SpaceKadet

Agree... I think Monty Python put it best in a sketch they did in Hollywood Bowl many years ago. " American beer is like making love in a canoe... <deleted> close to water!!!!" Oh, no, I see the mods coming to delete me.....

How else would you drive on a three lane road? Shoulder is for mopeds and ghost riders. Left lane for buffaloes, middle lane for normal traffic, and right lane for fast cars and overtaking. I would also drive in the middle lane on a three lane road.

Agree. They stated that quite clearly in the case of Mr Litvinienko, and again in the case of Mr and Ms Skripal.

Welcome to Thailand. We have the best legal system in the world. Everybody gets punished. 1000 baht fine or 2 years in jail, or both.

I really don't understand this obsession with giving up the passport. Everybody has to do it, from the toilet cleaner to the company CFO. And what would you do with it if you had your passport in your possession? You can't leave legally without the government exit stamp. Don't even try to swim to Sudan or Egypt, and if you cross illegally across the desert to the other neighboring countries, it doesn't matter if you have your passport or not.

Oh man, they are all just salivating for all those satang they can put in their pockets.... <deleted> disgusting....

Oh, I am a total J. S. Bach addict. Mostly of all his organ works, and mostly of fugues. They just make sex to my ears… I do like his concertos too. Of course the BWV 565 would be a favorite of many, but just wonder if anybody listened beyond the first 12 bars or so. I tend to skip the Toccata and just jump down and enjoy the Fugue. I used to play it on the piano as a very young kid. Never played on a proper church organ. Wish I had. There are many beautiful pieces that Bach wrote, and if I would have to name one and it would be a fugue, it would be a “Little” fugue in G minor BWV 578. I have great affinity to “Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi” from Carmina Burana, but that’s because it’s such a powerful piece, and it’s kind of personal for me. My mother was in the Philharmonic choir and I was at the age of 5 or 6 sitting in the front row of the main concert hall during the final rehearsals. There was no such thing as child care back in those days. The rest of Carmina is rather boring to me. Other than Bach, I like the Russian composes, like Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, and of course Tchaikovsky. And not to be forgotten, like he once was, Edvard Grieg and his Peer Gynt suite. Closer to home. Prefer concerts as they will allow you to make your own interpretation of the music rather than operas, which will force you into a predetermined story… Having said that, the voice of Maria Callas is so soothing, I will listen to her when feeling down… As I would to Robert Johnson. All things said, I’m a music freak, enjoying classic, as well as blues, hard rock and heavy metal. It all depends on the mood. But all things considered, Bach is still the King!

If you connect anything to the SATA bus, adapter or not, you will be restricted by the speed of the SATA III bus which is about 600MBs, but there is some overhead in that for signalling etc. That is the reason why the same NAND will perform much faster in an nVME SSD than in SATA SSD. Typically, high end 5" spinners like Seagate can achieve speeds of over 220MBs, while SATA SSD can saturate the bus at 550+MBs. The small 2.5" HDDs like those in the laptops have much lower figures with max data rates at 100MBs or thereabouts. nVME SSD drives connected to the PCIe3 bus can achieve over 3000MBs and over 7000MBs on a PCIe4, but you'll have to have a pretty new laptop to have an nVME PCIe connector.

I don't really understand why the OP wants to make it so complicated. Just replace the HDD with SATA SSD. There are plenty 1TB SSD's available from 3000 baht up. Just plug'n'play. https://www.invadeit.co.th/category/solid-state-drives-ssd/1tb/2-5-inch/ An M.2 SSD with SATA bus adapter will be more expensive than that.

They had 10 years to do something, and did sweetFA in all that time. Now they are worried?

When I was there in the 80's most of the staff in Saudia Catering were Thai. I did hire some of them occasionally when I held bigger functions at home. They did a very good job IMO. Likewise, the production manager in the Pepsi factory in Jeddah at that time, who was a Brit, liked his Thai shift much better than Filipinos. He said, they just came in on the shift and did the work without wasting time.

