For a couple of years we've had a 35% tax (actually an advance on future taxes, but it works as a tax for most people) on purchases made through credit cards with foreign currency. That added to the fact that sale of dollars in the official exchange market is heavily restricted... so normal people use three different exchange rates:
- Official Dollar (restricted): currently at ARS 8.95 - Credit Card dollar (+35%): currently at ARS 12 - Black market dollar: currently at ARS 12.65
Add that to heavy restrictions on import of goods.
All these measure were put in place by the government to lessen the outflow of dollars and attempting to balance it with the dollars received through exports.
I *THINK* that the government's understanding is that if the official dollar were high (instead of the "middle class dollar", i.e. credit card and black market) that difference would mostly go in the pockets of exporters... and we know enough not to believe in the trickle down fairy tale.
As a side note: What's "normal" for us argentinians would probably be a crazy ride on the despair train for americans... although considering the whole world americans are the exception and not the norm.... But we've had big economic crises in the near past (the last big one in 2001) and those are have:
- Political instability: Presidencies are toppled, ministers quit, vultures circle above. - Social instability: Constant strikes, pickets, rallies and protests of all kinds. - Credit absolutely dissapears... it's impossible to buy anything in installments, for example. Many businesses stop accepting credit cards. Importers stop selling because they don't know at what price they'll have to buy to replenish their stock. Prices are marked in dollars instead of pesos. - Everything comes to a standstill... companies don't spend money in any projects, no new jobs open, salaries often get delayed (getting paid 2 or 3 months late is not outside of the realm of possibility) and/or cut.
Right now we're nowhere near that. People are complaining about the way things are, sure, and some things are a struggle... but we're moving ahead at a steady pace.
That's a graph of conversion rate from 2009 to 2015. You'll see a steady increase with a single devaluatory hike after which the line continues steadly. It's a predictable rate in tune with inflation.
The price of the black market dollar has a bit more fluctuations... but that's the nature of the beast... just like the stock market it responds to news, scares, manipulations and such. Also, there's no official source for the actual price of the black market dollar... it's surveyed in illegal exchange dens... and of course when it soars most people wait for it to go down again, so it readjusts... it normally corrects itself in a week or two at most.
Here's the graph of the black market dollar (blue line) vs the official rate (green line)
Also, consider that the black market is mostly used by middle class and small businesses... bigger businesses, importers and other people buying large amounts of dollars use alternate sources which follow more closely the curve of the official rate.
Tax fraud is rampant in Argentina. The government having a tight control on citizens cash flow would mean more taxes... so yes, of course nobody would accept this.
Also, Argentine people distrust banks... LOTS of well educated middle class people I know don't have bank accounts or credit cards and don't want to.
In #2 I state things as I see them... I am not saying it's good or desirable... just the way it's being going.
We've had a yearly 25-30% inflation for some years now. Prices rise steadily, so do salaries, and as long as they're in sync people get by. Business incorporate this percentage in their calculations... in contrast to hyperinflation scenarios where inflation is unpredictable and everything freezes for a while. Buying in installments (with "zero interest") is a big thing in Argentina and for the last years we've been able to buy appliances, clothes or plane tickets in 12 to 24 fixed installments, which talks a lot of the trust banks have that things will continue the same.
Middle class in Argentina DOES NOT invest (exceptions exist, of course). They've been burned by banks before (last time in the 2001 crisis when there were restrictions to take money out of the bank and when deposits in dollars where converted to pesos for a big devaluation of the peso). Middle class in Argentina has two traditional places to put the money:
- Hidden "under the mattress" in dollars - Buying property
Because of the high price of the dollar and the restrictions to acquire currency these options are only attractive to the higher sector of the middle class... Standard bank accounts don't have an interest rate that helps with the inflation, or anywhere near it, so whatever is left after paying the bills you spend...... trips are a big thing right now... my Facebook account has been full of people travelling for the last couple of years. This is because we can pay for the tickets in installments, the cost of food and other expenses is not too far from the prices in Argentina, and you can buy technology, clothes, etc. at lower prices.
