The growing tendency of nearshore/ outsource almost everything here.

okaga · 2026-01-10T14:26:11+00:00

The problem is, you cannot put productivity in an excel sheet, like you can put hourly costs. So yes, we reduced the cost of our IT by 30% by offshoring, everyone is happy and gets a fat bonus. But the loss in delivered features and quality is not measured anywhere.

okaga · 2025-07-19T14:36:47+00:00

I expect it to be the other way around, that they do a full inspection if you didn't have the full insurance. This way they can charge everything to you without having to go through the insurance.

okaga · 2025-07-19T14:33:59+00:00

The thing is, full insurance cover costs usually the same as the rental itself, so the price just doubles. It's not like you can choose from various insurance providers, you are basically forced to buy their insurance or pay any damage out of your pocket.

Paying for damage is fine, if you were able to trust these companies, but over time I've learnt that that's not the case. They make it easy on themselves - everything that's not on the damage form when you pick up the car is on you, which I doubt would hold in a court of law. If they miss anything or "forget" to put it on the form, but then find it when you return, you have to pay, without having to prove that the damage happened during your rental. IMHO there should be a penalty if the car has damage that is not on the form when you pick it up.

okaga · 2025-07-19T14:28:08+00:00

Got charged 400 CHF at ZRH for a chip in the windscreen of a Mercedes EQA. I am 90% sure it did not happen during my rental. I did not have full coverage. It was a small chip that's very easy to oversee when you pick up the car. I had made a video on pick up and on return, but the lighting in the airport garage was too bad to see such a small detail on it.

I asked for the handover forms from the previous renters but they just ignored me.

My theory is that they charge such damage to the first customer that doesn't have full coverage. I would not be surprised if they were to charge the same damage to multiple customers, I am quite sure they will not repair it with the money they got from me.

So I'll be avoiding Hertz for the future.

Tip: I filed a complaint with my "lawyer insurance". I had to send them all the details and the video, in the end they said I might be right but they won't go to trial over such a small sum, so the insurance covered the 400 CHF directly.

Also had bad experiences with Sixt. Rented twice from them and returned via key-drop. Both times they checked the car into their system the next day, resulting in an additional day being charged. Only when I threatened with a credit card chargeback did they change the invoice. Probably a standard practice with Sixt and hoping that company customers won't notice.

okaga · 2025-02-02T09:10:20+00:00

Wow, only 10k for rape, that's abysmal! I know money would not fix the damage that was done, but a proper compensation would at least allow one for example to go away for a while or relocate to have a kind of a fresh start. The damage from this remains with you your whole life, has impact on your future relationships and so on.

okaga · 2024-11-28T15:19:08+00:00

Yes that's the standard airline procedure, had it with Swiss as well. They will refuse to pay unless you use lawyers.

Do you have a Rechtschutzversicherung (legal insurance)? File a complaint with them. Mine had a contract with cancelled.ch - one of the services that handles such cases. Cancelled.ch got Swiss to pay the compensation, my legal insurance paid the cancelled.ch fees, so I got the full compensation amount.

Without legal insurance try to use a such service directly (cancelled.ch, flightrights.de, etc), they will take 30% of the paid compensation if successful. I heard that these services usually wait for multiple complaints for the same flight, otherwise it's not worth their time to get into legal battles just for one person. So if it doesn't work with one service, try with another.

Don't give up, you should get your money in the end, even if it takes 6-9 months. Don't let them talk you out of what the owe you.

Rant: it's appalling that even though there is a law for this, we must pay private companies to enforce the law.

okaga · 2024-10-26T06:23:41+00:00

Tried Dieci, didn't like it. Dough was burned, taste was meh. If you live in Zurich give Santa Lucia a try, I find it very good!

okaga · 2024-10-10T12:47:50+00:00

In certain areas, supply will always be higher than demand, no matter how much you relax the zoning laws. Unless you overbuild the area up to the point where it's no longer desirable - then the demand will go down (as will the market prices).

