farmgineer
@farmgineer@nord.pub
Software engineer and farmer living in rural Japan
- Comment on Should I move out? 1 day ago:
whenever I cut somebody off majority of the time I explain why in a respectful way without arguing with them.
If you are regularly cutting people off, there’s already a problem. I wouldn’t associate with anyone who did that.
- Comment on A car parked in front of the fire hydrant hindered the firefighters' intervention, so the team broke two side windows and passed the hose through the inside of the car. 1 week ago:
Anything within a certain distance of a fire hydrant is a no parking zone. I’m not sure if this differs at all in distance by jurisdiction (since every state has separate licensing). There are sometimes also signs on poles that explicitly say this.
- Comment on 1 week ago:
If a company wants to get rid of a permanent employee, they have very limited tools when it’s non-consential. If they claim it’s financial, they have to (in theory at least) prove that to unilaterally dismiss and that can come with the burden of freezing hiring and other things.
To unilaterally dismiss otherwise, they need to prove gross/malicious bad conduct, performance problems (this still requires a long PIP process), or reassign the employee somewhere and have the employee refuse. For the last one, it can’t legally be too onerous to on the employee, but case precedent is hit or miss if it makes it to court. As I understand, most prefer to settle out of court and pay the employee to go away.
In my mind, layoffs are for downsizing head count rather than firing which is targeted to that employee.
As I understand it, certain numbers of actions to reduce headcount can also trigger things like hiring freezes, but I don’t know much about that.
- Comment on Microsoft patent describes in-game advertising triggered by boss fights, loading screens, and cutscenes 1 week ago:
Microsoft != gaming.
- Comment on Is importing stuff from abroad free from sales tax? 1 week ago:
Are they going to ship you a 国内専用 (inside country exclusive use) switch? IIRC you also need a Japanese nintendo account. I don’t remember if that also requires a Japanese credit card (a lot of Japanese companies do, or at least used to).
- Comment on 1 week ago:
Japanese co.pa ies can’t lay off permanent employees without triggering things like hiring freezes and other consequences. They’re usually put in shit jobs to force them to quit (though this can be illegal) or are offered a buyout for several months of salary to quit.
- Comment on Over 85% of Japanese game developers use generative AI in game development, 2026 CESA survey shows. An increase from last year’s 51% 1 week ago:
Having lived in Japan for over a decade, I think the west generally over-elevates/-mystifies Japan. Capitalists gonna capitalist. They can do more work with fewer people and make more money. Most Japanese consumers also do not care at all about generative AI. It’s in the train stations, city offices, and everywhere else as a part of the normal.
- Comment on Did you know that Steve Bannon was CEO of a WoW gold farming and RMT company? Heard it from this video which was pretty good when comparing two very different people responding to the same world. 2 weeks ago:
If true, then there exists a world where I banned an account of his when I was a dev/admin on gaming sites back in the day. We were zero-tolerance for RMT, account sales, botting, etc.
I was personally so against it that, many years later, I had someone apply for a job at my company where they listed writing cheats/bots/etc. for MMOs on their resume. Instant trash bin with that one.
- Comment on MIT study explains why laws are written in an incomprehensible style 2 weeks ago:
I also think there needs to be enough specificity to not allow multiple interpretations or inprecision, at least when the letter of the law trump’s it’s spirit/intention. This leads to very prescriptive, terse, and bewildering word salad to someone without training in that specific type of writing.
- Comment on Level 5 boss admits using AI for Professor Layton, Yo-Kai Watch reveals 2 weeks ago:
A recent report on Japanese online game developers claims that 100% of those surveyed use generative AI tools.
Yeah, Japan is generally not nearly as anti-AI as some other places. AI-generated stuff is all over the place at train stations, signs, restaurants, etc.
- Comment on “Is anyone out There?” - HamRadio 3 weeks ago:
I’m a licensed HAM. I basically never touch the stuff at the moment. I want to get a good HF radio, but it’s so expensive and I might also be losing my job.