1 - We're nowhere near desperate. We've been desperate-ish in the past... not lately.
2 - We have a high but predictable inflation... it's impossible to save in Pesos, so it stimulates spending and the economy survives.
3 - Purchase of dollars is restricted but there's a "healthy" black market that sells at a higher but well know rate (it's published in the newspapers and there are websites that inform the black market rate as well). The government counts on the existance of this black market to keep peace.
4 - Going cashless solves nothing..!!! Your cashless bank account still lists an amount of pesos and if you want to convert them to dollars the normal restrictions apply. People taking advantage of bitcoin and other schemes are simply operating in the black market... it could be bitcoin, it could be bonds or stock.
Just install one of the many many WAMP packages (WAMP = Windows + Apache + MySQL + PHP). Typically you just run a setup executable and get a ready to use installation of Apache with PHP and a MySQL server, which normally includes phpMyAdmin and some other helpful stuff.
The extensions are signed by Mozilla after passing a review, you don't sign them yourself. If a shady third party modifies the extension and submits a new malware version it won't pass review when submitted.
Javascript COULD have vulnerabilities that a site exploits allowing it to do some bad stuff... but extensions CAN do bad stuff even if there are no vulnerabilities. It's like a buffer overflow exploit vs running a program as root.
It's not blind faith since there's at least a process. You can distrust the process and that's acceptable as well...... but web browsing security is based on a number of sandboxing and scripting restrictions which extensions can bypass. If you can't trust your browser not to perform MiM, key logging and other forms of data stealing you shouldn't use it for anything important either. Trusting the web browser is as vital as trusting the OS... Pages can be adversarial so you depend on the security brought by your browser just like software can be adversarial and you depend on the security provided by your OS. If you don't run everything as root/Admin you shouldn't use unsafe extensions either.
This is needed because people don't realize how much exposure to malware extensions give them. Three examples:
1) "Trustworthy" extensions that get sold (with no clue to users) to shady third parties which then update the extension with adware, malware, etc. taking advantage of the userbase. Which extensions can you trust not to do this?
2) I live in Argentina, where a LOT of people use extensions to avoid regional locks of websites (Hulu, BBC) or to access the american version of sites like Netflix, which feature different shows. These extensions, AFAIK, intercept connections to certain sites and route them transparently to a proxy. This is a BIG deal, because it willingly exposes you to MiM attacks. This is something no user should opt-in into. Also, some of these extensions are funded by injecting ads into sites you access, which opens you up to vulnerabilities and exploits.
3) Some years ago there was a crazy popular site here in Argentina called Cuevana, which was a sort of free Netflix. They had a big movie and tv series database hooked to a video player that played videos stored in file lockers. This site required a browser extension to run. The extension was not installed through the Firefox / Chrome site, but rather directly from the site... still this didn't discourage anyone. I downloaded the extension and checked its source code to see what it did... it was a single include of a javascript file stored in Cuevana's web server... basically a blank check to run whatever code was there in the privileged context that extensions run in: absolute craziness.
Here in Argentina TripAdvisor has a promo where they pay for reviews with frequent flyer miles (https://www.tripadvisor.com.ar/LANPASS). You can review tourist attractions but they pay more for hotels (previously it was a condition that 1 in 4 reviews had to be of a hotel). You can win up to 1500 miles per month, which can add up to a decent amount (in less than a year it'd be a free ticket).
... It's OBVIOUS that unless they restrict reviews to hotels you visited (which they don't seem to do) that will attract fake reviews.
Why is everybody assuming that if NK was responsible they did it with north korean hackers? Couldn't have they hired russian hackers, for instance? The NK government just has to provide a money filled suitcase delivered through a third party and they have perfect deniability.
Mi original iPad is having his 4th birthday in 4 weeks.
The bad: - It's not compatible with iOS 6 or 7. - It has problems with very JS-heavy websites (mostly those filled with Facebook and Twitter buttons that run in their own iframe and display number of likes and that kind of thing) which make it crash due to lack of RAM. Saner sites (such as Slashdot) work perfectly.
