we need to bring about a step change in regulation.” > > He said there had been a “mutual assumption by too many borrowers and lenders that the good times could not end.” > > The new reforms, he said, would ensure firms “only lend to people who can afford to pay back the money”. > > But mortgage experts questioned the ease of imposing some of the new measures and expressed concern about the possible impact on homebuyers. > > Ray Boulger, mortgage expert at John Charcol, said the new affordability test could prove difficult to implement. “I think it will be very difficult in practice to go into too much detail,” he said. > > Homebuyers, he said, often forget the detail of their spending. “They will remember the weekly shop but not the £3 they spend on a sandwich each day.” > > Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the Building Societies Association, said he had “significant reservations about the possible unintended consequences of some of the ideas.” > > He said: “We believe that home ownership is something that should be encouraged, and it is vital that lenders retain the flexibility to respond to the very individual financial circumstances of individual borrowers.” > > He added that self-certification mortgages were suitable for a minority of people and that an outright ban was “not appropriate.” > > The Council of Mortgage Lenders said it was “important that the principle of consumer responsibility is not lost in such a regulatory environment, as it is a basic tenet upon which transactions of all kinds between firms and consumers rely”. > > The report said there was a “clear and non-controversial case” for banning self-certification mortgages, instead compelling lenders to insist that customers provide evidence of their income. > > “Our analysis shows that self-cert borrowers take out larger loan amounts than borrowers with standard products and fall into arrears much more frequently. To address these issues we propose to require verification of income for all mortgage applications,” it said. > > The loans have been vilified as a significant contributor to the banks’ toxic loans problem because some customers have lied about their income. Defaults on self-cert repayments have been at much higher rates than the industry average. > > HBOS and Bradford & Bingley were among the biggest self-cert lenders. HBOS was sold to Lloyds TSB in a rescue deal in September last year and B&B collapsed and had to be partially nationalised. > > The plan to bring mortgages for landlords into the FSA’s scope for the first time was necessary the regulator said because of the big part the industry had played in “fuelling property price appreciation” > > The FSA said: “As well as being a general contributor, buy-to-let funding funding has particularly helped to inflate prices of certain property types and locations such as city centre apartments. > > “The overall impact on house prices inevitably has implications for our interest in the sustainability of the mortgage market.” > > The market for buy-to-let mortgages has grown rapidly. Gross advances grew from £3.1 billion in 1999 to £44.6 billion in 2007. > > The paper has been put out for consultation until early next year with a “feedback statement” to be published in March.

These environment variables designate a parameter that holds the value of a HTTP proxy: * `http_proxy` * `https_proxy` * `HTTP_PROXY` * `HTTPS_PROXY` It’s a convention, but the name “HTTP proxy” can only imply HTTP proxy, not a SOCKS proxy. The golang¹ standard libraries expect the above HTTP proxy parameters to specify a SOCKS proxy. How embarrassing is that? So any Go app that offers a proxy feature replicates getting the proxy kind backwards. Such as hydroxide, which requires passing a SOCKS proxy as a HTTP proxy. ¹ “Go” is such a shitty unsearchable name for a language. It’s no surprise that the developers of the language infra itself struggle with the nuances of natural language. HTTP≠SOCKS. And IIUC, this language is a product of Google. WTF. It’s the kind of amateurish screwup you would expect to come from some teenager’s mom’s basement, not a fortune 500 company among the world’s biggest tech giants. (edit) It’s a bit amusing and simultaneously disasappointing that reporting bugs and suggesting enhancements to Google’s language requires using Microsoft’s platform: https://github.com/golang/proposal#the-proposal-process FOSS developers: plz avoid Golang - it’s a shit show.

Is this Instance Down? activistPnk • 2 months ago • 100%

The cert for lemmy.sdf.org has issues. Not sure if it expired or what, but some apps report the key is unusable and only facilitate access after ~3-4 steps of authorizing the bad key. Some apps say the site is unavailable, full stop.. no option to continue. This just started today.

