synesthesia

Taking a trip to Germany should be good times, normally. But busses are being pulled over by police and people forced to show IDs. Bus driver said he gets pulled over about 3 times per week.

They are not just looking at the ID to see if it’s from a third country that would require a visa. They are systematically scanning everyone into a system, apparently to perform mass surveillance that even tracks people from neighboring countries. Apparently right-wingers have taken power and have little interest in distancing Germany from its past.

It’s such a disgusting and rude way to start a trip. Puts me off going there. Also a bit reckless that the bus operators are not warning people of the witch hunt.

There is now an ocean of protectionist user manual hoarders who fight to get to the top of search rankings that drown out the better sources. Then when you try to get a manual they put you through many JavaScript-proliferated obsticals, captchas, personal info disclosure, if you surrender your dignity and self-respect enough to successfully pawn yourself through all that enshitification and you’re lucky enough to reach the right manual in your language, then you often still cannot download the PDF beause the rotten parasites want you to repeat the process every time you need to re-read the manual (under the assumption that you are always online).

But sometimes you can get the PDF. Or maybe you snapshot every page. If you successfully unjail a manual bogarted by the protectionist data abusers, then why stop there? Other people have to deal with that garbage. So why not upload it to the free world, here:

https://archive.org/details/manuals

If you go through some pain to get the manual, surely you will have gratification in putting the manual in the hands of a more respectful custodian.

excerpt from §8(3):

access to Repair and Maintenance Information:

after a period of two years after the placing on the market of the first unit of a model and until the end of the period mentioned under (1), the manufacturer, importer or authorised representative shall provide access to the household washing machine or household washer-dryer repair and maintenance information to professional repairers in the following conditions:

(a) the manufacturer’s, importer’s or authorised representative’s website shall indicate the process for professional repairers to register for access to information; to accept such a request, the manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives may require the professional repairer to demonstrate that:

(i) the professional repairer has the technical competence to repair household washing machines and household washer-dryers and complies with the applicable regulations for repairers of electrical equipment in the Member States where it operates. Reference to an official registration system as professional repairer, where such system exists in the Member States concerned, shall be accepted as proof of compliance with this point;

(ii) the professional repairer is covered by insurance covering liabilities resulting from its activity regardless of whether this is required by the Member State;

…

(c) manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives may charge reasonable and proportionate fees for access to the repair and maintenance information or for receiving regular updates. A fee is reasonable if it does not discourage access by failing to take into account the extent to which the professional repairer uses the information;

Indeed it sucks to not be an insured “professional repairer” in Europe.

Even a pro cannot get access after 10 years. But the manufacturer can of course supply their own repairers forever. So to get my own 15 year old machine fixed, I have to lick the maker’s boots. Seems a bit anti-competitive.

But on the upside from my quick scan of it, I see nothing to stop an amateur repairer from hiring a pro to proxy the docs and nothing to stop a pro from sharing the docs, which can then be liberated on the open web before the 10 year mark.

Parent HTML page:

https://repair.eu/resources/policy-brief-current-state-of-eu-right-to-repair/

With respect to repair information, this is a bit disturbing:

But only for those few products already covered
by repairability requirements under Ecodesign
Regulations. Plus, during the guarantee period, it
is still possible for manufacturers to replace the
product if this is cheaper.

The call was not recorded so this is not an exact transcript. It’s paraphrased from notes:

