nikster

I am probably out of line.........On old autos first and reverse used the same gear, just diverted fluid to reverse.

BUT, engine computer should retain the idle of about 8/900 rpm, if it is below then perhaps the trans oil pump is not, does not have enough power. Soooooo, idle rpm is your prob.

Interesting info, thank you. Idle speed is usually around 800, I only noticed that when the problem happened last time, it was well below that.

Is the transmission electronically controlled ? Either stand-alone ECU or as part of the engine ECU ?

Um - absolutely no clue, sorry.

Our 8 year old Fortuner is running pretty well all in all.

However it recently developed an issue that's very intermittent. Eg. most of the time, reverse gear works just fine.

But sometimes, when I put it in reverse, the car shakes and buckles as if the transmission wasn't fully disengaged when holding down the brake. If I keep on the brake for something like 10 seconds, things will settle down and it'll be back to normal.

We gave it to Toyota but they diagnosed a totally different problem with the engine that... I don't think we have. The engine is fine. It works, it sounds normal, there is no smoke, highway performance is same as always. So I think they couldn't reproduce the transmission shaking and went to find something else...

I noticed two things when the problem happens:

- It always happens when I start the car but it's still warm. Never happens from a cold start.

- When it happens engine idle speed is low, like 500 RPM, instead of 800

I don't know if either of these are directly related to the issue. Transmission fluid looks normal and it's at a the recommended level.

Mainly posting here to see if others had a similar issue or if it's anything that is known about the Fortuner.

TOT seems to have some problems of late. It's been slow for a few weeks now. I have 30/3 fiber, used to be fine. Now it's slow. Speed test to BKK yesterday was 17Mbit which is strange, inside Thailand it always used to go full speed. Might be time to change providers.

Posted in another thread but AFAIK both client and server need to be vulnerable so this can happen; all servers I tried using an online testing tool had been patched already (or never supported "export" grade certificates to begin with)

FWIW Chrome on OS X seems to be patched already.

I buy everything in Europe, all technical equipments as: cheaper and you have the garantee you wont find here in Thailand...

i think many of the products you buy in Thailand, even produced in Asia, are not the same quality then you get the same thing in Europe as here no proof of safty standards .....or any standads that are proofen in Europe!!!!!!!!!

Now with the exchange rate, if you get your "salary" in Euro, Dollar or english Pound you save a lot!

You people need to wake up to that thing called "globalization". Everything is made in China. There are no different versions for different countries, especially if you buy from the big vendors.

Thai prices are usually pretty competitive but with the recent drop in EUR things might actually be cheaper over there. Easy to compare prices online and make up your mind. Europe has 20% VAT and Thailand has 7% - also if you leave Thailand you might be able to get those 7% back when you go. So Thailand _should_ be cheaper still.

I've been looking at the Mac Air. They are certainly more expensive in the UK, though those come with a processor turbo boost, that pretty well doubles the speed. But they are cheaper in Singapore than here, and with the turbo boost included.

Macs are the same everywhere. They're designed in California, Made in China, and sold all around the world.

The only difference between different countries is the country-specific keyboard. In Thailand if you order online you get the option to choose an English keyboard (e.g. no Thai letters, US-English spec) or a Thai keyboard, same price. Shipping is free anywhere in Thailand, too. And you get to select options.

Definitely would buy Macs here vs. the UK. Warranty is world-wide too. Also get the 3 year extended warranty. It's expensive but also totally worth it.

Summary: FREAK attack is getting both client and server to accept a low level encryption that can be cracked by an EC2 instance for about $100 computing time. So the encryption is weak; it can be cracked; but an attacker would still need to listen in on your connection, and be able to inject packets. In practice that would leave this kind of attack as a great thing for the NSA and other secret services - they could crack these keys in no time at all with the computing power they have, and they also have the ability to intercept connections.

For your average hacker, it's going to be impossible.

For crime syndicates it's probably too complicated to worry about - for example if they want to fish for bank account details, they're going to install malware on clients and servers, which is going to be a lot easier than a FREAK attack.

