Twin Wolf Technology Group

Here is an article explaining the problem and fix.

https://osxdaily.com/2016/02/26/iphone-is-disabled-fix/

If you are unable to get the computer to recognize the phone, then you will likely have to completely wipe and reset the phone back to the factory default.

I do not think anyone is arguing that there isn't a problem, nor that something shouldn't be done.   To look at the problem realistically and then to say well lets ban plastic straws is a kin to trying to lower the level of the ocean with an eyedropper.   To efficiently target the problem and actually make a difference, it is necessary to look at what plastic items are the biggest contributors.   Certainly plastic straws are not a big contributor.  It is laughable to say "well at least they are doing SOMETHING".    Panama is probably doing more by banning the plastic bags than California is doing by banning plastic straws.   Just because you are "doing something" does not mean you are making a meaningful difference. 

Also, I do not personally buy the argument that the US or "First World Countries" need to lead the way and that everyone else will just simply follow.   This is just finger pointing in the other direction and is just as unhelpful as saying other countries are worse.   There are many, many things a person can point to where the rest of the world did not follow the lead of first world countries.   The cultures and economics are so vastly different that it is simply not possible even if they wanted to do it.

The real solution is to create a bigger demand for environmentally friendly alternatives than there currently is for plastic.   Putting money and research into developing such alternatives is much more constructive.   You change the supply by changing the demand.  If the demand for environmentally friendly alternatives outweighs the demand for plastic you take a great step forward in fixing the problem.

The latest insanity is that now they are making sippy cups for adults as an alternative to plastic straws.   Of course the cup and the new sippy top is made of ....  plastic...  and probably more plastic than was used to make the straw.   Some solutions just suck.

There are several ways to do it but the first question is does the person have US Dollars to send or are they converting from another currency to dollars?   That can effect the answer as you then must look for the best exchange rate in addition to converting to US Dollars.   

If the person sending already has dollars, they can go to a Western Union office and send them to you.   They will have a "rate" for sending dollars or whatever currency the sending person has.   They will need your FULL name, spelled EXACTLY and IDENTICAL to the ID you will be presenting on the Western Union office in Boquete when you claim the funds.   I recommend you use your passport as your ID.   Any misspelling or reason the name does not match (such as forgetting the middle name) will cause Western Union to deny paying you the funds.   Be sure to stress this to the sending party.

The sending party will also need to tell them they are sending to Boquete in Panama but no further information is needed.   They can send the money that day or the following day (sending the following day is a bit cheaper).   Western Union will give the sending party e a claim number which they can send to you by email or whatsapp text.   You will need that number to claim the funds.   The sending party should also keep a copy of the number in case their is a dispute with Western Union or difficulty in delivering the funds to you.

You will take that claim number to the Western Union in Boquete along with your ID and they will give you the funds.   There is no cost to you for receiving the funds.   The sending party is charged at the time they send it.   If the amount is large (more than a few hundred dollars) you should go later in the day to be sure the Western Union has the funds in the drawer to pay you.   If it is very large, such as a thousand or more, you will need to go to David because Boquete never has that much on hand.

The Western Union shares the office with the Union Fenosa, on the corner and across the street from Multibank.

Hope that helps...

As a former 4-wheeler and mudder, I can tell you it is great fun.   It is just adults being kids and rolling around in the mud.   I can't count the number of times I came home covered in mud and spent the next day or two to clean up the Jeep as well as myself.   This is popular in many places, not just Panama, so it is not what I would call cultural.  Obviously this got out-of hand and there is always a degree of danger when dealing with off-road vehicles and racing.   

Thanks for sharing... brings back fond memories for me.

I suspect you may see a change after May 5th of next year when Panama elects a new president.   The changes throughout the country can be great, due to the way the political system functions (or doesn't).   Since Varela can not be re-elected it would seem possible that the upcoming change could effect policies as great as those that happened after the last presidential election.

In 2009, I did not understand why so many Panamanians were so nervous at election time with all the dramatic changes that might occur.    I saw it again when Varela was elected.   The changes in a relatively small country can be great and affect home sales, business and many aspects of daily life.   Those optimistic about for the next 5 year cycle will see good deals, while others may have had reasons to sell or just wait and see.  

Either way, I suspect that the election of the next president will bring about change that can have a great effect on perceived value of homes and businesses.

Here are some thoughts...

Signature on a credit card transaction has never been much of a security feature and it has become totally irrelevant with the technology of both the magnetic strip and now the embeded chip in debit and credit cards.   Technology has moved well beyond the old days of manual record keeping, done by hand and with a signature added to help mark the paper trail.  We have gone from signatures to magnetic strips and now to the embeded chip (EVM) for transaction security.

