Tinto has left 3446 comments

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Data Recovery In Medellin/Envigado

"Worth a try" is the operative phrase. Hard drives fail for a number of reasons and if it's one of the more tricky ones, such as an electrical surge, I would be surprised if a freeware download works. I recently lost a hard drive on a work laptop and the IT guys worked on it and couldn't recover anything. Their advice was to send it out to Kroll Ontrack, and I was told the cost starts at $1200 to $1500 USD. Fortunately, we didn't need to go to that route, but I did have to spend a couple of unproductive hours gathering my data from other archival sources.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on

Can't wait to hear our dueling doctors weigh in on this one, although I won't be eating when I read the debate.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Better backside, less cellulite - Carboxy Therapy :

Cost? About two bucks for a used copy on the internet or a buck at your local Goodwill or Salvation Army store. And the 1980s hairstyles, workout clothes and music? Priceless!

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Dinosaurs??

Bad news: Girls are girls the world over, and it's easy to find big purple dinosaurs in Colombia. Good news: Boys are boys the world over, and it brought me great joy to see a Colombian tyke hold up Barney with one hand (like a punching bag) and pummel him with the other.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Guidelines for bringing dogs into Colombia on vacation

If you're going to a family member's home or a resort where you can "park" the dogs and you have a private vehicle once you're in Colombia, maybe it would work, but it doesn't sound like much fun to me either. If logic fails, try to bribe her with jewelry.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Angels and Demons Premiers at Midnight Tonight in Medellin

Using the purchasing power parity method, Italy is in the top 10, but not Spain. US $ 14,290,000,000,000 2008 est. China $ 7,800,000,000,000 2008 est. Japan $ 4,348,000,000,000 2008 est. India $ 3,267,000,000,000 2008 est. Germany $ 2,863,000,000,000 2008 est. UK $ 2,231,000,000,000 2008 est. Russia $ 2,225,000,000,000 2008 est. France $ 2,097,000,000,000 2008 est. Brazil $ 1,990,000,000,000 2008 est. Italy $ 1,821,000,000,000 2008 est. Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on

Is Robert Prechter still the Elliot Wave guru/publisher or has someone else taken over?

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Electric bill on the high side

Your ceiling is tongue and groove wood and there is nothing between it and the hot attic air? Probably not much you can do about the walls that wouldn't look like crap, but assuming you have something that resembles a joist (or whatever they call it in Spanish) in the attic, I'd add some insulation and make sure it's vented to the exterior as well.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Barranquilla - this last weekend

Good luck and let us know how it goes. I want to follow up in five years with weight loss and dialysis centers. Viva Homer Simpson and Donuts!

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Florida (USA) sentences Highway Killer to death......

http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/post/former-pbh-member-dies-in-bolivian-prison/

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Angels and Demons Premiers at Midnight Tonight in Medellin

"...when the basket is pass around they are expected to donated some of their very needed money, all this money winds up at the Vatican Bank." - Ferran --------------------------- I bet that's a tiny slice of it. Money has to come from somewhere to pay the staff, maintain the building, buy supplies and fund a number of social service and/or charity programs. Unfortunately, some parishes have bankrupted themselves by losing molestation lawsuits and for that the Church - the Popes and the Vatican - deserve a large portion of the blame

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on How much you paying your maid for a once a week visit in MDE?

So now we know the real reason for a free PBH: Peter's guilt. ;-)

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

gringoloid (Trustee board) says on May 7, 2009, 20:56: "LC, ...it's just that you take yourself and the quality of your information a little too seriously." ------------------- I hereby nominate the above as the "pot calling the kettle black" statement of the year.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Am I going to survive with 2.00.000 peso

which is a nice change from the free spending ways we were taught in the US. -- Azunoman ----------------------------------- Who is "taught" to spend more than they should? People all over the world (including Colombia) are blasted with hundreds of marketing messages per day. Some people have the will power to spend within their means and some don't. Likewise, some eat, smoke or drink too much and some don't. I guess I'm a simpleton or maybe it's because I was raised in a family that lived within its means, but I don't blame consumer product companies or society for my choices - good, bad or otherwise. Back on topic, Yes, you can live pretty well on 2 million pesos per month in Colombia. You can't live in the best neighborhood and take a different girl out every night and send a child to a private school, but if you're a single guy with modest wants, you'll do fine.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on

Elmo posted his "real" job title/description once upon a time. He might have been making it up but it sounded far more likely than cleaning toilets.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Colombia's president wants to ban the personal use of cocaine, marijuana, and ecstasy

Mongo - the law or regulation permits personal use of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. I think the reasoning is related to personal expression/development/expansion of the mind or maybe a way to focus on the big fish. I suppose you could split hairs and say the personal expression rationale (if correct) is related to mental health, but the law doesn't restrict it to "medical use" like we might think of it, e.g. legal marijuana for glaucoma or chemo patients only. UPDATE: Here's the article I always post. http://www.csdp.org/news/news/ap_colo_040304.htm

