Banking

Problem with SEPA payments and standard

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SEPA means Single European Payments Area and includes countries in the European Union and some other countries where payments in EUR are enabled. Within the region, SEPA payments basically work as a domestic transactions, as they are carried out in the single currency (€).

Talking from the view of programmers that will need to implement this standard…

The idea of standardization was good and it should make life easier but in implementation they failed. While searching for XML standardization of SEPA payments I found too many different sources, and no official standard for SEPA XML exchanging and it seems that every country (or a bank) add something that is specific only for them. It means nightmare for standardization and simplification.

So questions that need answers are:

  • Why is it done in so complicated way?
  • If you make extra long XML for this why don’t you invest few hours of time to name XML nodes better (more human friendly)?
  • How is it possible that there isn’t final agreement on exchange standard for payments? This will be processed by machines and programmed by skilled professionals – why are you unnecessary complicating simple things?
  • These tutorials are written in a bad way like someone wanted to piss off the reader or the person that will implement payments by this tutorial.

Conclusion is that living in EU where “we are all connected” seems like one big illusion because every country is doing things in their own way and officially saying that they follow the standard. Victims are as usual common people which don’t know anything about how many people got their salaries for months (or years) of some work that will not benefit to others as it should.

frustration

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Learning

How do you learn about some interesting stuff?

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Basically, there is no rule how we learn but learning process is not linear. The most important thing is our will to learn.

In my case, it is more chaotic process when something grabs your attention and then you disperse in different directions from the starting idea and end up with something completely new that you even didn’t think about. Previous experience, feelings, events from the past make our perceptions better..

If you are able to gather and process all these new things in some useful story then your mind is enriched.

You also come to some interesting things during the learning process that have no connections with the topic you were researching. For example, while I was looking about learning process I came to this:

  • How to transform your browser into the simple Notepad? More explanation by Jose Jesus Perez Aguinaga
  • Answer: Just copy this line into the browser Address field:
    data:text/html, <html contenteditable>

Or maybe, something completely different…

You are working daily on your super interesting online product/service that will sell like a bread but you just need to launch the service on which you were working last two years… What about to start from completely different direction that can save you a lot of time? Find out what people will pay for and then build product that will sell from the first day. If you are able to sell to 500 hundred people something that is 30€ worth you will make the yearly income of 180,000€.

It would be super if you could predict the success like groundhog Phil in Punxsutawney predicts the weather (BTW, great movie with Bill Murray).

Our brain has two working speeds

At the end few interesting quotes about the learning process…

  • Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. (Henry Ford)
  • You cannot open a book without learning something. (Confucius)
  • Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. (Bill Gates)
  • I am still learning. (Michelangelo)
  • You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking. (Lyndon B. Johnson)
  • Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard. (George Lucas)
  • There’s no learning without trying lots of ideas and failing lots of times. (Jonathan Ive)
  • Just because you are CEO, don’t think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization. I’ve never forgotten that. (Indra Nooyi)
  • The trick in life is learning how to deal with it. (Helen Mirren)
  • He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. (Confucius)
  • Learn to say no to the good so you can say yes to the best. (John C. Maxwell)
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Decisions

Why is so hard to start the new thing from beginning?

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I have decided that I will start writing my personal blog and it is a hard task to begin.

  • What to do first?
  • What I will write about?
  • How I will organize it?
  • How often I will write?
  • Will someone read this or give me some useful feedback?
  • A lot of other strange questions that stops you to take the instant action.

Solution is easy.

Stop asking yourself.

Do something.

Even if it is not perfect you will improve yourself during the time.

And this is how my first post came out.

I bought a domain first so lets go back to the questions:

  • What domain name should I use?
  • How to find a proper domain name for my personal blog?
  • How to search through all domain extensions?
  • Etc… etc…

Use Google as always for every research, don’t brake your head solving the solved problems or reinventing the wheel (or hot water).

So I chose https://blog.kvadrati.com for personal blog because what I like the most and where I think I am the most enthusiastic is when solving various  IT and TECH problems. BTW, I always liked Tonga, heard about beautiful experience from my friend about his Summer vacation there and I said to myself that I should visit this island once. Right now, this is the closest I got to Tonga.

Hey! It wasn’t so hard to write first blog post. I now need to fill all other blank sections, to write something about me, who I am, what I am standing for, and to expose a little bit more, but maybe I can go with this anonymous low profile and wait for the first feedback.
Feel free to give me any feedback or ask me if you need helm in solving some IT or TECH problems – I am working as CTO and as Solution Architect.

So summarize: JUST DO IT! (don’t ask too many questions – any coincidence with Nike slogan is pure coincidence)

It is now time to pack things and to pick up my son from the kindergarten.

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Leisure and Pleasure

Wonderful Slovenia

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Slovenia has great diversity. Everything is approximately one hour away from Ljubljana (using the car). Placed in the hearth of Europe there are Alps for hiking and skiing, Adriatic Sea for swimming and sailing and hills, rivers and lakes for leisure or cycling.

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Decisions, Learning, Leisure and Pleasure

Trip to the Silicon Valley and San Francisco

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Together with partner we visited Silicon Valley and San Francisco in Autumn 2011. We attended some great events in almost a month, have few pitches and enjoyed Summer like Californian weather in late October…

 

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Leisure and Pleasure

Slovenia in photos

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Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija, is a nation state in southern Central Europe at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Croatia to the south and southeast, and Hungary to the northeast. It covers 20,273 square kilometers (7,827 sq mi) and has a population of 2.05 million. It is a parliamentary republic and a member of the European Union and NATO. Its capital and largest city is Ljubljana.

(source Wikipedia)

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Leisure and Pleasure

Summer at Island Rhodes in Greece

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