Highwayman

UBC aren't allowed to show commercials as a condition of their broadcasting licence.

I imagine it would have something to do with not taking revenue from the free to air stations which of course are all independently run and owned....ahem

If it had been on a plane bound for America you can have been sure he would have got a more appropriate reception on landing.

With Thai, l've noticed on a few flights that if something out of the ordinary happens that the cabin staff are very reluctant to assert themselves, that it's left to the passengers to sort things out.

ChannelNewsAsia has a very good news service. Glenda Chong, the main news anchor is sensational. They also have some good lifestyle type shows as well.

ChannelNewsAsia has actually been available in Bangkok on TTV for ages but about six months ago it was cut back to only being available after midnight. They cut most of the ChannelNewsAsia, DWTV and CCTV English language news programs and replaced them with Hong Kong movies.

on over 170 cable operations in the Kingdom

Nothing on the UBC website about this, so does anyone know if UBC is a member of The Thailand Cable TV Association Someone with a fast connection may be able to work it out from the website but it's another one of those Thai websites that takes a week to load on dial-up.

BANGKOK : ChannelNews Asiais marking another milestone in Asian broadcasting.

By Glenda Chong, Channel NewsAsia

Mediacorp which runs the channel, signed an agreement on Friday with Thailand Cable TV Association to carry ChannelNewsAsia on over 170 cable operations in the Kingdom.

With this agreement, MediaCorp and Thailand Cable TV Association officially launched Channel NewsAsia International's presence in Thailand.

Bumroong Wasontakorn, President, Thailand Cable TV Association, said: "Thailand's communications industry has developed quite rapidly, and having Channel NewsAsia as one of our members will be beneficial for the exchange of information between Channel NewsAsia and Thailand."

With over 170 affiliated cable operators in Thailand, Channel NewsAsia will be accessible to over half a million households throughout the Kingdom.

Ernest Wong, Group Chief Executive Officer, MediaCorp, said: "Thailand is very much a part of Asia, it's a big country and what happens in Thailand, does matter to everybody especially Singapore which has a very close relationship to Thailand."

Woon Tai Ho, Chief Executive Officer, MediaCorp News, said: "So when we roll out to Asia, being able to be watched and being able to interact with Thai viewers, it's not only a key but a major milestone in our rollout to the entire region."

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Singapore's Ambassador to Thailand Chan Heng Wing and Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-Ngam.

Wissanu Krea-Ngam, Thai Deputy Prime Minister, said: "I admire this corporation very much because it will provide Thai people with more opportunity to watch TV programmes from foreign country besides BBC or CNN which may cover international news but not focus on the regional news. If you want to know more about the election in Indonesia, I don't think we can learn or know more on BBC or CNN. I believe Channel News Asia will cover the election in Indonesia widely and broadly rather than CNN or BBC."

Channel NewsAsia, Singapore's most watched news channel, is now viewed in more than 16 millions Asian homes and hotels across 19 territories.

Mediacorp's alliance with Thailand comes just two months after the company was granted landing rights in China.

And Mediacorp says there will be more tie-ups with other territories to come.

anyone know what the C in Big C stands for?

According to their website "Big" means "respectable size and enormous space". "C" means "Customers".

However l think it really refers to the French majority shareholder, the Casino group.

Used the subway a few times yesterday and if they retain half the passengers they have now with the 10 baht fare then they will do very well. The trains l travelled on were just as busy as Saturday night and it wasn't even peak hour. The only station that could be a white elephant is Sutthisan, hardly anybody seems to get on or off there.

Lots of older people still seemed to be having problems making their way through the turnstiles. At Chatuchak Park the line quickly got long as various people couldn't work out what to do.

Aircon varies from train to train, sometimes good, sometimes barely noticable.

PA announcements on board were clear in both languages. When there was a delay of a couple of minutes at one station the lengthy Thai commentary from the driver was followed by a short recorded apology in English.

True works fine as well.

I don't have a fast connection, just True dial-up and the last couple of weeks it has been very patchy. Some days it has been disconnecting every five minutes.

You start out with 52 Kbps (allegedly) and end up giving up when it gets as low as 22 Kbps. Another day, over 3 hours l could only download 2 million bytes.

On the weekend it was hopeless, taking up to 5 minutes to load each page, thats when l could even connect to a site. Today, no problems.

Not to sure about those speed testers. The other day one site said my speed was the equivalent of 128 Kbps. While l think l have my PC set up well, l doubt if l have it running that well.

I'm thinking a speed test from Asianet gives a more favorable download/upload speed reading.

And who provides the True connection? Asianet is it not?

Anyone have futher details on this from the Thai-Australia Free Trade Agreement

Australians will be able to have up to 50% in all businesses apart from businesses in Annex 1 and 2 of the Thai foreign business law of 1999.

Australians can also hold up to 60% in certain types of businesses, with the condition that they should be registered in Thailand and have a debt-to-equity ratio of no more than 3 to 1.

When next year would this be likely to begin?

Phahon Yothin or Lat Phrao would both be closer than Bang Sue.