If you are in the US, do not use it unlicensed unless you want a visit from the FCC and I think federal charges.
- Comment on wiki workers united! 3 weeks ago:
Fuck yeah! Solidarity!
- Comment on I'm not sure they will 3 weeks ago:
As a software engineer, please do.
- Comment on Republicans are arguing over if trans people can play sports while the world laughs at us 4 weeks ago:
Japan is not technically correct. One is required to have healthcare coverage, but some people skirt the law and don’t. We also pay at point of service, pay for prescriptions, etc. This is on top of paying for insurance (though your company may offer insurance that it pays some/all of). There are tax procedures once medical out-of-pocket reaches 100k JPY in a year and a way to reduce/eliminate further cost.
- Comment on 4 weeks ago:
Ought to
- Comment on I guess we doin UAVs now 5 weeks ago:
A lot of companies in Japan have a heavy industries branch or similar. Yamaha has all kinds of verticals as they’re happy to sell you a piano or a motorcycle (or both!)
- Comment on This Avocado Oil that claims to be “0 Calories” 🙄 1 month ago:
I meant help people in the US get accurate information on what they’re consuming.
- Comment on This Avocado Oil that claims to be “0 Calories” 🙄 1 month ago:
Yeah, here in Japan as well. I think really enforcing realistic serving sizes (no one is going to accurately do 0.25s) in labeling would also help the US.
- Comment on This Avocado Oil that claims to be “0 Calories” 🙄 1 month ago:
Yeah, it’s rounding. Under a certain amount, it just rounds to zero. No one is actually using the recommended serving size. There should be legal requirements to always provide the information for the full amount in the package/container/bottle/whatever as well next to the other values (some countries at least sometimes do this).
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Do you know the roots of the word’s usage in this sense? “Correcting” it is far more cinge-worthy in my book
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
To me personally yes but I think any belief in the supernatural is weird. If you’re not hurting anyone or talking my ear off about your beliefs, then you do you to your heart’s content
- Comment on If you could use a Rube Goldberg like contraption on any task you find extremely strenuous, what would it be? 1 month ago:
Mental health/therapy.
Barring that, weeding my fields
- Comment on Housing prices 1 month ago:
I fully agree with the point but is “a erage” the right metric? I also have to imagine even the average house is much larger than in 1970.
- Comment on Is there a reason why toilets are made out of one of the most resonating materials possible while also being made in a shape that makes a small fart sound like a damn trombone? 1 month ago:
Especially before I knew I had gluten issues and was shitting 6+ times a day, I experienced a variety of materials across countries. Even toilets made entirely of plastic/polymers have basically the same issue. My second “real” rental in japand, and one of my in-laws, had those. Doesn’t really change much.
(The “real” above is because I lived in share houses a couple of times)
- Comment on Languages 1 month ago:
Is that seaux?
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
I think this wording is too strong, but I indeed ctrl+f for apnea. OP should do a sleep study.
- Comment on It really ties the universe together 1 month ago:
Pretty sure that’s just an old linoleum tile or faux granite counter with reflections of the overhead light.
- Comment on Cool Japan 🌸 1 month ago:
Not the same person, but ability to speak the language. A lot of the places don’t care what your background is so long as you speak the language. This should not be confused with me agreeing with this policy, which I do not.
- Comment on Cool Japan 🌸 1 month ago:
Japan will put signs out saying they’re full and to queue from x position. Some will list an approximate time. If they take reservations and are full for the day, it will usually say that. Especially in urban areas, we can have some quite small restaurants.
- Comment on Three developers' different philosophies on difficulty for their games 2 months ago:
I’m not paying for a game that doesn’t allow changing difficulty if I want/need. I work two jobs and have to do most home cleaning and maintenance. I used to game competitively back in the early 2000s, but I don’t have time for that shit nor gatekeeping.