General Talk!!

[Daniil]

@Daniil

Along with my very limited knowledge of your country, the word "Russia" conjures vast plains & rolling hills in my mind! I guess I got that from a book I once read, can't remember it's title & I can't find it though I've tried to. It was about an English Engineer's life who worked in Moscow before & during the Revolution and his beloved whom he met when he traveled to the Caucasus.

Yes, I've heared about that book, but can't remember tha name and the author. As to your knowledge about Russia - it is slightly far from real. A long vast plains is on south about 500-1000 km southern than Moscow. Here on the north-west of Russia is cold forests and dark swamps, with small, poor villages and great sullen cities. Here is great factories, and large military plants, and other big industry objects, from here to Northern Ural. Petersburg is at the center of this land, with highways and railroads thrown from it like a steely tentacles of a Kraken. North-West is grim land, but with it's own dim sullen beauty.
As for me, I too have very limited knowledges of your country. When I hear "Philippines" I started to think about white sand, and ocean, and palms on the sandy beach... And as I can remember, there on your islands was a fights between Americans and Japanies at Pacific War. I can say more, it's hard to me even to imagine how you look like.

Yeah, it really is hard. I think the process of registering and getting it started in a legal way is more tiring & stressful than managing it when you're already up and running. Actually, I've been running the same business from home since last year along with a childhood friend but it's very small scale. This one where I've asked for name suggestions will be legal (with all the necessary papers & licenses) and will be at a prime spot. I've already built a small client base from our home business. This one I'm partnering with a couple of friends who can finance it coz as you said it's hard to ask for a loan from banks. They're just too cautious which, really, I can fault them for that though it can get really frustrating for us. 

What is a remote printer, by the way?

You are right again. In your situation you have a good "platform for start" coz your friends can finance your startup. I have no such friends, and find a starting capital is the most difficult question for me. I based on my expirience in IT and computers - before starting a business, I worked for some years on a great military plant as IT director.

Well, remote printer is a web printing solution. I think about creating this service in St.Petersburg. Look, let's imagine that you are a student. It's a 02:00 AM, and you creating an important course work for tomorrow examination. You type the last dot, click "Print", and... "No ink" error. FFFFFRRUSTRATION!!!111 
But there is remote printer! You go to webpage of remote printer, upload your document there, and pay with webmoney (or by card, or through PayPal, not means).  Then, you'll got a numeric code (to your browser, or to your cell phone). Then you can go to Remote Printer Office - well, a table with printer and touchscreen display somewhere in 24-h supermarket or something like this. You type your code on  touchscreen, and a printer prints your document. (And I, as an owner of RP, got my PROFIT $$$  )
Somehow like this. Understanding me? 

[katana]

I agree with you, Russia is much more than my romantic notion of it. The most I know about it is from what I've seen of it's seemingly vast area on the world atlas, the movie Rasputin and from my readings of the Orthodox religion. For such a big country with a long history, I'm sure every plain, desert, cities & tundras have their own share of stories. Maybe, if I'm fortunate enough to travel one of these days, I'll learn & see some of your vast but fascinating country.

Being in the tropics and consisting of more than 7000 islands, Philippines has too many sands - some white, some not too white, and dotted with palm trees! It's a beautiful place but just like your country, it also has it's ugly side. We've been run by misguided puppets & corrupt people for so long that sometimes we think that corruption is just a way of life! 

Uhmm... I look like just about any average Asian girl though my hair's really curly & frizzy. My avatar's a good representation just lighter skin (didn't bother to edit it, you see).

I'm very thankful that I have enterprising friends who are interested in doing business with me. And I'm hoping that they won't change their minds. I've worked in this kind of business before when I temporarily stopped my studies, the owners were old friends & they needed someone they can leave behind whenever they're out of town, guess I fit the job description so I got hired. After I finished college, I briefly worked in a gov't office as a clerk though I did almost all the techy issues.

Yeah. I get the gist. Remote printing is a great business idea, problem is, we're in a province and people here are not really in PayPal or credit cards. But, I think it can still be done using a different mode of payment & with a slightly different approach. Hmmm... I'll have to keep the original idea of our business though, I need it to up and running soon before I start thinking promos.

Thanx for your ideas & time, Daniil!

[humbert]

Being in the tropics and consisting of more than 7000 islands, Philippines has too many sands - some white, some not too white, and dotted with palm trees! It's a beautiful place but just like your country, it also has it's ugly side. We've been run by misguided puppets & corrupt people for so long that sometimes we think that corruption is just a way of life! 

Name me a country on this planet that can claim it has zero corruption. Corruption is as human as laughing or crying.

Uhmm... I look like just about any average Asian girl though my hair's really curly & frizzy. My avatar's a good representation just lighter skin (didn't bother to edit it, you see).

Asian girls (and guys) generally have straight hair. Is your curly, frizzy hair due to what's in your genes or to a hairdresser who did it that way?

BTW, I also had never heard of remote printing. To my knowledge there's nothing like that here.

