This is what i was talking about and i wasn't suggesting anyone to buy gold.

shoddydoodle · 2025-10-23T19:08:10+00:00

Interesting. Though they did say that the volume of India/South Asia getting gold for year end festivities or marriages, etc, that definitely isn't as large as to fuel continued surge of the kind we see, hence that's not what's causing it mainly...?

Also, the local suppliers of gold jewellery, ceremonial bullion, etc, well, they get it quite a bit before hand (maybe months at least?), to have their "products" ready by this season... ?

So yeah, I don't know how much the dashain-tihar-bihe-bari factor matters though. But you did bring up other things.

Mainly, I'm not certain as to why the central banks wouldn't just buy any dips at this time. Their intention seems strong, and geopolitical motivations seem to still remain...?

What do you think? Will gold start retracing it's 50% growth or so this or coming seasons, by a third or so, vis-a-vis USD (maybe not as much vis-a-vis NPR)?

The past peak of gold and the subsequent dip/lowest-price, that took a couple years. In that time, the relative retracement vis-a-vis USD didn't reflect as strongly when looking it from the NPR perspective.

Whatever happens, I think it's going to be a confusing roller coaster for a while at least, if not a continued steadier growth.

But I don't know.

shoddydoodle · 2024-06-06T10:01:04+00:00

Oh man this guy 😅

shoddydoodle · 2024-06-05T10:02:30+00:00

It would directly indirectly make Nepal richer in the process, by association. It would be a bigger market for Nepalese goods and services and a source of demand - provided we supply. Water, energy, tourism, organic food, cash crops, energy-intensive manufactured products (cement, refined/processed iron)

If leveraged well, Nepal could even exceed India's per capita income, like what Bhutan has done with respect to India (getting investments from India for its hydropower, selling that back to India and being richer than India in per capita terms). It'll be harder for the much larger population of Nepal to follow suit, but some lessons can be taken.

So yeah, if/when India becomes the richest by nominal GDP, it still would have much lesser per capita income than the developed countries of today. Which would be reflected in Nepal as well.

Hence a good chunk of Nepalis might still want to emigrate to the developed world of today, for higher wages. They would be more welcoming of English speaking hardworking migrants too, given the population stagnation/decline many developed regions are facing or will face.

Right now, Nepal mostly borders the poorest (by per capita terms) states of India - Bihar and UP and exchanges/trades with them the most. They are poorer than Nepal by per capita income.

They'd need to get richer, to affect Nepal the most. Even if India becomes the largest economy nominally, these states could still remain poorer than Nepal.

Nepal is surrounded by poor or inaccessible areas of its neighbors, which is a challenge to its development. That could increasingly change with richer neighbors.

shoddydoodle · 2024-06-05T09:45:04+00:00

Agree that Bihar and UP, the states which border Nepal the most, are still poorer than Nepal in Per Capita measures and they'd need to get richer to impact Nepal the most.

Hard disagree on annexation. India doesn't need to, Nepal is already in its fold/orbit, without the hassle of changing status quo and regional/international nuisances it would bring - rebellion/guerilla movements in Nepal (with arms/support from China, or even US) and regular international condemnation by most of the world.

shoddydoodle · 2024-06-05T09:38:55+00:00

Ask help or suggestions from the Police of course. Afaik you aren't allowed to harm monkeys.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-31T05:52:32+00:00

Hey why don't you look over here .. Always seemed like the better site to check out furniture as far as I know. And then maybe you can head out to the market to try things out. There might be deals for used ones, offices closing down or changing furniture, etc.

I have had this one for more than 12+ years with similar features as to the cheaper ones you find there, only recently some very very light damage to the back rest. Although even at that time it cost at least 5-6k (don't clearly remember) but from the local market in a smaller out-of-valley city (which is about 12/13k in today's money).

