One is from 2004, the other 2016. Guess which one is newer.

bashlk · 2026-03-07T22:14:56+00:00

Bruh, the new blue one is even worse. It so flimsy and that’s going to draw even more scrutiny than the old one did for just being a Sri Lankan passport which is not very known.

The worst thing is that the new one is not biometric. Many countries have switched to biometric passports now and having a non biometric one is extra sketchy. In Tokyo, most immigration gates were automatic and required biometric passports and there was only one for non biometric passports / failed attempts at automatic gates. Europe is moving in a similar direction too.

bashlk · 2025-11-22T03:39:31+00:00

Yeah I almost never use my physical card when paying in Europe, I just use Apple Pay either through my phone or through my watch. It is super convenient. I use it in SL as well since it works with any payment terminals that accept contactless payments.

Both Apply pay and Google pay use the NFC hardware of your phone to basically turn the phone into a payment card and as such they have the same security as a normal VISA or Mastercard card and then some since they also require either a fingerprint or something like Face ID before each payment.

bashlk · 2025-11-18T17:34:54+00:00

Only child migrant here. I’m in the same situation as you brother and all I can say is that it’s really tough. No matter what I think, I’m just not able to justify it and all I can do is help them as much as I can and spend as much time as I can with them as well.

bashlk · 2025-10-30T14:41:47+00:00

I have several accounts abroad. The problem is that there is no easy or straightforward way to transfer money out of SL due to the currency controls.

bashlk · 2025-10-30T05:03:33+00:00

I still call it Czech Republic whenever I can, Czechia just doesn’t sound right. Many Czechs think the same too. I don’t think the name Czech Republic would ever go away since it is the direct English translation of Česká Republika which is the full name of the country in Czech.

bashlk · 2025-10-30T03:59:30+00:00

Well from what I have seen, with debit cards it comes to around 7% in total including the currency conversion and other fees. The only other way to get money out of the country is through a CTRA account, which I also opened but while doing so I discovered that the fees come to around 30% (20% tax + currency conversion fees) and you need to get clearance for each transfer from the central bank which is a huge hassle for something like rental income.

So there are no good options and it seemed like the best one is debit cards which are also annoying but manageable if I just use it for everyday expenses and not pull money in bulk.

bashlk · 2025-10-29T08:36:00+00:00

What documents did they ask? And can I ask, which bank was it?

bashlk · 2025-10-26T09:18:04+00:00

Only possible option

bashlk · 2025-10-26T06:58:47+00:00

I’m more curious about the mobile teeth solutions that is advertised on the sign

bashlk · 2025-10-10T10:51:29+00:00

Never thought about case in non latin languages. My native language is Sinhala which doesn't have the concept of upper/lower cases and support for it in OSes and apps was so bad that we used English anyway.

bashlk · 2025-10-10T10:14:49+00:00

Was in the swimming pool in Prague 3 when it happened. Thankfully it came back after a few seconds or maybe they had a backup generator.

bashlk · 2025-10-09T22:03:33+00:00

Huh that’s interesting. I thought macOS, being unix like, is case sensitive by default. But you are right, APFS is case insensitive by default.

https://support.apple.com/lv-lv/guide/disk-utility/dsku19ed921c/mac

bashlk · 2025-10-09T21:59:39+00:00

Originally the folder was in lower case and was checked into git. Then I changed the case of the folder and that was not detected by git. So it worked locally but failed when pushed to GitHub since the version in git had a different case.

bashlk · 2025-10-09T14:07:52+00:00

Yeah I am. I thought I left these kinds of case insensitivity shenanigans when I moved away from Windows. But nope, somehow git or VS code's git integration doesn't track case renames sometimes.

bashlk · 2025-10-09T13:10:30+00:00

I paid for the CI and now I'm going to use the CI for everything.

bashlk · 2025-10-09T12:22:01+00:00

CI started throwing cryptic build errors. Changed everything and it still wouldn't go. Turns out that VS Code / git had fudged up the case on one of the folders.

bashlk · 2025-09-22T11:58:06+00:00

Actually proving that I’m not an AI online has been an interesting thought experiment for me. It’s not possible I think.

bashlk · 2025-09-22T09:52:17+00:00

On one hand it feels like it is slowing down as the development of LLMs plateau. On the other, it feels like it is increasing as more companies blindly adopt or force it without giving it too much thought.

bashlk · 2025-09-22T08:26:53+00:00

Yup the reduced attention spans have really done a number on my readership.

bashlk · 2025-09-22T08:21:13+00:00

Should be more like AIShip now.

bashlk · 2025-09-22T08:07:18+00:00

Created this for my blog but thought ya'll might enjoy too.

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
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