TallGuyJohninBKK

That has been ASUS's most popular and widely used wifi router in recent years, although it's lately been surpassed by the newer AX line, which has wifi AX instead of wifi AC. I've used the 86U at home now for several years, and it's been fast and rock-solid. The nice part, among others, is it as a built-in VPN client that allows you to run many commercial VPN services off the router using any of the three following VPN protocols -- PPTP, L2TP or Open VPN. Unfortunately, their current firmware version doesn't support Wireguard. But I've heard ASUS is working on a firmware update due later this year that is supposed to add Wireguard capability to their router.

I tried that at one point last year. Got a good ongoing promo rate on their 1 TB of cloud storage. But I ended up dropping it after the year, because, the One Drive app for Windows PC will only allow you to backup certain pre-designated folders, and you can't self-select others that you might want to back up instead, AFAIK. So, it's either you decide to move and keep all your important files in the Windows "Documents" folder and a couple others MS allows in OneDrive, or, you're out of luck. In my case, I have/keep a lot of media files on external drives and in other folders, and I could find no way to get OneDrive to be able to backup those files to the cloud without moving them to OD's predesignated backup folders.

Should Ukraine fall... On the news the other day, one UK military expert was estimating that Russia would have to maintain an occupation force of several hundred thousand troops in Ukraine on an ongoing basis in order to maintain control of the country. I wonder if the Russian military is really up for that prospect?

Despite officially reported new COVID cases falling for a third consecutive day to 21,162, new COVID deaths, serious cases in hospital and COVID patients needing intubation to breathe all rose again Monday to set new record highs for the year. With Monday's update by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, daily COVID deaths now at 65 are more than five times their number at the start of the year. Serious COVID cases in hospital, now at 1,148, have more than doubled their level since the start of the year, and the same with COVID patients (375) requiring intubation to breathe. With Monday's update, the daily number of COVID deaths has risen for the past two days, and three days for the number of serious COVID cases in hospital. The number of COVID patients requiring intubation to breath has risen daily for the past week. And that's even with the rising numbers of daily COVID deaths. Officially reported COVID cases often drop during the weekend periods (today's report reflects the totals from Sunday) and early part of the week, only then to climb even higher later in the week. So it remains to be seen whether the recent case declines are early signs that the Omicron wave has peaked, or, just reflect a short-term lull before going even higher, as the MoPH this past week warned could well occur during March. Thailand's seven-day-average positivity rate for COVID testing, after peaking at more than 30% in recent days, has lately declined somewhat and has been hovering around 27%, which still is extremely high. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main For added context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and intubated patients peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period.

My Thai wife indicated that Thai TV news has reported that the owner of the boat, the one who offered up the 30 million baht for forgiveness, is supposedly married to the daughter of some high-ranking Thai police official. Anyone heard anything more about that?

Per your comment: It looks like 21% of the 60 and older population has yet to receive two shots (so-called fully vaccinated). Looks like about 2.7 million to me. The 2.2 million figure (17%) for seniors appears to relate to the number that haven't received ANY vaccination thus far. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/516469253304737/?type=3

Re the 59 new COVID deaths reported on Sunday, the MoPH breaks them down as follows: --32 men, 27 women, all Thais except for 1 from Myanmar --Median age 71, with a range of from 32 to 96 years old. --46 of the deaths, 78%, were age 60 and older. --12 of the deaths, 20%, were under age 60 but had chronic conditions. --1 death, 2%, was under age 60 with no chronic condition Among the chronic conditions involved, the largest single number (17), along with COVID, also had kidney disease. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/516468989971430/?type=3

The app has to invite/allow you to do it? You can't just do it on your own when you have the result? PS - I suspect you probably saw my post yesterday about the BMA coming out with a new mobile app for COVID telemedicine and related stuff for the 11 BMA hospitals.... And I thought, just great... another mobile app that may or may not actually function properly.

The other similar version of the MoPH's daily update report for Sunday: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/516468976638098/?type=3 Vaccinations Update, yesterday's daily numbers and then cumulative -- first, second and third doses: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/516469266638069/?type=3

Apparently, there's no separate COVID cases news thread for today/Sunday -- the same as last Sunday... So I guess we'll update Sunday's reports here: ---------------------------- Despite officially reported new COVID cases falling for a second consecutive day, new COVID deaths, serious cases in hospital and total current COVID cases under care all rose Sunday to set new record highs for the year. With Sunday's update by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, daily COVID deaths now at 59 are five times their number at the start of the year. Serious COVID cases in hospital, now at 1,145, have more than doubled their level since the start of the year, and the same with COVID patients (366) requiring intubation to breathe. Officially reported COVID cases often drop during the weekend periods and early part of the week, only then to climb even higher later in the week. So it remains to be seen whether the recent case declines are early signs that the Omicron wave has peaked, or, just reflect a short-term lull before going even higher, as the MoPH this past week warned could well occur during March. RED numbers are daily highs for 2022. RED numbers are daily highs for 2022. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main For added context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and intubated patients peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period.

