BananaGuy

SSDs as in plural? Not my experience at all. I currently own about 10, spread through 3 laptops, 2 PCs, a tablet and a few in external enclosures and have onsold at least that many in older devices. Failure rate zero. May i ask What brand? Did you determine the SSD failed and not some other internal component? Did you for example, extract the SSD after 'failure' and test it in an external enclosure?

Apologies, i missed that and read your talk of return and two one-way tickets as being back to your original destination. Anyhow, if you are happy to rely on your airline to cancel and promptly and fully refund on a regular basis then i'm happy for you. Is the cancellation 'at their discretion'? Digging through the fine-print of their terms and conditions will tell you. My experience of airlines, credit providers and insurers? There is always a get-out for them if they choose to drop the gate on you. Sure, you may be able to litigate/complain your refund later, but at what cost? In Australia and (UK to my knowledge) your scheme of obtaining financial advantage likely amounts to fraud. Maybe something in your fine-print about that. Depending on a corporate to provide you with free credit - repeatedly - and as you say you do it every trip - predictably? Best of luck. The interest and 'at risk' cost of your pre-payment/refund habit surely gets close to the $20 (or whatever) rent-a-ticket method.

errr … are you maybe being a little silly? I’m no guru but have read here many times that only an onward ticket is required to enter Thailand … say a cheap flight to Vietnam or wherever. No need at all for your self-admittedly expensive ‘solution’ … but of course if you find it fun, knock yourself out. Others will also point out the slightly greyer ‘rent a ticket’ approach.

I knew I was going too fast but thought my last speeding ticket (in Australia) deserved a ‘grace’ allowance of 10 km per hour. Apparently not. Grace is not as amazing as it was back in the day.

No it wasn't, i'll bet you read to the end ... but that's where you stopped learning ... Easy to test ... Screenprint or write down your external SSD 'properties' (used/free/total space) Copy a big file (big enough so it takes more than a few seconds) from the external SSD to anywhere else egyour PC or another external drive Let it start Yank the drive. Reconnect the SSD and your big file is intact and the SSD's 'properties' are unchanged. Start the copy again (and don't yank this time!) and the process will complete perfectly normally. Or don't test it yourself. I don't really care either way.

Off-topic but i learned my first UPS lesson many years ago working IT for John Fairfax (big publisher) in Sydney many years ago - they spent $squillions installing a room-sized UPS and diesel backup to provide enough power to the building to keep some lights on and close down printing presses and a big old mainframe computer gracefully in the event of local sub-station failure. Finest German engineering installed by manufacturer's people flown in and accomodated for the job. Tested? Fine. First time required? UPS out to lunch.

Unless your laptop is 10 years old plus, connecting monitor is not a problem, they either have identical ports to a PC or an HDMI port or can be configured via USB 3.0 ports to any size monitor - most contemporary laptops have graphic cards that will happily support it's native screen plus an external monitor or even twin external monitors. Ditto processing capacity - even cheap laptops now will run any game you like with ease. Sounds like you need to bite the bullet and replace your current hardware. You will be pleasantly surprised at the price/performance improvement over last 10 years. Darkside advice is sound - if budget is limited - go laptop plus external peripherals - but kinda missed the point of the original topic i.e UPS. Buy a laptop and you get a battery (UPS) built in for free ! ... the laptop battery/UPS functionality is totally seamless and when the laptop battery eventually drains, your laptop's operating system (since it can communicate with the battery) will handle the failure gracefully and close down or enter 'sleep' mode.. Unless you have a full-scale managed network and a lot of support (you don't), your PC cannot communicate with an external UPS, which merely delays and does not eliminate power disconnects.

Yes - my experience yanking an external SSD USB drive repeatedly causes no problem. It will not fail when reconnecting, i have several SSDs in external USB enclosures - if i'm not actively accessing data on them, i happily disconnect. External mechnical HDD, even if apparently idle, i disconnect via software first. It's the mechanical nature of a HDD that is the problem with power failures - a very fine tolerance set of arms 'floating' over disks rotating at 7200rpm is understandably not keen on power cuts or fluctuations. Please examine the Q&A that you reference up there carefully - it relates to loss of data, not device failure. Loss of data is trivial in the case of power failure - as i mentioned earlier, a well-designed piece of software will either 'resume' or 'restart' gracefully when the process is resumed. One, several or many 'blocks' of data being 'lost' (it's not really lost - all data in transit should be merely a copy of the original) is irrelevant if the entire process can be repeated after power is restored. Device failure is different - in the case of a HDD 'crashing' the whole device will likely be rendered useless or at best, compromised. I've used both HDD and SSD devices extensively - while SSDs by their nature do not have a long history yet, i've had to trash many HDDs for various reasons but have never yet needed to toss an SSD. If the software is not well designed (eg if the software 'assumes' hardware integrity through the whole process) then the user's data is of course at risk - but this would apply whether the hardware is HDD, SSD or steam-driven. I'd suggest that such poorly-designed software is hard to find these days - certainly all mainstream products are designed to survive predictable hardware failure. Yes - if your operating system is currently residing on a mechanical HDD i guarantee that transferring it (and any frequently-accessed data) will give you a pleasant surprise.

