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I was in Jomtien for a quick visit before Songkran and noticed this bus stop sign on Jomtien Second Road near the infamous "Ocean 1 construction site:"

 jomtien_busstop.png   43.41K   19 downloads

There is a series of numbers in black on the white panel at the bottom of the sign.  They would appear to be bus route numbers?  Really?  Has a bus system with at least nine routes popped up since I lived there a year ago?  What are the bus routes?

They are about 2-3cm long, and as said in the title, I usually only see them when I take a shower in one (downstairs) bathroom.  I suspect they don't like the water, as they swim like mad to get away from the drain.  When I took the pic was the ONLY time I saw one when I wasn't showering. To give some perspective, it is on a normal-width horizontal grout line.

 bathroom_bug.jpg   20.14K   20 downloads

Is it a young version of those larger creepy looking centipedes?  I've never seen one of those in the house, and I've seen maybe a dozen or so of this size.  Or, is it an adult of some other species?

When I took the picture, the flash was on and I was fairly close.  After the flash, the creature folded in half and then fell to the floor.  It's either light sensitive or easily alarmed.

I think I have my Google languages preferences set pretty clearly to "English only" search replies:

 google_lang_pref.png   14.18K   29 downloads

However, my search results always seem littered with results in other languages. This search has been the worst: "Thermaltake Commander MS-III". It provides "About 77,800 results (0.12 seconds)," however take a look at the results. The top four were in English, but starting at #5:

 google_english_search.png   40.46K   34 downloads

Note that even Google realizes those pages are not English:  see the "Translate this page" option?

How do I get Google to *really* restrict search replies to English only?

I just finished downloading the 64-bit version of "Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO images Beta" (3.4GB) in 51 minutes using 3BB's 9Mb/1Mb service.  The download averaged around 1135 KB/s.  Apparently Microsoft has a close by mirror site -- in Singapore?  Hong Kong?  Dare I dream:  Bangkok?

To access the same link I used, go to: MajorGeeks.com and click on "Download@Author's Site".

Unfortunately, I don't have any blank DVD's at home, only CD's.  So unless I get inspired to make a boot USB stick, I'll need to wait until I go shopping.  I intend to load Win8 in a virtual machine, unless it seems slow, in which case I'll set up a dual-boot.

PS:  If you are at all geeky, and don't already follow MajorGeeks, I recommend it.  It's a daily list of updated/new software.  I find out about updates to my software here much faster than any other method.  They also link to some often humorous news articles.

I want to put two 60GB SSDs in a RAID-0 array.  The price is about the same as a single 120GB SSD, but the speed would be quite a bit faster.  I'm familiar with the THEORY of RAIDs, but never operated one.

I asked a Canadian friend of mine who is a network admin and deals with RAIDs at work (and has one on his home computer) if there were any hassles or negative issues with running a RAID, and his one-line (typical) reply was: "No problems. .RAID is very reliable.. they never break or corrupt, unless you incorrect shutdown your computer."

That set off alarm bells for me, thinking of the frequent power outages and dips here, where my computer shuts down.  Yeah, I could (and should!) get a UPS, but unless I get one with auto-Windows-shutdown (i.e. expensive) it wouldn't matter when I left my rig running unattended -- as I frequently do when I have large downloads in progress -- a power outage would still abruptly "power off" my computer when the UPS battery died.

So, how practical is it to run an unattended RAID-0 in Thailand?  I'm in Hua Hin, and it seems I have more power "snaps" here than I did when I lived in Jomtien.  Just this week, I think I have set the clock on the microwave 5 times.

Are RAID arrays prone to break down if the computer is not shut-down properly?  If so, would it probably involve data corruption, or is it just a matter of re-initializing the RAID on next boot up?