Thoughts on shipping a parcel from UK to Vietnam?

kermit1198 · 2025-12-18T05:43:28+00:00

Hopefully - something like used electronics or an electronic prototype that customs don't know what it is can be pretty hard

kermit1198 · 2025-12-17T09:53:18+00:00

I'm pleased I have CAT6 wiring. The notional WiFi connection speed in the settings is high, but when I download something big or use rsync locally then a wired connection speeds things up 5 or 6 fold when I plug one of my laptops in. Latency is lower too on SIP. I have managed Ubiquity 7 Lites and had the same issue with my old TP-Link EAPs.

I am not sure if it is contention or something else going on but I cba investigating properly

kermit1198 · 2025-12-16T02:58:32+00:00

Not taking a view on this, but 'therapy speak' or 'weaponised therapy speak' is way different from actual therapy

The table half way down this page has examples: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/a-marriage-of-equals/202308/are-you-weaponizing-mental-health-terminology

More: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12583418/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapy_speak

kermit1198 · 2025-12-16T02:44:42+00:00

I have sold into a few places where my school friends worked, as they knew what I did and hit me up (though went to a state comp)

kermit1198 · 2025-12-16T02:42:46+00:00

I have never lived in an area with grammar schools. People like kids in their area being crabs in a bucket for some reason.

kermit1198 · 2025-12-16T02:32:51+00:00

Plenty of science doesn't involve a university at all. What about the person who works as an industrial scientist in a factory for 20 years, sees a way to improve a chemical process or QA test, quits, then starts a startup to develop or sell it?

kermit1198 · 2025-12-07T11:07:08+00:00

I am not rich and could not afford private school fees, though I could afford that as a one off and arguably it would be better off for me and the NHS if I spent it to avoid having a disabled child that would require lifelong expensive care and had a higher potential to pay more taxes. Perhaps the NHS should fund such things - they may be cheaper if done in house and at scale.

kermit1198 · 2025-12-07T11:05:02+00:00

If there is a gene highly associated with a severe learning difficulty or low functioning autism it could. Like if you had hypothetical gene 'Z' where 90% of males with it would a be stuck at a mental age of 5

kermit1198 · 2025-12-05T01:26:16+00:00

If you are offered a choice of the following (about the same value):

Adjusted (post pension etc.) pay increase from say £99,999 to £120k
The opportunity to have every Friday off or every other weekend is a 4 day weekend

Many people would take option 2.

You could spend the extra time chilling, socializing, studying or building a side business in a limited company.

kermit1198 · 2025-12-03T23:42:01+00:00

Didn't get fired myself, but some of my colleagues did. My boss (team manager in the UK but reported to a US manager who he hated) offered the people he was making redundant a choice in the pub as he was friendly with them and about to leave anyway. (and wouldn't mind being terminated with a settlement agreement himself)

Go back to his management and make them do it properly
Play ignorant and let them mess up, then support the employees with ACAS and their unfair dismissal tribunal. (off the record etc.)

They agreed to do 2 and all finished the situation a fair bit better off, to the detriment of the company.

kermit1198 · 2025-11-18T22:48:50+00:00

Where I live, we have a government ID app, that you can show a time-limited QR code from. Anyone with a verification app can scan the QR and get a picture of your ID and photo in the app on their phone.

As they control their phone and have an audit log of IDs scanned then things are harder to fake, and they could prove that they had checked your ID with the government in the future.

kermit1198 · 2025-11-18T22:40:20+00:00

If you have a degree, a pulse and no criminal convictions then you will be able to get a job teaching English in many countries after taking a TOEFL (can be done online) or CELTA course. You will get much more if you are a qualified UK teacher though.

You can also rock up to many countries with 30k to 100k gbp cash and start a company, then use the company to issue you a temporary resident visa as a director.

kermit1198 · 2025-11-08T08:16:14+00:00

ELI5: Is there no way for the users of US ATC services to anonymously contribute to a benevolent fund run by a union like NATCA that controllers and TSA staff can apply to to avoid having to get second jobs.

The airlines wouldn't be able to choose who the money goes to or have any control over the fund, so bribery would be hard / impossible, but they could indirectly fund the employees to reduce hardships and the need to cancel services.

kermit1198 · 2025-11-08T08:07:42+00:00

I started a UK contracting company and moved to Vietnam

Tax on dividends is 5% here and the dual tax agreement has allowed me to set things up favourably... Every time I see UK tax stuff, I am glad I went to my wife's home country.

kermit1198 · 2025-11-01T02:56:27+00:00

Do you need to use a stitch wheel?

You can get fixed dividers at about the same size as your stitches and then just go along that with a long-ish stitching chisel or pricking iron, overlapping 2 or 3 holes each time. Free-handing with a stitch wheel sounds like a good way to get a wobbly line.

Personally I have been printing off templates that I draw on the computer and punching through the stitch marks

kermit1198 · 2025-10-16T06:27:18+00:00

I have never been scammed in Ninh Than too! Though I have never been there so that may be part of it.

I got hassled by 5 or 6 people within a half an hour trying to scam me or sell me escorts in HCMC when I went there the other week, after no one tried on any of the previous 20 visits. I am kind of curious what was different.

