nikster

My Tiger XCx arrives june 22nd. One of 3 delivered that day. Ive decided to free up some cash and take it. Its too nice not to have it and with the Thruxton and a crf 250l i have a nearly pefect stable! Life is short.

Correct decision

Or, you could buy a Mac, and install one of the antivirus apps for it (which are all free unlike their Windows versions) - then, so long as you keep your web browser(s), Adobe Flash, and OSX up to date, you can pretty much say goodbye to web nasties ruining your computer.

Sorry for the OT but AV software on a Mac is scareware / scamware. You don't need it. However, they will do their best to convince you that you need it.

Number of viruses encountered on my Mac over the last 10 years: Zero.

There's a few different reasons for that; when people say Macs can be targeted they are of course right, but it's a harder to hit target that's also (still) smaller than Windows so very few even bother. I have Ghostery and Adblock running to remove all the crap from websites. There were a few "outbreaks" over the last years but all of them made it pretty difficult for the user to get the virus to run. You had to basically install the malware yourself.

All I need, otherwise I'll be searching forever.

Decided to go for this one. Thanks again.

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/notebooks-laptops/lenovo/ideapad-z5070-59442572-white-intel-core-i7-4510u-4gb-ddr3-1tb-15-6inch-fhd-geforce-gt840m-windows-8-1-p022521/

wow that looks pretty nice. nice they left a free slot for an additional 4GB. SSD is a good upgrade but 500GB costs about 10,000 baht...

what sort of battery life does it get? not sure what 4 cell 41Wh mean but sounds like not a whole lot.

Apple computers have been relatively safe from malware for a very long time. There are two reasons for this: One, there's fewer of them around and malware is not cross-platform. So if you write new malware you have to choose which platform to target, and you're probably going to go for the biggest one. Two, Macs are harder to hack. Apple has an automated system that generally kills any virus outbreak on the Mac platform within days of discovery.

That said, it's not impossible to target Macs, and Macs have been targeted by actual malware in the wild a handful of times over the last couple of years. No doubt because Mac is steadily increasing market share. So it does happen.

For email, just use Gmail or another provider where attachments are scanned at the server side and be done with it. Gmail won't even show you these attachments, they get auto-removed. In fact, you won't even see the emails, they go straight in the spam folder.

qnd then there is Viber

I use Viber or FaceTime audio (only on Apple). Skype quality is kinda OK, the software is just so buggy.

Haven't had good results with Line calling.

I thought Line was being monitored by the military? I may be wrong but I thought I had read that someplace?

So is Skype.

Skype originally was end-to-end encrypted but then the US government requested access. So it no longer is end to end encrypted. Not sure it's encrypted at all at this point.

Skype is pretty terrible really. It now no longer notifies me of incoming calls. The iOS version has a bug where notifications simply don't work. That means somebody calls you, but you don't see that on your phone. You only see it after you open the Skype app - then you see missed calls.

Last time this happened I had the desktop version of Skype running as well - and that didn't show anything for the incoming call! Not even a missed call.

I connected only because the guy sent me a text message that he was Skype calling...

As communications apps go, Skype is the worst. Not only does it not notify you of incoming messages and calls - the other party will also assume that you're not around, or worse, that you're ignoring them. I tell everyone to not contact me on Skype.

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).

Last comment - let's face it there is very little to say about this until she rides, which is in July; which is enough time to clean up from the earthquake.

Side note - pretty terrible what happened but when you look at all the destruction in the pictures, look also at all the houses that are still standing. There are a lot of those too. News only shows the worst possible angles and so on, to make things more exciting. Don't just look at the victims, look also at the helpers, see how many people are helping out? Look for that. End of side-note.

She's got a good shot for sure. Good choice of bike

Anyone who enters an Enduro race and places podium knows how to ride. Skills are not going to be an issue. She needs a good guide in China, same as that Singaporean group who did the same thing last year. I read the ride report on that, was pretty epic. A guide is the only way to do China, is what I learned from that.

...ster.

Cloud you please elaborate on what you learned on the necessity of a guide in China?

I've never heard of anything like that before.

Thanks.

