Why I wouldn’t buy a Huawei Matebook X Pro again

Posted on March 8, 2021 by admin

Well its a great looking laptop when you see it and the spec reads like an Olympic thoroughbred.

Huawei MateBook X Pro, with the Intel Comet Lake Core i7-10510U processor, 16 GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 1 TB of fast SSD storage and dual graphics, with the Intel UHD embedded within the Core U platform and a dedicated Nvidia MX250 chip,

The screen has an insane 3000X2000 resolution which you need a magnifying glass to see anything on it specially with those Java apps that don’t scale quite a well with MSFT’s various scaling utilities.

First disappointment was when I hooked it up to an external monitor . The image was slightly blurred and when compared to my now rather old ASUS Zenbook which has a native HDMI port the Huawei it looked absolutely rubbish!

Image is mediocre on an external monitor due to the capped Thunderbolt port

On further investigation it appears they have crippled the thunderbolt ports to run at a slower 20Mz and it shows! They also didn’t want to cough out the license fee to Intel apparently in order to call them Thunderbolt ports so maybe as a consequence they are not recognises by the Windows Thunderbolt controll center which reports NO APPROVED devices,

Another surprise to add was the crippled NVIDIA GT250 whose performance is downgraded by 35% add to that the fact that the laptop runs hot… and I mean very hot… I have measured centre of keyboard temperatures at 47 deg this caused CPU & GPUs to throttle down so as to not burn out…

So really what are you rally getting?

Well you can sum it up: A top priced, good looking laptop with mediocre performance!

As long as you stick to doing browsing and a little office work on it is just fine but then for that do you need a top spec laptop?

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Posted in Laptops | Tagged , | Comments Off on Why I wouldn’t buy a Huawei Matebook X Pro again

Fractional reserve banking V bitcoin

Posted on March 4, 2018 by admin

Lets try and light up the argument a bit…. anyone with any thoughts?

Money is a medium used for the transfer of goods.

The premise is that fractional reserve banking is an unfair system that benefits banks by allowing them to have control over the issuance of money.

Banks generate money from nothing against a 10% deposit (the fraction) to a central bank.

The credit is given to you and you spend the rest of your life paying it back to the bank + interest through your work.

That money that was generated at no cost to the bank is eventually returned to bank. The bank is now richer by the amount of money it lent you + interest but has done no work at all to gain this money.

The bank actually makes even more money; Say you purchase a house and the seller places your borrowed money into the same bank the bank can then lend out multiple amounts of the same money since only 10% is required as collateral deposit each time.

In a fairer system perhaps you would pay back your loan + interest to the state where, a democratically elected and fair government (not many of those around), would use it for the benefit of its citizens.

One way out of this mess is to take away control of money issuance from the banks. Bitcoin!

You can only achieve this goal if all transactions are done in bitcoin without the use of FIAT money. In this scenario the banks have no control over issuance and the governments no control over the transactions.

How do you finance government? If all transactions are done in bitcoin, due to its anonymity, it becomes impossible to know who has what and therefore impossible to tax. The government would have to tax the anonymous transactions. Taxation would be the same for everyone… Even hookers and drug dealers would pay taxes 🙂

Problems:

You can only do transactions in bitcoin if they are cheap to do; I can’t buy a 12 bucks pizza with bitcoin if transferring the money costs me 14 bucks.

On the other hand you can’t get people to verify/complete transactions (mining) unless there is something in it for them.

Once all bitcoins have been issued (mined) the only thing that is left is the service charge in the transactions that have been hashed.

If you limit the block size you limit the number of transactions that can be bunched up in a record and by inference the number of service charges that can be collected by a miner (the person that completes/verifies the transaction).

So the service charge has to go up -> bitcoin cannot be used for purchasing my pizza -> bitcoin has failed in its primary purpose to take back control of money.

Ways forward: have much larger transaction blocks or some other reward type. Perhaps no hard cap of bitcoin issuance!

The next potential problem is the limited number of bitcoins.

Money is a means of exchange and its required quantity is determined by the number of transactions that go on in an economy. One can envisage a point where there won’t be enough of it to facilitate all the required transactions.

More bitcoins need to be released based on some requirement algorithm. This would also resolve the problem of rewarding the miners which are required to complete the transactions.

Posted in Money and finance, Politics | Tagged | 135 Comments

Why is PAYPAL SO SCREWED AND AN ALTERNATIVE NEEDED

Posted on December 7, 2013 by admin

This is what you get from Paypal if you mail them saying you don’t understand Italian can they change your language setting to English

We need an alternative to these wankers!

Gentile Anthony Dawson,

grazie per la tua email. Per una risposta rapida alla tua domanda, clicca uno dei link di seguito:

A. Come posso aggiungere un conto bancario?
B. Come posso rimuovere un conto bancario?
C. Che cosa succede se il nome sul conto PayPal e quello associato al mio conto bancario sono diversi?
D. Perché non riesco ad associare il mio conto bancario?

Se hai ancora dei dubbi, o se hai problemi con la password o con la conferma dell’indirizzo email, chiamaci al numero 848 390 110*. Siamo a tua disposizione dal lunedì al venerdì dalle 8:00 alle 21:30, il sabato e la domenica dalle 10:00 alle 19:30.

*Costo da rete fissa: 6,8 centesimi di euro per il primo minuto e 1,6 centesimi di euro per i minuti successivi. Per conoscere il costo della chiamata da telefono cellulare, ti invitiamo a contattare il tuo gestore di rete mobile.

