jybkk

I have had True 3G for a year, works great. Works in most major cities in Thailand. Stop the bitching and switch to True lol.

Just wait a bit. They are operating under a temporary trial license. CAT will probably soon go after that one soon: "If I can't make money out of 3G, I'll make sure nobody does"

"I hope you manage to get better with your drink problem and have a long life instead. Good luck."

I'll just put that here:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/why-alcohol-is-good-for-you/

Unlike English Law where there is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, in France, the accused is presumed Guilty until proven innocent.

Oh really?

From Wikipedia: In France, article 9 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, of constitutional value, says "Everyone is supposed innocent until having been declared guilty." and the preliminary article of the code of criminal procedure says "any suspected or prosecuted person is presumed to be innocent until their guilt has been established". The jurors' oath reiterates this assertion.

If it wasn't for the Thai police and media, you wouldn't know this guy's name or see this picture of him in the middle of the policemen until the end of the trial.

In addition, as in most of western countries, media in France are accountable for the privacy and presumption of innocence. It means: no parading of the handcuffed suspect by the police in front of the media.

The way it happens here is really disturbing. As soon as the police has a suspect, they will invite the press, take humiliating pictures in front of the "evidence".

K Pnow Are you a Samsung rep by any chance as you write like it is an advertorial- "apparently the new Android software is doing very well" - doing what exactly very well . ??

"Doing Very Well" as in:

• Outselling iPhone OS on first half of 2010: http://mashable.com/2010/08/02/android-outselling-iphone-2/
• Offering similar if not superior functionalities: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/comparison-apple-versus-android/

Android-based devices deserves to be seriously considered because they might offer a better option depending on what you intend to do with your phone.

I never knew, i cant understand why theyre so f'en useless then .. is it huge import taxes on food products, lack of food producers in the area or just Thais like eating only a few different things.

My guess is the third one.

Most of Thais are very conservative when it comes to food.

FYI:

I went to Immigration today.

The Officer looked at the documents and said some were missing while other were unnecessary.

We told her we followed the list displayed just in front of her desk.

She got up, had a look at the list on display then disappeared. A few minutes later, another officer arrived with papers and scotch tape and replaced the list with a new one.

She apologized for the misshap but told us she really needs us to submit all the documents that are required according to her list.

It took us a bit of a hassle around BKK but we made it back around 2pm.

In the end, no medical certificate from government hospital is needed. Seems that the list was some kind of draft never used and actually posted here by mistake.

You just take a copy of the health certificate for the labour office to immigration.

Are you on an extension of stay based on work? If so, your permission to stay ended when you quit your job.

That's what I planned to do, got a health certificate not long ago with the syphilis blood test from a private hospital (Sukhumviit Hospital). Labor accepted it but the documents displayed at immigration seem to mean it actually has to come from a government hospital.

As you guessed, my permission to stay ended the day I finished my previous job, which I duly reported at immigration then labor and immediately applied for the new WP linked to the new job.

Immigration gave me 7 extra days which end exactly the day I was told to collect the new WP. I will go then immediately to immigration with this new WP and get the visa extension... but that's why I want to be sure that I won't have problem with immigration next time I go there, as it will be the last day of my permission to stay.

I changed employer so I'm right in the middle of the processing of work permit and visa. I did renew these many times in the past but there seem to be some new requirements, so I'd like to share my experience.

WP: as mentioned by some in TV it seems that doctors got the instruction of doing a blood test to check for syhilis. The doctor also told me it's ridiculous because they check for stage 3 of the disease which can be some with simple body exam but the mention of the blood test is required (according to him).

I did not manage to get a clear answer about this at labour.

Immigration: documents displayed at immigration say that among the documents I have to prepare a health certificate from a government hospital.

I took a picture of it and asked Thai colleagues to confirm and they agree it is now in the list.

I did not ask immigration about it. Anyone heard about that? I even don't remember if a health certificate was needed for the visa...

If it is confirmed, it's going to be another pain in the... as gvt hospitals are already overloaded and have better things to do than paperwork for foreigners.

It is a very good thing that authorities realize that there is a need for education in this department.

However, I'm not sure such exhibitions are the best medium for it.

I visited the Science Museum in Rangsit few weeks ago and this exhibition was already displayed there. One could hardly call it a "museum" in itself.

