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Posts by Polsyr  

Joined: 19 Sep 2011 / Male ♂
Last Post: 10 Dec 2015
Threads: Total: 6 / In This Archive: 6
Posts: Total: 758 / In This Archive: 566
From: Warsaw, Poland
Speaks Polish?: Yes
Interests: Mechanics

Displayed posts: 572 / page 18 of 20
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Polsyr   
28 Mar 2012
Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

if you're saying your passport is 15 years old then I have my doubts.

:) several passports, where I come from they used to give passports with only 2 years validity, and now with 6...

One country a month. Are you sure you weren't trying to run away from yourself.

Could be! I never thought of it that way
Polsyr   
28 Mar 2012
Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

When immigration becomes a necessity then that is PROOF POSITIVE that inequality and exploitation is happening. Welcoming this reality is, in a sense, welcoming inequality and exploitation.

I think that this statement can be subject to different interpretations.

Is it exploitation if it is permitted by written law? In some countries, you are allowed to recruit workers from poor countries and make them work in blistering 40C+ weather 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week for $100 per month, and no benefits whatsoever beyond that. Usually these people live in slums that make concentration camps look good in comparison, and quite often, their employers are Western companies that pay their Western executives several hundred times more per month (and I mean that quite literally).

What do you think of that? Some say that nobody forced these people to leave their countries to work, therefore it is not exploitation, while others argue that such employers are taking advantage of the misery of these workers in their home countries and exploiting them...

On a different note, I have technically been an "immigrant" or an "expat" since I was 17. I have received over 300 stamps in my passport over the last 15 years. That means I have travelled from one country to another on average once a month during these 15 years. Have I allowed anyone to exploit me or exploit someone else through me? The answer is a firm no. I moved around a lot while I was looking for opportunity and more importantly, looking for me...
Polsyr   
25 Mar 2012
Travel / Traveling within Poland into my destination city - Lublin (from Warsaw airport) [43]

From airport to city center cab is safe, just make sure you take a proper taxi, not just a random vehicle posing as a taxi... Do not exchange currency at the airport because the rate is blatant robbery. Try to exchange in advance before you travel, and if not possible, then in the city center. If you have to exchange at the airport, then reduce the amount you exchange to the bare minimum.

Immigration will not ask you for train ticket to Lublin, but they will ask you for the address of hotel in Lublin (only if you are arriving from outside Schengen), so I suggest you give them a copy of the hotel confirmation with the address highlighted.

Make sure you buy a ticket that entitles you to a specific seat, and don't be shy to ask for help at the station... There will be many people that speak Polish and English and are willing to help.
Polsyr   
24 Mar 2012
Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

In today's day and age, relying on immigration to maintain your standard of living, culture and progress is the first step to throwing out your culture, standard of living, values and progress.

Very well said. I can't disagree with you. Relying entirely on immigration (alone) is a sure way to lose your identity. Look at what happened in Zanzibar for example...

And you can most certainly import criminals and terrorists if your immigration policy is too lenient. I guess it would have to be carefully evaluated on a case by case basis...

However, some immigration is not entirely bad... Of course, that has to go hand in hand with other measures, which are not the subject of this particular thread.
Polsyr   
24 Mar 2012
Life / Poland needs more immigrants and their children - which nationalities are the best? [518]

What a fantastic and interesting subject :)

I know someone that was born in a 3rd world country. He went to study in Canada in the 90s. He studied Robotics and did his graduation project on a practical application of interfacing GPS with motion control systems. He was given a full scholarship, and he received several job offers before he even graduated, all from American companies. They were not concerned with his skin color or native culture or sexual orientation or what not, they simply saw what he can give to their society and economy.

This is how the US gets the best human capital. Do we see Russia going out of her way to recruit outstanding students from other countries? No we don't, and that is why the US always wins the race to attract quality immigrants, and that is why they are always on top.

Maybe Poland should look into attracting more foreign students, and then work on keeping the smart ones by creating opportunities for them? That is how others have attracted the "crème de la crème" of their human resources and continue to do so today.

