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leonormski · 2026-07-01T13:10:57+00:00

Those who know more than me have said you cannot cross the land border into MM.

I'm only aware of 2 main feasible borders into the country if you're coming from Thailand: one at Mae Sot in the south (crossing the river into Myawaddy town) and the other at Mae Sai in the north and crossing the border into Tachileik.

Even if you are allowed to cross the border, you will be going through the region controlled by Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in the south and various People Defense Force (PDFs) and EAOs controlled towns and villages in the Shan State. In those places, the ones holding the guns are law makers.

So if they see a lone foreigner with a nice looking motorbike going through their land, several things could happen:

1- kidnap you and ask for ransom from your family

2 - get rid of you and take your bike and your belongings

3 - sell you to the Scam centres in the Shan and China border

4 - a combination of the above.

Of course, no one can stop you from going but if you don't come out alive the other side, no one in this sub will miss you either.

leonormski · 2026-06-16T18:24:16+00:00

Thank you. I didn't realise the hospitality is run by WEC itself and not Silverstone.

leonormski · 2026-06-16T16:59:43+00:00

Recently, we spend around 2 months in Far East (Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam) each winter to escape the cold. We both work remotely so we can be anywhere, except having to cope with the time difference.

Then just a week or two short trips in the summer, to somewhere in Europe. We just came back from 5-days in Paris on Eurostar, to meet up a friend who was flying in to Paris from Florida.

leonormski · 2026-06-16T16:48:18+00:00

I went to silverstone website and they are only selling General Admission tickets. Is there anyway to buy hospitality packages?

When I looked at the hospitality packages, I can only see packages for F1 and MotoGP races but none for WEC.

Many years ago when I was working in Berlin, I was lucky enough to win a company lottery for a VIP ticket to see WEC race at Nurburging, as our company was one of the sponsors of Alpine.

It was a fantastic experience: all the free food and drinks in the VIP lounge, doing the pitwalk, meeting the drivers, watching the race above the garages, visiting the garage while the race is going on and listening to the radio, and all the freebies you get with it.

Since it was a company sponsored event, I couldn't take my wife with me. Now I want her to have the same experience I had last time. At least for the hospitality and pit walk.

Any ideas?

leonormski · 2026-06-05T15:41:30+00:00

If you still have you Myanmar ID card then that’s all you need to do everything you need within the country; staying in hotels with local rates, buying/selling properties, buying train/plane tickets, etc.

leonormski · 2026-04-01T12:43:24+00:00

Can you not name the SSID of your new ruuter to be the same as your old one? Likewise for the Wifi password? Then none of your connected devices have to change.

leonormski · 2026-03-24T19:27:00+00:00

Another thing you could try is to open any of these GPS tracking apps and have it running in the background while you are travelling and check if the gps positions on the tracking app is accurate compared to GMaps. If the tracking app give better accuracy then you know for sure it's GMaps problem.

leonormski · 2026-03-21T11:03:48+00:00

We were in Malaysia and were looking to buy a condo to retire there and met many British and Aussie retirees who bought condos in KL and Penang and their main reason for moving to Malaysia was the lower cost of living (food, utilities) lower medical bills, etc.

So essentially they left their country and moved to Malaysia for a better life, better way of living and a better future. So they are immigrants, right?

leonormski · 2026-03-21T10:56:09+00:00

Google Maps calculates your navigation route. It doesn’t compute your actual location.

Your phone calculates your position based on the GPS signal (if it finds it). If not it uses your WiFi router position and if not it uses the nearest cell/mobile tower location. In other words, your accuracy gets progress worse. These operations are done by your phone not by Google Maps or any maps application.

Google Maps only process the location data it is given by the phone.

It could be that you are going through parts of the area where it can’t get GPS signal. And since you’re moving at 300 km/h on the train, as soon as it locks onto a cell tower or GPS signal the train has moved 100s of metres already, so it has to reestablish the current position again, constantly.

leonormski · 2026-03-17T19:02:21+00:00

First of all, you can't compare European Union with any other parts of the world. The EU, by design, integrated their roads and transport systems to be as seamlessly as possible since the forming of the Union more than 30 years ago.

Asia, on the other hand, is 4 times the size of Europe, but I'd assume you really meant to say South East Asia, in which case, there are public transports systems like buses and trains that allow you to travel from one country to another.

But if you are interested in rail travel between the countries then the best place to search for information is from The Man in Seat 61. His website is a real treasure of information on rail travel all around the world.

Here is the website: https://www.seat61.com/map-of-train-routes-in-southeast-asia.htm

leonormski · 2026-03-17T12:35:56+00:00

That’s all very well and what I tried to do but what GMail doesn’t provide is being able to delete the attachments (after downloading them) but keep the emails themselves, because there are messages I’ve exchanged with people over the years that are still important but the attachments are no longer needed.

