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Yes, that's what we ended up with. It required a lot of hassle on the side of the sender because it wasn't clear what tax and liability risks this involves for a US company to send a crypto payment. But it worked and I really appreciate they were willing to help me. Not sure if a lot of companies are willing to go great lengths to get their Russian employees paid in this situation...

Also, got bless crypto currencies! It would be not that easy to shut down P2P withdrawals until the internet is working at all. I have to admit, I was a big crypto sceptic right until the moment it became the only way to get paid. Now I'm a believer!

Unfortunately (for me), "USD and EUR transfer options open to use" does not equal "you can send or receive USD or EUR to your account in a Russian bank".

In the past week I myself and many people I know were not able to receive a USD wire from US to their accounts in different Russian banks, none of which are even in the list of sanctioned entities (Tinkoff and Avangard banks are the most common example). In all these cases the transfer was declined by a US bank, probably due to compliance considerations. Sending USD or EUR outside doesn't work either, and in some cases you cannot even exchange the remaining USD on your account to RUB. The options are indeed available in the bank's web or mobile application, but clicking 'Send' just gives you a 'something went wrong' error and that's it.

It is true that Putin might be not noticing any inconvenience, just as most employees of state-owned companies (who happen to be the core Putin supporters), but people who rely on international payments for living (who happen to be the least loyal to Putin part of the population) are being severely hit by the sanctions and have spent the last week in the state of permanent panic trying to figure out what are the remaining options they have and how they'll pay their expenses in a month from now.

Exactly, and not just the police. Some 20-30% of the population are actively supporting the current regime and will stand for it. Even if all state propaganda magically disappears and gets instantly replaced by the West propaganda, it'll take months and months for them to change their stance. People hate being wrong, and even more they hate admitting being wrong.

It is a civil war kind of situation we're talking about.

From my first-hand experience of being under sanctions, they do the opposite.

In 2015 Visa and MasterCard banned all transactions in Crimea. It hit hardest the people who were naturally the least loyal to Putin - the upper middle class, IT professionals, and everyone who relied on receiving international payments. I don't know anyone who has changed their opinion about Putin to worse as the result, but a lot of people, myself included, changed their attitude towards West to worse. And even if sanctions will result in the fall of the regime eventually, you can be sure they will be remembered as a hostile action.

I live in Crimea. People are sad, angry, and disappointed. And fatigued. Nobody wants war, but a lot of people feel like we're screwed either way. We avoided a war in 2014, and we can probably avoid it today, but that just means it will come tomorrow. And because people don't see a good way out of the situation, it feels like, whatever happens, just let it happen fast. "A horrible end is better than endless horror".

I don't know how to explain all this to my kids. And how to keep them safe. I feel really sorry for everyone involved on all sides.

In the practical sense, the "NATO problem" is that Ukraine is not going to give up on Crimea, and once it becomes a member of NATO that will lead to direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

But that's exactly what happens, for example, in Russia or Belarus. The opposition claims the election was rigged, the court dismisses these claims, and the government uses the law against inciting violence to silence and or jail the opposition. And it is nearly impossible to prove that the elections in the whole were rigged - in the best case they have a proof on a number of episodes that total in, let's say, 100k of votes, but that still doesn't prove the overall result is falsified.

Well, almost. The problem is that _nobody_ gives a shit about the people. The old overlords demonstrated how much they care by cutting off the power and water supply. The new overlords are not interested in taking more risks to continue what they started. The international community has a very little clue about anything, a strong opinion about everything, and not enough time and attention to give shit about the people.

But this GitHub announcement gives a hope that someone somewhere gives a shit about the problems of real people and that the sanctions will eventually end one way or another.

Yeah, Russia is getting a lot of criticism for this from locals, but nothing changes. The reason is that any large russian business is an international business. They are either a publicly trading company, or have a headquarter in Europe, or partially owned by an international company. For them getting sanctioned would mean multi-millions losses, losing investors, suppliers, and much more. Even the largest state-owned Russian bank cannot afford to open a branch in Crimea because (as they have publicly commented) this will result in mass loss of their investors and will crash their stock price.

