Gumballl

What you have described concerning your contract is considered "at-will" employment in the US. It means that your employer can dismiss you for whatever reason, and similarly you can dismiss them as well (for whatever reason). Thus I wouldn't sweat it, because it probably means the same in Thailand for contractors (as opposed to permanent employees).

I would recommend that you give a 1-week notice for each 6-months on the job, or 2-weeks if you are feeling generous. Of course, this should only be done if you want to potentially get a good reference. One never knows though... you may not get the favorable reference sought even after giving due notice. In the end, the decision is up to you.

Install the MS fonts. Here's how (at least I think so).

P.S. Some people love to see ads on their web browser. I for one do not, thus I installed the Ad-Blocker plugin into FireFox.

So what Fedora 9 or Ubuntu 8.04 and why?”

I personally do not use either of those distros listed above... I use Fedora 8 and Ubuntu 7.10.

I find both systems to be wonderful, however because Ubuntu is designed to gain mass acceptance, especially with noobs, it's interface tends to be more candy-like. But that is fine with me. I don't want to spend hours trying to setup something that should otherwise already be installed/configured.

Getting use to "apt-get" takes some time to get use to, as I suppose "yum" did back when I first starting FC4. As a "novice" system administrator, I am more familiar with Fedora, and really have never had the need to delve (and hence learn) how Ubuntu is organized. All of the Ubuntu GUIs take care of having to look under the hood.

In the US you can't just tell them to get lost. They will sue you in court, they will get judgments against your paycheck and you will be forced to pay. If you have a loan on your home, and are behind, the bank will take it. If you have a loan on your car, and are behind, the bank will take it. Bankruptcy is the way to stop this. Hurts you for 7 years or so in the credit department, but then you are ok.

Are you sure that this is applicable if one defaults on a Credit Card? I thought the banks would be out in the cold. Sure they can add a blemish or two to one's credit report, but that is about it. After all, the CC debt is not backed by any collateral; merely one's signature. On a house mortgage or car loan, then the banks do have something to go after and possible repossess.

If one falls behind on a CC debt, the best thing to do is keep making payments for whatever amount one can afford (even if it is merely $1 US).

It seems to me that the OP should consider himself as having two jobs: one as Director (which I believe requires the WP), and the other as an Employee who goes to the UK to perform temp work. The Employee, being that he is overseas, does not require the WP. The WP should only allow the bearer to perform duties as the Director while in Thailand. Any duties performed as the Employee while in Thailand would be illegal.

Therefore when the company receives monies from clients, it needs to pay taxes on any profit that is yielded after any/all business deductions have been taken. One of these deductions is the salary to the Director/Employee. The Director/Employee must then pay taxes on their income.

A "profitable" company that does not pay taxes will probably raise eyebrows with the Thai tax collector; in other words, I wouldn't recommend paying the Director/Employee 100% of the profit; some profit should be saved, other expended on capital improvements (e.g. new computers, office furniture, etc).

Anyhow, that's my take on the situation. I tend to think logically, therefore I could be way off with my assessment of the matter with respect to how things operate in the LOS (lack of sense) land.

Same here, but I had mine (all 4) extracted when I was about 26 years old. Of course there is no pain during extraction... I was given a "general" anaesthesia (anesthesia)... in other words, I was asleep during the operation. I felt great until I woke up at home in a groggy state. Started popping pain killers, and then began the regiment of eating ice cream and yogurt. Two weeks without solid food!

Today I wish I could bring myself to bear that sort of torture in an effort to lose a few pounds.

P.S. A little advice... after surgery, don't drink with a straw.

The dollar will rise and fall in the same fashion as global markets will. Whether this recent upsurge lasts a week, a month, or even a year is anyone's guess.

It would be in most everybody's interest that the dollar continue to rise to help curb the increasing cost of oil. Higher oil prices tend to affect other areas of the economy, hence causing inflationary pressures on anything requiring transport from A to B (e.g. food, clothes, medicine, etc).

This cause/effect syndrome is already quite apparent in Thailand. If it continues, and not just in Thailand, but other countries too, then there is a risk for civil strife if the average person cannot even afford to pay for transport to go to work, much less pay for basic food items. I think that the major industrial powers are trying to work together to stifle the decline of the dollar with the hopes of staving off economic chaos in many poorer countries. Whether or not their actions will have any impact is not easily known. After all, it is the unpredictable market forces that pin a value to the dollar, not governments.

Lots of places do charge the premium though, which is annoying, and apparently technically illegal.

