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International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

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271–280 of 402 posts

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. We also considered some Japanese cars, but we found that they were generally more expensive (than e.g. similarly spec'ed Skodas or Seats).

uh, Seat is very well known for being very unreliable and by far the most unreliable brand of VW concern, Skoda is decent but pretty bad value against Koreans, if you equip Skoda same way as Korean you end up for sure on higher price. Japanese in general cost slightly more, but it's worth it for better engines, high quality, low risk of stealing and decent resell value, while Seat has zero value I can't really imagin…

Sorry, but the ADAC had excellent reviews for the Skoda models that we considered and good reviews for the Seats. I'd rather take their word than hearsay. Again, these models were cheaper than similar Japanese models, that we had also looked at.

Admittedly, we haven't looked much at Korean models. That's mostly because my wife (I don't have a driver's license) had no experience and consequently no opinion about them.

At any rate, we ended up buying a Skoda ;). And I see Porsches here nearly every day :p.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#272
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who have recently travelled to the US, what's the probability that you will be asked to unlock your stuff and have random employees search through it? Is it something that happens a lot?

It hasn't happened to me, but when I go to the US embassy in France they take my phone for the entire time I'm waiting there.

Same for the German embassy in France, the phones are asked and kept by the security at the entry.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#273
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had serious plans to go on holiday to the US this year. I have been in the US at least a dozen of times, and absolutely love the desert states, Oregon, and Washington. Entering the US was already a large hassle, but with Trump's travel bans, rumors of phone, laptop, and social media checks, we have decided to postpone our travel plans until the political/security climate improves. Semi-related: we were in the mark…

The Ford Focus sold in Europe is assembled in Germany [1]. The current US border control security climate dates since the Obama Administration. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_of_Europe#Facilities

The personal device snooping is new.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#274
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not from the U.S., so my knowledge here is a bit sketchy, but wasn't one of the problems Clinton had exactly that some states which always voted for the Democrats fell to the Republicans this time?

Not really. Both bases stayed pretty true to their colors.

That's a slight simplification. There where over 200 counties that voted for Obama twice and now voted for Trump.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#275
post #10

I live in Europe. From my perspective going to US looks like going to some kind totalitarian country. First I have to got visa which is not automatically approved because I'm Polish not British. Then I have to go trough a lot of, mostly pointless, security checks, checking social accounts, interrogations, scans and manual personal revisions. On any stage of that I can be handcuffed and sent back to Europe for almost…

Fingers crossed EU will implement visa reciprocity rule. Fingers crossed.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#276

Why can't US adopt Israel's border control practices? Going in and out of Israel is a breeze. Sure, it's strict, as it should be, but you never feel harassed or worse. And surely their problem with terrorism is equal if not larger than that of US.

I don't know if it changed in the meantime, but I was flying to Israel in 99 and it was an experience I will not forget my whole life. It included the security officers making a call to my parents pretending to be my friend and asking where I am - I guess it was a trick. My mother was very scared, because she didn't know this guy's voice.

I found this very mean. Hopefully it changed in a positive way.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#278
post #99
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe just stop traveling to US would be easier and cheaper solution, why one need to be physically present anywhere in 2017? i find it odd, i can understand it for my father that when some of his agricultural company partners has training, people from neighboring countries must travel there for hours to stay there for few hours and go back, but IT company in 2017? reminds me of Huawei which is still organizing telec…

Well: A) - Full HD video conferencing for ~ 100 people is not cheap. At all. Bandwidth costs alone would be huge. B) - For teams that work together remotely, it is very important for them to meet in person from time to time. Communication issues drop when you can put a face and personality to a name on IRC / email. (and no, this is not achieved via video calls)

I agree with your second point, not so much with the first, I've seen very intelligent approaches to video conferencing (only full HD video for the speaker, and dynamic upscaling-downscaling based on who's speaking), not to mention bandwidth is very cheap now.

Communication is still a lot better face to face, but video conferencing is getting a lot better (and I'm betting on that with my own startup attempt :) ).

I'd definitely schedule periodic face to face meetings for remote teams, but that doesn't mean remote cannot work.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#279
post #117
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because Eastern Europeans are rarely shooting or bombing innocent people? Just a wild, wild guess...

In the US you mean? Eastern Europe isn't entirely free of terrorist activity, assuming that you include Chechnya.

Last time I checked these were local military conflicts and not about murdering innocent civilians around the world.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#280
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Semi-related: we were in the market for a new car. One of the factors we decided to go for a European car this time (we had a Ford Focus before) is that we'd like to support Trump America as little as possible. What an exciting new world we live in, in which, before we do any kind of business or trade with a company which has a presence in a foreign country, we must consider all of the policies of that country's cu…

Sounds to me like voting with your pocket book. How is this a bad thing? Would you also object if I didn't want to purchase clothes that are manufactured in a way I find morally deplorable? Hey it's not the workers fault right?

> Sounds to me like voting with your pocket book.

It's very interesting that you would compare it to voting, because that means we're talking about citizens of one country "voting" for the leader of another country--which would mean interfering with another country's elections. Are you sure you want to stick with that analogy? :)

This is in contrast with the traditional definition of "voting with your wallet," which refers to refusing to do business with companies you don't like.

> How is this a bad thing?

In a nutshell, it's bad because it further contributes to polarization and division. This becomes a self-reinforcing cycle, leading to ever more "us vs. them" thinking. Eventually it's what leads to wars. Isn't it fairly basic political theory that nations which are economically interdependent are less likely to go to war with each other? If we can't do business with anyone who has different political opinions than we do, that's a recipe for...well, war.

> Would you also object if I didn't want to purchase clothes that are manufactured in a way I find morally deplorable? Hey it's not the workers fault right?

You're comparing apples to oranges. This is not a question of a company mistreating its workers.

By the same token, I could ask you why you would punish the innocent workers who didn't vote for the candidate you dislike. By refusing to do business with them, you are hurting them, and it's not their fault the candidate got elected. Even from a purely pragmatic standpoint, this is likely to drive them away, toward your political opponents, who can tell them, "See how nasty the other side is? They won't even trade with us anymore because they disagree with how we run our own country!"

That attitude is essentially a large part of why Trump got elected: the Democrats' constant condescension toward a large swath of the population alienated them. If you mistreat people, they aren't going to thank you for it, they're going to hate you for it.

Or, colloquially, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

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