Bangkok Subway is up and running for the general public.

Just got back from a trip from Bangkok to Phahon Yothin. Lots of people trying it out for the first time. I thought a lot of people would just go back and forth but people were actually using it to get to a destination. About 400 people got off at Phahon Yothin and there were several hundred waiting outside. The train l was on was full but l've been on more crowded Skytrains.

Inside, the train seemed similar to the Skytrain but with more hand grips along the centre of the carriage. The platform set up is similar to Singapore where you wait behind glass doors that only slide open when the train arrives.

As far as l could see, the system was handling the large numbers okay, no sign of anything getting out of hand.

The bible for do it yourself Poipet visa runs is to be found at Tales of Asia as previously mentioned. The information is all there, step by step along with reports of travellers who have done it recently. It's not at all difficult to do if you follow the instructions.

As for paying for health leaflets and paying for not staying in Cambodia but returning right back to Thailand the advice is don't! I can never believe how many people pay money for this and/or for quicker(?) service. If you want to give away your money give it away to someone who really needs it, not the Cambodian border staff. Just ignore them and you will still get your visa and you will still get stamped in and out. Sorry, but the only people who pay this are those who don't know any better or those who let themselves be intimidated.

If you want your visa for USD20 then you have to get it in Bangkok as 1000 baht is the only price available nowadays at Poipet.

Anyone who has the time should add an extra 3 days and go on to at least visit Angkor Wat, about 3 hours further along the road by taxi. You've paid 1000 baht for the visa so why not use it and take the chance to visit one of the most amazing places in S.E.Asia.

In any other captial city these would be prime riverside real estate ,easilly saleable properties

Not easily saleable due to the legal morass involved.

Three quarters of derelict buildings in Bangkok left incomplete due to the 1997 financial crisis are simply not worth renovating. There is heavy competition already among newly launched condominium projects and the fact that the market might become even more saturated.

A survey of incomplete buildings found that many have been closed to make way for mass transit projects. Many projects cannot be restarted because creditors and debtors will not agree on financial matters. The major factor making it difficult for halted condominium projects to resume is failure to restructure debt, which for condominiums is more complicated than for any other type of property.

Penzeman, it's not so much that browsers other than IE are flawless, rather that they have only a minor share of the market, while IE probably has 90%.

This means that anyone wishing to make a big splash with an internet worm, spyware etc. will target IE in much the same way as Windows in general, the evil empire of Bill Gates is a target. The recent news of a series of Mac flaws demonstrates that other companies are far from bullet proof, only that their lack of market penetration makes it not worthwhile for the virus writer to write for the Mac, or for Linux etc. Firefox, despite being a great browser is only small fry.

Also l don't think Firefox allows all the Active X and java stuff to default download as easily as in IE (which you can disable, tweak in IE if you wish).

IE works better out of the box for people who aren't interested in tweaking and could care less. Play around with Firefox and you have so many possibilities to improve your browsing compared to IE which is a little outdated, but because it is the market leader can get away with less innovation.

If anyone hasn't already done so with Firefox, click on Tools/Extensions and see just how many extra programs are out there to further enhance your browsing experience. The one l like best of all is the one where you can add a mini search bar that you can customise with as many search engines as you want. Just type in the search term and click on what engine you wish to use from a drop down list, e.g. MetaCrawler, Yahoo!, IMDB, a web dictionary etc. and you get a really quick result.

kabal, you're correct, no more late night AFL highlights on UBC sports.

afl.com.au broadcast most games live. It used to cost but it's reverted to free again this year On dial up l still manage to get good coverage 90% of the time.

I know there are a few bars like The Office and Bus Stop that show AsiaPacific but l'm on the outskirts of Bangkok so l'd love to be able to save the trek in sometimes.

I note you are talking about Outlook, but does unchecking Turn AutoCorrect on to replace text as you type in Word/Tools/AutoCorrect make any difference?

Paul, having UBC Satellite in Bangkok l'm aware of the problem with the rain but l don't think that was the reason this time. All other channels were fine, plus it hardly rained in the couple of days l was there.

Also l checked out a few other places where l have seen it before and they no longer had it. No one could tell me why and being Thai they weren't too concerned about Australian TV but for me l like to schedule my trips down that way so l can watch a few games.

UBC please note, you have an option for Japanese viewers to pay a premium to get NHK. What about something similar for Asia Pacific. I'd pay an extra 500 baht a month to get it. Don't have a suitable spot to put another dish.

Usually when l visit my sister-in-law in Laem Chabang, down Si Racha way l get to watch the football (AFL)on Asia Pacific.

Recently when l was there, Asia Pacific was just coming up with the No Signal message. Checked out the local hotel, same thing.

Does anyone know the reason? A change in satellite provider perhaps. Is it still available in Pattaya?

thanks.

I use an APC CS-500 which cost about 3000 baht l think. Look at their website, lots of good information, one of the best brands around.

There are a lot of different brands available at the big IT stores at Panthip Plaza, many cheaper than what l ended up getting but if you read the APC site you will be able to work out for yourself the features that suit you best.