That is not to say that the chip technology (EVM) has solved all the security issues.   While they are encrypted and very difficult to forge, there are still ways to beat the system.

The best practice is to always pay with a credit card, never a debit card.  This protects you because the credit card company is the one taking the hit if it gets lost, stolen or used without your authorization.  On the other hand, with a debit card YOU are taking the hit if it gets lost, stolen or used without your authorization.  Only use your debit card at a ATM to get cash.

As technoloy continues to advance you will see other forms of payment such as using your cell phone (Apple Pay and others).  Biometrics are being used as a form of security but this is not yet widely adopted when being compared to the EVM chip technology.

One of the biggest issues of using biometrics (fingerprints, iris and retina, facial recognition, etc) is that they are not private.  You leave this information everywhere you go.  Once they are copied, they can be used to defeat any security using them.   Also, you do not have the ability to change them if they are stolen, copied or used against you.  So while biometrics may seem like the future answer to security, that system is very flawed and still evloving.

Best practices: 

1.  Alway have some cash on hand. 
2.  Always use a credit card, NOT a debit card when making purchases.
3.  Check your credit card statements and report suspecious activity quickly.
4.  Do not keep large amounts of money in an account that has access by a debit card.

Viva Colombia has wanted to fly direct into Tocumen rather than Panama Pacifico but has been denied because there is no space until the airport expansion is finished.   I have read that Viva Colombia (http://www.newsroompanama.com/business/panama-4/striving-to-keep-viva-colombia-in-panama)  is said to be considering flying to smaller, regional airports.   It sure would be nice if they flew in/out of David, giving everyone another option rather than being forced to go to Panama City.

The other thing that is odd is it stated... "The service will be provided exclusively in the provinces of Panama Oeste, Panamá, Colón and Coclé, mainly for tourism promotion"

Why is Chiriqui not included since it certainly falls into the tourism category. 

Thank you for your kind words Bud.   I now have clients spread across 4 countries and growing, all supported remotely.

I can understand that a flight to Cali might be more strict on this requirement due to where it is located within the country.   Cali is at a lower elevation and is known to be very hot which is a good breeding ground for mosquitoes.    Discussions like these are a real benefit to everyone because often times information changes or is out-dated.    One of my personal pet peeves is that many articles on the Internet are not dated and that leads to confusion when things change over time.

I think the other thing that was demonstrated here was the sharing of different view points on personal choice when it comes to what each of us would select to do when something is recommended but not required.   If it makes a person pause and weigh the different points, it is of great benefit regardless of the ultimate choice each makes.   

Thank you Betty and everyone for an informative and interesting discussion.

15 minutes ago, Marcelyn said:

Not sure I understand the value of the certificate which exempts an individual from getting a yellow fever vaccination. How does this certificate protect someone who is exposed to yellow fever?

Why wouldn’t someone take the extra effort to protect their health and obtain the vaccination? I appreciate the risk in not being vaccinated, but what is the risk to getting the yellow fever shot?

As with anything you inject into your body, you should weigh the risks.   This is from an article in the Internal Medicine News.
Link here:  infectious-diseases/yellow-fever-vaccine-contraindications

"Decisions regarding vaccination must balance the risk of contracting the disease against the risk of vaccine side effects, Dr. Staples said. The yellow fever vaccine is a live, attenuated vaccine....  ... Safety studies have shown that approximately 10%-30% of vaccinees report mild systemic adverse events. ...   ... Serious adverse events associated with the vaccine can include anaphylaxis, yellow fever–associated neurologic disease, and yellow fever vaccine–associated viscerotropic disease."

Given the large number of people that might very well fall into a group that would be contraindicated and given that most tourists do not venture into the Amazon or outlying areas, it would seem that the risk of adverse reaction is much higher than the risk of contracting Yellow Fever.    If you are a young person with plans to hike thru the jungle areas, then yes, I would recommend getting it.   Being in the age group of over 60 and just visiting tourist locations, I see no benefit.   Besides being contraindicated by age, I also fall into the category of being sensitive to eggs, another contraindicated group.

Unfortunately, most people do not do this kind of research and just think every vaccination is a good thing when in fact it often times increases your risk.   Luckily we have forums like this one that bring attention and make people think a bit more.

Having lived in Colombia for the past year and having visited the country often for the past 5 years, I see this topic come up often.   There are two places that "might" ask you about this.   The first is the airline you are using to fly to Colombia.   The second is at immigration when entering the country.   Airlines typically check requirements so they are not responsible for your return if you are not allowed entry.   If the airline is not requiring it, it is highly unlikely that immigration in Colombia will ask for it.   