It was quite attractive, with a bit of humor with two cartoon characters looking a bit embarrassed by their own questions, but was still quite shallow. The purpose is clearly to raise awareness and questions, unfortunately, no one was there to answer them, certainly not the teachers from the numerous visiting schools.

There's a lot of misinformation spread around Thailand about those subject. Sometimes by ignorance but many times on purpose, to support some views about morality. Ask thai women about contraceptive pill and many will tell you that they are very unhealthy, that there are long term side effects...which they can't name. Of course, they never heard that it has been proven to reduce risk of ovarian cancer.

I believe doctors have a great responsibility in that. They are very distant here, and that's definitely not a subject one would feel comfortable addressing these authority figures sitting on the other side of the desk and barely looking at you.

Most of Thai women, including the rich ones, have never met an gynecologist until they get pregnant.

I'm happy that the idea of informing Thais about their sexuality is not a taboo, but what is most needed is "experts" who can hold conference, classes or private meetings and answer people's questions directly.

I understand you'e upset, but chances are big that the fact it happened a short time after you switched to from XP to W7 is merely coincidental.

Going back to XP isn't going to be safer.

What you describe can have a lot of origins, including some hardware failure on the disk.

The easiest would be to go to some IT shop and let them boot some recovery system from USB or CD. This should let you retrieve your data. If they can't boot either, then you'll know the hardware is the culprit.

Once the data is recovered, try reinstalling (not reparing). There's a chance that this Dell Laptop has a "reinstall to factory state" partition. Check the manual. If not, reinstall Windows 7 yourself... this should be an experience pleasant enough to change your opinion about this OS.

As for backup, I usually recommend the following setting:

• Use 2 different partitions on your computer, one for the system, one for the data
• In the data drive, separate in "data" and "archive".
  • Data is "My Documents" and anything you're curently working on, modifying on a regular basis and so on.
  • Archive is the stuff you want to keep but are not likely to modify: Last Year Pictures, Movies, Installation files

  [*]Open a free "Dropbox Account" and synchronize the "Data" folder there. The free account gives you 2GB space, it should be more than enough for your everyday documents. Every time you'll do changes within this Data folder, it will be replicated on your online storage. If your computer fries, then this part will be up to date until the very few minutes before the issue.[*]Regularly archive things you don't really use anymore by transferring them from "data" to "archive". When you do so, backup the "archive" on an external drive

This procedure gives you quite a lot of safety without too much hassle. If you make sure you keep all your installation files in the archive too, then you can forget about ghost backups and so... and if the worst happens and you have to completely change your computer, it will take a very short time to have the new one up and running with all your data

Another example of news getting skewed when it is in the hands of a Thai government news organisation. The poll wasnt anything to do with tuk-tuk's - it was about taxis.

Other news reports mention that Bangkok, 'famed for it's tuk-tuks' came fifth. But as with the previous year's polls, it's about real taxis, not tuk-tuks.

Looks like someone in the govt news agency decided to tinker with the wording and give 5th place to the tuk-tuks. Good for national pride if nothing else.

Thank you for this!

This actually makes sense. The A/C taxi service in Bangkok is good.

Whenever someone visits thailand, I tell them to take the Tuk Tuk once, for the "experience, then the A/C taxi, because it's safer, more comfortable and CHEAPER!

We did some test with my thai wife. I stay out of sight and she asks the price for trips we regularly do. In central Bangkok, the price for short trips in Tuk Tuk is 9 times out of 10 higher than in a normal Taxi. And because the traffic is so bad, you don't really get faster (their "shortcuts" in the small soi are usually a joke). A bit more out of the center, tuk tuk rates might be interesting. But you're still the nose in the fumes.

I personally take the Tuk Tuk only if I'm in a rush and no Taxi seem available.

Same old same old.

One or two spectacular crackdowns and see you next year.

The thing that surprises me is that they actually have a computer system that manages all of this information - and that 60% of all hotels (and other places) already report the information.

Also, there must be thousands of little hotels and guest houses that don't have much in the way of internet access or computer knowledge to be able to report the information every day.

I hardly believe it too. Their whole immigration system looks still very far from being effectively computerized. For example, I'm always wondering about the amount of passport copies I hand while in Thailand.. Do they have some kind of huge warehouse filled with the millions of passport copies they accumulate every year?

As for this mandatory reporting... well, that was supposed to be like that already. So my guess is that it's just the usual "crackdown show" trying to pretend they actually do something.