Food for thought:
Someone mentioned that they believe that a certain "race" is solely responsible for the majority of collective human achievement. How naive! This is the classical argument used by each and every racially oriented supremacy movement in history to justify their own existence and attract mindless recruit after mindless recruit. This very thought is the seed of all xenophobia and the disasters that come from it. Do people that preach this theory know how Nazism started? If not, then they should look it up.
Polsyr   
18 Mar 2012
Life / Multiracial Poles [154]

They aren't swayed by facts or logic. Their bias comes from a dark, lizard-like part of their brain, and they couldn't change it, or explain it to you if they wanted to.

Very well said indeed!
Polsyr   
4 Mar 2012
Work / how much is the salary of purchasing manager in Poland? [7]

Merged: Salary for Business Development Manager in Poland

Dear All,

What should a business development manager with the following qualifications expect to get (in terms of salary & benefits) in Warsaw:

A. Graduate of a Polish university or college with Diploma or Majester in engineering (mechanical or electrical)
B. Bilingual (Polish-English)
C. 3-5 years relevant work experience
D. Can work unsupervised

I don't need an exact figure but just a ballpark...

Anyone? :)
Polsyr   
28 Feb 2012
Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]

Guys, if you call a salt supplier and ask for industrial salt to be used for food processing, with no further elaboration, what you will receive is NaCl (Sodium Chloride) and is IDENTICAL to REFINED table salt, without the Iodine. Dishwasher salt is basically industrial salt with more anti-caking agent. It remains on every plate and every glass that goes in the dishwasher, yet it doesn't kill anyone - if used as intended.

Unrefined salt is something different, and that is used to de-ice roads for example, where it is mixed with sand or grit intentionally to improve traction and to enhance its ice abrasion properties.

Lots of potentially toxic substances go into food processing.

Did you know that Potassium FerroCYANIDE is added to the salt you eat everyday to stop the grains from sticking together when the air is moist?

My grandmother used CaCl2 (Calcium Chloride) when she made jams and preserves, and nobody ever got sick :) This "salt" has hundreds of other applications.
Polsyr   
28 Feb 2012
Food / How toxic is industrial salt? (some food factories in Poland used it for sausages) [49]

Industrial salt is just normal salt without added Iodine (which is added to table salt) and usually in larger crystals.

It is not toxic in reasonable quantities. Furthermore, food processing industry usually uses industrial salt, not table salt, for making things like sausages etc.

Remember, even too much normal table salt can be fatal (more than 1gm per kilogram of body weight in a single dose).
Polsyr   
10 Feb 2012
Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]

connect us to the system for free

That is not unheard of. Considering how much return they will make on their investment, don't be surprised. However, they may impose contractual conditions such as using them exclusively as a source of hot water or steam by all units in the building for a certain number of years.

Also, while they may agree to retrofit the building to work with their system for free, the aesthetic quality of such free installation could be questionable (example, lots of visible piping and valves etc). This is hard to avoid when retrofitting an older building.
Polsyr   
9 Feb 2012
Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]

how many households can be serviced by one of these heat exchangers

A heat exchanger can (in theory) be built to any size as needed. Limitations are due to space, weight carrying capacity of plant room and shipping. You can have a heat exchanger that services a single jacuzzi or one that serves a 25 storey building or more.

I have attached a picture of a heat exchanger sample that I took last Monday at an exhibition. This is the plate type, and typical of what is used for heating or cooling. Most of the plates have been removed so you can see a few individual plated and gaskets. The gaskets need to be replaced periodically. The plates are usually made of stainless steel, and can be cleaned and reused under normal circumstances.


  • photo.JPG
Polsyr   
9 Feb 2012
Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]

Why?

Because I expect stricter regulations with regards to boiler emissions in the future, and this will make it increasingly more difficult for charcoal fired boilers to remain competitive because the cost of complying with stricter regulations will eventually outweigh the savings generated by using lower cost fuel (coal vs. oil or gas). This is what happened in North America over the years. Both Canada and the US have massive reserves of coal, yet most homes in both countries are heated with either centrally generated steam or oil/gas fired boilers. Of course, greener energy like solar will be used more often, but it will not become the primary source of heating energy for some time to come due to capital cost.

Also, since the cost of buying energy is going up, people will inevitably look for lower cost alternatives, such as district heating, and investors will see this as an opportunity to cash in.

