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Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

blog.alexanderdickson.com

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Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#111

Post by [deleted] »

Perenti wrote: post #43
chki wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People from Africa or Asia routinely get held at extraterritorial prisons indefinitely. In case you have mixed ancestry and look like "people of color" be cautious. Not regarding anything else you are claiming this is quite an outrageous claim and I have no recollection of such things going on in Germany for the last few years. It would also be a severe violation of the German constitution if this would be happening…

This kind of detention definately happens in Australia, or more precisely in concentration camps paid for by the Australian Government in other Pacific nations. Makes me ashamed to be Australian.

[deleted]

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#112

Post by dejv »

rurban wrote: post #90
netsharc wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And he praises the food in the ICE trains... It shows he's Australian and earned a lot at BMW, the food on ICE trains are severely overpriced.

Could be that he used a czech ICE train operating the Prague-Berlin line over Dresden. This is mostly on time and serves good czech food. I wouldn't recommend eating on German trains as foreigner. Germans have similar food standards as British, the lowest end of the food chain. EDIT: Bavaria is different though. They actually have a different food tradition, more towards the more civilised countries Austria, Czech, I…

Well Prague - Berlin is not ICE train but EC train, but yeah the food in there is good and cheap. The best food was always on Berlin - Budapest route with Hungarian restaurant car. Great goulash in there, but this train now terminate in Prague.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#113

Post by stkdump »

netsharc wrote: post #64
cookie_monsta wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it not possible to BYO keyboard? This must be a productivity drag on a lot of people in similar situations

Geez, does he not know about software keyboard layouts? The hardware keyboard in front of me has German labels on most of the symbol keys, but I mostly set Windows to use the US keyboard layout and use my memory. Curly braces are a pain in the ass (and fingers) in the German layout, because one would have to press AltGr (the right Alt button) and 7 or 0 to get { or }. You end up holding right Alt with your thumb and…

Keyboards, if you don't have special requirements, are cheap and easy to get. I prefer using US layout keyboards everywhere, so I don't have to remember to ignore labels (such as the braces which are shifted by one place). Then using the layout US-international no dead keys.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#114

Post by benibela »

quelltext wrote: post #8

> It’s also more difficult for me as a I have a US layout keyboard at home and a German layout at work. I'd hate tp be forced to use a specific layout governed by my employer and I'm glad it's not been a problem so far to get a replacement keyboard with US layout. It's pretty common nowadays for developers to simply prefer the US layout if their country's is not great, like the German one that makes typing braces etc…

On the other hand, I can only work with the German layout after living in Germany too long

I bought a refurbished, mechanical keyboard that was supposed to have the German layout, but it actually has the US layout, so I cannot use it. I have been planing to sell it. Anyone interested?

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#115

Post by sfgweilr4f »

FabHK wrote: post #11
quelltext wrote: post #8

> It’s also more difficult for me as a I have a US layout keyboard at home and a German layout at work. I'd hate tp be forced to use a specific layout governed by my employer and I'm glad it's not been a problem so far to get a replacement keyboard with US layout. It's pretty common nowadays for developers to simply prefer the US layout if their country's is not great, like the German one that makes typing braces etc…

At any rate, learn to to touch type blind, and then switch to your preferred keyboard layout in software (and ignore what’s printed on the keys). My mom can do it; I’d expect any programmer to be able to do it.

You can connect the two and infer interesting facts, but programming ability has nothing to do with blind touch typing. You can have zero skill in one and be great in the other. Yes I've met programmers who can't touch type. Their "hunt and peck" is faster than a lot of other people's touch typing.

Programmers tend to have better typing skills in general than other people. But speed wise, real[1] touch typists leave general programmers[2] in the dust. This should not be a surprise.

[1] Touch typists who are specialized for typing speed as first priority. This doesn't generally include programmers because they are specialized for programming and typing is really just a secondary skill in being able to use "a tool of trade".

[2] Someone will now suggest that they happen to have practiced for a week and can beat everyone they know. Well done. Now you're still not a specialized touch typist... A real touch typist just needs to practice more and will still likely beat you. Or it could be argued they type faster due to characters/week.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#116

Post by fit2rule »

distances wrote: post #104
fit2rule wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Australian who also moved to Germany and Austria, I can say that the trains are very impressive in this part of the world - until you go to Berlin. Berlin trains will drive you absolutely mad. I was fine with German trains - impressed, even - until I tried to get around Berlin for a few weeks by way of the local train systems. The only thing I can compare it to, is British trains, which are absolutely terrible…

> Berlin trains will drive you absolutely mad. Can you expand a bit, punctuality or what? In Berlin trains are sometimes a bit clunky, sometimes a bit late, but I absolutely love the Berlin public transport system.

