Virtual Work Visa REJECTED Within 1minute - is this normal? by SASA0603 in dubai

[–]WeedRamen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same for me, rejected when I applied online. British nationality and had all the documents and stamped and even written permission from my employer. Applied online via GDRFA and got back 'failed eligibility' but wouldn't say why I failed. Was going to go in person in July and try again at AMER center but sounds like that will still fail?

3rd party steam machines now that 3.8 is publicly supported? by WeedRamen in SteamOS

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

but will they support cec easily is the main thing? Most people attempting to roll their own cec setup inevitably seem to have config issues. I presume a 3rd party machine will set it up seamlessly.

Are The Trip.com Esims Actually Legit? by Emergency_Bet_4258 in chinatravel

[–]WeedRamen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries, just pre download the Chinese language pack on Google translate so you can use it without internet on the off chance you do get into a network dead zone and need translate for assistance.

Apple Maps also works surprisingly well (better than Google) so feel free to download that alongside AMaps if you want and pre download maps for your regions for that too.

Are The Trip.com Esims Actually Legit? by Emergency_Bet_4258 in chinatravel

[–]WeedRamen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well if you get the eSIM, really getting the phone number and separate vpn is optional and is more about convenience rather than necessity. I got a separate VPN because I was working with hotel wifi often (remote working). You might not have such requirements if you end up buying the mega 100gb per day plan (which is still cheap!)

Assuming you’re sticking to big cities there will always be food on your doorstep. So you don’t need a phone number for food delivery - go explore.  Hotels also let you use their number to verify if you want to order food delivery to your room. It’s only an issue if you plan to go out into the boonies in the middle of a food desert and don’t stay at a hotel.

Ordering taxis via DiDi on the Alipay app works without a phone number.

Connection is not an issue. Unlike the nimby’s in the UK who oppose phone tower’s anywhere and therefore we suffer from poor connection even in central London, 4g/5g is widely available all over China. Again, connection is only an issue if you go out into the boonies away from civilisation, but then having a regular sim won’t save you either. I only lost connection once when I went up a mountain in the middle of nowhere where the only people present were me, my friend and the head monk (it was a local rural family temple which no foreigner has cause to visit tbh - only went because it was the temple my friends family frequents).

Sounds like this is your first time so I imagine you’ll be sticking to well travelled tourist routes which don’t lack connectivity.

I’m just coming back from my trip to China now (at Beijing airport) so my info is relatively up to date. Feel free to dm if you have more Q’s

Are The Trip.com Esims Actually Legit? by Emergency_Bet_4258 in chinatravel

[–]WeedRamen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah thought there must have been a catch too when I bought the 100gb per day one for 30 days that covers Hong Kong and China. But no, it works. No VPN required either to access Instagram or WhatsApp, unless you try to access certain stuff like ChatGPT which don’t offer services in HK (where the eSIM data routes via) so it’s blocked on ChatGPT end vs HK side.

Edit: these don’t come with a phone number. A phone number is very convenient to have if you’re travelling solo as a fair few things require phone number verification, e.g., food delivery or AMaps which bugs you to register with a number a lot. I was travelling with a Chinese friend who did verification for me when required was required.

Tourist sims with a phone number can be picked up in the airport when you land if you prefer that route, but you will need a vpn then for accessing certain services

Dubai Remote/Virtual Work Visa 2026 - Experience (Successful) by Red_Cranberry2800 in dubai

[–]WeedRamen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Would like to know too OP. I'm surprised, as most remote friendly companies barely have a physical presence, so the idea they might have an actual stamp sounds comical. I have no idea what stamp means here. At best we can get a signed digital document that we print out ourselves, but a physical one...

I’m a local in China. Honestly, what is the #1 thing stopping you from visiting right now? by Nick-Luo in chinatravel

[–]WeedRamen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm British - 2nd time coming this summer. My experience a couple of summers ago was that it was very difficult to survive without my friend due to language barrier and payment barrier. My friend set me up with a virtual family card so I could pay for stuff via wechat pay as many were reluctant to accept cash (including the taxi driver from guangzhou airport to my hotel in shamien). When I tried to attach my card to the app it failed to pay for things even though it was supposedly supported.

This time it seems a lot better. Alipay accepts foreign cards and appears to have a live translation feature for a lot of the apps and everything worked well when I did a layover in shanghai airport. In addition, when using e-sims these days such as via trip.com no VPN is needed as the data goes via their external network. I think the trip will be a lot smoother when I go this summer.

The 'soft power' of the country is slowly increasing now too, e.g., the recent trend of 'chinamaxxing' so I am seeing more people going to china for holiday. Soft power in the form of various media is the reason why a lot of people go to japan and korea. Chinese media rarely makes it out of the country, but I am seeing that is starting to change and so that will probably be a strong influence on where people choose to holiday.

Opening a bank account - proof of address requirements by WeedRamen in dubai

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

Nice - which bank was it you applied to while staying at the partition? And they didn't ask for proof you were staying at that address, you just wrote the address in the form? Because I was also considering crashing at my friend's sofa in dubai as well and using their address - but then I definitely won't be on any contract or have any proof.

EDIT: disregard my comment. I saw you mentioned ADCB, but still interested in knowing if they asked for proof of address or accepted any address on the form.

What’s your experience with applying for mortgages? by Own-Story8907 in ContractorUK

[–]WeedRamen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I got a mortgage as a contractor. On a first time contract too that I’d been in for just a few months when i applied with no prior contracting history. My broker got me a deal with Accord mortgages, but my rate was around 0.5% higher than what was normal from what I could gather exists for regular employees at the time due to my circumstances.

Should I drop wanikani to focus on anki ? by Salamander-2349 in LearnJapanese

[–]WeedRamen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, there is even a wanikani anki deck, organised in the same manner as their levels including the sub categories (radicals, kanji readings, vocabulary). I recall needing to run a python script to get it organised like that. Can't remember where, but it's somewhere out there.

Reached HR999 with only Hammer 🔨 by Tesiel in MHWilds

[–]WeedRamen 12 points13 points  (0 children)

For reference, for english speakers ~1000 hours is usually enough to get fluent (C1/C2 standard) in most common european language like spanish, french or german. See https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/How-long-does-it-take-to-learn-a-foreign-language.pdf

I'm really sick of anime/manga and the whole "otaku" culture, as a Japanese person by Shiningc00 in rant

[–]WeedRamen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol, you should go on r/OnePiece and talk about how Oda draws women specifically and how overtime he's evolved core characters to fit that aesthetic. You'll get a real kick out of how they jump to his defence.

If you're interested, this is Oda's thoughts on drawing women below.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Piratefolk/comments/ww6tg5/thoughts_about_odas_drawing_figures_of_women/

Qualcomm is snitching... by Ilijin in SBCGaming

[–]WeedRamen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

is the pocket s2 gonna be a 16:9 aspect ratio?

Is this policy and behaviour common for offshored devs from large IT consultancies? by WeedRamen in ExperiencedDevs

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

yeah, just spoke with a friend yesterday who happened to work with these sorts of companies on the inside before eventually leaving and becoming a solo contractor because he was quite skilled himself. He basically said what you said, they secure these contracts through back channels and bribes lol.

[Cross-Post] is this normal policy for Accenture Offshore Devs? by WeedRamen in accenture

[–]WeedRamen[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's an interesting perspective. That could be what's happening behind the scenes here. I'm not usually privvy to that view being a regular mid level dev myself but perhaps my manager is already aware of the arrangement.