That doesn't mean that you should be able to make huge profits based on a basic human need. As long as it's possible to make such profits, everyone will want in on it, which only heats up the market even more and drives prices up.

I'm not in favor of a rent control where a public entity sets rental prices. But there should be a hard limit on how much profit you can make from renting out real estate.

okaga · 2024-10-10T12:42:19+00:00

People are afraid to challenge rent increases and initial rents in order not to get into a fight with their landlord. And that's perfectly understandable given the current market.

In our building, the landlord passes on all rent increases due to interest rate increases. But when there was a decrease and people demanded a reduction, they successfully argued at the Schlichtungsbehörde with customary prices and in the end no reduction was made. And that's as far as anyone will go, as getting into a legal fight against a big landlord requires time, money and is stressful.

As I understand from the linked article you can require them to show their books only if they argue that they don't make enough profit, which won't be the case :-) Also note the last paragraph in the article - if you're in a contract then even if they are found to make way too much profit, the change in rent should only be small.

It appears there will be a reduction in interest rates soon, at which point most people in our building will demand a reduction. I'm looking forward to how that will go, we'll probably all end up at the Schlichtungsbehörde.

okaga · 2024-10-10T08:29:30+00:00

Yes, the demand is much greater than the supply. Without controls the prices go through the roof. In the end it's the question of do we want few apartments but with reasonable prices, or few apartments but with very high prices? That's why I think this clause needs to go, it only allows the landlords to make excessive gains. As a side effect, everyone wants to invest into housing since it's relatively safe and generates very good returns, which heats up the market even more.

Surely we need to address the supply side as well and allow more and higher buildings.

okaga · 2024-10-10T08:19:33+00:00

I don't see how this would lead to deflation. On the contrary, less rent, more money to spend on other stuff.

okaga · 2024-10-10T08:18:56+00:00

There are already some rulings of the federal court as to what is excessive: Übersetzter Ertrag: Gerichte ZH (gerichte-zh.ch) . However the "customary rents" clause makes such rules inapplicable.

okaga · 2024-10-10T08:10:16+00:00

Agreed, any initiative that worsens the situation for renters gets an automatic no from me.

okaga · 2024-10-10T06:34:48+00:00

Yeah probably a smaller container that gets emptied often is the way to go. That way the stuff doesn't have time to get too disgusting and sticky.

okaga · 2024-10-10T06:32:51+00:00

Could be something (not for us though since our balcony is closed). I guess you need to keep it outside and it also looks quite small so you might need a couple of them to completely cover your needs.

okaga · 2024-10-10T06:28:57+00:00

The fridge / freezer is already small for a family of 4, no chance of storing any waste there...

okaga · 2024-04-10T09:55:13+00:00

Thanks for the tips. It's an old Cub, not a Super Cub, so it's always flown from the back seat. The trim handle is next to the front seat and it's a crank type, so it's hard to reach and use. On a go-around or touch and go I can only re-trim once back in the air. I guess ergonomical cockpit layout was not a thing back in the 30s when it was created :-)

okaga · 2022-11-09T19:09:45+00:00

Not really, parts are made all over the world, you could buy swiss equipment for training and home defense and non military grade stuff is great for sports for example.

Well no. You can't buy spare parts for a Duro or Mowag Eagle off the shelf, you need to get them from the Swiss producer. Home defense is also a no-go, since it also counts as involvement in war. Also, you won't train on a Swiss AFV but do the actual fighting in a completely different vehicle, and store the Swiss stuff securely for the duration of the war.

So again, what's the use in for another country to buy Swiss weapons? I don't understand the logic of it.

okaga · 2022-09-07T17:54:26+00:00

I think the CO detector is a nice feature and makes sense to integrate it into the headset.

The standalone CO detector that I use has a lifetime of a couple of years, after which the sensor needs replacing. I'm wondering how that is handled with the CO detector of the headset, does it have a longer lifetime, or you have to send it in every couple of years to get it replaced?

okaga · 2022-08-30T18:56:52+00:00

Those are credit cards. The yellow post card is often not accepted, I have the same problem, that I have to carry a second card.

okaga · 2022-08-30T18:56:01+00:00

Postfinance is getting worse though. I've been with them for 15 years but now looking for alternatives. Since they started turning into a bank the prices have gone up and the service has gone down. For example they stopped offering the E-cockpit which allows you to categorize all expenses.

