nikster

testmy.net is cool, but also really complicated. is there no one-button option?

I tested my TOT fiber 30/3 connection. Default test was to Hong Kong, even though that wasn't on the main results page (huh?), only in the details.

HK tested at 4.5Mbps, rock solid connection, very little variance.

San Jose tested at 2 Mbps with large variance, so in other words, crap. Didn't know my connection was quite that bad!

I can see it in web pages and sometimes youtube stuttering, but other than that the various exceptions to the rule make TOT feel much better. That is there's caching, there's co-hosting so for example if I download updates from Apple servers, which tend to be several GB, I get full 30mbps line speed, there's torrenting with parallel connections, also full line speed.

Many of these accidents when road users are doing Right Hand Turns or indeed "U" Turns could be avoided very simply.

Introduce ROUNDABOUTS and enforce a "Give-way to your Right," rule. This would save lives and money.

They have roundabouts in Udon Thani.

It is 'interesting' to see the Thais try to use them. It's like watching 50 people trying to eat spaghetti with spoons.

LOL

Roundabouts are fantastic, but only if done right. The approach lanes must make it very clear what you're supposed to do. Then there's some education needed - nothing to do with Thai of course, roundabouts confuse all drivers that aren't used to them.

Was just in Europe, and on these roundabouts its hard to go wrong. They've very clearly marked approaches, so you know where you're supposed to go. Entry and exit are separate, and kind of bend into the roundabout. Impossible to go the wrong way but more importantly it's so clear what you have to do that you can focus on other things. They were only one lane so there is no changing lanes inside the roundabout.

Compared to one roundabout in BKK that I used many times, it couldn't be more different. The one in BKK has several multi-lane roads going into it, it's about 5 lanes wide, and it's always utter mayhem as people improvise in the face of the chaos. It's more like a destruction derby without touching (mostly).

This guy has a long history in Malaysia which appears to include doing just what he did in CM (albeit without getting nicked …)

Read all about it here -

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1522590/all

Incredible that he was able to pull the same con job for years.. since 2010! According to this thread, there's also a sex tape. This case really has it all 555

Let's hope he gets a nice spot in the Bangkok Hilton and they don't release him to MY any time soon... he seems to be connected there, or at least know how to pay off the right people to not get nabbed...

Sounds like my experience. It is as though by running a speedtest you get the TOT servers to wake up and actually function. Discovered this trick purely by accident. It seems to solve all our internet connection problems, no more trauma calling them everyday for a week, once a month, before anything is done. No more putting up with listening to their lazy lies and promises they have no intention of keeping. A total nightmare is now over. Run the speedtest and bingo back to normal.

Yes when my TOT internet is slow I also do a speed test to TOT and it speeds up as if by magic. Been doing it for well over a year now.

LOL that's unbelievable. So they give you a fast pass when you access speedtest? Only TOT could come up with something as dumb as that. I will use that trick from now on.

Or if you're really paranoid, you can use Tor to anonymize yourself completely ....

Apart from to the NSA of course.

Using Tor certainly gets you on the NSA "list of potentially naughty people".

I've used it so I'm already on that list. Also Tor just hides your IP address. If you leave, say, browser cookies enabled, then they know exactly who you are. At the very least you have to use anonymous browsing in Chrome / Safari. HTTPS is supposed to protect but won't always - there are ways around it too.

Any time you're accessing the internet, you are leaving a huge digital trail - IP address, time of access, cookies, logins, et cetera. Tor takes care of the IP address, nothing else. Snowden said that the NSA has not yet hacked Tor, or HTTPS with larger ciphers - but recent reveals have shown that there are ways to make websites less secure and bypass strongly encrypted https. The NSA is going to make tools to automate all this - so if there is a way in, it'll be available to them at the click of a button.

Tor is supposed to protect against malicious nodes but honestly if somebody has the resources and the access at an NSA level I don't quite see how this could work. Cant the NSA just cast a net of 100 house-owned Tor exit nodes? If they combine the data from all these, couldn't they then trace all the users who were on those nodes? I once met one of the founders of Tor and he told me they were aware of that, and there's defense mechanisms but I'm skeptical.

Tor is a necessary tool to remain anonymous, but by no means sufficient.

The NSA can trace you anywhere via your phone...

Was quite surprised when this happened in Chrome - I don't visit dodgy sites and I have a Mac.

Then I remembered I had installed some video download helper extension to download YouTube... as a way to just download the thing and watch it without constant hiccups and stoppages. That extension didn't work very well, but it did create a few new browser toolbar shortcuts I never signed up for. Horrible stuff and I am honestly surprised Google is letting this kind of malware run on their otherwise pretty secure browser.

So go to Chrome settings, advanced, extensions, and remove them all.

The latest Google Chrome also turns off all Java by default. Java - as it turns out - is just one huge security hole. It's funny it took hackers a long time to figure that out; Java supposedly has a secure sandbox and it was designed to be secure from the get-go. Unfortunately it seems to have more bugs than Flash, and so there are a million ways around the secure sandbox, and only the owner of Java, Oracle, can fix these issues. Java Applets aren't really used anymore so Oracle has very little incentive to fix all the bugs...