Europe activistPnk • 2 months ago • 78%

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11819804 > The trend in western Europe is banks are pulling out of the ATM business and joining consortiums. Then those consortiums deploy much fewer ATMs than the banks had. And they monopolise. If one or two ATM brands reject your card, you may be fucked if it’s a small city, as I recently [experienced](https://slrpnk.net/post/11373998). > > ATM alternatives are becoming increasingly essential due to ATM enshitification & sparcity. Some shops give cash back, where you have more money pulled from your bank and the cashier gives you cash from the register. The US has always been on-the-ball with cash back, even though the ATMs in the US are not the shit-show that we see in Europe lately. > > So it’s easy to find cash back options in the US because there are several compiled lists showing various stores and limits, [like this]( https://web.archive.org/web/20231003201248/https://firstquarterfinance.com/stores-that-give-cash-back/). Some shops have a fee and some not and the range of limits vary wildly. But at least there are published options. > > I’m struggling to find information like that in Europe. In part this is because “cash back” is an overloaded term that also means rebate deals (like discounts of ~1—5%), so search results are polluted. It’s bizarre there is so little info about this. So many people have become cashless that hardly anyone even notices the shit show that ATMs have [become](https://slrpnk.net/post/11373998). Hence low demand for info on cash back options. > > Cash back can be interesting for foreign card holders in Europe because they avoid ATM fees. Discovercard/Diner’s Club seems to guarantee no cash back fee and at the same time no currency exchange markup. But the data on cashback in Europe is sparse and inconsistent from one country to the next. > > * Norway shops offering cash back [refuse](https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?p=174832&sid=e75ac5848b837323e99301555bfef4ca#p174832) non-Norwegian cards. > * UK stores [require no purchase](http://web.archive.org/web/20240413180934/https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/12/more-than-2-000-shops-will-offer--cashback-without-purchase--sch/) and have no fee, but they also discriminate against non-local bank cards. > * Denmark: [local cards only](http://web.archive.org/web/20240225053417/https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/80331/can-i-have-cash-back-in-a-store-or-supermarket-in-denmark-as-its-done-in-the-st), credit cards refused. > * Spain: [no cash back service](https://www.reddit.com/r/spain/comments/2ydfac/are_there_any_stores_in_spain_that_offer_cash/) (but that article is 10 yrs old). > * Netherlands: rumour is that Albert Heijn, SPAR, and Smullers have cash back. (SPAR advertises cashback on their UK site with a locator because apparently only some locations offer it. Yet they wholly conceal this option from their Dutch website) > * Belgium: Aldi has it. But if you boycott Israel then you boycott Aldi North (all Belgian Aldis are Aldi North) > > Mastercard has a “cashback store locator” on their US website. And apparently that db is only populated with US stores. Which is a bit shitty because MC is global and they should have that information. > > I’m not getting why shops are non-transparent about this. Presumably they offer cash back potentially fee-free because they profit from whatever you’re buying. It would work on me.. if I have some confidence that I can get €200 cash back at a store, that store is sure to get my business. > > Anyway, please feel free to use this thread to crowdsource cashback info.

