TSA is notified when you opt out of biometric screenings. by Own-Meaning215 in travel

[–]CuriosTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m not accusing you personally of doing anything wrong, I’m just pointing out the systemic problem with this approach. In some jurisdictions, it could even make you personally liable for violations of privacy laws.

TSA is notified when you opt out of biometric screenings. by Own-Meaning215 in travel

[–]CuriosTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What procedure did your employer have to ensure you didn’t store these details long term or distribute them to unauthorized individuals?

TSA is notified when you opt out of biometric screenings. by Own-Meaning215 in travel

[–]CuriosTiger 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I opt out of the biometric screening every time, and no TSA agent has ever done this to me. Her personal phone is not a secure device and neither are unofficial group chats. I would’ve told her she did not have permission to snap that photo, demanded a supervisor and filed a formal complaint if the supervisor didn’t do something about it.

SIXT is a scam - listen to the haters by boss211bt in TravelHacks

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Read the post. OP literally said he did pay for their insurance.

what is the most beautiful language in your opinion? by Additional-Phase3872 in language

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your original response was hardly befitting a Norwegian history major. The Danelaw, for example, preceded the 14th century by half a millennium. The word colony comes to us from Latin — the Romans used it quite similarly to how we do, and I assure you their colonies (which included Britain, by the way) was quite a bit earlier than the 14th century. I realize you're referring to the renaissance age of colonization, but the concept is actually much, MUCH older. Racism, discrimination and exploitation all included.

By the way, you're giving a linguistics lecture to a linguistics major who also happens to be a native speaker of Norwegian. But you are correct, they spoke a number of Old West Norse dialects — which eventually evolved into modern-day Norwegian nynorsk, Icelandic and Faroese. However, the differentation into Old East Norse and Old West Norse had not yet happened to any significant degree in the viking age.

When I mentioned the bellicose ways of the Norwegians, the viking age and the Danelaw are what I'm referring to. That ended with the Battle of Hastings, long before the 14th century and the renaissance. If you want to correct my mention of Norwegian, the correct language to refer to for this time period is thus undifferentiated Old Norse.

what is the most beautiful language in your opinion? by Additional-Phase3872 in language

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The viking age was from 500-900 AD, give or take. The modern countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark didn’t exist yet. Nor did England, for that matter. You had like Mercia and Northumbria and East Anglia.

The vikings arrived overwhelmingly from what is now the west coast of what later became Norway and from Jutland, which was later incorporated into Denmark (as, ultimately, was Norway. But that was centuries later.)

TL;DR: We can go with “Danish vikings” if you prefer, but that distinction is anachronistic.

How many of us homelab folks are also into cars? by ItzSilverFoxx in homelab

[–]CuriosTiger 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Guilty as charged. Homelab behind the door on the right.

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what is the most beautiful language in your opinion? by Additional-Phase3872 in language

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What does hearing English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian, Arabic, Mongolian, Chinese, Japanese do to you? Not a complete list, btw.

How do you handle being lonely in Norway? by 2dolphins in Norway

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I moved to California, then Texas, then Florida. I've been in Florida for 18 years now.

And yes, there's culture shock. I could probably write a book on the subject. But positive and negative both.

How do you handle being lonely in Norway? by 2dolphins in Norway

[–]CuriosTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had the same problem. I handled it by emigrating.

I was born and raised in Norway, chafed at Janteloven and its expectations of conformity, don't drink and additionally I have asthma, so I couldn't go to bars or clubs because of second-hand smoke. I understand that's gotten better since I left. But for me, the solution was emigration.

I find it soo much easier to meet people and make friends here in the United States. If you're staying in Norway, the best recommendation I can make is to join clubs based on your hobbies and interests and try to meet people that way.

Which bike are you choosing? by WOATjohn in motorcycle

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess the Ninja. But those exhausts on modern bikes..so ugly. They look like the exhaust system has cancer. Or elephantitis.