Maybe it's also an additional source of revenue for some cops: see how they insist on the 10,000THB fine for the hotel... hmmmm

I believe it won't change anything for the tourists here. It might be an additional pain for the hotel though.

*edit: spelling

Congratulations to the Kids! I hope this is one of their many success in their studies and their life.

However, I hardly believe such competitions can give any reliable idea of the overall level of education in a country.

Results mostly depend on how much energy and support are involved in preparing these competitions, not on how much effort is put in the whole education system.

That's incorrect. 3G is anything but outdated.

4G standards are not finalized yet and only deployed experimentally in small zones, notably in Sweden.

You can't "skip" 3G because it is not meant to be replaced by 4G. Similarly, 3G did not replace 2G in the countries where it is deployed. Those are complementing network: 2G (gsm) is still used for calls and sms while 3G is used for internet. 4G will, for example bring the possibility of HD video streaming while roaming.

3G is shamefully late in Thailand but not too late. And the bright side is that once they finally obtain the 3G licenses (this is a licensing issue, not a technological or financial one) , operators will directly deploy the latest 3G revisions (usually called 3.5 and 3.9G and LTE) which will quickly make up for the delay.

Whoah, Even an IT challenged guy like me reads the news and looks at IT developments, just so I can learn about even more complex devices and systems that I can't figure out. From what I see, 4G is available in selected markets in the USA. Canada's major wireless companies are redeveloping to 4G capabilities, China reports that it has a network and it is even available in Tashkent. Yes, Sweden and Norway have a working network, but one can do wonders in a small area. When one gets to large geographic land masses like the USA/Canada and the use of 4G, that does suggest that change is on the way. The regulators and companies in Canada/USA started working on the scheme 2 years ago, so I don't think it is unreasonable to say that it takes time to implement advancements like 4G.

Thailand demonstrates a retarded growth in all things related to advanced technology and science. I use the word retarded in its purest sense. By the time the 4G system is ready to go in Thailand, it will have been surpassed by 5G, which South Korea is already planning for. That;'s the thing about technology. You have be in the game to keep up and Thailand isn't even sitting on the bench. Maybe, Thailand should forget about 4G for the time being and instead address its basic telecommunications and ISP weaknesses first. In terms of bang for the baht, I don't know what the advantages to Thai society will be of having a wireless 4G capability, when businesses can't even obtain reliable internet service.

Those are Pre-4G technologies branded as 4G by operators mostly because it looks cool.

Have a quick look at wikipedia and you will see that 4G standards are not defined yet and most of them use technologies like Wimax or LTE which might... or might not... end up as the 4G standard.

Regardless of the technical nitpicking from my part, I completely agree with you that this delay is catastrophic for Thailand...; but not very surprising either. It's very sad to see that the delay in development is completely due to political stupidity. Those technologies and equipments are already completely developed before they reach thailand and the associated business models have been tested before. Thailand Operator just have to copy and apply, and I'm confident they can do it quite properly. To do so they first need those 3G licenses and that's where we're stuck for several years already. Some are stalling because they're afraid to be caught in some irregular operations, while the other delay until they can find the way to get a bigger part of the cake. That's a disgrace.

However, I'd like to insist on the fact that you can't "skip" one generation to prepare the following. Most of them rely on the existence of the predecessor and are not necessarily meant to offer a complete coverage of the country.

4G will bring new services but won't replace 3G.

Clearly written by Farang for Farang gains only. Thai people, TOT & CAT will loose out.

I think most farangs wonder why they are even talking about 3G, its out of date already and here they still talk about selling the licences.

That's incorrect. 3G is anything but outdated.

4G standards are not finalized yet and only deployed experimentally in small zones, notably in Sweden.

You can't "skip" 3G because it is not meant to be replaced by 4G. Similarly, 3G did not replace 2G in the countries where it is deployed. Those are complementing network: 2G (gsm) is still used for calls and sms while 3G is used for internet. 4G will, for example bring the possibility of HD video streaming while roaming.

3G is shamefully late in Thailand but not too late. And the bright side is that once they finally obtain the 3G licenses (this is a licensing issue, not a technological or financial one) , operators will directly deploy the latest 3G revisions (usually called 3.5 and 3.9G and LTE) which will quickly make up for the delay.

