TallGuyJohninBKK

I'm fine with Windows 10 or 11 as my home / consumer PC platform OS... And anytime someone is buying new hardware at this point, unless they buy it bare, it's going to come with the W11 install. Time is eventually going to make the transition happen for most folks. A few months back, for other reasons (not the Win 10-11 issue), I bought my first ever Chromebook laptop... I wanted something lighter to carry when traveling vs my heavier and larger Win 10 laptop at home... Have taken the Chromebook on a few recent domestic trips here in Thailand, and it's served the purpose as a traveling stopgap... But I could never see it as a replacement for my full-time home computing needs.

You can also translate that as... Israel blew up a bunch of Iranian military commanders who were staying in Damascus, Syria, supposedly at an Iranian consulate building there. Israel ‘badly miscalculated’ Iranian response to Damascus strike – New York Times Outlet cites US, Israeli, and other officials as saying Jerusalem greatly underestimated possible retaliation, didn’t inform Washington of attack until last minute Israeli officials miscalculated the severity of Iran’s response to the April 1 strike on a building in Damascus in which several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders were killed, for which Iran fired a barrage of hundreds of missiles and drones in response, The New York Times reported Wednesday. “The Israelis had badly miscalculated, thinking that Iran would not react strongly, according to multiple American officials who were involved in high-level discussions after the attack, a view shared by a senior Israeli official,” the outlet said. Two generals were among those killed in the alleged Israeli strike on what Iran said was a consulate building in the Syrian capital. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-badly-miscalculated-iranian-response-to-damascus-strike-new-york-times/

Thanks for posting that...Yes, there have been many such "how to upgrade" hacks published for Win 10 users who have perfectly functional PCs that don't meet Microsoft's hardware requirements for Win 11... The Win 10 laptop I'm typing on right now is one of those... Thus far, I've held off on doing the Win 11 hacks, because I was hoping to see/hear a bit more about people's experience with having Win 11 on a technically unsupported Win 10 machine. I also was wondering whether, as time passed, Microsoft might relent and relax its hardware requirements for Win 11... But I don't believe they've done that thus far.... However, I did read the other day about how MS now will be offering businesses and academic users the option to PAY for continued Win 10 support and security updates after when the expiration deadline arrives in 2025. The listed price for students was gonna be dirt cheap. The business price was pretty expensive. And as of the report I read the other day, MS had not yet made public what its intended pricing for extended support for Win 10 consumer users was going to be. In the end, I'll probably wait until 2025 and see if my current Win 10 laptop is still functional then, or if I've decided in the meantime to get a new Win 11 compatible machine.... And if I haven't done that, at that point, I'll probably try the Win 11 hack. FWIW, I had to replace my even older Win 10 desktop a few months back because of hardware failures, and ended up getting a new Win 11 micro PC made by Dell... Thus far, despite various differences, the Win 11 experience for me hasn't been much different than it was on the prior Win 10 machine. PS - Originally, I was excited that MS had teamed with Amazon to make Android apps available to run within Windows 11, which I thought was a great thing. But now lately, MS has announced they're killing that functionality and existing installed Android apps within Win 11 will cease functioning by March 2025... YEESH! https://www.uctoday.com/unified-communications/microsoft-removes-support-for-android-apps-on-windows-11/

How many annual flu shots do at-risk people / senior citizens get? I don't really hear people complaining about those each year when flu season is approaching. "According to World Health Organization data, 400,000 lives in England are estimated to have been saved up to March 2023 due to the COVID-19 vaccine programme." https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2024/04/16/whos-eligible-for-the-2024-covid-19-vaccine-or-spring-booster/ "The COVID jab protects against serious cases of the disease. Even one dose of the vaccine may reduce the risk of long COVID symptoms. Long COVID reportedly costs the NHS £23.4m in primary care consultations each year, so there would be clear benefits in making sure the vaccine is accessible to the broadest number of people possible. So why, then, is access being restricted to high-risk groups and those able to pay? While all the reasons behind this decision aren’t entirely clear, the cost of COVID booster campaigns may have been an influence in revising eligibility criteria." https://theconversation.com/private-covid-jabs-lead-to-concerns-about-creeping-privatisation-in-the-nhs-227471