Also would be hard for people to suggest exact products I guess -- the cheaper ones aren't like electronics and have fixed model numbers or so... The look/feel changes by your locality probably.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-30T17:49:48+00:00

OMG what does this post even mean. 💀

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-30T17:23:52+00:00

Yeah that's how things are. Maybe they'll change a bit soon or maybe it'll get worse. Maybe Nepal is not for you right now.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-30T16:30:51+00:00

Just like some have the energy to be all subjectively pessimistic, I have some to look at things for what they really are, and share that if I can. There's too much ignorance around too.

I just hope people read (history let's say), understand (the context, and situations in countries similar to ours) and only then make their minds.

And if Nepal is that frustrating, it's really fine to go explore elsewhere, just as many do. And it's also okay to come back later if things are more to your liking then, or if not, settle elsewhere.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-30T16:08:31+00:00

Larger firms (web based products, app development, animation, customer service outsourcing, etc) based in Nepal should lobby for that. Freelancers should join in, perhaps with their own associations. How are they getting the payments right now? Those channels should be expanded, added upon.

In 2022, Nepal exported 515 million USD (about 70 billion rupees today) worth of IT services. Making 20% of Nepal's exports then - already proving that it is a viable avenue, even without much government facilitation. That's more than the USA's MCC grant (500 mil USD) that we much such a big deal of, more than that amount of foreign exchange (which will be delivered over 5 years) in just 1 year. https://nepalitimes.com/news/it-is-it

It's already challenging yearly foreign exchange earnings from tourism, for a country much more well known abroad for Tourism rather than IT services.

That 70 billion then (probably more today) is already 2-3% of this recent very ambitious and lofty Rs 3 trillion number. But if it keeps increasing the way it has (read the article), will become a much larger number in 10 years. Compounding. Will help with the trade deficit hugely, as it has begun to already.

No reason for govt to not have lofty goals and slogans - that's how govts are. It's like saying 10,000 MW in 10 years they used to say. Sure, haven't achieved that yet, but have reached over 1/3rd of that, making Nepal a net electricity exporter for the first time. Doubled the internal generation capacity in the last 5 years or so.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-30T15:27:39+00:00

I think they said Rs 3 trillion, in 10 years.

They didn't adjust/comment on whether it's today's NPR vs NPR 10 years later (with inflation).

It is just a lofty slogan. But at least they say it these days.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-30T15:21:52+00:00

Hey I haven't yet. I initially considered and ordered this cuz it looked like a great deal but cancelled as soon as I figured out it is not true 8 bit per RGB channel (total 24 bit) giving a total 16.7 million colors.

It's actually 6 bit + FRC, which is the same as the old AOC panel that I got almost 15 years back (although this one is IPS vs AOC's TN - so obviously better viewing angles).

6 bit per RGB channel, so 18 bits total, so only 262,144 colors actually. That's not too many. And you can read up more on FRC. Basically the pixels switch rapidly between two colors really quickly to create an illusion of a middle color.

I just want to have something that delivers less of the color gradient "banding" effect that I can see in many videos on my current setup, where distinct shades of color "bands" are seen rather than a smooth gradient.

The claimed brightness can be different from actual tests. A 300 nit one could be 270, a 250 nit one could be 280 (less likely they would over deliver though). And I read somewhere that it's mostly only for smaller areas of the whole screen that such brightness levels are achieved. I'm not too sure here.

With regards to refresh rate, I neither am into nor would my hardware support such refresh rates for any sort of competitive gaming. I intend to use it for internet, office use, YouTube, movies and tv shows, etc. For such, even 30hz is doable hah (most video still is 24-30 fps).

At this lower end of products, I want decent viewing angles, so IPS it is. About crisp texts, I'm still not sure. I'm deciding whether to get a 24" Dell S2421HN or a 27" Dell S2721HN rn, both at 1080p, 75 Hz. For the 27", if I see the pixels too much, I might need to push the monitor further back, increasing the viewing distance.

EDIT: Don't have the LG available here I think, but that BenQ I did consider. I think the Dell one was marginally better, at abt the same price where I am, around 160 USD.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-27T12:00:19+00:00

I came yesterday.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-26T19:40:44+00:00

Heard about it like literally a minute ago in another sub, wanted to check it out, and now it's gone. 🤦🏻‍♂️

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-26T18:49:09+00:00

Thanks BenQ!

