Shiver

The brake/gearbox thing has a text book answer and a real application answer depending on which optima you're seeking.

F1 Cars are designed not only to win, but to be survivable with sacrificial progression of the entire cars design.  It's cargo (the person) are the most valuable.

Mass produced cars are designed for economic write off and being sued as little as possible.

Pickups are a tribe of their own.  Imagine an unbreakable ladder chassis and an engine.  You point and squirt and it does what it should, within the confines of natural law.  The person is a 'wetware' error to be tolerated and managed.

I sold the pickup.

On 11/24/2017 at 6:30 PM, VBF said:

@chrisinth   FYI CCleaner  will get rid of those issues and clear local caches, history etc  - i just did exactly what you described on my uTorrent Client - where before I had a long list of recent downloads, now there are none.

 

Seriously, does anyone think this law will be widely applied or, as has been said here already, used to "get" people that the authorities already have on their radar?

I look at it as "it's probably never going to be a consideration" but...

If you imagine that tomorrow you're a famous person (Hollywood, politics, whatever).  Then it's a dead cert that someone will be on the make trying to find a thread to exploit.  It doesn't matter if it was decades ago, framing information happens.

On 11/24/2017 at 3:29 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

I acquired a Hunter back in the 80s, old even then and well thrashed. I even had to weld up the drivers seat or sit on the floor. By the time I finished had more bog in it's skin than steel. Most weekends I'd have it on the pavement and bogging another bit. Never painted it, but just used white primer out of a spray can ( was originally white ), and spent many a happy hour in the wreckers looking for bits to fix it.

However, I loved that car and still have fond memories of it. It was a big step up from the mini I had before, as it had a heater and two speed wipers. It even had a lever on the floor to operate the wipers when it was only raining a little bit and one didn't want to be constantly turning the wipers on and off. It went like a rocket ( amazing what a Stromberg double throat carb can do for an engine ), and I did many, many long distance trips without a single problem. Handled like a dream, unlike the heavy as lead steering on the Torana I had after.

Sadly, when I left to go overseas in the early 90s I lent it to someone and a fan blade went through the radiator. It got put out of the way under a bush, and rotted beyond repair. Went to the crusher in 2015.

 

To get back on subject, I've shifted my eye candy preference to Chinese burds. Plenty of them wandering about up in Chiang Mai, and a higher % of DDG ones than of Thai burds. Have to go to the Mall to see DDG Thai burds but Chinese ones everywhere close by. I saw one at Thapae Gate the other day, every bit as gorgeous as a Korean fashion model, but just a tourist. Very tasty indeed.

Unfortunately, since the turn of century, Thai burds are trending to the plump side, if not actually obese. Big turn off.

Reminds me of my friend with a Vauxhall Viva shouting the merits of a Stromberg, and in my corner I was shouting Weber twin 40's.  Happy daze.

Today:  He got a Porsche and I don't 'got' (Thai taxes are not attractive to westerners, and here in Udon they don't have dealers for interesting cars).  Grab taxi 110 baht for my main trip.  A shiny (but predictably boring) Civic for my girl is fine, no encumbrance on this old fart.  Eats shoots and hasn't left yet.

If they sold Tesla or Type-R's here I might be tempted to pay the Gov't some tax - just "wanting it tax".

On 11/24/2017 at 5:14 PM, bkk6060 said:

Thai women can have their issues like any place.

But, American men are in dire straights.  The place provided me with a good retirement, but the women attitudes and and all this sexual harassment crap is going way overboard.  I think the right girl here is much more loving, giving, and less demanding then them US B's.  Not to mention for older farts much prettier and younger.

 

The white western male in western countries are a bunch of scaredy cats.  Just afraid.  Mostly begging for some occasional sex.Very sad No thanks!

USB's lol.  A port in every storm.

Lots of answers that will work, but surprised nobody said "Bitcoin" (or similar).  It's not a national currency as it's nation agnostic.  I use it to bring fiat money into the country, but it is a two way street if you want it. You're not limited to a million baht either, just name your number. All legitimate of course otherwise I wouldn't be posting on a public forum.  If you're not interested in crypto then just be sure to get in and get out quickly to avoid slippage in either direction.

Thought crimes.

But I think in English still.

1 hour ago, hobobo said:

I'm getting confused with all this undertaking and overtaking? My dictionary says that undertaking is "a formal pledge or promise", or "the management of funerals"?