I don't care if Farangs want to go home.

MUST. RESIST. NOT. FEEDING. THE. TROLL....

Arrrh, that's tough

Don't want to rain on your parade guys, but Walmart, Target or anyone else replacing Carrefour wouldn't bring much change.

CF in Thailand looks nothing like those you can find in France or Spain. It's just another Thai supermarket, with 3 full rows of Lays potato chips and barely half a dairy section.

The only difference with Tesco or Big C is a tiny section of french and international products.

I am globally very dissatisfied by the supermarkets in Thailand. As some satirical website pointed out some time ago, they manage to offer the same product selection as a 7-eleven on the surface of 2 football fields.

I guess CF are trying to get some cash out of the stagnating markets (Thailand, Malaysia) to invest in the fast growing ones (China, India...)

As for the "typical french failure" snarky remarks, I find this a bit ironical, considering Carrefour is in the top 3 retail groups in the world (#1 in size, #2 in revenue and #3 in profit).

A quick look at wikipedia would show you that, for example, they are installed in China since '95, have more than 150 stores there... I'd say they adapt pretty well.

Oh, and FYI, BigC is a Thai company operating under a business alliance with Casino Group... another french retailer.

@tonywebster: Last January I renewed my 1year license which had expired 2month earlier (in Nov).

they gave me the 5year one without any remarks.

They share a VERY big responsability for all the tragic events that happened recently.

For example, their inaction both for yellow and red shirts demonstrations let the whole thing get out of hand.

I think we should hire the street vendors. Whenever one of the mob started to setup a stage, the street vendors were there looong before the police.

It seems that they also collected Credit/ATM Cards.

NNA NEWS Facebook Album

It really seems to confirm that the whole ID thing was used make it difficult for some of the demonstrators to go home

The Bangkok Bank ATM card you see here can't be considered as an ID, they are all labeled "Best Valued Member"

I feel sad for Thailand, whatever the side, it is dirty tricks against dirty tricks.

Covards. Proves they are terrorist.

Used to symphatize with the red movements but all that is now gone.

I sincerely hope that all foreigners and thais take all this in consideration and do NOT vote for the reds in next election. That would be a clear signal.

50+ people were killed by the Thai govt and you're worried about a shopping complex!!! something wrong here!

A journalist friend I talked with just now was following the army this morning.

He took pictures of soldiers who lost limbs because of a grenade thrown from redshirt side.

He then had to run for his life (and lost his camera doing so) because other grenades were thrown.

The "peaceful" protest has always been a myth.

the fires and looting happening now are just another demonstration.

Both sides should be held accountable for everything that is happening and stop fighting like kids on a playground.

I think my wife ate the weirdest thing when we came back to france to visit my family on holiday.

She drinks wine (and appreciate it: can now tell when it's crap, so no more cheap dinner at the restaurant)

She enjoys trying anything, even frogs, rabbit or veal.

She craves for cheese. I mean, the real men cheese, not gouda or cheddar. Although I read that cheese has naturally one of the highest content of MSG (this might explain that)

She couldn't try snail or raw oysters though... But I can't blame her... I feel really lucky to have found such an adaptable Thai Lady. I think most would agree that spending without complain 2 weeks in europe without eating one thai dish (or even anything spicy) is something like a record.

If the guy on the left was a similar to many Thai's (and some farang posting here) he would not stop on the edge of the sidewalk to ponder but rather right in the center .. of course being sure to stand sideways to make sure he is optimizing his use of the sidewalk.

As you and others mentionned before, I'm still baffled at how naturally Thai will stop at the most inconvenient spot.

It is clearly not on purpose but some kind of automatic mechanism. And it starts early: in the school where I work, I see everyday students get out of classroom, pickup their shoes from the rack that was cleverly placed it the widest part of the corridor, then walk to the narrowest part of the corridor and stop there to put them on.

It is sometimes a bit annoying when I'm in a rush, but I find it mostly very intriguing.

I pointed it to my thai wife and now she keeps on seeing it and getting upset at people standing on the way. Now, I'm the one having to tell her "jai yen yen".

As for rules of crossing other pedestrians, I think it would be overkill and, considering how cluttered most alleys are in Thailand, completely inapplicable.

From eastern part of Bangkok, no road block

did Swampy > Phra Khanong this morning.

Sister in law went from Rangsit to the airport to day without trouble too.