Can you please elaborate on the 'illegal' part of your statement? Why would you think it is illegal? It costs merchants 3-4% when they accept a credit card, thus in Thailand (and probably many other places), they pass this charge onto the customer.

In the US, where this fee is not charged to the customer, one can only assume that it is already priced into the goods for sale. That means that those who elect to pay cash are getting screwed. Now that should be illegal!

There is no Nokia PC-suite for Linux.

Yes, I know this. I was attempting to install the PC-suite under WinXP, which I was running under Vmware. For whatever reason, PC-suite would not install... the error was that the OS is not supported. I cannot imagine what OS PC-suite detected... it should have been WinXP. Earlier I had installed Adobe's PDF Reader (for Windows) and there was not a problem.

or something like the economy under Clinton. At least hopefully the money we are sending to line the Iraq politicians will be stopped or minimized and my daughter can come home alive.Her third trip to the sandbox presently and her mental state isn't good especially since her best buddy there commited suicide there recently

Bill Clinton was merely lucky to be in office when the economy was on an upswing after the early-90's recession. He, as an individual, couldn't part the seas if he wanted. Maybe legs, but not the seas.

The next administration will also benefit from the same natural upswing in the economy. It will be interesting is if McCain is elected. Will you then praise republicans for rescuing the economy?

The dollar vs. baht will be a tug-of-war contest. If the dollar rises, then presumably oil will fall; but not necessarily, especially if demand keeps skyrocketing. With high-inflation, especially with respect to imported goods, Thailand will magically become self-sufficient because the people will no longer be able to afford foreign produced goods (including oil), and thus must rely on domestic goods (if any).

Either way, whether the dollar rises, remains steady, or falls, Thailand looks like it is going to be sailing through rough seas for the foreseeable future. I just hope that the people do not revolt, seeking to nationalize all industries and the economy similar to what is occurring in Venezuela and other South American countries.

P.S. I hope your daughter comes home soon as well. But she, and especially you, need to realize that the US military services are a voluntary service... not a mandated service. The US, by nature, seeks out conflicts and creates them when one does not exist. When your daughter is up for re-enlistment, she can resign if she is weary of the sandbox. Life here in the US is no picnic either.

I don't see why she would need her parents to come. She is 19 and is considered an adult. Go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Chaengwattana Road.

As for your GF visiting you outside of the country, you have not stated where you live. If you live in a country where a visa is required (e.g. AUS, NZ, UK, EU, US, etc), then good luck getting your GF to visit you.

Well, I did some further research... I pull the back cover off of my phone, and it turns out that I have the Nokia 6610, not the 6610i. I doubt it makes much difference.

I bought a USB cable for the phone, but even though it is "seen" by Linux, I can't see my phone whatsoever. I think it is because my phone is not happy with the cable. The phone indicates the "device is not recognized" when I plug the cable into the phone. This message occurs even before connecting the cable to the laptop.

I think I erred and bought a "stupid" cable that requires Windows-drivers to function.

So I grabbed my other laptop which hosts Fedora 8, and under VMware, I installed a virus, which is more commonly known as Windows XP Home. From there I was able to install the s/w that came with the USB cable, however for whatever reason I cannot install the Nokia PC Suite s/w application. It states that the OS is not supported!

So, for now, I am screwed. I wish I had bought a genuine Nokia USB cable instead of the after-market POS I have from a company called MYBAT.

I really could use a new phone, however I am not quite in the market for one at this time. Can someone suggest a good Nokia that has bells/whistles and works with Ubuntu, that I can window-shop for to get the best price?

Sorry if I offended you with my choice of words, however for what it is worth, I used correct English.

From experience, I know that the US Embassy will want to know that you have a personal relationship with the child. The evidence, if any, that they will look for is photographs showing a relationship over time. The embassy will also ask you to document the time periods that you have been a resident in the US since the age of 16 (or 14??). This last part sounds silly, especially if you were born in the US, but there are some people in the world that have acquired US citizenship but have never lived in the US... only visited. One other thing the embassy will want to see is the child's birth certificate (translated of course) with your name, as the father, on it.

Anyhow, contact the ACS (American Citizen Services) section of the US Embassy for the packet to register your daughter and to setup an appointment. The DNA test is not necessary. The process at the embassy takes about 45-60 minutes, costs about $120+ (for passport, ssn, fees).

P.S. DNA tests can be done at the Thai Military Police Hospital in BKK, but it is not necessary to register luk kruengs.

