I live and work in Belgium since many, many years.
I always thought you were a native (be.comp.os.linux).
Yes, you need to be creative to live of the cheese, but it is possible. It is to make you survive, not to make you live well.
I would like to reason that it should be enough to survive and then some. It shouldn't be your job to squeeze every euro, it should be your job to look for a new JOB. And with today's rent and property prices (a 700 EUR/month apartment is cheap here). The 950 EUR/month final tapered-off unemployment benefits a single person, who has worked before, gets might be somewhat low ?
I have been through the mill in Belgium and I see some things.
I've been through the mill as well and have seen both sides.
People that requests special sponsored sickleave to help a sick relative. And then dump them in a home and go on a prolonged holiday in Spain.
But these are the exploits of a few, I hope. I've been at the other side, taking half time sponsored sick leave, helping my mother take care of my terminally ill father. I had to go to the doctor, pharmacist everyday because morfine is a heavily controlled substance and you only get a small quantity per prescription. I had to lift, carry, feed, clean and aid him in emptying his artifical blatter and putting on his diapers. And that was besides what the home nurses who came by twice a day did.
Again: I live in Belgium. I know the social situation and when people get thrown out of the system. I have seen the reasons with my own eyes. One example:
A peson who is a carpenter tells he can't get a job. That is a job that NEEDS people. He was proposed a job to work in a factory, but he did not feel like doing windows all day. So they trew him out.
Yes, that's very selfish. He chooses to be unemployed and do jobs on the side because it gives him a higher standard of living compared to a regular job.
It is supposed to be a safety net, so you can get back on your feet. If your SO has a high income, you do not need that net. She is that net.
That rule kills relationships and under certain circumstances that "high income" might not be as high as you think.
And there are plenty of places where people can go to for advice. The only confusing part is to select WHERE to get your information. OCMW is one. VDAB is another, Your Union a third (if you are unemployed). And they will at least point you in the right direction.
Yes, it's so confusing that there are even services (CAW) that try to help you find your way to the right department or medical professional:S.
You know, that tells me that the system works. I'm sure you had your reasons,
Not really, I was "mooching" back then. I was young, irresponsible, selfish and just plain lazy. But thanks to the efforts of my work-guidance-counsellor (outsourced by the VDAB) who put his foot up my ass, I applied myself and got a job. It did take quite a few resumee letters (+50) and a handful of auditions.
The other times I tried to apply for welfare was for critical medical issues for myself or my recently deceased father and mother.
I don't think it's the hoops that are the problem, it's the fact that they are an ever-changing target. Every year the government tries to cut the increasing social security costs to "balance the budget". And every new government has their own ideas on how to do that. New sub-departments sprout, responsibilities get shifted between them and the rules are "fine-tuned" Because these things change at the whim of the political zeitgeist, even the people who should know, are rarely up to date and ping-pong you between all the different departments (VDAB, RVA, Riziv, OCMW, Hvw, Union, Medical Insurrance).
but most of whom are just lazy and happy to live off government cheese.
Have you ever lived of "government cheese" ? It's not much, you often have to be very very creative to survive on it. You don't always get it neither: you're not handicapped enough, you have inherited 1/16 of family property (which you can't sell) or have a significant other with a high paying fulltime job. And if you do finally manage to get it, it binds you to another exhausting set of rules and restrictions. For me it was eventually just easier to get a job than to plough through all the bureaucracy and this is in socialist paradise (Belgium). But there are people out there who are discarded by the social system and have to "mooch" of their relatives because their papers don't have the right stamps or they can't make heads or tails of this always-changing process.
Though to be honest, if your operation hinges on in-place distribution upgrades on production systems, you've got bigger problems.
As someone who was originally hhired for IT janitor work. I find myself in the uncomfortable situation of suddenly being responsible for the ancient linux infrastructure. I would like to know what you think the proper procedure for upgrading a production server would be. Personally I would do an in place upgrade after I've tested it on a cloned system, restored from a recent backup on a local VM. I assume most of you have Virtual Infrastructure and configuration management (puppet, chef) in place. And spin up an upgraded VM and rebuild the server in its entirety ? Any insights will be greatly appreciated.
Just out of curiosity what exactly made the GNU tools so liberating in comparison to the proprietary implementations ? I can't imagine the tools being as feature filled or stable as they are now, so was it price (compilers) ?