The trend in western Europe is banks are pulling out of the ATM business and joining consortiums. Then those consortiums deploy much fewer ATMs than the banks had. And they monopolise. If one or two ATM brands reject your card, you may be fucked if it’s a small city, as I recently [experienced]( https://web.archive.org/web/20231003201248/https://firstquarterfinance.com/stores-that-give-cash-back/). ATM alternatives are becoming increasingly essential due to ATM enshitification & sparcity. Some shops give cash back, where you have more money pulled from your bank and the cashier gives you cash from the register. The US has always been on-the-ball with cash back, even though the ATMs in the US are not the shit-show that we see in Europe lately. So it’s easy to find cash back options in the US because there are several compiled lists showing various stores and limits, [like this]( https://web.archive.org/web/20231003201248/https://firstquarterfinance.com/stores-that-give-cash-back/). Some shops have a fee and some not and the range of limits vary wildly. But at least there are published options. I’m struggling to find information like that in Europe. In part this is because “cash back” is an overloaded term that also means rebate deals (like discounts of ~1—5%), so search results are polluted. It’s bizarre there is so little info about this. So many people have become cashless that hardly anyone even notices the shit show that ATMs have [become](https://slrpnk.net/post/11373998). Hence low demand for info on cash back options. Cash back can be interesting for foreign card holders in Europe because they avoid ATM fees. Discovercard/Diner’s Club seems to [guarantee](https://web.archive.org/web/20230930165543/https://firstquarterfinance.com/cash-back-from-credit-card/) no cash back fee and at the same time no currency exchange markup. But the data on cashback in Europe is sparse and inconsistent from one country to the next. * Norway shops offering cash back [refuse](https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?p=174832&sid=e75ac5848b837323e99301555bfef4ca#p174832) non-Norwegian cards. * UK stores [require no purchase](http://web.archive.org/web/20240413180934/https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/12/more-than-2-000-shops-will-offer--cashback-without-purchase--sch/) and have no fee, but they also discriminate against non-local bank cards. Interesting that in the UK you can ask for any odd denomination including coins (unlike with ATMs and perhaps unlike cashback in other regions). * Denmark: [local cards only](http://web.archive.org/web/20240225053417/https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/80331/can-i-have-cash-back-in-a-store-or-supermarket-in-denmark-as-its-done-in-the-st), credit cards refused. * Spain: [no cash back service](https://www.reddit.com/r/spain/comments/2ydfac/are_there_any_stores_in_spain_that_offer_cash/) (but that article is 10 yrs old). * Netherlands: rumour is that Albert Heijn, SPAR, and Smullers have cash back. (SPAR advertises cashback on their UK site with a locator because apparently only some locations offer it. Yet they wholly conceal this option from their Dutch website) * Belgium: Aldi has it. But if you boycott Israel then you boycott Aldi North (all Belgian Aldis are Aldi North) Mastercard has a “cashback store locator” on their US website. And apparently that db is only populated with US stores. Which is a bit shitty because MC is global and they should have that information. I’m not getting why shops are non-transparent about this. Presumably they offer cash back potentially fee-free because they profit from whatever you’re buying. It would work on me.. if I have some confidence that I can get €200 cash back at a store, that store is sure to get my business. They also benefit from a security standpoint as there is less cash in the tills at the end of the day. Anyway, please feel free to use this thread to crowdsource cashback info.

Europe activistPnk • 2 months ago • 95%

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11683421 > The EU has quietly imposed cash limits EU-wide: > * €3k [limit](http://web.archive.org/web/20240205005538/https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/01/18/anti-money-laundering-council-and-parliament-strike-deal-on-stricter-rules/) on anonymous payments > * €10k limit regardless ([link](https://www.evz.de/en/shopping-internet/cash-payment-limitations.html) which also lists state-by-state limits). > > From the jailed¹ article: > > > An EU-wide maximum limit of €10 000 is set for cash payments, which will make it harder for criminals to launder dirty money. > > It will also strip dignity and autonomy from non-criminal adults, you nannying assholes! > > > In addition, according to the provisional agreement, obliged entities will need to identify and verify the identity of a person who carries out an occasional transaction in cash between €3 000 and €10 000. > > The hunt for “money launderers” and “terrorists” is not likely meaningfully facilitated by depriving the privacy of people involved in small €3k transactions. It’s a bogus excuse for empowering a police surveillance state. It’s a shame how quietly this apparently happened. No news or chatter about it. > > ¹ the EU’s own website is an exclusive privacy-abusing Cloudflare site inaccessible several demographics of people. Sad that we need to rely on the website of a US library to get equitable access to official EU communication. > > update > --- > The Pirate party’s [reaction](https://european-pirateparty.eu/pirates-against-eu-cash-cap-and-ban-on-anonymous-crypto-payments/) is spot on. They also point out that cryptocurrency is affected. Which in the end amounts to forced banking. > > #warOnCash

from the article: > They are not allowed to avoid this amount by making several smaller payments in banknotes. What does that mean for salaries? Every salary payment can be seen as a part of an annual income. I would demand more frequent pay days just to get some freedom back -- to be free from forced banking. Of course I would say the paychecks are not part of a whole payment but each are a whole payment for a specific amount of labor rendered. #warOnCash