The good: - It still works perfectly for reading books and comics, which I bought it for, music apps, playing videos, Facebook and Twitter etc. I haven't run across many non-compatible apps... mostly modern 3D games. - I assume the battery life has gone down, but to me it's not noticeable.
And I believe the iPad 2 will last longer, because it was a big jump in terms of CPU and RAM and can still run the latest iOS.
What time management methodology are you using? I use the Pomodoro Technique, but am willing to try something new. As a freelancer I fight against not being efficient with my time every day, and pay the consequences myself. Whenever I visit corporate clients I'm appalled at how they waste precious man hours.
I'm from Argentina, a country that has a lot of developers working in the US for top tier companies, I live there as well.
Let me tell you... people stay or leave in my country depending on our own economic situation, future outlook, and willingness to expatriate. If the US lowered the number of visas people here would instead leave for Europe (most likely Spain, Germany or the UK for programmers), or Mexico, or Brazil, and the choice would depend more on cultural preferences than on anything else.
Also, many people working abroad eventually return and share their experience with locals. The mindset of someone willing to leave and never return is quite particular, and it's probably impossible to keep those in.
Oh, and please do check AirBNB.com for short term rental of either full apartments or private rooms. In both cases you should be able to get decent Wi Fi, a nice place to work, and in the latter perhaps even people to mingle with.
I've been around Europe last april (Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brugues) and had a much harder time than I expected finding WiFi. I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and there's WiFi almost everywhere here... most bars and cafes have it, shopping malls have it, etc. In Europe there were Wi Fi connections everywhere, but very very few of them were public. Some belonged to phone / internet providers and were available for their customers only. McDonald's and Starbucks are the places that most often guarantee connectivity and a socket to plug your laptop... however I once had a problem trying to work from a McD because they blocked all internet ports except 80 (no FTP, no SSH, I couldn't even access my hosting provider's control panel, which is HTTP but runs at a custom port). I promised myself to get some sort of prepaid data plan next time I'm in Europe because otherwise you have to search a lot for internet access.
... The problem is, I've been told, most europeans already have a phone with an internet connection, so they have little use for Wi Fi outside of their homes. So they're not getting better coverage, but probably less as time goes by.
As an argentine actor (working in independent theater, not commercial) I'm surprised by your comments. Here in Argentina musical theater is a very popular form which goes far beyond "teatro de revista"... both through or own productions (Dracula, El Jorobado de Notre Damme, etc.) as well as excelent local adaptations of foreign plays (Les Miserables, Chicago, Hedwigg and the angry inch, etc.) performed by some of our most talented singer/actors...... and just as well american and british have excelent "serious theater" actors, plays and playwrights. Heard of David Mamet? Tennessee Williams? Lee Strasberg's actors studio?
Also, I think you're too quick to dismiss wonderful musicals such as The Lion King, Mel Brooks' The Producers or Avenue Q... which might not rate as high as Moliere or Shakespeare... but what does?
The content could be linked directly by IP or using an international domain... it doesn't need to be in a.com. And making a rule such as "no site hosted on a.com domain can link to adult/porn material unless said material is hosted in a.xxx domain" would be almost impossible, starting with the difficulty it would pose to Google/Bing Images and similar sites.
My opinion was original and I first stated it one or two days ago to a friend of mine before reading TFA. I don't think it's so original that nobody else can come up with it on their own.
DNS is just a big extortion racket... I can imagine that Google will make sure to register google.xxx, gmail.xxx, youtube.xxx, etc. just like Facebook and any other big site. Celebrities are probably being advised to register their names (e.g. sandrabullock.xxx). It's the same as with the.net and.org domains defensive registering but much worse.
Ironically, big porn sites will probably want to keep their.com domain around anyway. I can't imagine Vivid leaving vivid.com to someone else, to name one.
