Upcountry

A couple of years ago, I bought basic, fanless, video cards for my PC's to handle DVI and LCD monitors via a switch box.

What I gave up:

1. Ability to turn on the computer without having the switch box set to that computer

2. Screen saver and display responsiveness.

I'm not a gamer, but i do want not to be annoyed by problems refreshing after the screen saver kicks in and good responsiveness with movies, etc.

Oh, and good bit depth for image editing is important.

At the time, avoiding a fan was important to me, because I don't need extra noise. I chose low end Asus cards that work okay except for the problems I mentioned above.

With my old analog/monitor setup I could turn on a computer anytime. When Is switched to it everything was fine. But with my DVI setup, if i do this the screen resolution defaults to a low setting. Sometimes I have to reboot to get what I want. I also gave up on screen savers because they would cause problems if they kicked in while I switched away to a different computer. At minimum a delay, sometimes worse - don't recall.

So, now I'm thinking about upgrading. I want to minimize noise (i.e., quiet fan) but of course avoid extra heat and get decent responsiveness.

I'm asking on this forum to find what is available easily in Thailand, or to determine if I have to get if from overseas somehow.

Thanks!

Lot's of ignorance in this forum.

Name me one religion that isn't full of hypocrisy, distortion and misuse. There are many other posts on this forum that are appropriate targets for snide remarks if one can't restrain oneself.

But the OP had the courage to ask a fair question about a need regarding core values, and is showing true curiosity about a cultural aspect of Thailand - not to mention a flexible and open-minded attitude toward life.

Taking your frustration with world problems, or whatever, out on the OP is pretty retarded!

MP3's are smaller because they throw away a lot of musical material. You may not notice it with a cheap boom box, or lousy mp3 player ear phones, or uneducated ears, but mp3 technology attempts to get rid of sounds that our ears theoretically won't miss (such as something that might occur after a very loud sound, or musical overtones etc.). So you get a simple approximation of the music but not the real thing.

I've made CD's from cassette tapes and from mp3's. Although the issues a different the result goes into the same "better than nothing" category, but a long long way from hi-fi.

Well, very high bit-rate mp3's might be "okay" sometimes, but then they are much larger too.

Yes, FLAC and APE, any "lossless" sound compression format, can give you CD quality or better. If 16-bit sound source is compressed FLAC'd and then decompressed, it will be an exact copy of the original. The thing that makes FLAC better than zip or rar or shrtn is that you can play a FLAC file just as you can an mp3, if you use a player that supports FLAC. More and more do support it now.

If FLAC had been around in '99, then Napster would have started a FLAC craze instead of MP3 I think.

Demonoid had a lot of FLAC torrent sources, and so does piratebay. Not all trackers do, though. This new thing called tunebully has very few, and I wonder if torrentbully is the same. I would tend to think that most really private trackers would have lots of FLAC, and maybe CD/wav stuff as well. I can't say, however, because I have no clue how to get invited to them!

I'm just waiting for on-line retailers to start selling their music in FLAC for the same price the put on mp3's. Hey, remember when cassettes used to cost more than LP's? Maybe MP3's should be more expensive!

> -inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" mp3 "Sade"

How about:

-inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" flac

MP3's are so last century!

I wonder if Thai people understand the two-fingered violin.

No, seriously, it seems all too common for a sob story to happen, and it's not too surprising in a society with such income and education disparity.

It's a tough challenge to keep one's guard up in the search for love in LOS.

Good luck.

Coup coming...

You shouldn't buy a TV today (that you will keep for a few years) based on how well it handles this year's crappy UBC.

UBC may indeed improve their picture quality in the next year or so, and IPTV may be part of that - or an alternative to UBC.

If I was buying an LCD today, I'd either go for the most expensive and compatible I could afford (in terms of inputs and signal handling of all types*) or get the cheapest one and plan on replacing it in a couple of years. LCD technology is improving rapidly.

* I regret not doing this with my sound system and TV a few years ago. I have more inputs for both now than I expected.

What a pisser, getting ripped off like that!