The EU has quietly imposed cash limits EU-wide: * €3k [limit](http://web.archive.org/web/20240205005538/https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/01/18/anti-money-laundering-council-and-parliament-strike-deal-on-stricter-rules/) on anonymous payments * €10k limit regardless ([link](https://www.evz.de/en/shopping-internet/cash-payment-limitations.html) which also lists state-by-state limits). From the jailed¹ article: > An EU-wide maximum limit of €10 000 is set for cash payments, which will make it harder for criminals to launder dirty money. It will also strip dignity and autonomy from non-criminal adults, you nannying assholes! > In addition, according to the provisional agreement, obliged entities will need to identify and verify the identity of a person who carries out an occasional transaction in cash between €3 000 and €10 000. The hunt for “money launderers” and “terrorists” is not likely meaningfully facilitated by depriving the privacy of people involved in small €3k transactions. It’s a bogus excuse for empowering a police surveillance state. It’s a shame how quietly this apparently happened. No news or chatter about it. ¹ the EU’s own website is an exclusive privacy-abusing Cloudflare site inaccessible several demographics of people. Sad that we need to rely on the website of a US library to get equitable access to official EU communication. update --- The Pirate party’s [reaction](https://european-pirateparty.eu/pirates-against-eu-cash-cap-and-ban-on-anonymous-crypto-payments/) is spot on. They also point out that cryptocurrency is affected. Which in the end amounts to forced banking. #warOnCash

ATMs very rarely inform users before they put their card in the slot whether it’s the kind of machine that uses a motor to suck your card into the machine. If yes, then avoiding the machine is a good idea. The question is, how do you find out in advance whether the machine has a motor? Obviously if you test it on your actual valid bank card that you intend to use for the transaction, you may not get it back. So my first thought was carry expired old bank cards which can be sacrificed. Stick the card in and if a motor pulls it in, hit the cancel button and try it on the next ATM until you find an ATM that does not suck the card in. This still has issues. The machine can vary well confiscate the card merely on the basis of being expired (thus invalid). Sure, it’s a sacrificial card but I don’t have 100+ such cards to spare. And also those dead cards will have my name on them and the ATM network could blackball my name. So my next thought is to cut a rectangle from a plastic food container to use as a dummy card. It’s still dicey because criminals are deliberately sticking thin plastic sheets into card slots to cause the next real inserted card to get jammed (this is in fact one of many reasons why legit users should avoid the motorised card slots in the first place). But if you cause things to jam up, you could get treated like a criminal (camera → facial recognition.. etc). Maybe loyalty cards.. grab a stack of loyalty cards from a grocery store and use those as dummy cards. Better ideas?

