Yeah, I know that now but none of us knew how to handle the situation then. I've learned since then to read up on the rights i will have in countries I plan on visiting.
It's a shame that we pay our taxes only to have to invest even more energy into protecting ourselves from the system that's built with our money (I've found this to be true to different degrees in most countries unfortunately).
When we pulled over he came over and asked for license and reg, we immediately asked why we got stopped and he said routine check, then proceeded to ask us a bunch of questions about where we are driving from, where to, why etc. I would not answer those now, but we didn't know about how things go in the US then so we did. He didn't get anything out of it luckily.
It's such a contrast from Europe. I had the cops called on me once in the UK (and they also don't have a great reputation) as I drank too much and somehow got stuck in someone's garden knocking on their window at like 3am to let me out.
Cops came, ID'd me, asked what I was doing there and helped me climb out/half pulled me out then gave me a ride home. I remember them just having a laugh at me being stupid due to being drunk. I asked them if they could cuff me cuz I wanted to know what it's like and they said no because they didn't want me to hurt myself by falling over or something. I also asked if we could go through the McDonald's drive through when we went by one on the way and offered to bribe them with a happy meal but they just chuckled and told me they can't do that unfortunately. One of them walked me up to my flat and made sure I got in safe before leaving. Granted I wasn't arrested or anything, but it felt like a positive experience and I woke up feeling thankful for them having been there the night before.
To contrast, I've once been pulled over in the US with friends and even though the cop didn't do or say anything wrong, I distinctly remember feeling like his tone and demeanor was challenging (as if he wanted us to argue with him or something). We were let go without a ticket or anything in the end, all he said when we asked why we were pulled over is that it's a routine check. It felt like a very negative experience and from what it sounds like, it's as good as it could have gone in the US.
While I understand the content on medium is different per author, I associate it with poor quality content. It may pop up in search results, but I actively avoid the results because of the association. Point being, the exposure you get may not be the type you want.
Also don't forget your content will be subject to the user experience medium decides to provide. I think it's already subpar with it being full of popups and prompts to register and pay for an account, but consider how companies constantly enshittfy. You are giving away the control of how you are represented.
I don't know if there are agencies focussing on this, but in general it probably comes down to the company more than the agency. Probably worth filtering for companies offering flexible hours in the description
I would say at the moment the IT job market is incredibly competitive for candidates, so it might be even more difficult to find truly flex roles when they can so easily find 100s of people who just work regular hours.
On your last question: I've been a hiring manager in 2 companies (although in the UK) for software engineers and adjacent roles (like devops, platform, QA) and I would not care whether someone needs equipment. In the big scheme of things spending $800 for a monitor, keyboard and mouse is not even a drop in the bucket for the cost of an employee. What I would want to know is how do you work in a team in your situation and what arrangement can we do where you have a good experience, but other people in the company can still count on you. E.g. if you are working on a project and an issue pops up that's blocking others from progressing and we need you to discuss, but you're having a bad day and not working, what are the options you can offer? Or what if you get blocked when everyone else is asleep so you can't progress?
I think being prepared and upfront about this in an early stage of interviewing would be ideal, it signals that you have thought about others around you and also weed out any companies who aren't willing to make this arrangement work. That being said, as above it's a very competitive market right now so chances are pretty slim (at least in the UK).
Also keep in mind once you look at companies who hire from abroad, you're now also competing with (comparably) cheap labour from developing countries, who will likely agree to much worse terms.
Edit: one thing I forgot, you may have the option to be your own boss (depending on your skill level) and freelance on a project basis rather than on a per-day basis.
How do you see this in person and resist going outside to say hi..
I think coffee shops would be happy with a regular, if you buy something. Otherwise, maybe mix it up, go to different places?
If the weather permits, park? Either benches or just take a towel to sit on in the grass.
You can also read in bars, they're probably pretty quiet during the day, but once again you'd have to buy something.
Maybe a weird one but churches are often available to the public and they're quiet, with seating. Might be worth to check with someone there if its OK.
If they are open to the public, museums or galleries could be a thing.
Encroaching on homeless behaviour, but if the public transportation tickets in the city are valid as long as you stay on, you could try finding a less used line and just go around in circles on something.
I get the convenience part so the staff doesn't have to go around do it by hand, but it just seems infeasible to do it for the other examples mentioned.
E.g. you go in, pick up item listed for $10, finish shopping in 20 mins, item now costs $15 at till.. probably leave it (so now the staff has to re-shelf it) and start shopping at a place that is not trying to scam you.
For the other example, if there are a few packs of something expiring and they reduce the price for all the items on the shelf, everyone will just take the ones which have a reasonable shelf life left leaving the expiring ones.
Both of these just seem stupid.
Bold to assume the plural.
I try to buy all ebooks, unless they only sell on Amazon.
I feel like anyone who already had a know-how to change their DNS will just change to one of the other hundreds of free servers and the people who couldn't be bothered to switch to google DNS will already have been "blocked". Or they are using a VPN already..
Scary read, honestly. I'm shocked she's only got 8 years so far considering she started grooming a 14 year old for essentially slavery. The summary of their interview with her in the end absolutely paints an unhinged psychopath - as if her actions weren't enough already.
I can't imagine the state of mind her victims had to be in to hand over 10s of thousands of dollars a month and somehow still not consider that they have the means to escape.
Kudos to the lady who managed to get away early and pursued the issue so the others could be rescued in the end, but ffs if only the law enforcement believed her earlier so much suffering could have been avoided...