Here's a tool to check if a server is affected:

https://tools.keycdn.com/freak

I tested a few big ones, and they all seem to have patched this vulnerability by now. When they say that Android and iOS devices are vulnerable it's not the whole truth. They are vulnerable, but only if the server is also vulnerable.

Read the article. This is pretty awesome: "While it's simple for end users to re-flash their hard drives using executable files provided by manufacturers, it's just about impossible for an outsider to reverse engineer a hard drive, read the existing firmware, and create malicious versions."

For an outsider; we can bet that the NSA either made HDD manufacturers give them source level access, or that they hacked those manufacturers. Hacking 12 HDD manufacturers with targeted attacks would be a piece of cake for the Equation Group, given their demonstrated capabilities. It's kids stuff the junior intern could do in an afternoon.

If you take some clever people and supply them with money and access only the NSA has, things like that can happen.

The upside is this: Can you imagine how incredibly pissed off they must be that Kaspersky did this detailed analysis on them? That their cover is basically blown? They can still do all these things, and more, but now everybody knows about it. Kaspersky of course would have acted on behalf of Russian intelligence, there's no doubt about that.

I'm scared about the risk of third parties piggybacking on the NSA's tools.

It's all very scary.

The one element of my security schema that could still prevent such breach on my computers is the firewall - but how can I be sure it will also detect connections to the NSA's covert servers since my firewall's manufacturer is located in the USA?

You can't trust American vendors, simple as that. I mean I do trust some - Apple would have a lot to lose if it was found to cooperate with the NSA, and they have enough resources to fight off legal threats in court. Same for Google, and some others.

But for small vendors, if they're faced with one of those top secret letters they can't talk about, they can either shut down their business (like Lavabit) or they can comply. And I guess all those that aren't directly in the security business would comply.

Anyway the firewall is the least of your problems; Windows comes with a Firewall, I don't think the NSA has backdoors into that. Because they don't need to - they have many other ways to get in.

Basically shitty, scammy software which also leaves your computer wide open to attacks.

It's a disgrace that Lenovo initially responded by saying they'd "fix" that POS software. They later changed to say it would be removed and disabled. It is baffling how this ever got released though - does not bode well for the company. Either they're clueless, or .... I mean one has to wonder how this ever got on there, who thought it was a good idea.

Would definitely avoid Lenovo if shopping for a PC.

Good God; it's crazy how simple this is - that article is one minute reading and contains the actual instructions needed to set up a malicious proxy, complete example included.

Google search has two components: Search (accuracy), and delivery (speed).

Exactly, those are the most wanted components.

As you did mention, the AI behind is the key to provide the best results to us. While I'm also amazed, like you, how well Google is able to predict when I do a basic search. I have been more and more dissatisfied how google tries to decide what kind of results I'm looking for.

What I'm afraid is, that Google works like Facebook feed, then I'll only get the 'smooth and lovely answers', which I'm not too interested of. I want to see the controversies between ideas so that I'm able to make my own decision.

Good point - the Facebook feed is the best example of how an interest-based suggestion system totally backfires. My FB feed is useless, and it's like that for most people. I've set it to "most recent" thinking it would then show me the most recent posts - but it doesn't! It still tries to guess which friends I have the best connections with (and supposedly want to know the most about). And then because those are the only ones I see, I like some, and that re-enforces the bubble even more.

Google is not quite as bad but they keep trying to do this, and I keep trying to turn it off. Anonymized browser window works OK. But I generally agree Google results aren't all that great - even if not personalized, they are still the result of a feedback loop, a kind of "winner takes it all" idea, and many interesting things won't even show up.

Google search has two components: Search (accuracy), and delivery (speed).

In search. It's good, and it was certainly much better than its predecessors - I remember using Excite and it was just utter garbage, completely overrun by spam. Google came along and just worked.

However, search could be done much better and eventually a company will come along to do that; most recently there were major advances in artificial intelligence, and amongst many things this holds great promise in improving search. A new AI based search engine could easily blow Google out of the water. Google is of course investing lots of money in AI itself, so Google might be disrupting its own engine with a new AI-based version. Still it's a chance for others.