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on A mission for Simon

I had to look up a picture of the Armenian flag, and if the stripes are of equal size (in the cropped website photo), I think you guys are right. I bet you aced geography class. Simon: Mission aborted.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on people ungrateful....some are

Yeah, she's nuts. Someone should have told her $400 jeans are bought for the wives and girlfriends of the the six-figure guys in the Canadian oil patch. ;-)

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on people ungrateful....some are

I'm a little familiar with Seven and Lucky and a few other brands that I think are plus or minus a hundred bucks, but WHERE do you buy a 400 dollar pair of jeans? Holy Mole! Ah well, some people are idiots whose total net worth (and sense of self) is hanging in the closet.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Colombia: The second most powerful military in America!

I think you're right about Chile, except they need to give their soldiers some winter jackets and organize training exercises better. Didn't a dozen or more of them freeze to death on an exercise a couple of years ago? I think it was during a blizzard, but the weather was not out of the realm of known possibilities. UPDATE: http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,Defensewatch_060905_Woodson,00.html Looks like 40 soldiers died, most of them very recent conscripts. It caused quite a stir.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on

Serial Optimist Tasco? Sampling his posts the guy seems to hate everyone or at least every country.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on In your opinion... which of these cities do you prefer?

I thought you handled it in a direct and effective manner at the time. Something to the effect of "don't say that again, we're not that close, no more words between us." It should have died then and I don't know why it came up again today.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on In your opinion... which of these cities do you prefer?

I know. The train wreck was probably inevitable after a certain insult was made a week or two ago. I wish the issue would have died but it didn't. Problem is, I've read about a small group of you guys getting together before in NYC. Same with the "Medellin Mafia" that seem to socialize frequently. On a forum like this, a lot of the tough talk is just a bunch of drinking buddies bullshitting each other. We (the moderators) let some of it go because it's idle internet chatter and pointless bragging. Unfortunately, we can't read between the lines and we don't know the back story when there's been a real-life falling out. So a day like today happens... There's been enough airing of dirty laundry. Both of you are long time posters and people can make up their own minds about what to believe. Let's put this to bed.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on In your opinion... which of these cities do you prefer?

This is getting too personal. If you're going to continue the debate about cities in a public forum, please leave the threats, personal details and name-calling out of it.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on What is worth bringing to Colombia?

Please buy GLAD brand bags and food containers made by the Clorox Company, not that crappy ZIPLOC stuff from S.C. Johnson & Company. I thought my bleach investment (Clorox stock) was going to be a winner after Hurricane Katrina (wrong); then after natural gas, chemical and plastic prices came down (wrong again); and then after Swine Flu (wrong once more!). Every night I pray for a disaster of Biblical proportions where the world needs trucks, trains and ships full of disinfecting bleach but it just ain't happenin'. ;-) -Dr. Doom

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Post Office in Colombia

So they liquidated the previous worthless postal service and replaced it with another? Makes no sense to me. Air service in 1919, beautiful, well-planned plazas (town squares), a street grid that once you understand it is pretty easy to navigate, but after two centuries they still can't establish a postal service or create postal codes.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on

I don't think so. Most of the PBH trolls are born in Afghanistan and have been a member for a couple of days, not a couple of years.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on

Come on, Simon, don't you read the newspapers? The DAS is rotten at the top and at least *some* of that has filtered down. Not too long ago there were calls to disband the whole institution and start over.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Is 1,500,000 CP enough to live decent life in Medellin?

Two other important thing to keep in mind: 1. Is your income that's currently equivalent to 1.5 million pesos per month generated in pesos? If not, you could easily see 10% to 30% currency swings in a year. 2. Is your income adjusted for inflation? Colombian consumer price inflation has recently been in the 5-6% range and that's the best (lowest) in several decades. As expected, the numbers you're getting for food and entertainment are all over the map. I could probably eat for $2 or $3 a day in the US, but I'd have to do all my own cooking, drink nothing but water and live like a hermit. I'd survive but it wouldn't be much fun. Likewise, you can certainly live on 1.5 million pesos per month in Medellin but drinking, entertainment, gifts, travel outside of Colombia -- most of the fun stuff is going to be pretty restricted.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on 1 De Mayo Marches in Medellin

Anarchist VS Riot Cops Victoria's Secret Riot Cops? Got any pics?

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Colombia: The second most powerful military in America!

Webmanco, What other kind of experience does Colombia have, except for a little dust-up with Peru ~1920 (which I think was done from the air) and a minor role in the Korean War? It's tragic that Colombia has had so many civil wars/conflicts, but that doesn't mean you can't gain combat skills from killing your countrymen.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on IKEA Buys GM

Cool photo, but I think those are the pieces and parts to a Volkswagen.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Quality of Life Bogotá, Medellín

Some of those rankings are silly. I've spent a lot of time in both, and to rank Cleveland, OH above Minneapolis, MN!!!!??? And Detroit beats Atlanta??? The whole thing is an annual exercise (successful, I might add) for Mercer Consulting to get their name in a lot of newspapers for free.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Track the Gripa Porcina in Colombia!