Is this Instance Down? activistPnk • 2 months ago • 66%

504 Gateway Time-out

Lingva & Simply Translate are two different front-ends to Google Translate. I’m not running the software myself because I run Argos locally (for privacy), but when Argos gives a really bad translation I resort to Lingva and Simply Translate instances. I tried to translate a privacy policy. Results: Lingva instances: * translate.plausibility.cloud ← goes to lunch * lingva.lunar.icu ← gives “414 Request-URI Too Large” * lingva.ml & lingva.garudalinux.org ← fuck off Cloudflare! Obviously foolishly purpose defeating to surreptitiously expose people to CF who are trying to avoid direct Google connections. * translate.igna.wtf ← dead * translate.dr460nf1r3.org ← dead Simply Translate instances ([list of instances](https://simple-web.org/projects/simplytranslate.html) broken for me but found a year-old mirror of that): * simplytranslate.org ← just gives a blank * st.tokhmi.xyz ← up but results are just CSS garbage * translate.bus-hit.me (ST fork mozhi) ← shoots a blank result * simplytranslate.pussthecat.org ← redirects to mozhi.pussthecat.org * mozhi.pussthecat.org (ST fork mozhi) ← shoots a blank result * translate.projectsegfau.lt (ST fork mozhi) ←translates the first word then drops the rest; this instance is incorrectly listed as Lingva * translate.northboot.xyz ← up but results are just CSS garbage * st.privacydev.net ← up but results are just CSS garbage * tl.vern.cc ← up but results are just CSS garbage ~~It looks as if Simply Translate is not keeping up with Google API changes.~~ (edit: actually the CSS garbage is what we get when feeding it bulky input -- those instances work on small input) graveyard of dead sites: * simplytranslate.manerakai.com ← redirects to vacated site * translate.josias.dev * translate.riverside.rocks * translate.tiekoetter.com * simplytranslate.esmailelbob.xyz * translate.slipfox.xyz * translate.priv.pw * st.odyssey346.dev * fyng2tsmzmvxmojzbbwmfnsn2lrcyftf4cw6rk5j2v2huliazud3fjid.onion * xxtbwyb5z5bdvy2f6l2yquu5qilgkjeewno4qfknvb3lkg3nmoklitid.onion * translate.prnoid54e44a4bduq5due64jkk7wcnkxcp5kv3juncm7veptjcqudgyd.onion * simplytranslate.esmail5pdn24shtvieloeedh7ehz3nrwcdivnfhfcedl7gf4kwddhkqd.onion * tl.vernccvbvyi5qhfzyqengccj7lkove6bjot2xhh5kajhwvidqafczrad.onion * st.g4c3eya4clenolymqbpgwz3q3tawoxw56yhzk4vugqrl6dtu3ejvhjid.onion Why this is a bug --- Frond-ends and proxies exist to circumvent the anti-features of the service they are facilitating access to. So if there is a volume limitation, the front-end should be smart enough to split the content into pieces, translate the pieces separately, and reassemble. In fact that should be done anyway for privacy, to disassociate pieces of text from each other. Alternatively (and probably better), would be to have a front-end for the front-ends. Something that gives a different paragraph to several different Lingva/ST instances and reassembles the results. This would (perhaps?) link a different IP to each piece assuming the front-ends also proxy (not sure if that’s the case).

Street Complete is quite dysfunctional for me. I just get a beige background with icons (+) (-) (ø) ≡. Long tapping gives: * create new note * create new track recording * open location in another app There is no way to specify a location to edit. If I go online and turn on GPS, the screen fills with questions to answer but still no map. How do I get a map? How do I specify a location to go to?

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11375008 > Whoever designed the OSM db either never uses ATM machines or they have never experienced anything like the [ATM disaster in Netherlands](https://slrpnk.net/post/11373998). The OSM db has most ATM brands incorrect for Netherlands and seriously needs more fields so travelers can actually find a functioning ATM. > > ## brands are mostly incorrect > Pick any Dutch city. Search » Categories » custom search » Finance » ATM. The brands are mostly misinfo. These ATM brands do not exist anywhere in Netherlands: > * Rabobank > * ABN AMRO > * Ing > * SNS > > All those banks removed all their ATM machines and joined a monopolistic consortium called “Geldmaat”. There is generally an ATM at those locations but it’s always a Geldmaat ATM. So a simple find and replace is needed on all the Dutch maps. > > For indoor ATMs, the brand is often incorrectly named after the shop it’s in. That’s useful for finding it but still missing important info: the actual ATM brand. ATM brand is very important because different ATM brands give differing degrees of shitty treatment. If brand X refuses your card, all instances of that ATM brand will likely refuse your card. So the “brand” field should always reflect the ATM operator. Having a separate shop name field would be useful for locating the machine. > > # missing key attributes > Travelers should not have to spend hours running from one ATM to another until they find one that works. There are lots of basic variables that need to be accounted for in the db: > * (real or fixed point) ATM fee > * (enum set) currencies other than local (a rare but very useful option is to e.g. pull out GBP or USD in the eurozone) > * (enum set) card networks supported (visa, amex, discover, maestro, etc) > * (enum set) UI languages supported > * (integer) transaction limit for domestic cards > * (integer) transaction limit for foreign cards > * (integer set) denominations in the machine (Netherlands quietly removed all banknotes >€50 from all ATMs IIUC) > * (boolean) whether customers can control the denominations > * (boolean) indoor/outdoor (if the txn limit field is empty, indoor machines often have higher limits) > * (string) hours of operation (if indoor) > * (string) name of shop the ATM is inside (if indoor) > * (enum) whether a balance check is supported: [no | only some cards | any card]; this feature is non-existent in Belgium but common in Netherlands. Note that some ATMs only give balance on their own cards. > * (enum) whether the balance is on screen or printed to the receipt, or both > * (boolean) insertion style -- whether the card is sucked into the machine (this is very important because if the card is sucked in by a motor there is a real risk that the machine keeps the card [yes, that’s deliberate]). Motorised insertion is more reliable but carries the risk of confiscation. Manual insertion can be fussy and take many tries to get it to read the card but you never have to worry about confiscation. > * (boolean) dynamic currency conversion (DCC) > * (boolean) whether there is an earphone port for blind people (not sure if that’s always there)

