borumpilot's comments

borumpilot | 5 years ago | on: Old bills in Yemen are worth 10% more than new ones

Anacdotal:

Late 80's (cant pinpoint the exact year) I spend some time on the Sinai Peninsula and the local Bedouin would not accept freshly printed Egyptian Dollars but only the old ones. They figured we had be Israeli who printed our own money and tried to rip them off.

We had to exchange (read: pay a 10% fee) the new bills with old bills from taxi drivers.

borumpilot | 6 years ago | on: Things to Know for Your First Remote Job

So the original blog title is:

3 Things To Know For Your First Remote Job.

And it is really just three things. - Know your timezones - Map your day in blocks of time - Know your tools (chat, documentation etc.)

Well that might work for some type of jobs, I know for mine that I need a little more. "Map your day in blocks of time" would be all cool when there are no timezones to worry about. Cool when you can claim you do meetings just 3 hours a day, I know I can not with members all over the globe.

What I needed to find out the hard way, and find myself explaining to new team members is: - Setup your cam so that your background is clean (no roommates / family members entering the picture unintentional) - Get a SUPERB headphone with an EXCELLENT microphone - Turn your mic to MUTE when you are not talking - No, interruptions in a conversation do not work like when face to face, specifically not with more then 2 remote people in the meeting - Wear "professional" clothing (even if it just the shirt) - Do not eat or drink while in a meeting - Your cool click clack keyboard makes a lot of noise - We hear your mother scream in the background - Practice makes perfect: do take some time to setup your cam / mic / background / whatever in a one on one session with a more experienced colleague.

borumpilot | 6 years ago | on: Own Your Weird

"I love the book and so should you". Nothing more then something that looks like an add on a website.

Saved you 3 minutes there.

borumpilot | 6 years ago | on: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

How to fight and take a punch.

People are capable of taking much more punishment then they think. With an hour of practice, you can overcome the initial fear and act much more rational when push comes to shove.

I understand that this is not just "intense concentration" while sitting behind your desk, but that is exactly the point of learning, get out of your bubble.

borumpilot | 6 years ago | on: New SIM attacks de-mystified, protection tools now available

Err, no. That describes one (relatively new) attack called Simjacker.

This article / link describes this and a possible other attack (also an applet on the SIM card, calle Wireless Internet Browser (WIB)) AND a way to test if your sim card is vulnerable plus mitigation measures (hint: do not allow MSL (Minimum Security Level) zero).

borumpilot | 6 years ago | on: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

You might as well flag this since there is no way to access the referred to data sources (and I am pretty sure there is quite a lot of actual information lost in translation).

Source: I'm Swiss, read everything I could find, nothing even comes close to "apps like Whatsapp send pictures to the Swiss police". More in the direction of: pictures get sent by US LE to Swiss LE and the volume is growing over the last couple of years.

borumpilot | 6 years ago | on: The Awkward but Essential Art of Office Chitchat

For me and my wife that works basically the same, but I have found method to the madness.

1. She loves it when I come to save her when the tone of the spontaneous discussion is not to her liking and nothing kills said discussions faster then me participating.

2. When I strike it, my conversations tends to be very subject focused and will leave me and the other person smarter and more informed.

So what I do now is either I stand beside her and try to enjoy the (for me) meaningless chatter (I really like the high pitched voices of socially engaged people), or I will try to find that one other weirdo in the room who holds a ton of knowledge in an area that I'm completely blank about and suck as much as possible information out of them.

That is where my 35 years of continence improvement have led me. YMMV.

borumpilot | 6 years ago | on: San Francisco Bans Cashless Stores

> Living in Zurich

I live in Bern, so I know what heavenly security feels like.

> The famed coffee shops must have quite advanced logistics

They do, but that starts with the (ridicules) law that (permited) coffeeshops can not hold more then 500 grams of the stuff they sell at any given moment. This means there is a constant flow of new material coming in from safe houses, which are prime targets for rippers & pissed of police.

So the quite advanced logistics start there. Know where to hide your surplus, protect it, transport it and on return take the money to a safe place.

> It's weird: Nowadays I visit Amsterdam for museums and culture

That dates you. The (Amsterdam) locals recognize 3 age & target groups. <25 coffeeshops, >25 Red light district, >35 the arts ;)

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