Slashdot Mirror
For a couple of years we've had a 35% tax (actually an advance on future taxes, but it works as a tax for most people) on purchases made through credit cards with foreign currency. That added to the fact that sale of dollars in the official exchange market is heavily restricted... so normal people use three different exchange rates:
- Official Dollar (restricted): currently at ARS 8.95
- Credit Card dollar (+35%): currently at ARS 12
- Black market dollar: currently at ARS 12.65
Add that to heavy restrictions on import of goods.
All these measure were put in place by the government to lessen the outflow of dollars and attempting to balance it with the dollars received through exports.
I *THINK* that the government's understanding is that if the official dollar were high (instead of the "middle class dollar", i.e. credit card and black market) that difference would mostly go in the pockets of exporters... and we know enough not to believe in the trickle down fairy tale.
As a side note: What's "normal" for us argentinians would probably be a crazy ride on the despair train for americans... although considering the whole world americans are the exception and not the norm. ... But we've had big economic crises in the near past (the last big one in 2001) and those are have:
- Political instability: Presidencies are toppled, ministers quit, vultures circle above.
- Social instability: Constant strikes, pickets, rallies and protests of all kinds.
- Credit absolutely dissapears... it's impossible to buy anything in installments, for example. Many businesses stop accepting credit cards. Importers stop selling because they don't know at what price they'll have to buy to replenish their stock. Prices are marked in dollars instead of pesos.
- Everything comes to a standstill... companies don't spend money in any projects, no new jobs open, salaries often get delayed (getting paid 2 or 3 months late is not outside of the realm of possibility) and/or cut.
Right now we're nowhere near that. People are complaining about the way things are, sure, and some things are a struggle... but we're moving ahead at a steady pace.
We don't have wild currency value fluctuations. Go here
http://www.dolarsi.com/cotizac...
That's a graph of conversion rate from 2009 to 2015. You'll see a steady increase with a single devaluatory hike after which the line continues steadly. It's a predictable rate in tune with inflation.
The price of the black market dollar has a bit more fluctuations... but that's the nature of the beast... just like the stock market it responds to news, scares, manipulations and such. Also, there's no official source for the actual price of the black market dollar... it's surveyed in illegal exchange dens... and of course when it soars most people wait for it to go down again, so it readjusts... it normally corrects itself in a week or two at most.
Here's the graph of the black market dollar (blue line) vs the official rate (green line)
http://dolarblue.net/historico...
Also, consider that the black market is mostly used by middle class and small businesses... bigger businesses, importers and other people buying large amounts of dollars use alternate sources which follow more closely the curve of the official rate.
Tax fraud is rampant in Argentina. The government having a tight control on citizens cash flow would mean more taxes... so yes, of course nobody would accept this.
Also, Argentine people distrust banks... LOTS of well educated middle class people I know don't have bank accounts or credit cards and don't want to.
In #2 I state things as I see them... I am not saying it's good or desirable... just the way it's being going.
We've had a yearly 25-30% inflation for some years now. Prices rise steadily, so do salaries, and as long as they're in sync people get by. Business incorporate this percentage in their calculations... in contrast to hyperinflation scenarios where inflation is unpredictable and everything freezes for a while. Buying in installments (with "zero interest") is a big thing in Argentina and for the last years we've been able to buy appliances, clothes or plane tickets in 12 to 24 fixed installments, which talks a lot of the trust banks have that things will continue the same.
Middle class in Argentina DOES NOT invest (exceptions exist, of course). They've been burned by banks before (last time in the 2001 crisis when there were restrictions to take money out of the bank and when deposits in dollars where converted to pesos for a big devaluation of the peso). Middle class in Argentina has two traditional places to put the money:
- Hidden "under the mattress" in dollars
- Buying property
Because of the high price of the dollar and the restrictions to acquire currency these options are only attractive to the higher sector of the middle class... Standard bank accounts don't have an interest rate that helps with the inflation, or anywhere near it, so whatever is left after paying the bills you spend... ... trips are a big thing right now... my Facebook account has been full of people travelling for the last couple of years. This is because we can pay for the tickets in installments, the cost of food and other expenses is not too far from the prices in Argentina, and you can buy technology, clothes, etc. at lower prices.