Whoever designed the OSM db either never uses ATM machines or they have never experienced anything like the [ATM disaster in Netherlands](https://slrpnk.net/post/11373998). The OSM db has most ATM brands incorrect for Netherlands and seriously needs more fields so travelers can actually find a functioning ATM. ## brands are mostly incorrect Pick any Dutch city. Search » Categories » custom search » Finance » ATM. The brands are mostly misinfo. These ATM brands do not exist anywhere in Netherlands: * Rabobank * ABN AMRO * Ing * SNS All those banks removed all their ATM machines and joined a monopolistic consortium called “Geldmaat”. There is generally an ATM at those locations but it’s always a Geldmaat ATM. So a simple find and replace is needed on all the Dutch maps. For indoor ATMs, the brand is often incorrectly named after the shop it’s in. That’s useful for finding it but still missing important info: the actual ATM brand. ATM brand is very important because different ATM brands give differing degrees of shitty treatment. If brand X refuses your card, all instances of that ATM brand will likely refuse your card. So the “brand” field should always reflect the ATM operator. Having a separate shop name field would be useful for locating the machine. # missing key attributes Travelers should not have to spend hours running from one ATM to another until they find one that works. There are lots of basic variables that need to be accounted for in the db: * (real or fixed point) ATM fee * (enum set) currencies other than local (a rare but very useful option is to e.g. pull out GBP or USD in the eurozone) * (enum set) card networks supported (visa, amex, discover, maestro, etc) * (enum set) UI languages supported * (integer) transaction limit for domestic cards * (integer) transaction limit for foreign cards * (integer set) denominations in the machine (Netherlands quietly removed all banknotes >€50 from all ATMs IIUC) * (boolean) whether customers can control the denominations * (boolean) indoor/outdoor (if the txn limit field is empty, indoor machines often have higher limits) * (string) hours of operation (if indoor) * (string) name of shop the ATM is inside (if indoor) * (enum) whether a balance check is supported: [no | only some cards | any card]; this feature is non-existent in Belgium but common in Netherlands. Note that some ATMs only give balance on their own cards. * (enum) whether the balance is on screen or printed to the receipt, or both * (boolean) insertion style -- whether the card is sucked into the machine (this is very important because if the card is sucked in by a motor there is a real risk that the machine keeps the card [yes, that’s deliberate]). Motorised insertion is more reliable but carries the risk of confiscation. Manual insertion can be fussy and take many tries to get it to read the card but you never have to worry about confiscation. * (boolean) dynamic currency conversion (DCC) * (boolean) whether there is an earphone port for blind people (not sure if that’s always there)