This was a pretty brazen theft. I think he'll be caught, simply going by the assumption that this is a not-very-smart opportunistic con man.

The ID seems like it was actually his ID - the same name was used by a fraudster in Malaysia.

How to let a potential buyer try your bike then? Asking full price in hand would be a bit much?! My idea would be to, perhaps, equip the bike with a GPS tracker and drain all but 10km of fuel in the tank. See how far he gets but that's a lot of effort. Would not have thought it to be necessary.

I was hit from behind by a hit and run driver.

I sustained a serious injury to my shoulder which has resulted in the upper part of my humorous being replaced with a metal/plastic prosthesis.

My seriously "proper" helmet was damaged with deep scars from the road and has been replaced.

Always wear the best possible helmet it may save your life!

That is one of the very few situations where I'd say you were 100% not at fault. I often look behind me if going on a slower vehicle for that reason, but I am aware that I can't watch my back all the time either. If somebody hits me from behind chances are there's nothing I could do to prevent it. It's a reason I like big bikes better, I stay ahead of traffic.

The accident referred to in the OP - the rider should have worn a proper helmet, then he'd be largely OK now. The rider also should have noticed the U-Turn that truck was pulling. I know this maneuver very well. It is risky, it is dangerous, and trucks specifically don't bother to look in their mirrors when doing it. But - it is something that happens all the time in Thailand, and something we need to be prepared for, and something you need to anticipate. If you don't anticipate somebody doing something utterly stupid at a U-turn, it's your own fault.

I once clipped an old guy on an ancient Honda Dream creeping across 3 lanes to do a U-turn - he had signals but they were too weak to see. I only had some fairing damage and he only had a few scratches. It was a great lesson for me though to (A) never hurry and to ( B ) watch out for U-Turns and all the various vehicles using various unsafe ways to get across the lanes. This one I felt was 100% my fault because I should have noticed him in time to avoid / brake, and I shouldn't have hurried home (I was trying to beat the rain - stupid).

So the sad outcome is that the rider in the OP still believes that he wasn't at fault. That's a missed opportunity for learning right there. Despite having gotten the short end of the stick in this one, he most certainly was as fault at least as much as the truck driver. Must have had a good lawyer to get anything out of this.

Stupid stuff. As usual.

Kids can kill themselves just as easily on a small cc bike. And making them wait until they're 30 is going to at least put a damper on the big bike market in TH.

This is just dumb. Hopefully will be forgotten as it should.

IMO CRF is way easier to ride and smoother. It might come down to a matter of taste, really. The CRF is a bit weaker when it comes to off-roading, not as tough as the KLX, but for the price difference you can easily toughen up the CRF. Hard-core off roaders seem to prefer the KLX.

i have a honda wave that i bought used about five years ago...it has an electric starter and much to my amazement the battery has never been replaced or caused any problems since i have had it...even when i don't even start it for months at a time it still starts right up?

How can that be that the battery would last that long???...seems i have to change my car battery about every 18 months or so.

I have to change the battery in my car every 2 years.

On the Wave 125i, I've not changed it since it was new 9 years ago. No idea what's in that battery but whatever it is, it works. And works. And works...

If you have an old Wave that works, just ride it. No need to do anything.

I go with the Honda Wave 110 bulet proof. The one i bought the wife was under water twice 2 years ago during floods . Got the oil changed both times and drove away These bikes are strong. Clicks, Finos etc are for people who want to be in fashion for others to see. They are weak bikes. Wives son had a Fino that after 2 years was basically junk.Waves are cheaper on gas also. Twist and go bikes are good for old ladies who just go to the store and back.

A more modern version is the Honda Super Cub - IMO they messed up the design a bit though, they were going for retro but didn't end up looking nice. But it _should_ be as bullet proof as the Wave/Dream of old.

I have an old Wave 125i - now perhaps 8 or 9 years old? This bike will last forever, it is a marvel of engineering to make something last that long, with that little maintenance. I had the chain sagging once - replaced at the local mechanic for 400 baht. And swapped tires.

Other than that, I've replaced the oil a few times and that's it. Nothing ever needed changing, or fixing. It has the original brake pads and battery. I can leave this bike unused in the garage for months, gasohol or not, and it will fire up on the first try.

The only reason I wouldn't recommend it today is that it's just a very old design. It's much nicer to ride a small automatic in city traffic. But if you want something that is near indestructible, Honda Wave is the way to go.

Honda Wave 110, basic. Built like a tank, last for ever.

The Click things I have stripped and re-built every couple of years.

Depending on your location, Mesquite is correct, they are death traps and on roads believed to be the second most dangerous in the World.

Buy a Volvo.

I agree about the Click.