1 - We're nowhere near desperate. We've been desperate-ish in the past... not lately.
2 - We have a high but predictable inflation... it's impossible to save in Pesos, so it stimulates spending and the economy survives.
3 - Purchase of dollars is restricted but there's a "healthy" black market that sells at a higher but well know rate (it's published in the newspapers and there are websites that inform the black market rate as well). The government counts on the existance of this black market to keep peace.
4 - Going cashless solves nothing..!!! Your cashless bank account still lists an amount of pesos and if you want to convert them to dollars the normal restrictions apply. People taking advantage of bitcoin and other schemes are simply operating in the black market... it could be bitcoin, it could be bonds or stock.
But he was fired, not put in jail... shouldn't he be charged?
If I grope an unwilling party's genitals I get charged... someone abusing the power given by the government to do it is worse.
Just install one of the many many WAMP packages (WAMP = Windows + Apache + MySQL + PHP). Typically you just run a setup executable and get a ready to use installation of Apache with PHP and a MySQL server, which normally includes phpMyAdmin and some other helpful stuff.
The extensions are signed by Mozilla after passing a review, you don't sign them yourself. If a shady third party modifies the extension and submits a new malware version it won't pass review when submitted.
Javascript COULD have vulnerabilities that a site exploits allowing it to do some bad stuff... but extensions CAN do bad stuff even if there are no vulnerabilities. It's like a buffer overflow exploit vs running a program as root.
It's not blind faith since there's at least a process. You can distrust the process and that's acceptable as well... ... but web browsing security is based on a number of sandboxing and scripting restrictions which extensions can bypass. If you can't trust your browser not to perform MiM, key logging and other forms of data stealing you shouldn't use it for anything important either. Trusting the web browser is as vital as trusting the OS... Pages can be adversarial so you depend on the security brought by your browser just like software can be adversarial and you depend on the security provided by your OS. If you don't run everything as root/Admin you shouldn't use unsafe extensions either.
This is needed because people don't realize how much exposure to malware extensions give them. Three examples:
1) "Trustworthy" extensions that get sold (with no clue to users) to shady third parties which then update the extension with adware, malware, etc. taking advantage of the userbase. Which extensions can you trust not to do this?
2) I live in Argentina, where a LOT of people use extensions to avoid regional locks of websites (Hulu, BBC) or to access the american version of sites like Netflix, which feature different shows. These extensions, AFAIK, intercept connections to certain sites and route them transparently to a proxy. This is a BIG deal, because it willingly exposes you to MiM attacks. This is something no user should opt-in into. Also, some of these extensions are funded by injecting ads into sites you access, which opens you up to vulnerabilities and exploits.
3) Some years ago there was a crazy popular site here in Argentina called Cuevana, which was a sort of free Netflix. They had a big movie and tv series database hooked to a video player that played videos stored in file lockers. This site required a browser extension to run. The extension was not installed through the Firefox / Chrome site, but rather directly from the site... still this didn't discourage anyone. I downloaded the extension and checked its source code to see what it did... it was a single include of a javascript file stored in Cuevana's web server... basically a blank check to run whatever code was there in the privileged context that extensions run in: absolute craziness.
Here in Argentina TripAdvisor has a promo where they pay for reviews with frequent flyer miles (https://www.tripadvisor.com.ar/LANPASS). You can review tourist attractions but they pay more for hotels (previously it was a condition that 1 in 4 reviews had to be of a hotel). You can win up to 1500 miles per month, which can add up to a decent amount (in less than a year it'd be a free ticket).
Why is everybody assuming that if NK was responsible they did it with north korean hackers? Couldn't have they hired russian hackers, for instance? The NK government just has to provide a money filled suitcase delivered through a third party and they have perfect deniability.
Mi original iPad is having his 4th birthday in 4 weeks.
The bad:
- It's not compatible with iOS 6 or 7.
