Xircal

Wikipedia has an article on the subject in case it helps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usufruct#Thailand

Well, not a real one, but a replica they built to 'demonstrate to the world' how they would be able to sink a real carrier if it ever came to a conflict between the mightly US and Iran. I can't seem to get the Youtube 'Embed' function to work here, so here's the YT link: http://youtu.be/Dfnkd_RwzsY

But nobody seems to have explained to the Iranians that aircraft carriers don't sail alone and are well protected by the carrier group escort vessels which are armed to the teeth with missiles.

Check your browser settings.

If you're using IE, open it and then click the Gear icon on the right. From there, choose Internet Options.

In the General tab, check to see if the Welcome True page is listed there. If it is, click it and then click Delete (or hit the Delete key).

If you're using Firefox, go to Tools | Options and then change it there.

In the image, I've configured both IE and Firefox to load a blank page when I launch either of them which is why you see that description.

Seems to come bundled with Comodo's Dragon browser in spite of their denial. Users were complaining about it on Google forums back in 2013: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/HigP4BnBkts

Doubtless nobody realised at that time that PrivDog also interfered with the SSL certificate.

have to wonder when they are going to start teaching thais how to manage their money and not take out higher purchase on cars, homes etc when they simply dont earn enough to pay for it. It amazes me how many buy a new car then cant afford to buy food or even the fuel to drive it, it seems face is too high on their lists & that it even surpasses their wife and families well being/survival.

Still those debt rates are not that high compared to western countries..

France 93,5

UK 90,6

Germany 78,4

Netherlands 73,5

Yes, but all the countries you've quoted are European and their citizens earn decent salaries.

As seajae points out, many families will buy a new car, or a pickup truck purely on a whim.

I know of one such family who bought a new pickup even though nobody knew how to drive it. But having a new pickup elevated their status in the village. Six years later and they're still paying for it.

Update: the eurozone group of finance ministers has officially approved the measures put forward by Greece. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/02/140224-eurogroup-statement-greece/

I shall look forward with anticipation to an upward shift in the FX rates tomorrow: http://bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/WebServices/Rates/Pages/FX_Rates.aspx

But remember the good old days......

Reuters has placed the letter from the Greek finance minister, Yannis Varoufakis along with the full set of proposals online which has been submitted to the eurozone group.

Reading through it, I think there are a great many good ideas Thailand could benefit from should they consider the contents to be of interest. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/24/us-eurozone-greece-text-idUSKBN0LS0V520150224

It would certainly seem sufficient to pacify the eurozone group of finance ministers and prevent a Grexit in any event.

Let's hope the euro will now climb back up to at least 40 Baht instead of hovering around the 36 Baht mark like its doing at the moment.

Just subscribe to all airlines' frequent flyer program. That way, you'll be emailed when promotional fares become available.

Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines tend to offer better rates more often than EVA and BA do I find. Both MAS and SIA fly the A380 to London.

I avoid hotel booking sites like Agoda and Booking.com like the plague! They all use the same grossly inflated prices model which they then 'discount' to give the appearance of offering cheap rates when in fact their rates are usually higher than those charged by the hotel itself.

Also they always present nighttime floodlit images of the hotel to give its facade an elegant appearance. To counter that, I'd recommend you always check the hotel's location on Google Street View so that you know what it looks like in daylight which can be downright ugly.

Chilean cyclist Juan Francisco Guillermo, 47 who was attempting to set a 250,000 mile world record was struck and killed by a pickup truck in Nakhon Ratchasima province yesterday. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/22/chileans-round-the-world-record-cycling-quest-ends-in-death-on-thai-highway

Looking at worldwide road death statistics per 100,000 inhabitants on Wikipedia, only Eritrea and Libya have a worse record than Thailand.

I wonder how TAT will juggle those figures.

C&N hotel: http://www.cnhotelpatong.com/

Provided you book directly with their own site and stay a minimum three nights, you'll get a free airport transfer.

Here's their location on Google Street View: http://goo.gl/maps/0ABjH

It's less then two minutes walk from there to Bangla Road.

This site will analyse whether or not your browser(s) is vulnerable to the Superfish / Komodia flaw: https://filippo.io/Badfish/

EDIT: Additional information at the CERT site: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/529496

A satirical guide to Thai martial law

Some tips: http://www.pettravel.com/airline_rules.cfm

Where you mention Qatar not accepting a pet from another airline, they're talking about codeshare flights. Those take place when an airline doesn't fly to a certain destination, or doesn't have a flight departing at a certain time, but their codeshare partner does. Under the codeshare agreement each airline agrees to accept the other airlines passengers and cargo.

For example, I flew Emirates from Amsterdam to Bangkok via Dubai. On the return flight the Bangkok to Dubai leg was operated by Thai under a codeshare agreement. In other words, for part of the return journey, I flew on a Thai flight with a ticket booked with Emirates.

So if you're organising the trip from Vientiane to Bangkok yourself and Qatar isn't aware of that, then you don't to need to worry about their rule of not accepting your dog from another carrier. For all they know, you could have been in Bangkok the whole time.

It's a similar story with Emirates. Provided you don't mention that you've just flown in from Vientiane, they'll just assume you're a Bangkok resident, or someone on vacation there.