There is just as big a scam with Thai agencies employing them here...

Well worrab, your experience is entirely different from mine. I've been there 6 times by now and the only time it was painless and quick when it was handled by the young officer you mention. IMO the worst are the two female IO's, I have been sent back for just stupid things, like she couldn't see the roof of my house in the photo.... although it was perfectly OK on previous occasions. And you know where I live, 2.5 hours drive each way. The fat one asked for 500 baht to transfer visa to my new passport, although it is FOC. So now you've heard of bribes. The absolutely worst was when we applied for married extension for the fist time, the Lawrence IO that handled our application made us wait through the lunch, and when we came back he said smiling in Thai to my wife that he will keep us until they close, for no reason at all. Fortunately he's no longer there.... The best office IMO is the small one in SingKhon where I go for 90 days. Always smiling and joking. And even with a stack of Myanmar passports to process they will always service me first. In and out in 1 minute. Unfortunately, they don't do extensions...

I don't think is was a rumour. I think there was a picture of the event, and the woman wearing it was clearly identified.

Fully agree, plus the fact that the Thai laws are worded so very vaguely as to be interpreted differently at each case where it might be beneficial. The Interpretation is done by the RTP who then leave the case for the prosecution. It is extremely rare that it is changed in court.

I have been following "Britannia" TV show, but completely missed the release of Season 3 last year. Enjoyed the first two seasons very much, so very happy to find that all 3 seasons are now uploaded to our friendly Bulgarian tracker, and probably most others. Quoting from https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/19685/britannia "The story is set in 43 A.D. and charts the Roman invasion of what would become Great Britain. The determined, yet terrified, Roman Imperial Army returns to crush the Celtic heart of Britannia, a mysterious land ruled by wild warrior women and powerful druids who can channel the forces of the underworld." Looks like another binge.

Mostly agree! MCU productions are easily forgotten. But I do like Gemma Chan, have seen her in other TV series and movies. Nice break for her as a lead character. But, why does there always have to be a very explicit gay couple in almost every new movie? Preferably black and white. Does that tick extra boxes for the studios? That's the reason I stopped watching Star Trek Discovery. Ships crew are all lesbian or gay or other LG(whatever) and the former captain was a donkey! Gene must be spinning barrels in his orbit!

A new release from MCU, "Eternals", just hit the public trackers. Get it if you into that.... Available from your usual sources.

Smirnoff make me want to puke just smelling it. There is only ONE Vodka and that is Absolut! If you want to do shots, keep it in the freezer. If you like flavored vodkas, try this one.

New episodes are released on Wednesdays.

Since when is an F35 a fighter jet? F16 is a fighter jet, SAAB Gripen is a fighter jet, SU-35 or MIG-29 are fighter jets. When you engage an opponent in BVR, like F35 does, it's just a stealth weapons delivery platform. I can just imagine those powerful enemies that threaten Thailand and want to invade tomorrow.... Shouldn't their uncles in the great country of China just give them the J-10's or J-20's? Ming boggles at the way Thai military thinks. Just collect a bunch of hardware that is not compatible and capable to be coordinated in any coherent way. Money in the pocket for a few, me thinks...

Well, the good thing is that the blacktips are back. So definitely no one will be in the water. Chinese are notoriously <deleted> scared of sharks. But, given time, they probably scare the sharks away again. Funny enough, back in 1997 I was sailing there, we moored the boat at the entrance of Maya Bay and swam to the beach. This was after the last tourist longtail has left. We were all alone, but I didn't see any blacktips at that time. Let's just hope that they'll stay.

A sad day in Thai eco history. Greed has no bounds here. How long before the customary food stalls take residence along the beach?

The final season of "Lost in Space" came out a few weeks ago. It really is a children's story, but if you have been following the series, this final season brings a good conclusion to the whole series.

Watched that couple of years ago. Good detective story and very nice setting.