When I was a young yahoo in UK, the trucks often would have a sign on the back saying "overtakers, see you at the undertakers".  I never did stand under that.  Presumably it was about speeding rather than which side you pass a lumbering truck.

They probably call the current Honda the 2018, and when we're actually in 2018 they'll call the next one 2019 (if they follow standard habits).

I just bought a Honda for my girl.  No discount on that, despite apparently a new model being due out next year (that was the Civic, not sure about rest of the line up).  There's a modest car show here in Central Plaza in Udon at the moment, and most dealers were offering around 10% off showroom prices (except Honda is what we wanted and they weren't present).

A friend bought a car at the show, and said he got 30% off.  I said no way.  Turns out they gave him softer finance, rather than a discount on the car.  I was a cash buyer which doesn't get discounts as easily, but still cheaper than discounted finance.

So I guess it depends on your situation, and whether finance is involved.

Both at fault. 

Truck:  Lane discipline not so hot, and *if* intending to turn then that was bad form (it was going very slowly so I assume it was intending to turn...but no indicator light).  Probably should be on the hard shoulder long before the exit if turning, given the width of the road.

Motorcycle:  Staying left or not, that's undertaking, and doing so at a decent speed differential and close to the vehicle.  Should be aware of the trucks blind spots.

Better if the motorcycle indicates right in that situation, and create as much space as possible between anything that could be a potential threat.  And slow down temporarily.

It always makes me pause when people dish out advice on a situation that they put into a Venn diagram without knowing any detail.

There is the saying "if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's probably a Katoei", which is a probability guess rather than a detailed analysis.

I'm not so sure that she's doing anything wrong....yet... but there does appear to be potential to go that way.  OP has more information than any of us have, but counter to that he's also invested, so presumably looking for triangulation of his feeling that 'maybe' something is going on, or at least wants to know if he's being disrespected, as that is certainly what it feels like to him.  Her behaviour is more telling of her history than her future.

If we invert the whole story, one thing I sometimes have a bitch about is when I have experiential knowledge of something or other, and the Thai chooses to disregard my opinion in favour of listening to a lot of Thais that know nothing of the subject.  The above case is a lot of farang giving opinion on something that the Thai knows to be fact, and whether guilty of any wrong doing or not, it's likely to push her to abort the relationship where otherwise she might be quite happy.

If I talk with other women my Gf isn't in the slightest bit jealous, but then I don't give her reason to be, she's safe with me, even if it's not the most intense relationship and we're not exactly ever going to burn the oceans.  Culturally there's a gulf between us, but a little effort to understand the counter party can go a long way in making that merely an empty spot rather than an issue.

As one person above said, perhaps it's worthwhile showing that it makes him a little uncomfortable.  If she doesn't get it, then take her out somewhere and give the staff (preferably female) 1000 baht 'just because'.  When she objects to you giving away 'her' assets like that (and she will), then say "I'm sorry darling, does that make you uncomfortable that I give money to other women?  She's just a friend".

On 11/6/2017 at 2:33 PM, Antonymous said:

Looks to me not a purebred Shitsu. Probably a Poodle Shitsu mix.

 

Affectionately known as a Pooshit.

 

 

Could be worse, like a Bulldog-Shitzu mix (BullShitter).

4 minutes ago, janpharma said:

Thai don't care...they even don't change a broken lightbulb...They also don't care about the looks as they still throw tons of trash on the streets...

...as my trade union friend once told me "throw your rubbish on the ground.  If you don't, you're doing someone out of a job" (honestly!).

1 hour ago, mike324 said:

I know in mid sukhumvit and large sois like soi 24, they have already installed underground tunnels where humans can go in. I've seen them run wires in them at night around 2 years ago.

 

It is already in the governments plan and they continue to do so. The problem now is regarding to flooding and how they can keep the wires dry and rats out and prevent short circuits.

 

Taxes don't have to go up if they know how to manage the budget, but this is thailand. So up with the taxes.

Agree mostly, but it's not a Thai only thing.  I can't think of any places that when they were designed (or mushroomed) that they had any intention of having so much demand, whether it is utility services, or road widths for cars rather than animals.

