SpaceKadet

On 5/2/2024 at 1:30 PM, FritsSikkink said:

It will be in Thailand: Microsoft announces significant commitments to enable a cloud and AI-powered future for Thailand - Microsoft Stories Asia

AI powered....  Be afraid, be very afraid....

38 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

I've heard Dumaguete come up a few times, would be interesting to hear more about it, looking at googlemaps it's close to Manila 

Not even close. 650km south of Manilla. Just north of Mindanao Island.

41 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Its possible this isn't a fair comment...   Op mentioned Covid.

 

Was it possible to renew a UK Driving License over Covid ??? (I've no idea).

It was not possible to renew a Thai Driving Licence over Covid, but it appears the Op was out of the country anyway. 

 

As stated earlier - It is unknown if the Op is currently in Thailand or in the UK and planning to return to Thailand - thus his options may be varied...  renew in the UK, which may mean taking a new test. Or, renew in Thailand, by taking a new test.

 

 

I 've always renewed my DL through my country's embassy while bumming around. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to renew my home country's DL anymore. Some EU rule stipulates that you must get a DL from the country where you're resident, so I'm stuck with Thai DL.

I was stopped only once (in Hua Hin of course!)and asked for driving license. As soon as I opened my wallet and started pulling out the DL, the cop saw it was Thai, lost interest and walked away.

Of course, if you are involved in an accident, things would be different. And probably, the insurance would not be valid.

But TBH, letting you drivers license expire is a bit irresponsible. In over 40 years bumming around the world as an expat, I always made sure my DL was renewed. It's an important document, just like your passport, and can be used as an ID in emergencies. 

On 5/2/2024 at 2:41 PM, snoop1130 said:

... Snip ...

Empower Foundation's human rights activist Chatchalawan Mueangchan, has reported that the Protection of Sex Service Act was proposed over five years ago to the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (M-Society), but has seen no progress since.

 

Earlier this year, Chatchalawan and the sex industry representatives in Thailand repeated their call for progress on the act. They insist that sex work is a bona fide job and should thus have equivalent employment rights. The issue was highlighted again on Labour Day.

... End Snip ...

I fully agree with this. As long as the girls and the boys are entering the trade on their own, and not through a pimp or human trafficking. 

The truth is that vast majority of Chinese drop shipping from Lazada, Shopee. AliExpress and others don't arrive through the post office. Most are distributed by delivery services. like Kerry, Flash Express and such. So how are they gonna collect their 7% tax? 

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

You just buy a Synology NAS and treat it as a single drive.

My 2 bay Synology ds233j can take 2x 22TB hds internally, and another 2 USB drives externally.

They also make 4 bay models.

 

No need to even turn your computer on as it can download torrents, and play to your smart TV on it's own

That's an expensive solution. 

4 bay Synology NAS enclosure = 20.000 baht. 4x8TB NAS drives = 40.000 baht. Total of 60.000 or so baht.

With only 2 drives you are limited to only RAID0 or RAID1.

RAID0 will give you twice the capacity of a single drive, but no data redundancy. If one drive fails, you'll lose the whole RAID.

RAID1 will give you only half the capacity of 2 drives, but provides redundancy.

IMO, Raid0 and Raid1 are generally for specialized applications.

RAID5 and RAID6 gives very good data redundancy and read speed, but need minimum of 3 drives for RAID5 and 4 drives for RAID6. 

With only 4 bays, you could also build RAID10, which will give you the same capacity and data redundancy as RAID6, but with higher write speeds.

I would go for a minimum 5 bay enclosure to build a decent NAS.

My NAS has 8x2TB drives and a dedicated HBA card to drive them all, plus 2x4TB HDD and 1TB SSD. It runs TrueNAS software.

One can never have enough storage...

Currently on my main PC I have 20TB HDD (8TB+8TB+4TB, all Seagate), 2TB NVMe for games, and 1TB NVMe as video work area. The system is on 1TB NVMe. All NVMe are Samsung. The HDD storage is about 68% utilized. What I store on HDDs? Porn, HD movies, TV series, photos, music.

Then I also have 24TB NAS....

Great news! Long live the mightiest of all cats and top apex land predator. 

I think it's the environment you're you're in that let's you be more fluent in the local language, or not.

I spent over 30 years of my life in the Middle East, on and off, but because everybody in the company I was working for spoke fluent English, and the fact that all merchants you had to deal with also spoke fluent English makes you less prone to have a need to pick up a local lingo.

In retrospect, I wish I had more that just very basic knowledge of Arabic. Would perhaps make it easier in those few tight spots I found myself in.