Cordiali saluti,
PayPal

A. Come posso aggiungere un conto bancario?

Se vuoi aggiungere un altro conto bancario:

1. Accedi al tuo conto PayPal.
2. Clicca Profilo.
3. Clicca Portafoglio.
4. Clicca Aggiorna accanto a Conti bancari e quindi Aggiungi.
5. Immetti le informazioni richieste e clicca Continua.
6. Controlla le informazioni e clicca Aggiungi conto bancario.

Nota: per aggiungere la tua banca al tuo conto PayPal, devi disporre del codice IBAN (codice bancario internazionale). Si tratta di un codice bancario standard internazionale composto da una serie di caratteri alfanumerici che serve a identificare in modo univoco il conto di un cliente in qualunque parte del mondo.

B. Come posso rimuovere un conto bancario?

Per rimuovere un conto bancario:

1. Accedi al tuo conto PayPal.
2. Clicca Profilo.
3. Clicca Portafoglio.
4. Clicca Aggiorna accanto a Conti bancari e quindi Rimuovi

C. Che cosa succede se il nome sul conto PayPal e quello associato al mio conto bancario sono diversi?

Quando i nomi non coincidono, i trasferimenti verso conto bancario non vanno a buon fine e viene addebitata una tariffa di restituzione.
Quindi, se hai registrato il tuo conto PayPal a nome di Giuseppe Maria Rossi ma in banca il tuo conto corrente è intestato a Giuseppe Rossi, quando associ questo al tuo conto PayPal ricordati di modificare il nome nel modulo PayPal di registrazione del conto bancario.

Se hai già associato il tuo conto bancario al tuo conto PayPal, rimuovilo e aggiungilo di nuovo tenendo presente quanto detto sopra.

D. Perché non riesco ad associare il mio conto bancario?

Ti preghiamo di verificare con la tua banca se il codice IBAN del tuo conto corrente è cambiato. Se così fosse, poiché i nostri database vengono aggiornati il 12 del mese successivo, aspetta questa data per associare il conto corrente al tuo conto PayPal usando i nuovi dati bancari.

Di seguito le istruzioni per farlo:

1. Accedi al tuo conto all’indirizzo https://www.paypal.it
2. Clicca Profilo.
3. Clicca Portafoglio, quindi Aggiorna accanto a Conti bancari.
4. Clicca Aggiungi.
5. Compila il modulo di registrazione del conto bancario.
• Il nome dovrà coincidere con quello al quale è intestato il conto bancario es. se il tuo nome su PayPal è Giancarlo Alberto Barchieri ma il conto bancario è intestato a “Giancarlo A. Barchieri”, modifica il nome nel modulo PayPal di registrazione del conto corrente in “Giancarlo A.”.
• Se stai registrando il tuo conto BancoPosta, potrai indicare Poste italiane alla voce Nome della banca.
• L’IBAN andrà inserito in maiuscolo e non vi dovranno essere spazi tra i caratteri. Per evitare ciò, ti consigliamo di non usare la funzione Copia e Incolla.
6. Clicca Continua.
7. Clicca Conferma, se le informazioni sono corrette.

Ricontattaci se non dovessi riuscire a risolvere il problema.

Copyright © 1999-2013 PayPal. Tutti i diritti riservati.
PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.
Société en Commandite par Actions
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R.C.S. Lussemburgo B 118 349.

Posted in Money and finance | Tagged | 6 Comments

How to move your Linux EBS backed EC2 AMI to a new region

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Anthony

Lots of ways to do this out there and hell if any of them work properly. This is really for myself as a reminder of how to do things but hey lets share LOL

Keep in mind that things at Amazon change so what works today may not work tomorrow 8 March 2012

Things you must understand:

A snapshot – Its a copy of the instance that is running at any one time. When u request Amazon to make one it stops your instance and makes a carbon copy of the volume (disk) that the instance is using then it fires it up again.

Copying images of running AMI’s – don’t do it! the root image will likely be inconsistent since the OS will be writing things to it. Even if you stop everything and make a copy that appears to work, some time down the line you might find that something doesn’t work properly.

ec2-ami-tools – remember that ec2-ubundle image and ec2-unbundle image are asymmetric i.e. the bundle process takes a file system and bundles it up the un-bundling process takes a bundle and creates a file system IMAGE not the file system itself. This means you need to then write the file system image to a device using something like the dd command.

10 G – No matter what you start with  (always < 10G) you’ll end up with a 10G file system. Don’t ask me why. I transferred an 8G image and ended up with a 10G on the other side.

Keys – remember to get your keys. This is a pig and confusing but I guess secure

The process is:

1. Take a snapshot of the current AMI

2. Make a volume from the snapshot you just tool

3. Mount the volume on your source instance \source

4. Create, attach, mkfs and mount another volume on your source instance \target

5. Bundle up the \source into the \target

6. Migrate the manifest. This will map the right kernel info into your bundles

6. Upload the bundles sitting in \target  to a local bucket

7. Migrate the bundles over to a target on your target region

At your target region

8. Set an instance at your target site and create, attach, 3 volumes to it \source \image \target source and image need a file system on it (mkfs -t ext4 /dev/what-ever) target can remain raw

9. Download the bundles from your target region bucket to \source

10. Unbundle \source to \image

11. Use dd to write \image to \target

12. Sync, unmount \target

13. Snapshoot \target

14. Create an AMi out of it

15. Pop a bottle of champagne

Here is a list of commands to run in order to make it work! The example is for moving a USA instance to Singapore using the ec-ami-tools which you’ll have to install on your instance if its not already there.

