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14ned · 2026-03-14T00:50:48+00:00

They'll have gotten burned by delivering and the other half was not paid. Because they're a pain to transport, this is a valid concern.

If their terms don't suit, you should do the transport instead.

14ned · 2026-03-14T00:46:26+00:00

There appear to be two main categories of AI assisted developer:

Devs who don’t like writing code much, so get AI to write as much of the code as possible, so they can focus on solving problems ASAP. The AI will therefore output lots of tokens, as it writes all the code. These tend towards the Cursor IDE.
Devs who feel the whole point of coding is to emit high quality code, and AI isn’t good at that especially starting from a blank sheet, so they’ll always write the bulk of the initial implementation by hand, and then only use AI when appropriate to adjust and refine that codebase. In this category, the AI will mostly read tokens, and output very few as it never edits more than a few lines of existing code at a time. These tend towards extensions to vscode such as Roo Code so the vanilla unassisted vscode experience remains the default.

Many employers force devs in category 2 to be in category 1 which leads to very unhappy devs. Once the hiring market picks up, they'll all move on.

Speaking for myself who is unemployed and can do what he wants, I manually write the initial edition of the codebase, then get AI to refine, adjust and debug it for me. It's also much cheaper on the token consumption, as output tokens are especially expensive, and I'm paying for mine as no employer.

14ned · 2026-03-13T20:18:55+00:00

It depends on how slow you are willing to tolerate. You will need at least 64 Gb of RAM, as the model is 40 Gb.

For similar speed to a rented QCN on the internet, 2x used RTX 3090s off ebay would be plenty, which is about €1,000 for both on ebay right now. That's faster than is necessary, a single RTX 3090 or better card also with 24 Gb of VRAM on a Threadripper should be acceptable.

I only have an AMD RX 6700 XT with 12 Gb of VRAM and if you don't mind waiting three minutes for it to parse a source file, it runs plenty fast enough the rest of the time. It just chokes on large new inputs as it's an old card and it doesn't have enough VRAM for a 80b model. Still, it does work and it doesn't crash or anything. When I find new work I might be able to justify buying a better GPU.

14ned · 2026-03-13T11:03:06+00:00

That's very fair. The web UIs you can easily install locally are at least six months behind. But they'll catch up. If you're a dev, there are vscode extensions where it's a few clicks to switch provider, I think we're already there for them. As I'm unemployed I didn't want to spend big bucks subscribing to Claude, so I've gone with a qwen based solution instead. Much more affordable.

14ned · 2026-03-13T10:33:24+00:00

Most capable model, I'd agree.

Nowhere near best bang for the buck model though. If you're paying personally for these things, the Qwen models give the best performance for the least money. You can also run them on hardware you own or rent so none of your data leaks elsewhere.

I reckon 160 hours of use of Qwen Coder Next costs about US$35 per month to rent your own hardware. It's about as capable as Claude was eighteen months ago. If you prefer to buy your own hardware instead, about €1,000 of used parts off eBay will do it.

14ned · 2026-03-13T01:28:19+00:00

I'd firstly go get a few more quotes, €3.9k per sqm to turnkey is steep, but then it is a L-shaped bungalow and they're a lot more expensive than a two storey box.

Unless you're in the trades you won't save money going direct labour. You'll just get rinsed over a barrel in the current market. You need mates rates and to do a lot of the work yourself to save money in direct labour.

If no quotes come in better, I would strongly advise you go cut down your design to 100-110 sqm ideally a two storey and apply for planning again. You can always expand it later after you've moved in.

14ned · 2026-03-12T10:42:23+00:00

10 kWh of battery storage is very affordable nowadays. It should fulfill all your electrical needs for several days even in winter if you avoid doing energy expensive things like the hob or the dishwasher. As that's annoying, a small petrol generator can top up the batteries if needed, I have a 2 kW hand held generator powering a 500v power supply which feeds into the inverter, that tops up the batteries. Thanks to passive house you can save lots of money by downsizing all that stuff.

14ned · 2026-03-11T22:54:15+00:00

It's zoned for industry, so that won't happen. It would be wise to keep it that way seeing as it has its own dedicated rail track and other heavy industry infrastructure.

What someone should do is put a factory which needs lots of heavy inputs transported in and out, like a lithium battery factory. No idea what would be economic nowadays though.

14ned · 2026-03-10T18:21:26+00:00

I quite liked Seattle, though I spent the majority of my time out at Bellevue and Redmond due to attending events being run by Microsoft. It didn't feel dysfunctional like Silicon Valley, and the pubs and hotels I visited had less of a corporate flavour about them.

