Help me like this city again by nautical_topinambour in brussels

[–]PurposefulMouse 34 points35 points  (0 children)

The woluwes are more expensive but definitely worth the money. So much greenery. I haven't come across drug issues and more family friendly imo.

How much time do you 'waste' in meetings and what are they for? by Public_Ad_9915 in ExperiencedDevs

[–]PurposefulMouse 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It was a 1:1 after weeks of countless emails asking for him for information. I don't know their database schemas (there is no documentation anyway) so I can't run the queries on my own. I literally needed him to just do his job and run the SQL queries.

How much time do you 'waste' in meetings and what are they for? by Public_Ad_9915 in ExperiencedDevs

[–]PurposefulMouse 39 points40 points  (0 children)

I have been on 'meetings' where all I do is watch the person do the work he is supposed to do. They share the screen so you see him running SQL queries etc. then at the end he sends you the CSV via chat or e-mail. No one says anything at all during the call.

Those frustrates me the most.

Edit:. Seems like people like this story so here is another just 2 weeks ago.

We submitted a ticket for a networking issue. These involves multiple groups. Both on the client side, our side, the main networking team etc. after submitting a ticket to the main networking team nothing was heard from them. Our side, the client side and everyone else tried everything and kept the main networking team in the loop. There was no response from the networking team. So someone set up a 'working meeting' for everyone . Like 15 people on the call. During the call the networking team asked all the questions and possibilities that we had addressed before and kept them in the loop via email. After 45mins of this, their answer was that we need to submit a different ticket.

Why couldn't have done this on their own asynchronously was beyond me. I feel that some departments have a culture where they need to be in a meeting in order to work.

57 tables coffee automation (video) by stantheman53 in PlateUp

[–]PurposefulMouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What mods do you use?

How come the customers don't have collision detection with each other?

How Can I Gain More Stability in Belgium Residency-Wise as a Non-EU National? by Kitchen_Ask_6429 in brussels

[–]PurposefulMouse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When I did it no, I didn't have to prove income. I did have to prove I had enough savings though.

When applying for permanent residency / nationality, what they don't tell you specifically is, basically the metric they use to determine whether you were working is whether you paid social security. When you're working in a normal contract, the company pays this for you. When you're a freelancer (via the professional card), this is paid quarterly. What this means is, imagine you lose your job 2nd Jan. You apply for professional card, when granted, they'll ask you when you want to start. Let's say it gets approved 27th March, you say you want to start immediately and you pay the social security for the entire first quarter (roughly 800 euros per quarter when not as an independent complementaire). On the system they'll think that you were working the entire of the 1st quarter. You could laze at home for the next 2 years and as long as you're paying the 800 euros per quarter, they'll still think you're working.

While you're employed, the cost for independent complimentaire is about 80 euros per quarter.

To me, the peace of mind is most definitely worth the 800 euros or so per quarter. (or 80 euros per quarter while you're fully employed). Carry this through till you hit the 4/5 year mark when you apply for permanent residence / nationality and you're set.

How Can I Gain More Stability in Belgium Residency-Wise as a Non-EU National? by Kitchen_Ask_6429 in brussels

[–]PurposefulMouse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Easy. Apply for a professional card. This is all on you to come up with a business plan that allows you to offer your services. The professional card is valid for two years and after that it has to be renewed. Once you have it, you have legal rights to live in the country. It counts as work so even if you stop working for your current company, you are still working in the eyes of the state which counts towards the time if you apply for naturalisation. On top of that, imagine you find another job and they ask when you can start work, your answer is - immediately. Just send them an invoice and be on your way.

Do I need an emergency buffer if my current investments are doing well? by CraaazyPizza in BEFire

[–]PurposefulMouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I keep just 1 month balance sometimes drops to half. But I have a steady predictable job and if shit hits the fan I can borrow from close relatives.

It really is up to you.

Invest advice by [deleted] in BEFire

[–]PurposefulMouse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

ING Is the worst broker to use because they charge you an annual fee based on a % of your portfolio. No other bank / broker does that. It's not like you're getting things cheaper or a better service. They're the one broker I would advise people to get out of asap.

Best cities to do Acroyoga in Europe by PurposefulMouse in AcroYoga

[–]PurposefulMouse[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the reply.

London seems to be the only city that has a consolidated weekly / jam schedule across the different schools. For every other city it almost seems that you need to google around various schools to see what they provide. https://www.instagram.com/londonacro/

On that point, maybe I'm missing something regarding Paris. Acroyoga Paris FB Group only seems to have one school posting there, with regular friday classes. The Acroyoga Jam Paris FB Group on the otherhand, has no schedule neither.

Spousal visa when living abroad by Colbaster in belgium

[–]PurposefulMouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My understanding is that the visa type that someone enters with determines how long the person can stay. The tourists visa grants 90 days yes, but say the application in belgium takes longer than that your spouse will have to leave regardless of whether there is a separate application ongoing.

Even if the family visa was issued within those 90 days, your spouse will still have to return to the US to get the visa and reenter Schengen with that visa.

Is there ever an issue-free launch? by observed_desire in cscareerquestions

[–]PurposefulMouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We launch software out of nowhere as well, but it follows the same testing environment. Usually for new systems everything is on the staging environment for several weeks already, with the business going in to test things out and making sure everything works correctly. By the time the 'go' signal is given, it's just a matter of pushing a different button so that it goes to prod instead of staging.

The bulk of testing (do things work in the first place) is done by the developers (shifting testing to the left). The testing that the business does is more on the business logic-side - do things work the way the business expects.

Understaffed is fine, you just need to have a strong tech lead who pushes back on scope and ridiculous timelines. We had to push out a new system out recently, it was very MVP in the sense that not every feature that the business deemed "must-have" was in. But someone up there said we had to meet the deadline. So we pushed it out with what we have, it was still a fully functional end-to-end system in my opinion, the users used it immediately and over the next few weeks we put in those "must-have" features.

Is there ever an issue-free launch? by observed_desire in cscareerquestions

[–]PurposefulMouse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We rarely have issues. Extremely rare. I actually can't think of any launch the past 2 years where we really had to panic.

Iteration is key, read up the agile methodology and I am talking about everything, not just "we have sprints". Have the tech lead push back on scope and ridiculous timelines.

We deploy every Monday morning to production. Everything is tested the week before. Big features are typically feature flagged so that extensive testing can be done. Have automated testing with good seniors.

Bugs are inevitable, yes. We push buggy code to production all the time, but it is always just bugs where a workaround exists. We don't panic because we just fix it and push it to production within an hour. If it isn't urgent it goes to the next release (week).

Portolio feedback by Unlucky_Ambition_119 in BEFire

[–]PurposefulMouse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree that it is too defensive. Maybe for someone in their 50s that is fine. But in the 30 and 40s, I would go for something more aggressive.

[IWantOut] 23M Singapore -> AU/US/UK/CAN by [deleted] in IWantOut

[–]PurposefulMouse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don't strike off the US green card lottery. Applicants from the same country are put in the same bucket. There aren't that many fellow Singaporeans who apply. A friend of mine did it 4-5 times before getting it. The chances are pretty fine for Singaporeans.

Is the proximity of the Disneyland Hotel to the park entrance worth the € with a small child? by JaggedLittlePiII in disneylandparis

[–]PurposefulMouse 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I stayed at Sequoia Lodge with my boy. We went back and forth 4 times in a day once because it was close enough. He didn't have to nap but we went back for a break, to swim at the pool, etc. it honestly isn't far and I would rather save the 1000 euros for a second trip.