customer: (explains problem with 15 y.o. machine, that the tacho was repaired, but that the controller still signals that there is a fault and refuses to run any programs).
Beko: We can send a technician.
customer: I do not want a technician. I have already repaired the tachogenerator myself. The controller board is still erroneously blinking to signal a fault even though the fault was fixed. I just need to know how to reset it.
Beko: (instant response) Unplug it for 30 minutes to do a hard reset.
customer: That does not work. I unplugged it for days and that makes no difference.
Beko: Well that is how you reset a Beko machine. You need a technician.
customer: I know that every Beko machine is different. In fact Beko rebrands machines made by other manufacturers. When I look at various videos online, different people show how to reset different Beko models using a special sequence of buttons. Every model has a different sequence of buttons. I need to know what the sequence of buttons is for my specific machine.
Beko: I cannot give you that information. You need a technician.
customer: I need a /service/ manual. Can you send that to me?
Beko: You can find that on the website.
customer: There is nothing on the Beko website for my model.
Beko: That is because your machine is 15 years old.
customer: What does a technician cost?
Beko: €200 to show up.
customer: So because you will not disclose to me the secret code to reset my machine, I have to hire your technician for €200?
Beko: That is your only option. There is nothing else I can do for you.
customer: Certainly it is not sensible for me to pay €200 for someone to show up and press the secret sequence of buttons. It would even be cheaper for me to buy a new controller board.
Beko: Then you should do that.
customer: How much is a controller board?
Beko: We do not have spare parts.
customer: How is that possible?
Beko: We do not carry spare parts for machines older than 10 years. Your machine is fifteeeen years old. Why don’t you just buy a new one?
customer: If you send a technician, how would he be able to fix it if there are no parts available?
Beko: If he cannot repair it, the price is reduced to €120.
customer: My local Media Markt retailer has a service desk who can order spare parts for me for this model. Isn’t it strange that Media Markt can order spare parts for a Beko machine that Beko themselves cannot?
Beko: You have a 15 year old machine. We do not keep parts that long. You should order from Media Markt then.
me: What controller board can you sell me that is compatible with my model, considering the components are mostly simply 230v anyway? What newer controller board is similar enough to retrofit?
Beko: (instant response) Nothing. New models come out constantly.
customer: Media Markt does not have a controller board. It’s also unreasonable that I would have to buy a controller board when I just need to know how to reset the controller board that I have. Please tell me how to reset the board for my specific model. You should be able to tell me this over the phone.
Beko: You are a consumer. I cannot give you that information.
customer: Why not?
Beko: It’s Beko protocol. You need a technician.
customer: What do I need to do to be recognised as a technician so that you will tell me the reset sequence?
Beko: I don’t understand.
customer: Your technicians know how to reset the board. How do they know?
Beko: They are trained professionals.
customer: But the reset code is model-specific. The only way for them to know is to get the information from Beko. So how does Beko determine if someone is a technician to give the technical information?
Beko: We hire them. They work for Beko.
customer: Not all repair technicians work for Beko. What about independant repair technicians. How do they get the information?
Beko: Ask them. Your machine is fiffffteeeeeen years old. You should buy a new machine.
customer: Every moving component works. I hotwired the motor and it works fine. I hotwired the pump and it works fine. I hotwired the water inlet valve and it works fine. The only problem is that the controller board thinks there is a fault. And the board itself is most likely fine, it just needs to be reset. It is not sensible to buy a new machine when the PCB just needs to be reset.
(crickets)
customer: It seems you have no sensible options for me. Good bye
(crickets; he waited for me to hang up first to prevent me from getting the customer service survey)

The support guy repeated over an over that my machine is 15 years old, as if age alone is cause for dumping a whole washing machine.

A fixed wing prop plane is considerably more complex than a washing machine. Yet they will last 100+ years if properly maintained. Yet not many appliances are as simple as a washing machine. And they are conditioning consumers to believe 15 years is an eternity when pumps, universal commutator motors, and inlet valves are not advancing.

So because the Beko support guy thinks 15 years is old, it’s somehow not sensible to reset the PCB and keep using it.

I am trying to understand a machine translation of legal text. The phrase “destination mobilière” is littered throughout the law so much that I cannot get around understanding what it means.

Here is a sample:

La soumission d'une offre de crédit est obligatoire pour un crédit hypothécaire avec une destination immobilière ainsi que pour le crédit hypothécaire avec une destination mobilière qui s'accompagne de la constitution d'une sûreté hypothécaire.

Translation:

The submission of a credit offer is mandatory for a mortgage credit with a real estate destination as well as for the mortgage credit with a mobile destination that is accompanied by the creation of a mortgage security.