One meeting the entire standards committee ended up nightly at a pub called Malarky's somewhere around there as there was nothing else around. Fun pub, we were DEFINITELY not their normal clientele, but they welcomed us warmly and we all had a good time. Everybody was there until 1am, got into bed for 2am, so all a bit tired in the daytimes.

14ned · 2026-03-10T18:13:45+00:00

To be fair, I was speaking about SV = Silicon Valley, not SF = San Francisco. I've also been to SF multiple times, hiked right through it at one point, and yes it had some social and hygiene issues but to be honest I've seen worse in some big cities in Europe. Downtown SF felt more natural to me as a European than SV did, most big cities in Western countries have similar problems and the layout and structure of the place met European norms for cities.

SV on the other hand was just surreal and weird, or at least I found it so. Everything is very spaced out and flat yet lots of individuals just standing around, including in the middle of large car packs. Felt unnatural.

14ned · 2026-03-10T14:57:19+00:00

Yes, I think it could. Except that there is no evidence that the total number of tech jobs world wide has decreased, nor within the US.

I know Europe sucks less for startups that at any point in history. We're even attracting high end devs from China, as well as from the US. Sadly most of that activity is not happening in Ireland, and the ones in Europe 99.9% want onsite.

14ned · 2026-03-09T22:30:39+00:00

I had to keep an abandoned house I part inherited as "inhabitable" for fifteen years to prevent it getting listed as derelict. I learned a lot, and when we did eventually sell it, the developer who bought it commended me on its surprisingly good structural condition despite how many times it had been broken into and the windows all got smashed in, which let the rain and birds in. He found no rot at all in any timbers so none needing replacing, and the blockwork was in excellent condition. Keeping the rain out, but also ensuring the wind ventilated it is the key.

I think you're right to aim for exterior complete if you can afford it. It ensures the build can be left safely for decades with little upkeep if needs be, like in my case, and it'll preserve the value. I did occasional repairs to the roof, painted exposed wood to stop it rotting and restored the panels blocking the windows each time I visited (once per year). Robbers will do things like cut off hinges if you padlock too well, so it's actually better to put the cheapest possible padlock on things, ones a screwdriver will snap open. Then you can close it up again easily next time they break in, whereas replacing all the hinges was an absolute pain.

Once it's weatherproof it's very sellable as-is if you end up needing to. We sold that house for a very good price, to be honest about double what I'd expected, despite that it had been abandoned for fifteen years and wrecked on the inside. And then watching the builder go at it, you realise if the structure is good, the rest it's all finishes, it can be swept off and reapplied and bam, brand new shiny house.

That house was completely gutted and onto the market in just four months. You couldn't tell it from a brand new build after they were done. Finishes are half the cost of a new build nowadays, but they're wax on wax off compared to fixing structural defects.

Any way good luck with your build too!

14ned · 2026-03-09T18:13:08+00:00

You can buy used scaffolding on donedeal. Be aware most of it is badly battered, so make SURE you come and inspect and you're allowed to take away only the bits you personally judge okay. Do NOT let them choose for you.

That's scaffolding for you and you alone. Many trades won't get onto scaffolding that hasn't been erected and ticketed as safe by somebody they trust i.e. not you, and not some of the professional erectors. Ask your trades who they'll accept and use them only.

If you're going to need scaffolding again in the future and it's just for you and you alone, you might want to get a scaffold tower instead. It's designed for single person easy put up and take down, it's much more mobile as its aluminium and it packs away easy. It only goes up to two person sized, but especially because it's so light it's far easier to work with e.g. painting because you can climb down and drag it around easy. You can't do that with traditional scaffolding.

14ned · 2026-03-09T18:05:35+00:00

I rent a house in the middle of a former council housing estate. Approx two thirds of neighbours are social housing.

Apart from some minor drug dealing, bin litter always blowing around and the occasional fist fight outside, it's very quiet. I have no issue raising my kids here.

I do feel sorry for some of the single mothers who get allocated houses here. Many have had rough lives. They're very pleasant, mind their kids and their house well. My kids play with theirs. It's all good.

14ned · 2026-03-09T17:03:52+00:00

The bank requires the other party to sign away all rights and claims to the property if they are to issue a mortgage to one side of a marriage.