Remember, most of New York City is heated by centrally generated steam, and the same goes for many other large cities. If it can be done in NY, it can be done in Krakow. It is not easy to retrofit a system to an existing city, but it can be and has been done elsewhere.

I am not very familiar with Skawina, but with will, and equally importantly, money, they could probably get their steam to where it is needed.

Technically speaking, the distance that steam can travel depends on the quality of the installation and the pipes being used. Hot water is easier to deal with, but carries lower energy content and therefore larger pipes and higher flow rates are needed, which results in more energy being used just to pump the heat carrying medium.
Polsyr   
6 Feb 2012
Life / Question about hot water in Poland and the use of water heaters? [52]

I work in central heating and cooling for a living, especially district cooling and district heating, where a plant feeds chilled/hot water and/or steam into a large network which in turn feeds several buildings.

The rule of thumb with these systems is that the bigger they are, they more efficiently they run. This is true in the majority of cases. Quality of equipment, fuel/energy source and climatic conditions also play a role.

I am also involved in servicing boilers almost on daily basis. No rocket science. Nearly every plant has duty + standby boilers so you don't always have to shut down the plan to service one boiler. Scheduled and preventative maintenance is the key for smooth operation.

The concept of large district heating plants is going to be a very "hot" topic in Poland over the next 10-15 years by my reckoning.

Regarding heat exchangers, they need to be opened and cleaned periodically, and the frequency of cleaning depends mainly on the water quality and the difference in temperature between the cold side and the hot side. Some heat exchangers are plate design, which is compact but has many gaskets that need to be replaced whenever the plates are cleaned. Others are shell and tube design, which tends to be larger and requires more complex tools and skills for cleaning, however, they have fewer gaskets to replace and therefore may potentially cost less to operate on the long run.

I have attached a picture of an insulated steam pipe sample that I found in my office. This is similar to what is used in central and district heating. This particular pipe is 15mm diameter, schedule 40 carbon steel, with 50mm rock wool insulation and aluminum cladding. Overall diameter is about 14cm. A pipe this size is about enough to provide 60kW of heating power (or about 100kg/hr of steam which is enough for a 500 square meter modern house for example). For district heating, pipes with sizes up to 1m diameter or even more are used. Putting this infrastructure in place is expensive and time consuming, not to mention difficult.


  • 20120206_09.13.26..jpg
Polsyr   
27 Jan 2012
Law / Bank account in Poland which does not use SMS [13]

friends in Poland you can actually still use the mBank acount - just leave (send) them your Polish simcard

This is what we are doing actually. The problem is not related to the bank as much as it is related to the service provider you are using in the other country.
Polsyr   
12 Jan 2012
Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]

WOW, I really can't thank you guys enough for your thoughtful responses! Lots to think about!

Well, it looks like the plot in Lesznowola will fall through, because supposedly the owner found a bidder offering 150/m.

However, it might just be a chance for us to really look around without a sense of urgency, which should help us find something better.

I will update this thread again once I know more :)

Well I said I would update so here we go. We ended up inheriting a place. Not the best location but! When we are ready we will buy an apartment (not a house!) in the city.
Polsyr   
11 Jan 2012
Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]

I know what you guys are talking about. I am in building services related industry by trade (climate control) and I know building anything (even a shed) can be very complicated... But we really want to build our "dream home". Regardless, we will look around and see what we find...

The idea is, if we live near Lesznowola, we can be close to the construction site and supervise directly...

Too far fetched?
Polsyr   
10 Jan 2012
Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]

hydrogeological conditions

Thank you... Very sensible advice.

I have no idea about land prices in the area... This is intended for our own residence, not as an investment.
Polsyr   
10 Jan 2012
Real Estate / A plot in Lesznowola near Warsaw - Bargain or not? [15]

We were offered a plot in Lesznowola (which is a suburb of Warszawa) of 1000 square meters for 135,000 Zl.

Is this a good deal or not? Anyone familiar with land prices in the area?
Polsyr   
5 Jan 2012
News / Poland being the powerhouse of Europe [40]

visit the oil-rich gulf states - Qatar and KSA come to mind

It certainly is NOT on the up. My business there has shrunk to less than 2008 levels. Media lies and the boom is just a myth. My business in Poland is actually growing at the moment. I work in a construction and manufacturing related industry.