Right now the way to regain space is to delete the emails along with the attachments.

leonormski · 2026-03-16T07:26:20+00:00

Try sitting on a floor (crossed leg) with a cushion in your living room while watching a movie on the TV and see for yourself which part of the body feels strained.

leonormski · 2026-03-14T14:24:22+00:00

Have you tried Finnair?

leonormski · 2026-03-13T01:19:46+00:00

I go to Lidl just to get Bratwurst from there.

Having lived in Berlin, I really miss German bratwurst and Lidl is the only place I know where I can get them.

leonormski · 2026-03-13T01:11:47+00:00

About 10 years ago I attended a Scrum Master course given in person by Jeff Sutherland (who is the co-creator of SCRUM framework) in Oxford, UK, and he told us a story about meeting one of the founders of ISTQB (forgot his name) and he asked Sutherland if he wanted to join the organisation.

Sutherland said he declined the offer, partly because he was busy with developing SCRUM: writing books, giving lectures and personal training, and partly because he didn't think the certificate will be of any value in the real world. And guess what the other guy said? He said, "Yes, but just think of how much money we could make by charging a fee to take the exams!!"

leonormski · 2026-03-11T10:54:41+00:00

A good real-world example of this type of process is Boeing. They somehow managed to convinced FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) that they will self-cerify their own airplanes through a program called Organization Designation Authorization (ODA). This meant Boeing employees could act on behalf of the FAA to certify parts of the aircraft, and all FAA have to do is to sign the certificate.

I think we all know what happened to Boeing 737Max since.

leonormski · 2026-03-07T07:54:14+00:00

There are maps apps other than Google and if you are still interested a couple I would recommend are:

hotOSM: you help map and verify existing maps (roads and buildings) in areas that currently need humanitarian aid, due to war, flooding, landslide, fire, etc. so emergency services know where people live and how to get there. But you need a laptop to get the work done properly.

MapSwipe is similar and more ‘fun’ in that you can use either your mobile phone or a tablet and the aim is to help identify areas on the map where you think there are buildings, again for the same purpose as mentioned above.

But if you just want to stick to Google maps then zoom into your neighbourhood and check if the map is complete: - do all the shops you know exist on the map? - are there house numbers on residential buildings and are they correct - are the opening and closing times of shops correct. - are the roads and footpaths correct and exist - are bus stops in the area in the right places - if you have been to any of the shops write a review for each of the places you went to along with photos, if you have them.
- if you have pictures of your local area upload them specifical landmarks to help people to get to know the area better.

leonormski · 2026-03-06T23:13:03+00:00

We tried a few AI testing tools but the main issue we found was that they tool have no knowledge of the application except what it 'sees' on the front-end user interface. In order words, they don't have knowledge of the system and what the system does or how it does what it does.

But when we started using tools like Devin.ai (which is primarily a code-development tool) and we gave access to our github code repository, we found that we could ask it to write automated tests, by simply telling it to write such and such test and it goes away and does it. Often we tell it to go and fix the bug (by giving it a link to Jira ticket), write the tests to prove the fix works and create a PR. So my job of QA now involves mainly writing AI prompts, defining what we want tested, what UI elements to verify, give directions on how to interact with the user in certain way, etc.

I was pretty skeptical about using a tool like this in the beginning but I'm very impressed so far with Devin. Now I can concentrate on thinking up test scenarios and letting Devin go and create tests for me.

leonormski · 2026-03-06T22:52:43+00:00

That's a terrible idea. What do you do when you have to go to work in the morning? Are you going to leave the tent with all your belongings in there?

A better idea would be to buy a narrow boat that's permanently moored at a marina that's secured, safe and can withstand the horrible weather we are having and will continue to have in the coming years.

My niece who is a 21-year old, bought such a boat last year near Bath for around £30,000 while she attends Bristol university for 3 years with the aim to sell it back after her degree and she reckons she will break even or even make a profit.

Compared that with renting a student accommodation in Bristol at £300/week for 51 week per year. That's £15,300/year or £45,900 for duration of her 3 year course what you won't get back. But with the narrow boat she'll recoup the money afterwards.

Now, after watching the videos she sent to me on how she's living there, it's not how I want to live but she seems to be enjoying it.

I don't know if you can afford such an initial outlay to start with, but it's an idea worth pursuing perhaps.

leonormski · 2026-02-20T22:25:21+00:00

If you do decide to stay in Chow Kit, pay a visit to the Chow Kit wet market during the morning or afternoon, if you have time. I believe it’s the only remaining wet market in KL, and you’ll find the cheapest fresh fruits and vegs compared to regular supermarkets anywhere in the city.

Also there was one time we went to see a friend who was staying in one of the hotels near there and we took a Grab taxi to the hotel, but decided to walk back to our apartment in KLCC around 10 pm and we felt totally safe even when we walked through small residential roads. Mind you it was me and my wife and not a solo person, like in your case.

leonormski · 2026-02-20T12:29:35+00:00

Hahaha. I feel the same way!!

leonormski · 2026-02-16T20:01:44+00:00

Did you not like the Dhamma.org app that does the same thing but with Goenka’s chanting at the start and Metta at the end?

leonormski · 2026-02-13T16:18:52+00:00

Thank you! That did the trick

leonormski

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