!rant

*Just got a package delivered, didn't check yet*
Friend: who sends you stuff from from the USA?
I (excited as fuck): uh it must be my
DevRant
Duck
Delivery.
Friend: your what?
I explain, he walks away not giving a fuck.

But I don't care what he thinks, i love my new devDucks. Oh and special thanks to @dfox for the autograph. Well technically you just signed the customs declaration, but an autograph none the less.

Omg, when does the Stupid stop? New Zealand just passed a law that empowers immigration officials to compel travellers to unlock their devices. Otherwise, you pay a hefty fine. They are also allowed to copy the data and do God knows what with.

The horrible invasion of privacy aside, it also brings with it some legal hurdles. What if you are making a presentation or report to an investor or someone you have a fiduciary obligation with. You are carrying IP bound by several NDA's and other funding red tape that would end your life if it got out. Are you in breach if the data gets copied by the gov officials? Worse yet you have zero control over what they do afterwards.

I don't think any of this inspires investor confidence.

Government needs to stop touching things!

Fucking finally. I got a job... No one is probably gonna give a shit because it's your average governmental drone position but I wanted this for a very long time...

** drum roll **

Customs and immigration officer!!!

Thats right! Deported! Deported! Deported! *hot chick* welcome to our country!

Best thing is... Now every project can be a side project... I can chillax and build software in my spare time... I love it.

I just got the book "The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition" from Amazon.

I've had my wars with Amazon in the past for not protecting packages properly, and now it happened again. For the third time in 6 months.

The cover of the book is damaged, pages are bend a bit and it looks like someone took a key and tried to draw something on the front cover.

I contacted customer support to get a replacement, which was no problem, but still fucking annoying that I have to spend time on this shit.
Anyway, what pisses me off is the amount of work I have to do in order to send this shit back to them. Holy fuck!

First of all, I haven't met a single competent employee at a "post office" here in Denmark, as all of the offices are now a part of a either hyper markets or grocery stores. This means, that it's the stores employees handling this.

In this process from Amazon I have to actually clear it for customs with a form they need to take care of.
I have to print 4 labels, 2 which I need to sign and 2 I need to do something else with...

But I'm so freaking scared that they'll fuck this up and I'll get billed for 2 books. It wouldn't fucking surprise me, considering how fucking shit our postal service is in Denmark and how I've been screwed over by Amazon in the past

I found my Hacktoberfest t-shirt. It's in customs...

Customs about to examine my parcel.
Me: "Be careful opening it! It's very addictive!"

Well ordered my chromebook plus and it's been stuck at customs for the past 5 days... Thanks America, why can't more places in Australia sell them! :-(

My devDucks just arrived today and I am so happy, and I have to share with all of you the awesome person dfox is for making sure they wouldn't get stuck in customs (here in Portugal they are really restrictive with the price limit). I wouldn't mind paying the customs fee, but you spared me of all the trouble. Many thanks!

I want to buy a beer for everyone who developed the mobile pass app. Just breezed through immigration and customs without waiting in the 1 hour+ line. Technology wins. Cheers!

Getting a new toy from US.
hope it doesn't get stuck in Indian customs.

Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature.
— G.B. Shaw

Seriously, fuck the Czech Post... China Post was able to figure out the fastest route and load the package onto a plane in 3 freaking days while I can only guess the package was in Czech Republic on 15th of April and it spent 8 days at the customs and now it is sitting somewhere in a warehouse that is literally around the corner from where I live (less than 1km) and I can't just go and pick it up from there so that I don't have to wait for them to finally wake up after half a month and deliver it because there is fucking no one there. How the fuck are they not going bankrupt?!! If I was sending something and it took them one month to notice it I surely would not be using their services again... And their tracking system is the worst I have ever seen. Even compared to Slovak Post the Czech Post is a steaming pile of shit.

Oh... and I ordered an RTL-SDR kit because I want to record and decode the TETRA radio communication that the DPP (Prague Transportation Company) is using.

