wtf.. we cannot simply do an NS lookup in Belgium?

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$ dig @"$(tor-resolve resolver1.opendns.com)" -t ns -q europeangreens-eu.mail.protection.outlook.com +tcp +nocomments +nostats +nosearch +noclass +dnssec +noauth +noquestion +nocmd

europeangreens-eu.mail.protection.outlook.com. 0 TXT "Effective April 11, 2025: Due to a court order in Belgium requiring the implementation of blocking measures to prevent access within Belgium to certain domains, the OpenDNS service is not currently available to users in Belgium"

  

I asked for a sheet of national stamps. They gave me prior stamps which do not have “prior” printed on them. Price was high, but I just figured the postage rates are jumping leaps and bounds. It turns out a circled 1 “①” is apparently a priority indicator.

Just a heads-up.. watch out for that. The normal stamps come in a sheet of 10 and I think it’s the head of a prime minister on those things.

“The state of government open data across the globe in 2015”

^ ok, bit old. But still, I’m surprised. Maybe Mexico does well on the basis of not having much data to share.

Intro:

“From 1 May, stricter rules on rents apply in the Brussels region. Electrical appliances including dishwashers and laptops will also have to display a repairability score. These and other changes are introduced on Mayday.…”

More info on the repairability index here. IMO this is extremely slow progress. It’s barely a drop in the ocean of what we need for rights to repair.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2609825

A Belgian agency ruled that the government’s sharing of Americans’ financial information with the IRS [Internal Revenue Service, the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes] under a US law violates European data protection laws.

The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, requires reporting of foreign bank account information to the US agency.

The Belgian Data Protection Authority issued the ruling Thursday, saying sharing of this data in accordance with FATCA violated provisions in the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and it gave the Belgian government one year to bring its data-sharing into conformity with the GDPR.

• The authority initially blocked the sharing of data in 2023, in a case brought by the Accidental Americans Association of Belgium. A Brussels Market Court reversed the decision and sent it back to the authority later that year.

1. Grab a Super+ loyalty card leaflet + card.
2. Lift the card just enough to reveal the barcode and scan the barcode; OR alternatively lift it a little more to reveal the digits and photograph them when no one is looking of course… and leave it on the top of the stack. Otherwise bring the leaflet home.
3. From home, run these commands on your Debian machine:

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$ sudo aptitude install barcode; # or use apt if you prefer
$ barcode -b "$delhaize_barcode" -e upc -E -p A8 | epstopdf --filter > /tmp/delhaize_super+.pdf; # where "$delhaize_barcode" is the unique 12-digit code you grabbed.
$ sudo adb start-server; # if this fails, skip the next 2 commands. Otherwise connect your phone to the Debian machine over USB before the next step
$ adb shell mkdir storage/sdcard1/my_disloyalty_cards
$ adb push /tmp/delhaize_super+.pdf storage/sdcard1/my_disloyalty_cards/


  

4. If you took the leaflet and card home, then your final step is to return to Delhaize and sneak it onto the top of t

Belgium has Riopan for €8.95 (price controlled):

• comes in 20 individually sealed shelf-stable packets of 10 ml doses containing 800mg of magaldrat

Netherlands (price controls unknown):

• Antagel Sanias for ~€7.50 comes in 1 bottle of 300ml (20—30 doses of aluminumoxide + magnesuimhdroxide) which must be refrigerated after opening; stable for only 1 month
• Maalox chew tablets (×20 of 200mg aluminumoxide & 400mg magnesiumhydroxide) for €4.85 [€c24/dose]

Superficially the Antagel Sanias seemed like a winner because the price is lower than Riopan and you can control your dosage. But you have 1 month to use it up! Whoever needs 20—30 doses in 1 month has serious enough problems that they probably should be getting more rigorous treatment. Not sure why this stuff exists in that quantity. If you only get acid reflux 1—2 times/week, the Antagel Sanias is a ripoff.

Not sure why Maalox tablets have 10 times the potency of Antagel Sanias. Is there a 90% absorption loss with che

Makers of appliances like washing machines implement a diagnostic mode which enables manual control to command specific cycles (filling, agitating, draining, spinning). There is typically also a secret set of steps to see error codes.

Why do retailers like Krefel get that info? I have never seen a retailer who actually connects their machines to water and sewage, so it’s unclear how they use the secret modes.

In any case, they are somehow prohibited from sharing the secret info with customers -- those who actually need diagnostic control to maintain their own property.

Just asking myself (and now you guys too)... is it possible to use Itsme on a deGoogled phone? Clarification: I want to get rid of all Google and Meta stuff. A new FairPhone 5 with e/OS Murena could be a good choice, but I have to be carefull. For many things in Belgium related to government and bank stuff, you need Itsme to login. I don't want to put myself in some kind of trouble when I woul realize to late that Itsme's not working on my e/OS.

Flixbus recently started blocking tor for some operations like seeing prices. The only alternative site for Flixbus price info is Trainline, as far as I know.

Are there others?

Then trainline started blocking tor. And (today?) Flixbus started blocking tor from the whole site (not just pricing info). Same problem for blablacar (blocks tor).

Anyone have a source for openly reachable Flixbus pricing?

EDIT: found wanderu.com

Riopan is an over-the-counter (OTC) drug that anyone can buy for stomach pain relief. Docs prescribe it, but the prescription is almost meaningless because it is not reimbursable. So the prescription only serves as a doc→pharmacist communication so the patient gets the right stuff.

20 sacs (10ml ea.) of Riopan is €8.95. Thus 45 €cents/dose. Bit pricey, no? So I checked a few places. All the same price and one pharmacist said the price is controlled on Riopan. No pharmacist can legally charge less than €8.95.

Yet this stuff is non-reimbursible. WTF? If a doc prescribes something, it means the patient needs it. If it’s needed, why would it not be covered?

At the same time, what’s the point in a price control on something that is unnecessary? This is bizarre, no? If medicine is needed, sure price controls make sense in a socialised medicine context to ensure equal access. But if it’s not reimbursable, it’s therefore treated as not needed, yet there are price controls which

The mod might want to consider adding these related communities to the sidebar (all of which are properly decentralised):

• !belgique
• !belgium
• !Brussels

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27227073