I bought 2 brand new Click I about 3 years ago now. Good bikes for perhaps 2 years. Then both produced problems like gearbox shudder, few other issues. 1 had a major engine problem and needed rebuilding, few other issues as well. I've spent enough on them now, next time it will be new bikes and it won't be a Click. Junky little toy bikes imo.

Didn't mention it before because my experience with Click is renting it a few times in different places around Thailand. But these Clicks were always in really bad shape, lots of things wrong with them. I also rented lots of Scoopys over the years, and these never had any issues.

Could have been the luck of the draw, you never know with rental bikes. But my hunch is the Click is more problematic than the Scoopy even though in terms of technology they're almost twins.

Nuovo is the farang approved bike - I only ever see foreigners on these

In my testing I found it uninspiring.

I like the Scoopy the best, it's tiny, lasts forever, cheap. Much prefer it over a Click.

PCX is one step up from that - great bike, perfect handling, but bigger.

I'm partial to the looks of the new Yamaha Grand Filano but haven't had a chance to try it. Filano looked good too but it's too big and underpowered for the size.

Used it recently and found it very, very slow - surprisingly so for a professional website. It did work in the end though. It was just slow.

^ Totally agree. Competition is increasing - especially from other high end brands like BMW and also Triumph. Maybe (hopefully) KTM will come at some point too. I don't think they'll sustain the growth rate either but they did conclusively prove there's a sizable market for big bikes in Thailand.

The Thai bike market is more interesting than the UK, Japan, or Australia! SE Asia as a whole is going to pass the USA ...

We keep hearing (and seeing) that Ducati Thailand is doing well, but how well or what that means was a bit unclear to me. 2014 sales figures speak a pretty clear language though: Thailand is doing extremely well.

The US remains the most important market - but Thailand is 1/3rd of US sales now and growing. More Ducatis were sold in Thailand than in the UK, Australia, Japan.

from: http://ministryofsuperbike.com/malaysia/ducati-hit-record-high-in-2014-with-45100-bikes-sold/

North American sales performance was in line with that of 2013, with Mexico experiencing 8% growth. The U.S. continues to be Ducati’s top market, with 8,804 units delivered to customers. Despite difficult market conditions, sales in South America increased considerably, especially in Brazil (+ 74%, 1,174 bikes sold); this was achieved thanks to considerable expansion of the dealership network in that country and the market introduction of the full model range with local CKD production.

What happened to the Hyperstrada, see the list in post 188??

Has apparently disappeared from the Thai market?! They're still selling the SP as an import, however. Wish they'd start making it here, would be a nice upgrade.

Valve adjustment is done at 24k

Better to follow Ducati service intervals because if you change the oil yourself at 6k you're voiding the warranty. 5k baht sounds a bit steep - but it is an italian super bike so...

Do it online. The best courses, the best instructions are all available online.

I don't remember IE ever being cutting edge. Netscape was always better in the early days. The only thing IE is good for is for installing other browsers on a new PC.

Not that anyone cares about this anymore but I do remember the dark ages of Netscape when IE beat them. A lot of it was due to feature creep and bad code in Netscape, really, where Netscape sort of collapsed under years of added-on hacks and features, turning it into a buggy behemoth. IE came along and was faster and better.

Once IE "won", Microsoft got lazy and stopped improving it and it went down the drain.

Mac was similar, IE on Mac was the only decent browser for a year or two, after Netscape imploded.

Seems like it's only slow at night? This morning it's nice and fast - almost 30mbit to BKK and websites load quickly, torrents are flying.

Yesterday night, on the other hand, it was so slow as to be useless, used my mobile phone 3G connection instead. Websites took forever to load, speed test to BKK was 17Mbit, torrents did not move at all.

Might simply be a case of having added too many customers. There's lots of advertising for "Sinet" up here in Chiang Mai, and sinet is using TOT infrastructure.

I'm leaving the country for a month but if it's still the same when I return I'll cancel and switch to 3BB.

PS: When it was slow, using the VPN with a US based server made no difference. I don't think these are routing issues (where a VPN would help).

I think it's just an internet traffic jam, too many people downloading too many things. The lower speed to BKK is a huge red flag here - even though 17Mbit would still be great, and I got nowhere near that web surfing and so on, it's very unusual.

To use the road analogy, the line to Bangkok is a 10 lane superhighway, and everything going out of the country is single lane roads. If the 10 lane superhighway is slowing down that's a serious amount of traffic, way beyond what than the outgoing lines can handle.

Maybe they hike the price of the Hyper 821 too?!

While a monster 821 > 500k kinda sucks I can believe it. Because that is the sweet spot for selling these bikes in Thailand. If people are paying it... go grab the money.

The new "SR2" monster - which is really the 796 with some stripes, coloring,maybe some other farkles, I don't know - costs nearly 500k baht. Sometimes more than 500k, depending on the options. Which is way out of range for what you get, a plain old 796. It's a much worse bike than either an 821 Hyper or monster. But they're selling very well.

using a free proxy it's very easy to monitor all your connections, inject trojans into your system, whatever.

don't use a free proxy. end of story.