I recall seeing something that even the way the space shuttle was designed had its roots based on road and rail width limitations, which were in turn designed based on horse and cart sizes.  Maybe they actually should have put the cart before the horse as a design exercise :)

Same with any design (eg. software), you come to a point where you have to decide whether to keep patching it up, or rip it out and start again.

3 hours ago, HTC said:

Just out of interest, does anyone know why cables are looped up at the posts which seems to exacerbate the issue?

Presumably for future expansion if the roll of cable has already been paid for.

On the downside, it's making a resistor so is an unintended inefficiency.  Ask any electrician, they would kn....err...scratch that.

On 10/27/2017 at 11:26 AM, chicowoodduck said:

Well, well, another expert that hit the jackpot......I'm sure they have a special chair in the corner office on Wall Street just for you......??

Constructive.  Like what you did there.

How about discussing how you feel the USD is going to do something different than the opinion I offered?  I'm sure OP and others would prefer useful input if you have anything.

18 hours ago, lannarebirth said:

 

It is hard to know where to begin. So I'm just going to let your post stand as a monument to ignorance.

Well, you can write as an authority figure all you like, but it's this 'ignorance' that allowed me to change my job for a hobby in my 30's, and continue compounding into my 40's to present day, where I now can live without money ever being a constraint, and can pass on enough for the next generation, and perhaps the one after that as well.

A large part of that was made possible by the continuing failure of the USD.

If you look at the debt monetisation it's hard to see it ever being strong, though in practice the hyperinflation isn't highly visible by standard metrics.  The most basic number crunching would suggest it's there though.

More of a challenge would be the announcement of the PetroYuan coming in about 2 months, which could be a serious challenge to the USD relevance outside of the USA.

I think any changes are more likely to come from the Baht side, since it's a pegged currency and they can manipulate a peg however they like (unless they break it).

I guess if someone was ultra paranoid then perhaps they could boot from a DVD and only use the hard drive for temporary storage which could be wiped every session(?) - I don't know if that's possible or not for a read only device, I haven't checked - someone else might chime in.  Security apps like Antivirus are trailing more than leading defence.

You could probably defend against most attacks that you know of, but it's the methods you don't know that would still catch you out.

I don't know how many people here are into cryptos, but if you are then it's likely you know of Andreas Antonopolous.  Computer security was his job, and his suggestion (re BTC wallets) was to have a fresh install on a computer that has never been on the internet and make a paper wallet and put it under a physical lock and key.  Not a useful answer to OP, but that's what one security expert does (or did before hardware solutions were available) in a narrow task area.  Remember too that wireless printers and the like can also be compromised as a way into the computer.  Wired devices generally don't need much of an O/S, so simple and stupid devices are actually smarter in that instance.

Earlier in this thread I was asking different distributions of Linux.  While that won't make it bullet proof,  hackers/crackers would generally use a Linux like system and would rather die than support Micro$oft, so in that sense by having Windows (or iOS) would be attacked much more frequently.

On 10/15/2017 at 11:02 AM, JSixpack said:

 

Take a look at Zorin OS, purposefully tries to be Windows-like:

 

Read about and find reviews here:

 

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=zorin

 

Download:

 

https://zorinos.com/

 

However, it appears that many Linux users themselves are subject to be taken over by outside forces. Nor are Windows users entirely immune, so that if they're taken over, then it's their normal, clean PCs that appear to them to have been taken over instead.

Thanks for that.  I wasn't aware of its existence.

Although I have two laptops, both of them have developed hardware issues, and it's just a matter of time before they cease to be.  I was thinking of replacing them as a pro-active move, and anything important already has multiple backups, but every time I get involved with a computer shop that has anything to do with the O/S and language settings, it's a frustrating experience.  With this I might get new one and wipe it immediately and try Zorin whilst still having access to windows on the other machine to manage a transition without too many dramas.

On 10/14/2017 at 4:24 AM, speedtripler said:

I bought the menthol a couple of times by accident and i don't like them

If you ask for lm lite rather than lm blue they give you the old style non menthol blue ones

 

Why could they not keep menthol green so we could tell the difference instead of having several veriants of blue I will never know.... 

That's pretty much my experience and thoughts also.  

Had a similar experience as a kid with crisps.  Walkers (Lays) came and dominated the market.  They're okay, but changing Salt & Vinegar (was always green) to blue (which was always cheese & onion) confused the heck out of me.  These days I just look at the picture to see that there is no seafood or bottom feeder pretender stuff in there - not easy - so I just ask for "Lay Tamadaa".

