radioman

Remember Denny's Bar on the corner of 22 and Washington Square? Boss lady that had that also ran a bar across the street in the hotel and a couple of places in the bar area on 22. She moved to the place round the corner in the ground floor of the Holiday Inn building but I see that's gone now. I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if she is not involved in this soi 7 thing, I think she was always quite savvy on the lease thing. Nice old bird, always a laugh.

Last night I had occasion to walk past soi 7 so had a quick look see. Work is ongoing but the one lady I spoke to "you come my bar me, open ready", told me there will be 31 bars, 2 or 3 are open now and a few have temporarily parked themselves on the street awaiting work completion. Couple of the bars look nice and big with serious money being spent, others just little hole in the wall type joints though a lot would seem to have at least some glass partitioning, aircon etc.

They will do as always I guess, slowly, covertly, with no hint of direct intervention, lots of deniability. Step by step the protesters will be identified, one by one and disappeared or similar, maybe families denied urgent medical, years waiting for social services for family, all the sort of stuff China is good at. The long game is just a day in that sense. 200 years from now no one will remember. Wanchai has been dead since long before I ever started going there I think. A few clubs, anyone remember Fenwicks? Long gone now of course along with many others. Some hang out joints where Filpina maids collect on their off looking to score some different meat, and a paycheck, a few serious rip off clip joints that deliver zero when appearing to offer the world, and of course it's quite a trek all over the shop, from Wanchai to LKF then back across the water to TST. You spend more time on the MRT than you do sizing up the talent, of which there is less and less. Of course its all on line these days from Tinder to Date In Asia, just nod at a few and you'll soon have a queue forming at your hotel reception, all ready to either go to dinner, hit a few bars or just gonzo if the fee is upfront and clear. I don;t think HK ever had anything quite like Pattaya and BKK were in the day. Maybe a few more places to hang and find a warm Filipina for the night, I think it's still doable, but in a miliennial sort of a way. A trip to Angeles might be more like HK used to be but even that seems jaded these days. Maybe it's just me.

Some mails appearing on a list I subscribe to have started taking a look at some of the nutty stuff you can buy on the web these days. For you Hi Fi audio-fools out there how about this nice mains cable to plug you amp in with. https://www.highendcable.co.uk/Nordost_ODIN 2_ Power_Cord.htm The 5m long one is a snip at £31,000.00 plus the obligatory plugs at £480 each. Then there are the special pure copper plug covers to stop mains borne RF leaking into your listening pleasure https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Isoclean-13A-UK-RF-Isolator-Pack-of-4/293087880120 A total bargain at £50 for a pack of 4 For the safety conscious don;t forget the appropriate fuses. Just one of these little beauties, essentially a 500mA mains fuse https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hi-Fi-Tuning-Supreme-3-Fuse-20x5mm-Fuse-T-500mA-/293326360459 A worthy £39.99 EACH! FOR A F(&^&%^£ing FUSE!!! Another one from these righteous snake oil peddlers https://www.analogueseduction.net/cable-treatment/isoclean-cs-128-cable-stabilizer.html Keeps your cables off the floor to give you a more analogue sound! WTF!!! Bargain at £148.99. In other news, don't forget the cat. Sees the Aussies have just the thing https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Archie-McPhee-Cat-Tin-Foil-Hat/223722050632 Keeping tiddles safe for less than £15. How about something for the treasure hunter https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosvola-Metal-Detector-Adults-Rechargeable/dp/B07ZT3RLC8/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=Rosvola+MSO5202D&qid=1573669970&sr=8-1-fkmr0 Another bargain at £116 It says satisfaction guaranteed so buy now, with confidence! But the best is yet to come A mere 82 quid https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5G-Smart-Meter-WiFi-Shield-Package-54-Pieces-Tensor-Rings-Orgone-Towerbusters-/183569546185?hash=item2abd98fbc9 Outstanding bits of twisted wire soldered together and some lumps of potted dung. Get em now to be safe! So . Have you found any 'must have' mega products? Do share. Now let me see where did I put all that wire and my soldering iron, I can just smell my next fortune.

