Don't complay too much. The convenience vs security balance can all too quickly pend to the [lack of the] former. Doing online banking in Brazil in any of the major banks is becoming a major PITA. Santander for instance, requires you to install a browser plugin (available in native version for IE or Firefox, or via Java in the case of Chrome) just to be able to login to the IB. You also need a special IB-only password which must be numbers and letters (mixed-cased), and if you type it incorrectly more than 2 times, they automatically suspend your IB password and you need to talk to your account manager to be able to unblock it.

Do you think that's all? Nope. With that you can only use IB in 'read only mode', not being able to perform any transaction that might make a debit to your account. Then you have to request a 'codes card', with is basically a very cheap version of a token, albeit a little less secure. Upon completion of each transaction you'd be required to type one of the codes in your card. Thing is, fraudters caught up to that pretty quicly, and started sending phising mail where they'd lead the baits to a website passing as the bank asking them to type all their codes for 'security purposes'.

So then they made it compulsory to register each computer you use IB with, therefore forcing you to use a whitelist to enable trusted computers. You actually have to go in person to an ATM machine and use your debit card + 3 letter PIN + 4 digit debit PIN to authorize each computer. Thing is, so many people have machines so full of malware that this wasn't enough to stop the fraudsters.

Next in line was their latest addition: now in order to be able to make transactions online, not only you must have the IB password, install a proprietary browser 'security plugin', the token card, authorize your machine previously on an ATM with your debit card + 3 letter PIN + 4 digit debit PIN, you also must have a mobile phone on your file with the bank. Then, after you use all your passwords and code card in a trusted machine, they then generate a 7-digit code that is send via SMS to your mobile phone (which can also be only updated in person or in an ATM with both pins).

What if you don't have a mobile phone? What if you don't have signal at the moment you want to perform the transaction? What if your phone battery is out of charge? Well, tough luck, you'll have to go to a Santander ATM machine, because all these security paranoia features are mandatory...

The thing is, this a perfect example of adverse selection in effect, so now every bank is demanding you to install proprietary plugins (which are usually modified rootkits themselves..) to ensure the safety of your machine before being able to use any IB. Some are already demaning the use of SMS on a per-transaction basis and the process of using IB is getting more inconvenient by the day...

When I compare that with the breeze that is using the IB for my HSBC account in the US... it makes me wonder how much inconvenience is enough to tolerate...

One question... if you start an application from the Desktop, does it behave like a metro app (see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wi8NpwiEuzc#t=126s ), or like a regular application in Windows 7? From the video I linked it seems that many things in the application interface change when you start it from the Metro iface. What got me confused in your comment is that you say you can use 'just like Windows 7', so I'm assuming that Google Chrome or Internet Explorer would behave differently whether you started them from Desktop (with resizeable windows, regular menu, tabs etc) versus when you started from the Metro App Launcher, as shown in the vid.. (only maximized or pinned to one or other side of the screen...). If what you get for say IE is what shown in the video, you can't really just ignore Metro and use it Windows 7 style because there are many other changes. For me at least, with a big screen, I rarely use an application maximized: right now for instance I have Chrome taking 70% of the screen and other applications the rest...Would that be possible in Win 8, if starting everything from the desktop as you claim?

Is HSBC present in the countries you're operating? If you set up an HSBC Premier account in any of the countries it operates, you're automatically eligible to open HSBC Premier accounts in any of the countries it operates - without paying any fees. Then you can use GlobalView to log in in all the accounts at the same time and shift money without paying any fees.

They might even be shipping pills with the active principle, but in the wrong quantities. I attended a presentation from Brazilian Federal Police on drugs counterfeit and from their experience you can get anything from a placebo to something that is so strong that might have massive side effects. Viagra/cialis and similar drugs are among the ones that are counterfeited the most (the person will hardly complain or make a fuss about it). In one case of Cialis counterfeit the active principle was in a quantity 4 times higher than the original...

I don't care so much about the background noise if it's manageable enough, but having a TV on certainly will keep me awake all night. It really amazes me how people can sleep with the TV on. No matter what's on, how crappy the content or how tired I am, if the TV is on I just can't switch my brain off. My brain seems to be forced into paying attention to what's being said and it will keep me awake for hours and hours. Eventually I guess I could sleep out of exhaustion after many many hours, but I never dared to put myself through that torture.

Any TV-sleepers out here (those who like to sleep to their TVs on) care to comment on how they cope with it?

Almost the same applies to Brazil. Most of the older users have moved to Facebook. Orkut is now a niche for pre-teens. Some of them curiously do not even use e-mail anymore, and communicate using 'orkut testimonials' (yeah, very stupid, I know). Orkut even implemented a longer type of direct message but the old usage lingers. It was funny from time to time seeing very private messages that were sent as testimonials being 'accepted' and shown to everyone on their profiles (bank account PINs, telephone numbers, private details of intimate encounters...) . The rule was to add a text to the beginning "do not accept the testimonial" apparently it not always worked.

Hum, curious here about the part of switching off only when in neutral. At least here in Brazil, the general recommendation by the transit authorities is to never have the car in neutral while driving. In certain situations you might even get yourself a traffic ticket or have your vehicle detained for that (driving in neutral). So as a general rule, when stopping at the traffic light, the usual drill is to hit the clutch all the way and put in 1st. It gets pretty tiresome at times having to keep the clutch all the way so often (especially when the traffic is too heavy) so sometimes people will put it to neutral so as to not have to keep hitting the clutch.. but that would be the an exception, not the rule.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've just signed up for it and also found particularly great the bookmark archiving facility. It's really annoying when you want to get back to a reference you bookmarked some time ago only to find the web site to be gone.

I'm from Brazil and the points you mention are one my major grips against soccer. It bothers me so much that the last Brazilian soccer game I've watched was during the 1994 world cup. I've tried watching a match during this world cup but really couldn't stand it. It's , as you say, getting closer and closer to WWE. The saddest thing is, I've often discussed this with other Brazilians and most of them actually ENJOY this subjectivity in the referee system as well as the acting. Being able to 'fool the referee' is considered as one of the characteristics of a good player!

Definetely. 4500 USDs is a HUGE amount of money in many countries. In Brazil an undergrand student would need to save 100% of his scholarsip during almost *3* years to gather that much money.