Actually, I think the actual reason is, Russia invaded and is trying to take over by military force a sovereign neighboring country that doesn't want to be invaded or conquered. I'm pretty sure, that's the root of most of our comments. PS - Last time I checked, I haven't slurred or slandered anyone here.

No further explanation needed! ????

News media pull back operations from Russia amid new law restricting reporting "CNN (NYSE:T) is halting broadcasting in Russia amid a new legal crackdown in the country over reporting on the war against Ukraine. It's one of several news organizations deciding in quick succession Friday to pull back or halt news gathering inside Russia, including Bloomberg and the BBC among others. Russia's new law punishes anyone spreading "false information" about the Ukraine invasion with up to 15 years in prison. (more) https://seekingalpha.com/news/3809853-news-media-pull-back-operations-from-russia-amid-new-law-restricting-reporting Of course, it's not a WAR! Just call it instead a Russian "foreign misadventure!" ????

Ya, I said I wouldn't "primarily" blame the government for a certain segment of the population not yet having been vaccinated, and some clearly because they've chosen not to. I probably could also have said, I wouldn't "exclusively" blame the local government. In my view, as I alluded with the Chinese vaccines and slow mRNA rollout comments, they share some blame, as does the torrent of social media vaccine misinformation that people have been flooded with. My wife's mother age 70s living up country is a good example. She's declined thus far to get vaccinated, even though she had opportunities to do so. When I inquired, the answer I got back was she had concerns after talking to friends and watching unspecified YouTube videos in Thai.... And the Chinese-origin vaccine products weren't a great appeal either.

My mother always used to say, "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." There might be/could be more of a practical role for the U.N. in this, except for the hard/cold reality that both Russia and China, as permanent members, have veto votes on the U.N. Security Council. Which means any concrete action by the U.N. regarding the Russian invasion, which would have to go thru the Security Council, isn't going to happen.

Well, that was quite an EPIC rant aimed at expats here... Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed lately. I'd try to say something in response, but not sure I'd even know where to begin... apart from the headline: Show some humanity, support Ukraine and don't blame ordinary Russians ...which I basically agree with, except in the case of those "ordinary" Russians being the ones with super-yachts now fleeing to the Maldives, or the other "ordinary" ones spouting Putin "we're going after the Nazis" propaganda all over the forum. ????

Further re oil-related issues: "Shares of oil and gas companies (NYSEARCA:XLE) soared 9.3% this week, marking the sector's biggest weekly gain since October 2018, as crude oil prices rocketed past $115/bbl for the highest weekly dollar increase on record, sparked by fears of a major supply crunch from Russia's invasion of Ukraine." https://seekingalpha.com/news/3809877-energy-stocks-sizzle-as-crude-closes-historic-weekly-run-at-13-year-high AND Weekly oil supply/demand roundup - crude up ~$24 from last Friday's close This week's DOE inventory update showed a larger than expected 6.3mb draw in oil and oil products. Self sanctioning was estimated to reduce Russian exports by ~2.5mb/d this week (OTCPK:RNFTF). BP (NYSE:BP), Equinor (NYSE:EQNR), Exxon (XOM) and Shell (NYSE:SHEL) announced plans to exit physical and financial Russian assets. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3809814-weekly-oil-supplydemand-roundup-crude-up-24-from-last-fridays-close? Meanwhile, in Europe, the EU is planning to introduce a windfall profits tax on European energy producers.

I don't understand this... maybe someone can explain it without getting into political rants not permitted in this forum... The U.S. only imports a relatively small amount of petroleum products from foreign sources these days with domestic production the vast majority, and only a portion of the small portion imports are from Russia. But gas prices in the U.S. now are going crazy.... "Pump prices in the U.S. are surging at the fastest pace since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with AAA reporting the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rising $0.11 to $3.83 on Friday, the highest since September 21, 2012. ... Gas prices have soared $0.18/gal since Wednesday and $0.29/gal since Russia's invasion of Ukraine eight days ago, meaning the U.S. most likely will soon average $4.00 and reach the record of $4.11 set in 2008; ... The average pump price in California, always more exposed to surging oil prices than the rest of the country, is the highest in the continental U.S., jumping $0.13/gal to $5.07, making it the first state ever to average more than $5.00/gal." https://seekingalpha.com/news/3809855-us-average-gasoline-price-soars-to-383gal-highest-in-nearly-a-decade? https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/browser/?tbl=T03.03A#/?f=M&start=200001 U.S. EIA says only 7.6% net petroleum imports...and only a portion of those from Russia... Percent of U.S. petroleum use as net imports So, given the vast majority of the U.S. supply is domestic, why the huge price spikes in the domestic marketplace for consumers?