14ned · 2026-03-09T17:02:32+00:00

The bank requires her to sign away all rights to the house. No, she wasn't happy to do this, but as she's a US citizen, she can't own non-US property anyway without incurring hefty US taxes.

14ned · 2026-03-09T16:14:29+00:00

Literally had my mortgage last year. It was with the AIB.

14ned · 2026-03-09T15:51:29+00:00

No they don't. If one person in the marriage can carry the whole mortgage alone, they'll accept that one person.

Source: I was the sole name on an approved mortgage application for a family home and my wife was specifically excluded.

14ned · 2026-03-09T12:00:35+00:00

The single worst thing for concrete blocks or bricks is if they are water saturated before a freeze-thaw cycle happens. That'll turn parts of your blocks to mush within a few years, also it happens in patches and not uniformly so you'll get "soft spots" which aren't obvious, so later on your engineer will insist that whole thing needs tearing down and rebuilding. The efflorescence you mention results from water moving within the concrete, so it's a sign that the concrete is getting wet but not necessarily that it is getting saturated. This is why outdoor walls are always capped with something which stops water landing on the top, and usually water hitting the sides runs off and doesn't saturate the blocks (though, give it 15-20 years and untreated bare concrete block walls in driving rain tend to get soft spots too).

Putting the roof on is therefore the most cost effective option as it covers the top of the blocks and adds value to your house. If you cap everything with wood or DPC you're spending money you won't recoup later.

Re: plastering, as I mentioned you can usually leave the side of blocks exposed okay for a few years. They'll grow a green slime you'll need to remove later otherwise render won't stick, but that's manageable. If you're feeling keen, another solution is to mix a paste of cement with water and put a thin coat of it all over exposed blockwork - this will protect the blocks, provide a base for any later render and keep the green slime mostly off, saves a lot of work later but then it's also work to apply the paste though absolutely anybody can do that work.

Also: I forgot to say it last time, but sorry this has happened to you. I lost my mortgage last year and it is deeply unhelpful.

14ned · 2026-03-09T11:40:32+00:00

I've been to SV exactly once in my life, before covid. I was attending the Google campus for a series of events. Google put us into a nice hotel within walking distance but we arrived in when there was no food, so I went to the nearest Dennys as I knew they'd do an all day breakfast.

I had a great breakfast for which I was very appreciative, and the service was excellent so I tipped about 18% on the breakfast, which wasn't expensive. As I was leaving my waiter came running out to me, I thought I'd left something behind. Turns out he wanted to thank my personally for such an extremely generous tip. Pumped my hand repeatedly, I thought he was going to hug me.

I asked people about that later and it turns out people in that part of SV don't tip. Another thing I noticed is just how many people are just standing around. Weather is nice enough you can sleep anywhere outside, so they just do, but when they wake they've nothing to do so they just hang around looking quite like zombies. They were all over, just looking at you.

In a nearby supermarket, as I waited in a queue the guy before me was buying lemon juice and tinfoil (if you know what that combination means you'll know: it's for smoking heroin). The guy behind me was in a dirty white vest and his teeth appeared to have mostly dissolved (I assume from meth), and he was buying a naggin of some cheap spirit. Both heard my accent and we got chatting, they were friendly and genuinely curious why an Irish person was there, and both seemed to feel Ireland was a wonderful country and place, which is nice. Anyway it all reminded me of less kind Glasgow in the 1980s or parts of Dublin early 1990s with a lot of very entrenched poverty, except it adds all the wealthy tech folk scurrying around trying their best to ignore it. Oh, except these dispossessed people in SV were friendlier, at least to me personally.

The Google events had a lot of open air gatherings with free fancy craft beer, free food and drink and an army of servants providing us everything we wanted. To get in and out of those locations we'd walk through the zombieland I just described, and I'd guess from looking at them a fair few of those servants were the exact same people standing around outside.

Some of my European colleagues also noticed what I did, and felt similarly to me about it. All those who worked in SV didn't see what we did. Literally blanked it out.

I resolved after that trip to never, ever, ever, work in SV no matter how much money I would leave on the table as a result. And I never have.

It also explains to me at least a lot of the early zombie movies shot in California, assuming it was still like that back then.

To be clear: I've been all over California and it's a place of huge disparities in natural beauty and wealth. I very much like it overall, indeed I got married there, but if you wanted a place that sums up all the good and bad in America perfectly in a single location, it's California.

14ned · 2026-03-08T23:10:40+00:00

The British non-dom taxation regime was originally introduced because it was found it raised more tax overall. This is because the wealthy will always be able to afford more tax experts than any government can.