[Daniil]

@ katana
Romance is always near you, it's not a thing or a place, it's a feeling. Russia is big, and I promise, if you come here, somewhere you can catch those romantic feeling from your notion.
And, btw, Rasputin was killed not far from building where was my first workplace.

Ah, tropics and palm trees... It sounds like joke, but last time I swam in warm sea almost 10 years ago... And you can have that at any day. As for corruption - I can say that in Russia also too much of this crap to feel good.  Every day in news - somwhere caught one of official, somewhere caught another... Now punishment for bribe is 25 years of prison, but they don't stop...

If you looks like a bit like your avatar, you look very exotic and interesting, as for me. You said that you did tech issues in office - where did you learn computer knowledges? By youself, or studied somewhere?

As for remote printing - this is new technology, and I'm just "develop" it. Well, in fact there is nothing rare or specific - Printer + Linux-based print server + web portal/web "store". Connect it all together, and we get a new tech.

[humbert]

Romance is always near you, it's not a thing or a place, it's a feeling. Russia is big, and I promise, if you come here, somewhere you can catch those romantic feeling from your notion.
And, btw, Rasputin was killed not far from building where was my first workplace.

Rasputin was one hell of a guy. He probably screwed half of Russia's women, and quite possibly the Tsaritsa plus all 4 grand duchesses! Does anyone know how he was able to get Alexei to stop bleeding?

Ah, tropics and palm trees... It sounds like joke, but last time I swam in warm sea almost 10 years ago... And you can have that at any day.

DON'T SAY THAT! I've lived almost all my life in tropical environments and it's NO FUN. The heat and humidity are constant and incessant. In Miami we used to pray for a winter cold front to drop the temperature to maybe 10°C. And of course the number of insects is incredible. If you don't fumigate regularly your house will be eaten by ants and roaches, some being 5 to 6 cm in size. Little lizards enter your house constantly. They are harmless to humans but since they're beneficial nobody does anything to stop them. The only thing is you're there eating dinner and see a lizard crawling on your wall.

As for corruption - I can say that in Russia also too much of this crap to feel good.  Every day in news - somwhere caught one of official, somewhere caught another... Now punishment for bribe is 25 years of prison, but they don't stop...

What country has no corruption? Not even the cleanest countries in the world (Finland and Denmark) are 100% corruption free.

[Daniil]

@ humbert
Well, humbert, not a half, and even not a half of womans from Tscar's family. Maybe only Tscaritsca. I don't know exactly how he was able to "whisper down" bleedings, but sometimes in Russia (and I think, all over the world in fact) some peoples can do some strange things. Maybe this is a mental mutation, or something like this, but it gives a man unexplained powers...

Next, to talk about heat and warm weather.
In fact, I'm really hate heat, just as you. And if you say that "heat" is 35C-45C - for me "heat" is any more than 23C. I like to the cold and clouds. But for a one or two weeks - beaches, and sea... Eh... And girls in bikini...  Yes, girls in rich furs on a white snow background looks very, very nice and cute, but, sometimes...  Eh... Lol... 
And maybe it's because we had rainy weather and +13C for a week... Damn, it's summer or not, at the end point?

A tropical insects which you mentioned really terrifying me. But on the seashore - there is windy, they'll blown out? Or no?

And all you said about winter in Piter is right. Somethimes here is really beautiful. Mostly at second part of winter, when there is more sunny days, and a bit frosty, about -10 .. - 15... But even in snowy days here may be really beautifull and specific weather, for example "no shadows serenity". It is when falls very-very small snow, almost like fog, but a fog "consists from ice". All becomes white, there is no shadows, and you can not understand, how far is one or another thing, and any sounds are bit muted. Cars move slower, all covers with big snow piles, all metal and stone things - roofs, streetlamps, granite walls and sculptures, parked cars - is covered with snow "fur".

As for words you told about War - legends of 1 rifle for 3 men - is not quite correct.  Situation with 1 rifle for three man was only at the end of 1941, when Moscow Defending Operation begun. That was most hard time of all War, when there was regrouping of military factories and plants, when they was departured from european part of Russia and rebuilded near Ural. In Stalingrad there was just... Mass massacre with millions of casualities. Faschists wanted to destroy the city, because in that case they could force the Volga river (and got a free path to made a ring around Moscow and a path to Caucasian and Kazakhstan oil (i.e. gasoline)), and also they wanted to destroy city very much because it could be a psycological victory - destroy the Steel City, the City of Stalin.
But in Stalingrad there was a victory, so the casualities was acceptable and this battle is now well known. And there is much more horrible and dark pages of War history, very less known. Have you heared about Sinyavino operation, or about Meat Forest or Bone Swamps? Or about burned out belt?

[katana]

@ katana
Romance is always near you, it's not a thing or a place, it's a feeling. Russia is big, and I promise, if you come here, somewhere you can catch those romantic feeling from your notion.
And, btw, Rasputin was killed not far from building where was my first workplace.

Hmmm... Russia is definitely one of my future destinations!
It must have been awe-inspiring for you to be near a history-driven place. I mean, in as much as there are many conflicting stories about him, Rasputin is part of your history and Russia won't be what it is today without the things which happened during Rasputin's time.