In delivery, Google is ridiculously fast. That's a high barrier to entry, not uncrackable but I don't see anyone doing this quickly. Google is so fast, it constantly amazes me. You can see it any time you start typing in the search field - it seems to instantly pop up with auto complete options. Faster than that should be possible. Millions (really?) of servers and all that infrastructure they have are behind that.

Every motorcycle enthusiast should feel sad if a motorcycle brand is going under... You not have to like a brand, you not even have to know it... any business that helped to shape the way the current motorcycle business looks is something we should not brush away like not important...

I disagree. If a company makes shit quality products, there is no place for them trying to compete with the companies that do their due diligence and put in the time and money for R&D developing a product which people trust. Good riddance.

QFT - I was going to write the same thing.

From all the owner reports I've read, I wouldn't touch a Tiger bike with a 10 foot pole. If you're making bad, copycat products than I am indeed quite happy when you shut down. That's the way good products win in the marketplace. It's the reason we have good products. So thanks for proving a point, Tiger, and good riddance!

^ Agree that only Honda is consistently applying the new taxes to their prices here. Possibly also Suzuki with the V-Strom. Yamaha hasn't been doing it - then again nothing prevents them from starting any time they want.

Now if only they built any interesting bikes even the CBR1000 flagship model... looks like a bike from 10 years ago and is restricted to Japanese specs to boot...

Ducati is imported from Italy so FTA doesn't apply. That said I'm pretty sure Ducati is allowing for a generous profit on their bikes... it's a Ducati after all. The market proves them right too. They added a few farkles to the Monster 796 and are now selling it at prices very close to the Hypermotard, and are still moving loads of bikes.

^ Excise duty has nothing to do with import / non import, so it won't be affected by the FTA. It'll be the same for imports.

It almost like like the Multistrada from Ducati. Nice looking bike but probably very expensive.

I think that's the idea. The GS is getting stiff competition from the Multistrada and similar bikes by other manufacturers - road oriented touring bikes. So BMW made one of their own. Looks great. Hopefully it'll get made in Thailand eventually.

taichiplanet is absolutely correct.

There are 4 taxes applied to imported bikes.

The rate of VAT is 7% whatever.

Ministry of Interior tax is directly linked to excise duty.

So that leaves import tax and excise duty. Which of these or both are affected by the FTA? I am sorry I don't know. But this is the key question.

Beware also, that excise duty is calculated not as a straight percentage but as an exponential.

Perhaps, this is why Suzuki have started to sell its made in Japan bikes here. (V-Strom Gladius GSX, etc.)

Import tax = tax on imports; that's the one to go down to 0 in 2017

VAT = sales tax. Won't go down.

Excise tax = This is levied on all vehicles, made in Thailand or not. So you can bet your a** this won't go down.

There's also the big bike tax - I am not sure if that's the excise tax on bikes - I believe it is. It's 20% for bikes > 1000cc, 15% for > 500cc, 10% for smaller, something like that.

Here's a tip for you, Nik- some of us have actually had good experiences at dealerships in LOS and elsewhere (the Suzuki guy I talked to was brilliant)- it's not 'whining' to say the service we actually experienced was lacking- Ducati sells bikes that run over 2mil (3mil if you order an SL), and I think the expectation that the salesman knows what he's talking about isn't out of line.

Not sure what the tip is? Should I go to Suzuki and check out their bikes? They don't have any I'm interested in, amazing sales person or not.

Whether it's "out of line" or not doesn't make a difference; let's just say it's not the case. If you want a competent sales person who knows about the bikes they're selling, if that is the one thing you care about - don't buy a Kawasaki or Ducati or Honda in Chiang Mai. To me, it's OK if the staff is friendly, is doing their best for the customers, like ordering parts and whatnot, and the mechanics are fantastic. Both Kawa and Ducati are like that. Kawasaki is better because they have a huge warehouse full of parts. Ducati has to order most parts.