The updated COVID vaccines now are also available in the UK via private pharmacies to people who do NOT meet the NHS criteria listed above. But the difference is, those shots have to be purchased instead of being provided free by the NHS. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/02/pharmacies-in-england-and-scotland-to-offer-private-covid-jabs-for-45 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/26/boots-to-offer-covid-vaccines-in-england-for-nearly-100-pounds-a-jab https://theconversation.com/private-covid-jabs-lead-to-concerns-about-creeping-privatisation-in-the-nhs-227471

NHS rolls out new variant Covid vaccine as virus kills 100 a week The new vaccination project started this week with jabs between now and June The NHS has started giving booster jabs of the Covid vaccine as the virus is still killing 100 people a week in England. People aged 75 years and older, residents in care homes for older people, and those aged six months and over with a weakened immune system will be offered a dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Those who are eligible will be offered an appointment between now and June, with those at highest risk being called in first. If you are turning 75 years of age between April and June, you do not have to wait until your birthday, you can attend when you are called for vaccination. ... Those getting the jab will be given a booster dose of a vaccine made by Pfizer or Moderna and approved in the UK. These vaccines have been updated since the original vaccines and target a different COVID-19 variant. These updated vaccines give slightly higher levels of antibody against the more recent strains of COVID-19 (Omicron). (more) https://www.mylondon.news/news/health/nhs-rolls-out-new-variant-29011931

As we move into spring, protection from any earlier COVID-19 vaccination you may have had will be starting to wane. For those who are more likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19, the NHS offers a free vaccine in the spring to top up their protection, previously known as the ‘Spring Booster’. Current vaccines provide good protection against severe disease and hospitalisation. UKHSA surveillance data relating to last spring’s programme shows that those who received a vaccine were around 50% less likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19 from 2 weeks following vaccination, compared to those who remained unvaccinated. According to World Health Organization data, 400,000 lives in England are estimated to have been saved up to March 2023 due to the COVID-19 vaccine programme. (more) https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2024/04/16/whos-eligible-for-the-2024-covid-19-vaccine-or-spring-booster/

'One of the greatest achievements of medical science' Australia's COVID-19 vaccination program saved the lives of almost 20,000 people in NSW alone between August 2021 and July 2022, according to new research released today. According to the computer simulations done by Victoria's RMIT and Monash universities, vaccines prevented 17,760 deaths in NSW's over-50 population during those 12 months. ... The study said that, without vaccines, 21,250 people aged over 50 would have died from the virus in the state over those 12 months — almost six times the actual 3495 deaths in that age group.  "The rapid development of safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19 is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of medical science," Paul Griffin, director of infectious diseases at Mater Health Services, who wasn't involved in the study, said. (more) https://www.9news.com.au/health/covid-19-vaccination-australia-saved-18000-lives-early-omicron-wave-nsw/1b788d3c-e17c-4ef5-927d-2ec5261ccd8e

Yep, and about three-fourths of the U.S. adult population at present are not up-to-date / current with the recommended COVID vaccinations, including less than half of the highest risk senior citizen population. So hardly a surprise that people there are continuing to get sick and die from COVID. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink (as the saying goes), even if it's for their own good: "The percent of the population reporting receipt of the updated 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine is 14.1% (95% confidence interval: 13.4-14.8) for children and 22.8% (22.1-23.4) for adults 18+, including 42.1% (40.7-43.6) among adults age 65+." https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/vaccination-trends-children.html When people actually take the COVID vaccines as recommended, they significantly reduce the risks of serious illness, as shown below: Latest COVID-19 vaccines reduce hospitalization risk by around half March 01, 2024 https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20240301/latest-covid19-vaccines-reduce-hospitalization-risk-by-around-half ------------------------------- PS - part of the reason the U.S. has such a high share of the global COVID deaths (besides its relatively large population) being tallied by the WHO is many countries have simply stopped publicly reporting them. The U.S., meanwhile, has continued reporting them and has one of the more organized systems for tracking the causes of deaths among its population. Just 39 countries (out of about 200 in the world) reported COVID deaths to the WHO in their most recent report, which noted: "Globally, during the 28-day period from 4 to 31 March 2024, 98 countries reported COVID-19 cases and 39 countries reported COVID-19 deaths. Note that this does not reflect the actual number of countries where cases or deaths occur, as many countries have stopped or changed the frequency of reporting" [emphasis added] ... "The highest numbers of new 28-day deaths were reported from United States of America (3189 new deaths; -41%), the Russian Federation (288 new deaths; +20%), Chile (112 new deaths; -12%), Australia (95 new deaths; -56%), China (91 new deaths; +8%), and New Zealand (79 new deaths; +14%)" https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-epidemiological-update-edition-166