Also, understand that the requirement is different depending on which airport you are flying too.   The larger airports do not have this requirement whereas some coastal towns and outlying airports do have this recommendation.

Living in Colombia, the recommendation has been to have the Yellow Fever Vaccination if you will be travelling to the outlying areas, such as the Amazon, coastal or border towns.   It is not needed for tourist coming to visit any  of the big cities, such as Bogota and Medellin.    As TwoSaliors pointed out, the Colombian Embassy will have the  up-to-the-minute requirements.  

It is my understanding that if you decide to get the vaccination, it needs to be done at least 10 days prior to travel to be effective.   Personally, I would recommend against it given what I know and have seen living here for the past year.

Let me make a few comments...

This is an obvious hoax and easy to detect based on a few items.   First, the supposed source of this information is "According to IT colleagues of my daughter"  and "reported on the BBC" without any link to the story or source.  I am afraid that "Tricia's daughter's IT colleagues" are not much of a reliable news source unless you believe everything you read.     It also states that it will happen in the future (tomorrow), so someone must be psychic if this is to be believed.   

The next thing is that a simple Google search easily confirms this to be a hoax in case a person is finding Tricia's Boquete News posting to be in any way believable.

I can understand that the NewsLady can not vet every message that gets submitted.   I would suggest that any message that appears to be a warning of something dangerous should get a second opinion before being posted.   It only takes a moment to email a computer tech or to do a Google search.   I would be happy to respond in a timely manner if something like this appears again and the Newslady or others have questions as to its legitimacy.   An extra set of eyes often keeps one wise. 

According to the Terms & Rules, it states that:    "If you wish to post content on Chiriqui Life, you.... ....Continue to own the content that you post, but grant Chiriqui Life an unlimited, non-exclusive, non-cancelable license to use and distribute your content."

So in other words, you have agreed that you are giving Chiriqui Life a non-cancelable license to use and distribute the content you post.   That would mean that even if you cancel your account, they have the right to display or use your content as posted.   This is very standard in most Internet forums and is typically spelled out in the Terms of Service policy at the time of registration.   Most forums find that erasing posted content changes the readability of a discussion and can be used to unfairly change the meaning of those that replied or commented.  

The Internet does not come with an eraser.   

I shake my head at two things...   

1. E1 type licenses are reserved for Panamanians
2.  ...this service can be provided exclusively in the provinces of Panama City, Panama, Colon and Panama City

I don't expect there will be a big outrage over those two stipulations but why have them?   So Uber and others cannot operate in Chiriqui?    And, there is a real danger that Non-Panamanians would be taking all of these jobs leaving the Panamanians without  work?

On the other hand, nice to see they are making progress on this issue.   Tourists and locals want and are demanding safer more reliable service.   They are having the same fight here in Colombia.   The middle of this month the taxis are planning a strike to protest these types of services.   We actually have multiple services similar to Uber.   In fact, many of the drivers actually drive for more than one services  thereby increasing their business. 

Glad to see Panama making progress.   I hope they open it up for Chiriqui and the rest of the country.

For what it is worth, I was told (about a year ago) that customs views the various mail services different depending on if they are classified as cargo or as courier.   Mailbox Etc is classified as a cargo service whereas the service I used (Servitechnics) is classified as a courier service.   My experience was that occasionally my packages coming through Mailbox Etc got opened and examined but in 4 years none of my packages coming through Servitechnics were opened.

Perhaps someone that is more informed than myself could speak about the truth of this and how various services are classified.   After my experience with several services,  I ended up using Servitechnics in part because my packages arrived without being opened and examined, possibly delaying them.

If you want to add one more worry ... realize that 90% of databases are not encrypted.   That means once someone gets access to a database, all of its information is in the clear.   I am far more worried about that then I am email.   Virtually everything is stored in a database (in the clear).   There is a growing push to encrypt databases but the cost is high.   Right now, some database items are encrypted, like your credit card number (or they are suppose to be) but that is a far cry from something I would call secure.

 I think I have enough problems  LOL

2 minutes ago, Roundabout said:

And I guess more to the point is, do you agree with this setup? Why should people lose their tradition rights to privacy?

I am 100% behind privacy and protecting people.   It is one of my pet peeves when I see people saying that using any one product will protect them 100% when it is simply not true.   I advocate for more security online at all times but education as well.   Technology is hard enough for the general public to understand and those of us that do "get it" have a responsibility to state the truth and educate the rest as best we can. 

Currently this is world standard.   Email was never designed for security.   The addition of SSL and VPN and all the various protocols have helped but there are still large holes.   If you  are sending a message using PgP, you are 100% protected.   The encryption is done on your computer and the ONLY person able to decyrpt it is the receiving part with the other key.    Unfortunately, the process of encrypting and decrypting email messages seems to challenge the general public and there have been little successes getting it adopted.    It is the only way I know to be 100% covered since is even stays encrypted when it is stored on the receiving email server.