I left my car for wash/polish. Hid the X lug tool I have from an old van a long time ago in the spare tire cavity. They didn't remove that, but they did remove a weighted rubbish bin that fits over the drive shaft hump in the back seating area. They said it was given by mistake to a different customer, they tried to give me a different colored one.

If its not tied down and they find it, these workers will take it. Probably a fact of life here. I had gas stolen out of my tank when the car stayed overnight at an upholsterer.

Question about the LPG tank and suspension. Someone told me that the LPG tank may make the car ride higher in the front, so that the headlights will shine differently at night (standard brightness will look like brights, etc.). I assume this will affect handling as well. The car in question was a Honda Civic or City. It probably depends on the car and suspension.

How much does the tank weigh empty and full?

UC

Hey, have you seen the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser in stores here in Thailand?

I've seen ordinary sponge scrubbers, but I don't remember seeing this brand around.

I need the Magic Eraser or equivalent.

Thanks.

Putting insulation behind the ceiling board is IMHO the wrong place for it. Insulation at this point stops the room below from venting hot air into the roof space where it can be vented outside with some kind of fan or air wind. IMHO The correct place for insulation is below the tiles.

We couldn't find bat insulation in our town, but we did manage to find insulation that can be glued to the ceiling tiles. Our ceilings are the hung kind.

I can't say for sure if we are saving money this way, but the hope was to keep the cool air in the room, not rising into the attic.

We did have insulation installed under the roof tiles in an extension room, and this was a disaster, thanks, I guess, to the ignorance of the builder and employees. They simply placed the insulation on top of the metal roof frame and put the tiles on top of the insulation.

Result? Roof leaks which continue to this day. I'll ask about how to fix this in another thread, but suffice it so say that we are thinking of building another roof on top if the leaky one (made of fiberglass instead of zink) to hopefully solve the capillary action problem of rain water getting in under ill-fitting tiles, especially where the extension roof buts up against the old house wall.

No such thing as flashing and tar here!

I've been able to use boxes I'd already packed my parcel into by going next door to have the box wrapped with the red and white string.

I've also sent packages to the US, white box or not, no declaration. In some cases there was evidence that the package was opened along the way by somebody - for inspection of one kind or another.

UC

Okay, I was glad to see a more intelligent attempt to discuss global warming today, and in general I think it is a hopeful thing that it is a controversial topic that brings out the extremes in most of us. I understand the concerns of our mods that things can get out of control - can't understand why the first "global warming" thread went on so long - but this is an attempt to generate discussion of how global warming will affect folks in Thailand.

I'm thinking about khon Thai (rich and poor alike) and farang as well.

I fully believe that the biggest upside to the global warming scare/debate is that human society will finally move beyond an oil-based economy, if nothing else. I agree that poor countries have a legitimate beef (pardon the term) when rich countries tell them they should cut down on forest burning, etc., but that is definitely part of the puzzle. Another part is the fact that more methane comes out of the front of cows as they chew their cud than comes out the back (google this). Rice farmers could be convinced to reduce methane in their fields, and Three-Gorges proponents should consider the the methane coming out of the decomposing organic matter submerged by the dam. And of course developed countries need to start putting a cost on their carbon emissions.

Bottom line, in the early 21st century we are finally getting the impetus we need to move past the old paradigms and find a new way to co-exist with nature. Al Gore, and others, are creating a political will to fight Big Oil - again, a good thing.

As far as Thailand is concerned, I talk about my Thai better half now about current weather trends. We talk about how we need to take nature's current course into account as we consider our future. I fear that Thailand will be among the casualties as global warming continues. The Three gorges dam and forest destruction (which seems unstoppable) is likely to create a sad draught/flood cycle that will make water shortages a chronic problem here and contribute to political and economic problems. Call us Thai-ladesh.

How, as farangs, mostly, can we play a positive role in helping Thailand contribute positively to the effort to reduce our 'carbon footprint'? Many of us consider ourselves somehow superior. If so, how can farangs set a good example?

As for myself, I try to turn off things I don't need, and I'm working toward a setup where I can get by with less air-con. Despite some disadvantages, I'm considering converting my car to LPG. And so on. I'm keeping an eye on ways to generate my own electricity as it becomes more affordable.