Ah, tropics and palm trees... It sounds like joke, but last time I swam in warm sea almost 10 years ago... And you can have that at any day. As for corruption - I can say that in Russia also too much of this crap to feel good.  Every day in news - somwhere caught one of official, somewhere caught another... Now punishment for bribe is 25 years of prison, but they don't stop...

I sympathize with you... When two kids from the mountains lived with us for a couple of months, we brought them to the beach to celebrate one of my niece's birthday, the youngest kid didn't want to go near the water because she said she was afraid. We later learned that it was the first time she saw a shore!!! There were lakes & rivers in the mountain where they lived but apparently their parents didn't have the means to take them to the beach even though the nearest one was only about 15 miles away.

Regarding corruption, events in your country closely mirror what's happening in mine. It's so rampant & those who are doing it don't even have the decency not to be blatant about it. For example, if you go to a government office to have something processed, people there won't even look at your papers if they know that you didn't put money somewhere in it!!!  Others are just so thick-faced and tell you outright that if you give them money, your transaction will be finished in no time at all! It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth just thinking about it.

If you looks like a bit like your avatar, you look very exotic and interesting, as for me.  You said that you did tech issues in office - where did you learn computer knowledges? By youself, or studied somewhere?

I had to laugh to this. Pardon me. Exotic for me is when foreigners refer to Asians/natives/mixed blood which don't look like them or something which is unusual for them - which I guess is what it really means. I'm sorry, it was just that way with me & my friends, we have a good laugh about it sometimes. But I know that you meant it as a compliment. Thank you!
Is that really you on your avatar? You're very handsome! 

I took Computer Science in college though mostly it was software & programming. I learned to tinker with comp hardware installation & configuration when I worked in my friends' shop, I also took a short course in computer hardware servicing offered by one of the government's organizations... Plus, I have what I call my elite circle of friends (all men) who are as geeky as they come when it comes to computers. When I see them, all we talk about are computers and things related to it that sometimes I wish there's another female in the group just to see & hear an opinion from the same gender. & of course, through experience.

As for remote printing - this is new technology, and I'm just "develop" it. Well, in fact there is nothing rare or specific - Printer + Linux-based print server + web portal/web "store". Connect it all together, and we get a new tech.

I have thought of something similar... When they don't have the time to personally come, they can email their files, pick it up & pay at a later time or I'll just bring it to where they are...

[katana]

Name me a country on this planet that can claim it has zero corruption. Corruption is as human as laughing or crying.

Corruption is human nature... Nobody's perfectly innocent but if you'd seen or witnessed what it's like here, you'd understand.

Asian girls (and guys) generally have straight hair. Is your curly, frizzy hair due to what's in your genes or to a hairdresser who did it that way?

There are indigenous people here called Aetas, who are, I believe, closely related to the Aborigines of Australia... Somewhere, somewhen, one of them must have been my ancestor. Nothing I do will make my hair behave as I want it. Along the way, I got tired of coiffing it the way I want that I just left it to grow the way it wants... I now have a head full of it!

[humbert]

Katana: If you think corruption is bad in the Phillipines, you haven't been to Colombia. Over there corruption is the only thing that works and doing things legally is next to impossible. In Miami where I used to live, it's out of control.

Now it makes perfect sense where you get your curly hair. One of your ancestors was a Aeta or probably an Australian Aborigine.

Daniil: As far as I know, Hitler's battle plan at Stalingrad was not just to capture the Man of Steel's city, but to reach the other side of the Volga. This would effective cut Russia in two and give him access to both the oil fields in the Caucasus and to launch an attack on Moscow. As we all know, Zhukov beat him with the two-pronged attack to Rostov, which left Hitler's army isolated in a pocket where they eventually froze to death.

I WISH summertime temps were 23°C during the day! Here it's about 38°. In Miami temps rarely exceed 35°, but the high humidity will absolutely kill you. Naturally, insects, reptiles and amphibians just love it. In my yard over there had toads the size of your hand, salamanders, lizards, red ants that sting, and goodness knows what else.  Also, sure there are girls in bikinis and even a nude beach, but after a while you get tired of that. Personally I prefer a pool to the ocean - I just don't like the salt and the bright sunshine plus the intense sunburn it produces.

[humbert]

Ahmad: I'm surprised to see you on here. The Chief said he wasn't logging in as often due to Ramadan. I wonder if it's OK for you to continue to be with us during the holy month. I'm thinking the Chief's hesitation might not be due to Islamic rules.

He also told me that for Muslims having a beard is mandatory - in fact it's not even permitted to trim it. Do you have an untrimmed beard also?

I commented with him that if it were possible, I'd love to ask President Morsi why he trims his beard. Of course it's possible he may not be as devout as you or the Chief, but what confuses me is that he represents an Islamist party. Even though he has promised no sharia law for Egypt, I'd imagine he'd be under pressure from his party members to follow Islamic law more closely.

As usual, just curious.