Actually it's 2 different but closely related HP technologies. First it was an expensive addon network module that gave network printing capabilities (LPD and later IPP as well) to HP's printers. Later it also became a HP network service that listens on port 9100 This brings forth a confusing situation where you have to setup the JetDirect module on old printers (HP 4250) to be able to networkprint non JetDirect protocols:S.
Yeah but couldn't we try a dictionary first, plus I don't think people like inputting long passcodes on a selfphone.
I should really read up on this stuff but it's hard.
If you manage to dump the memory contents without tripping any protections that cause shit to be wiped you'll need to brute force a random 256-bit key.
Well I didn't say it would be easy:D.
Otherwise, you'd need to clone the whole fucking phone, including the hardened security chip, because it nukes the key after 10 failed attempts by default.
And Apple can't bypass their security chip, make the dump and hand it out to the FBI ?
Just but in Windows the LD_LIBRARY_PATH analog always includes the current working directory and application directory and a lot of applications have come to depend on that. This (binary planting) is also the reason why everybody on Linux warns you about setting PATH to include CWD, of if you really have to to append it at the back.
To safeguard myself from accidentally, executing possible dangerous command lines.
I've trained myself into using the following precautionary routine (sh shell):
- Start the line with a comment (#)
- Create the command line
- Inspect
- Remove the shebang
- Run
While this doesn't safe me much from bad commands if I fail or neglect inspection it does
safe me from pressing the enter key erroneously. Which happens a lot more since the key varies in size and placement and important shell letters surround it.
amusingly her first name is Femke which literally means "girl" or "little woman" (see French "femme")
It's a very common dutch name in Flanders. And in 2002 it was the 6th most used female babyname, coincidentally in that same year a new character named Femke appeared on a popular local tv soap.
You mean, you troll? Because there's nothing stopping you from leaving a comment saying "hey, could someone explain so and so?" so the only reason not to attach your name would be if you were going to leave some inflammatory bullshit and you didn't want to harm your karma score.
Yes and No, I don't want to be attacked personally for being ignorant. But yes occasionally I do vent provocative vitriol (not always as AC though). And for that I would like to apologize.
I agree, we need the liberty to post AC so "con-conformist"/contraversial ideas or uncomfortable issues can get attention. I sometimes post AC myself on a topic I want to know more about to incite knowledgeable people to inform me for example. Maybe we should only allow anonymous posts from real accounts, so the drive-by AC's and lazy trolls can't abuse it. Like an anonymous "idea box" in an office. It's sort of anonymous but only from the people who are employees.
Slashdot Mirror
Nevermind, my reading comprehension failed yet again.
It seems you were discussing the neighbouring countries' governments.
Belgium currently has a rather conservative "rightist" government.
Is that a real expiration date or just the maximum they can put on the label ?
I always thought you were a native (be.comp.os.linux).
I would like to reason that it should be enough to survive and then some.
It shouldn't be your job to squeeze every euro, it should be your job to look for a new JOB.
And with today's rent and property prices (a 700 EUR/month apartment is cheap here).
The 950 EUR/month final tapered-off unemployment benefits a single person, who has worked before, gets might be somewhat low ?
I've been through the mill as well and have seen both sides.
People that requests special sponsored sickleave to help a sick relative.
And then dump them in a home and go on a prolonged holiday in Spain.
But these are the exploits of a few, I hope.
I've been at the other side, taking half time sponsored sick leave, helping my mother take care of my terminally ill father.
I had to go to the doctor, pharmacist everyday because morfine is a heavily controlled substance and you only get a small quantity per prescription.
I had to lift, carry, feed, clean and aid him in emptying his artifical blatter and putting on his diapers.
And that was besides what the home nurses who came by twice a day did.
Yes, that's very selfish. He chooses to be unemployed and do jobs
on the side because it gives him a higher standard of living compared to a regular job.
That rule kills relationships and under certain circumstances that "high income" might not be as high as you think.
Yes, it's so confusing that there are even services (CAW) that try to help you find your way to the right department or medical professional :S.
Not really, I was "mooching" back then. I was young, irresponsible, selfish and just plain lazy.
But thanks to the efforts of my work-guidance-counsellor (outsourced by the VDAB) who put his foot up my ass,
I applied myself and got a job. It did take quite a few resumee letters (+50) and a handful of auditions.
The other times I tried to apply for welfare was for critical medical issues for myself or my recently deceased father and mother.
I don't think it's the hoops that are the problem, it's the fact that they are an ever-changing target.