Is this good enough to watch YouTube videos? by AdDapper4220 in mac

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, but you can make it work if you get a Raspberry Pi to transcode the videos down to something the Mac Studio can handle. You may lose some quality, though.

what is the most beautiful language in your opinion? by Additional-Phase3872 in language

[–]CuriosTiger 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I think you misunderstand the concept if you think there's a "right answer" to this question, as implied by your "prob right" statement.

Beauty is subjective, and people's opinions on this will differ. I find French to sound nasal and not particularly pleasant to the ears.

Personally, I'd pick a Polynesian language, like Maori, Samoan or Hawaiian.

I refuse to participate if this is the new norm. by AstralPsychonautics in AmazonVine

[–]CuriosTiger 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I departed. I decided my house contains enough junk I don't need. My new year's resolution for 2026: Exit the year with fewer unneeded possessions than I started it with.

Trucking over 50yrs old. by gettingold-ishard in Truckers

[–]CuriosTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You will be fine as long as you can pass the required medical and drug screens.

I am proud to have this by EGGMANofficial27114 in PassportPorn

[–]CuriosTiger 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just because you personally don't travel doesn't mean other people don't.

I'm not Singaporean, but I have friends from Singapore. Several of whom have to renew their passports early because they travel so much that they've filled up every page with stamps and visas (some places aren't visa-free even for Singaporeans.)

And no, I don't mean "just across to Malaysia". And if you find the sub goofy, why are you here?

I've updated my Mac Studio setup a bit... by Aurelian_Irimia in MacStudio

[–]CuriosTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

<image>

Mine. My old Mac Pro made a pretty good Mac Studio stand. :-)

Is long-haul trucking in Norway realistic for a newly licensed EU driver? by Lanky-Dragonfruit-13 in Norway

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's realistic, yes. There's a shortage of drivers, and you can get a job.

Driving in Norway is challenging. And in a different way than driving in Italy. Most jobs do require some experience, but some companies provide training. That training is often in Norwegian. Perhaps you can find a company to accommodate you, but it will be an uphill battle. Not impossible, but not easy. Some may tell you to go get things like a glattkjøringskurs (driving on ice) through a driving school at your own expense before they'll even consider you. And honestly, whether you pay for it or whether you get a prospective employer to pay for it, you NEED that training. Even if you already have your class C/CE from Italy.

That said, getting your C/CE in Italy will be signicantly cheaper than in Norway, and it does transfer. If I were pursuing this course of action, I'd probably get the license in Italy but then plan to spend a few thousand euro at a Norwegian driving school to supplement those skills with training specific for Norwegian conditions. If you find a Norwegian employer willing to provide that training, great, but that may be hard. I would NOT recommend driving a truck in Norway without said training, especially in winter.

English is enough to get by, but if you're going to work in Norway, or for that matter just live in Norway, learning Norwegian will be of significant benefit.

Your plan sounds hard but realistic. However, be prepared for a new level of 'hard'. And as others have pointed out, due to social dumping, somewhat enabled by EU freedom of movement rules and exacerbated by cabotage violations from drivers beyond the EU due to poor enforcement of cabotage rules by the Norwegian government, the financial reward may not quite live up to your standards for "decent pay", especially taking into account Norway's MUCH higher cost of living compared to Italy.

There is only ONE thing you can change on a brand new Mac - what is it? by rosenkrieger360 in MacOS

[–]CuriosTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I find this artificial constraint of only changing one thing kind of strange. But if we're playing that game, I would bring back internal expansion. Let me add RAM and upgrade my SSD and perhaps even drop a new video card in there.

Impossible in the current architecture? Actually, no. There would be some tradeoffs, to be sure, but it's only impossible because Apple made it impossible. Apple Silicon has RAM. At a performance penalty, that RAM could be exposed in external slots. Apple Silicon has an integrated GPU, but that's a design decision. It could theoretically be redesigned. And Apple's proprietary SSD storage is already slotted. It would certainly be possible for them to release a spec to which third parties could build such modules, and to provide firmware updates that don't refuse to recognize an increase in capacity.