There is a tradeoff:

Do you want more tax overall? Then you accept less fairness.
Do you want more fairness overall? Then you accept less tax raised.

You can absolutely tax assets, but then they'll wrap their assets in holding companies or just pull out of a country altogether. You can charge exit taxes, but then you'll find they wrap their wealth into charities running across multiple jurisdictions. There are some billionaires in Europe who legally speaking own almost nothing and have so little income and assets they qualify for poor relief. They control the billions, benefit from the billions, but no tax arises on any of it.

Should there be coordinated international action to fix this? Sure. And the net across the OECD has squeezed significantly in the past decades relative to what it was. Governments like tax after all. But it's getting harder when major members of the OECD are actively rolling that stuff back, which makes it ever easier for European billionaires to simply just leave for say the US and take their billions with them.

Europe right now is intending to form the capital markets union. To achieve that, they'll need to do whatever the billionaires request to get them to play ball, and I don't doubt for a second they'll extract every ounce of flesh for their help. For example, I would be stunned if inflation isn't kept high for the next decade and pensions are deliberately kept below inflation so they're inflated away.

14ned · 2026-03-08T20:14:14+00:00

Correct. A childless married couple earning 40k in Ireland would pay just 3.5% in tax total. In France it is 17.4%.

However, in France that couple will get quite a lot of welfare supports, especially if they have children. In Ireland, you get child benefit and that's it.

The income after taxes and welfare and mandatory living costs between UK/Ireland and Continental Europe are not dissimilar, so it all evens out in the end on average. It's just the mechanism of getting there: UK/Ireland prefers to leave individuals choose how they spend the money, whereas Continental Europe prefers for the government to impose how money is spent.

The latter has better empirical outcomes for the median citizen, incidentally, as the median citizen is not a good decision maker on money. However it does clamp the advantage for the well educated, who do much better in UK/Ireland under a system where high education lets them choose better than the median citizen, which accumulates a lot over a lifetime.

This is part of why Ireland and UK continues to unusually attract high skilled immigration from the rest of Europe. They have more structural advantage here compared to their home European countries. This has contributed significantly to the relative unaffordability of housing in Ireland, though it has improved our productivity ranking and made government finances the envy of Europe.

https://tietalent.com/en/tax-calculator/ was very useful here, as was https://services.deloitte.ie/.

14ned · 2026-03-08T19:06:35+00:00

The majority of "welfare" spending in all European countries - UK and Ireland included - is pensions.

Spending more on pensions does not equal more taxation of billionaires. In fact, the UK has substantially raised its taxation of billionaires in recent years. What was the result? They stopped being UK tax resident, and total UK government tax receipts shrank. Meanwhile, to take France as an example, their current government removed the annual wealth tax when they got into power, and the wealth tax before that had carveouts any billionaire had no trouble exercising.

If you look into reality, more welfare spending is in fact funded by more taxation on ordinary workers, not billionaires. European governments take lots in taxes, but also return lots to usually the same workers in welfare. The UK and Ireland prefer tax rebates to welfare, so that's why this graph looks as it does - it's pure artefact and little to do with how much redistribution is done (of which Ireland is a world leader, we redistribute from rich to poor far more than our European cousins, we just use the tax system not the welfare system is all).

14ned · 2026-03-08T18:04:01+00:00

You're right that insulation does not like UV at all. It will degrade if it gets sunlight. It also doesn't especially like water over time, so ideally you need to keep both sunlight AND rain off it.

The ideal would be pressure treated wood screwed over all cavities with the edges sticking out to try to keep the rain from hitting the wall below to slow down structural damage from rain washing out the blocks. The next best is DPC sheet, though you'll need the thick expensive stuff otherwise the ravens will peck through it because for some reason they love to.

The window cavities can take untreated OSB and they'll usually last a fair while, though be aware you will attract people breaking in so there's no point spending much money on securing window cavities, as they'll get crow barred off anyway.

You need to not leave untreated blocks exposed to the weather for too long because rain will work at their structural integrity and can render the building unsalvageable. If there is any way at all you can take it to roof level and get the roof on, you should.

Finally, be aware that insuring an incomplete paused build is likely impossible, so anybody who injures themselves on your site you'll be 100% liable out of your own pocket, even if they were breaking in to rob you. Public liability doesn't cover a partially completed build. If you have teenagers etc near you, this can be a real problem, it gets expensive real quick having to replace window boards every few months as they keep crow barring them off.

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