 

On the source site

Create the volume you want to migrate

U can do this using the AWS console – make sure you identify the correct snapshot  remember the following:

For EBS backed AMI the AMI is associated to a snapshot

When an instance of the AMI is started a volume of the snapshot is created. This is essentially a copy of the snapshot.

So to identify the right snapshot you need to look at the instance and see what AMI it belongs to and in the AMI look what volume is attached and then look at the volume and c what snapshot it was created from.

 

Create a Volume from the Snapshot belonging to the instance you just stopped

You can tell which snapshot belongs to which AMI looking at description field

Create a volume of the same size as the snapshot from the snapshot itself making sure it’s in the same zone as the instance you are going to restart

Restart your instance

Attach the Volume you just created you can identify it by looking at the Snapshot field; the code there should be the same as the snapshot from which you created it and of course the snap shot you created must belong to the AMI you are trying to migrate.

Mount the volume on any convenient mount point say /source

[root@domU-12-31-39-14-3A-96 keys]# fdisk -l

 

Disk /dev/xvda1: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvda1 doesn’t contain a valid partition table

[root@domU-12-31-39-14-3A-96 keys]# mkdir /source /target

[root@domU-12-31-39-14-3A-96 keys]# mount /dev/xvda1 /source

 

Now create another volume of the same size

Attach the 2nd volume

[root@domU-12-31-39-14-3A-96 keys]# fdisk -l

 

Disk /dev/xvda1: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvda1 doesn’t contain a valid partition table

 

Disk /dev/xvdg: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Create a file system on it

[root@domU-12-31-39-14-3A-96 keys]# mkfs -t ext4 /dev/xvdg

mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)

Filesystem label=

OS type: Linux

Block size=4096 (log=2)

Fragment size=4096 (log=2)

Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks

524288 inodes, 2097152 blocks

104857 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user

First data block=0

Maximum filesystem blocks=2147483648

64 block groups

32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group

8192 inodes per group

Superblock backups stored on blocks:

32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632

 

Writing inode tables: done

Creating journal (32768 blocks): done

Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

 

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 33 mounts or

180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

 

Mount it on a convenient mount point say /target

mount /dev/xvdg /target

Install ruby, ec2-ami-tools, and ec2-api-tools

Set up the environments as required

Get your ACCESS_KEY, SECRET_KEY, EC2_PRIVATE_KEY and EC2_CERT from the security credentials screen

Create a volume bundle 

 

ec2-bundle-vol -v /source -d /target –all -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -c $EC2_CERT -u 5978-4310-1532 -r i386 -p ExportAMI

Copying /source/ into the image file /target/ExportAMI…

Excluding:

/dev

/media

/mnt

/proc

/sys

1+0 records in

1+0 records out

1048576 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.00169074 s, 620 MB/s

mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)

warning: Unable to get device geometry for /target/ExportAMI

Bundling image file…

Splitting /target/ExportAMI.tar.gz.enc…

Created ExportAMI.part.00

Created ExportAMI.part.01

Created ExportAMI.part.02

Created ExportAMI.part.03

Created ExportAMI.part.04

Created ExportAMI.part.05

Created ExportAMI.part.06

Created ExportAMI.part.07

Created ExportAMI.part.08

……………………………………….

……………………………………….

………………………………………

Created ExportAMI.part.87

Created ExportAMI.part.88

Created ExportAMI.part.89

Created ExportAMI.part.90

Created ExportAMI.part.91

Created ExportAMI.part.92

Created ExportAMI.part.93

Created ExportAMI.part.94

Created ExportAMI.part.95

Created ExportAMI.part.96

Generating digests for each part…

Digests generated.

Unable to read instance meta-data for ancestor-ami-ids

Unable to read instance meta-data for ramdisk-id

Unable to read instance meta-data for product-codes

Creating bundle manifest…

ec2-bundle-vol complete.

 

Migrate manifest – set up the proper kernel and ram disk for the new zone

ec2-migrate-manifest -m /source/ExportAMI.manifest.xml -c $EC2_CERT -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -a $ACCESS_KEY -s $SECRET_KEY –region ap-southeast-1

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 keys]# ec2-migrate-manifest -m /source/ExportAMI.manifest.xml -c $EC2_CERT -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -a $ACCESS_KEY -s $SECRET_KEY –region ap-southeast-1

Backing up manifest…

warning: peer certificate won’t be verified in this SSL session

warning: peer certificate won’t be verified in this SSL session

warning: peer certificate won’t be verified in this SSL session

Successfully migrated /source/ExportAMI.manifest.xml

It is now suitable for use in ap-southeast-1.

 

 

Upload your bundle to a local bucket

ec2-upload-bundle -b localbucket -m /target/ExportAMI.manifest.xml  -a $ACCESS_KEY –s $SECRET_KEY

 

[root@domU-12-31-39-14-3A-96 keys]# ec2-upload-bundle -b localbucket -m /target/ExportAMI.manifest.xml  -a $ACCESS_KEY -s $SECRET_KEY

Creating bucket…

Uploading bundled image parts to the S3 bucket localbucket …

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.00

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.01

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.02

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.03

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.04

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.05

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.06

………………………………………….

………………………………………….

………………………………………….

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.90

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.91

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.92

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.93

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.94

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.95

Uploaded ExportAMI.part.96

Uploading manifest …

Uploaded manifest.