Isn't the bottom half of soi 11 the new 33

I went to the Thai embassy in Vientiane to get a non immigrant visa a few years ago when I was in the process of changing my status here, about to happen again soon but that's another story. I don't think I could have been prepared for quite what I found on arrival, just a regular Tuesday as I recall and yet at opening time the queue was already at the entrance gate, a rough count suggested maybe 500 people in line. It took a few hours so conversations were struck up with neighbours in the queue, friendships formed. Didn't believe the one about a full on relationship leading to marriage and the birth of offspring, but it was a long queue. They were indeed a motley crew, families obviously visiting for tourism and a large number of what I can only assume were itinerant education employees. I would only suggest they might be teachers after reviewing their competency which for the ones I spoke with seemed questionable. Many from other Asian countries, a large contingent from The Philippines. Thai agents running up and down the queue pulling individuals or small groups out of the line presumably when their bribe had been accepted and they were fast tracked. A lot of checking at first one desk, then another, then a submission, then a ticket issued. Returning the following day it was a similar though somewhat shorter process and all of this took place essentially outside under some awnings in the grounds of the visa section, which is not at the embassy. In somewhat commonplace fashion for this part of the world it was akin to organised chaos. Moving from this to an appointment based system, used by many countries for years already seems both understandable and reasonable, if it works and in particular if it removes the "fast track" variable which seems unfair. Applying for a visa anywhere should be an experience nothing less than checking in to a decent quality hotel.

Tinder is so much more efficient

The thing transmits at 500 watts? 😳 How does this thing work? If it runs on 12 volts, and puts out 500 watts and is 100% efficient (it's not!) that's about 41A !!! eek !!! I'm guessing this is some sort of pulse device so fairly minimal average power. Curious

I'm not sure that English proficiency in England would score so high these days either.

Thanks for that, interesting. It does mean though that the vehicle has a means to upload data somehow as it does have to transmit that. I don't think a full satellite transponder is on the cards for most cars so it must be using existing infrastructure, cell sites I would imagine though for trucks it could certainly be a country wide system such as TETRA or other that allows wide area networking, I guess most trucking companies have dispatch systems with controllers and significant management software. That raises a couple of points. cell companies don't usually do free so someone is paying for the data, maybe in the car purchase price. There must be hardware in the vehicle which can (will) fail and go obsolete.

The banks and businesses might be Chinese but the automatic barriers of the MTR seem a bit of a stretch. I was in HK last week, some signs that "things" have happened there but at least during the week it all seems normal and peaceful enough. Lots of the MTR barriers have their LCD screens smashed. Octopus cards still work but you can't check your balance so easily. A number of the subway advertisement hoardings are covered now due to damage, same with some outside ATM's. All have signs saying they are damaged and out of service as a result of vandalism. I was staying close to the Jordan MTR station on Nathan Road and traveling the MTR to Tung Chung near the airport every day. All very normal and typical HK. Airport was a bit different. Only passengers now allowed access to the departure and arrival areas. All the shops in T2 are closed. Airport quiet and easy to pass through, no immigration queues. Hotel room rates a bargain. Great time to visit but maybe stick to weekdays for now.

It might be my lack of knowledge in these things but it all seems a bit of an odd idea. The GPS unit in my car tells ME where I am. It has no ability to tell anyone else where I am. It receives signals from the constellation of various satellites orbiting planet earth that provide location data to ME. Provision of that information to another person would require another network, or system of some sort. In the sense of suggesting it can be done with simply adding a GPS receiver to a vehicle then these are the words of a buffoon in my opinion. Admittedly my phone can provide such by virtue of its inherent 2 way nature. This might be a possible 5G application but it will need infrastructure and devices compatible with the whole process. My guess is pretty firmly in the "not gonna happen" category.