The termination of processing in Crimea by Visa and MasterCard was actually a big deal. It came out of nowhere. One morning ATMs and terminals in shops just stopped working and everybody was left with maybe some cash and a bunch of useless cards. It was not a joke. I was making trips to the nearest working ATM in Russia with like 15 credit cads of our friends and relatives with scribbled pin-codes - a 6-7 hour drive one way, often only to find that we need to drive further to find a not yet emptied ATM. And then returning with a bag of cash.

And then the same winter Ukraine cut electricity and water supply. I remember doing homework with kids by a candle light, wearing warm jackets inside because heating didn't work. Fun times. I don't know how this all was supposed to turn people of Crimea back to Ukraine and who thought it was a good idea. I think it worked the opposite way and turned a lot of locals into supporters of the annexation.

Anyway, I'd say the most upsetting result of the sanctions is almost total absence of large international and Russian business in Crimea. It makes everything very expensive. It's like an additional tax on everything. For example, no large Russian bank has a local branch. There are only few small local banks and as a result it is really hard to get a business loan or mortgage, and the rates are bad. There are almost no stores of big food chains, and it means the food is more expensive than in mainland Russia; there are no McDonalds, no Burger King or Starbucks; you cannot receive an international delivery and you have to pay to one of the many proxy services that re-send packages if you want to receive a package from Amazon; no international flights which means you always need to buy a flight to Moscow first; etc.

VPN with kill switch on all devices and an address in mainland Russia in github profile. I know quite a few people who live in Crimea and do contract work for US companies, who are not disclosing their actual location to their employers.

For most of us this is not option for personal reasons. Old parents who will not move, kids going to school here, etc. Not to mention that I don't have any relatives or friends in Ukraine and moving there would require to cut all personal and business relationships.

I wonder if it is possible to mount a noise-cancelling device directly on the source of noise, for example, on a circular saw? The frequency of sound waves from a particular tool is pretty predictable and I can imagine a device with a mic or a vibrometer and speakers that clips directly to a tool and suppresses most of noise from this particular source.

I've been using ANC headphones since I started woodworking in the garage and it works for me but not for my neighbours. Soundproofing the garage is difficult and not always possible (not when the door is open anyway), so I would pay top dollar for something like this.

I bet the experience differs a lot for different people and different cultures. My mother has diabetes and is in the vulnerable age group but from all the adults I know, she and her friends around her age are the people who were the least concerned about the virus since the beginning of the epidemics. No isolation, no masks, they just don't care and even get angry at the attempts to keep them isolated. And to be fair, I totally get it. Kind of, it is better to die standing than to live kneeling. We'll all die sooner or later.

The renders on their site are exceptionally bad. They don't even look quite like renders, rather hand-made sketches with textures applied on top. The design of the truck is not that bad and I bet the car would look fantastic in real life and on real photos, with all the minor detail, reflections and the feel of the real material, that is now missing.

It's about two steps away from intermittent camps.

Apple should've given some kind of overview of how exactly the app was used to target police officers. Knowing that the app was aggregating info on police presence, I can see a dozen ways to maliciously use this info.

For example, it could have been used to identify locations where police is about to withdraw to target last remaining officers. Or to identify a good place for an ambush with good escape options and no video surveillance and then lure police into the ambush by reporting a minor accident. Information about location and movements of the adversary is invaluable for exactly this reason - it gives the other side advantage in planning.

If something like this really did happen and if Apple has any specifics, it should totally release it down to exact location and time of incidents and the aftermath. These are very serious allegations that need substantial proofs.

Because sanctions directly affect their families. The choice between letting your family to suffer and doing the right thing in the global scale of things is not really a choice. People always chose family. And that's why sanctions radicalize population of sanctioned countries and increase support of the ruling regime.

Wow thanks! I've been looking for something like Containerise, but for Chrome for a while. Didn't know it already exists in FF.