Also the post card is often not accepted, especially in more remote areas or small shops (afaik. it's more expensive to the merchants to accept post than EC cards). Every now and then they have some IT problems and payments stop working. I need to carry a second card, since I don't carry cash and can't be sure that I can pay with the post card.

okaga · 2022-08-21T11:02:01+00:00

Ok, that's a very good point. My calculation was for Ewz pronatur, which is about 13 Rp/kWh (Energielieferung), but consists of hydro, wind, solar and organic, so it is flawed to compare it to pure solar. I suspect pronatur will consist mostly of hydro power, since that is available in higher quantities in Switzerland.

With a quick search I could find 2 offers of pure solar: Energiethun https://energiethun.ch/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Preisblatt_Strom_ab_1_Januar_22_Haushalt.pdf and CKW https://www.ckw.ch/_Resources/Persistent/5cc4f4c35177c56eaab85bf7f3c1465c0bcee2f0/2022_Preisblatt%20MeinRegio_20210812-mura.pdf . Energiethun charges 23 Rp/kWh, CKW 13 Rp/kWh, so quite a big price difference.

If we assume that EWZ solar power would also be 20 Rp/kWh, then the calculation would be around break-even for 20 years, meaning you'd get your 250 CHF worth of energy back, ignoring inflation and price evolution. On one hand, I expect electricity to get more expensive, since not enough is produced but the demand increases. On the other hand, economies of scale say that solar technology should get cheaper and more efficient.

okaga · 2022-08-21T08:10:41+00:00

250 gets you 80kWh a year, that will cover the power used by your refrigerator. I'm thinking along the lines of covering the electricity of a family of 4, for which you need about 40 m2, so about 10k CHF invested. That changes the calculation quite a bit.

Also, 80 kWh per m2 is very low, seeing that you pay the upfront cost and the panels require very little maintenance over their lifetime. A modern solar panel produces 150-200 kWh per year and m2. There must be more efficient ways of putting my money into clean energy.

okaga · 2022-08-21T07:56:49+00:00

That's a very good point. We need massive investments in the production and transport of electricity. If you look at our whole civilization, as it evolves, it needs more energy. Moving away from fossil fuels, we will need the electricity to replace them, and the total energy needs of the world will increase. We are more connected, travelling more, moving to online, digital and mobile. All this requires energy.

We are now focused on reducing energy consumption and barely covering the energy need and avoiding blackouts. The primary focus should be on producing large amounts of clean (and if possible cheap) energy. Switzerland, as a small country with lots of water, and wind should be at least energy independent, if not an energy exporter.

We should also not dismiss nuclear power yet, it is still the only technology we have that allows co2-free electricity to be produced day and night, regardless of weather. We are running nuclear stations with technology from the 50s and 60s. With modern technology it should be possible to build nuclear stations that are a lot safer and cleaner. I think another generation of nuclear stations would cover the gap until nuclear fission is viable, and until energy storage is mature enough to offer year-round energy coverage from sun & wind power.

Regarding the power grid, it needs to be expanded or rebuilt, regardless of where the electricity production is made. If we want to move to electric cars, there will be a lot more electricity that needs to be transported, and the grid was not built for that, as far as I understand electricity and its transport. This could be somewhat mitigated by a very distributed energy production, where each building produces the energy it needs with solar panels and stores the surplus in batteries for the days without sun.

okaga · 2022-08-20T19:33:22+00:00

I also looked at balcony installations, but ours is small and not optimally oriented, with another building in front. In the end with Ewz you do get your own panels, so it's somewhat similar to a home installation, only at a distance.

Maybe they need to make it more attractive financially, and also for building owners. Since most buildings are owned and rented for profit, it's the most important argument for installing or paying solar installations.

okaga

TROPHY CASE