A few years ago I installed Ubuntu because it seemed like the right thing to do.  After 3 months I had a hard drive failiure (unrelated), but in all that time I realised that I'd become so "windoze-ified" I still struggled to find Linux natural to use, and thought sod it and went back to Win7 and just de-featured it as much as I could.

I'm constantly frustrated with Windows, especially it's memory hunger and HD swapping, but Office is something I use a lost and Open Office is just not polished.  The only other stuff I use these days is email and browsing, so that should be a no brainer.

Is there a Linux with a GUI that is fairly natural feeling to use?

10 hours ago, dotpoom said:

After listening to the guy who is very high up in this sort of stuff on RT today (can't remember his name but he designed the original "free antivirus" and designed the bitcoin) if you have ever looked at porn on your computer you have already been taken over. I forget the phrase (I know little about this stuff) but they have taken it over from the keyboard. Encryption is useless as they know what you are typing befote the encryption.even gets a chance to kick in. People are not gathering the information, computers are, and programmed to alert a person.when certain words are typed like "bank" etc. He explained how they can switch on the camera and microphone. Free Apps are deadly....why do you think he says they want access to all your information before you can download them. The "flashlight" is the simplest and most dangerous. Why does it want access to everything also and we give it willingly.

   As for wi/fi...he couldn't explain easily as he was almost doubled up from laughing....I'm not even going to.bother going into it here.

Can you tell us what RT channel it was on and an approximate date?  I'm curious.

What you're talking about sounds like a form of Key logger app maybe?

6 hours ago, newatthis said:

Popped into the local 7/11 on the way home from the hardware store and included in the purchase were 2 packets of L&M 7.1. They are now 60baht; previously 72baht.

I'm sure I've seen "7.1" somewhere, but can't remember what they are.  Is that something to do with the slim cigarettes?  There are so many variants these days I'm confused - Especially when you ask for LM Blue and you get a menthol product instead.

LM Blue here btw has gone from 87 to 89 baht, though I'm told in 7Eleven they're more expensive (haven't checked).  I prefer to go to a family shop rather than a franchise anyhow, given the option.

17 hours ago, sinbin said:

 Definition - A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates credit.

 

While a bank can accept deposits, a non bank could do the same.  Putting together other posters points it seems more important that fast access has to be possible (current account), which may not be possible with a Savings institution, even if it is a bank.  So notionally the Officer was doing the correct thing, except....

What would undermines the Officials point, is that you managed to access the savings and move them to a bank at short notice.

Bar girls are of zero interest to me, and she knows that.  Also I've always said I would never tell her a lie.  That said...

There was one time she was AWOL for quite some time and uncontactable.  I didn't know why.  After several months I had a bit of a fling with someone, I think we met 4 or 5 times, the last 3 ending up in the bedroom.

When she did return (by which time I knew exactly what had happened, and it was nothing to do with a relationship, but hanging out with the wrong friends and making some unbelievably stupid decisions) we'd been back together for a couple of months and she asked me as we were going to a restaurant if I'd had another girl while she was away.  I said "I've always said I won't tell you a lie, are you sure you want me to answer that?".  She said yes, so I said yes I had.  She asked who (I figured she already knew exactly who) and I told her.  She asked me a few other questions about condoms, what she meant to me etc.  It was just a passing thing and of little significance.

She didn't like it, but then there was nothing she could do, as I considered myself single at  the time, not knowing if I'd ever see her again, and it was her that had vanished not me.  It was a rather quiet meal at the restaurant, but by later that night it was getting back to normal, and she's never said a word about it ever since.

I think she wanted to know if there was a threat on the horizon, and if someone else was getting her (my) assets.

If I was going to have a Mia noi (can't imagine that I would be interested in more headaches, but never say never), then she would know about it up front.  I did mention that to her once when she was down on me for doing nothing wrong at all (she drifts like that sometimes and I have to point her back straight on the road), and I said, perhaps I should get someone else on the side.  She didn't like that, but said "No problem, as long as I have security:.  Next day I was pondering that and had a <deleted> moment.  Why if someone were to cause a problem in my life would I keep them in my life and give them security when there's a second woman willing to do everything she does anyhow, she'd be talking herself out of a job!  I haven't brought that up, but one day... well that's for another day.