When I use reverso.net, “destination mobilière” most commonly translates to “security” -- which seems even more off. The rules surrounding home loans would not likely apply to stocks. And a mortgage tends to only apply to homes in my experience.

So I am wondering if “destination mobilière” is referring to a mobile home (e.g. a home on wheels). It’s mentioned much more than “destination immobilière” in the legal text that it feels off, because mobile homes are much less common than non-movable homes.

(update) This page answers it:

https://www.meilleurtaux.be/pret-hypothecaire/dossier-immobilier/credit-hypothecaire-but-mobilier.html

It’s apparently possible to get a mortgage on things other than homes, and “destination mobilière” refers to anything but a home.

It may be difficult or impossible to control food quality well enough that every container be mealworm-free. But I expect metrics to be kept so someone can monitor whether or not a supply chain is doing something notably reckless.

.
When I tried to return the rooibos, the CSR asked for a receipt. I did not have one, so he refused. I said: look, it’s brand of the store, so of course it came from here. He argued that it may not have come from /this/ precise store.

I don’t give a shit about getting a 2 euro refund. My whole point was to get the incident recorded so they can look into QA issues. So then I reported this to the food safety authority in Belgium. It’s possible they acted on it, but they sent no acknowledgement. Which effectively signals to consumers they are wasting their time by reporting quality issues.

Is this all normal? I would expect a public health agency to be keen to encourage reports of worms packaged in food.

I think the norm is (sadly enough) to use Twitter. Someone tweets “worm in my food” with a good photo, it gets some attention, then the supplier is forced to try to remedy their embarrassment. This hack doesn’t work for non-Twitter non-Facebook users.

(edit) attached a pic

This creepy crawly was found living in a rarely used toilet in Brussels.

I was alarmed to find it. Is it a parasite? Hookworm, or roundworm?

Some history:

This is a rarely used part of the house. One day I discovered the toilet bowl was teeming with sewer drain fly larvae. Also creeped me out until I worked out what I was looking at. I’m not bothered about drain flies so I just left it alone. Returned to the toilet a couple months later and the trap was bone-dry. There was a hard blob of something.. mud, limescale, I don’t know. Not sure how it got there. It was the size of a golf ball so more mass than I would expect from limescale. I used a strong acid to descale the toilet. I made the toilet sparkling clean.

Then I used the trap to clean a dread-lock style mop because I could stuff it in there and squeeze out the the grime. And the mop could also reach deeper into the trap to clean the toilet better. Toilet water would become instantly black but easy to flush and repeat. After 10 or so iterations the water was still gray so I gave up.. maybe the mop should be bleached.. so I put the mop away. The mop was previously used to clean up cat urine (neighbors cat keeps entering my house, peeing on the livingroom floor and stairs, then bailing.. does not hang-out [why mark in a territory it does not intend to use?]). Anyway, I did not defecate in the toilet after cleaning it. Maybe urinated a couple times over the span of a couple months.

Then out of the pure blue I find this creepy crawly. Should I bring this thing to a doctor? I cannot work out how it got there or if it came from me. Perhaps equally important are the sand grains (50 or so?) around it.

theory 1: it entered the cistern from the Brussels water supply, perhaps as an egg. Hatched in the cistern. Brussels water contains sand which builds up at the screens of the tap airators and also in the cistern. A typical flush does not bring any noticable sand into the toilet bowl, but maybe if a worm were in the cistern it would have moved the sand around so that a pinch of sand would go in a flush, along with the worm.

theory 2: it came in from the Brussels water supply and ended up in the sewer pipes like most of the water does, grew in the sewer pipes and crawled up into the toilet trap from the sewer side. As it crawled, sand and scum from the sewer pipe stuck to it and washed off it when it entered the trap.

theory 3: it came out of me and ended up in the sewer pipes and crawled into the toilet. No!!! I hope not. But if so, it’s the lower floor toilet that I use, so the worm would have to do a straight up vertical climb 1 story high inside of PVC. Seems unlikely.

theory 4: I leave the window open most of the time and the toilet seat up, so a bird could have flown in and dropped something in the toilet.

They all seem unlikely.