Only close to 31% of Thailand's seniors have received their COVID booster dose thus far.... But I wouldn't blame that primarily on the government, although their initial reliance on Chinese vaccines and related slowness in launching mRNA vaccinations contributed. But IMHO, also to blame has been loads of vaccine misinformation in social media and elsewhere, including this forum, that have made people either wary of getting vaccinated in the first place, or, more recently, convinced them that they don't really need the vaccine -- contrary to all credible medical advice.

This is an update posted yesterday re the COVID surge in other Asian region countries (weblinks in the excerpts below point to the original source reports): Asia continues to report Omicron surges "--Among countries reporting late Omicron variant surges, South Korea [yesterday] reported a new single-day high of 266,853 cases, along with 186 more deaths, according to Reuters. --In Hong Kong, health officials reported 52,523 new cases, slightly lower than yesterday's daily record. --Meanwhile, New Zealand ... Health officials are reporting staff shortages, with some city offices and industries also reporting major staff outages, according to Radio New Zealand." (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/03/la-drops-mask-mandate-nfl-drops-covid-19-protocols

I use ASUS wifi routers, and they all come with built-in USB2 or USB3 ports that can be used for networking/file sharing. You just plug in the external USB drive to the USB port on the router just like you would on any PC. The only other complication is, depending on the router, you may have to go into the router's control panel settings via a router app or PC browser, and turn on the sharing function for the connected drive.

The ages of the two infant COVID deaths I referenced in my post above are in NUMBERS, and don't require reading Thai. I highlighted the age references with the red circles to make clear those references. AFAICT, the two MoPH daily update documents above don't provide any additional details about those two COVID infant deaths in the Thai text, other than the fact that they occurred. The second line of each graphic gives the median age of that day's COVID deaths, followed by the low and high range of those deaths in age. FYI, the MoPH has never produced an English language version of their daily COVID death recaps. And if I had referenced the infant deaths without citing a source, someone would likely have asked for it...

Despite most COVID deaths occurring among older people, yesterday's COVID deaths recap from the MoPH included reference to a 1-year-old. Now today's latest deaths recap includes reference to an approximate 6-month-old. The youngest of the young... Yesterday: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/515248996760096 Today: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/515890206695975/?type=3

Chiang Mai launches free test and Favipiravir drive-through service (the report below appears to indicate this service is open to foreigners as well) A drive-through service at Chiang Mai Municipal Hospital in Muang district is providing free antigen test kits (ATK) to motorists. To reduce risk, those who test positive will receive Favipiravir drugs at the drive-through window without leaving their vehicles. “The drive-through checkpoint will be at Municipal Hospital for three days,” said Chiang Mai Mayor Assanee Buranupakorn on Friday. It will then rotate to other municipality offices in Muang district for three days each, in Meng Rai, Nakhon Pink, Siwichai and Kawila. ... The drive-throughs will test to up to 6,000 people per day. (more) https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40013064?fbclid=IwAR3LthKZeglM7pK5_Hd9RLd1uvD01CELw-f6FKZZzlFAONAvBmA_8MYmmPI

Just when you thought it might be safe to go back into the water again...yet another COVID mobile application from the Thai government for Bangkok... albeit, one that's not fully functional as yet...covering only one BMA hospital to start, but with the promise to expand to cover the rest by the end of the month. ???? Launch “MorBMA” application to enhance the convenience of receiving medical services in 11 BMA hospitals Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) in cooperation with Kasikornbank has created a new mobile application called “MorBMA” to enhance the convenience of receiving medical services in all 11 BMA affiliated hospitals. The “MorBMA” application offers the following services: 1. Online treatment service using Telemedicine system in which patient can see doctor to get medical treatment, symptom monitoring, and advice on medication use via video call system without going to the hospital. Service users can choose to have their medication delivered by the postal service or to pick up at the nearest pharmacy; 2. Request for emergency services from Erawan Center for 24-hour assistance in case of emergency or a serious injury or illness; ... (more) https://www.facebook.com/prbangkok/posts/270274055280751 You have to wonder, if the public typically can't get through to the various public health authorities via their many COVID-related phone hotlines, or face very long waits in doing so, how's that process going to work when it comes to COVID telemedicine?