WHEH THE FUCKING CUSTOMS WON'T ACCEPT THE FUCKING ONLINE PAYMENT, BECAUSE THE "KNOW" HOW THOSE FUCKING THINGS WORK! WELCOME TO THE BALLS SUCKING STONE AGE!

Anyone here from Germany who ordered from the devRant Swag Store?

I've ordered some devDucks and I'm wondering how customs will be handled, considering that the amount I paid is above the 22€ which would pass customs just fine.

That being said, I can't wait to bring them to work and surprise my coworker. We're just 2 devs in the company, so I ordered 2 ducks and a cape to swap them. This way, we always got a duck that knows what we're talking about. :-)

Ok, @jestdotty , today, i give up on china.

I've been messaging with a rep who is taking the time to keep editing a contract... Im pretty sure she was genuinely trying...

As typing this we finally got to a 'correct enough' contract... so I could click the damn pay button.

Over the past 7 hrs.. at 3 back and forth exchabges and modifications at each issue:
1. Used previous PI from the dude i gave up on... so had a qty at 12 when only 11 exist a colour wrong for a crate of items, and listed the dude i refused to sign a contract under listed as the rep.

2. Now the item subtotals were off... just a few pennies or so... assumed she left the usd prices but calculated with ¥... didn't want alibaba to reject in a day so i checked if it was noted anywhere... Oh boy was it... VERY clearly, all caps, bold in the body of the total row... that the total was, exactly, 11680 (spelled out ofc) RMB aka ¥ chinese yen. I told her this, she sends me a cropped shot of the $ numeric total field... so i sent her the giant all caps bolded line, the one thatd typically be considered final say in most international courts... no clue where that value came from, it had zero relation to any actual values... and i was as curious as when chatGPT creates totally new, unique, lyrics for satirical german songs... i really tried.

3. Wrong incoterms (trade terms... abbreviated to a few letters... had it that I'd be physically going to the tbd port to accept/clear customs... no)

4. Technically it was accurate (well a few strange subtotals since she used ¥ half the time... told her it was fine as long as it had the company name on the label (gave 3 full examples to use whichever)
I get the contract ...shipping...
"To: Sara"
Then the right address (seriously wtf)

5. I point this out and carefully explain in mostly just examples and "the us government doesn't like anything being sent to just a first name, there's no legal way to sign for acceptance"

6. She gets stressed enough to tell me she doesn't have time to keep editing (since this horrid pile of poor formatting was just thrown at her a day ago... i dont point out the ridiculous irony)

7. Imo, the highlight of my night/morning... in her stress she promises me it'll ship right... sooo many issues there...
Even if it was delivered/allowed a signature for "sara" for 7ish large boxes just off a sea freight from china to a residence in the middle of a corn field (which tbh would be hysterical)...the IRS would have a valid reason to audit me... theyve done it w/o valid reasons several times, since I was 18 doing international trade and a contractual employee of a large gambling company, quarterly reporting, and ofc declaring more than my taxes in donating melted glass and crane game prizes...yea, they hate me and always do all that work to find the same thing... i underdeclare charity by 10%.

The entire concept of getting USA mail, even when pristine and you know logistics agents in every major company and port or distribution center, to properly deliver anything... ROFLOL ... and im already on some 'open and check everything' list with customs for a hysterical misconception they made years ago... cant/shouldn't get into detail publicly... but it was caused because 2 packages from different cities in China were both going to my address/through customs at the same time... package 1, 75 of those cheap af ball-pit hollow plastic balls for a 2yr old's bday(very delayed) package 2. 75 rechargeable batteries (the kind in power banks) 9600mah.

8. Told her to change "sara" to company name... glad it's registered to this address still.

It took me under 5min to type this... had to get the WTF out.

Dear AliBaba, please give an option to allow buyers to create the supply side contract for review, not just req modification... please?

So I'm working on a game prototype and want to toy with the ability for people to create customs mode/maps/campaigns and upload them to a community marketplace.

I'm looking to host all my data using Google Cloud Console (I use it for personal stuff so i trust it).