Bundle upload completed.

 

Migrate the bundle

ec2-migrate-bundle -c $EC2_CERT -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -mExportAMI.manifest.xml -l ap-southeast-1 -b localbucket -d mysingbucket -a$ACCESS_KEY -s$SECRET_KEY

 

Note that some names are forbidden i.e. remotebucket  if you get

ERROR: Server.AccessDenied(403): Access Denied message try changing the name also avoid any character other than simple char [A..z] unless you want to take your chances.

 

Migrate the bundle to you target region

ec2-migrate-bundle -c $EC2_CERT -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -mExportAMI.manifest.xml -l ap-southeast-1 -b localbucket -d mysingbucket -a$ACCESS_KEY -s$SECRET_KEY

 

[root@domU-12-31-39-14-3A-96 keys]# ec2-migrate-bundle -c $EC2_CERT -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -mExportAMI.manifest.xml -l ap-southeast-1 -b localbucket -d mysingbucket -a$ACCESS_KEY -s$SECRET_KEY

Region not provided, guessing from S3 location: ap-southeast-1

Downloading manifest ExportAMI.manifest.xml from localbucket to /tmp/ami-migration-ExportAMI.manifest.xml/temp-migration.manifest.xml …

warning: peer certificate won’t be verified in this SSL session

warning: peer certificate won’t be verified in this SSL session

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.00’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.01’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.02’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.03’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.04’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.05’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.06’…

………………………………………….

………………………………………….

………………………………………….

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.90’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.91’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.92’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.93’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.94’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.95’…

Copying ‘ExportAMI.part.96’…

 

Your new bundle is in S3 at the following location:

mysingbucket/ExportAMI.manifest.xml

Please register it using your favorite EC2 client.

 

 

Now you have 2 options: You either

  1. fire up any AMI in your target location or you can
  2. register the one you have just transferred over and fire that up.

 

Option 2 – Now once this is done you have to register your new AMI in the new region and you can do that from the source origin instance. To create an instance store backed AMI the next command is part of the ec2-api set so you need to change the environment before you call it

 

ec2-register mysingbucket/ExportAMI.manifest.xml –region ap-southeast-1

[root@domU-12-31-39-14-3A-96 keys]# ec2-register mysingbucket/ExportAMI.manifest.xml -n ExportAMI –region ap-southeast-1

IMAGE   ami-8cbdf9de

 

On the target site now

You can now go to the AWS console and fire up the AMI you have just registered however what we will want to achieve is an EBS backed AMI. In order to achieve that follow on.

 

From the AWS console create 2 volumes of the same size as your original AMI

 

Attach them to the instance you have just started

 

Create a file system on each one and mount one on /source and one under /target

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 ~]# fdisk -l

 

Disk /dev/xvda1: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1305 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvda1 doesn’t contain a valid partition table

 

Disk /dev/xvda2: 160.1 GB, 160104972288 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19464 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvda2 doesn’t contain a valid partition table

 

Disk /dev/xvda3: 939 MB, 939524096 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 114 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvda3 doesn’t contain a valid partition table

 

Disk /dev/xvdf: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvdf doesn’t contain a valid partition table

 

Create the file system

 

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 ~]# mkfs -t ext4 /dev/xvdf

mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)

Filesystem label=

OS type: Linux

Block size=4096 (log=2)

Fragment size=4096 (log=2)

Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks

524288 inodes, 2097152 blocks

104857 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user

First data block=0

Maximum filesystem blocks=2147483648

64 block groups

32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group

8192 inodes per group

Superblock backups stored on blocks:

32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632

 

Writing inode tables: done

Creating journal (32768 blocks): done

Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

 

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 25 mounts or

180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

 

Mount what will be the source

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 ~]# mount /dev/xvdf /source

 

Now do the same for the target first attach it to the instance using the AWS console

Then identify it in your instance again with fdisk –l

 

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 ~]# fdisk -l

 

Disk /dev/xvda1: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1305 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvda1 doesn’t contain a valid partition table

 

Disk /dev/xvda2: 160.1 GB, 160104972288 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19464 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/xvda2 doesn’t contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/xvda3: 939 MB, 939524096 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 114 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvda3 doesn’t contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/xvdf: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvdf doesn’t contain a valid partition table

 

Disk /dev/xvdg: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

 

Disk /dev/xvdg doesn’t contain a valid partition table

 

Create a file system on it

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 ~]# mkfs -t ext4 /dev/xvdg

mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)

Filesystem label=OS type: Linux

Block size=4096 (log=2)

Fragment size=4096 (log=2)

Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks

524288 inodes, 2097152 blocks

104857 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user

First data block=0

Maximum filesystem blocks=2147483648

64 block groups

32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group

8192 inodes per group

Superblock backups stored on blocks:

32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632

 

Writing inode tables: done

Creating journal (32768 blocks): done

Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 39 mounts or

180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

Mount it on your image mount point – remember which one is your target and which your source you can match them up by looking at output of command mount

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 ~]# mount

/dev/xvda1 on / type ext4 (rw)

none on /proc type proc (rw)

none on /sys type sysfs (rw)

none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)

none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)

/dev/xvdf on /source type ext4 (rw)

/dev/xvdg on /image type ext4 (rw)

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 ~]#

 

And on the ASW console you can look at Attachment information

i-30907964:/dev/sdf (attached) The last letter is the only identifier in this case this one is the source

i-30907964:/dev/sdg (attached) and this one our image mount

Now source again your ec2-ami-tools environment and download your bucket to your source mount on your target location also ftp over any *.pem files from your source system to your new instance since the bundling process will leave them out for security.