And likely 23 different opinions as to the correct answer.

Colour me stupid but I don't see how a cafe or restaurant is an internet provider. Internet providers are True, 3BB, Loxley etc. I'm sure they keep all necessary data and can even identify from which location traffic entered and left their system, at least I would hope they can. This rather sounds like a Digital Economy minister knowing about as much about about the Digital economy as Somchai's mothers noodle boiler. What's next, every petrol station must record the mileage, registration and name of the driver for every vehicle that fills up, just in case said vehicle was used in a crime they could then identify where it was.

Hey this page says 404, so how come it exists?

I think it’s more just a Thai slang word. Fuck buddy, no strings, maybe hang out friend and odd times companion but no intent to pursue a relationship in the way of Mia luang, primary, major, wife Mia noi, small, minor, wife Mia chao, short time, rented, wife

Potholes reduce traffic speed so less accidents. Potholes are actually helping achieve government promises of improved road safety 🤣

One gigantic development will be the remote virtual sex market. With a suitably modified garment, think wireless EMS suit https://www.vision-body.com/en/powersuit-eng and internet connected, there will be a lot more online touch and feel.

Why does that transcript read like two nine year olds playing pretend? It seems deeply offensive to any citizen of either country that their highest elected officials talk about, well, nothing! Like zero substance! That they have such thumb twiddling time in their daily schedules just seems wrong. It might be a phone call as opposed to a face to face meeting but you would expect some sort of plan, an oob of some sort, not that kiddie drivel. The world makes more progress when I phone my Mum!

This rather highlights another issue that some, certainly me from time to time, are likely guilty of. Certainly the non-regional expats are seen to be perhaps the more vocal when it comes to matters of immigration and certainly when what we might consider common sense appears to be nowhere in sight. I suspect though that Thai immigration devotes probably well over half of its resources to regional immigration matters, being Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and perhaps to a lesser extent Malaysia and the slightly wider ASEAN bloc and this is where the focus of their "management" is. Essentially anyone from outside the ASEAN region represent a much smaller group. I've been to Pathum Thani immigration a few times the last couple of years and they essentially have 2 buildings one for ASEAN (workers) and one for the rest of the world. ASEAN folk get to sit outside, usually in large numbers whilst ROW is accommodated inside the other building. You do see people of obviously ASEAN descent and nationality inside the ROW building but these tend to be students or teachers, I think. Certainly in PT much of the Immigration resource is directed at managing the ASEAN work force that get to enjoy the fresh air immigration facilities.

But it's the one pesky foreigner they now have to be sure to register that could upset that apple cart. Imagine the income from an 8 story, 12 apartment per floor block. Currently the owner might escape any degree of scrutiny. His renters are all Thai with up-country addresses and essentially freedom of movement. Along comes Johnny foreigner needing registration documents et al and suddenly the owner is recognised as a renter. Tax records are checked but no record shown, hmm. Investigation starts and owner dude is deep in the doo doo when it becomes clear he's been running a rental business for 15 years with 90 odd rooms a month income. Assuming an 80 room average rate at a low end 4k a month and that's about 57 million baht in rent over 15 years. I don't know what the statute of limitations is for tax payment but I can well imagine someone wanting a slice of that.

That, right there. It's not so much about the lack of control and knowledge as it is the ability to collect money.

Not to mention that in 1979 there were probably 2 dozen expats on long term visas/extensions in Bangkok and a handful more spread around upcountry. Hardly a logistics nightmare.

I use the PT immigration ofice and when we went there earlier this month to extend Mum's visit visa we got essentially the same thing. That despite there being signs up, only in Thai, that suggest this has to be checked and done now. It's the law, and it's a legitimate requirement but like so many other laws, once the full realisation of what that means kicks in the backtracking starts. Not too long and it will be back to as before, just another law that nobody bothers with. Unlikely to be removed as it could be useful when you want to screw with someone who is otherwise clean.

Compass or a pair of compasses?