theNetherlands activistPnk • 2 months ago • 68%

My attempt to get money out of the wall in Netherlands: card 1: foreign, visa debit, funded and in good standing, ATM withdrawal limit by the issuing bank: ~€500, worked in the past on Geldmaat, Euronet, GWK, etc. card 2: foreign, visa credit, no balance and in good standing, cash advance limit: ~€4k city A: * ATM refused card 1. Error msg falsely blamed the card. (Likely Geldmaat or Euronet ATM but did not make notes) * ATM refused card 1. Error msg falsely blamed the card. (Likely Geldmaat or Euronet ATM but did not make notes) * ATM (Geldmaat) accepted card 1. fee: €4.00. **Paid out.** * ATM (Euronet) accepted card 1. fee: €3.95. **Paid out.** city B: * ATM (Geldmaat) refused card 1 instantly before even asking for PIN. Error msg falsely blamed the card. * ATM (Geldmaat) refused card 1 instantly before even asking for PIN. Error msg falsely blamed the card. * ATM (Geldmaat) refused card 1 instantly before even asking for PIN. Error msg falsely blamed the card. * ATM (GWK) machine boarded up and permanently closed. This was the last non-Geldmaat ATM in the city. Spoke to bankers at 3 banks. Geldmaat totally monopolises this city. Not a single indepedent ATM and not a single alternative ATM network available. If the Geldmaat rejects you, you’re fucked and cannot get cash out of the wall in this city. Bankers of banks who are a part of the Geldmaat consortium are helpless. They have no way of diagnosing a broken ATM transaction. city C: * ATM (Euronet) refused card 1 after entering PIN. Error msg falsely blamed the card. * ATM (Euronet) refused card 1 after entering PIN. Error msg falsely blamed the card. * ATM (GWK) machine permanently shutdown. * ATM (GWK) machine running but card insertion broken. * ATM (GWK) accepted card 1. fee: €4.00. **Paid out.** * ATM (independant) refused request for €1k, falsely claimed card 2 issuing bank refused transaction. * ATM (GWK) refused request for €1k, falsely claimed card 2 issuing bank refused transaction. * ATM (GWK) accepted card 1. UI accepted all input, then simply neglected to dispense cash. No error msg. * ATM (GWK) accepted card 1. fee: €4.00. **Paid out.** ## false errors The obvious pattern is that the ATM always blames the card or issuing bank; never says the refusal is due to its own faults or limitations. After this shit show of card refusals I spoke to both banks. Both banks confirmed what I already knew: that the accounts are in good standing. One bank did not even see any failed ATM attempts, which means the refusal was wholly on the part of the ATM. Then that bank did a deeper check and said that the upstream payment network shows failed attempts. Which means that the card was read just fine. The ATM operator refused the cash on its side and apparently the machines are coded to knowingly and willfully print false messages. ## no transparency - secretly different treatment for foreign cards My other bank said some of the refusals were “apparently¹” due to exceeding regional limits of the ATM (not the bank’s own limits). I read somewhere that domestic EU cards can withdraw €2000 from ATMs but the same ATMs tend to impose a smaller limit of like €500 on foreign cards. These limits change with each article or person I talk to. No transparency. Obviously when ATM fees are flat it makes sense to pull out a high amount to reduce relative overhead. Being forced into small transactions increases the net fees. And since the limits are concealed, making many attempts at different amounts risks getting the account locked due to a shitty AI algo deciding multiple failed attempts resembles fraud (yes, this happened to me before). ¹ Indeed the bank could see the refusal but the bank could only speculate about why it was refused. And the bank gave some questionable conjecture, saying the daily limit on foreign cards is €400 with a transaction limit of €2000. That can only make sense if the 400 is ATM-specific and the 2k is non-ATM txns. In any case I have no trust in that info (despite coming from the bank). ## anti-competition I think the problem largely boils down to the elimination of ATM competition in Netherlands. The banks have all removed their own machines and joined a single monolithic consortium. So the yellow “Geldmaat” gets a monopoly in some cities and a near duopoly in other cities. Without competition the incentive to serve people well (with dignity, respect, and transparency) is diminishing. The biggest tourist region (Amsterdam) has the widest range of choices in NL: * Geldmaat (consortium of Ing, ABN AMRO, Rabobank, and SNS) * Euronet (no idea if any banks are involved) * GWK (these ATMs are dropping like flies & getting boarded up in many cities) * independent (hard to find, no directory) I would hope independent ATMs would be an escape from this shit show, but they are actually coming under fire now due to claims that money launderers are filling them with dirty money. So the situation will worsen. ## cash back on purchases dicey It seems like the only possible balance against the anti-competitive ATMs is to get cash back on a purchase. IIUC, this avoids fees. I did a quick check: * Albert Heijn: will only allow up to €20 in cash back * SPAR: rumored to allow up to €150 in cash back but when I tried to test this the cashier said the register had no cash. So it’s still a game of chance. * Smullers: heard speculation that they give cash back but no idea on limits. The problem with cash back will always be that you are naturally limited to what is in the register. But it would be useful to at least know what the artificial limits of different shops are. Is there any refuge from this nannying? (update: one thing that would help is [improved OpenStreetMap info](https://slrpnk.net/post/11375008))