Download bundle to a local volume

 ec2-download-bundle -b mysingbucket -m ExportAMI.manifest.xml -a$ACCESS_KEY -s$SECRET_KEY -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -d /source

[root@ip-10-128-90-250 keys]# ec2-download-bundle -b mysingbucket -m ExportAMI.manifest.xml -a$ACCESS_KEY -s$SECRET_KEY -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -d /source

Downloading manifest ExportAMI.manifest.xml from mysingbucket to /source/ExportAMI.manifest.xml …

Downloading part ExportAMI.part.00 to /source/ExportAMI.part.00 …

Downloaded ExportAMI.part.00 from mysingbucket

Downloading part ExportAMI.part.01 to /source/ExportAMI.part.01 …

Downloaded ExportAMI.part.01 from mysingbucket

Downloading part ExportAMI.part.02 to /source/ExportAMI.part.02 …

———————————————-

———————————————-

———————————————-

Downloading part ExportAMI.part.94 to /source/ExportAMI.part.94 …

Downloaded ExportAMI.part.94 from mysingbucket

Downloading part ExportAMI.part.95 to /source/ExportAMI.part.95 …

Downloaded ExportAMI.part.95 from mysingbucket

Downloading part ExportAMI.part.96 to /source/ExportAMI.part.96 …

Downloaded ExportAMI.part.96 from mysingbucket

 

Unbundle.

Now you need to unbundle your image into your image volume

ec2-unbundle -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY -m /source/ExportAMI.manifest.xml -s /source -d /image

 

Note the bundle and unbundle commands are asymmetric . The bundle command takes a file system as its input while the unbundle outputs a file system image. You have to write the image to a device before you can use i
 

Write image to a volume.

Now you have a file that contains an image of you original file system on your image  disk and in order to be able to boot it you need to write the image to a volume. This you can do using the dd  linux command

After creating and attached a 3rd volume of 10G

dd if=/image/ExportAMI of=/dev/xvdh

Note: no need to create a file system on this volume

Where xvdh is the target device.

Identify your target volume detach it from the instance & take a snap shot of it

Now from the snapshot you can register and EBS backed AMI – when u create the instance make sure its got the right kernel.

 

Hell that was a long winded way of doing things! If you think that was a waste of time then you can do all of the above as a one liner using scp, gunzip & dd… will tell you later how 😉

 

Posted in Amazon EC2 Cloud Computing | Tagged , , , , | 25 Comments

After Mt. Gox, its amazing how casual some of these exchanges still are

Posted on January 5, 2017 by admin

Bitcoin Co. Ltd. Thailand – bitcoin operator in Thailand – https://bx.in.th/Its amazing now

Isn’t Bitcoin illegal in Thailand?

Created: 2017-01-05 20:55:08

Updated : 2017-01-05 21:24:57

Tony

Date: 2017-01-05 20:55:08

Website: BX.in.th

Message:

What if the government suddenly decides to seize your accounts? would we lose everything?

Rgds,

T

 ——————————————————
David Barnes Date: 2017-01-05 21:07:19 Print
Message:

Thank you for contacting us.

We are not aware of any laws prohibiting Bitcoin.

If our company bank accounts were seized by government authorities then we would not have access to pay those funds out to our customers; and customers would need to wait for the resolution of the situation.

Sincerely,

David Barnes
Bitcoin.co.th | BX.in.th | CoinPay.in.th

———————————————————
Tony Date: 2017-01-05 21:20:40 Print
Message:

Extract From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country#Thailand

“Thailand
In 2013, the Thai monetary authority, the Bank of Thailand, “issued a preliminary ruling that using bitcoins as described was illegal.”[42] A bitcoin startup denied a business license was reportedly told that “buying and selling bitcoins, using bitcoins to buy or sell goods and services, and transferring bitcoins in and out of Thailand were all currently illegal.”[42]”

From:
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/top-10-countries-bitcoin-banned/
“Thailand

According to news reports, the Bank of Thailand ruled bitcoin illegal on July 29, 2013. However, it appears “it issued a preliminary ruling that using bitcoins . . . was illegal because of a lack of existing laws” in the case of a currency exchange license application by Bitcoin Co. Ltd.

Bitcoin businesses have been able to conduct business and get licensing, but the ban technically is still there, if not in practice currently.”

Has anything changed since?

Kind Rgds,

T

——————————————————————-
David Barnes Date: 2017-01-05 21:24:57
Message:

Sorry we are not able to offer legal advise, please seek qualified legal counsel.

Sincerely,

David Barnes
Bitcoin.co.th | BX.in.th | CoinPay.in.th

Posted in Bitcoin | 31 Comments

Italy Now

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Anthony

If you were to listen to the Italian news these days you’d be forgiven for thinking the Italians are all a bunch of crooks. Principle party members helping themselves to money that doesn’t belong to them. People claiming supplementary benefits for being totally blind while still driving around in cars or cycling in cities on bikes. Hospital projects failing after millions of euros pored in by government and spent on projects that do not reflect the values of the investments. Limitless studies on everything from life on Mars to the counting of millipedes. Political parties so awash with money that they are busy investing or, as some would say, hiding their money outside of Europe. In Italy your taxes go in part to financing political parties weather you like it or not.