Uncle Sam calls it the same thing but spells it with an 'e' http://espanol.pandemicflu.gov/pandemicflu/enes/24/_www_pandemicflu_gov/

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on What is worth bringing to Colombia?

If you're a member of an airline's frequent flier club with 'basic' Elite status or buy/upgrade to First Class, you may get two checked bags at 70 pounds each and a heavier allowance and/or a lesser price on the extra checked bags. Those things change all the time, but it's worth checking into.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Track the Gripa Porcina in Colombia!

My office is sandwiched between a Risk Management dude and a Corporate Travel dudette. All day, they've been shuttling back and forth making plans. The latest I heard was that we're sending 135,000 N95 respirators (basically a surgical mask, but better) to Northern Mexico plus an unknown quantity of Purell. I guess those things are hard to source in the maquiladora areas where we have a factory. Those quantities sound big to me and I don't even work for that large of a company.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Who ate all the pies?

DWMTE - I enjoy normal life -- work, family, socializing, exercising and spending as much time outside as possible in our great months of Spring, Summer and early Fall (May - Oct). Then those bastards from Canada send us cold weather again. Most of my work day is in front of a computer and that gets old, so I don't spend nearly as much time on PBH as I used to. That, and I think I've participated in every type of discussion at least four times since 2003. ;-)

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Who ate all the pies?

Thanks for cheering me up. Every time I think the US is going to hell in a hand basket, someone posts one of these stories about lowlifes sucking at the government teat from cradle to grave in Europe. That woman doesn't know what she doesn't know. She wants to be patted on her big fat back for being 24 years old and capable of heating up a microwave dinner. Oh well, she'll be dead by 40, but unless someone educates her triplets, the cycle will repeat.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Reality Check - 04/27/2009

I want to see a debate between PBH members "Satan" and "Baby Jesus."

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Reality Check - 04/26/2009

Last time I heard, Utopia Cowboy lived in or very close to San Antonio, TX. A million plus in the city, 2 million plus in the metro area. Not exactly Nowheresville.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

The "Americas" columnist in yesterday's WSJ did not like it. No surprise. ENGLISH http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124078829185157449.html SPANISH http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124078912062557479.html?mod=2_1362_leftbox I read it a few years ago. I thought it was good as a history lesson, but as others have noted, the prescriptions were dated then and they still don't work today.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Colombia news - Swine flu

I picked this up in a gas station today. Notice the carabiner-like attachment. I bet it's a real chick magnet when clipped to a belt with a corporate ID badge and cell phone holder.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Colombia news - Swine flu

Could be, but it looks like neither Purell or Clorox have jumped on the swine flu virus bandwagon yet. http://www.purell.com/page.jhtml?id=/purell/include/facts.inc -- this is about bacteria. Clorox and Clorox wipes claim to be effective against some types of flu virus but I have no idea if that includes the swine flu virus.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Colombia news - Swine flu

Purell is 65% ethyl alcohol and costs about a buck an ounce if you're buying it in small bottles. Use aguardiente -- it's cheaper, and if it doesn't kill swine flu virus (I don't think Purell does either), at least you can drink it.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on British Spy Loses Top Secret Plans on Bogota Bus

Stranger things have happened. Remember this story? http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/06/dni.appointment/index.html I **think** this is the same guy that later tried to steal documents form a US national security archive by walking out of the building with the documents stuffed in his socks. Of course, in the ways of Washington, he was given a 'do-over' -- the kind normally reserved for five year-olds and Treasury Secretaries -- and his security clearance was restored.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Challenge to the mods

A reminder: If someone 'flags' a comment, the first moderator to look at it can can let it stay as is (and let another moderator deal with it), edit it, or delete it. The first moderator acts without the input of the other moderators (first come, first served if you will). All the flagged comments are acted upon, but they may not be acted upon to the flagger's satisfaction. Kind of like real life...

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Swine Flu Pandemic in Colombia

Good day to buy Mexican stocks, or COPA airline stock, if you think this thing will pass fairly quickly.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on British Spy Loses Top Secret Plans on Bogota Bus

Quite an intelligence operation. Sounds like unencrypted data was one of several blunders. The moron who lost the data and a few of her bosses should be sent to the Tower.

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) comments on Did you know this about Colombia?

OK, PBH debating society, regardless of whether the pan is made by IMUSA, is Teflon (and its chemical cousins) still viewed as a long term health risk? I know you're supposed to toss the pan as soon as you notice a nick or chip in the Teflon coating, but are there risks when using a pristine one? Decisions, decisions. Death by Teflon ingestion or Death by Excess Butter/Oil (in a cast iron skillet).