Isn't it worth considering how we can play a positive role in Thailand's inevitable move toward a more 'green' agricultural and modern industrial economy?

UC

I wonder what you mean by 'tired quickly'.

My 15 year old 'BM has been happy sitting in the garage for days on end, but the other day I took it out after it had sat for a week or so - I had put a 1/2 tank of what I thought was 95 benzine, but it behaved like the Shell gas was bad. After fill-up everything was fine, but something seems to have gone wrong during the down time.

I wonder if I'd put gasohol in mistake (misinformed by station attendant). I've learned that the only thing my car needs is a rubber hose and fuel pump replacement to handle gasohol E10.

Seems to me that once or twice a week is plenty to avoid garage rot - though it also depends on how far it is driven each time. One 'old driver's tale' is that cars need to be taken out on the highway and be 'opened up' now and then. That is probably more true of older cars, before fuel injection, etc.

tigerbeer, hongthong, and crew,

as you may have noticed wikipedia has been denied to us thanks perhaps to some objectionable details related to Thailand (never mind all the other useful info on that excellent web resource).

Someone on another link mentioned this proxy: http://gigaunblock.com/

It gets you to where you want to go. ;-)

I have no no confidence in the Malaysian product, though I may test drive one some day. It sounds too much like the infamous Yugo of a few years back.

UC

It doesn't matter what you <deleted>'sters say pro or con, it's a good thing that the world is slowly getting scared into moving past an oil based society. I don't care if Al Gore's story can be knocked for scientific errors and be accused of political ideology, whatever helps mankind find a way to develop better technologies for energy is a GOOD thing. Repeat, GOOD THING.

Yeah, we have to go through some pain, but even if the scientists that show evidence of human caused global warming are wrong, the world will be a better place for the change, as long as the money men don't come up with something worse.

I left a busted computer with a repair shop for a long time (in hopes of finding a rare used part). Before doing so, I removed items that I was afraid might get "borrowed". Once I left my car for some body work. Got it back with a lot of gas missing.

Maybe it's a 'storage charge".

If I go back there, I'll take careful note of the mileage and gas, and ask them politely to lock the car so no one can get to it overnight.

But thanks for mentioning this, thaipete. If I leave my camera for repair at any time in the future, I'll give them the original 32 meg card or ask them if they have one they can use. If not, I'll ask them to note the card on the receipt as proof that I left it with them.

Here's an interesting test:

http://www.auditmypc.com/firewall-test.asp

Based on my router and firewall settings, I should have ports open that the advance test tells me are not open.

Now either this means that Maxnet/TTT is blocking me or it's lying.

At one point, port 21 (FTP) was open, but later it appeared closed (after I started a gnutella client). The Gnutella client and torrent client ports did not appear open. My Gnutella client complains, which is what started my search, but the last time I ran my torrent client it told me things were okay.

Strange.

I'm actually testing with Shareaza right now. Gnutella2 and eDongkey seem okay, but Gnutella1 can't connect. It seems to be working with torrents through the standard Gnutella port. The last time I ran Shareaza, a few weeks ago, using a higher port, it work flawlessly. I'm wondering now if that was before my shift from Hinet to Maxnet.

UC

Get a decent DVR to to with it. That way you can record stuff that is on when you're not around, or asleep. Quality's not great, but the movie variety beats what can be found in the bootleg DVD stores even in BKK. I wish I could boycott UBC, since there is probably a mafia element to their monopoly - how else to explain that my local cable company can't find a way to compete? - but it's the only way to get CNN, so I grit and bear it.

PS, when I don't shave my wife calls me porcupine.

You are right, they are different, it was a very lazy error because I do know the difference perfectly well. I apologize and I was wrong, please whip me with a stiff noodle now.

Are you kidding? This is a terrible insult to the religion of psychiatry! You should at least get 20 days in jail on a rotten mattress! But 20 lashes with a spiked whip is more appropriate!

We should march in the streets to demand that this infidel be punished under psyria law!

I can reach the main wikipedia page, but if I click on the English language link, or use the url "en.wikipedia.org" I get "page not found".