Behind all this an insatiable government whose sole interest is the increase in taxes and the enforcement of their collection, uncaring of the consequential destruction of business, jobs and personal lives. Actions which contravene at least Article 3 & 4 of the Italian constitution; the basis of Italian’s republic. However no one appears to care!

What is happening here will not result in a solution to the debt problems but will without doubt make life very miserable for all who live here.

The big thieves are getting away with it while the small ones are being blitzed to oblivion.

Italy Stop this craziness! Get out of the Euro, default on you debt, cut your government and parties by 3/4, cut your taxes to 25%, enforce collection everyone equally and fairly and sell the government assets you don’t need

Posted in Politics | Tagged | 12 Comments

Reducing Power consumption Ubuntu 11.10 On Aspire S3

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Anthony

vi /etc/default/grub

Change

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”

To

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash pcie_aspm=force pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1″

update-grub

Saves about 10 Watts you battery now should last about 3 to 3.5 hours depending on what you do of course
Posted in Linux | 7 Comments

Paul Tustain’ message to investors – a bit gloomy :D

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Anthony

Dear BullionVault user,

The end of 2011 feels unusually dark. Things are getting worse. There is now maybe a 30 percent chance of a steep financial and commercial decline on a par with the Great Depression. Our governments are very weak financially and such protection as they can offer is not dependable.

The underlying problem of the 2008/9 financial crisis has never gone away, because fixing it is too painful. There is far too much debt, and eventually creditors will have to resign themselves to very significant losses, probably through money printing and devaluation, but possibly default, if the Germans hold their course. Many savings transactions involve being a creditor, and nearly all involve seeking a yield or interest payment. Such ‘rent seeking’ is becoming increasingly risky to capital, even for traditionally safe investments. With bank deposits – for example – we must now consider the issue of bank failure. Other rent-seeking transactions are even more problematic:

1. Commercial properties are increasingly empty, and costing a fortune where business taxes now continue on empty buildings. Values could fall to zero or negative. Imagine what that does to the banks!

2. Increasing numbers of corporate bonds will go into default if the financial tide goes out much further.

3. Buy-to-let residential property could easily suffer rent protection to help low-paid tenants. Few landlords realise just how frequently this happens in a harsh economic downturn.

4. Retirement savings look like they will be forcibly re-directed into government bonds, while the government carries on printing money. Their value will drain away in inflation.

5. Pension annuities already assume almost no investment income because rent-seeking at decent rates is so risky. They are now largely capital repayment programs and pay less and less.

6. On top of all the other risks, money lent in the wrong country could easily be trapped by exchange controls.

This is all typical of environments where debtors simply cannot pay. Even governments cannot pay; in fact they are top of the list of distressed borrowers. Only the creditors can pay. Eventually it is always the creditors who pay, and this is why banks are hauling back credit extended all over the world through the credit boom. They don’t want to be creditors any more. Nor does anyone who chooses to use BullionVault. In the words of Robert Smitley, who lived through this sort of event in the 1930s, “The complexity of this era of credit liquidation is too great for the mind to grasp.” None of us can see the whole picture when $100 trillion worth of exotic financial assets are trying to convert into reliable money. BullionVault’s role is to help people use physical gold to remove themselves from the web of debtor/creditor relationships which are steadily unwinding in this extended and deepening credit crunch. I stress (I spend a lot of time stressing this) that we are not at all like a bank. You are your bank’s creditor. The bank owns what was your money, and owes it back to you. That is the deal with banking and it means the bank might not be able to pay. But it is not the deal with BullionVault, where you own your gold. We are not lending your gold. We have acted as your agent in organising professional and insured custody of your gold – as your property – so it is not subject to default risk. The point is that through BullionVault you have extricated yourself from the creditor/debtor nature of rent seeking, and it is for this reason that I believe I am justified in saying that BullionVault is a particularly safe way to store wealth right now. I keep my own savings in BullionVault to avoid worrying about banks. Okay, I get no interest, and I am exposed to gold price falls (and rises). I accept this because I am trying to avoid rent-seeking risks and money-printing risks at the same time. BullionVault does it the way I want it. Which brings me to bank balances. When BullionVault users have deposited funds, but have not yet invested that money in gold or silver, their money is in a Trust Bank Account. As with all deposits, the bank owns this money and owes it to BullionVault users collectively. You are safe while the bank is solvent and liquid, but that is not guaranteed in these difficult times. So is your un-invested money safe in the Trust Account? I think so, but I cannot be sure, because I cannot be sure about banks. I believe we are using one of the safer banks in the world, on the strength of reputation, and stress tests, and because of the credit of the British government, which I believe would print money to rescue Lloyds Bank depositors if that were necessary. But BullionVault cannot and does not guarantee your cash held at Lloyds in the Trust Account, so until you own bullion in one of our vaults, your uninvested money is subject to default risk. If this worries you, you should either buy gold or silver, or withdraw your money to your own bank. What about 2012? Will gold and silver go up from here? Notwithstanding sharp reverses it is easy to show that the direction of the gold price has been resolutely upwards for the last 7 years. It is much harder to predict the future direction of the gold price, and harder still to predict the price of silver, which is more volatile. Clearly gold’s higher price is reflecting deep concerns about the credibility of political action to find a way out of crisis, so if someone finds a credible solution which does not involve printing a huge amount of money then I expect gold will fall. But that looks too difficult a problem to me. That’s why I am still buying both gold and silver. I remain mindful that both will probably go down when, eventually, the financial crisis eases, and I hope you will be mindful too. But I think this will not happen until the creditors have paid through defaults or inflation, and so far they have not. Christmas and the New Year can crystallize a crisis, and there is a bigger than usual risk of some financial fireworks over the holidays. It probably won’t happen, but we wish to be as prepared as we can be. Special plans have been made here at BullionVault which I want you to know about. Some of you may remember that last year we could not get our hands on physical silver over the New Year period. Some people thought it showed the market was ‘out of silver’. Well, it wasn’t. It was simply that there were so many staff on holiday from the secure transportation companies, and at a time of unusually high physical demand from India, that a shortage of transport capacity left us waiting 10 days for a shipment. That was why we had no silver to meet our users’ demand. So this year, just in case of holidays and extraordinary events, I have opened temporary allocated storage facilities at one of the major London bullion banks. If delivery gets tight we will aggregate physical metal over the holiday period at this site, and collect the bullion for transfer – to our normal vaults – once the holidays are over. This should protect our ability to respond to unusual events over the holidays, if they happen. You may notice an additional bar list on our Daily Audit. That is the reason. Finally, a quick review of BullionVault’s steady progress. Since I founded BullionVault in 2003 we have grown to look after $2 billion on behalf of 35,000 private investors from all over the world. We are widely regarded as the fairest and most transparent bullion acquisition service in the world. We are recommended by the World Gold Council (www.gold.org), we won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Innovation, and this year we entered the Sunday Times TopTrack 250 of the UK’s largest privately-owned businesses. So we are a substantial company and, I am pleased to say, a financially conservative and unleveraged one. I value solidity more than profits growth. We made solid if unspectacular profits of £3.7m ($5.8m) in 2010 and £5.6m ($8.8m) in 2011. Apart from a small dividend of £150,000 ($232,000) paid to shareholders, who made BullionVault possible, we retain that money to build an ever stronger financial base. As a result our net assets, which are all cash and bullion, are now £19m ($29m) – sufficient to run our company for 8 years in its present form, without a penny of revenue. Few organisations are better prepared for lean times, and certainly no banks on the High or Main Street. I’m fortunate to have shareholders and a board of directors who support a cautious policy. Solid security is tough to find out there in the financial world, and I shall be happy if people see we are doing everything we can to help those of you who are looking for it. The outlook may still be dark but it’s no excuse for not having a good time at the right time. I hope you have a happy, peaceful and prosperous Christmas and New Year.