You may not like or believe the U.S. CDC, but their findings as reported here in this thread have been confirmed separately and previously by others.... "The MHRA directed Reuters to a study released by Britain’s Office of National Statistics (ONS) and Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) which analysed data on COVID-19 vaccination and mortality in people aged 12-29 during the pandemic and said it found “no indication” of an increased risk of death from cardiac-related or other causes in the age group, in the six weeks following vaccination (here)." On the other hand, when it came to COVID infections: "A 2022 study of UK Biobank members, published in the British Medical Journal’s Heart, found non-hospitalized COVID-19 cases had a 2x risk of cardiovascular death. “This increased to 8.8x for those with primary hospitalized COVID-19 and 14.6x for secondary hospitalized COVID-19 within the next year or so, with most of the deaths occurring within 100 days of infection,” Morris said (here)." https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-athletes/fact-check-no-evidence-covid-19-vaccines-are-linked-to-athletes-collapsing-or-dying-idUSL1N3451N2/

Yes, such news about the COVID vaccines... It's shocking! Latest COVID-19 vaccines reduce hospitalization risk by around half March 01, 2024 The latest COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk for hospitalization or visits to an ED or urgent care by around 50%, according to interim data published in MMWR. This season’s influenza vaccines were similarly protective against hospitalization among children and adults, early estimates published in MMWR showed. The updated, monovalent COVID-19 vaccines recommended by the CDC in September target omicron XBB subvariants of SARS-CoV-2. (more) https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20240301/latest-covid19-vaccines-reduce-hospitalization-risk-by-around-half

I've been using LotusS online more lately, usually for non-food household items, as they typically just don't have anywhere near the same availability of various imported food items as Tops. There also was a long period of time after the Tesco to LotusS conversion where their website payments system simply would not accept any of my U.S. bank cards.... But they seem to have improved that lately, and I now find I'm able to use them for online purchases via LotusS these days. As for Tops Online, the last time I tried them a few days ago, their ability to save items as "Favorites" via the little "heart" icon on the product pages was still broken. And of course, in their recent tech overhaul, they ended up erasing all of the long list of "Favorites" that I previously had stored in my account. Tesco used to have a kind of Favorites capability where items that you had previously ordered got saved to a list for a period of time in your account. But that disappeared with the conversion to LotusS, and they still haven't done anything to restore that functionality up till now. So as a workaround, I ended up saving as browser bookmarks folder a list of the various things I frequently order from LotusS, and I find myself going back into my LotusS online history of past orders to remind myself what I might want/need for an upcoming order.

Predictably, yet another in a continuing series here of right-wing Republican opinion pieces courtesy of what's supposedly the "World News" forum. Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration. https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4591632-this-one-problem-is-why-democrats-must-replace-biden-at-the-convention/ I'm still waiting to see posted, for any semblance of balance, a Democrat leaning version of the same kind of column as posted above... something like: This one problem is why Republicans must replace Trump at the convention... ...the fact that the presumptive Republican nominee for president is facing 90+ felony criminal counts.... https://www.npr.org/2024/02/22/1233132273/how-trumps-trials-for-91-felony-charges-in-4-states-could-take-over-his-campaign Still waiting on that one....