Both the VPN and the SSL encryption only take effect up to their end points and the moment email exchange happens between two email servers, those end points have already been passed.  

Lets give this example.   You want to send an email using your VPN and SSL from your-address@myISP.com to friend@gmail.com

When you send an email from your home email address it is protected by both SSL and your VPN.   Your email does not go direct to Gmail.   The first hop is for your email going to the "myISP.com" mail server.   During that time, it is encrypted.   When it reaches the "myISP.com" mail server, it is then unencrypted and two things happen.   It is written to the "sent" folder of the user.   It is then also sent to the Gmail server from the myISP.com server.   That final journey from the ISP to Gmail is done in the clear regardless of how it was received.   The ISP can see it as well as anyone snooping along the route between myISP.com and the Gmail server.

Since your VPN only protected you from your computer to the "myISP.com" server and since the SSL email encryption is terminated at the first hop, the mail is then in the clear both for storage at the ISP and for the continued journey to Gmail.

If the email went direct from your computer to the destination you would be completely protected but that is not the case.   If you were sending to an address on the same server (gmail to gmail or protonmail to protonmail) you are protected.   The problem comes in when you are sending from one email server to another (gmail to protonmail or isp to gmail) which is most email traffic.   That traffic spends part of its journey in the clear.

When an email is sent using SSL, it get encrypted on your computer and goes to your ISP, in the encrypted form.   It becomes unencrypted entering the ISPs mail server.   At that time it is copied to the user's sent file in the clear and then sent on to its ultimate destination in the clear.   In other words email traffic from ISP's email server to the destination email server is done in the clear even if it was encrypted coming in from the original point.   Email servers do not use encryption when exchanging mail between each other.

As an email provider, I can set my system to see all traffic entering and leaving the mail server which means I can see all traffic that came into the server in an encrypted form because it was unencrypted to be handled and sent on to the destination.

Since the ISP can see all traffic leaving their mail server, they can see what entered their system encrypted but is now being sent on in an unencrypted form.   The same is true of anyone wanting to snoop along the path between the two mail servers exchanging mail.

I guess I should comment as I was part of the original post...

As a business in providing Internet Services in the US, I can assure you that no VPN or email service provider can guarantee end-to-end encryption unless they are controlling the both end points.   The original post was not limited to email services but was discussing all Internet traffic between the home computer and various websites/email services.

A VPN is effective from the source point, such as the home computer, to the end point of the VPN provider.   Once your traffic leaves the VPN end point, they have no control over whether your traffic is encrypted or not.    Now, if you are visiting a site via secure protocol, such as https or if you are using an email client that uses SSL, then you are still encrypted but that is not universal.   Many websites still use non-secure protocols (http alone, not https) or do not use SSL within the email client.   That traffic is in the clear at the point it leaves the VPN end point.

Yes, it is true that more and more sites are now using secure protocols as security concerns increase.   But the point that was being made in the original post is that just because you have a VPN does not mean you are encrypted end-to end.   This is a common misunderstanding.   The VPN provider can see any traffic that is destined to travel in the clear once it leaves the VPN end point unless it was further encrypted by an additional process before it entered the VPN.   The concern here was that VPN providers can collect data that ends up in the clear and sell it or use it.

Add to the mix that digital certificates that are used to encrypt the data stream are now being provided free without responsibility.   At one time, to obtain one these certificates for a website, the website owner needed to go thru a verification process.   That is no longer the case.  That means that now, just because you are visiting a site that says is encrypted, it does not mean that the site is legitimate like it used be when they encryption certificates were verified.   This has become a large issue for free digital certificate providers such as "Let's Encrypt".

One last worry for email users is that even if your data was encrypted from your computer to receiving end point, it is rare for the email or other data to be then stored in an encrypted form on the email server equipment.   Email service providers, their staff and anyone having access to the server can see your data in the clear.    Some email service providers store your data in an encrypted form but that is the exception rather than the rule. 

For the layman concerned about what can and cannot be seen,  the original post still stands.   Be aware that despite your best efforts their are likely points where your data is visible.   The best you can do is reduce this risk but you can not eliminate it.   Do not fall for claims that a company can guarantee end-to-end encryption unless they are controlling both end points.   Even then ask how the data is stored at the far end point.   Data breaches happen, not from hackers guessing passwords but from access to points where data is non-encrypted.

modista ?

Thank you Penny.   They are coming in late September.   If anyone is coming sooner, please let me know otherwise perhaps Steve can bring it.