I've seen references concerning the Nokia PC Suite. My first impression is that this s/w will not run on a Linux system. Is my assumption correct?

When I married, I presented 200,000 baht for Sin Sod... but only for "show"... that is I gave the illusion to the guests that I was giving Sin Sod. After the wedding ceremony, I got the money back. After remaining at the in-laws house for 3 days following the wedding (some sort of tradition?), I thought it would be a good deed to give some money to the in-laws, so I gave them 100,000. The rest, I kept for myself and my wife... to enjoy our honeymoon.

You do what you want, but 1mil baht is steep, unless you are marrying a well-educated woman who will someday reap a good salary from working. Ask your fiance if this money will be kept by the in-laws, or is it for "show". Otherwise, negotiate it down. 200000 baht today is nearly $6500 USD!!!

I will be traveling soon to Thailand, and while I am there I must have internet access. I will be bringing my Dell laptop running Ubuntu 7.04 and my Nokia 6610i mobile phone, with a SIM card from 1-2-Call, and pay-as-I-go service.

As for my destination in Thailand, it is the "middle of nowhere" in Korat, where I am quite far from anything resembling an internet cafe. Thus once in Thailand, I need to pretty much need to have all the configuration files for PPP (or whatever) in place because I won't be able to conduct "google research" while I am there to sort issues out.

Before I leave the US, I hope to procure the USB connector cable to connect my phone to the laptop, and test to see if I can use GPRS with my pay-as-I-go T-Mobile provider. If this is not possible, then perhaps I would like to try using an ISP like NetZero, which provides dial-up internet service.

So my questions are:

1. Should I rely on a Thai ISP for service, and if so, how do I setup my laptop to use the mobile phone?

or

2. Can I use GPRS with the pay-as-I-go 1-2-Call service?

Please suggest which is best (speed/reliability/cost are all notable factors), and if possible, any helpful advice on how to set this stuff up to work. I have installed "kppp" on my system, but it has been nearly 10 years since I have relied on dial-up, and so once again as in the early days, I am unfamiliar on how to set things up.

TIA.

Consider these apps, which can be obtained using the "sudo apt-get install" command:

• limewire
  
• bittorrent
  
• k9copy (tool that permits the re-mastering of DVDs)
  
• amarok (mp3 music player, similar to iTunes but without the store)
  

As for burning DVDs, I use the built-in Gnome (Nautilus?) tool for doing that. K9Copy is nice for creating an ISO image of single- and dual-layer DVDs.

It's illegal. All gambling in Thailand is except for the lottery.

But many people do it and don't get caught since it's hardly worth anyone's time to bother about.

And the SET.

Your daughter is a US citizen. You can register her at the US embassy, get a "birth certificate", and get a US passport for her. You can travel to the US with her no problem. Might need some type of letter from the mother to allow you to take the child out though.

...

The daughter is not a US Citizen until the father can prove to the US Embassy that there is a bonafide relationship between the two. There are countless b*stard children in the world that have been fathered by US citizens, however this does not convey automatic citizenship to the children (unless of course they were born in the US or its territories).

I earn about $12-15k USD a month working in Thailand I guess, that is more than I could probably earn in NZ; Aussie is ok. And I don't earn expat wages, just typical local wages in my areas of expertise (which aren't much).

$12-$15K USD a month? That's a lot more than "pats" make in their home countries. Do you mean $1200-$1500 USD per month?

* post deleted because I can't read! *

Looks like an error; your stay should end on 22-Jun-2008.

I would try again. Perhaps the site was temporarily down for maintenance? Anyhow, I am stateside, therefore I cannot tell whether there is indeed a problem or not. This is the URL I used to get to my Vanguard account: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/HomepageOverview

Does the PC Linux disk only have one kernel on it, or do you have a choice when you first boot up? Maybe you need to pass arguments to the kernel when starting up. I'm not an expert in this matter, but sometimes when other people have trouble booting their Linux distros, they may pass a kernel argument of "noapic" or "acpi=off" (maybe both??).

To give either these a shot, when you see the boot prompt of the CD, see if there is a means to interrupt the auto-boot (perhaps pressing the ESC key); then when you see the "boot:" prompt, enter one of these options.

Btw, APIC = Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers, ACPI = Advanced Configuration and Power Interface

Generally the "noapic" will do the trick.

Pay for VMware?? Why? Get the VMware-server for free. Here's the link: http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

Install and use VMware. It does not get any easier. Here's the link: http://www.vmware.com/products/server/