Paul Tustain Founder and CEO BullionVault

http://www.bullionvault.com/#aegdawson

 

Posted in Money and finance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 124 Comments

What to do with your spare money besides blowing it on nice things :-)

Posted on August 21, 2011 by admin

Assuming you have a home and perhaps even a spare one, with money as cheap as it is, it’s not worth paying down mortgages but indeed rather the opposite. If u can find a bank to give you a loan these days you should borrow more!

Considering the mess western governments have got themselves into it is likely that interest rates will stay very low for a very long time… see Japan!

The ways out of this mess are few:

1. Default on debt – possibly too complicated to do since no one exactly knows where or how the debt is distributed.

2. Keep printing money and let inflation ride thus reducing the value of the money and of course of the debt itself.

3 A combination of 1 & 2 with 1 being a controlled default and 2 trying to disguise inflation by altering the inflation basket of items to make it look as closer to the proclaimed target thus attempting to ensure that the population doesn’t catch on to what is going on and suddenly runs off to some other asset class making the current situation even worse.

Of course the governments can opt to kick the proverbial can down  the road and let things ride a little longer which basically consists of not dealing with the problem and swapping bank debt for government debt and vice versa. A bit like paying off one credit card with the other… the debt doesn’t disappear!

It looks that for all intense and purposes #3 is what the European governments are opting for. We have seen Greece’s debt being in part defaulted on, or repayments being delayed with interest being reduced; what Europeans like to call debt restructuring. It resulted in certain banks writing down large amounts of the debt they were holding. At the same time we are seeing unprecedented printing of money going on, with unwanted government debt being bought up by the European central bank something they prefer to call quantitative easing.

Anyway to cut a long story short under these conditions, printing of money and rampant inflation, the value of the cash you are holding is progressively being diluted. If the mechanism by which this is happening is somewhat abstract you can think of your money as shares you are holding in a private company, say each share is 1/1000th of the total value of the company. While you are holding these shares the company directors, without you having any say, decide to dilute your holdings by issuing 1000 more shares. Now your holdings are worth 1/2 of what they were, such that when you wish to exchange them for goods, you get 1/2 of what you could get before. A very similar thing is happening with your cash.

So under these conditions it’s important that you should do something with your money since its value is going down at the same speed as central banks print money! It’s literally like ice cubes melting in your hands the more you wait the less you have.

What are your options?

1. Buy something which retains its value and yields more than the amount by which money is being devalued

2. Convert it into something which is not subject to devaluation

Easier said than done!