They wouldn't have made it without the guide guy. Guide was basically the local fixer who made sure things worked out in different places, broken down bikes got picked up, broken down bikers could continue, etc.

I'm a bit sad to read her enduro creds are made up; but either way we'll see if she walks the walk soon enough. Just because somebody is a nice looking girl doesn't mean they can't ride bikes. It's not ... erm... rocket science now, is it. I heard a TED talk in Chiang Mai by (yes - by!) the very real first Thai female astronaut. A small lovely lady who won the Thai national competition for becoming an astronaut, and who did well enough in the training camp in the USA to be selected. Riding a motorbike is child's play in comparison.

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.

Um, guys, don't test your speed to Myanmar. Myanmar internet is very slow and the likelihood you will ever connect to a server located in Myanmar is pretty much zero. I know speed-test always tries to connect to Yangon because it's physically the closest server. But the result is meaningless, set your test server to bangkok.

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...

Anyone know a good way to sign up for AIS fiber in Chiang Mai? I did the website but I've been told it can take weeks until they get back to you.

Will try the AIS shop in the mall tomorrow.

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...

I wasn't comparing, just interested to know what Ais is getting, as the vdsl service is available in my other condo in downtown thong lo. Since cat does not want to run fiber up to my floor.

AIS has a bunch of business options, you could compare with that

It's Ducati. And it's a brand new bike. Some quality issues are to be expected.

Even Honda had loads of issues on some of their new Thai made bikes.

Great that you finally got your exchange bike. I also find that going there in person makes a huge difference to just calling on the phone. Even if you say the same things and otherwise just stand around. Better communication.

^ I've had a very good experience with Ducati Italy via their website too.

You provide your VIN number - or maybe Ducati member number, or both, not sure now - so they know exactly who you are, where you bought the bike, when you bought it, what service history, etc. I was complaining that I'd been waiting for a part for over 2 months while my bike started less and less reliably. I got a very nice email replay, and the part arrived at Chiang Mai 2 days later. Good route to go.

Wasn't there recently a post about an automatic troll post detection algorithm? I think this could be used to train it.

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.

She's got a good shot for sure. Good choice of bike

Anyone who enters an Enduro race and places podium knows how to ride. Skills are not going to be an issue. She needs a good guide in China, same as that Singaporean group who did the same thing last year. I read the ride report on that, was pretty epic. A guide is the only way to do China, is what I learned from that.

After spending a fortune on various Helmets of various makes and brands, I have to say this:

- A good fitting helmet is better than an otherwise good but ill-fitting one. I tried an Arai in the shop, was OK, rode with it for a full day and could not continue the next day because I had the worst headache of my life. Turns out Thai made Arais are round, and I have an oval shaped head. That's 18k Baht out the window (no returns - this is Thailand!).

Always try the helmet for a while in the shop - wear it for 5 minutes, then take it off and look for red spots on your forehead or other discomfort.

- If the helmet is decent to begin with, it's probably safe. You pay more for a better fit and more riding comfort. Which IMO is well worth it. There are big differences in comfort with helmets.

- Racing helmets are not that great for everything else - they're not made for riding upright, or for noise reduction, or for great peripheral vision. I finally found a Helmet that fits my oval head shape perfectly, the Arai Signet-Q. It's only available in the west so I had to import it. It's very comfortable but it's also really loud.

- My favorite is the Schuberth C3 Pro. It's quiet, it's super comfortable, and it feels light and small even though on paper it isn't all that light. Its headshape is too round, however. I widened it with a system a friend came up with: I put a volleyball in the helmet and pumped it up to 80 PSI. Then left it for 2 days. Not perfect as it made the helmet wider too, but better than getting a pressure point/headache. If you happen to have a round or round-ish head, I'd recommend it.

Cheap helmets are possible but they are loud, they might not protect you in certain cases, they might shake or deteriorate quickly, they might have bad visibility in rain or at night. But - there are exceptions... I had a super comfortable SparX Helmet for 4,000 Baht for the longest time - it worked reasonably well in most conditions, and protected me in 2 crashes. Not as comfortable or quiet or good as the Schuberth but for the price it was good. 2 expensive but ill-fitting Arais were gathering dust while I used this cheap lid.

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.