I looked at Wikipedia for Entebbe International Airport to see which airlines fly there which are these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entebbe_International_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations

By comparing that with airlines which fly to Bangkok, there might be an alternative carrier such as Ethiopian Airlines for example which you could have a look at. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suvarnabhumi_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations

Screens over windows or keep them closed

"May I respectfully ask for opinions on whether I am overeacting or being crazy and not on how to get rid of mosquitos"

Mozzies are part and parcel of life in any tropical country, so just get used to it.

Thanks for the tip.

It seems a little strange to read that the airline is cash strapped. That won't go down well with Boeing from who they ordered 230 new aircraft worth $22.4 billion.

They've also ordered 234 A320s from Airbus worth another $24 billion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Air#Orders

Russia actually has very little debt, their economy is OK despite low oil prices, unlike many western countries.

Well, if you think this figure is 'very little', then I guess we must be living on different planets.

Once upon a time when HD sizes were around 50GB, cloud storage was an attractive proposition, but not now.

One terabyte external hard drives are pretty cheap these days which obviates the need to use third party cloud storage: http://www.amazon.co.uk/External-Hard-Drives/b?ie=UTF8&node=430544031

Mifi with ethernet? Why?

Use a 4g supported stick on some traveller type wifi/ethernet/usb (3g/4g) type device (Tp link has so many).

And you can get internet via ethernet or wifi.

I don't exactly understand what you mean with traveller type wifi/internet/usb type device. Please explain.

To make it more clear. My house has wired network to every room through network hub.

I have a N300 intellinet 3G router, in which now sits a 3G USB modem,but I assume this one doesn't support a 4G USB modem.

http://www.intelline...-300n-3g-router

I try to keep it as economical as possible, but every room has to be able to connect to the 4G through Ethernet. A decent 4G USB modem cost about 2500 Baht as far as I can see.

So what would be the additional cost for a device as you suggest?

On that link you posted, click the Specifications tab. That will show you what the router supports.

In any event, if you connect a 4G device to it, the router will slow it down to the speed it supports i.e. maximum 3.5G

If you're going to upgrade the router, then look for a type with a Gigabit Ethernet LAN switch. The one you have now only supports a maximum 100 Mbps.

Here's a Google link to some of them.

Lenovo has released a Superfish removal tool which also removes the SSL certificate which could be used to hijack a banking session. Download link: http://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/thinkvantage_en/metroapps/SuperFishRemovalTool/1.0.2.0/Lenovo.SuperFishRemovalTool.exe

Virustotal reports the download link to be clean: https://www.virustotal.com/en/url/51602da22cc5cbf2eb377896a8bb9890b60c832e6d19ab105672e353b892927c/analysis/

It depends on what's written in the lease agreement. If it states that the landlord is responsible for repairs, but failing in his or her duty to carry them out, then you have something to show to the police if she calls them.

But as mentioned on the following site, your position is pretty weak if she fails to keep her side of the bargain: http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Asia/Thailand/Landlord-and-Tenant

Story in the PG ---> http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Video-Report-Governor-disbands-Muslim-protesters-threatening/48377#ad-image-0

"The complaint stated that a loud speaker used by the Issatul Islam Ao Makham Mosque was blaring between 11pm and midnight, and from 5am to 6am, causing noise pollution and disrupting people in the area, Vice Governor Somkiet said"

I saw that myself when it was first published. I checked on Google Maps and the distance between the hotel and the mosque is only 400 meters.

Considering the fact that rooms cost round 6,000 Baht a night, I'm not surprised if guests complain about being woken up in the early hours by blaring loud speakers.

I've nothing against Muslims and if they want to go pray at that time of the morning by all means do so. But go buy an alarm clock.

Why should hotel guests who have chosen a location away from noisy environments like Patong then have to suffer from that kind of cacophony at 5.00 in the morning.

The next elections are to take place in early 2016.

What's been a year in the time history?

We will see.

Today I saw his speech, with english subtitles.

Was quite interesting.

He talked about many problems such as water supply, prices of agricultural products, legislation, service obligations for state employees, etc.

A year? The coup took place on May 22, 2014 which is getting on for two years ago. Elections were promised for 2015, but have now been moved to 2016. When that eventually arrives on our doorstep, they'll no doubt be moved again to the following year.

As for the talk of the utilities and the cost of agricultural products etc., etc., is all just so much rhetoric for the benefit of TV audiences. The military continues to crackdown on dissent and in doing so, the country is gradually leaning towards authoritarianism.

Never use a credit card in Thailand, also when it's called Elite Card. No securitiy for card holders, pishing very common.

I've used mine several times over the past eight years; never had a problem with it.

All major credit cards such as Mastercard and VISA indemnify cardholders against fraud and claims can be made should the company goods were purchased from fail to refund the cost in the case of non-delivery.

I used mine to buy a ticket with Thai Regional Airways who were offering cheap flights from Bangkok to Phuket at the time, but who hadn't obtained a licence to fly. When the company was wound up, I received an email from them promising to refund the cost of my airfare within six weeks. After two months of not receiving anything, I contacted Mastercard who refunded the cost of the ticket within 24 hours.

So I would tend to dispute what you're saying for those reasons.