RU/2: Форум. Общение пользователей и разработчиков OS/2 (eCS). : Dialog Enchancer - How to register?


Список сообщений | Написать новое | Ответить на сообщение | Домой Поиск:
Предыдущее сообщение | Следующее сообщение
From : Pilot
To : Dmitry I. Platonoff
Subj : Dialog Enchancer - How to register?
> > You can Dialog Enhancer register by BMT Micro:
> > You have to pay US $ 20,- with credit card.
> > Remark:
> > The URL begins with https
>
> Thank you, Gerhard!

Let me drop my $0.02 in this discussion :-)

> In fact, finding the right URL is not a problem. I believe I'll have to tell you a bit about Russian realities.
>
> First, Russians usually don't have credit cards at all. Only a few finansional institutions in the entire country provide credit cards which are recognized by Visa or MasterCard organizations. I also don't think that it's easy to obtain one without the proper debit in US dollars. Therefore there's hard enough even to find a way to pay, considering that you want to. Badly.

This is not absolutely true. It was true - a couple of years ago, but nowadays it's quite easy to obtain Visa or MasterCard, at least in Moscow, St. Petersburg and a few other larger cities in Russia. Many banks offer internationally accepted credit cards at very low initial deposits ($150-$200 or even less) and with no restrictions on deposit balance. E.g., you can borrow $200 from a good friend of yours, open a deposite, get your card and immediately withdraw most of the deposite leaving just the money you need to spend. I have Classic Visa issued by MostBank for 2 years now and had no problems using it for my e-purchases on the net.

The real problem however is that after the last year's financial crisis in Russia none of the Russian banks are safe enough to trust them any real amount of money. As a counter-measure, I developed a practise of keeping my Visa account almost empty all the time, only occasionally putting their just the right amount of money for my next planned purchase...

> Second, $20 is an amount of money which is enough to at least have your meal for the entire family for a couple of weeks in Russia. Prices may vary of course, but it's a considerable amount of money anyway. The average monthly salary in the IT industry doesn't usually exceed a couple of hundred dollars (with the only exception for capital cities), especially if the company operates on the local market.

Again, you are basically right. I estimate the average difference in wages and living expenses between Russia and most Western countries as 1:10. This means that in Russia a price of $20 is roughly equivalent of $200 in US for instance.

However, I do think that your estimate of the current average salary in IT companies in Russia is a bit over-pessimistic. I am working as a part-time software developer and Web designer for several companies here in Moscow and I can assure you that a high quality professional can earn more than $200 per month salary. The situation is quite worse outside of the two Russian capitals, though, you are right.

> I bet, almost everyone in this forum can tell you how to get to the BMT Micro web server, but how many people in here are actually able to buy anything there?

I did, many times. The main problem for me is not money, although I'll be of course glad to be paid more. But we had so disastrous ground mail services here and absolutely corrupted and contr-cooperative customs that I really can't buy abroad anything that needs to be delivered in physical matter. Postage deliveries are like Russian roulette here :-). Only pure electronic purchases are safe. This is no problem with most shareware and BMT Micro electronic delivery service is excellent.


Mon 03 Dec 2001 18:39 Mozilla/4.61 [en] (OS/2; I)



Programmed by Dmitri Maximovich, Dmitry I. Platonoff, Eugen Kuleshov.
25.09.99 (c) 1999, RU/2. All rights reserved.
Rewritten by Dmitry Ban. All rights ignored.