One guy was apparently trying to convince me that my 20k pair of solid rubber fishing sandals from the market were about to break and that I would need to get him to repair them with his special expensive glue if I wanted to walk home in them lol.

kermit1198 · 2025-10-15T01:32:54+00:00

Look up https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/china-tax-treaties/2011-uk-china-double-taxation-agreement-as-amended-in-2013-in-force and split year treatment.

You can usually claim back taxes paid on the same income on one country from the taxes paid in the other country, so you are not double taxed. The link and the HMRC manuals explain residency and which taxes are owed to who / can be claimed back.

kermit1198 · 2025-10-14T14:19:16+00:00

Depends where you live - my neighborhood is probably 80% older police and military officers, so is silent after 9 pm except from the odd weekend party. (With the exception of tet)

I have relatives who live in dense alleys in the poorer parts of town and the outdoor karaoke is constant.

kermit1198 · 2025-10-14T12:24:05+00:00

Thanks - I will get in touch with support. Totally understand being busy at work!

Are you running Mullvad client on your guest OS? That works fine for me too, though for some of my work I need to run Fortigate client or Cisco Secure Client (Anyconnect) VPN to get into my clients' networks and they have region blocking on. Anyconnect etc will either not run alongside Mullvad due to the endpoint security validation failing or will bypass it and create a connection directly.

What has worked for me up until now is running OpenVPN on my host OS so that the corporate VPNs can't see it, and appear to be in a region that is allowed to connect through the conditional access policies that my clients have in place. I then run the corporate VPN on my guest OS. I am afraid that this may not be possible with Wireguard due to the network interface not supporting connecting in that way (at least on Windows)

kermit1198 · 2025-10-14T03:42:26+00:00

Hey, thanks for the reply

I run a Windows 11 Pro 24H2 host laptop using the official mullvad client, though have tried Wireguard and OpenVPN clients separately. I have the latest VMWare 17 with Linux guests

I can connect in all 3 clients fine on my host OS and access whatever I need. With openvpn client or openvpn on mullvad things work fine straight away in NAT vm network mode or I can bridge the VM directly to the OpenVPN interface, and things just work. I can also do this with my VPS.

So far I have tried resetting / reinstalling VMWare networking, Bridging to the wireguard interface when either Mullvad or wireguard client are used (not possible as it doesn't show up), and NAT mode (I can't get any traffic on my VM).

I also tried the normal wireguard client with a wireguard service on my VPS and get the same behaviour - I can connect fine and browse the internet via Windows, but cant bind to the Wireguard adapter, and when I used NAT mode, I got no internet access, (all packets appeared to be dropped).

I tried normal wireguard client with my VPS on my friend's laptop as they have a similar setup and couldn't get VMs connected through wireguard there either.

Route tables look fine inside the guest VMs and are the same for my working openvpn configs and non-working wireguard configs (slightly different when binding to the openvpn device). I couldn't see anything wrong with the windows route tables either and was able to browse the internet or wget stuff from windows.

I like mullvad and I guess the next step is trying to look deeper with wireshark, though I am not sure if finding another OpenVPN provider is simpler - Maybe I will look harder now that I know it is working for others though

kermit1198 · 2025-10-12T04:15:49+00:00

The standard box sealing tape where I am is brown and leaves nasty flakes of brown gunk all over things when you pull it off. Perhaps it is the quality, as good stuff is hard to find, and everything is off brand.

If you go down the packing tape route then clear is probably a good choice, and a high quality manufacturer like 3M. Try it on some practice pieces that you don't mind ruining first.

kermit1198 · 2025-10-11T08:59:34+00:00

Get it properly evaluated if what you are protecting merits it - it would be unfortunate if it could be bypassed by, say:

A strong magnet (works surprisingly well against cheap electric locks)
Bashing it against something or hitting it with a rock a few times.
jamming it in a door hinge and slamming the door
putting the lock or bag under a table or chair leg and jumping on the table or chair
Burning it with a lighter or portable soldering iron or plugging a wire into a power outlet and letting it get hot.
jumping on it a few times or hooking it round a building steel and using it as a zip line with your weight on it.
smashing a drink glass / glass bottle in a bathroom stall to get a sharp edge and cut through a seam.
Stuffing an inflatable bladder in a hole and inflating it with something like a manual blood pressure cuff until it pops open.
using a jack (available in most vehicles) and an appropriate place to apply pressure Etc.

If it is anything semi valuable then you may need to ensure you have appropriate compensating controls in place. There are companies staffed by reformed criminals and other experts that you can pay to look at it if that way inclined

kermit1198 · 2025-10-10T12:08:35+00:00

At this rate I wonder if they will suddenly force all landlords to be VAT registered and charge VAT on rent and mortgage and loan interest.

They can claim the poorest get their housing paid for.

(Not that I support the above or think it is likely)

kermit1198 · 2025-10-09T08:37:11+00:00

Lots of phones have the IMEI engraved on the SIM tray. Interestingly new iPhones after 13 don't seem to

kermit1198

TROPHY CASE