The ‘Made in America’ label on the machine could have been made in Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Japan … even Thailand … with US as a long shot

Anyone got actual experience of multifocal lenses? I’ve got transitional specs that offer long distance from top of lens and closeup from bottom so a bit of head movement (soon automatic) is required. How does it work with an internal lens? (please note I also have a medical condition that makes it difficult for me to Google this stuff)

… could have been Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Japan … even Thailand … with US as a long shot.

I wouldn’t worry about ‘do not switch off’ messages … they are purely decorative … any process bar maybe an iPhone OS upgrade will be able to be interrupted at any point and should restart gracefully. IPhones and the like of course safeguard themselves by checking for a mains supply AND a charged battery before they start. Don’t be too dismissive of Mickey. Ask yourself what’s inside a UPS? A tiny battery, tiny inverter and tiny charger. My Mickey solution comprises industrial-size versions of the same components … minus the shiny casing. Oh and all those components are useable in other ways too … for example in your car. But of course if you want to collect shiny boxes …

Cheap solution :- a surge-protected power board as recommended by many here plus replace your mechanical hard drive holding your operating system with a small cheap SSD (1 GB will nail it with likely enough space left to include a few critical personal files). Power outage doesn’t bother an SSD plus you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the performance boost to your PC or laptop. Adding a UPS imo is simply adding cost and complexity … if you need a backup power supply then put together your own Mickey Mouse system for peanuts (car battery + 1000 watt 12v->240v inverter). Likely less than the cost of a UPS plus you can use for LED lighting, small appliances whatever, whether the power is on or not. Add a solar panel to the mix and you’re cooking with gas (so to speak).

Two of everything but only one chair? Here you go … no electronics required … double-width chair … As it says … “Sharing is caring!!”

Thanks for that … I’m NSW South Coast near Nowra which is regional … for some reason Nowra is a breeding ground for doctors and specialists of all kinds also a couple of hospitals so probably as good as it gets. Semi-regional Wollongong is near too … more big hospitals there. COVID has screwed up waiting lists all over and sadly probably more so in the regions where vaccination rates lag cities … while your friend’s strategy sounds very smart in normal times, I think the pandemic has flipped the situation a little. Am still Googling and looking at YT videos toying with idea of operating on myself … doesn’t look that hard and hey I’ve got a year + to practice …

A refinement on this plan … pay for the insurance on a dud credit card (I have several for sale at a great price) and print off your insurance certificate quicksmart. Remember not to go back to the same insurer if you ever want genuine cover in future.

Careful what you wish for pal, you may get transformed out of a job …

Sounds very similar to Oz private/public setup ... public is no-frills but they don't compromise on standard of care. I actually worked for a while back in the day at St Vincent's in Sydney ... public and private wings on the same ... behind the scenes, most resources doctors, nurses, equipment etc were shared. Private got you a room with a view was the biggest difference!

That's interesting and good news - i don't know where i got the impression but i thought getting access to Thai government hospital was only for PRs. Sounds like i'd have no problem ... tiny house is built on my partner's land. It's a village and from my little experience of the ampur admin, they're a friendly crowd. Other eye may need attention further down the track so public hospital may be a great option for that. Thanks for the explanation.

haha yes you are correct, i realised after posting that i'd crossed conversations ... Altzheimer's is on the list if only i could remember where i'd put the list ... thanks for the information and the best wishes, i've no fear at all of the procedure - squillions of successful operations globally with very low failure rate - it's handing over the money that will hurt and leave a lingering pain!

Yes, as I described in the OP. Thanks.

Time for a seeing eye dog is my guess … why anyone would deliberately choose to live with the condition escapes me.

Thanks for that … I’m not sure either but from other responses a ‘custom’ lens seems to increase price from 50% to 100% … so a similar differential to fixed focus and multifocal glasses it seems!

Oops sorry … to be clear the ‘depressing’ comment related to the second quote you got … not the one that you went with! Glad it worked out for you!

Very helpful (and depressing) thanks for that. I learn by the hour here … didn’t even realise there was a ‘multifocal’ option in the cataract world. Anyhow … this ‘real world’ info is invaluable. As I said in the OP, easy to get ‘teaser’ prices but nothing beats first-hand accounts. Thanks again.