Off the top of my head I can name one banking institution that solely exists through a mobile application and more and more banks are moving in the same direction, making their conventional websites less functional.

I’m going to check a bit further. I would like to have a MSI based system. My (most probably) next monitor will be an MSI curved.

I have a motherboard that reaches a version that requires OS loading. It has an .exe file. No files directly loadable at BIOS level but I always assumed it an oddity.

Currently, I’m running a Gigabyte AB350M-DASH and I was able to load several BIOS updates directly by USB. However, from a version onwards it requires loading from the OS.

I thought it was just an isolated case but it seem to be a more common situation.

Try store brand first. I have first hand experience with Lidl and it’s good. But then again, my mouth is very tolerant regarding care.

From my country, Portugal, I can recommend Pasta Medicinal Couto.

It’s a staple from decades ago. Never used it but people who do swear by it.

And after this, I think I have to try it.

I’m going to use a personal case, now.

I can get an instant transfer, within borders, two ways, in my EU corner:

a) I use account to account immediate transfer order, where I can pay anything from a few cents to a few euros, depending on bank

b) I can use a national subsystem, where phone numbers are used, and pay a few cents

But doing this, even within EU borders, is, to my knowledge, border line impossible, with current systems.

IBAN, BIC and SWIFT do exist but transfers through those channels can take days and be very expensive.

My country ordered all national banks, still in the very early eighties, to get their acts together, and find a way for people to access their accounts, pay services, receive and transfer money, regardless the bank they had their account. Thus it was created Multibanco, a service network, built, paid for and maintained by all banks working on my country.

The eEuro closely resembles this concept, in my understanding.

The eEuro becomes a parallel subsystem, vouched for, surpervised and controlled by and through legally binded institutions, without the need to force federalization of european bank systems.

The ECB issues eEuros, which you can exchange your conventional Euros for, through your bank account, but only use through the eEuro network. It’s the ECB managing all those movements, not every single country (veilled federated banking), thus it can bypass a huge amount of beaurocracy.

I can imagine this system as a precursor to something a lot bigger, like a world unified payment system. Individual creators and professionals could greatly benefit from it, using it to directly receive payments and donations

No need to dumb it down; you got the gist of it. But I’m going to do my worst to make my “explanation” as ridiculous as possible.

get bank account

get euro monies in said account

go to bank again

open linked account for digital euro monies

from bank app, convert euro monies into digital-euro monies

1 euro monie = 1 digital euro monie

send digital monies to anyone in Europe with no middle man, instantly; receive monies, too.

buy and sell with digital monies, in Europe, no assle

have digital Euro monies in linked account

want to buy breakfast with Euro monies

convert digital Euro monies to euro monies

1 digital euro monie = 1 euro monie

go to ATM, insert card, take euro monies out, get euro monies bill

go to cafe, get coffee and croissant, pay with euro monies

I laughed too many times writing that. I’m ridiculous and deserving of your scorn.

I’ll see myself out.

I read the article.

Boiled down, it is essentially a direct exchange between physical (money in your bank account) currency and a fully digital counterpart, at a 1 to 1 ratio, that can be done both ways.

Unlike crypto, it is to be issued by a central bank and will have to be accessed through properly licensed bank entities or similar institutions.

This can work. I want to read the full rule book now.

Today I learned.

I knew Solingen as a brand through men in my family, from a barber and later on through a book. And the straight razors were just called Solingen, nothing else. I was never told the name stood for anything else but a manufacturer.

I was very disappointed, when I came to the age of needing to shave, that Solingen was no more. I was always told their fare was very good. Every place I went to always said the brand had been out of the market since the mid 90’s. Which is obviously a lie, after today. Even barbers were buying japanese or english scissors and straight razors, then.

And after checking the prices for my national made razors, I’ll sooner buy a Solingen than a Tatara. I like my country very much but I don’t see myself spending 175€ for a safety razor when I can get one for 50€.

Solingen sounds like quality, Tatara sounds like luxury brand.

BIC and Wilkinson Sword immediatly came to mind. Wasn’t aware Solingen still existed - I grew up hearing their single edge razors were fabulous. But I really wasn’t aware my own country makes blades. Now I have to try check Tatara.

We had an assembler in Portugal (JP Sa Couto) that assembled Intel-only machines. They marketed the Tsunami brand, both laptop and desktop, and even had a line of computers shipping with Linux, either with Caixa Magica (then based off SUSE Linux) or Ubuntu.

They pulled such a stunt with a public tender they managed to get involved in a serious corruption case that led the company to bankrupcy. The company won the tender to supply EeePCs to schools, both ASUS branded and a local remix of the EeePC called Magalhães. The shit was they trampled over the then legitimate ASUS representative here, going over their head and making a deal with another european representative of the brand. It was a veritable shit show and cost the bankrupcy of two large companies.

Multibanco existed way before Visa/Mastercard arrived here.

Portugal has it’s own network, Multibanco, and I know our central bank is working on a system targeted to the SEPA+ area. We already can send money to each other usong our phone number and our fiscal number.

This is going to be a blast.

LMDE or plain Mint. Or just go for Debian.

Wurth is a pain to buy in my country. They only sell directly to professionals, as in mechanics, tool shops, carpentries, etc, and don’t have shops open to walk in customers.

How many levels of illegality have they managed to cross?

Not that I’m aware. I have been trying to fully activate the keyboard, as the machine has a windows key and a function key. The mapping is screwed to the point Alt+F4 lowers volume

I’ve been considering getting one of those for years but how do they fare with playing games.

I’m mostly a casual gamer but some require acting fast.