COVID is still, even now, killing nearly 1,000 people PER WEEK in the U.S., and another 100+ per week in the U.K., with many people in both countries no longer current / up-to-date with their COVID vaccinations, or never vaccinated at all. So COVID hasn't gone away or disappeared by any means. But considering that there have been 13.5 BILLION COVID vaccinations given worldwide since the start of the pandemic, resulting in many millions of lives saved, the numbers of confirmed vaccine related deaths and serious reactions have been very rare. Those are the facts as documented and sourced below, no matter how many questions anti-vaxers want to ask, and then fail to produce any factual answers for. Nearly 1,000 U.S. COVID deaths per week: 100+ U.K. COVID deaths per week: https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/ 13.5 billion COVID vaccine doses administered worldwide: Source link: Millions of lives saved by COVID vaccines: COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-england-54d29ae3af5c700f15d704c14ee224b5 Two Years of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccines Have Prevented Millions of Hospitalizations and Deaths https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/two-years-covid-vaccines-prevented-millions-deaths-hospitalizations And in comparison, serious vaccine-related side effects have been rare, more than offset by risks of COVID: Posts misrepresent findings of world's largest Covid vaccine safety study 28 February 2024 "The February 2024 publication of the largest peer-reviewed study of Covid-19 vaccine safety to date has inspired misleading social media claims that its findings show the jabs are unsafe. Study authors and independent experts say the research confirms that adverse reactions to vaccination are rare and pose far fewer risks than Covid-19 infection. ... Epidemiologist Anders Peter Hviid, one of the study authors, told AFP the findings confirm previous research and should not deter people from receiving Covid-19 shots. "What we take away is that the Covid-19 vaccination campaigns have been very effective in preventing severe disease," he said on February 23. "The few serious side effects that we have observed in this and other studies have been rare." https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.34K78ZW Study Largely Confirms Known, Rare COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects February 27, 2024 "An international study of around 99 million people confirmed known serious side effects of COVID-19 vaccination. It also identified a possible relationship between the first dose of the Moderna vaccine and a small risk of a neurological condition. Social media posts about the study left out information on the vaccines’ benefits and the rarity of the side effects. COVID-19 vaccines — like all vaccines and other medical products — come with side effects, including serious side effects in rare cases. The vaccines were rolled out to protect people from a novel virus that has killed millions of people globally and would likely have killed millions more without the arrival of the vaccines. There is a broad consensus from experts and governmental health agencies that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risks." https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/study-largely-confirms-known-rare-covid-19-vaccine-side-effects/

Yes, I was going to caution about that.... that people who have their last prior TM6 still stapled in their passport ought to leave it there..... and not discard it.... despite the reported news above. Last time I was at BKK CW Immigration to renew my retirement extension, because I had seen the practice of the TM6 forms no longer being issued to incoming air travelers, I asked the IO if I could now discard my last old TM6... And they advised NO, that at least for the time being, I should keep it, as they were still asking for photocopies of it for various purposes.

Thailand MoPH Weekly COVID report for Apr. 7 - 13, 2024: --849 new COVID hospitalizations, up 75 from the prior week --4 new COVID deaths, up 1 from the prior week --242 current COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (pneumonia symptoms), up 14 from the prior week (dark purple) --86 current COVID patients hospitalized requiring intubation/ventilation to breathe, up 3 from the prior week (light purple) Cumulative figures since the start of the current year are COVID new hospitalizations (8,589) & COVID deaths (69). Of the 4 new official COVID deaths, the MoPH below is reporting that two were male and two were female. By age group, two of the fatalities involved people age 70+, one in the 50-59 age range, and one in the 20-49 age range. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main Reported weekly COVID new hospitalizations have now risen for the past 5 consecutive weeks since mid-March, as follows for the weeks ending: March 16 -- 501 March 23 -- 630 March 30 -- 728 April 6 -- 774 April 13 -- 849

If he did (which he probably did NOT), it most likely still would have taken 4+ hours for the trip, as that continues to be the scheduled trip duration for most of the Bangkok to Hua Hin departures.