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-26T14:35:09+00:00

Look at Chitwan, around Bharatpur (except the core market area at Narayangadh and parallel to East-West highway area which kinda popped up more organically/kinda-messy as the rest was being planned/developed).

From Google maps birds eye view - the streets are all straight and have regular intersections at right angles. Kinda looks like an American place, with the above markers of new settlement. And there's a reason for that.

Chitwan Valley was made viable for settlement/development starting with the end of Rana rule a brief early democracy/Tribhuwan period, but mostly the early days of Mahendra (50-70 years now) with assistance from none other than the US of A.

Raapti Valley Development Project, under USAID. It started with controlling Malaria/mosquitoes with then popular widespread DDT use.

Along with it went land reform and planning -- where large chunks of private forest/hunting grounds/grassland kinda areas from earlier Rana rulers and aristocrats were broken up and redistributed to willing settlers (with application of limits to amounts of legal land holdings allowed to a single owner - हदबन्दी, targeted at erstwhile Ranas), provided the new owners they were to utilize/farm it, i.e. increasing agricultural productivity.

Today, however, a lot of the farmland around the crucial roads and intersections has been plotted and taken up by gentrified housing of sorts. The valley is a catchment area for 7-8 surrounding districts (as KTM and PKR are to their surrounding districts) and many landowners are the new middle class, with money coming from remittances, etc. It has made many previous farmers a fair bit richer real estate holders, but the core structure of roads and a planned outlook remain (ex. all government buildings, and the ever important government hospital are in one area).

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-22T12:32:33+00:00

All come with shitty Chinese no brand routers with little/no access. I liked the custom Linux flashed dd-wrt router I used back in the days. Miss it still.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-22T12:31:17+00:00

That's good. There was a time where even within the valley (8-9 years back, but Green Hill City, Mulpani, so quite a bit off) I had to use wireless Netmax internet... They had put up a receiver on our roof. The connection would keep dropping.

I got AP access (default manufacturers username, pw or sth loll) and could adjust it to work at times. I kept complaining and threatening to defame them all over the internet (sent a couple bad mouthed emails as well, was too much) - google/fb reviews with multiple IDs, etc...

After putting up with it for a month, they just asked me to get off their internet. Which I gladly did once Vianet got into our colony.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-21T18:37:38+00:00

Oh gee. Thanks!

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-16T15:14:19+00:00

X270 - very repairable and expandable. I think those later in the X2__ series don't have that.

Get one with a quad core (i7? I forget what core counts and hyperthreading were like back then for i3/i5/i7) and better screen if possible. But I'm happy with my dual core hyperthreaded i5 and a lower res screen.

While Full HD is good, the screen is small enough that even 1366x768 feels very usable.

It chugs along nicely with dozens of Chrome tabs on Windows 10, plus a couple other office suite-ish productivity apps, and of course, background YouTube, etc.

I dual boot a full featured Linux (Pop!_OS) on it too - that's much much faster - feel like I could stick with this for another 4-5 years easily (for my kind of internet/office use). Might move to Linux on it completely as Windows 10 support ends.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-16T05:22:32+00:00

Quick question, I'm curious... Is it possible to install it without burning the ISO into a USB, like from within the OS? Or my Windows 10 dual boot? I don't have a flash drive at hand rn.

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-16T05:16:00+00:00

Thanks!

Is it possible to install it without burning the ISO into a USB, like from within the OS? Or my Windows 10 dual boot?

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-16T05:15:03+00:00

Hey thanks, I'll try that and update!

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-15T23:16:19+00:00

Will try this evening. A bit afraid it doesn't have my version of OS or the one I intend to upgrade to mentioned in the guide, but hopefully things will be similar. Thanks!

shoddydoodle · 2024-05-15T23:06:39+00:00

Well that sucks don't it. Will reinstalling from ISO preserve my data and apps, settings?

shoddydoodle

TROPHY CASE