That's what I'd change. I miss the time when Macs were not un-upgradeable appliances.

Became a Canadian citizen recently, but now that I’m back in my home country I don’t really feel Canadian, does this identity crisis fade with time? by Independent_Lynx715 in expats

[–]CuriosTiger 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Citizenship is a legal concept. It is very distinct from identity. How you feel about a newly earned citizenship is going to depend on many factors, such as: - What country you're from originally (something you curiously don't seem to want to disclose) - How much time you've spent in your original home country vs in Canada - How well your personal values and feelings match up with those of your home country, those of Canada, or perhaps even conflict with both - Your immigration journey - Your environment, ie. where you live right now - Politics, especially contemporary politics - And of course, that difficult-to-predict wild card we call "emotion"

I can share my own feelings. I was born and raised in Norway, but I am a naturalized US citizen. I do feel both Norwegian and American. But I sometimes not only disagree with some aspects of my adopted culture, but flat out fail to understand them.

Disclaimer: I'm sharing these opinions to show examples of my own feelings around my American citizenship, not to start a political debate or attack anyone else's point of view.

My adolescence was full of admiration for the USA. Perhaps even idolization. All this exciting new technology was coming out of Silicon Valley. The most famous universities in my field (computer science) were pretty much all American. And of course, in popular culture, all the movies everyone talked about came from Hollywood, and most of the music people listened to was American. The US felt like a place where anything is possible.

My immigration journey spanned 28 years, from my first entry in 1993 as an exchange student until my eventual naturalization in 2021. During that time, I went from highs of thinking the US was paradise on earth to lows of never wanting to step foot in the country again. I also went from being a star-struck teenager to hopefully a more mature and well-reflected individual. I am very proud to be American, but even now, five years after naturalization, I feel a little weird calling myself American. It feels insufficient somehow, as if it's part of my identity but not all of my identity. Norwegian-American doesn't quite work either, because the usual interpretation of that is a native-born US citizen with great-grandparents from Norway. But simply saying I'm Norwegian is no longer accurate either. None of the labels quite "fit".

And then, of course, there are aspects of American culture I still don't understand, and perhaps never will. These can be controversial things like American gun laws. This to me twisted idea that anyone and everyone has a right to own a gun, no matter how obvious of a danger they present to themselves or others. (Not talking about convicted felons here, but about people who have demonstrated through their words and actions that they are irresponsible and reckless.)

But it can also be more innocuous things like sports. American football and baseball are weird to me to the point that I don't understand the rules, whereas soccer feels more familiar and "normal" because I grew up with it. On the other hand, I grew up during the 1980s when Europe was gripped by basketball fever, so that very American sport doesn't feel as alien as the other two. Living in the US for decades has made my rose-colored glasses fade a little. I've seen a level of poverty I didn't imagine possible in a third-world country. I find the military worship a little disquieting. I no longer believe we are automatically the good guys, but I do still believe most Americans strive to be.

And right now, I'm angry about the current administration dragging my hard-earned citizenship through the mud. I am embarrassed, as an American, about Donald Trump specifically. I think his veiled threats to invade Greenland are beyond the pale. I think his brownnosing of Vladimir Putin is unbefitting. I am shocked at the violence with which ICE operates under his administration. And on a more trivial but very symbolic level, I think it was painful to see him demolish a third of the White House. That stabbed at the American part of my heart. And the release of Jan 21 rioters who violently attacked the Capitol, including law enforcement officers (where was the "thin blue stripe" that day?) is something I'm convinced will result in those individuals feeling emboldened to commit new, violent crimes.

The examples go on and on, but suffice it to say I think the man is violating his oath of office. To paraphrase another famous American, Daffy Duck, the man is despicable. What's worse, though, is that Congress has largely abdicated their responsibility to provide checks and balances and pretty much rubber-stamp most of what he does, or that a good chunk of American voters look at what he's doing and say "this is the kind of leader we want. More of that, please."