Every year the government tries to cut the increasing social security costs to "balance the budget". And every new government has their own ideas on how to do that.
New sub-departments sprout, responsibilities get shifted between them and the rules are "fine-tuned"
Because these things change at the whim of the political zeitgeist, even the people who should know, are rarely up to date and ping-pong you between all the different departments (VDAB, RVA, Riziv, OCMW, Hvw, Union, Medical Insurrance).
Have you ever lived of "government cheese" ? It's not much, you often have to be very very creative to survive on it.
You don't always get it neither: you're not handicapped enough, you have inherited 1/16 of family property (which you can't sell) or have a significant other with a high paying fulltime job.
And if you do finally manage to get it, it binds you to another exhausting set of rules and restrictions.
For me it was eventually just easier to get a job than to plough through all the bureaucracy and this is in socialist paradise (Belgium).
But there are people out there who are discarded by the social system and have to "mooch" of their relatives because
their papers don't have the right stamps or they can't make heads or tails of this always-changing process.
As someone who was originally hhired for IT janitor work. I find myself in the uncomfortable situation of suddenly being responsible for the ancient linux infrastructure. I would like to know what you think the proper procedure for upgrading a production server would be. Personally I would do an in place upgrade after I've tested it on a cloned system, restored from a recent backup on a local VM. I assume most of you have Virtual Infrastructure and configuration management (puppet, chef) in place. And spin up an upgraded VM and rebuild the server in its entirety ? Any insights will be greatly appreciated.
Seconded, thank you for clearing up a lot of questions I had and more.
I've linked to it on other local techsites.
Sure but I'm asking about GNU userland on commercial Unixes not Linux on your 386/486 at home :D.
Just out of curiosity what exactly made the GNU tools so liberating in comparison to the proprietary implementations ? I can't imagine the tools being as feature filled or stable as they are now, so was it price (compilers) ?
Actually it's 2 different but closely related HP technologies. :S.
First it was an expensive addon network module that gave network printing capabilities (LPD and later IPP as well) to HP's printers.
Later it also became a HP network service that listens on port 9100
This brings forth a confusing situation where you have to setup the JetDirect module on old printers (HP 4250) to be able to networkprint non JetDirect protocols
So the iPhone is one of the best physically secured commodity devices these days, wow.
Yeah but couldn't we try a dictionary first, plus I don't think people like inputting long passcodes on a selfphone.
I should really read up on this stuff but it's hard.
Well I didn't say it would be easy :D.
And Apple can't bypass their security chip, make the dump and hand it out to the FBI ?
Can't they just open the device, dump the data & OS and try to bruteforce that without using the iphone passcode system ?
No but you can look at its code to help you implement a kernel mode implementation. Or is that not allowed ?
Just but in Windows the LD_LIBRARY_PATH analog always includes the current working directory and application directory and a lot of applications have come to depend on that.
This (binary planting) is also the reason why everybody on Linux warns you about setting PATH to include CWD, of if you really have to to append it at the back.
But a plane gets lighter as it uses up its energy. I don't think you can drop your empty battery cells during flight :D.
What about the situation where you want to rm safely with pathname expansion (globbing) ?
rm -rf -- *
Right, I have no idea why I made that mistake, I should know better :S.
It does interfere with auto completion but not on filepaths.
To safeguard myself from accidentally, executing possible dangerous command lines.
I've trained myself into using the following precautionary routine (sh shell):
- Start the line with a comment (#)
- Create the command line
- Inspect
- Remove the shebang
- Run
While this doesn't safe me much from bad commands if I fail or neglect inspection it does
safe me from pressing the enter key erroneously. Which happens a lot more since the key varies in size and placement and important shell letters surround it.
It's a very common dutch name in Flanders.
And in 2002 it was the 6th most used female babyname, coincidentally in that same year a new character named Femke appeared on a popular local tv soap.
Yes and No, I don't want to be attacked personally for being ignorant. But yes occasionally I do vent provocative vitriol (not always as AC though). And for that I would like to apologize.
I agree, we need the liberty to post AC so "con-conformist"/contraversial ideas or uncomfortable issues can get attention.
I sometimes post AC myself on a topic I want to know more about to incite knowledgeable people to inform me for example.
Maybe we should only allow anonymous posts from real accounts, so the drive-by AC's and lazy trolls can't abuse it.
Like an anonymous "idea box" in an office. It's sort of anonymous but only from the people who are employees.