The same goes for Thailand. Wife speaks fluent English, her family doesn't, but we don't socialize that much. I don't socialize at all with other Thais, apart from the necessary interactions like hospitals and merchant interaction where I can use my limited Thai. If I was living alone, perhaps in a larger city I would have no choice but to pick up more Thai. 

Don't socialize with western expats either. What I have seen, they like to group together in their little social expat ghettos, and have no need to learn local language.

1 minute ago, transam said:

With care, yes.............And a bit stronger at 21.........😉

OK, 21 but still...

So it takes 6 policemen to handle 19 year old girl...

3 hours ago, BusNo8 said:

 

 

 

I'm tired of carrying two pair and constantly juggling between them. My short is 2.75 now and long 1-1.+

Perfect case for varifocals!

I don't carry the computer glasses with me. Just switch to the them when I am going to work on the computer for longer.

Varifocals are fine for occasional use on laptop and phone.

Just now, JBChiangRai said:

And yet Pink Hydrogen is not in the analysts forecasts.

 

I agree with you though.

 

 

Not in the McKinsey report you're linking. But many other sources talk of using nuclear exclusively in the future hydrogen production. 

In fact, the stigma of using nuclear power is slowly fading and we see more acceptance for nuclear from the general public.

The biggest obstacle to a larger deployment of nuclear is, IMO, current legislation, which centers on dinosaur size NPPs with capacities of several TWe, building cycles of 20-30 years, billions of $ in cost, and high maintenance in it's relatively short lifespan. Not to mention costs associated with waste storage.

5 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

 

McKinsey & Co. see Hydrogen being involved in transport for long haul operations accelerating in 2040, in their recent Hydrogen Outlook report they talk about how it will be produced.  Pink Hydrogen (Nuclear) doesn't figure in their forecasts at all, it is almost exclusively expected to be green hydrogen produced through electrolysis of water.

 

You begin with electricity and after 80% losses it's turning the motor in your car, lots of investment will never bring this below 50% losses and it is for that reason that BEV's will be the premium product, they will cost between 20%-50% per mile to fuel.

 

Pink Hydrogen is prohibitively expensive.

 

Global Energy Perspective 2023: Hydrogen outlook | McKinsey

Electrolysis is a very inefficient way to produce hydrogen. Nuclear hydrogen generators use thermochemical technologies, which only requires heat, or hybrid technologies such as the high temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE) and hybrid thermochemical cycles, which require both heat and electricity.. And the nuclear reactors, especially Gen IV, generate that in abundance.

Japan seems to be inversing heavily into hydrogen. https://apnews.com/article/japan-energy-hydrogen-climate-carbon-emission-7f5552cc387d7ad395980bc9bd5a934c

I will agree though that the biggest impact of hydrogen would be in transport sector and heavy industries. We are far off seeing private cars powered by fuel cells or other types of hydrogen engines. 

On 3/30/2024 at 1:19 PM, newbee2022 said:

To be honest I have to admit not being physically able to dig that hole. But I'm very curious to watch how you do that🤗

Being smart, and if really needing an SMR, I would just contract the digging of the hole to a company with proper equipment for that task. 😎

18 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

Ready next year😂😂😂🤗🤗🤗🤣🤣🤣. Sorry,Sir, fool's day's in 3 days time. 🥳. 

Yes, next year!

To give an example; Toshiba 4S with the capacity of up to 50MWe needs a 30m deep by 4m wide hole in the ground to house the complete reactor and some small(ish) external building to house the electric generators and any other equipment you might want, like water desalination and hydrogen generator. Passive safety, no maintenance, no operators. Lifespan; 30 years. Don't tell me you can't dig a 30m hole in one year...  

https://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2009/11/05/here-come-the-japanese-nuclear-reactors/

I don't think many here watched the video before posting.

Thailand is talking of deploying SMR's, which are typically 10-100 MVe, not some huge TWe monstrosity that takes 20 years to build.

SMR's can be deployed in a standard size container. They are fully build at a factory, and after deployment do not require maintenance or re-fueling for 20-30 years, also have much lower security requirements. Once the fuel is spent, they can just be replaced with another unit, and the old one goes back to the factory to be rebuilt.

IMO, SMR is the way to go with nuclear deployment.

Currently, there is much scaremongering by the green/leftists about the nuclear power. Most of it from people that do not even know how to spell "nuclear".

9 hours ago, Joe Farang said:

No need to worry. China will built the plant for them.

But no one will sell them a reactor. Maybe it will get lost in translation and they will spend the budget on tractors.

China is making it's own reactors.