If we discount houses and fixed assets which are currently in most courtiers undergoing a downward revaluation, option #1 requires knowing about stocks, preferred shares, yields etc. and besides that… what yield are we targeting? What is the true value of inflation that we are undergoing? If we were to take the basket of items used by the US a few years back then Inflation would be at about 8% if we were to use Italy’s inflation calculations from a few years back then figures would look more like 9 to 10% per annum. When it comes to reporting back to their citizens it would appear that governments are less than honest and prefer to change the rules of the game rather than report back that they have screwed up! In fact their use of words like Quantitative easing and debt restructuring in preference to the words like devaluing your cash and defaulting on their debt would at times appear as if they are truly trying to pull a quick one on us. Of course if you govern, ignorance of the masses is bliss! Some governments have for years relied on this principle to stay in power by denying good proper education to their own people. Anyway off subject…

Well if we cannot trust the CFOs & CEOs and are not sure what the government’s next moves are going to be that leaves us with option #2; convert to something that retains its value… currently the options here appear to be the Swiss Franc which historically has been a safe haven when currencies are being devalued. The reason why its retains it value is because the Swiss unlike their counterparts run a rigid fiscal policy which doesn’t include printing vast amounts of money in their back rooms, almost as if were toilet paper, in order to pay for their debts. This very fact means that there is a limited amount of Swiss Franc in circulation. However if we follow unrestricted market rules the supply/demand will raise its value in relation to our currency and if this happens for too long unchecked, Swiss products becomes so expensive that they become un-exportable causing the country to end up with a huge import deficits and a wrecked industrial/manufacturing sector. To counteract this effect the Swiss have historically acted to try and depreciate the attractiveness of their currency by dropping the interest rate paid to holders of their currency right down to negative values. Yes you pay the Swiss government for the pleasure of holding your wealth in their currency! This of course may still be a trade worth doing at least as long as their currency keeps appreciating rapidly.

The popular alternative of course is gold… this useless, hard to find element which prior to paper money was a successful store of value and a valuable medium in exchange for goods and services, has as it principle virtues:

a.       The fact that it’s a pure supply/demand trade since governments cannot affect its value directly.

b.      There is a limited supply of it

Gold has always done very well in times of low interest rates. In fact if we look at store value attribute alone, it appears that in the last 2000 years that the same amount of gold has bought the same amount of food and clothes. This is staggering when one looks at how the prices of everything, in terms of paper money, have climbed and climbed even during periods of relative monetary stability!

The right move

Of course the right move to preserve your wealth is very much still tied to you needs and to where you are in life. Risky assets being more suitable for younger people while preference shares, and corporate debt being more apt for those of us that require a bit more safety and some slightly more serene nights!

Is it too late to jump into gold? If you expect it to hit 3000 USD/Oz then I guess not but it’s clear that at some point this metal will leave behind its role as protector of value and become a pure speculative play. We have all witnessed how in the last week gold future charts, a leveraged speculative play on the underlying asset, have started moving in a parabolic way. While parabolic moves can last weeks, month, and occasionally even years, they always finally end with the tanking of the underlying asset.

What can you expect in the final moves of any asset? A rapid increase in its value, a parabolic looking chart, extreme volatility.

Finally if you are one of those believers in the total disaster you might want to hold real physical gold and these days you can do just that and trade it just as easily is you would any other commodity. Companies like Bullion Vault http://www.bullionvault.com/#aegdawson and bullion direct http://www.bulliondirect.com/ enable you to do just that.

Posted in Money and finance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Thailand

Posted on May 23, 2010 by admin

 

This does very little for unity or reconciliation however it does clearly reflect the feelings of those on the other side of the red-shirts argument and given that it doesn’t consist of bombing, burning or shooting one could argue is a far more democratic response than the one delivered by the reds. Red sympathizers please allow this in good spirit as your counterparts response.

After the mess that ensued it’s inevitable that people feel really pissed at the final outcome of a protest which concluded with a clearly planned and calculated scurry of meaningless destruction, somewhat akin to a child’s spoiling tactics when he doesn’t get what he wants. Unfortunately the few rioters, vandals and terrorists which infiltrated the re-shirts ranks have managed, on behalf of the reds, to lose the respect and sympathy that some had for the protesters.  A bad loss indeed since success of a protest is not counted by the points that are scored or even necessarily the concessions that are won but far more by the minds and hearts that are won.

This alone will result in the sort after changes, without the need for bloodshed, strife and unhappiness.

In the event nothing was sufficient to alight the demands. The reds were given practically everything they were asking for but rather than objective level headedness bagging the prize a few hot heads were allowed to rule and formulate requests they knew would be unacceptable. Clearly these few had something else in mind; a far cry from democracy.

What everyone should realize by now is that dividing a country will not result in success or happiness for anyone. Look at Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan to name a few. Do you really wish for Thailand to undergo some 50 years of sadness, failure, strife, hunger and unhappiness? Surely not!

There is a whole world out there against which one needs to battle, compete and succeed and success can only come with all being united as one.

Discontent cannot be ignored and opportunities while never equal for all (a fact of life) should be made available to as many as possible. All groups and sides of life should be heard  since society is not only made of lawyers, commanders and the like but also of workers, builder, cleaners, farmers and so on, neither can do without the other so in the overall scheme of things each one is as important as the other.

The steam engine driver doesn’t go anywhere if the fire stoker isn’t doing a good job in raising the steam and he will definitely not do so unless he’s a happy person!

If the way of choosing a leader must be by voting then let’s not con ourselves the rules must be simple and clear the vote honest and credible and finally above all else the result MUST be respected whatever the outcome.

Finally I truly hope Thailand will return to be the leader it once was showing the world that the Thai culture does offer something very particular which is tolerant and respectful while defending fairness and honesty in a vibrant and diverse united country where true smiles brighten everyone’s day.

There is something in the words “United we stand divided we fall”

Posted in Bangkok | Tagged , , , , , , | 142 Comments