I want to use the app engine to minimise some of the overhead from using a VM, but really would like to stay away from SQL if possible, would you guys recommend building a PHP back end or a Node.JS back end, I would have all the data get saved to a private bucket if you were curious how i would store stuff.

Waiting here at customs for my stress ball! xD

lol so I got a new oldish laptop (so it doesn't break the bank) for my upcoming trip where I focus on working on my own project.

Didn't want to splurge since I have another laptop that I regularly use. just didn't want to take through customs since it's 8 years old.

Already used up half of the storage (128/256gb) from installing rider and wsdl lol.

thinking maybe I need to actually return it and get a more powerful machine o.o they are so expensive though

Have you guys received your hacktoberfest 2018 shirt already?

Kind of irritated because my shirt is stuck on Frankfurt, Germany, and it's been a month now. Do you think it's stuck on German customs?

Apparently i need to to "import" the devrant swag. Just today a post arrived in the mail which says i need to fill up a kyc form and need an importer exporter code for a shipment that is stuck in customs. Wtf man!. I tracked the package and it is from usa. The only thing that could arrive from usa is devrant swag. And now i need to go through filling so many forms so that i can slap some stickers on my laptop. My life is not easy.

So I tried to buy some recreational stuff from the deep web, and this is what they have replied—

“We're really sorry about it but we have some problems with shipping to your region. We noticed about problems with customs but we have some friends in your region that will help us to pay $55 customs for your parcel and pass it smoothly. If you agree to continue we can get your additional $55 usd payment to the bitcoin address below.”

Is this a scam?

Why do modern Europeans like to wear wigs?

The prevalence of wigs is closely related to the social life conditions at that time. Because in the 17th century, Europe, it was very inconvenient for people to bathe and wash their hair. Louis XIV, the famous Sun King, took only seven baths in his life. Not taking a long bath and shampoo, it is easy to breed parasites, especially hair, hair thick, often sweat, it is easy to grow lice. The best way to solve this problem is to cut the hair short or shaved, but the hair is cut short or shaved, and can not reflect the identity of aristocrats, it is better to wear a wig, have the best of both worlds.

In addition to the aristocracy as a fashion, the real problem for a wig to become a status symbol, is that the wig is expensive and the average person cannot wear it. In the 17th century, the wig was very elaborate. At that time, there was no machine production, so it depended on labor. A skilled craftsman needed a few days to make a wig. A judge's wig costs £1,800, and a regular wig costs £300. This money is a huge expense today, not to mention Western Europe before the Industrial Revolution. Therefore, wearing wigs is not something that ordinary people can afford. And at that time, the wig was quite bulky, also uncomfortable to wear, often working people naturally will not wear.

In addition to being expensive and inconvenient to wear, the embellishment and maintenance of wigs are also quite cumbersome. The 18th-century wig often had some pollen and some paint added. Pink wigs are easy to drop powder, and they are difficult to take care of. So, it is naturally not favored by ordinary people. By the late 18th century, young men simply added powder to their hair. The wigs worn by women were large and striking, but they were heavy and contained wax, powder and other ornaments, becoming a sign of luxury.

However, with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the middle of the 18th century. Natural hair without wigs is slowly being accepted by more people. In Goethe's masterpiece, "The Trouble of the Young Witt," Witt's natural hair triggered a natural fashion trend at the time. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, the revolutionaries tried to establish an equal society, eliminate class differences, and the wigs representing their status were naturally among the objects of changing customs.

In addition, in 1795, the British government began to tax the hair fans, which hit the wig and hair fan fashion, and began to decline in the 19th century. By the 19th century, the wigs became smaller and grave. In France, wigs are no longer a status symbol. But wigs remained as a status symbol for some time. After the French Revolution, French wigs, which no longer became a symbol of status, were associated with professional prestige. Some industries and fields use wigs as part of their professional clothing, such as judges and lawyers. This habit continues to this day. Judges and lawyers in the Commonwealth wear wigs in court or at major ceremonies, a tradition in previous British colonies, but it makes them a mark of colonial rule.

The popularity of a generation of fashion, it must have its historical background, once