A traceroute shows the stoppage is after global.hgc.com.hk. So far, of URL's I've tried to go to recently, that's the only page I can't reach for this reason. The web search page "gahooyoogle.com" can't even be found via DNS anymore.

I first noticed both these problems a day or two ago.

tracert en.wikipedia.org

Tracing route to rr.yaseo.wikimedia.org [203.212.189.253]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1

2 13 ms 15 ms 12 ms 10.122.65.253

3 28 ms 13 ms 12 ms 10.122.65.254

4 * * * Request timed out.

5 * 19 ms 17 ms mx-ll-58.147.0-25.tttmaxnet.com [58.147.0.25]

6 17 ms 19 ms 17 ms mx-ll-58.147.0-51.tttmaxnet.com [58.147.0.51]

7 19 ms 21 ms 18 ms mx-ll-58.147.0-46.tttmaxnet.com [58.147.0.46]

8 17 ms 18 ms 16 ms 218.100.47.225

9 76 ms 74 ms 84 ms 218.100.47.2

10 340 ms 340 ms 340 ms global.hgc.com.hk [218.189.23.145]

11 334 ms 337 ms 333 ms global.hgc.com.hk [218.189.8.197]

12 302 ms 315 ms 302 ms global.hgc.com.hk [218.189.8.215]

13 428 ms 412 ms 410 ms global.hgc.com.hk [218.189.8.212]

14 * * * Request timed out.

15 * * * Request timed out.

16 * * * Request timed out.

17 * * * Request timed out.

18 * * * Request timed out.

19 * * * Request timed out.

20 * * * Request timed out.

21 * * * Request timed out.

22 * * * Request timed out.

23 * * * Request timed out.

24 * * * Request timed out.

25 * * * Request timed out.

26 * * * Request timed out.

27 * * * Request timed out.

28 * * * Request timed out.

29 * * * Request timed out.

30 * * * Request timed out.

My first ever PC's hard drive died on me and I lost a lot of important stuff, since then I've used CD's and now DVD's for storage. The story about your SATA drive is way to complicated for me, I have just about everything reinstalled now and found I didnt really need some of the programs from the old drive, they were just clutter!

Good strategy, sierra01!

sierra01,

Can you try a different keyboard? Maybe yours is old or has some late night remnants stuck in it!

I'm a little late responding in regard to the hard drive, but I'll share that I had to deal with a failing drive recently. Fortunately, my computer was till under warranty, so I got a free replacement. Same size, unfortunately. A clicking sound, and web search confirming the symptom, clued me into the problem.

For drive size, I would generally recommend getting the largest size you can afford because you never know how much space you'll need next year. Images, video, audio, it all takes up more space before we know it. You might pick up a new hobby or project that requires disk space.

Here's what I did with the failing multi-partition SATA drive.

I set up my new drive in an external USB case and ghosted the C volume (first the manufacturer's small boot volume). The result was that C:\ took up most of the new drive. Then I used Partition Magic to reduce the size of the c:\. I swapped the drives and verified that the new one booted.

Next, I tried making the other partitions with Windows (with the new drive back on USB), but had trouble getting one of them recognized when I put the new drive in. The computer also had trouble shutting down. Drive partition mapping issues, I suppose. I had tried using Partition Magic in an earlier attempt with similar issues. This may be due to an out-dated version, not sure. I'm also using SATA drives.

At any rate, after the last shut down hang, things came up normally, and all is good now.

The only reason I didn't just install from scratch is that I had too many apps and things that I didn't want to fool around reinstalling.

The moral of the story is that with patience and the right software, it is possible to ghost a boot XP SATA drive with multiple partitions. It can be a learning experience if one is ready for it. On the other hand, here in Thailand a knowledgeable tech can probably do this kind of work for a reasonable price. I only took it on because I knew I could figure it out and didn't want to haul the machine across town.

UC

FTP blocking? Shocking!

I'm not sure what security or volume usage circumstance would want to make them do that. I have the 2 meg Maxnet service too, and FTP works okay for me. At least when I've used it, which isn't that often. It's pretty essential for web page development, etc.

Are users trying to use the FTP port for file sharing? Usually they use port 80 (http) if other ports don't work.

UC