Thankfully, it looks like the U.S.'s recent streak of consecutive 1,000+ weekly COVID deaths has ended at 29 straight weeks, with the latest official update coming in at just under 1,000 -- specifically, 961 new U.S. COVID deaths for the week ending March 16 (the last column shaded in blue, meaning it's considered "official."). CDC source link: The other broader COVID trends in the U.S. also are continuing to improve now during the spring, which last year also was a low period before COVID deaths and hospitalizations rebounded and rose markedly in the fall heading into the new year (as shown in the above chart). Remains to be seen whether the same fall rebound trend will occur again this year. These days, as shown below, it's considered good news when the U.S. has only 7,000+ new COVID hospitalizations for the week. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home

So let me see if I'm following this right: They're planning to shut down or significantly lessen household water supplies to a wide range of areas in the province today and through the weekend during morning to mid-afternoon hours as the temperatures exceed 40C... ...So that there will be enough water for Song Kran revelers to waste on drunkenly splashing each other on the streets of the province...so as to not interfere with tourism???? And meanwhile, the day before, there's a news report with the province governor talking about emergency declarations in a large number of districts because there's not enough water and the reservoir levels are low...so low that they're having problems supplying enough water for agriculture. Where's the sense in any of this???

The Sharp purifier we've been discussing here comes with its own built-in (and removable-rinseable) pre-filter that's built into the back cover of the unit. In addition to that, I've always added a sheet of carbon filter between that prefilter and the unit's HEPA filter. As a result, I was able to continue using the original HEPA filter that came with the Sharp unit (that's rated for 1 - 2 years) for almost 5 years with it still having good/effective purifying effect. I'd also periodically take out the HEPA filter and vaccum it off with a HEPA filtration vacuum I have at home.

I PM'd via Lazada chat the cheapo filters supplier above who's selling filters for Sharp purifiers, and the best they could offer is that the filter they're selling is "similar" to the actual Sharp filters. In the end, after some back and forth, the seller conceded that the filters they're selling are not in fact official Sharp filters, despite them posting photos of actual Sharp logo filter boxes on their Lazada listing. So goes it in Thailand. Given their lack of honesty/truth in advertising about the product they're selling, it's kind of hard to believe whatever they may be claiming about the actual quality of the filters they're providing.

Chiang Mai comes to Bangkok today.... You don't want to be breathing outside without some filtration: https://aqicn.org/station/thailand/bangkok/chulalongkorn-hospital/

So the upshot here is: The one guy who has been found guilty of ordering the murder of a policeman gets nearly the same sentence (2 years) as 15 or so other policemen (16 months to 2 years) who didn't kill anyone, but also didn't intervene to stop the shooting or apprehend the suspect. Pathetic!!! PS - how can Kamnan Nok here have been found guilty of "attempted murder" when the policeman who he ordered be shot actually died from the shooting?

I've found you have to be careful, particularly in Thailand, with third party vendors selling Chinese made substandard filters for Sharp purifiers, often at very low prices... and they're low-priced for a reason. Yes, they FIT the Sharp purifier models cited. But they're substandard filters to the OEM version that came with the Sharp units. I know, because one of Sharp's vendors sold me one on the cheap a while back because they claimed it was the only version they had at the time. And when I finally went to use it, that brand new replacement filter did a noticeably poorer job of filtering the air in my room where it was used than the by that time very well worn 3-year-old original Sharp filter that came with the unit. I ended up reinstalling the original filter and putting the replacement away in the closet. Sharp Thailand has an official store on the Lazada site, where they're selling their original FZ-F30HFE HEPA filters for 1,290 baht. I'm as much of a bargain hunter as the next guy. But color me suspicious when the third party Lazada seller you linked to above is selling supposedly the same filter for 279b... Sharp official store on Lazada: https://www.lazada.co.th/products/sharp-filter-fz-f30hfe-f40sfe-f50dfe-f50hfe-i1264922053-s21405884232.html

The optimal HEPA filter for general public use is the H13 or H14 types, which roughly equate to the U.S. "True HEPA" standard, the prevailing one, of 99.97% filtration effectiveness. The "True HEPA" marketing term was born in the U.S., AFAIK, because of the practice of some manufacturers to sell so-called HEPA purifiers and filters that in fact contained substandard filters (those with below 99.97% effectiveness). If you're going to pay money to buy and use a HEPA air purifier, why settle for one with substandard / less than optimal air filtration capabilities?