It might've just been my luck, its not unusual, but there are a few things I've noticed about the time I lived in Germany which might be colouring things.

Every single town will have some road-work happening, somewhere. If there isn't any road-work in your purview, you probably don't know the German town very well, and just haven't seen the current street work yet.

This seems to have been the case with Berlins' rail system while I was there, during a particular summer.

Now, don't get me wrong - I love public transportation, and Europe, Germany in particular, loves it too. Its wonderful, and Berlin by common rail is a delight.

So I often got on the per-the-map "right" train, only to find there was construction work and we had to take the bus around the stations and then .. another train .. to get to destination X. Well, I'm a competent Euro- rail fanatic, should be easy.

Just: nope. Every week I got tripped up by not grok'ing where I was supposed to be to find the bus.

I confess, it might've just been me being dizzied by the delights of the city otherwise, but I did get to walk and catch quite a few Korkmännchen.

Every other German city I've visited (and there are quite a few worth the trip yet), has had absolutely decent, reliable rail. Best is Wuppertal with the Schwebebahn.. but boy, did I ever get lost in Berlin.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#117

Post by tomarr »

RileyJames wrote: post #70
looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

We have low standards. The Victorian “high speed rail project” cost $750M to increase our regional (long distance enough) trains to a whopping 165 km/h. Here’s the kicker, when it gets hot, they have to slow down. And when I say hot, I mean, 36C (96F). And by slow down I mean 90km/h. Welcome to Australia, that’s half a month per year. And it’s getting hotter. [bom]( http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/cvg/av?p_stn_num…

Designing high speed rail for large thermal ranges is non-trivial as the forces can be very large.

Solutions can be very expensive (e.g. slab track), and therefore it may not be appropriate to build this out for 2 weeks of the year.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#118

Post by djrobstep »

bitL wrote: post #80
RileyJames wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have low standards. The Victorian “high speed rail project” cost $750M to increase our regional (long distance enough) trains to a whopping 165 km/h. Here’s the kicker, when it gets hot, they have to slow down. And when I say hot, I mean, 36C (96F). And by slow down I mean 90km/h. Welcome to Australia, that’s half a month per year. And it’s getting hotter. [bom]( http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/cvg/av?p_stn_num…

You have the same problem as Russia. Only a tiny part of the country/continent is populated, the population is spread along coasts, and even that not continuously. Building advanced trains is not economical, they won't service sufficient population per km traveled.

People often say this, but I'm skeptical the raw distances are the problem at all. I think it's simply a lack of vision.

Melbourne-Sydney is not much longer than Barcelona-Madrid, Which is served by a very successful high speed train route.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#119

Post by nmnim »

bitL wrote: post #79
looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

Heuristics for train delays: Does the train pass Frankfurt? Add 15-30 minutes. Otherwise expect your train within 5 minutes of its scheduled arrival/departure.

I lived in Frankfurt for a year and now I live in England. I was so frustrated at DB and RMV when my trains were a bit late (3-5 mins for RMV, 15-20 for long DB) once in a while. Now I take a regular train from my town to a city and I've literally only caught it on time TWICE in two years. Usually 20-30 minutes late or suddenly cancelled. Trains here are a whole different level of bad.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#120

Post by merb »

lucb1e wrote: post #47
mtmail wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In Germany, there are two kinds of "on time". So far [2017], 94.2% of trains have reached their final destination within six minutes of the scheduled time, and 98.9% within 16 minutes." The article also goes into detail how every country measures punctuality differently. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42024020 (Yes, Germans love to complain about the train company)

> 94.2% of trains have reached their final destination within six minutes of the scheduled time That's a terrible statistic. First off, connections are designed to be just a few minutes, so 5 minutes delay (not included in this stat) makes you miss an average connection. Secondly, that statistic is about trains, not people: one could manage to have 50% of people be delayed by 30-60 minutes every day and still have 94…

also this statistic is favored towards the north of the country. because there are way more trains. he lives in the south I guess (near munich) probably which has way less trains for regional traffic
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