Feel free to boycott Ducati et. full al. in LOS over this - but you're just limiting your options for no good reason. Both Kawasaki and Ducati service have been great for me.

If you go for an italian beauty, keep in mind Ducati's motto: "Making mechanics out of riders since 1946". Prior to owning a Ducati, I was kinda hoping that that would be a thing of the past now. I was wrong.

Cheers and enjoy

I walked in and out of the glossy CM showroom without so much as a good morning from the self-absorbed poseur staff. about time Ducati looked at just who they let represent their company in the LoS...Ditto Honda BigWin CM

Here's a tip for next time (and I am serious): Walk up to the poser guy - I know who you mean, Mr. Scrambler sales person, they gave him a hipster-y outfit to wear which is all part of the whole marketing machine but hardly his fault - and smile and introduce yourself and shake his hand and see what happens.

He's just a sales guy. There isn't very much known about the Scrambler right now; they don't even have decisive dates for when all the models will be here, or when they will get an actual demo bike. They have the price; that's about it. See my post above for tech questions - look it up, there's a thousand reviews by professional bike review people all over the internet.

You can blame that lack of info on Ducati Thailand of course. But honestly this is normal - none of the other bike makers are any different. I've never heard a decisive date out of anyone. Kawasaki always under-promised and over-delivered on that kind of things - their guesses were just very conservative. It's a brand new bike world-wide, it's in hot demand, so nobody will be able to tell you exactly when you can get one delivered, and that'll be the case for a while.

Whiners will be whining!

If you compare Thailand with the USA, I am sure there will be the odd US dealership with a biker guy who actually knows something about the bikes he's selling. But I am willing to bet they're going to be as rare as hen's teeth. Because the usual is that the sales guy wants to figure out what you want to hear, then will proceed to tell you that, so as to make a sale. Sales people aren't technical gurus, or bike racers. That's because technical gurus and bike racers do not tend to go into sales. I bought more computers than bikes while I was living there but I never ran into a sales guy who knew even half as much as I knew. None of them knew more than I could just pull from the internet within a minute. In the best case they'd say they didn't know. In the worst case they'd make stuff up. And that's in the USA.

All in all I'd recommend Ducati Chiang Mai. Not quite as professional as Kawasaki but getting there, And from all I hear definitely leaps and bounds better than Honda Big Wing CM. I don't have direct experience with the latter, but heard many stories, and also I've dealt with the dealer for my Vespa - they're hopeless. My Vespa is now getting taken care of by a Vespa shop that is unrelated to the dealership. They're amazing. Smart and totally dedicated guys if anyone needs a recommendation on a Vespa shop

yea, a drivers license does come in handy when driving a vehicle.

I hear they help on police checkpoint situations world-wide. Quite magical, really.

Read the letter about riding in Thailand. All in all, very good advice - maybe put that on the front of the article this can save lives.

I was a bit surprised about the reports on "aggressive driving" - then saw it's about Phuket, and minibuses. Phuket mini bus drivers are nuts. Utterly mad. I sat in one of those buses once, he was racing down the road like a madman, obviously way too fast for safe driving, trusting karma to not put any obstacles in our way. The wife was with me, she will not set foot in a Phuket minibus ever again. And she's Thai and grew up in Bangkok! So Phuket is an oddity in Thailand.

Another thing to consider is that Thais think that slow bikes - such as one would come up on with a car - belong on the left side of the road, or on the curb. Personally I think riding on the curb is nuts, too - never gotten used to it, so I always remain fast enough to keep up with traffic. On a big bike, safest way to go is with the flow.

If you're going slow on a bike and you are in the middle of the lane then you're breaking all Thai traffic rules. Certainly the unspoken ones, but I think also the actual by-the-law ones. I know that's what one learns when learning to ride in Europe. Stay in the middle, and pretend you're a car, so other traffic doesn't try and squeeze through. I have a motorcycle driving license from back home and that was one of the things. But this is Thailand, rules and regulations and certainly expectations are different here. Slow bikes must go in the left. Something to know when riding here. Avoids confusion.