In the Lemmy web client it used to be possible to open a new tab (control-tab) which would naturally be logged in. That goes for most websites. With Lemmy it started getting flakey (sometimes works, sometimes not). Lately it’s working less often and it seems browser flavor is a factor. Tor Browser (FF) generally works, but Ungoogled Chromium new tabs are logged out. So in UC, I have to do everything for a Lemmy instance under one tab. I wonder what kind of funny business causes session cookies to fail. My guess is they are not using session cookies for logins but rather one of the rare alternatives. update --- With just one tab running, I did a hard refresh (control-shift-R). That logged me out presumably doing the same as getting a new tab. Using the /back/ button does not recover from this.

Solarpunk Travel activistPnk • 2 months ago • 69%

Just wanted to run this idea past folks. If you generally boycott Boeing over their safety scandals or over their extreme right lobbying contributions that support that climate denying political party, but you find yourself taking a Boeing anyway (e.g. your employer books you on one), why not show up to board the plane wearing a wing suit? The idea is to convey the idea that a panel can fall off at any moment, inconveniently suck you out, and you have a sudden unplanned need to fly on your own. A parachute is likely too bulky. It’s kind of a way to make a statement. I’m not sure if the wing suit can be comfortable enough to sit in and actually simultaneously somewhat functional. Would we have to choose between sufficient comfort and sufficient gliding capability, or could we have both? It doesn’t have to be ugly. Consider those Nepalese and African pants with knee-high crotches. Those are borderline wing suits for the bottom half. When legs are spread, it could reveal something like “Boeing passenger safety pants”. I suppose the big question would be: would a Boeing pilot exercise their discretion and refuse to carry such a passenger?

zerowaste activistPnk • 2 months ago • 91%

After eating the last pickle save the jar of pickle juice. Then when a broccoli stem becomes available cut the tough outer skin off, chop it up and toss it in the pickle juice. Works well. They reach a taste that’s very close what the pickles tasted like. After 2 or 3 cycles of that the pickle juice starts losing its strong punch. Adding vinegar and a sweetener can help at that point if you don’t have more pickle juice by then. Otherwise broccoli stems are not too versatile. They’re not that great in veg. stock because they bring a bit of bitterness. So I only use like ½ a stem in a pot of broth (which is wholly from veg scraps). My next experiment (untested): reusing juice from a jar of jalapẽnos to pickle broccoli stems.

If fedi node A and node B both have an anti-spam rule, it makes good sense that when a moderator removes a post for spam that it would be removed from both nodes. But what about other cases? Lemmy is a bit blunt and nuance-lacking in this regard. For example, the parent of [this thread](https://slrpnk.net/post/1624997) was [censored](https://slrpnk.net/modlog/74921) despite not breaking any rules. More importantly, it breaks no rules on slrpnk.net. Yet [the slrpnk version](https://slrpnk.net/post/1624944) was also removed. I’m not sure exactly what the fix is. But in principle an author should be able to ask a slrpnk admin to restore the post in the slrpnk version of that community, so long as no slrpnk rules are broken by the post. It’s one thing for various nodes to federate based on having compatible side-wide rules, but they aren’t necessarily aligned 100% and there are also rogue moderators who apply a different set of rules than what’s prescribed for a community.

Is this Instance Down? activistPnk • 3 months ago • 18%

It’s probably a good thing to find that nlemmy.nl is down, considering the parent of [this thread](https://slrpnk.net/post/1624997) was [censored](https://slrpnk.net/modlog/74921) despite not breaking any rules. (update) the moderator just [admitted](https://slrpnk.net/post/11154376/9655238) the removal was to silence an idea that clashes with the moderator’s anti-cash / pro-forced-banking view. So it was not a good place for open civil discussion.. just a black hole for msgs that oppose the mod’s world view.