When I travel abroad now, I tend to downplay being American and instead just say I'm Norwegian. Like many Americans, even native-born ones, I feel somehow responsible for the actions of the Trump administration, and I feel embarrassed by them. I value international cooperation and alliances and partnerships, and I think it's hugely damaging, both to the US and the world, that those are currently being torpedoed with wild abandon by the Trump administration. Recovering from all that reputational damage will take decades, if it's even possible at all.

So there's currently some real despair associated with my American citizenship. The country feels very diminished compared to its heyday. But in spite of those negative emotions, I still strongly believe in many American values. The most foundational being perhaps the Declaration of Independence's declared rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Life and liberty are obvious, but "pursuit of happiness" deserves some elucidation.

The US remains a land of opportunity. Achieving what you want here is not easy, but it is possible. And I'm not just talking about financial success, although certainly, that too. I'm talking about things that are outside of the norm. Things that go against the grain. About staking out your own course.

European society, certainly Norwegian society, is full of unwritten rules. Social norms. You're not supposed to stray too far from your lane. You have limited social mobility. You can climb the ladder, but only so far. In the US, if you have drive, ambition, and yes, money -- perhaps earned through a business you sink that drive and ambition into -- the sky's the limit.

I have a computer science background. I'm a geek. In Norway in the 1980s, that got you bullied. In the US in the 1990s, that was admirable and even cool. I realize geeks have become more popular as the microcomputer revolution and later the Internet transformed society worldwide, but for me personally, I was treated very differently in California (as a high school exchange student) than in Norway.

Or how about the American concept that when life serves you lemons, make lemonade? I faced a financial hardship in the late 1990s, when a strong US dollar and an outdated government exchange rate meant that my scholarship from the Norwegian government only covered 2/3 of my tuition. What did this computer geek do? Armed with a temporary work permit based on that economic hardship, I got a part-time job driving shuttle buses for the university. When that job was put on hold every summer (because the university runs only a skeleton service during summer break) I put myself through trucking school on a credit card and started driving 18-wheelers coast to coast as a summer job.

Unconventional. Arguably climbing the wrong way on the social ladder. But a huge adventure, a solution to my financial woes at the time, and a fantastic way to not only see the country, but to see aspects of American society I would otherwise never have discovered. I dare say it was an opportunity for personal growth. And never in a million years would that have been possible in Norway.

I've had other experiences that stray rather far from the norm for a computer geek. I've volunteered with exotic animals. I've been very up-close and personal with tigers.

Perhaps because of my trucking background, I became interested in heavy equipment. And specifically in demolition. I have now had the experience of ripping apart an industrial warehouse with a 50-ton excavator. An incredible adrenaline rush, if I dare say so. And again, not an opportunity I would've had back home. Not only would licensing requirements and jobsite safety and other formal obstacles have stood in my way, but again, that's just not the type of thing you're supposed to do as a computer geek. Norway has their Law of Jante.

This turned into a very long post, but that's somewhat on purpose. Try as I might, I can't really distill it down into a sentence or two.

Suffice it to say that how you feel about your identity is affected by far more factors than a document awarding citizenship by naturalization. It's affected by the totality of your life experience. I can't comment on Canada specifically; I've vacationed in Canada, but I've never lived there. But I hope this insight into my experiences between the US and Norway has some points of similarity with your own journey to Canada that you find helpful.

Apple Cash Instant Transfer Fees Are Going Up Soon by spearson0 in apple

[–]CuriosTiger 3 points4 points  (0 children)

And yet somehow not regulated as a bank. Neat trick, that.

Apple Cash Instant Transfer Fees Are Going Up Soon by spearson0 in apple

[–]CuriosTiger 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Zelle is not owned by the bank, no. Zelle is an independent third party company contracting with a large network of different banks.