- It has problems with very JS-heavy websites (mostly those filled with Facebook and Twitter buttons that run in their own iframe and display number of likes and that kind of thing) which make it crash due to lack of RAM. Saner sites (such as Slashdot) work perfectly.
The good:
- It still works perfectly for reading books and comics, which I bought it for, music apps, playing videos, Facebook and Twitter etc. I haven't run across many non-compatible apps... mostly modern 3D games.
- I assume the battery life has gone down, but to me it's not noticeable.
And I believe the iPad 2 will last longer, because it was a big jump in terms of CPU and RAM and can still run the latest iOS.
What time management methodology are you using? I use the Pomodoro Technique, but am willing to try something new. As a freelancer I fight against not being efficient with my time every day, and pay the consequences myself. Whenever I visit corporate clients I'm appalled at how they waste precious man hours.
I'm from Argentina, a country that has a lot of developers working in the US for top tier companies, I live there as well.
Let me tell you... people stay or leave in my country depending on our own economic situation, future outlook, and willingness to expatriate. If the US lowered the number of visas people here would instead leave for Europe (most likely Spain, Germany or the UK for programmers), or Mexico, or Brazil, and the choice would depend more on cultural preferences than on anything else.
Also, many people working abroad eventually return and share their experience with locals. The mindset of someone willing to leave and never return is quite particular, and it's probably impossible to keep those in.
Oh, and please do check AirBNB.com for short term rental of either full apartments or private rooms. In both cases you should be able to get decent Wi Fi, a nice place to work, and in the latter perhaps even people to mingle with.
I've been around Europe last april (Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brugues) and had a much harder time than I expected finding WiFi. I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and there's WiFi almost everywhere here... most bars and cafes have it, shopping malls have it, etc. In Europe there were Wi Fi connections everywhere, but very very few of them were public. Some belonged to phone / internet providers and were available for their customers only. McDonald's and Starbucks are the places that most often guarantee connectivity and a socket to plug your laptop... however I once had a problem trying to work from a McD because they blocked all internet ports except 80 (no FTP, no SSH, I couldn't even access my hosting provider's control panel, which is HTTP but runs at a custom port). I promised myself to get some sort of prepaid data plan next time I'm in Europe because otherwise you have to search a lot for internet access.
As an argentine actor (working in independent theater, not commercial) I'm surprised by your comments. Here in Argentina musical theater is a very popular form which goes far beyond "teatro de revista"... both through or own productions (Dracula, El Jorobado de Notre Damme, etc.) as well as excelent local adaptations of foreign plays (Les Miserables, Chicago, Hedwigg and the angry inch, etc.) performed by some of our most talented singer/actors... ... and just as well american and british have excelent "serious theater" actors, plays and playwrights. Heard of David Mamet? Tennessee Williams? Lee Strasberg's actors studio?
Also, I think you're too quick to dismiss wonderful musicals such as The Lion King, Mel Brooks' The Producers or Avenue Q... which might not rate as high as Moliere or Shakespeare... but what does?
Check out Dspace (http://www.dspace.org/). I'm by no means an expert in the area but it seems it might be what you need.
The content could be linked directly by IP or using an international domain... it doesn't need to be in a .com. And making a rule such as "no site hosted on a .com domain can link to adult/porn material unless said material is hosted in a .xxx domain" would be almost impossible, starting with the difficulty it would pose to Google/Bing Images and similar sites.
My opinion was original and I first stated it one or two days ago to a friend of mine before reading TFA. I don't think it's so original that nobody else can come up with it on their own.
DNS is just a big extortion racket... I can imagine that Google will make sure to register google.xxx, gmail.xxx, youtube.xxx, etc. just like Facebook and any other big site. Celebrities are probably being advised to register their names (e.g. sandrabullock.xxx). It's the same as with the .net and .org domains defensive registering but much worse.
Ironically, big porn sites will probably want to keep their .com domain around anyway. I can't imagine Vivid leaving vivid.com to someone else, to name one.
By now they probably posted the link to this article in the criminal forum and are organizing a mass migration to MSN Messenger, GTalk and Facebook.